DIY: Fabric Coasters!

I've been wanting to make some fabric coasters for upcoming girlfriend birthday gifts, so I finally took the plunge last week. This was a stretch for me, the beginner sewer, but it's a manageable project that can be completed in about 2 hours.



The recipient really likes purple, so I was able to repurpose some fabric scraps my mom didn't use up in a quilt. I loosely used a fabric coaster pattern by allsorts. I didn't do the criss-crosses, as you'll see from the pictures, but the dimensions were most helpful as I prepared to cut fabric. 5.5 inches was just the right square size.






Lessons learned:

• In the future, in addition to adding iron-on interfacing to one side of the coaster, I plan to add a thick piece of felt. The felt will give the coaster some padding and also absorb some of the heat, cold or moisture emitted by the drink on top.

• These look best if you sew all 4 corners by machine, leaving a 1 to 2-inch spot in the center of one side so the coaster can be turned inside out and the corners squared. That 1 to 2-inch spot needs to be stitched by hand, and that can be the most time-consuming step of all.

Someday when I have more time to sew, this is one of the items I'd like to have stockpiled in different colors and fabrics. Wouldn't it be nice to pull out a homemade gift anytime?

For more DIY ideas, head over to A Soft Place to Land.

DIY: Safari Themed Baby Shower

Some friends and I threw a baby shower for another friend in our bible study last weekend. She & her husband have chosen a "Cottontales Paradise" theme for baby's nursery, so we went with the safari animal theme for her shower. For this week's "Do it Yourself" day over at A Soft Place to Land, I'm including some pictures from our celebration.

We had a lot of fun with it! If you've been reading here for any amount of time, you know that I(Mel) am a baker. I enjoy baking for others, especially when it comes to special occasions. And with my career in event planning, I especially love to host and throw parties.

One of the co-hostesses made the. most. amazing. diaper cake. ever. Don't you agree?

Another brought decorations and paper goods. Others contributed delicious food.

One of the guests was super creative with her bathtub themed gift,

involving her 4-year-old in the wrapping.

And as you can see from the first picture, I went a little overboard baking 2 cakes and dozens of sugar cookies. I'll be posting more information and the full description of what I baked at a new blog I've started with baking buddies. Stay tuned!

I really enjoyed meeting a faithful RU reader and showering our mutual friend. Blessings, J & T!

DIY: Birthday Kid Crowns!

You might remember that I (Mel) received a new sewing machine for my birthday. Well, in typical Mel style I started off with a project that wasn't particularly easy. I mean, I should have started with straight lines, right? Maybe a potholder or placemat? But no, ambitious me chose to make kid crowns for some friends' birthdays. I had seen this adorable pattern on Baby Toolkit and couldn't resist.



My first mistake was not buying brown thread. Brown thread would have covered up my sloppy stitching. My second mistake was not buying the right type of interfacing fabric. The brown & green one has interfacing that I sewed in, but that was so much extra work that I decided not to do it on the pink one. They definitely need interfacing if the crown points are to stand up, but I'm not sure that the kids care... And my third mistake was choosing a first sewing project that involved velcro. Really?! The pink one ended up pretty big, but the velcro makes it small enough to fit our friend.



What do you think of the results? One was for a 5-year-old girl, and she ended up wearing hers to church the next day. The other was for a 3-year-old boy, and he kept head butting it off while I tried to take photos... however much they use them, it was a fun first project, and I know I'll be making them again.

This post was inspired by the DIY blog carnival at A Soft Place to Land.