Page 202 – the long thread

January 5, 2009February 6, 2012

Top 100 Tutorials of 2008

best-of-20083

Happy New Year! Here’s a list of free tutorials and craft projects from 2008 to inspire you to create something in 2009. Projects pictured above noted with asterisks in the list below.

I’ve sorted the tutorials by category to help make some sense of this list, but otherwise they are in no particular order. I’ve tried to include all of my favorite blogs and tutorials from the past year, but I’m sure that I’ve made some omissions. There are many sewing tutorials, plus lots of other crafty projects. So go make something!

Thanks to Craft, Whip Up, Design Sponge, Sew Mama Sew and TipNut for pointing me to some of these great projects.

For Baby:

Baby Bib, Chickpea Sewing Studio
Fabric Beach Balls, The Purl Bee
Bias Tape Bib, The Purl Bee
Quick Cozy Blankie, The Purl Bee
Reversible Baby Shoes, Maked

For Kids:

Blind Contour Drawing, Camp Creek Blog
Shadow Puppets, Arounna Khounnaraj for Bloesem Kids
Fabric Collage, Arounna Khounnaraj for Bloesem Kids
Fabric Skittles, London Mummy
Fabric Dollhouse, UK Lass in US
Black Apple Doll, The Black Apple
Kids Art T-Shirt, A Bit of This and a Bit of That
Pencil Roll & Art Bag, Red Current for Whip Up
Lunch Bag, Skip to my Lou
Felt Doughnuts, Skip to my Lou
Matryoshka Doll Tooth Fairy Pillow, Goody-Goody
Bean Bag Chair, Michael Miller Fabrics
Molly Monkey, Mmmcrafts
Pillowcase Dress, Maya Made
Eve Softie Toy, Instructables
Child’s Tent, Boutique Nutmeg Designs for Sew, Mama, Sew
Kimono Wrap*, Habitual
Growth Chart, Unraveled
Five Stones: Japanese Bean Bags, Honey & Daisy
Felted Sweater Animals, Martha Stewart
Calico Kitty*, Cherryskin
Paper Pinwheels, Ohdeedoh
Eraser Stamps, Geninne’s Art Blog
Lazy Days Skirt, Oliver + S
Recycled Cardboard Dollhouse, Esprit Cabane
Snow Globe Soap, Secret Agent Josephine for Alpha Mom
I Spy Quilts, Make and Takes

For the Home:

Crochet Heart, Bella Dia
Fabric Gift Bags, Jo Calvert for Canadian Living
Fabric Vase Covers, How About Orange
Papier Mâché Bowls, Painted Fish Studio
Easy Roman Shades, A Merry Mishap
Fabric Bird, Spool Sewing
Fabric Calendar, I Heart Linen
Wine Tote, Kathryn Goodman for Sewing Republic
Mushroom, My Little Mochi
Pom Pom, Molly Chicken
Butterfly Collage*, Ali Edwards
Toadstool, Lucy Kate Crafts
Rice Pillow, Wise Craft
Napkin Set, Angharad
Quilted Patchwork Hot Pads, Coyote Craft for Sew Mama, Sew
Picnic Blanket with Rock Pockets, House on Hill Road for Sew, Mama, Sew
Phone Charging Basket, Oh, Fransson!
Matryoshka Note Paper & Labels, A Print a Day
Fortune Cookie, Lady Harvatine
Yoyo Coaster*, Sew Take a Hike
Pleasant Kitchen Dishtowels, Alicia Paulson
Oven Mitts, Soozs
Fabric Covered Boxes, Wink Designs
Plate Transfers, Skinny Laminx for Design Sponge
Doily Bowl*, Jane Schouten for Design Sponge
Felt Votive Holder, Kate Pruitt for Design Sponge
Felted Sweater Flowers, Betz White for Craft Magazine
Ribbon Bookmarks*, Wee Wonderfuls
Fabric Bucket, Pippijoe
Recycled Bath Mat, New York Etsy Street Team

Clothing & Accessories:

5-Minute Skirt, Angry Chicken
DIY ipod Cover, Jannypie
Tape Measure Pouch, Ric Rac
1-Hour Bag, Ric Rac
10-Minute Headband, Blue Bird Studio
Felted Wool Bag, JCasa Handmade
Reversible Shoulder Bag, Lula Louise
Japanese Knot Bag, Show Your Workings
Camera Case, Pink Penguin
Tea Towel Apron, My Spare Time
Doily Produce Bag, Scrumdillydilly
Piggy Bank Purse, Nosey Nest
Apron in an Hour, Stop Staring & Start Sewing
Bamboo Handle Purse*, Little Birdie Secrets
Monogrammed Handkerchiefs, Grosgrain
Pinch Frame Pouch, The Small Object
Japanese Coin Purse, The Purl Bee
Hobo Lunch Bag, Sewing Notions
The Gathering Apron, The Cottage at Frog Creek

For Sewing:

Wildflower Pincushion*, Anna Maria Horner for Better Homes and Gardens
Five Point Ribbon Flower, Pin Tangle
Ric Rac Dahlias, Made with Love by Hannah
Simple Machine Applique, Oh, Fransson! for Sew, Mama, Sew
Fabric Labels, Linda Permann for Craft Stylish
How to Felt Sweaters, Crafty Pod for Craft Stylish
Fabric Stamping, Lena Corwin for Design Sponge
Square Deal Pincushion, Heather Bailey
Toadstool Cottage & Mushroom House*, The Little House by the Sea

For the Holidays:

Felt Snowflakes, The Purl Bee
Flower Garland, Zakka Life
Little House Ornaments, Pimp Stitch
Recycled Christmas Tree, Just Like Martha
Elfies Embroidery Pattern, Allsorts
Tomorrowland Trees, Wise Craft
Felted Candy Canes, Felt Café
Pomander, Betz White
Paperless Origami, Jeffery Rudell for Craft Stylish
Woodland Ornaments, Elsie Marley for Sew, Mama, Sew

*pictured above. Check out more Top 100 Tutorials here.

January 4, 2009

Tooth Fairy Time

tooth-fairy-pillow-1

My older daughter has her first loose tooth! So since I had this matryoshka doll machine embroidery design already, I modified the shape and turned it into a tooth fairy pillow. The fairy has a little baby tooth with her and wings on her back.

sample-back

If you have an embroidery machine, you can get the design files in my Etsy shop. If you don’t have an embroidery machine, I ran across a super cute tutorial from Goody-Goody. It’s matryoshka doll madness out there.

December 31, 2008January 1, 2009

Artwork Collage

Last summer I posted about the Jan Eleni collage available at Love (for a hefty price), and I finally got around to trying it out as a Christmas gift for my husband from our daughter. We selected 28 pieces of her artwork, scanned them in and printed them on card stock. Each image was 3″ x 4″ and the frame was 24″ x 30″. You could definitely make them smaller and fit more. Then I just taped them down in case we want to change out the artwork someday.

artwork1

My four-year-old just hasn’t accumulated a critical mass of artwork, so she made a collage of her own with paper and fabric scraps. It’s called So Many Houses on a Street.

artwork-2

December 29, 2008December 30, 2008

The Year in Review

The year in review here at The Long Thread, that is. I get annoyed by all this end-of-the-year recollecting, but here I go anyway. Here are my favorite Make it Monday projects that I posted this year, which is almost the life of this blog.

I had planned to post the best tutorials from around the web, but I just haven’t found the time to sort through them all. Maybe I’ll get to it later this week, but I’d love for you to post your favorites from this year as a comment here.

Lucy Goosey

Egg Matryoshka Dolls

Reversible Headbands

Pinwheel Quilted Coasters

Ribbon Hair Clips

Flower Pot Pincushion

Placemats and Napkins for Kids

Scrappy Owl Treat Bag

Elf Skittles

Thrifted Holiday Trees

December 28, 2008December 28, 2008

Sprinkles

Just thought I’d show some photos of the girls’ birthday parties earlier this month. With two December birthdays, I made it easier on myself this year by having the parties outside of my house. And I kept the craftiness to a minimum. For my younger daughter, we had a mermaid themed party, so I made some starfish shaped chocolate lollipops.

lollipop

My older daughter wanted a unicorn party, so I made these unicorn shaped cookies with royal icing and sprinkles. The chocolate cookies were pretty awful because I took the plain cookie recipe and added some cocoa. Needed more sugar, but the kids didn’t seem to mind.

cookies-1

cookies-2

goodie-bags

I really hate goodie bags, but my daughter insisted. So we made these from a brown paper sack and a drawing that she made, which I scanned and printed onto sticker paper. (It was a bowling unicorn party). Inside each bag was a circle of shrinky dink plastic to be made into an ornament, crayons, string, a candy cane and some heart-shaped soap. I made this soap by adding several layers of color. I’m sure the kids didn’t really care much about the soap, but I had the supplies around the house already and it was better than some plastic toy.

soap-1

Then I finally sent out thank yous today in the form of e-mail with a photo attachment. I’m being green and lazy this year since our holiday cards and thank you notes were sent electronically. We cut the letters from card stock and I sewed them together.

thank-you-card