How To Cover a Paperback Like a Pro

 Today we are sharing a great tutorial on how to cover paperback books.  

This comes from our sister, a veracious reader, who has been covering her books for years.  

If you are a lover of paperbacks then you know that they can get dog-eared and destroyed pretty quickly.  Well-loved children's books can be trashed even faster. So, this little trick has been a life-saver to our family library.

To get started:

You will need contact paper and scissors.

 Contact paper comes in a roll, and can be found in the kitchen section of your local big box grocer near the shelf liner paper.  It comes in a shinier version and a non-glare version.  I prefer the non-glare version.

Begin by:

Measuring and cutting your contact paper, adding a few extra inches to the top and bottom dimensions of your book.  I prefer not to cut any off the width of the contact paper, if only because of pure laziness. For this particular set of books I cut my contact paper at 10 inches by the width of the contact paper.

 Fold your contact paper a little off-center to accommodate for the spine.  (The bigger the spine the more off-center it should be.)

Peel away half of the contact paper to the crease. It will be easier if you only do a half at a time.

Use the fold line as a marker to align the spine of the book to the center of the contact paper.  Smooth out any air bubbles from the contact paper on the back of book.  This might require you to reposition the contact paper a bit.

 After smoothing, cut a slit a quarter inch (give or take) away from the spine on the top and bottom, as well as front and back of the book.  Leave those "tabs" for now.

It will look like this.

 Cut the corners out of the contact paper as shown above.

 Fold and smooth the top and bottom flaps to the inside of the book, 

making sure you crease the folds really well.

 Fold and smooth the side flap to the inside of the book,
making sure you crease the fold really well.

 Repeat the above steps for the other half of the contact paper.

Peel, cut slits, cut corners, crease and fold.

 When you are done you will have these little flaps left over near the spine.  

Now is the time to cut those off.

 

Here is what the inside of the book will look like when you are done

 

Congrats!

Now go enjoy your book! :)

Emily

All my books were thrifted for around $0.75 a book. Score!

"Gearing" Up for Hunting Season

Another kid is joining the ranks of hunting this year.  I needed to make another blaze orange hat for the kid so they don't get mistaken for a deer themselves during rifle season.  I bought some orange fleece last year some time with the intention of using it for hunting gear. 

When I was in the mode of making these little fleece hats at the end of the summer I whipped up 2 of these hats also. 

McCalls 9063--out of print. 

One 16" piece of fleece (60 wide) will make 2 hats.

This is an easy pattern to make.

Since it is out of print I'll give you a basic tutorial:

Cut your piece of fleece 16" by 23 1/2" with the stretch going the direction of the 23 1/2" (around the head).

Fold in half lengthwise and sew up the side and across the top.

On right side of the hat, fold the top seam about 3" from edge.

Match the 2 folded edges together and stitch down about 1 inch--a little stitch in the ditch to hold it in place.

This is what the hat will now look like on the inside of the hat.

Take the 2 little end corner flaps, match them up in the center and tack down--sew thru all layers real quick.

This is what the top of the hat on the outside will look like when you complete those two parts.

Fold the hem up inside the cap 4" and either hand stitch or what I do is use the multi-zig-zag stitch to keep it in place while also giving it some stretch.

Then fold up the edge another couple inches and you're done.

This is not a snug fitting cap--there is a bit of bulk on top, but Z. loves this orange hat because it is #1 for hunting and #2 it also happens to be one of our HS colors--go Hawks!

Contrasting Binding on Swimsuits Tutorial

As promised, albeit a bit later than intended, I have finally put together a tutorial for attaching contrasting binding on the edges of your swimsuit. My #2 daughter has been bugging me for some time to do this suit. And it didn't hurt that she was starting swimming again this past week in her gym class. Last year's suits are getting a big ragged and saggy.

So here we go:

I'll show you how to attach it on this suit below.

NOTE:
When attaching contrasting binding on a tank style suit like this you will need to trim off about 1/4" of the fabric (seam allowance) on the armhole and neckline edge. You can either copy the pattern piece with that much already taken off, or just cut a bit off once you have the pieces already cut out. Or like I did, just trim it a bit once you have the main portion of the suit already sewn together, because I wasn't sure I was going to do this in the first place when I cut it out.

Cut yourself some strap pieces--at least 1 5/8" wide. I'd just go for 2" and make it easier on yourself. I didn't have a brown solid that matched well enough so I cut out strips from the leftover striped fabric. The stripes weren't quite wide enough so I cut a bit extra into the next color. The pink will end up being hidden inside the suit, or cut off completely.

Measure, cut and sew a circle of the binding piece so that it fits almost exactly the armhole opening. If you have to err, err on the side of slightly smaller, not larger, than the armhole opening.

Pin and sew with a stretch stitch, being careful NOT to stretch the fabric.

I used the stitch on my machine that is a basic straight stretch stitch (my manual calls it Straight Stretch--go figure). If you aren't sure what to use, check your machine manual, or do a little tester on some scraps. You want the fabric to be able to stretch some without snapping the stitching.

You can cut out some of the bulkiness at the seams if you'd like.

Next you will make a circle with your elastic--pinning it to the SEAM ALLOWANCE--on the side that would be the outside of the suit. Attach with a loose zigzag, stretching only as little as needed to fit within the armhole opening.

Then like we did on the separate Straps Tutorial, you will fold the fabric back over itself twice, so that the excess is now on the inside of the suit.

Pin and topstitch using a Stretch Twin Needle. (or any other decorative stretch stitch you prefer)

Cut off very carefully any excess fabric.

Repeat steps for remaining opening edges.

Attach the extra strap (optional) on the one shoulder design and you're ready to go.

Here we are all finished up. #2 was SO excited! I'm pretty excited myself on how this turned out.

***If you ask a question in the comments section please leave your email so we can answer you back***

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Kwik Sew's Swim & Actionwear book also has great directions and pics on how to do this. It also shows how to add contrasting binding to any style suit pattern. Which is basically what I did with the above one shoulder suit.
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**You can head over to my shop if you are looking for already made suits, or would like to order a custom made one. I've been adding more here and there. I also have some swimsuit fabric for sale that might interest you.

Make Your Own...

I've had a few requests for pattern/directions for my son's Star Wars Quilt.
I love this design as it is very masculine, super simple to make, and easily adapted to your favorite school/team colors.  Enjoy...

Pick your size/color palette:
12 blocks = 45" by 60"  ~~  7 colors (4 colors for blocks, 1 color for "pop", white, and sashing color)
16 blocks = 60" by 60" ~~ you can decide to use either 7 or 8 colors
20 blocks = 60" by 72" ~~ 8 colors (5 colors for blocks, 1 color for "pop", white, and sashing color)



For my son's and my FIL's quilt I had the backing fabrics picked out first.  I chose the front colors based on the colors found in those fabrics.  I also chose one fabric as the "pop" of color for each quilt~~a tiny bit of red in the Star Wars fabric and orange basketballs in the other.


 

Cutting
After you've decided on the number of blocks you will be making cut 4" squares from each color to equal the total amount needed.  For instance, for the 12 block size you chose 4 colors plus a "pop" color, so cut three 4" squares from each fabric and one 4" squares from your "pop" color for a total of 13 squares (12 squares divided by 4 fabrics = 3 squares from each and 1 from "pop" of color).

Then cut 2" strips width of fabric from each color.  I figured I needed 2 strips per block. Using 12 as the example you will need at least 24 strips total.  To figure out how many strips per color, divided total number needed (24 strips) by number of colors (4 colors) = number of strips (6 strips) of each color.  From the "pop" color cut at least three strips.

For the white I started with 1" strips.  I think I calculated 3 strips per block.  So, 3 strips x 12 blocks = 36 strips total.

I always err on the side of caution so when buying fabric I would buy a few extra inches of each color.  This will help you avoid cursing later on if you happen to miscalculate or mess up on a block.

Sashing:
Since solids can be unforgiving in showing mistakes in quilting I chose to have all my sashing pieces be seamless.  The best way for me to do this was to purchase a piece based on the finished length of the quilt.  So for my FIL's quilt I purchased 64" of Kona Ash, and for the Star Wars I purchased 75" of Kona Navy.  By doing this I was able to cut my sashing pieces 4.5" by length of fabric and have no seams.


Sewing:
I don't have exact measurements for cutting the strips to sew on the blocks.  For me it was most effective to sew my strips onto the square first and trim them up as I sewed. 

In the diagram above you can see how I sewed each of the blocks.
1. Start with center square  2. Sew a strip to each side, iron towards outside of block and trim  3. Sew strip to top and bottom, iron and trim  4-7 Repeat. 

The easiest way for me to keep all my colors straight was to work on one center color at a time.  For instance, I'd take the 3 yellow colored center squares, pick one strip from each of the remaining colors and sew the first border on.  Then I'd repeat with the next border.  That way I could see that I wasn't using the same color twice with any given center square.  It helped me NOT make any blocks that were the same.

Colors:

Someone asked me for the exact colors I used for my son's quilt.  Actual colors are listed along with (alternatives).  All were purchased from JoAnn's.

A. Quilter's Only Cotton Saffron (or Kona Maize)
B. Country Classic Royal Blue
C. Country Classic Scarlet (or Kona Rich Red)
D. Country Classic Light Blue (or Kona Sky)
E. Country Classics in Bronze
F. Kona Khaki (or Quilter's Only Natural)
G. White
H. Kona Navy

(Keep in mind I am no pattern writer so if you have questions please ask ~ just make sure you leave an email address so I can answer you back.)
Happy Sewing!

One piece tankini bottoms

It may be -18ºF here at my house today, but, or because of that, we can always think nice warm thoughts.  I'm starting to get in the swimsuit mode again--the girls have picked out their fabric for this summer from the stash, and I've started cutting out and getting organized.

We can all thank Aunt Gayle for this post. 

She's been making tankinis for her grand-daughters for years and has adjusted the panty pattern so that you cut both the front and back in one continuous piece and eliminate the seam that runs right across your backside when you're sitting down.

Cutting it out this way may not always work if you are trying to use up smaller/scrap pieces.  Then you will have to cut them out the conventional way.  But if you have a long enough piece of fabric then try this out.  You may never go back to a 2 piece panty bottom again.

So here is how I did it: 

Find your front and back pattern pieces for the panty.

 Lay them out matching where the crotch seam would be--overlapping the seams, eliminating the seam allowance.

Draw yourself a new pattern (remember I like using clear plastic to copy patterns because it wears better over multiple uses and you can see thru it easily)

Cut out your pattern--the stretchiest part of the fabric will go around the bum.

And here is what it looks like all laid out and unfolded.

I cut another one out of lining fabric (or another of the same fabric) to get a fully lined panty.

Sew side seams thru all 4 layers of fabric--lining and fabric together.

Attach elastic as directed per pattern instructions.

See HERE for some suggestions on putting in elastic.

Kwik Sew's Swim & Actionwear book.