Make A Gift On The 25th Club...Scarf Tutorial

Happy Christmas in July!! A little while ago I did a post explaining the "Make a Gift on the 25th Club". Click HERE to read all about it. In short, for the next five month on the 25th day of each month, anyone who joins the club will make a gift for someone on your Christmas list.

If you have a blog, you can post about it, but the person you're making the gift for might see it, so at some point during the week of the 25th, I will have a linking party so you can share your picture of the gift you are making. A linking party is the same as my Sew Darn Crafty party I have on Sundays...great inspiration.  

I know there are a lot of proCRAFTinators out there like me who wait until the last minute to make gifts, this club will help put that habit to an end.

Join the club, put this button on your blog as a reminder and just have fun in the process. I know timing is everything, so if you can't do it exactly on the 25th...we're giving ourselves the week of the 25th. Try to get it done and put it away. We all have those UFOs hiding in the closet...a UFO is an Un Finished Object. Maybe on the 25th we can finish some of those!!

Put on some Christmas music, get out your sewing machine, glue gun, beads, bobbles and patterns...WE"RE MAKING SOME GIFTS!!

To help you get started, here is a tutorial for an endless scarf. I shared this pattern for a guest post I did on Stash Manicure. This is made of cotton, but any fabric would work...fashion fabric would be more flowey.

Here's a Grab and Go tutorial for an endless scarf. I finally figured out how to make one of these by trial and error. More errors than trials! Grab one yard of fabric and cut it to 30" x 36". You can use your cotton fabric, but fashion fabric works great for this too.

Take your piece of fabric and lay it out with the 36 inches going left to right and the 30 inches going top to bottom. Fold in half, right sides together and sew the length of the 36 inches with a 1/4 inch seam.

Here's a close up of the seam.

You should now have a tube that is 15" x 36".

Reach into the tube and grab the other end of the open ended tube and bring it towards you. Wow, that was a mouthful.

Here is a picture of both ends of the tube.

You should end up with 2 sets of fabric right sides together.

Match the one seam that you sewed.

Pin the seam and then pin all the way around the circle.

Leave an opening to turn the scarf right side out. I leave it open as big as my hand, so it will fit in there to grab the fabric.

Here's the opening...

Sew with a 1/4" seam all the way around (except the opening) and then turn right side out.

Machine or hand sew the opening closed.

You now have an endless cowl neck scarf or a fabric donut!

Perfect gift you can make in a day. You can make lots of them too...always good to have that spare gift on hand for friends, teachers, babysitters etc.



Glad you can join the Make a Gift on the 25th,

~Karen~

Sew Darn Crafty Party...Week 24

Sew Darn Crafty Sunday is here again!! We all start and finish projects at our own pace. Some people are fast and fire off projects as quickly as possible and others take the time they need to get the job done. 

I'm a little of both, but mostly I love quick and easy projects...nice feeling of satisfaction. If you've been working on anything lately, why don't you share it here with us. It can be anything at all! It can also be a work in progress too. Sometimes if we share something that is partially finished, it sparks us to get it done to show it off completed.



Sew Darn Crafty is all about YOU!! Show off your projects, share a tutorial, show us your vacation pictures, share a family favorite recipe...share anything. Not only does linking inspire us all, it also brings lots of new people to your blog for a visit. Click here for past parties and lots of inspiration

Easy steps to join in on the fun...

• link up to the specific project post, not your whole blog. Makes it easier to link right to that post and not  search through all your entire blog. To find the http address to a specific post, just click on the Title of your post.
• link as many projects as you'd like...old or new
• anything goes...cooking, sewing, knitting, crafts, organizing, remodeling projects, vacations, parties etc...
• visit other links to share some blogging love! You know we all love comments!
• grab a Sew Darn Crafty button for your blog (on my right side bar) or just link to the party in your post.
• the more we share, the more people will join and then there's more inspiration to look at!
• linking is open til Saturday night, so plenty of time to join in
• just click the "click here to enter" button and follow the easy steps

Have fun linking up! Don't forget to come back and take a look at all the great projects during the week,

~Karen~

Sour Cream Coffee Cake Recipe...

A tried and true recipe for a yummy sour cream coffe cake. Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. There is a crumble topping and also a layer in the middle. The brown sugar crumble mixture makes it seem like bits of gooey caramel through out.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

coffee cake ingredients

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup (or 1 stick) butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

8 ounces (or 1 cup) sour cream

topping crumble mixture

1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

1/4 cup (or half stick) butter, room temperature

For the coffee cake...

Pre heat oven to 350* and grease 10 inch bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and baking powder and set aside.

In another bowl, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, mix well. Add half the flour mixture, then add sour cream and mix well. Add remaining flour mixture and mix until combined

Prepare the topping mixture. Blend all crumble ingredients with fork or mix with hands until crumbly.

Spread half of the cake batter into the bundt pan. Sprinkle with half of the crumble mixture. Top with remaining cake batter and spread evenly. Top again with remaining crumble.

Bake at 350* for 40-45 minutes. Cool and remove from pan.

Enjoy,

~Karen~  

Thoughts on Thursdays...

Movies...I don't go to the movie theater very often. I should, because our daughter works there and it's free for us. Well, we went last night to see the last Harry Potter movie. We have been fans of the books since the beginning when our girls were younger. I won't spoil it for you, but if you follow Harry...go see it!!!

Adding this series of movies to my favorites list...

Sound of Music
Star Wars
Harry Potter

I know odd mix.

How about you...any favorite movies?

Have a happy Thursday,
~Karen~

Tool Time Tuesday...Paint Craft Bucket

Hi everyone! So glad you could drop by for  visit. Tool Time Tuesday is where I try to find items that can be used in different ways. I find things in hardware stores, automotive stores, office supply stores, my recycling bin etc...the motto for Tool Time is to "think outside the box"! Always look twice at something and make your brain think beyond the norm...like this item below.

I love this Tool Time...Why? It was $2.39 and it's red! After I show you what you can use it for, you'll love it too.

This is a Handy Paint Cup.

A mini hand bucket. It's great for when you are painting or cutting in trim work. Just pour a little paint in and your hand fits comfortably under the handle. Wow...that sounded like a commercial ( I really have no connection to this product...just caught my eye in the paint aisle.)

See that black rectangle? It's a magnet.

 Holds your paint brush out of the paint when not in use. Great for craft painting, not just wall painting.

The metal on the brush sticks to the magnet.

Well, it's Tool Time at Sew Many Ways, so needles and pins stick to this magnet too!!

Great handy bucket to hold hand sewing projects.

I'm sure the handle will fit on some chair arms or hang some where in the car when sewing on long trips.

Holds your hand sewing, scissors, glasses, thread etc. The needles and pins are always there on the magnet and won't get lost.



Great for...

• hand sewn hexagon projects
• cross stitching projects
• jewelry or bead work with the little metal tools
• the obvious craft paint

Take a trip down the paint aisle...great ideas in there!

Have a great Tuesday,

~Karen~

My Little Girlies...

Not so little any more...all grown up and we love them to pieces. We went to a seafood shack for 4th of July and we had a greatest time. Fooled around with our cameras waiting for the food. These were some of the least craziest!!

Kelsie and Courtney...

Hubby waiting for the food...

This will be our Christmas card this year...so cute!

This will NOT be our Christmas card this year...bug on the tree!! Can you hear the screams? Lol!!



Thought I'd share the girls today. They're leaving for school at the end of August, so we are enjoying every second with them!

Have a great day,

~Karen~

Sew Darn Crafty Party...Week 23

We blinked and another week went by...crazy how time flies. I think when we have too many irons in the fire, time passes by quickly. I have so many projects started I just need to slow down and complete one. No crafting going on this week. I had mentioned earlier that we cleaned out all our closets a couple of weeks ago...very good for the soul. I love the feeling of minimizing.

My daughters Courtney and Kelsie and I have an idea to share some of our things. We are having a party at the house. The girls will invite their friends to come over and bring things they have and don't want any more...clothing, shoes, purses, belts etc and we will hang every thing up and display them like a store and then all the girls will "shop" for something "new to them" for free.

Our girls are college age, so this will be so much fun for them and cheap!! Maybe I should craft something as a little take home gift for the party. See, another iron in the fire! Stop me please!!

Well, let's see what irons you had in the fire this week...

Sew Darn Crafty is all about YOU!! Show off your projects, share a tutorial, show us your vacation pictures, share a family favorite recipe...share anything. Not only does linking inspire us all, it also brings lots of new people to your blog for a visit. Click here for past parties and lots of inspiration

Easy steps to join in on the fun...

• link up to the specific project post, not your whole blog. Makes it easier to link right to that post and not  search through all your entire blog. To find the http address to a specific post, just click on the Title of your post.
• link as many projects as you'd like...old or new
• anything goes...cooking, sewing, knitting, crafts, organizing, remodeling projects, vacations, parties etc...
• visit other links to share some blogging love! You know we all love comments!
• grab a Sew Darn Crafty button for your blog (on my right side bar) or just link to the party in your post.
• the more we share, the more people will join and then there's more inspiration to look at!
• linking is open til Saturday night, so plenty of time to join in
• just click the "click here to enter" button and follow the easy steps

Have fun linking up! Don't forget to come back and take a look at all the great projects during the week,
~Karen~