Sweet S¢ents Sachet Tutorial

Sweet S¢ents Sachet

After a shoe shopping binge with my daughter a couple of months ago I found myself with a pile of shoe hangers. Being a tree-hugging earth conscious woman I just couldn't bear the thought of throwing them away. There just had to be something clever I could with these (besides hang shoes)!

Right away I noticed how the arches looked like the top of a heart. Hmmm, heart on a hanger? What could I do with that? I know! A heart shaped sachet! And the Sweet S¢ents Sachet was born.
 

 It turned out so well that I am submitting it to Green Craft magazine for publication consideration. Wish me luck!

Materials:

*plastic shoe hanger
*assorted fabric scraps
*embellishment items (ribbon, lace, crocheted flowers, brads, colored cord, etc.)
*cedar (chips or shavings)
*loose, dried lavender
*8"x8" scrap of tissue, deli, or plain paper
*nail polish or acrylic paint *all-purpose glue (it will need to work on fabric and plastic)

                                                           *embroidery floss (optional)
 

Tools:
*pencil
*scissors
*ruler
*straight pins
*sewing machine
*sewing needle and thread
*clothes pins
 

Instructions:
1. Fold scrap paper in half to create a center line then open and lay it flat on your work surface. 

2. Lay the shoe hanger on the paper centering it on the folded line with the shoe arches close to the top. Decide where you want the top indent to begin, place your pencil point to the right side of the hanger and draw a line up and around the curve of the hanger continuing down to the fold line to create the bottom point.

 

Move the hanger aside and draw a straight line from the starting point at the top indent over to the fold line (Note: when the paper is open this straight line should be at least 1" or large enough to fit the top of the hanger through, make adjustments now if needed). Make any adjustments to the heart shape that you would like.

3. To create a seam allowance measure 1/4" out from your drawn line and make a dot, repeat this all the way around the heart half.  

 

 4. Fold the paper pattern in half on the fold line and cut out. Now you have a perfect heart pattern for your hanger.

5. Gather various scraps of fabric, ribbons and lace and piece together on your sewing machine or by hand sewing until you have created a piece large enough to fit two heart patterns. Add machine or hand embroidery for extra pizzazz.

6. Pin your heart pattern to the fabric and cut two heart shapes. (Note: If you have used lace or thin materials that need to be lined like I did, cut two more hearts from some thin cotton material. Baste a lining heart to the backside of each fabric heart close to the edge using a zig zag stitch.)

7. Place right side of the fabric together and pin. Measure a 2-2 1/2" space on the right side of the heart. This space will be left open for the hanger arches to squeeze through (Note: mine were very flexible and could be pushed together easily). Measure a 1" space at the top indent to be left open.  This space is for the top of the hanger to fit through. Mark these two areas with a faint x in the seam allowance so that you remember not to sew them.

8. Begin sewing at the top indent marking on the right, backstitch to secure, and continue around to the first side opening mark, backstitch to secure and cut thread. Begin sewing again at the second side opening mark, backstitch to secure, continue down to the point, pivot and continue up and around the other side stopping at the top indent marking on the left, backstitch to secure. You should have a sewn heart with an opening at the top indent and an opening on the right side.

9. Clip the seam allowance to just above the seam around the curves. At the top indent clip diagonally from the edge of the fabric to just above the end of the seam. Trim the seam allowance close to the seam at the point to make it easier to turn right side out.

10. Turn heart right side out through the side opening.

11. Prepare the shoe hanger by removing any tags and stickers. You can do some of the painting and embellishing at this point if you wish.

12. Gently feed the shoe hanger into the heart through the side opening, guide the top part of the hanger up through the top indent opening while squeezing the shoe arches into the side opening. Once the hanger is all the way in, pull the top of the hanger so that the shoe arches fit into the curves of the heart.

13. Tuck the top indent opening seam allowance inside so it looks smooth and neat. Place glue around the inside of the top indent opening and hold secure  with clothes pins until dry. Drying time will depend on the type of glue you use.

14. Embellish the hanger with nail polish or paint, ribbon, cording, flowers, etc. Allow to dry completely.

15. Fill the heart with a combination of cedar and lavender.

16. Hand sew the opening closed using coordinating thread.

17. This Sweet S¢ents Sachet works perfectly with Closet-Maid systems. Don't have a Closet-Maid system? No problem! Tie to a closet rod with ribbon or simply hang it on a push pin. Makes a great house warming gift too!
 

 

*As a side note..this is my first tutorial so please forgive the lack of detailed pics and any

discrepancies you find. If you have any questions about the process please shoot me an email and I will be happy to explain further.

 

Prayer Flag Swap with Lenna Andrews

I just finished my first ever mixed media prayer flags and boy was that fun!

The lovely Lenna Andrews is hosting another one of her fabulous international art swaps and this time it's prayer flags. If it sounds like something you would like to try click here for more information.

Here are my offerings....

 "Keep the Faith" 

 "Bliss"

"Just For You...Love...Joy"

The how tos:

The main focus of all three pieces are copies of art journal pages I created for my "Your Living Canvas" workshop printed on Claudine Hellmuth sticky-back canvas. I then backed each piece in a cool tie-dye peace sign cotton fabric and brought the fabric around the front for a rolled edge hem. Then using Stickles, water color crayons, Gelatos, paint pens, Scalet Lime pens, stamps, and machine stitching I embellished each flag. After everything was good and dry I sprayed them with fixative to keep everything protected. For a last bit of bling I added eyelets and strung specialty fibers with bells on each side.

New Pillows for my Living Room

Since I was a little girl I have been fascinated (one might even say obsessed) with decorating and re-decorating my living spaces. I would draw out my room on graph paper (yes, down to the inch),  make scaled footprints of my furniture, cut them out, put tape on the back and then re-arrange the floor plan until I was satisfied with the new configuration.As I got older, I did less virtual re-arranging and more actual re-arranging.

I love the idea of re-inventing a space and giving it new life. It makes life fun for me. New accent colors and switching out pillows and curtains is a great way to spruce things up and refresh a room. "Things" can get costly though so I always save my tired things so they can come out to play again another day.

Pillows can get very costly so I like to recover them with trendy fabrics and designs. Here is my latest pillow re-do.

I am always amazed at how the designers on tv put together seemingly disparate patterns and colors on one sofa and manage to make it look fabulous! So this was my goal for my pillows....unusual patterns and colors on one piece of furniture. Fortunately, my living room has a very neutral color palette so mixing colors was relatively easy. The photos below show the front and back of each pillow. The owl pillow is plain on the back.

 Patterned fabric is an Opal Owl by Tina Givens fat quarter I purchased in a large bundle. The back is a vintage red cotton velvet (hand-me down) base with hand cut leaves (remnants) in raw silk, brown wool, and red rayon. I wanted the back to have texture as well as visual interest.

 The patterned fabric is "Forest .......for Duralee (sorry, can't for the life of me remember where I got it). The back is a black and white stripe cotton with a white deer** fused on to contrast the black deer on the front. 

 The front is a designer sample linen that was being discarded (free) with an iron-on transfer that I printed from a free graphic from The Graphic Fairy and edged in bias tape. The back is part of the Opal Owl bundle I mentioned earlier.

 Both the front and the back are a polyester suiting material I picked up from the cheap section of the fabric store. It has great texture and will be durable (aka washable). The owl** is a green textured cotton remnant fused on and top stitched for visual interest.

 This pillow while I love it really doesn't fit the style of the living room so I will be keeping it in my studio. Both the front and back fabrics are from the Opal Owl collection. (Can you tell I love owls? he he he). I used bias tape and contrast top stitching on the front and a complimentary bias tape for the edging. 

All the pillow have a zipper in the bottom for easy removal and reuse.

**The deer and the owl are both free patterns courtesy of Country Living.