What can you make with 6" charm squares?

Autumn fabric 6" charm squares

It's been interesting to get into my stash and try to pare it down by cutting 6" charm squares to sell on Etsy. I've decided to cut a set of squares for myself alongside the sets I'm cutting for potential sale. I want to challenge myself to make something out of a charm square set.

In addition to just using them as is, here are some things you can do with 6" squares that have come to mind while cutting:

1. You can get two half-square triangles that will finish at 5" from two 6" squares. You could either trim the squares to 5 7/8" first, or sew the HSTs first and then trim them to 5 1/2".
2. Cut two 6" squares into four equal 3" squares each. Pair the squares up and sew eight HSTs that will finish at 2". (Same as with #1, either trim the squares to 2 7/8" or trim the HSTs to 2 1/2".)
3. Cut two 6" squares into nine equal 2" squares each. Pair the squares up and sew eighteen HSTs that will finish at 1". (Again, trim squares to 1 7/8" or HSTs to 1 1/2".)
4. Cut one 6" square into two 3" x 6" strips. Cut another 6" square into four 3" squares. Use quick piecing methods to make two flying geese units.
5. Cut 6" squares into 2" or 3" strips for use in a roman coins quilt, rail fence quilt, or piano key border.
6. Cut two 6" squares across both diagonals into 4 triangles each. Sew two triangles of each print to make an hourglass block that finishes at 4 3/4".
7. Cut a 6" square into four 3" squares, and then cut one of the 3" squares into four 1 1/2" squares. Cut two 3" squares from a neutral or solid fabric. Use quick corner piecing to sew a 1 1/2" square to one corner of the neutral or solid squares. Sew two of the 3" charm squares to the two neutral/solid squares to make a bow tie block.

The ideas... they just keep coming! I need to stop cutting and start sewing...

Blue 6" charm squares

Food and drink novelty 6" charm squares

Fabric gift wrap

I had an overdue baby shower gift for my cousin and his wife that I needed to wrap before mailing. I was just about to dig out some wrapping paper and ribbons when I thought, "I must have fabric in my stash I can use."

I think these bits of the Cogsmo panel and circuitry print were just what I needed. I fussy cut two images from the panel, sewed a narrow channel across the top of each, sewed them together on three sides to make a simple bag, and then pulled (or rather, pushed with a bamboo skewer) a piece of wool yarn through each channel and tied them together to form a drawstring. Into the bag went a book. The shirt I just rolled up in a piece of the circuitry print and tied on either end with yarn so it looks like a big piece of candy. I hope they like the gifts, and I hope they can re-use the wrapping!

Homemade Halloween: DIY Piglet costume

Last year I was determined from early on that the toddler would go as Piglet for Halloween. The officially licensed retail Piglet costumes sell for over $30, and there was no way I spending that much money (yes, I'm cheap) for what amounted to a photo op since she was still too young to trick or treat.

Plus, it's more fun to make these things on your own, right? I mean, right? OK, it's definitely more time-consuming, but I put together what I thought was a pretty darn cute costume for about $8. I needed three things: pink footie pajamas, a striped sleeveless sweater, and Piglet ears on a headband.

I decided to go with Disney's version of the sweater (that is, pink with horizontal stripes) and not the classic E.H. Shepard version (which usually is blue or sage green), just so the costume would be more recognizable.

The pj's and sweater were fairly easy although I did have to make a few thrift store runs throughout October to find pieces I could work with. [Note: thrifting a costume is not a last-minute project in my experience; it takes planning and persistence. I think of it as a treasure hunt!]

Not a great photo, I know. I removed the sleeves from the sweater and used a pink fabric pen to color in the white stripes.

The ears required more work. I started with a $1 pair of bunny ears from the thrift store.

This is a shot of the back; the front of the ears had shiny white polyester "inner ears" for lack of a better term. The ears got their shape from a loop of thin wire. I experimented with trying to pinch the wire into more of a pig shape but finally decided more deconstruction was needed:

1. I used the toddler's Piglet plush toy as my guide and traced one of the ears onto paper to make a template.
2. With a seam ripper I removed the white fabric from the pink "outer ears," exposing the support wires. Using my template as a rough guide, I trimmed the pink fabric leaving about 1/2" all around.
3. With wire clippers, I snipped the support wires where they connected to the headband closer to the center, straightened the wires out, and then snipped the excess so there would be some support going almost to the tip of each ear.
4. I cut 2 ear shapes out of light pink crafting felt backed with fusible web, and cut 2 more ear shapes from hot pink crafting felt about 1/4" smaller also backed by fusible web.
5. I positioned the light pink felt ear shapes with the fusible web facing down on the wrong side of each outer ear, sandwiching the support wires, and fused in place.
6. Then I positioned the hot pink ear shapes in place, and pinched the excess outer ear fabric over the light pink felt and under the edges of the hot pink felt. Once the contours were right and the raw edges were hidden I fused the hot pink felt in place.

Ta-dah!

Piglet ears, front and back.

Trust me when I tell you, the toddler was the cutest darn Piglet you've ever seen. But then again, I am biased.

Yet another coffee sleeve tutorial

I know there are tons of great tutorials out there on how to make coffee cup sleeves, but I thought I'd add my own into the mix. Just in case it's useful to someone.

I made this coffee cup sleeve for my dear friend's birthday a few months ago -- she deserves much more than this, but this will have to do until I make her that heirloom queen-size quilt.

I started by picking out a couple of fabrics, in this case, some cotton sateen prints from Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms collection. Love them.

I used a Starbucks cardboard coffee sleeve as my template and traced it onto a thin piece of cardboard. If I planned to make a lot of these I'd have used template plastic, but cardboard is great for my purposes. 

I cut my template with an extra 1/8" all around -- I just eyeballed it. No need to get out a ruler for this. Although the sleeve is reversible, you may want to mark the template with "front" and "back" if it matters which fabric will be on display more often.

I traced around the template and cut my sleeve front and back from the two fabrics with a scant 1/4" seam allowance all around, making sure to flip the template to get the reverse shape for the back since the sleeve isn't completely symmetrical.

Here are the front and back after being cut out.

Next I cut out my lining. This version was actually my second attempt, so I applied what I'd learned from my first version. In the first version, I tried using thin cotton batting along with a scrap of blackout curtain lining left over from an old project. It was just too thick with two layers between the cotton sateen, which is a heavier weight than quilter's cotton. So I figured the blackout curtain fabric would suffice. Besides, my friend likes to feel the warmth from the cup through the sleeve -- if anything, I was afraid it was going to be too insulated for her. As you can see, I used the actual Starbucks sleeve as the template for this step and cut just inside the line. I knew from my first attempt that I didn't want the lining caught in the seams.

I centered the lining on the wrong side of my backing fabric, pinned carefully, and then thread basted them together. Leave your knots on the right side of the backing fabric for easy removal later on.

I layered my front and back fabrics right sides together and used pins to line up the corners just right. When I was satisfied with the alignment, I pinned through all layers and stitched along my marked line. I left open the end that was going to be the flap that gets tucked under when the sleeve is wrapped around a cup.

I removed the pins but left in the thread basting, and carefully turned the sleeve right side out through the opening. I pressed the sleeve to make sure the lining was lying nice and flat and not getting bunched up in the seam allowance. Then I folded in the seam allowances on the open end, pinned, and topstitched to close it up. I think I tried to catch the lining in the stitching if possible, but didn't worry too much about it being "free floating." I knew it was nice and snug inside the sleeve. Now it was safe to remove the thread basting.

For some reason, the only velcro I had on hand was something I'd bought for a paper craft, so it had adhesive on it and is not intended for use with fabric. But because I'm lazy and I knew that this was not something that would probably see much washing machine action, I used it anyway. I attached one half of the velcro to the front fabric on the end that would get tucked under, and the other half on the back fabric of the opposite end. Because of the sticky adhesive, I hand stitched an X through each piece of velcro using a big embroidery needle that I could throw away. Actually, I think I used two needles because they got so gunked up. I don't recommend attaching your velcro this way, but you work with whatcha got.

Ta-dah! 

And that, my friends, is how I made my coffee sleeve. From all indications, it is out in the world and holding up just fine.