Wine Coasters

I consider myself a pretty sharing person but I if I am outrageously territorial about one thing, besides my husband, it is my wine glass. Although I normally hold on to my glass of wine while socializing, I've been known to get into an animated conversation then forget which glass is mine, especially if I'm pulling hosting duties. Because of this, and because I hate those wine "charms" that clink against my glass, I make fabric wine coasters. These pair well with wine bags for a holiday or housewarming gift.

Needed:

~ Sewing machine

~ 4 different fabric patterns

~ Batting

Note: I use different color/patterns for each coaster because making identical wine coasters defeats the purpose of keeping everyone's paws off my wine glass. I have made completely different colored/patterned coasters as well as coasters that are different but match each other (especially if I'm giving them as a gift with a wine bag).

Step 1: From each fabric cut 4 squares and one batting square, 4 1/2 inches each. *

* I've only had my wine coaster not fit a glass one time and that was because my cousin has ginormous wine glasses. Adjust the size to your needs but 4 1/2 inches seems to be average (for the base of a wine glass).

Step 2: From each of the four fabric squares take two, fold them in half, and iron them flat.

Here is what you should now have for each coaster: Two folded squares, two regular squares, and one batting square.

~ The following is how to layer for each coaster ~

Step 3: Place one fabric square right side facing down.

Step 4: Next place the batting square on top of the fabric square.

Step 5: Now place a fabric square right side up on top of the batting square.

Step 6: Finally, place the two squares that you folded and ironed on top of the whole "sandwich", folded parts touching. I sometimes overlap the folded parts at the fold a smidge for a tighter fit. Spell check just alerted me that "smidge" is not a word but I think everyone knows it's short for smidgen, jeez.

Step 7: Sew all around sandwiched square.

Tips: 1. I tend to double stitch (sew, then sew backwards, then continue sewing forwards) as I go over the folded parts, just to make it more durable. 2. As you get close to the end of one side stop, pick up your presser foot (with needle in fabric keeping it secure) and adjust it so you can sew up the next side.

~ Note: Even if you go slow and keep sides lined up, they can still shift. No need to worry if, at this point, the coaster doesn't look lined up perfectly, you will be turning it inside out and nobody will see it.

Step 8: Take your sewn square and turn it inside out, poking each corner out as much as possible.

Take care when turning fabric inside out, you don't want to pull on any of the stitching too much.

Once pulled inside out give it a press with an iron, it always looks a bit better.

Your finished coaster should look like this:

I usually make four coasters if giving as a gift with a wine bag, more if it's a dinner party and there will be 6 or so people there (6 is my limit, at some point people just need to keep an eye on their glass of wine).

Wine coasters are easy to make, and if the wine somehow misses your mouth (I'm not sure how this can happen but there are amateurs out there), you can toss it in the wash or just make another one with scrap fabric.

Enjoy!

~ B

Quick Antibacterial Cleaning Spray

I have said it before and I'll say it again: It is amazing how much money you can save when you make your own cleaning products.  Most ingredients are already in your pantry. I use this cleaner to spray down my counter tops* & butcher block.

* Do not use on granite counter tops. While it won't hurt the granite, it could, over time, break down the seal that covers the granite. *

Needed:

Spray Bottle

1 Cup Water

1 Cup White Vinegar

20 Drops Lavender Essential Oil

 I get my spray bottles from whatever "Dollar Store" is nearby and I usually double the recipe because the spray bottles tend to be on the large side and frankly I am a freak about germs so I spray a lot of surfaces.

Vinegar has a long list of benefits & uses. It is 

safe for the environment and an excellent all purpose cleaner. Although the smell can appear potent at first, it dissipates quickly.

Besides smelling pleasant, lavender essential oil has antibacterial components. Although essential oils can get expensive, a little goes a long way and many, such as lavender and tea tree oil have cleaning as well as health benefits.

I was never a big essential oils person but I have really begun to notice how beneficial they can be. This site has some useful information regarding essential oils.

After adding all ingredients to the spray bottle, give it a couple shakes and you are done.

~ B

Sweater Pillow

The other day I went to put on my favorite sweater and discovered a hole. To say I was devastated is an understatement. Just kidding, it's a sweater; but it's soft and my favorite color and I look cute in it (if I do say so myself). As I was balling it up to toss in the trash, I realized this did not have to be the end for my sweater. My sweater could live on as a pillow.

My trusty sewing machine, some pins, a pillow insert, and some needle & thread is all I needed for this project.

Step 1: Cut the material. First I cut off the material I did not need for the pillow (such as the sleeves). 

My pillow form was 12 x 16 inches. Normally when measuring to cut material for a pillow I will add a 1/2 inch (1/4 inch for seam allowance on each side) but because my sweater material was stretchy I just kept to the 12 x 16 inches measurement. Just see how much "give" your material has when trying to decide on measurements.


I cut it in a way so that I could utilize one of the sides still sewn on the sweater, yay for shortcuts!

Step 2: Once I had my measurements and had cut the material I then placed "right sides" together. Basically I put the material I wanted to show on the outside on the inside facing each other. 

Step 3: Sew sweater material together, leaving one short side open for the pillow form.

As previously noted, sweater material can be a bit stretchier than regular cotton sewing fabric. I held the material as I sewed to make sure it stayed lined up.

As I neared each corner I would stop, lift the presser foot, and reposition to go up the next side so each side of the pillow had 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Step 4: Now that I had 3 sides sewn together I turned the sweater material right side out and inserted the pillow form through the short side I left open.






Step 5: Next, take the material at the opening, fold it in a little bit, and pin closed. 

Step 6: Take a needle and thread (knotted at the bottom) and stitch open end closed. 

I use a ladder stitch for this. It is relatively easy and invisible because the stitches are done inside the little folds you've made.






With everything stuffed, pinned, and stitched. My sweater became a pillow.

~ B

Make Your Own Glass Cleaner

Once I made laundry detergent and realized how easy it was to do and how much money it saved, I wanted to make more of my own cleaners. Making your own household cleaner(s) is easy to do, saves you money, (most ingredients you probably already have in your home), and helps you control -- or eliminate-- what toxins you allow in your home.

This recipe is for glass cleaner. It's many uses (faucets, mirrors, windows, etc.) make it an excellent return on investment.  To maximize your savings, I recommend using a microfiber cloth instead of paper towel. It can be re-used (just toss it in the wash) and reduces household trash.

Benefits: Costs less, safer, and environmentally friendly.

Needed

Spray Bottle (I get mine from the Dollar Store)

1 Cup Rubbing Alcohol

1 Cup Water

1 Tablespoon White Vinegar

Steps

Mix all ingredients in spray bottle, give a shake, you're done!

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Here are my bathroom faucet & medicine cabinet before:

Here they are after using the glass cleaner.

  

Adjust recipe amount proportionally as necessary to fit your needs.

Go green! Save money, reduce trash, and use less chemicals!

~ B

Wine Bags

Wine bags have at least two major benefits: they are a classy, lasting complement to a short-term (especially in our house) gift and they virtually eliminate the chance of you being a victim of police profiling. How? My researcher (husband doing a quick google search while also drinking wine) was unable to find a single instance of anyone ever being "stopped for questioning" while carrying an elegant SDH wine bag. The same cannot be said for the garden-variety brown paper bag.

I read somewhere that not all adults drink wine (this is unconfirmed; please research independently before you repeat this). If this applies to you, making your own wine bag may still be a great idea. They make great wrappers for sparkling cider, flavored oils, or most any bottle you'd like to present as a gift.

Needed

Sewing machine

2 different paterns of fabric 

Freezer paper

Scissors

Ribbon

One of the fabrics will be the bag liner. Since it will fold over the bag, it will be longer in length. The below measurements are for the "normal size" (aka 750 ml bottle). If your girlfriend is having trouble in the love department and it's looking to be a long venting session you may need the "big bottle" (aka however many millimeters are in that wonderful, larger bottle), you will then need to adjust your measurements accordingly.

- Inside fabric (liner): 16 1/2 inches
- Outside fabric: 13 1/2 inches
- Width for both is about 5 1/4 inches

Note: You need TWO pieces of both inside and outside fabric.

~ Use your freezer paper to draw your template on the non-shiny side. To make it a bit easier you can cut around your template, leaving some extra freezer paper around it ~

~ Next place your freezer paper template shiny-side down on your liner fabric. I make sure fabric is folded so I can cut both pieces at the same time. Iron freezer paper to fabric ~

You'll notice I cut out the actual template from the freezer paper, this makes it more difficult later when cutting around the fabric, hence my advice to leave extra freezer paper around your template when ironing to fabric. You will need to use the actual template shape for the second (outer) fabric but at least make it easier on yourself for the first fabric.

~ Once freezer paper is ironed to the fabric, cut fabric, using the template as your guide ~

~ Once fabric is cut to shape of template, peel template off  (save for outer fabric) ~

~ Next iron the template (again, shiny side down) to your outer fabric. Since the template was made longer for the lining fabric, find the 13 1/2 in. mark on the template and cut across ~ 

You now have 4 cut pieces of fabric: 2 liner pieces & 2 outer pieces.

~ Take the outer pieces, right sides facing each other, and sew together. Up one side, around the curved bottom, and up the other side. I tend to stitch, backstitch, and continue stitching at the beginning and end of sewing fabric together, this keeps it strong and less likely to unstitch.

Tip: When you get to the bottom, curvy part of the fabric, you will need to slow down and lift the presser foot a few times to sew with the curve. 

 ~ Follow the same instructions for the liner fabric except leave a 1 1/2 - 2 inch space at the bottom (curved) part of fabric. I mark them with pins so I don't forget to stop (take pins out as you get close, do not try to sew over them, I've heard horror stories of pins flying into eyes). When you stop sewing, back stitch a bit to make it a strong stitch. Same for when you begin sewing again, back stitch then continue stitching to make it strong. You will be pulling the fabric at one point and you want your stitches to hold ~

~ Now you want to take your outside bag fabric, turn it right side out, and put it inside the liner fabric (which is still inside out) ~ 

~ Once the outside bag is placed inside the liner bag, line up both top openings, with seams aligned, and sew around top. My machine has a part that can be taken out to make this step easier, yours may too ~

Your finished top should look like this: 

~ Now pull the outer bag through that 1 1/2 - 2 in. opening we left in the bottom of the liner ~

For some reason, I thought I could keep myself out of this picture. Please do not hold my awkward, unflattering posture against me...

You will now want to stitch the small opening at the bottom of the liner closed. I usually use a ladder stitch to close it but you can use your machine too, nobody will really see this part of the bag. 

~ Now put the lining inside the outer bag and fold over top ~ 

Just insert wine bottle, tie ribbon around the neck, and you're done!

~ B