Alexa Westerfield a.k.a. Swelldesigner
Alexa shares how to create a custom mat frame from journal pages...a perfectly sentimental gift everyone will love!
Cathie Filian
Got wine lovers on your holiday gift list? Cathie Filian has some easy DIY ideas for quick gifts worthy of Napa Valley.
Crafty Princess Diaries
Read the Fine Print When Crafting for Charity - Make what they want and give what they need.
Cross Stitch at About.com
Try your hand at a traditional embroidery style with this free Candlewicking ornament.
Layers Upon Layers
It's not too late to make pretty fabric hearts for your tree...or for everyone on your gift list!
Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery
See how easy it is to alter custom game pieces that will have players fighting over them.
The Impatient Crafter™
Commemorate this historical election year with an easy to make festive Obamornament!
About Family Crafts
With just a little bit of time and a few simple supplies, you can give everyone on your shopping list a home-made, personalized calendar.
Aileen's Musings
Aileen goes green for Christmas, and shows you what you can do with all those extra Christmas cards and gift tags we all have hanging around!
This photo is just for fun. This is Nutmeg, she is my friend's cat who is pretending she is "ET" and hangin' out with all the stuffed animals, in this case all the stuffed Santas.
Now on to day 9 of our:
15 days of Holiday Goodness Giveaways!
Simply leave your answer to each day's question in each day's comment section and we will randomly pick a winner of a book from each day's commenter. You can enter every day but you are only eligible to win 2 times! (You can go back and answer previous day's questions. We will be drawing the winners after the first of the year.)
9. Please tell us about your biggest craft blooper ever!
My Answer: What comes to mind of my biggest crafting blooper is on more than one occasion I can remember (too many in fact) I have sewn pieces of a project together with the wrong sides together. I tend to be a very fast sewer and only pin when I am working with really stretchy fabric or velvet. So (or sew) there are times when I would pick up the fabric from the cutting table and by the time I would get to the sewing machine they would magically get twisted into a different place. When I would finish the seam and open it up to do the next part I would do the classic Homer Simpson "DOH!" and have to then get comfy on the couch for a bit of "reverse stitching" as I like to call it.
I did once however turn this problem into a design solution. I was sewing a 3 tiered gypsy skirt and I was working with a brocade that happened to look nice from both sides. It turned out to have the opposite side of the fabric facing out in the middle tier. So it was a subtle difference but added a nice touch.
Be sure to read the comments of others, for a good giggle or just to make you feel that you're not the only one to make bloopers!
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i think the worst one I've done (and I've done it a few times) is when I'm sewing I catch my clothing that I'm wearing under the needle and sew myself into my project!!
Posted by: Lindart | December 19, 2008 at 04:11 AM
Having beaded keychains I made returned because the crip bead was not tight enough and they fell apart. I finally macramaed one after it was returned 3 times so it would not break again.
Posted by: Linda Morgan | December 19, 2008 at 10:06 AM
If my projects don't turn out as expected, I tend to rework them into something that does work. Either that, or maybe I've blanked those really bad experiences from memory.
Posted by: Janet | December 19, 2008 at 01:34 PM
I made a baby quilt for a friend. I was up until 3 or 4 in the morning determined to finish it in time for the shower the next day. Sometime between 2:00 and delirious, I decided to free motion quilt the baby's name in the quilt border. Except that I had never free-motion quilted before. Fatigue emboldens me. It was a disaster! After the first letter, I decided to pull out the stitches and scrap the idea. While tearing out the tangled thread, I ripped a hole in the fabric. So I had to do the free motion thing to close and hide the hole in the material. My friend loved the quilt, but I still cringe thinking about it.
Posted by: Tamara | December 19, 2008 at 05:07 PM
That's easy - when I was first learning to sew, I made a pair of shorts and wound up somehow sewing the wrong seams together in the crotch; instead of sewing up the legs I sewed across the legs and it took some time for me to figure out what I had done wrong!
Posted by: wendy | December 22, 2008 at 10:54 AM
my biggest blooper seems to happen every once in a while...i get a very nice card almost done and then decide to try something new and mess it up. but, i learn a lot this way...mostly to try to remember to try new things on a separate sheet and add them to the card if they work
Posted by: julie m | December 22, 2008 at 07:02 PM
sewing wrong sides together is a big one. also dropping stitches while knitting (I STILL don't understand how to fix them). I guess those are my big two.
Posted by: Carrie | January 01, 2009 at 01:18 PM