MAN CRAFTS: Carboy Cover Tutorial

Don't forget to enter the earth Day Giveaway HERE.  It is open through Wednesday!

Also, we were featured on Tea Rose Home this morning!  She featured Mrs. K's Kate Spade Pillow Knock-Off, and several other inspired projects!  Welcome, Tea Rose Home Readers!

While my husband was enjoying his brand new brewing mitts, I was thinking of the next big man craft that would make him happy.

The next project is waiting.

Mr. S. enjoying one of his homebrews
 with his mitts.

Well, Mr. S has been talking about needing a carboy cover for a while now, so I thought I would make him one for Easter.  While some people give each other baskets of candy for this holiday, my family always steered clear of the sugar, and my basket usually contained little trinkets, hair bows, etc.  Well I think Mr. S would be sad if the Easter bunny brought him hair bows, so we'll try this instead:

Basically, a carboy is a water bottle that holds your beer while it ferments.  It is supposed to be completely light-proof, and Mr. S recently told me that he also would like it to be padded, so that his glass carboy will not break if he drops it.

I was originally just going to make a wrap, but since he mentioned dropping things, I made it a little more bag-like.  Mind you, I have never seen what a real carboy cover looks like, so I completely made this up.

I used an old wall hanging, some scrap batting, and one of those burlap bags, so this project was FREE.  I took two layers of the hanging, and pinned them to the "right" side of a piece of cut burlap (mine was cut to fit his carboy), then stitched 3 sides together.  I used my biggest needle on the sewing machine.  While it was easier to sew than expected, the burlap shed EVERYWHERE.  Be prepared to clean out the inner workings of your machine and vacuum when you are done with this project.

Stitched and Trimmed

Pinning right sides together

There were a couple thick parts that my machine would not go over, so I hot glued them later.  I probably should have hand-stitched them, but I was feeling lazy, so glue gun to the rescue!  I sewed the seams in about an inch, but I ended up trimming a little around the edges when I was done.

Then, I turned it right-side out, and stuffed in some old batting scraps to make padding.  Should I have quilted it to make sure the batting didn't bunch around? Yes.  Did I? No.  This is one of those times that it would have been nice to have some of that adhesive spray, huh?  Oh well, it will serve its purpose; plus it's probably going to get beer spilled all over it, so I'm not inclined to make it look too pretty.

Turned right-side out

Batting time

Once the batting was stuffed in, I turned down edges at the opening, and top-stitched them shut.  At this point, I realized that I was basically making a giant coffee sleeve.  Hm.  Then I folded the rectangle in half, with the burlap sides together, and stitched the side shut.   This way, the carboy can slide into the cover without having to be lifted up too much (they are heavy when they are full).

Pinning the edges together

Sewing the edge shut

Carboy slides in

Okay, so then I made some ties to help tie the side and top together.  I took some nylon string and old shoelaces that were in my stash.  For the side tie, I took a crochet hook, poked a hole in the burlap, and threaded some of the nylon string through it.  On one side, I just used a lighter and fused the string to itself to make a loop, and then I threaded a piece through the other side to make a tie.

For the tops, I picked two spots on either side of the spout, and ran one piece of shoelace through each side.  Since it's pretty hard to get a shoelace through a hole in the burlap, and you tie a knot at the end of the lace anyways, I don't expect the string to slip out of the holes anytime soon.  Plus the string is long enough that you can open the top up almost all the way!

And voila!  A light-proof, padded carboy cover!  And now for a photo shoot!

All tied up

Letting it all hang out

Keepin it real!

Thanks for stopping by for this tutorial!  So glad you could visit us here at Krafting With K!

Insulated Reversible Coffee Cozy Tutorial and GIVEAWAY!!!!!

Okay, so I understand it is the day after Earth Day, but that doesn't mean the planet stops rolling!  Today's Earth-Friendly project: Insulated reversible coffee cozies!  And a giveaway!  (After the tutorial).

But first, let me take a serious moment to encourage you ALL to rent, borrow, or netflix the movie "Food Inc."  If you care for the environment, and you care about yourselves, it will be worth your time to see what's in your food, and what it is doing to your body!

Now, on to the tutorial!
You will need:  a starbucks coffee sleeve, a front fabric, a reverse fabric, some insul-bright, and some velcro!

Take your starbucks coffee wrap, and open it up.  I laid it out on some paper, and then gave an extra half inch around all sides for seam allowances and bulk.

Then I cut one each of front fabric and reverse fabric.  I cut one piece of insul-bright to match the original starbucks wrap.

With right sides together, stitch up one side, across the end, and down the other side.  I used 1/4" seam allowances.

 Now, take some scissors, and cut the corners at a 45 degree angle, like this:

Why cut the corners?  It helps you get crisper corners when you turn it inside out.  So, as you might have guessed, now you will need to turn it inside out.  Now, I have learned this cool trick over time to help you get really crisp corners.  You know when you go to get a pedicure and they use that wooden stick to push your cuticles back?  Well, instead of letting them throw it away, ask to take it home this time!  I have found it is extremely useful in getting crisp corners.  (You might want to wash it first, though).  They sell "corner turners" at the craft store that look just like these, but I like the free version better.  Check it out below:  I used my finger for the corner on the right, and the pointy stick for the corner on the left.

Now, slide your insul-bright into the pocket!

Now, take the open end and fold the ends under, ironing to help them stay put.  Then take the fuzzy side of the velcro, lay it on the edge, and stitch it down.  This way you get two birds with one stone; you finish the edge, and you sew on the velcro at the same time.  Then flip the cozy over, and sew velcro on the other side!

Then fold it together and Ta-Da!  You have a coffee cozy that you can change based on your mood!  A sampling of my different varieties:

These are a quick, easy, and green gift to make, especially if you use scraps to make them!  Enjoy!

And the Krafting with K Earth Day GIVEAWAY!!!  We will be giving away a Reusable shopping bag and one of today's coffee cozies to help encourage you, our readers, to reduce waste!  I will also throw in some Bath Sea Salts and a Bath Bomb Fizzy for fun!  Winner will be chosen via Random.org.  How do you enter?

*****Become a follower of Krafting with K (and leave a comment letting us know you did)****

Additional entries:
1-Leave us a comment letting us know what you did or are going to do to help the planet this month!
2-Leave us a link to a Earth-day friendly project of your own!

That's it!  Giveaway will start today and the winner will be drawn Wednesday at 9pm.  Good luck everyone!  I can't wait to see what "green" things you are up to!

Dog Treat Caddy Tutorial

This Saturday, the day after EARTH DAY, please stop by again for an important announcement and GIVEAWAY!!!!!

On with the tutorial-----

Sooo, we have the two cutest puppies in the world:

Toby and Darla

But let's be honest, sometimes they can be downright...um..BAD!!!  So, like any responsible pet owners we train them (and spay/neuter!).

The tricky part is when we take them on walks.  We are big fans of rewarding these pups for their good behavior, but we don't really want treat crumblies in our pockets.  Also, let's be honest ladies; do we even have room in our pockets for anything?  Yeah, women's jeans are not meant for carrying stuff.  Solution?  Treat carriers! (Which are also big enough to carry a roll of poopie bags!!)

Now, PetSmart sells treat carriers (or as they call them, Biscuit Buddies) for 5-10 bucks, but they aren't very stylish.  So I decided to make some of my own.  For about 50 cents (because I used scraps yay!)  and a half hour of your time, you can make one too!  I started with two items to make my pattern: a cup and a ruler.  I used the wide part of the cup for my circle, and I made a 6x14 rectangle for the walls.

I used two fabrics.  The lining was some ripstop nylon from my mother's giveaway stash, and some flannel (the blue flannel was from mom, the pink paisley was on clearance at JoAnns-it is so cute I couldn't resist!  Get ready to see A LOT of it soon!).

So, I cut one of each piece (the circle and the rectangle) out of both the nylon and the flannel.  Now, let me tell you I did the blue bag first, and I did it all wrong.  It came out, um, okay.  However, I am going to show you the better way.  So, take your rectangle pieces and put your flannel and your lining on top of each other, then fold them in half, with the flannel touching itself.  Now, stitch the edge (I used 3/8 inch seam allowances):

Then, choose which end will be your bottom.  Take the two circle pieces, and again with the flannel touching the flannel, stitch them together.  Circles are tricky, tricky creatures.  They involve a lot of fine fingerwork and slow stitching.  Take your time, and if you don't get it the first time, keep practicing.  Just think:  this is really, really good practice for sewing in a shoulder seam.

Now, I suggest you sew exactly as show in this picture; it is a lot easier to pin and stitch around the circle this way without catching other bits of the bag along the way.  Read: less quality time with a seam ripper.

  Okay, so trim the seams and guess what?? Now all you have to work on is the top!!  With the first attempt, I just folded the edges down and stitched on some velcro.  But as you can see, it looks kinda crappy.  So on the second try, I measured what it would be when I rolled the edge down, and then I sewed the velcro on first.

Pleas ignore the fact that the velcro
is out of focus in this picture.

Okay so then I rolled the fabric up under the velcro (so there would be no scraggly ends) and stitched, about an inch from the top.  Check it out, open and closed:

Now for the important part: a loop to hook it to my jeans!  I just used a piece of ribbon and some more velcro, and stitched them right on to the bag.  Check out the finished product!

The ribbon loop was also great for helping to cover up at least a little bit of the disaster that was the blue bag:

The bobbin got a little crazy when I was stitching.
Another tip: remember to adjust your foot pressure when you have several layers of fabric.

See how crooked the seam is?  Eww.
This is why you start with the side seam.

Now time to see it in action?  It rests at the hip, so it's easy to reach.  And the velcro is easy open/easy shut for quick treat access!

Check out Mrs. K's Homemade Dog Treats to make some goodies to go with your treat sack!

Now who wants a biscuit?????

Linking to:

We did it Wednesday!

Inspired by You Wednesdays!

Tea Rose Home

Whatever goes wednesday!

Tips and Tutorials Tuesday

Sew Cute Tuesday