MY DOWNTON ABBEY INSPIRED RIDING HAT-FEATURED IN "CHEAP EATS & THRIFTY CRAFTS"

One photo of Lady Cora Crawley in the Downton Abbey series wearing a beautiful white riding coat with black embroidery is the inspiration for both of my recent articles in Cheap Eats & Thrifty Crafts.

You can see my interpretation of the coat with instructions for turning a plain sweatshirt into an elegant vest here: 

http://carolynscanvas.blogspot.com/2016/01/latest-article-in-cheap-eats-thrifty.html

But proper ladies always have to have a hat so a matching hat it was for the second article

The hat is featured here:

http://www.cheapeatsthriftycrafts.com/downton-abbey-inspired-vintage-hunt-hat/

It was great fun creating the vest and hat. I tried to make them as easy as possible to make and neither will cost an arm and a leg. I did have to purchase the sweatshirt-about $8, I had the laces and trims in my stash. The hat was from another hat designing phase but it had been $10 or $11, the black lace was cut from the same as the vest. Creating the appliques from the black lace yardage was a big $ saver. Six plus were used on the vest and hat. I compared similar appliques at almost $5 each so look out for fabrics/curtains at yard sales, thrift stores, etc. thinking outside the box for their uses. 

I hope you enjoy crafting as much as I do

Carolyn Wainscott

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I design quilts, children's wear, AG doll clothing, crafts, home decor. My patterns are available in PDF format

 @

~http://www.craftsy.com/user/pattern/store/43851

&

~https://www.etsy.com/shop/QuiltingCarolyn

LATEST ARTICLE IN CHEAP EATS & THRIFTY CRAFTS: DOWNTON ABBEY INSPIRED VEST

I love the Downton Abbey series fashions. While watching one episode a beautiful coat with black embroideries caught my fancy. 

When asked by the editor of Cheap Eats & Thrifty Crafts if I could come up with something kind of vintagy I thought of that coat and what  could be made fairly quickly and easily. A vest came to mind with lace appliques. I had helped my great, granddaughter, Korah, make her graduation dress using black lace appliques so since I still had some of the lace, why not?

 I am very pleased with how the vest turned out and the ease it was to make. Here is the link to my video tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9wmoUBurs4

Here is the article with full instructions for turning a sweatshirt into an elegant lacy vest. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it.

http://www.cheapeatsthriftycrafts.com/downton-abbey-dress-recycled-craft/

May the joy of crafting be upon you and God bless you and yours

Carolyn Wainscott  

HOW TO USE BABYVILLE BOUTIQUE PLIERS AND SNAPS

THE CUTEST LITTLE PANDA BEAR WRIST PIN CUSHION YOU EVER SAW

HOW TO FREE MOTION QUILT USING FUSIBLE BATTING AND A OVEN LINER

Have you tried a Fabric Slider in your quilting? I had wanted to see and try one for quite a while after seeing one on a tv quilt show but it's one of those things that hadn't made it to the top of the list-price played a big part of that.

 Then a couple of months ago I saw the discussion in one of the quilt groups about using an oven liner instead [mystery-how does the thought come up to use something for a stove in the sewing room?]. Now this person didn't even know there was such a thing as a oven liner but at the price they were talking about [$7] I couldn't resist looking into that I should already be familiar with as much as I have cooked in my lifetime-especially since cleaning an oven is one of my most dreaded tasks-I HATE to clean an oven. Of course, I have made sure for a long time now that any stove in my kitchen is going to have an oven cleaner built in-I have bought enough Easy Off to justify having that feature over time. 

So-back to quilting with the oven liner. Looked them up on Amazon to see how much they were but with my impatience not wanting to wait for one to be delivered I hopped in the car to go forth to find my treasure of the day and Glory Be-there is was right in the kitchen department-it had been there all along just waiting for me.

Even with the oven liner in my cache, it was several weeks before I would get to use it. It just laid there looking at me when I walked by, wondering why it had been brought into this strange place  where there was no stove in site. It had been made for a nice hot environment but instead when the time came, it was placed on a cool surface with that very sharp pointed thing aimed right at it.

I didn't test drive the experience, just turned on the camera and went to work. I thought if the experiment didn't work, you might as well be in on it from the get go and I was pleased with how things went. 

The fabric did glide around quite nicely.

The only thing you have to do to prepare the oven liner for sewing is to cut a small hole for the needle. You do have to have a flat surface even with the bed of your machine for the liner to lay on. My extended table accommodates the 16" x 23" oven liner but can be trimmed very easily. 

The fusible batting added to the ease of quilting also. There will be more on the use of this batting in a "quilt-as-you- go"  in the near future so look for that for a favorite method of mine using an easier method for constructing/machine quilting any size quilt from baby to king. 

The oven liner was about $7 so even if it hadn't worked it could always be used for its original purpose. I even had the thought of trying one on a refrigerator shelf to be pulled out and washed off to make it easier to clean the fridge. That's another dreaded job for me.

If you decide to try this, let me know how it works for you.

May the joy of crafting be upon you and God bless you

Carolyn Wainscott

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I design quilts, children's wear, AG doll clothing, crafts, home decor. My patterns are available in PDF format

 @

~http://www.craftsy.com/user/pattern/store/43851

&

~https://www.etsy.com/shop/QuiltingCarolyn

also join me 

@

~www.carolynscanvas.blogspot.com

~https://www.youtube.com/user/mamgranny

~http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carolyns-Canvas-Quilting-Crafting-%20Sewing/151145938331115

~~http://www.pinterest.com/mamgranny

~~http://www.twitter.com/quiltngrin

FROM SWEATSHIRT TO ELEGANT LACY VEST a la DOWNTON ABBEY STYLE

MY "JESUS LOVES ME" Quilt Pattern-Now Available To Transfer & Paint On Your Own Fabric

A good bit of last year was spent working on this quilt pattern I originally designed and made over 30 years ago. I wrote about that quilt and other revisions in October, 2015 @

http://carolynscanvas.blogspot.com/2015/10/my-original-jesus-loves-me-quilt.html.

We had 5 new additions in 2015 to our family and I began working on quilts for them in March or April before the first arrivals were due in June so I thought I was ahead of the game-SILLY ME! Some of the process for those quilts are mentioned in the Oct. article. 

I had prints from a printing of the design I was going to transfer to white cotton for the babies' quilts but decided to reduce the size since I would be painting forever if I went with the original size. I found that I could just take the print to a local Fed Ex office and have it reduced instead of spending hours doing it myself. That was great. 

While working on those quilt tops the brain went off and I thought the pattern should be put into the pattern form and put with my other designs online. I just got them uploaded today to my Craftsy Pattern Store 

@

http://www.craftsy.com/user/pattern/store/43851

and in my Etsy shop 

@

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/QuiltingCarolyn

I can't believe how long it has taken to get these 2 patterns to this point but a lot of life has happened-I'm sure some of you can relate. 

I also decided to include 3 sizes in the pattern for a quilt, a pillow case and a pillow so that took some time and thought-anyway-here they are:

the pillow case fits a standard pillow 

pillow is 15"

after the painting is done it doesn't take long to add borders for an easy, quick quilt

I transferred the pattern to white cotton then colored in with my Inktense pencils, I really like the bright colors that develop when fabric medium hits the paint on the fabric. 

While working/painting on the quilts the thought started rattling around to have the design silk screened for someone who just wants to paint their quilt top and skip the transferring step. There are still a few of those prints left-I even videoed the process-very interesting. 

Thennnnn- I found I could have full color prints made at a fairly nominal cost for those who don't want to paint at all and just make the quilt. Stories to follow. 

I have made many of these quilts since the original years ago. Some have been for children in deep jeopardy and have been sent states away and I love every step it takes to make one. I think every child should have a Jesus Loves Me quilt-but that is just me. 

  . I hope you enjoy quilting and crafting as I do

May God bless you

Carolyn Wainscott

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I design quilts, children's wear, AG doll clothing, crafts, home decor. My patterns are available in PDF format

 @

~http://www.craftsy.com/user/pattern/store/43851

~https://www.etsy.com/shop/QuiltingCarolyn

also join me 

@

~https://www.youtube.com/user/mamgranny

~http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carolyns-Canvas-Quilting-Crafting-%20Sewing/151145938331115

~~http://www.pinterest.com/mamgranny

DIY LACEY BOOT SOCKS

One of my granddaughters sent me a photo hint as she often does of those lacey boot socks we are seeing everywhere but when I started pricing them they were running anywhere from $15-$25 a pair-I don't know about you but that is a great big nope for me.

Finding nice boot socks sure wasn't as easy as I thought it would be to put lace on either. I looked through several stores before I found the right ones at Sam's Club and when I went back for more, they were almost sold out. I only bought one pack of four pair to try and liked them enough to keep them for myself with no intention of putting lace on them but a week or so later the socks were almost gone but I got 3 more packs for the girls.

I had to buy lace when there wasn't enough in my collection. I bought several rolls of 3 yds. each at Joann's thinking I should be able to get 3 pairs out of each roll.

My calculations turned out to be a little short. Two pairs were completed from one roll and then the first sock from the third pair when I discovered there wouldn't be enough for the second sock so had to unsew the lace on the first sock since, of course, there was only one roll of that lace. So, it takes a little more lace than I had anticipated. It's a good thing it wasn't too pricey. 

For the socks you will need:

almost 1 1/2 yds. gathered lace per pair of socks

buttons [optional] 

Use a zigzag stitch and stretch the top of the sock as the lace is sewn on.

Here is a quick video just in case my explanation is clear as mud:

  May the joy of crafting be upon you

Carolyn Wainscott

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I design quilts, children's wear, AG doll clothing, crafts, home decor. My patterns are available in PDF format

 @

~http://www.craftsy.com/user/pattern/store/43851

~https://www.etsy.com/shop/QuiltingCarolyn

also join me 

@

~www.carolynscanvas.blogspot.com

~https://www.youtube.com/user/mamgranny

~http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carolyns-Canvas-Quilting-Crafting-%20Sewing/151145938331115

~~http://www.pinterest.com/mamgranny

~~http://www.twitter.com/quiltngrin

THIS IS MY LIFE ON THIS QUILT

That is what I was told he said when he opened his tee shirt quilt from his Mom and Dad on Christmas-it was a complete surprise for him. 

A few weeks before Christmas I saw an inquiry on a Facebook page for someone to make a tee shirt quilt. It wasn't a page I visit often and she was looking for someone who had advertised that they made the quilts. Even though I had not posted that I make the quilts and even though I surely wasn't looking for any outside work, I answered the inquiry on a whim. Teresa messaged me right away about making the quilt for her son, Gary, from some of his shirts that had been saved through the years and asked if I could possibly get it done before Christmas.  

A couple of days later Teresa and Gary, Sr. showed up with a bag of tee shirts. There was a range of adult shirts from different sports that Gary, Jr. had participated in or followed plus a very small sweat shirt with a football on it. They didn't want a tied or "rag" quilt-it was to be a traditional quilt and black was chosen to do the sashing, I already had wide quilt backing in white I would use and the batting because I keep those in supply for my quilter but I didn't have the black on hand so I purchased 5 yards at Joann's and thank goodness for coupons. It took close to the whole 5 yards for the sashing and binding.  

My sister, Shirley, had also brought shirts for other projects we were working on but we won't even go there right now. 

I was perking right along, the large 15" template for tees makes the job so much easier to cut and be uniform. The lightweight fusible interfacing was cut and fused to the back of each block, borders and blocks went together quickly by chain piecing, then each row matched up-man, was I getting good. The quilt top, batting and backing were put onto the quilter, quilting went well, binding put on and there was that small child's sweat shirt. 

The little shirt was left in one piece and hand stitched onto the quilt close to the large center block. All the blocks had been cut to the 15" template except for that block. The shirt had been airbrushed and the artwork was larger so it was expanded into a 30" block by adding strips onto the top and bottom. It worked out well. It had Gary's name on it and I didn't want to cut the shirt. 

The quilt looked great-

here is the largest center block and the small sweat shirt

Gary, Sr. came over to pick up the quilt not too long after I called them to say it was done and they were very pleased. He said he just couldn't visualize when I had explained what I would be doing. That's ok, sometimes I can't visualize myself sometimes. They had also brought another shirt that hadn't made it onto the quilt and could I do something with that one? 

I asked him about the small shirt and he told me Gary, Jr. had loved the shirt and always got excited when they put it on him when he was just a little boy so it had been saved and it fit so well with the quilt. 

And then soon after they got home I got a phone call. Three of the sewn in, sashed, quilted and bound blocks were not their shirts-I have made a whole lot of mistakes in my quilting days but this took the cake. How in the world do you get wrong shirts into a quilt when there was nothing else there that closely resembled shirts-there were other quilt fabrics but no shirts. I told my daughter I couldn't get over this, they had to be completely mistaken and then she said well, it probably was a bag of shirts she had brought in and plopped down that just may have gotten mixed in. 

The quilt was brought back the next evening and I spent the next day taking out the quilting in the three blocks, cutting out the top layer and hand piecing a replacement in each-then back onto the quilter to be quilted. It really wasn't as bad as it may sound and you really can't tell those blocks from the rest of the quilt. 

The extra shirt was made into 2 pillow cases. I forgot to take photos but they turned out nicely. I took the shirt to Joann's with me so I could get as near a match to the burgundy knit and got an almost exact match. 

Everything turned out fine and they were pleased. Pleased enough that the day after Christmas there was a knock on the door-it was Teresa bringing me a fruit basket-I thought that was extremely nice, don't you?

This is the first contract quilt I have done in years, still don't know what possessed me to answer that inquiry that day but it all worked out well. Kinda, sorta got me in the mode of a deadline and getting myself motivated to accomplish more. I get a lot done but sometimes feel guilty if I'm not busy all the time but the kids are quick to remind me how old I am. 

May the joy of crafting be upon you and may God bless you
Carolyn Wainscott
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have you checked out my crafting/quilting video tutorials on Youtube 

@

http://www.youtube.com/user/mamgranny

~~~~~~~~~~
and my patterns on 

CRAFTSY  

@

http://www.craftsy.com/user/pattern/store/43851

~~~~~~

ETSY

http://http//www.etsy.com/people/QuiltingCarolyn?ref=si_pr

"FROZEN" HOLIDAY DECOR

Yes, it is after Christmas but I just have to share this "Frozen" themed decor. I was blown away when my daughter showed me her photos from the party she had been to the night before at the home of her friends, Greg and Jeff. That was before Christmas but we didn't get around to asking them if it would be ok to share photos with you until after and they were gracious enough to allow me to see for myself before the whole thing was dismantled. Take my word for it, the whole thing is more fantastic than the pictures convey and I don't know why Greg and Jeff aren't in the design business professionally-and-they are both wonderful artists.

Entering their home your eyes are instantly drawn up the stairs to Elsa in all her glory standing on the landing and then you realize you are surrounded by "Frozen"-bare tree branches, "snow", blues, icicles, Christmas tree. If I ever get to make a grand entrance anywhere, I will get these two to prepare my entrance, oh, yeah, I can just see it now.

There were full sized fully decorated Christmas trees in each bedroom and in the office but the homage in the master to the tragic November, 2015 attack in Paris was spectacular. For one thing, I had thoughts of creating a mannequin tree myself but didn't get around to it so it was one of my fave things in the whole house. Greg explained how very "simple" it had been-just set a mannequin on top of the bottom of a tree and hang the top of the tree upside down from the ceiling-OK-easy for you to say, Greg. Black ornaments, icicles and beaded garland completed that tree beside the PARIS letters and the mannequin tree had a large poinsettia spray and an Eiffel Tower-I need to keep all this in mind, I just may get around to it next Christmas. There were touches throughout the room to add to the Paris theme-the ornate shoe in the center of the picture-did you notice? but I can't remember all he told me.   

So, better late than never, Greg and Jeff's "Frozen" presentation could compete with any New York department store window display and I want to thank them for inviting me into their home.

May the joy of crafting be upon you and God bless you.

Carolyn Wainscott

http://www.craftsy.com/user/pattern/store/43851

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carolyns-Canvas-Quilting-Crafting-Sewing/151145938331115

https://www.youtube.com/user/mamgranny

#Frozen #Christmasdecor #Elsa #mannequintree #upsidedowntree

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