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Tip: Keeping cutting info for bias tape right where you need it

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DSC_9048I love bias tape.  Love, love, love it!!  Love it so much I could marry it.  I especially love custom bias tape out of printed fabrics. 

Given my jr. high crush on custom bias tape, it should come as no surprise that I’m constantly MAKING bias tape.  The only problem is, I’m always forgetting how wide to cut my fabric to go into the different sized bias tape makers.  To make matters worse, not all of them are clearly labeled with a size.  One has the number 18 stamped into the plastic, but the others have no measurement indicated at all.  In order to figure out the width to cut my strips, I have to first determine the size of the bias tape maker, then cross-reference that on a chart that came with one of my bias tape makers.   What a hassle!

I decided this morning that there was a better way.  I measured my bias tape makers and determined the strip widths for each, then marked that on the top of the bias tape maker in permanent ink.  Voila!  Simple solution, and it only took me a year to come up with it.  Yeah, I’m swift like that.

Technorati Tags: sewing, tip, bias tape, bias, strip, width

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Pencil Bookmark Cross Stitch Pattern

To celebrate back to school season, I wanted to make a fun and useful cross stitch pattern, so I decided on this cross stitch pencil bookmark. 

It’s a really easy pattern even though it calls for six colors. You definitely don’t have to use all the colors if you don’t want to, and you can use different colors to make a colored pencil instead of the traditional yellow one. 

These sorts of projects always end up taking longer than I imagined they would in my head, because I just don’t stop to do the math of exactly how many stitches are in a piece that’s 23 stitches by 74 rows (1,702, though not every single one of them is covered, most of them are). 

But because the coloring of the chart is so straightforward, I’d say it also doesn’t take as long as 1,700 stitches sounds, if that makes sense. Because you barely have to count anything and could make most of it without consulting the chart, you can get into a groove pretty easily and stitch whole sections in a single sitting. I had a lot of fun stitching this one and I think you will, too. 

Once the stitching is done, take a piece of felt and sew it to the back to hide the mess you’ve made and make it a nice smooth bookmark that’s easy to use in whatever book you might be reading. 

This is a fun one to make for yourself or a kid in your life who is going back to school. But it would also be a fun teacher appreciation gift or holiday gift, especially for an English teacher but really anyone would like this one I think. 

You can grab the free chart and get all the instructions for assembling your own cross stitch pencil bookmark over at Our Daily Craft.