1. Personalized Coffee Sleves: Cute and reversible, the perfect gift for your coffee loving bestie!

2. Rosette Bracelet: A great accessory to dress up jeans or any outfit for your fashionista friend.

3. Stamped Metal Jewelry: A crafty yet stylish way to express yourself, and your friendship.

4. Handmade Lip Balm: Got lots of girlfriends on your list? Lip balm is an inexpensive gift you can make in bulk.

5. Homemade Bath Salts: What girl wouldn’t love some homemade bath salts to help unwind after a busy holiday season.

6. Stenciled Mugs: Dress up plain dishware to reflect your friend’s style and color pallet.

7. Monogrammed Tote Bag: Encourage your family and friends to say goodbye to plastic with this personalized tote bag.

8. Knit Cowl: Spread the love, and warmth this year with a cozy knit cowl.

9. Matching Apron & Tea Towels: Got a foodie on your list? Why not make them an apron with matching tea towels. Check out this screen printing how to.

10. Ruffled Throw: Give someone a bedroom makeover with this unique ruffled throw.

11. Spoon Rings: Looking for a way to recycle extra silverware? How about turning them into rings?

12. Paperclip Earrings: Super simple and super cheap, these paperclip earrings are also super cute.

13. Fabric Clutch: A girl can never have too many handbags, and this easy to sew fabric clutch is no exception.

Read the original post here: Handmade Gift Ideas: For Her

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I’m so excited to finally be able to tell you all about Happy Sew Lucky, a new Vancouver business, run by local designer and friend Berene Campbell. Launched a little over a month ago, Happy Sew Lucky is a labour of love that’s been in the making for the past year. These adorable DIY kits are all designed by Berene herself, hand cut, and packed with the help of some very supportive friends and family.

Due to my crazy travel schedule these days, I wasn’t able to try out one of the kits myself, but instead I enlisted the help of one of my good friends, who also happens to be a new mom, and has just gotten her first sewing machine. Laura graciously agreed to give one of these kits a go and document her experience.

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I was both excited and nervous to have the project of making Happy Sew Lucky’s Minky Cat. Excited because it’s a super cute design made from soft 100% organic cotton and nervous because my sewing expertise to date involved hemming some curtains and inventing a Halloween costume for my daughter. I had never used a pattern before. Fortunately the instructions were very well written and easy to follow. I made sure I had everything in order, took a deep breath and began.

It was confidence building to start with the section of the project I was pretty sure I couldn’t mess up – ironing part of the pattern onto the fusable batting. Then once I had all of the small pieces cut out it was time to sew them together. For me this was the trickiest part because of the tight corners. What was nice about the instructions is that they very honestly mentioned this part is tricky and offered some advice. I found that even though my corners weren’t the most perfect the design of Minky is quite forgiving. Once I had all the pieces sewn together and the right way out, any slightly off course stitching didn’t seem too obvious!

Attaching Minky’s ears, legs, arms and tail was a little more complicated but once again the instructions helped keep me on track. I did manage to sew Minky’s ears on back to front (sorry Minky!) but I am going to put that down to sleep deprivation because the instructions and diagram really were excellent.

The final part of hand sewing Minky’s head to her body was a little finicky but even with my limited sewing experience I triumphed. The end result was a Minky Cat that I proudly compared to the photo on the packaging and found a close likeness (minus the back to front ears!).

*        *        *        *        *        *        

- For more information on Happy Sew Lucky Kits, including where to buy, check out the website!

Read the original post here: Happy Sew Lucky – DIY Sewing Kits

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- Download the PDF here

Read the original post here: Printable Sewing Cards for Kids

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- Check out the full tutorial here

Read the original post here: Children’s Teepee Tent

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If you’re kids enjoy spending all day riding around on bikes then this is the project for you. A cute little fabric bicycle bucket for their handle bars. They can use it to store all their favorite treats and treasures as they spend their summer days exploring the neighborhood.

And while you’re at it… why not make a few cute things to help fill the bucket?

You could pack them a picnic lunch with a reusable sandwich wrap, snack bag and water bottle holder. Or how about some fun things to play with? Make your own sidewalk chalk, or some fun travel games like checkers or memory. If you’ve got a budding artist on your hands, try this drawing case, or crayon roll. And last but not least… try a picnic without the mess. This felt food is fun to play with and can be used over and over again for endless picnic fun.

Read the original post here: Bicycle Bucket & Fun Stuff for Those ‘On-the-Go’

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A cute spring idea for your little ones. Holly from Chez Beeper Bebe, has an adorable tutorial for this felt egg book, that lets your kids decorate eggs over and over. Cut out all sorts of shapes and let their imaginations run wild, and when you’re not decorating you can store all the little pieces in the handy pocket at the back. Such a great idea, and beautifully crafted.

– Download the tutorial
– Purchase one of Holly’s from her Etsy Shop

Read the original post here: Flet Egg Book Tutorial

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Check out the tutorial here.

Read the original post here: Quilt-in-a-day tutorial

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Meet Harper. Harper is an adorably cute labradoodle with a fantastic personalized leash. This is a great project for you beginners out there, that takes less than an hour to make. Follow the easy steps on the Purl Bee and make your own personalized leash.

- Instructions here

Read the original post here: Personalized Dog Leash

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More Halloween goodness coming your way. Maritza from Soto Softies, has a fantastic bat pattern for sale on her Etsy store. A bunch of these strung from the ceiling would make fantastic Halloween decorations.

Not sure you’re ready to take on a whole softie? Why not take a start with Maritza’s free batty finger puppet pattern here.

Read the original post here: Going Batty

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I heart linen has a great tutorial which was also just published in the fall issue of Sew News.

- Full tutorial here

Read the original post here: Fabric Checker Board

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