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Archive for February, 2010

Simple Apron Tutorial

With very little work you can make this smashing tea towel apron. Leave off the ruffle and you only have two lines of stitching.

(Thanks Zack for being my fabulous model and rockin' out my apron! You are a great kid and a really good sport!)

Supplies

1 tea towel (mine measured 20" X 28")

1/4 yard of coordinating fabric 44"-45" wide

4 yards of ribbon (mine was 1/2" wide)

about 21" of twill tape (width of towel plus a touch extra to turn ends under)

Before starting pre-wash fabric and tea towel

The Ruffle

With right sides together sew across each end of fabric.

Turn right side out and press.

Gather the fabric. I zig zag stitched over dental floss close to the edge, then pulled the dental floss to make my ruffle.

Sew ruffle to bottom of tea towel(right sides together). Before turning lay a piece of twill tape across the raw edge and stitch using a long stitching length. Tuck ends of twill tape under before stitching

Turn (open ruffle flat) and lightly press. This is how it will look from the back.

Edge stitch across on the front.

The Apron

Fold in top two corners  of the tea towel and trim. I folded my towel in thirds to decide where to cut. If you want it wider at the top try folding them in only 1/4.

Trim off corners, turn raw edge under slightly and stitch close to the edge. Fold edge over wide enough for the ribbon to slip through,  allowing enough for seam. Press. Really though, you could just fold over the corners like the above picture and sew the casings!

Stitch, making a casing for the ribbon. Feed ribbon through each casing.

The ribbon goes through each casing, crosses in the back and ties in the front.

Finished!

You might be interested in the half apron made from a tea towel, or this cute apron for kids. Don't forget the chef's hat!

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Sponsor Giveaway – Mini Me Baby Gear

Jamie writes...

Hello! My name is Jamie Bird, and I run MiniMe BabyGear. I started it shortly after my son was born. I came to a realization pretty early on-- I adore all things handmade! My favorite baby gear is usually made with designer fabrics, and accomplish one goal: make my life easier. Whether it is dressing my son in a unique onesie, storing wet items beautifully with the Wet Happened? Wet bag, or giving the most adorable lollipop blanket as a baby shower gift, I seek out the exceptional to offer in my shop.

Up for grabs in this giveaway: an adorable Neck Tie Applique Onesie (you can choose this cute pink and green bird design if you have a little girl) Retail Value $18.00.
A
Blue Striped Tie Onesie
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a Single Cupcake from Baby Sweet Treats which includes the following ingredients: 1 Pampers Swaddlers Size Diaper, 1 Pair of Baby Socks (Size 0-6 mos) and 1 Soft Baby Washcloth. Retail $9.95
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Single Cupcake, Girl
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and a Wet Happened? Wet bag Retail Value $17.95

In order to win these three goodies, please visit my store minimebabygear.com and pick your favorite item. Leave a comment here by Monday for a chance to win.
The winner will be selected via Random.org, and the prize will ship within 2-3 business days. US residents only.
Good luck!

Diaper Clutch Winner and a coupon

The winner of the Diaper Clutch is Susan S.

Everyone is a winner with 15% off orders from The Diaper Clutch. Please use coupon code SKIP15, and all orders over $50.00 ship for FREE!

A

Homemade Taffy

Welcome to our Sweat Sweet Shoppe! If you are alarmed by red dye, excessive amounts of sugar and under age workers turn away now!

If not, stick around and see how we made loads of homemade taffy!

Here's our recipe

Homemade Taffy

2 1/2 cups white sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup light corn syrup

1 1/3 cups water

2 tablespoons butter (plus lots extra to butter hands, we probably used over 1/2 of stick of butter on our hands)

1 teaspoon salt

1 - .21oz (6g) package unsweetened, fruit-flavored drink mix (like Kool-Aid) (we used cherry)****however I used Great Value brand from Wal-mart and those were the measurements on the package and it said it made two quarts of drink. On the Kool-Aid packet that makes two quarts it has different amounts (far less) I would still only use 1 packet since it is still flavoring the same amount of water.

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Butter large jelly roll pan or a cookie sheet with sides really well.

In a medium saucepan, stir together the sugar and cornstarch.  Add corn syrup, water, butter and salt and stir well until butter is melted. Bring to a boil over medium heat and stop stirring. Cook mixture until candy thermometer read 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). This takes some time to get it to 250 degrees. Once it approaches 250 degrees watch very closely because it cooks quickly at the end.  Immediately remove from heat. Carefully stir in vanilla and drink mix. Stir well. We should have stirred ours more-- notice some bits of drink mix (dark spots) on our taffy. Pour mixture onto buttered baking pan. Allow to cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes.

Directions:

Once the taffy has cooled enough to handle, butter hands and begin pulling. (It starts kind of translucent)

Then pull...and pull...butter hands again...pull...

and stretch...pull...more hand buttering...pull...

It will become more opaque and lighten in color depending on the attention span of your workers! This takes about 10-15 minutes of pulling.

Pull into long ropes and cut with buttered scissors.

and cut!

Wrap pieces of taffy in pieces of waxed paper

and give it a good twist on each end.

Finished!

Sweet!!

Made by You – St Patrick’s Day Crafts, Decorations and Ideas

Please share your fun ideas for celebrating St. Patrick's Day! We will have the same theme next week also!

If you want to play along don't forget to grab a button to place at the top or bottom of your post to show you are participating in Made By You Mondays!
Simply copy the code below in the box and paste where you can edit the html in your blog post.


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