How to Make a Wine Gift Bag

When Cidell and I ordered our tie silk from Fabric Mart, most of the silks were quite lovely but we got one real dog, a wine cork print. Cidell was going to use it for muslins, but when I realized it would be perfect for making wine gift bags she handed it off to me. On Saturday I had a holiday party to go to. I don't have a car and take the metro everywhere. When I'm bringing a host(ess) gift of a bottle of wine I don't want to just carry a bottle of wine around the city for all to see so I can either carry a big purse or put it in a bag of some sort. I didn't want to wear a giant handbag with my festive outfit (I wore a completely disastrous velvet skirt I will shamefacedly reveal later in the week), so it was time to bust out the tie silk and make a quickie wine bag. Last year I posted a tutorial for a wine gift bag with a pocket. This is the completely simple, no-frills wine gift bag.

Start by cutting a piece of fabric 12 inches wide and 16 inches long. This will make a gift bag for a standard size bottle of wine. If you get a larger bottle or one with an unusual shape, you'll need to adjust your starting size to accommodate.

Next, sew down the long (16 inch) side with a 1/4 inch seam allowance (run the edge of your foot along the edge of the fabric); pivot at the bottom and sew the bottom edge with a 1/4" seam allowance as well. Finish your edges with a serger or zigzag if your fabric will ravel. Then finish the top. I had hoped to use the selvage here as the finished top edge but it wasn't a sturdy selvage. Since I have a serger I just serged along the top edge before sewing the side seam. If you don't have a serger and can't use the finished selvage as the top, you can zigzag along the top and turn under in a narrow hem.

Now you're going to mark the gussets. You can easily skip this part, but I think it makes the bag look a little nicer. Mark the center of the bottom, and two inches up from the bottom on each side. You will sew between these markings, as indicated by the white lines in the photograph. This gives the bottom of the bag a more rounded shape so no corners are sticking out when the bottle is inserted and standing up. You can trim off the gusset corners, but I didn't.

The last thing to do is sew on a ribbon for tying it closed. First you need to mark your ribbon placement. Slip the bottle inside the bag and mark the spot where the neck and shoulders of the bottle meet--where the bottle starts to slope out. If you have cut a 12x16 rectangle and have a standard bottle, this will be 5 inches from the top. Cut a ribbon long enough to tie in an attractive bow--here I cut 18 inch lengths. Slide your bag over your sewing machine's free arm and tack the ribbon at the marked spot using a short stitch length and a narrow zigzag.

And you're done! You can check out all the photos here. Now which guest would you rather be?

Cleaning Tips From a Total Slob

I have no qualifications whatsoever to offer advice on cleaning to anyone (see the part where I'm a total slob). On the other hand, when I do clean it is a serious, major, Spring-Cleaning type clean so I know something about stamina. This was a three day weekend of cleaning. The house is beautiful (for about three seconds), and I am comfortable with the level of judging my current state of housekeeping will elicit from the appraiser guy (I keep wanting to say "inspector"--you can see how I feel about someone coming in my house and poking around!). None of what I have to say is, like, new and revolutionary or anything but that never kept me from opening my trap.

First, the best thing I ever did for my cleaning self: go to the sporting goods store and buy a pair of good kneepads. Seriously. This had a big impact on my willingness to do hideous things like clean baseboards and scrub floors. Kneeling on a towel just is not enough cushion. When I'm cleaning I just strap them on for the duration and then it's so much more comfortable to get up and down and crawl around. When you go to the sporting goods store, don't make the same mistake I did, however. I found the generic kneepads, which came in S-M-L-XL. I resourcefully used a lacrosse stick to grab myself a pair of smalls, which were "conveniently" located way at the top--as those of us who are small are usually also...tall? Anyway, when I got home I realized that those were not adult sizes, those were ALL the sizes and I had gotten kneepads for a tiny child. Since I am a resourceful sewist, I cut the back stretchy bit up the center and added several inches of black spandex so they fit me. But it would have been easier to get the right size in the first place.

Second, when I read one of Augusten Burroughs's books he had all these stories about his insane cleaning lady. One of her insanities was to clean windows and mirrors with newspaper. She insisted that this was best because newspaper leaves behind no lint. I figured, eh, I'd try it but totally didn't think it would work. Newspapers might have no lint, but they do have a lot of smudgy gray ink that grimes up your fingertips and ruins your clothes. But lo and behold, newspapers do an *excellent* job of cleaning windows and mirrors when combined with windex type spray. Somehow they just work.

Third, save your old cotton t-shirts (or other cotton jersey/knits) for rags. Rags are so much better than sponges (more surface area, less ick factor) and so much better for the earth than paper towels. Get 'em dirty, wash 'em in hot, and they're good to go again. I thought I had way too many rags until I did the whole house cleanup thing, when I actually had to wash a load in the middle! Major convert to rags here.

Finally, I'm a big fan of the Method cleaning products from Target. They are non-toxic, smell good, and clean really well.



From left to right:
Grapefruit flavored all purpose cleaner. This was the best product for removing (ahem) three and a half years of hard water stains/soap scum from my glass shower door. There was more elbow grease than cleaning product involved for sure, but it worked more effectively than ammonia, vinegar, or tub and tile cleaner.

Stainless steel cleaner. I have those oh-so-popular stainless steel appliances, and they are really hard to keep shiny. This stuff works better than any other products I tried, though not perfect. I also highly recommend the SimpleHuman Microfiber Stainless Steel Cleaning Mitt (OK that's not its official name but I can't remember its official name; I got it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond), or I'm sure any piece of microfiber will do. The mitt is actually better on its own than most of the chemical cleaners out there.

Tub and Tile Cleaner. I also use this on the toilet.

Daily Granite granite cleaner. I keep a small spraybottle of this on the kitchen counter at all times. My countertops looks good and don't appear to be harmed.


Off to enjoy my beautiful home. Happy cleaning to you.

Karma

Let me start by saying that I am not a religious person, nor am I one of those who is "spiritual but not religious." This does not mean I have no moral compass. I try to live my life by the Golden Rule, and hope that others do the same by me. But beyond that...I don't believe in much.

But sometimes, karma is just amazing.

On Thursday one of my neighbors asked me to create a jewelry set to donate to the silent auction at the annual Georgetown Pediatrics Gala. While sewing is and always has been my first love, I got into jewelrymaking after I graduated from law school. Suddenly, for the first time in my life I was living alone and not in school and I just had no idea what to do with my evening time! Then (as now) I found it too difficult to sew during the week because I felt like I couldn't get anything done in the few hours of a weekday evening. I spent a lot of time at the gym. But when I got home after that, sitting around watching TV got real old, real quick.

So I bought some beads. I loved them. Stringing went by too quickly and I didn't feel like I could be creative enough, so I learned to do some wirework and was very content. This hobby kept me company during a lot of hours! I am definitely back more into sewing recently and haven't done much jewelry lately. A couple years after 9/11 they relaxed to rules on what you can carry onto a plane so now I can bring my pliers with me onboard and I do most of the jewelry stuff I do while traveling.

My neighbor knows I make jewelry because she commissioned a piece from me. It was a blast to make. Normally I make jewelry that suits me, but we have completely different styles. For her I got to make a big, substantial, chunky, ethnic piece that I totally loved but never would have made in a million years otherwise. So for the gala I decided to make a piece on a much larger scale than I would normally do. The pendant is about an inch and a half long, and the twist beads are about an inch long. I think this piece will be great on a dramatic grown up woman over a black turtleneck or boatneck tee. I hope somebody wants it!



So here's where the karma comes in. I made this yesterday (my off day) while I was supposed to be cleaning the house (more on that later). This morning I checked my email...and I had an order from my Etsy shop. Etsy is a great venue, very easy to set up and the fees are relatively low. So I set up a shop a while back but since I've been in a sewing fever for so long it's been months since I put up anything new, and even longer since I made a sale. This was completely out of the blue. Literally just hours after I finished the donated set. Wow! I was really humbled by that.

And the order came from a sewing friend! Lisette on PR, who blogs as La Cubanita Cose (The Little Cuban Sews), took home one of my favorite items I had in the shop:



It's going to look great on her. Blue-grays are definitely her color. Thank you again, Lisette!



The other thing isn't nearly as cool, but you know how the Great Craft Clean Up of 2008 wasn't really prompted by anything in particular? I just felt like it was time? Well, I am refinancing at the moment because when I bought my condo the builder's lender offered a deal where it would pay the closing costs if we used them. Their rates were as good as any, but the best product they were offering was a 5 year ARM. I took it, figuring I could refinance later when I had 20% equity without any loss since I'd just be paying the closing costs I would have paid before.

When the Fed cut the rates in advance of their meeting a couple of weeks ago, a 5.25% mortgage was available for about 4 hours and I managed to lock it in. The appraisal is scheduled for Tuesday, and this particular broker uses a guy who actually comes to your house to check it out. *blanch* But it is such a miracle that I cleaned out the craft room already! I can get the rest of the place (closets included!!!! Geez, I feel like this guy is giving me the white glove inspection) into shape in a weekend, but if the craft room was in its old state I would have been toast. Strange but cool.

UFO Watch 2008: Pillowslip

Item: Pillowslip

Stage: Needed to be stuffed and crocheted closed

Reason Abandoned: I didn't like it much, and yarn is not my strong point

Time as a UFO: about three years (I think it got it at Christmas 3 years ago)

Time to complete: About 30 minutes (not counting trip to Ikea)

Work done to complete: Bought a pillowform from Ikea, stuffed it in, crocheted closed, wove in the ends


So, in the Great Craft Clean Up Event of 2008, many UFOs were unearthed. Y'all know I make no bones about my habits and slovenliness, so I'm not trying to make myself look unwarrantedly good when I say I don't make many UFOs. It's my one saving grace as a sewist and crafter in general. There are several factors involved: I get obsessed with whatever I'm working on and can only overcome the obsession by finishing it; I generally work a project to completion before going on to the next; and...ok, maybe there are only two factors involved. But "few" UFOs is not none. I knew they were in there, but they were kind of blending in with the mess. When I picked everything up, I had to face them.

Some of them I tossed, mostly of the "if I alter this fairly hideous article of clothing it will become less hideous but not actually wearable" variety. But there were a few I wanted to finish. I bagged them up in individual bags so I could have the satisfaction of ceremoniously putting the bag in with the re-use pile after it was emptied.

One of the first I tackled was a pillowslip from my grandmother. Now, I come from a family of women with exquisite yarncraft abilities. My mother wields the crochet hook with intimidating speed, and my grandmother's knitting output is phenomenal. Their work keeps me warm while I watch TV on the couch. My grandmother knitted the purple afghan in the background, and my mother made the multi-colored one in the foreground to match my condo decor for my birthday.



Clearly this amazing skill skipped a generation. I can allegedly "crochet," by which I mean plain single crochet chain stitch. Please observe the washcloth below. Also note that I tore the entire thing out not once but *twice* to get it so "nice."



When my grandmother gave me the purple afghan she gave me a matching pillow. Since my family lives in Texas and I received it in person, it made no sense to give it to me with a pillow form in it, as I just had to shove it in luggage for the plane ride home to DC. The pillow isn't really my style (I'm not hip enough to do ironic kitsch, so in my hands it's just kitsch) so I didn't bother dealing with it. For about three years it sat on the floor, waiting to be tossed or finished.

It seemed too rude to throw away my grandmother's work, so I decided to finish. I bought a pillowform from Ikea, shoved it in, and--with fear and trembling--set to work with the crochet hook and yarn my grandmother had thoughtfully provided. I had no idea what I was doing so I just kind of made it up as I went along, but amazingly it turned out pretty well.

I should have washed the pillow cover before closing it up as it was rather dusty from sitting on the floor all that time. Oh well. It's done! And it appears very happy to be with its sibling the afghan.



I just won my auction on eBay for the black version of the red boots I'm wearing here, which I got at Ross for $15 and have been wanting black ones ever since. I saw some at Marshall's for $40 and have been kicking myself for months for not getting them, but now I got them on eBay for $25, including shipping, so patience is a virtue? Or cheapness was rewarded? Or something. That means I can go to bed. I'll leave you with one of my favorite TSA jokes (which I think is an ironic comment on racism rather than racist itself; I certainly do not mean to offend):

Q: Why was the grandmother denied entrance to the airplane?
A: Because she was knitting an Aghan.

Cooling My Jets

After my frenetic sewing of the past few weekends, I needed a break this weekend. Even though it was a three day weekend for me, I still wasn't quite ready to face up to a big project.

Not that I did nothing, of course.

I made the cloth pads in the previous post.

I finally turned a dress that didn't fit into a skirt. I couldn't bear to take a before pic of the dress because it looked *so* bad on me. I got it from a discount store that was going out of business somewhere between 7 and 9 years ago. It was in Austin where I went to law school, and my sister still lived in Austin because she was with me when she bought it. I'm pretty sure it was before she had kids so that makes it 9 years ago, but she moved away from Austin 7 years ago so that's the most recent it could have been.

It was a beautiful dress; the top was very simple sleeveless (but not spaghetti straps). For that reason it took me many years to decide to make it a skirt. It was such a pretty dress that I didn't want to "ruin" and knew I should give it away so somebody could enjoy it. But finally I realized that in order to fit into that dress, "somebody" would (1) need to be at least 4 inches taller than me for the torso scale to be right; this one isn't hard as I am only 5'1", but (2) have a 25 inch waist at the outside, preferably 24 inch, *and* (3) have a 34-36 inch bust, with a B cup minimum. There are very few somebodies like that out there, and the odds that one of those somebodies would be shopping at the thrift store rather than, say, being plied with drinks at the nearest bar seem very slim and so I decided I could keep the dress and make it into a skirt. When I bought it, there were lines of embroidery floss across the bottom but in the front only and they were gaudy and hideous (I expect the reason why the dress did not sell at the original price of $78). I took those out when I first bought it. The gray is actually silk organza, though the underskirt is acetate.

I also turned a bunch of Fashion Fabrics Club swatches into a trivet.

I am not a quilter, but it seemed a waste to throw away all those precut little pieces. I didn't have any batting or old towels or thick fabric to pad it with, so it's a trivet rather than a potholder. After visiting the Gee's Bend quilt exhibit with Cidell, I was a little inspired. I don't like the rigidity of the patterns (no big surprise), but there were some beautiful free form quilts with just a bunch of pieces sewn together that I really loved. So I've been toying with turning some of my natural fiber scraps into free form quilt-ish items. I think I may part with a towel to make potholders.

I was supposed to be cleaning, so naturally my eye was attracted to unfinished projects. Finishing projects is cleaning, right? It's a slow way to clean, but slow and steady wins the race. I enjoyed Sarah's article on sweater reconstruction on PR a while back (December? I think--I would link to it, but only PR members can read back articles. I am a member so I can look it up if you are too and are curious.) One of the suggestions was to turn a sweater into a cardigan by cutting up the center and crocheting the cut edges to finish them. I have some nice sweaters I'd like to alter, but I wanted to start with a cheap one.

This sweater is from the girl's department of WalMart. Girls' tops fit me well across the chest (le sigh), but the sleeves are a little too short and the tops can be a tad too short. This one was just too short to wear as a sweater. I carefully cut up the center and crocheted the sides with embroidery floss (all six strands). I did three rows of crochet. It was unfinished because I ran out of floss on the third row of the last side. I had bought more, but hadn't picked it up again until yesterday. It will be held together with a button (from my FM 4 lb bag, natch) glued to a bar pin. So it will look buttoned, but it's actually pinned. Quel clever, no? This project took me only about 6 months to complete. I'm sure the rest of those sweaters will be altered in plenty of time for winter. ::rollseyes::


All this crocheting put me in mind of a type of bracelet I make, so while I was on the phone with a friend I worked this one up.

The stones are from a friend, whose aunt sent them to her. I *believe* they are very low grade Peruvian opal. The pic is a bit dark, but in person they are whitish green, with some darker and some lighter. It's a very organic bracelet and because I did so many stones on it I think it might be too much for my somewhat freakishly small wrist. But since I made it to fit me I don't know if it will fit anyone else. My source for 28 ga sterling silver wire is artbeads.com. From these two projects you might believe that I can crochet. I cannot. To call my crochet skills "elementary" would be an untenable social promotion like putting the football player who can't read into the 11th grade so he can stay on the team. I can do chain stitch and then single crochet or whatever it means to do chain stitch while catching the previous chain stitch. That is all. My mom is an amazing crocheter. Maybe someday I will have her teach me. She has tried in the past, though, and it never took. I learned my crochet "skills" from the internet.

Today I met up with a friend at the Renwick Gallery, part of the Smithsonian (and therefore free admission!). It's part of the Museum of American Art, though located near the White House, and specializes in craft. I can't believe I had never been there before! I think a lot of the exhibits are closed, but I liked what I saw. There is a large gallery called George Catlin's Indian Gallery. The artist traveled through the American West just before the Trail of Tears to try to document Native dress and culture. The paintings were much more sensitive than I would have expected--the artist did not seem to be after novelty value or caricature. There was not much by way of craft, unfortch, but there are some a-mazing glass pieces and some trompe l'oeil furniture that was really incredible.


Anyway, I took watercolor classes for a couple of years with some girlfriends, and near the end of our classes our teacher suggested I incorporate fabric into my art. I did a piece in class that I really loved and then started saving fabric scraps. Which grew and grew into a monstrous collection and it had been two years since I was supposed to make them into a collage so I decided it was time for them to go in the trash. But first, I figured I would give myself one last chance to do a collage, hoping to be inspired by my visit to the Renwick. I convinced my friend to do it with me and so I finally made a fabric collage. My theme was textures. You can see why I am a crafter, and *not* an artist. Those years of classes were a bit torturous to me (I did them with girlfriends because we wanted to make sure we'd all get together at least once a week). I can't do art, never could, never will be. By this I don't mean that I am not artistic or cannot appreciate or create beauty. But not on paper, canvas, wood, or any other flat surface. The tomato soup I made from farmer's market tomatoes came out much better than the collage, so at least the afternoon was not wasted! I also made some white bean, quinoa, shiitake, and spinach soup to bring for my lunch this week.

I feel pretty relaxed, but I won't be able to sew next weekend. Saturday will be an all-day bachelorette winery canoe trip (don't ask), and Sunday will be recovering from the all-day bachelorette winery canoe trip. I am saddened by the upcoming loss of my weekend.