Archive for the ‘sew it’ Category

Here is an easy way to add a little loveliness your bathroom.

The plain old hand towel in my bathroom was just that.  PLAIN.  I decided it needed a little makeover.

I started with a simple white towel and added three rows of ruffles using a white 100% cotton fabric.

You can buy premade ruffles, but they are also easy (and cheap!) to make yourself.

I cut 2″ wide strips across the entire width of the fabric.  A good rule of thumb for how much fabric you need is 2 1/2 times the width of the towel. I wanted my ruffles to be fairly petite, so 2″ of fabric made ruffles about 1″ wide.

Cut three.  Or however many ruffles you want.

I pressed seams on the edges by folding along the bottom and pressing, then turning one more time and pressing again.  Repeat on the top edge.

I moved my needle position as far over as I could and stitched the hems in place.

Using a long running stitch, stitch down the right of the center of the ruffle.  Then to the left of the center.  That way you have two long running stitches down the center.  When gathering, two is always better than one.

Grab hold of the two bottom threads and gently pull to gather the entire length of the ruffle.

Pin across your towel so that the ruffles are gathered evenly and stitch down the middle of the ruffle.  I turned the ends under once.

And it’s done. That was easy. It’s the perfect look for my little blue bath.

The missing sock phenomenon…  it is such a mystery.

I can understand the kid’s missing socks.  The are known to clean by shoving things under the bed, in the closet, or pretty much anywhere but the laundry hamper.

But when my husband and I loose a single sock…  that’s were the mystery gets interesting.  We have a hamper… and we use it. It might just be worthy of Mr. Holmes or Miss Marple or at the very least Miss Drew.

A small pile of single socks haunts my laundry room.  They move from the counter to the laundry basket and back again.  They just hang around, in the way, hoping their mate will turn up.  They don’t belong anywhere.

Until now:

As part of my laundry organization efforts, I got out the sewing machine to solve the problem.  OK, so maybe I didn’t solve the mystery.  If I had, I might have been in the running for a Nobel prize.  But I did sew a wonderful fabric basket….

Now all my lonely single socks will have a place to wait until their mate shows up.  Hopefully.

I used this very handy tutorial found at the Sometimes Crafter to make my basket.

For a little more functionality, I added easy handles.

The fabric is from American Jane called Punctuation Ditto Daisies Blue.  It works perfectly with the one bit of art I have in my laundry room,  a WWII poster of Rosie the Riveter.  It also looks great with my navy blue washer and dryer.

My new little basket works so well for socks, I’m planning on making a smaller one today as a place to put all the doodads I retrieve out of pockets, such as lip gloss, crayons, and coins.  I turn up all sorts of treasures on a daily basis.  I’m just happy whenever those items don’t turn up in the dryer…  crayons and lip gloss especially.

Now for a few ideas of what to do with the single socks if their mates don’t turn up.

• Roll them up and have an indoor “snowball” fight.
• Slip one on your hand and use it to dust the blinds.
• Make a sock puppet.
• Tie a knot in the center of an old sock and give it to your dog as a toy… my dog loves his.