a ribbon belt

There are two blogs that I've recently discovered that I love. One of them is Ruffles and Stuff, a crafty little blog written by a woman named Disney. So fun! In May, she wrote about how to make a simple ribbon belt to accessorize dresses or cardigans. I decided it was so easy, why not? I just followed the instructions here. I picked out 1.25" wide ribbon and a flower from Michael's and D-rings from JoAnn's and spent about 5 minutes making it. I probably spent 5 days dreaming about making it...but it really only took about 5 minutes. So easy! Here is how mine turned out:

Before:

After:

a scarf from china

My mother-in-law came to town in May and I finally had her Christmas present ready... For Christmas, since she knows we're on a tight budget, she asked me to make her something...Well, I was huge and pregnant and tired and feeling lazy, so she got a rain-check for Christmas. Actually, she got her first grandson, which is a pretty fantastic gift, but I still wanted to make something for her. I had this great fabric that I got from China:

Our friend was teaching in China and brought it back for me about two years ago. Whoops! I meant to use it, I did! It is absolutely gorgeous and is sort of a silk burnout. My mother-in-law LOVES scarves, so I decided to test out my roll-hemmer and keep it simple with a little scarf. I called my father-in-law to ask him what the rest of her scarves measure, and got to work.

First, I ironed the fabric because it's been folded up for a while. I used a silk organza press cloth which allows you to see the fabric underneath, but prevents heat marks and protects the fabric.

Next, I used my rotary cutter and quilting ruler to cut it. Her scarves are usually 40-45" by 10", so I left the selvage on for the moment to prevent fraying, and just cut 11" wide, from selvage to selvage.

I pulled out my roll-hemmer foot. I LOVE it! It has that nice little curly section and it curls the fabric around for you so you don't have to fumble around and hope that you can make that tiny little hem.

It snaps right on to my tool of the trade, a Kenmore #16231. I got it for Christmas. I have a 1970s Kenmore sewing machine that's built into the table...but I wanted something a little more portable. I love it. It has speed control (you can put it on turtle, rabbit, or somewhere in between), one-step needle threading, and a million other features that make it pretty idiot-proof. Not that I'm an idiot, but sometimes machines freak me out and I'm worried that I will break them by doing something stupid. I'm not too worried with this one.

I decided to use a size #11 (70) needle because it's better to use on finer fabrics.


I then took one long edge of the fabric and rolled the very beginning. I place the needle down, and then put down the presser foot.

Then all I had to do was hold the fabric slightly rolled to keep the tension and let the presser foot do the rest!


It was that easy! I did not back stitch at the end. I just tied off the ends; otherwise the fabric would've gotten caught in the machine because it's so fine and there's nothing to hold. After finishing the two long ends, I trimmed off the selvage on both sides and rolled them as well.

Here is my mother-in-law, thrilled with her new scarf. Doesn't it just make her eye-color pop?

Hope you like it! More to come :)