holiday gift crafting: night-light boxes

The kids are home for the week and a bit sickly. Low energy and colds made for moderate crankiness - for the three of us - followed by bursts of house-bound craziness. After dragging them to a teacher conference this morning, watching a movie, a bit of de-cluttering, and some general mess-making and puttering around the house, I got us rolling on the gifts we plan to give to our company this Christmas.

We like to make sure everyone who joins us for Christmas dinner or brunch receives at least one handmade gift from "us". It's a collaborative effort between the kids and me - and my husband when the project requires carpentry skills. Once we've decided upon a project or two I let them make as many of the design decisions as possible while I bite my tongue and mostly go with their choices.

This year we've opted for night-light boxes featuring a variety of papercut silhouettes, plus plenty of ribbon and miscellaneous adornment.

Our supply list looks something like this:

Cradled wood panels - each with hole cut out of back for tea light placement (my husband made ours using plywood and other wood scraps).

Tea lights

Light colored paper, light weight paper on which to adhere silhouette designs. We're using a delicate white hand-made, highly textured paper

Card stock in dark color for silhouettes

Paper cutting blade to cut out silhouettes

Translucent vellum paper to layer on top of other paper w/silhouette (a protective layer)

Print-outs of clip art silhouette images, or make your own

Tape (to hold down paper as you cut out silhouettes)

Double-sided tape (an easy, fast way to adhere ribbon and paper is you don't have the proper glue on hand.

Glue

Ribbon

Tissue paper, or other decorative paper (old maps work well), to cover wooden box

Modge Podge & paintbrush

Our boxes (wooden panels) are 6" square with 3/4" sides, thus 4.5" of open space to serve as the lighted viewing window.

I prefer velvets, velour, gross grain, lace and other textured ribbon options.

I've never done paper cuts before, but this basic blade seemed to work fairly well.

Picked up an 8-pack of tea lights and brought out my photo/scrap-booking blue and double-sided tape .

We were pleased with the result of our tester box so the girls each designed their own. They Modge Podge'd tissue paper over their boxes first. I tried to dissuade my youngest from the hot pink ribbon she fell in love with, as I had really wanted to experience a hot pink free project. My plea was ignored. So here's what we've got so far...

This is the test box. I covered this box with some old aqua and metallic bird cage paper I had on hand.

No problem changing out the tea light if needed. Packaging indicates we

should get 100 hours out of each light.

Illuminated on the dresser. This is the effect we were hoping for.

A centaur-ess for my 8-yr-old. Powerful and magical suits her well.

She used a couple shades of blue tissue paper to mostly cover her

box. And the vellum paper is pale blue.

I anticipated either a cat or horse theme for my youngest. It

really does look just like one of our kitties. While the extras on

this one may be a little much for me, when it comes to my girl

there ain't no such thing.

Magenta, pink & lavender velvety ribbon on top of her beloved

hot pink/magenta ribbon. Pale blue vellum paper on this one

as well.

Haven't yet tried theirs out in the dark, as I did some final glueing

after they went to bed. Construction of the remaining 7 or 8 boxes

may be a couple of weeks out. Expect an update.

bench cushion zippered cover pt.1 of 2

I hope everyone has had at least one wish granted this holiday season. I've been fortunate in that regard. My mechanical babies have been away from me for a week now. Lest your minds wander too far astray ... my sewing machine and serger are my mechanical babies. Ernestine & Louie, my feline confidantes and companions, are my furry babies. And, of course, there are the kiddos. It's been quite nice having some time away from my machines as there is much less guilt attached to the recent late nights I've spent watching movies instead of working. I expect them home later this week.

For today's post, I was going to share a couple of books or movies I've recently enjoyed, but upon downloading pix from my camera I encountered shots I took while making a cover for a bench cushion. I made the "inner" for the cushion late summer but never got to the cover. A couple weeks back I set a goal to finish it in time for Christmas company. Extra seating space is at a premium in our home, thus, a piece of furniture that fits and can hold two tushies instead of one is a find. I'm happy to check the bench project off the list!

I bought this antique low bench with two petite drawers (one for each child to immediately take over) off Craigslist this summer. Later this week I'll offer a photo of the bench with cushion. Crummy weather has prevented a flash-free shot, but I'll seek the help of my photography aficionado husband.

I used a heavy-weight linen, jute for the piping, and - at 55" - what I consider to be a mega-zipper around the back to allow for relative ease in inserting the cushion and removing it for washing. Here you go:

Step 1:

I sketch it out. My notes are often incomplete and sometimes incomprehensible - especially when it's meant to be a one-time project.

Step 2:

I urge all who have ever feared making their own piping to please go for it. It's not difficult and you can work with the fabric and cording of your choice. I made mention of how I use a skewer as a key tool in making piping here.

This is how I like to connect my ends.

Step 3:

After drawing a paper template based on the curves of the bench and the corresponding curves of the cushion, I cut my top and bottom pieces and attached my piping. You can see the cuts I made on the piping seam allowance before sewing it to the top panel and repeating the process for the bottom panel. In my book those cuts are essential when it comes to mirroring the curves of the base fabric and certainly when turning corners.

those ever-helpful snips

A corner shot. The snips I make are in the piping seam allowance only. No cuts in the underlying base panel.

Step 4:

I cut my fabric for the side panel (the one the runs around the edge of the entire cushion). I placed the zipper to run the length of the entire back edge of the cushion and wrap around the back corners by 4 or 5 inches. Wrapping the zipper around the corners makes a difference when putting the cover onto the cushion. Stretched out linen can be tough if not impossible to get back to it's desired size so I wanted to avoid much stretching to force the cushion inside.

Step 5:

Put in the zipper before sewing all of the pieces of the side (edge) panel together.

Step 6:

Sew side panels together. Remember the zipper will wrap at least a few inches around each of the two back corners of the cushion.

Step 7:

I like to press my seams open.

Then, top-stitching those seams give a nice finished look. The pin makes it a bit easier to see the seam.

Step 8:

This is the trickier part for me. Time to sew your top and bottom panels to the side panel. And that's where I sign off. No more photos for now, but you can see what the top and bottom panels looked like sitting on the inner cushion before I sewed it all together.

for the want of a skewer, or how i learned to love piping

Prior to getting involved in reupholstering furniture, I had scant experience making my own piping, or welting when it comes to furniture. Even using the pre-made stuff that I so dislike from the fabric store was a challenge. I never seemed to get my stitch line sufficiently close to the cording medium for my liking. Jute is my preference for cording. Of course, using a zipper foot is crucial and a tremendous help, but that's not always enough.

I came to realize that I would need to create my own fairly sharp crease line immediately parallel to the jute as I stitched on it's fabric covering. The pictures should demonstrate this far better than my words. I experimented with various kitchen implements to assist me in making the perfect crease. Sure, I might have been better served to read up on it or ask for help at my local fabric or sewing equipment shop, but that apparently isn't how I prefer to work. I suppose in the same way that I am not fond of using patterns other than my own, I need to reinvent the wheel just a bit with most anything I make.

Back to the importance of the crease line. Not too long ago I tried using a bamboo skewer for the job and EUREKA! I had found the most perfect tool for this purpose. Perhaps this will be helpful to someone else who has been battling with or avoiding piping/welting/cording altogether. Give it a try. The results are worth it.

Unfortunately, when making my pouffes, the skewer trick doesn't work so well as I am working with a layer of burlap and linen at the same time. It's thick and the burlap doesn't allow for a very clear crease (it disappears immediately) but it definitely helps.

no crease yet

enter the skewer. look at that line!

I can now follow my line

a better view of "drawing" the line

now follow that crease as your stitch line