An AWESOME tote-orial

OK, now we’ve got THAT pun out of the way….

Hi, Greetings, Howdy!
I realize it’s been *a while* since I last posted, I actually have a ton of projects & how-tos photographed but haven’t gotten round to putting them together.

So, back to this awesome bag then…

I’ve seen loads of different takes on these T-shirt Totes and was ALWAYS meaning to make one (or 10!) so when The Kid was having a pre-Christmas clear out and this T-shirt (which, let’s be honest, I’ve had my eye on for some sort of make ever since it was purchased) found it’s way into the clothes recycling bag; I finally decided to give it a go.

Because, clearly, that’s what you do; days before Christmas; when you are stupidly unorganised and obviously don’t have a million and one other more important things to be doing….

So, how did I do it?

First, I gathered the necessary supplies.

For this easy DIY you will need:

1 T-shirt
Scissors

That’s it!
If you want to seem really professional, add a ruler and ‘something’ to draw/mark with (chalk, pencil, disappearing ink pen…)

1. Turn T-shirt inside out (or outside in, if that’s how you roll)

2. Cut off sleeves (stage one of creating carry handles)

Cut off the sleeves, this will create carry handles.

3. Scoop around neck.
This creates the ‘opening’ of the bag. It’s up to you how neatly you do this: eyeball it, draw a rough curve, make a paper template….

I drew a curve from one shoulder to the centre, cut it then flipped it over and traced around the edge; so both sides matched. Kind of. If you squinted from a distance.

Next, we need to seal the bottom of the bag. Otherwise, it won’t hold anything and your stuff will just fall through. It wouldn’t be much of a bag at all!
There are a few different ways to do this, I used ‘The Knotted Fringe’ technique.

4. First you need to draw a line across near the bottom, about 3 inches is good.

5. Then we mark the thickness of our fringes, I ended up doing 1/2″.

I marked along the hem at half inch intervals, then repeated along the line I had drawn, before joining the marks together in straight lines.

To be honest, this step was probably unnecessary. You could probably get away with just the 1/2″ marks. Or ignore that step completely and just eyeball it as you cut.

6. As you’ve probably gathered, we’re now going to cut the fringes.

You can cut both layers together, or cut one side then line up the other.
I’d recommend the first option. It’s quicker, and less of a faff.

7. NOW we start knotting.

Tie your fringes together in pairs, one from the top and one from the bottom.
I double knotted, for extra security.

Work your way along from one side to the other, you soon get into a rhythm.
OK, you do start losing the will to live around the halfway mark but it’s gonna be worth it when you have an awesome new bag, right?

And that’s the knotting complete.
Well….nearly…

If you look closely, you’ll notice holes spaces between the knots; now we close them up.

8. Take an end from one knot and tie it to one from the neighbouring knot.

Repeat all the way along, until all the strips are tied to the neighbouring knots.

Again, I double-knotted as I went. (More about that at the end)

9. Turn your bag right-side out.

10.

Fill your Awesome bag with Awesome stuff and congratulate yourself on your Awesome talents.

11. Make more. Hundreds of them. Raid everyone’s closet and steal their Tees.

WHY did I double knot, you ask?

Full disclosure: I sat in front of the TV, quickly knotted my pairs, repeated with the split pair knotting, turned my bag inside out, stuffed a cushion in to see how it looked ‘full’ ….and the bottom opened a bit.

So, I untied them all and re knotted, double knotting at each stage.

I have used my bag repeatedly since making it, both to transport some Christmas gifts and to carry my work uniform back and forth.
It has been through a wash cycle pretty much every week and has held fine.

I’d love to hear if YOU make one!
As always, thanks for reading!
Hugs,
The Crafty Lass x

Sock Cakes: A Crafty DIY

OK, so these are more of a crafty packaging idea than an actual make, BUT it is a rather more interesting way to present an otherwise not-very-interesting gift.

I give you…

I’ve made a lot of sock cakes, they are great for stocking fillers, or putting in party bags, sleepover goody bags etc. They also work well in pamper kits and a fair few have made their way into various swap packages (hands up if YOU got one!)

The best bit is, they are quick & inexpensive to put together, but are fun to receive (so I’m told. I’ve NEVER received one. I feel left out & decidedly disadvantaged by the whole thing.)

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BAKING SOCK CAKES

What you need :

Socks : 1 pair for each cake.

(If you are making a batch, check out multipacks in places like Primark, Target etc)

Packaging:

• cupcake cases/wraps (I find wraps work better because they are sturdier & hold their shape better)
• Something to wrap them in (presentation bags/ treat bags/ cupcake boxes)
• Decorations (something to pop on the top, this can be the toppers that came with your wrappers, a hair clip that matches your sock design, a tiny bath bomb…anything you can use as ‘the cherry on top’)
• Ribbons or fancy string/twine

Sock cake supplies, or should that be ingredients?

HOW TO:

Lay out your pair of socks, fold in half lengthways & start rolling from the toe.

Ideally, you want it to look like a swirl of frosting. Ya know, if you squint. In a darkened room.

Pop your ‘cake’ into the case and add any decorations. These bunny rabbit wraps came with matching ears.

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Now you can gift wrap them:

This one is in a simple treat presentation bag and tied with a ribbon. I think the bags were £1 for a pack of 20, and they came with ribbon.

These My Little Pony socks are quite fine, so didn’t really fill the wrap. I rolled them around a cute pot of lip balm and in the end they fit quite snuggly.

Do you have a fun way to gift a not so interesting item? Please share in the comments.

HappyMail Pocket Folder: A crafty DIY

I’ve been making tons of these little happy-mail folders recently.

They are super quick & easy to put together, then you can fill the pockets with all sorts of goodies and pop it in an envelope. Obviously, flattish items are recommended if you want to send it via letter post!

Ideas of thing to include:

• Letter
• Sticker sheets
• Folded letter set (2 sheets, 1 envelope)
• Postcard
• Teabag/ hot drink sachet
• Washi samples (wrapped around a playing card works well)
• Flyers
• Recipe cards
• Paper embellishments
• Ephemera

Some pretty elaborate bits of tech are required:
1 sheet of paper, a pair of scissors and (if you have one) a bone folder.

The finished folder will be 1/8th size of the sheet. For example, starting with an A4 sheet gives you an A7 folder.

You can use ANY paper. Some papers I have used:

• Scrapbook paper
• Plain printer paper
• Magazine/comic pages (these work particularly well because if you remove the staples you can use 2 pages as one sheet)
• Gift wrap
• Tourist leaflets that fold out
• Wallpaper

Start by making a fold lengthways, then open it out.

Fold the left-hand edge in to meet the centre fold.

Turn the page over, and repeat with the other edge, this time meeting the centre fold on the other side of the paper.

Open out & lay flat, wrong-side up if you have a certain side intended for the outside.
With the paper lying landscape in front of you, the 3 vertical folds should lie “valley, valley, mountain” from left to right.
Cut the 3 vertical folds only on the BOTTOM HALF of the sheet.

Fold the top left corner to meet the 1st vertical fold.
Fold the bottom middle right OUT from the centre to meet the 3rd vertical fold.
The bottom left corner is folded similarly to the top EXCEPT you want to start folding from further up the side. If you measure from the bottom of the upper flap to the horizontal centre crease, you want the measurement between this crease and the top of the bottom flap to be roughly half. You will be left with a small overlap, Cut this off flush with the cut edge where you initially cut the vertical fold. I took this picture after I had completed the next steps – ignore the folds that have happened on the reverse – they are coming up next!

Turn the whole sheet over.
Repeat the same folds in the same places, top left, bottom centre right, bottom left.

Now it is time to start folding the sheet to make the pockets.

With the wrongside upmost, fold the left hand side in to meet the centre.

Flip the whole sheet over.

And fold the new lefthand side in to meet the centre.

At the bottom of the right hand side, there are 2 flaps. Fold the topmost one UP and firmly burnish the crease.

Repeat this action with the 2nd smaller flap.

Flip it over!

Again, fold UP the 1st bottom left flap.

And the 2nd.

Fold it closed and you have a pocket folder.
Almost!
You just need to seal the vertical edges!!

You can seal the edges with:

• Tape
• Staples
• Stitching

Some examples of other ones:

This one used a double page spread from a Simpsons comic. The edges were sealed with insulating tape!

This tiny little one was made with an offcut of paper and some washi tape edges.
It’s the perfect size for a note, some postage stamps and some loose stickers etc.

I hope you’re inspired to give these a try! Be warned though, they are addictive…

I’d love to see what you come up with, so tag me in your Instagram or twitter pictures.

Thanks for dropping by.