Living with Punks: Scrap Your Stash

SYS ~ Pen Wrap & Roll

I can't think of any better way than to have our finale post be Katy from No Big Dill. Katy is an inspiration, being the mother of five girls and one on the way, she can turn out clothing for her sweeties like no tomorrow. And when I say clothing, it is exquisite, whether it is from a pattern, or her own creation. Today she shows us how to create a pen roll for your favorite pens!

It's been inspiring to see what can be made from a few little scraps, hasn't it? My scrap stash is getting out of control, to the point where I've let my five little girls get their hands on it and have some fun with their own creations. I'm so excited to be here at Living With Punks today!

Some might call it obsessive, or snooty, my love of smooth rolling, fine writing pens. Free pens don't last long in our house, because inevitably my nice ones disappear and all I'm left with are the freebies who try to do a good job, I'm sure, but always disappoint. So. Like I said, I'm a pen snob. And I'm fine with that, because it makes me happy every time I have to jot something down to be able to pull out my best writing implement and glide that color creating contraption along a notebook.

So today I'm sharing a fun way to o1 keep track of my lovelies o2 display them in an aesthetically pleasing way o3 easily grab them and go and certainly not least, o4 give away a set of my all time favorite pens that I used to think I had to travel to Japan to purchase! Let's start with the Pen Wrap & Roll.

Now I've seen simplified versions of these for kids' crayons, but let's be honest, what kind of kid is going to keep his crayons nicely organized. And if you have that kind, send 'em over to me to teach my baby Dill's. But you, my fellow pen lovers, you will enjoy just looking at your pens when you've got this finished, and I have no doubt you'll have a hard time keeping your pens organized and pretty.

Start by grabbing your scraps and finding one that is the same or close to the color you plan to coordinate with.

Iron and cut out a piece that will comfortably fit over your pen of choice, adding a 1/4 seam allowance on all sides.

Pin all the pieces together and stitch with 1/4" seam allowance. The more precise you are with this the better your results, so if you've cut out a piece that seems a bit skiwampus, go ahead and cut a new piece. Note on fabric choice: although you're just using scraps, make sure they are not too thick. The thickest I have is a baby-wale corduroy and I wouldn't go any thicker than that. Quilting cottons, even lining will work well.

See how pretty it is already? :) Press open all the seam allowances. There are lots, but it will make your project turn out much better if you take the time to do this. It would be helpful if you had one of those itty bitty irons, but I just used my regular iron, slowly going along and it turned out fine.

Cut out a piece of neutral colored fabric for the lining. It should be just 1/2" wider than your colored panel. I cut mine the exact same size, which will show in the photos, but I liked the edge of the linen to show on the opposite side, so give yourself that extra to work with. Sew right sides together. Fold together over the raw edge, not the stitching line, so the neutral fabric shows on the right side and top stitch along both edges of that neutral strip.

Working your way down the rainbow panel, take a tiny tuck at the bottom of the raw edge, just 1/8" or so. I pulled back my lining so you could see the tucks in each panel of color, right in the center, but you'll want to make each tuck with the lining and panel as one. Once you've made the tucks, cut out another piece of your neutral fabric that matches the width (which is now shorter) and about 4" longer the opposite way.

Stitch 1/4" and press seam flat. I edge stitched it along the neutral side before folding together, but that's optional.

Fold the top down 1/2" and press, and repeat, folding down 2" the second time.

Turn your wrap over and fold the 2" fold you just made, the opposite way, right sides together and stitch 1/4" on both sides, trimming the corner off.

Turn flap right side out, carefully pushing out the corners with a bone folder or other and top stitch around the perimeter. I stitched twice to match the edge of the color panel. Fold the outer edges in 1/4" and press, but wait to stitch them together, as we still need to make our ties to insert.

Cut two strips 2" wide, the length will depend on how many pens you will be wrapping up, doubled. Fold like a hot dog and press and then open. Fold and press each end in 1/2" and then the outer edges in to meet the center line and press. Repeat with second strip of fabric. Stitch around each tie.

Attach one tie to the back, top tab portion:

and the other inside the color panel, sandwiched between the neutral fabric and color piece. Stitch along the very edge to secure. Repeat with the other side, but without a tie.

You want some slack in each color panel as you pin it in place. The top of the color needs to be lined up with the bottom. Using clear polyester thread, stitch "in the ditch" or right on the seam of each panel, creating the pocket for each pen. Make sure you sufficiently backstitch on each end, and ta-da! Your thread automatically matches your fabric!

Then you can lovingly tuck each pen into their coordinating cozy of a new home. When I showed Ryan my completed Roll he said it looked very Asian. Perfect.

And now do you want a chance at winning your very own set of Hi-Tec C 4.0 pens? Hop on over to my blog, no big dill, to get the details and enter! (Or if you just have questions ;)

Thanks for having me, Susan and Living With Punks Readers!

Thanks Katy!

Like I said, this is the last post of Scrap your Stash. Take a minute and meander through the previous posts and be inspired!

Don’t miss these other great Scrap your Stash posts {click the pic}:

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Enter this week’s giveaway from Sis Boom {click the pic}

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Also, if you are interested in showing off what YOU have made with scraps, please read THIS

SYS ~ Scrappy Sun Hat

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Today Jessica from Running with Scissors is here! I am always amazed at the amount of projects this girl pumps out...and they are always high quality and well thought out. Well, today is no different. She used her scraps in a practical way by making sun hats for the summer! I love how she shows us where her scraps came from to!

I'm Jessica from Running With Scissors. I have two kids and enjoy sewing for them. Here's a few of my favorite kid projects I've sewn.

I also enjoy building furniture, painting, decor and resurrecting junk into something great.

I'm so excited to be here and have loved all these scrap ideas all month.

I am cheap. So if I splurge and purchase nice or designer fabric, I save and use all the precious little scraps. Today I'm sharing a pattern to make Scrappy Sun Hats for little girls.

So my project can be made using random larger scraps, like the blue hat which used scraps from my Phoebe dress I made a few moths ago....

...or you can use quilting pre-cut strips like the red hat. I used the left over coordinating 2.5" strips from my daughter's baby quilt.

So this hat was created because I needed a baby sun hat for our little girl. She has huge cheeks and the swim hat I'd been using kept sliding off her head, and its brim didn't quite cover the chubba cheeks.

So I designed this hat with a tighter fitting crown and elastic chin strap so it won't fall off.

Rather than cutting the brim in a circle, you can just use scraps in strips (way less fabric useage) and the ruffle effect helps it stand out from the head to protect their face from the sun.

I have to mention my son here. I made the pattern 3 sizes, and asked him to wear the large red hat for a few pictures. I handed it to him, and he looked at me and said: "Mom....I don't like this hat." So I realize I put my son in a frilly girl's hat, but I thought it would be worth it so you could see it on a bigger noggin.

Plus it will be valuable ammunition when he's 18.

The pattern uses 6 pieces for the crown of the hat.

For the blue hat I used two different prints, and for the red I used 6 prints to make 12 sections.

So you have a lot of room to creatively use your scraps.

The hats are also lined so you don't have to worry about finishing your raw seams.

Notice here I used different brims for the wider, under brim. The blue hat has a one-layer brim that has a narrow hem. For the red hat I used two strips for a double layer brim and sewed them together so the top is stripes, and the bottom has dots.

MAKE YOUR SCRAPPY SUN HAT

Print your pattern here.

Pattern has 3 sizes using the head circumference as a reference, and also includes dimensions for brim strips.

ALL SEAMS ARE 1/4" SEAM ALLOWANCE.

1. Gather your scraps

From the dress I had large enough scraps for the triangular pieces, and decided to have every other piece a solid aqua. But the red hat used quilting strips 2.5" wide, so I had to sew two strips together for each triangle piece, which is why it ended up having 12 different panels rather than the standard six. I sewed two strips together, pressed it open, then cut my triangle lining up the center seam with the center of the triangle.

2. Cut out your pieces

The pattern has directions on the width and length of the elastic, brims, and optional ribbon.

You'll need 6 triangles for the outside, 6 triangles for the inside.

NOTE: I use lingerie or fold-over elastic because it comes in colors and is really soft for those chubby baby chins. I buy mine in my husband's home town craft store, or you can find it online too. I'd recommend this etsy shop.

3. Sew Crown or Exterior of Hat

Take the exterior triangles, right sides together, and sew one side. Open and add the other triangle to the other side if you're making a pattern and sew two halves of the hat each with 3 triangles.

Take your two crown halves, right sides together, and sew them up one side and down the other in one rainbow shaped seam.

Construct another hat top with your lining triangles.

4. Make Brims

Take your brim strips and sew the two ends together.

**I had to piece my brim strips, so I ended up with a few seams to get them in one circle.

Press the seams open, then fold the narrow brim in half and iron it down.

For the under, wider brim I hemmed one edge by folding 1/8" under twice, then top-stitching it in place.

**The red hat had two strips sewn together and ironed in half, (the top stripes, the bottom dots) rather than one layer hemmed.

To get the brims to ruffle, you need to gather the raw edges. I sew a gather stitch just by increasing the stitch length to the longest (5.0) and the thread tension to the highest (10.0). This gathers the fabric as you sew. Do this on each brim.

5. Sew on both hat brims

Take your smaller brim and pin it to the crown of the hat right sides together. I had to pull the bottom thread of my gather stitching to scrunch my brim even more than what the sewing machine was able to gather. I just gathered it and fit it to the hat. Then sew all the way around.

Next we add the next layer, and pin the wider brim right sides together to the hat. You'll sew the wide brim on top of the narrow brim.

So at this point your hat has both ruffled brims sewn on.

6. Sew chin elastic

You continue to add another layer to the hat by pinning your chin elastic to each side. Make sure the elastic goes up and over the right side of the hat.

7. Sew lining to hat exterior

Now to connect the hat exterior to the lining and hide all your raw seams inside, make sure your lining is inside out and the hat exterior is right side out with the elastic over the top.

You'll place the right side out hat into the lining, essentially putting them right sides together.

Line up the seams and pin the hat to the lining all the way around.

Sew around the hat, but leave a few inches unsewn to act as a hole to flip your hat right side out.

9. Finish it up

From the hole you left, carefully pull the hat exterior out and then push the lining back up into the hat.

You will need to take care of the hole at this point. You can hand sew the lining to the hat. I am lazy and used the machine to close the hole, sewing in the ditch of the hat/ brim seam.