[Don't miss the free download at the bottom of this post!]
Last week, I hinted at a special collaboration I have been working on with one of my favorite fabric people. Today, I am super excited to announce that I have been working on some fun tutorials with Kelly of superbuzzy! As many of you know, I have been a huge superbuzzy fan for a long time, so I was honored to be able to create some free tutorials for all of you Japanese fabric fans. (Of course, any project where the postman shows up with a box full of Japanese fabric and accessories is a dream project in my book!)
For our first collaboration, we came up with an adorable Zakka Lunch Kit. The tutorial includes all of the instructions to make a bento bag (above) and a sandwich wrap that folds out to a place mat (below). The projects are beginner-friendly, but we’ve included some nice finishing details so that they will hold up against rough-and-tumble little ones and frequent trips through the washing machine. I know a lot of us are thinking green these days — so I love that these fabric bags and bento boxes help cut down on all of the lunch time trash. (It doesn’t hurt that the projects are seriously cute, too!)
After you sew up these projects, you may want to take a look through the superbuzzy shop. I am loving these mushroom clips and magnets! (I also heard a rumor that there might be some new Echino goodies!) Maybe you’d even like to try your hand at making cute bento-style lunches. superbuzzy has some cute bento books (in English!) that show you how. I was inspired to give it a try too. Here’s my little hedgehog sandwich:
We had so much fun putting this one together that we’re going to be making this a monthly thing. So I hope you’ll visit us again to see what we have in store for Halloween!
Click here to download the Zakka Lunch Kit tutorial!
And you can always find the free superbuzzy patterns right here on the free pattern page. We hope you enjoy!
Filed under Fabric & Sewing, I Made This, Tutorials & Downloads.
Tagged with bento bag, free sewing pattern, Japanese fabric, sandwich wrap, superbuzzy, tutorial, zakka lunch kit.
By Kelly
September 2, 2010
I finished it! The picnic blanket is done. I am wrapping up my last two projects for the DIY Picnic for Two. I have just one more project to share with you, and then we’ll call it complete. I am planning to savor all of this hard work this weekend, soaking up some of the lingering warm weather with a nap on the grass. I thought about all of the nice quilters I know as I worked on this project, and I kept wondering how they stay awake long enough to finish. Several times the blanket just looked so enticing, I wanted to nap instead of sew. (The pins kept me alert.)
As I wrestled through the final steps of this picnic quilt yesterday, I thought back to how casually I had put “sew patchwork picnic blanket” on my list. This project was not hard per se, just time consuming as these things can be. The finished blanket is 56″ x 64″.
I am not going to share any advice on doing this project since there are more qualified people to do that. I consider this one to be more of a show and tell. However, here are the specs for the curious: The finished squares are 8″ wide, and the back is a black fleece. Since this is a picnic blanket, I did not use any batting. I decided to use the backing as a wrap-around binding as well.
I ran into all of the problems you might expect with the fleece stretching and generally misbehaving, but I think it turned out ok. I think it will be just perfect for days at the park.
More soon… Hope your week is going well!
Filed under Fabric & Sewing, I Made This.
Tagged with DIY picnic, fleece backed quilt, picnic quilt.
By Kelly
September 1, 2010
[the last 5 is a series of posts about tackling unfinished decorating projects and adding those personal touches to a room. Find out how it all started here.]
Happy Monday! This weekend, I got to cross another item off of my decorating to do list. My husband helped me hang some art over my sewing desk in the studio/office. This morning felt a little bit like Christmas. It was so nice to be greeted with some fun punches of color in this room.
[Clockwise from Left: a chalkboard made from everyone's favorite Ikea frame, my DIY cuckoo clock, a squirrel tray by iBride, and a framed portion of a letter I once received on the most amazing paper (see below for close-up).]
The Back of a Happy Letter, now Art:
As usual, I have a tendency to over complicate things like this. I had gone to great lengths to gather all of the possible pieces that could go in that spot, and even went so far as to make a mock up in Illustrator to help with placement. In the end, we went with a much more organic method (hang the giant frame first and then eyeball the rest) – and I think it worked. It’s a less dense arrangement than I had originally planned — and I think that’s a good thing.
My crazy over-the-top plan:
I’m fairly sure I’ll add to this display area over time, but I like to live with design decisions for a little while first. This is a difficult area to photograph, but here is a shot of the desk and wall. (Confession: I did not photograph any of the piles of stuff that ended up on the floor so I could take a picture of a clean desk.)
As usual, I had to move aside lots of secret projects. Thank goodness for storage. The big gray wardrobe (with Anthropologie knobs) might be the smartest purchase I’ve ever made.
Ok, anyone else with decorating projects they’ve been putting off? I’d love for you to join me as I tackle one tiny, little spot at a time. Hope you have a great week!
Filed under House & Home, I Made This, Organization.
Tagged with cuckoo clock, decorating, hanging wall art, the last 5.
First of all, I wanted to say a huge welcome to those of you coming over from Creature Comforts. Ez posted a link to my DIY Cuckoo Clock project. Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you’ll find some other things around here to enjoy. I also wanted to let you know that I’ve been really touched by the kind comments and e-mails.
As some of you know, I’ve been working on a project that I’ve been calling the DIY Picnic for Two. It’s a little bit fancy, a little bit French-inspired. This week, I am finally tackling the picnic blanket. Right now I’m working on the step which I call: putting squares of fabric on the floor and then moving them around. Right now, I am thinking I need more black fabrics. I hope to get to the second step today, as well. It’s the one we refer to as: cleaning up squares of fabric off of the floor before husband gets home.
I’ll be back later this week with an update on the blanket. Wish me luck!
Filed under Fabric & Sewing, I Made This.
Tagged with DIY picnic, patchwork picnic blanket.
[the last 5 is a series of posts about tackling unfinished decorating projects and adding those personal touches to a room. Find out how it all started here.]
Hello there, and happy Monday!
This weekend, I was looking around the apartment for unfinished decorating projects I could tackle for this week’s last 5 post. That’s when it occurred to me that I never posted the finished pictures of our DIY Upholstered Headboard. In fact, the last time I mentioned this project, the headboard was lying on the floor waiting to be hung.
Well, the truth was that when we attached the headboard to the wall, two of the buttons popped right off! I know you’ve probably been there before — you get 99% complete on a fairly labor-intensive project and the thought of having to re-do a step just makes you want to throw up your hands in the air and/or take a nap. I think we did both. So up until this weekend, our bed looked something like this (see below).
The Sad Before
Can you see those missing buttons? I hope you are not going to hold this (and the unmade bed) against me. This weekend, we finally took the headboard back off the wall, and spruced it up a bit.
The Happily Ever After
Ah, I feel so much better. I think the total fix it time on this project was under 30 minutes. I also treated myself to an orchid. So far it’s been in bloom for over a month, so I’m really happy with it and glad that I purchased a plant instead of cut flowers. (Not that I would ever complain about fresh flowers!)
We’ve always had a few more plans for this room including some gray paint and nice lamps. Right now, we are waiting to see if we will be staying here for another year before we pull out the paint rollers again. For right now, I just pretend that I’m in an airy beach house with all of that soothing white.
Anyone else tackling those unfinished decorating projects? I’d love to hear about them. I figure we need all the support we can get. XOXO, Kelly
Filed under House & Home, I Made This.
Tagged with DIY Upholstered Headboard, homasote board, the last 5, unfinished decorating projects.
