Liesl Made is taking a rest.

I’ve been contemplating it for a while. And have finally decided.

I left the tutorials up. I hope they are helpful to you all.  : )

Everything over at my shop is on sale.

I’m hoping to open back up early to mid 2008. And to start blogging again.

Wishing you all a Happy Holiday Season.

I was scanning some images and I figured I’d scan this simple tutorial for these Plastic Grocery Bag Holder to share.

Enjoy.

(Hopefully it makes sense. It’s written in “Liesl.” Let me know if you need a translation.)

Wine Bottle Gift Bag

(It’s simpler than I make it sound.)

Fabric needed:

7 ¼” x 27” for bag

2 ¼” x 13” for binding

2 ¾” x 27” for tie

(I should have chosen a different fabric for the tutorial, it’s a bit hard to see.)

Fold bag fabric in half, with wrong sides together. (Yes, wrong sides together. This is how you do French seams.)

Stitch ¼” up the sides.

Trim the seam allowance a bit, so it’s more like 1/8”.

Fold inside out and stitch 3/8” seam allowance up the sides.

As you can see, it makes nice, clean seams on the inside.

Fold right side out. Wrap binding around top and mark where to sew so it fits nicely. The bag should be something like 12″ in circumfrence so if you fold it in half and sew at 6″ that should be cool too.

Then pin in place and sew onto bag with a ¼” seam allowance from the top.

Fold right side out and iron the inside seam allowance up.

Fold the binding down and stitch.

Fold and iron the tie in half twice lengthwise (or would that be widthwise?).

Fold the corners down then back and fold the whole thing in half.

Stitch along open side and ends.

Center the tie with the width of bag and about 2 ½” – 3” from the top.

Double stitch in the center (for added security.) Make sure to only go through one side of the bag. It takes a bit of wriggling to get it under the foot but you can do it.

And voila.

Tutorial to Make a Pair of Folded Star Trivets…

For a pair you’ll need:
2 10” squares of muslin
About 1 yard of print (45” wide)
About ¾ yard of solid (45” wide)

Or enough for…
From the print:
32 5” squares
2 10” squares
From the solid:
24 5” squares
2 scraps (something over 2 inches)
10”+ square to make bias binding (or 2” x about 60” of bias binding)

Cut out your 5” squares. Iron them in half, wrong sides together.
(If using the yardages, there is a step saver– cut (widthwise) three 5” rows from the solid and four 5” rows from the print. Iron the whole strip in half length wise then cut in 5” intervals–you’ll have eight per row. And the excess from the solid is good for the scraps needed.)

Next, iron the two corners down to make a triangle, all raw edges should be on one side.

Repeat for all.

Mark the center of you muslin by folding in half twice.
Place the scrap in the center. (This makes it so you won’t ever see the muslin peeking through. If you wanted to you could just use a 10” piece of the solid.)
Starting with a solid triangle, pin in place as seen.

Repeat three more times then stitch the corners down.

For the next tier, place a print triangle 1/2” from center folded seam of the solid triangle as seen in the picture. Repeat 3 more times. Then four more times.

Then repeat for two more tiers: solid then print.

Next I flip it over and use a compass to mark a centered 9” circle on the back and cut it out with a rotary cutter. You can use whatever method you want, just make sure it’s centered. Flip it over and you’ll have a nicely centered circle.

Then pin the 10” square of the print on the back, wrong sides together, flip it over cut off the excess.

Now for the bias binding. It VERY important that its BIAS binding, meaning its cut diagonally on the grain, because this is a circle. (When I first attempted to make these way back when, I used straight grain binding and well, lets just say I ended up throwing them at the wall in frustation.)
You can do continuous binding if you know how, but this is a small project and I just stitch each strip together.
Cut out a 10”+ square from the solid. (I say + because that’s about the smallest size you’d need to make enough binding. If you used the yardage then you would have something like 12”.)
Cut 2” strips diagonally. You’ll have about 6 strips of various lengths, that’s enough. Then sew them together like seen in the picture so you have a nice long strip of binding.

Pin the binding on the front, wrong side up, folding back the under end. (Does that make sense? Fold back one end 1/2″ ish and pin the other end on top.)

Then stitch about ¼” from the edge.

Flip the binding over to the back, fold it under and hidden stitch.

Mine are always a bit wonky so I iron them nice and flat, and get them used to hot stuff. *wink*
Repeat for the next one. And tada. You have a super sweet gift, for you or someone else.

Obviously, you don’t have to use prints and solids; I just wanted this to make sense. I think it would be cool to do the tiers in fading shades of one color.

You can also make square trivets by using
From the Print:
16 5” squares,
8 5 ¾” squares
8 7” squares
From the solid:
8 5” squares
16 5 ¾” squares
Starting with the smallest ones and working your way up, do the tiers the same as the round ones. The only difference is when you fold the 7” squares fold in half diagonally first then bring the points down so it makes a square. And obviously, cut a square, not a circle.

I can’t remember but you might need 12” blocks for the backing and muslin of a square.

If you don’t have time to make them, check out the ones I have sale in my shop…

liesl.etsy.com.

As promised, a tutorial for this purse… (Which I had all typed up yesterday and the internet ate when I hit submit. Hmph.)

Finished purse measures about 14″ x 8″.

Cut 2  14 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ from outer fabric and 2 from lining fabric.
Cut a 4 1/4″ radius semi-circle on all four bottom corners.

Cut 2 16″ x 2″  of lining fabric (or outer fabric if preferred) for strap sleeve

Fold ends of strap sleevesback 1/2″ twice so that they each equal 14″ long.

With right sides of strap sleeve and outer piece together (the former centered, or 1/4″ from edges of the latter) stitch a 1/4″ seam allowance along top.

Sew a lining piece the same way to the other side of the strap sleeve.

Do the same for the remaining pieces–except leave an opening between lining and strap sleeve.

Iron all seams towards larger pieces.

With right sides together, stitch 1/4″ seam allowance allowance along edges of larger pieces. Do not stitch up edges of strap sleeve.

Turn inside out.

Line up seams nicely and top stitch just below strap sleeve, being sure to close up the opening you left to turn it inside out.

Insert preferred handles.

(Mine are two 25″-ish pieces of cording in a sleeve of the lining fabric.) 

Hang on a Waterhouse print… or, you know, your shoulder.

Tutorial on how to make this 13″ lined Beret…

Cut 4 14″ circles– 2 from outside fabric and 2 from lining fabric.

Then cut a 5 1/2″ diameter circle in the center of one of each fabric types. These are the bottom peices.

Like this…

(I suggest starting small, maybe even a 5″ diameter circle, because you can always make it bigger. I first tried a 5″ diameter circle, but that was too small. With a 5 1/2″ circle, in the end, you’ll have a 20 1/2″ circumfrence opening. You can also add elastic if you want or if it ends up too big.)

With right sides together, pin the bottom peices (with the holes) together and stitch the inside rim with a 1/2″ seam allowance.

Cut notches to help ease it.

Flop it on your head to see if it’s a good fit…

If it too small sew another 1/4″ from the previous stitch line and cut the notches. (You can see I had to do that. )Keep testing until it fits right.

If it’s too big or if you simply want to you can add elastic. I didn’t put elastic in mine but I’ll explain how to in a minute.

Trim it down to 1/4″ seam allowance. Not that important, only if you want. But it does make it neater. (Trimming is only half done in the picture.)

And you can add a couple little notches to help the ease.

Next turn it right side out and press. Then stitch a 1/4″ or a 1/2″ seam allowance on the inside rim.

If you want elastic added, here’s where you do it. First of all, make it at least a 1/2″ allowance otherwise it’ll be difficult to get the elastic through. Then leave a 1″ or so opening in your stitch line to insert it. Using a saftey pin helps push it through. Then sew the ends of the elastic together so it stays in place. And finish up the stitch line so it’s nice and neat.

Then curse about all the lint the velvety fabric attracts. *hmph*

Now with the right sides together, pin outside fabric bottom (with the hole) to the outside fabric top (without the hole.) Then stitch 1/2″ seam allowance around outside edge. Be sure to keep the lining out of the way and not stitch through it.

Next do the same for the lining, with right sides together, attach the top piece to bottom piece and sew along outside edges, leaving a 3″ or so opening to turn it all inside out. Again, be sure not to stitch through outside fabric or you’ll have a funky looking hat.

Turn right side out and close up the opening in lining as desired.

Tada…

Now, put on the beret, grab a glass of wine, adopt a French accent and you’re good to go.

Hope this all makes some sense…