My First GIVE AWAY and also a TUTORIAL: How to Make Hand Warmers

So, arm warmers are a pretty big seller in my store. I use old wool sweaters and I felt them by washing them and drying them. This creates a dense fabric with edges that do not fray, even when unfinished.



There is a limited amount of sweater that is usable for arm warmers, so I also like making purses, pouches, wallets, baby hats, baby shoes, and anything else I can think of with the remaining felt scraps.

I have a HUGE collection now, though many of the sweaters I have in my stash still have parts that are good for making arm warmers.

I also received a custom order for a pair of hand warmers this weekend, which seemed like an excellent opportunity to use some of the smaller scraps that I have.

So, to start out you will need some felt scraps from a wool sweater. If you need to make them, wash and dry a sweater on high heat a few times.



Trace your hand on a piece of paper to make the pattern, then add seam allowance. I used 1/4 of an inch. Draw a straight line with a 90 degree angle on either side across where your knuckles will be and also where your wrist will be. Draw a curve from the top of the thumb to the bottom. Then cut out your pattern.


Then pin your pattern to your fabric. You will need a total of 4 pieces. if your fabric is doubled just cut the pattern out twice. If it is not- for example I did not have enough of this black sweater to double it- then cut 2 with your pattern face up and then cut 2 with your pattern face down.


It is not necessary to put an applique on your hand warmers, but I think it looks way more awesome :). If you ARE going to put the applique on the easiest time to sew it on is BEFORE you sew up the sides of your hand warmers, but I usually do it after wards because I think that placement of the applique is easier after the hand warmers are sewn. I often wish I had done it BEFORE sewing up the sides when I am working on ARM warmers and my hands are cramping up, but since there is better access into the hand warmers it makes little difference when the applique is sewn on. This applique was made from my own original drawing of a heart, Iron-On transfer paper and recycled poly felt.


Sew up the sides with a regular stitch. Try them on and make sure you like how they fit. I made these smaller because they are really stretchy and they felt better that way. When you are happy with the fit zigzag stitch over your original stitches (make sure that you back stitch at the beginning and end of your seams so that they do not unravel) and cut off the excess fabric.




This is what the custom pair looked like when I was finished. Pretty awesome.

I shipped them out this morning. :)


SOOOO... I am pretty sure I said GIVEAWAY:

I have been meaning to have one of these for a while now, and have actually created my own arsenal of great AcrylicandSteel.etsy.com Items to give away. In Lu of the tutorial just given I decided to make a pair of hand warmers to give away.

one reader will receive these cute blue whale arm warmers . The felt on these is VERY dense making them a little tighter than the other pair I made using the same pattern, but they will stretch as far as you make them. I think a young girl... or even a teenage girl would just love these. I am 26 and I love them!




To enter:

1 entry- Follow my blog
3 entries- Go to AcrylicandSteel.etsy.com and post a link in the comments to your favorite item
10 entries- purchase ANYTHING from my store during the duration of this giveaway or ANYTHING from any of my friends at the christie cottage's buy and sell thread (There is a new one daily today's is http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6377432&page=26), the Booty buy and Sell Thread http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6363199or The Crazy buy and replace thread http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6377598&page=29. (12/14/09-12/28/09)

Please post a comment for each of the above ways to enter and provide your etsy shop url in the comment as well, or some other way to contact you if you win. If you make a purchase from any of these stores please also leave the transaction ID in the post.

A winner will be picked December 28, 2009. I will also Feature the winner's store on my blog, unless the winner does not have an etsy store or requests that I do not feature their store.

TUTORIAL: How to turn a baby shirt in to a dress!

I am finally getting around to typing up this tutorial! I think it is a great one, it is oh so easy AND it will help you get more mileage out of your baby clothes.

As My baby gets older, and bigger it seems lime many of her little onesies and other outfits are not getting too tight, just too short. Making my favorite baby body suits into dresses is a great way to end up with some ADORABLE outfits and save some money!


start by cutting the bottom off of your body suit. If you want more of a baby doll style dress cut it off higher, and if you want a longer torso cut it lower. This is a body suit that I bought from the dollar store and put a computer print out iron-on transfer on. Autumn wore it many times and now it is not long enough.



Find a fabric that you like and determine how long you want the dress to be. add 1 1/2" . 1" seam allowance at the bottom and 1/2" seam allowance at the top. I eyeballed mine, and you can do it that way too. When the fabric is folded in half use the entire width of the fabric (or half-width, technically) cut the fold of the fabric off. Sew up each side of the fabric, those are your side seams. Press the side seams open, and iron and sew your hem (this should take 1" off the bottom of the dress of your skirt.)

***TIP*** if you don't have many options for local fabric shopping and don't want to wait for something to be shipped to you, you are probably going to Jo-Anne's. If this is true, check for coupons, there are usually coupons available online if you do a google search, or you may be able to find them in your Sunday paper.


Next, sew a basting stitch over the top of the skirt of the dress (turn your straight stitch up to 5) and pull one thread to create the sirring for the skirt. If you pull the thread that comes from the spool, not from the bobbin, or the string on the top of your fabric when you are sewing, it will be easier to slide the shirring down the skirt. Either way, pull the same thread until the shirring is adequate or you will break your thread.




match the side seam of your skirt and the top and distribute the shirring evenly.


Use a Zig Zag stitch and a medium stitch width to attach the skirt to the top.


Iron the little dress and voila! You just up cycled that onesie your baby outgrew!

I used the bottom part of the onesie and some extra fabric to make this matching headband. If you make an empire style dress you can also put elastic in the top of the bottom half of the baby body suit to make a matching diaper cover.

I am really happy with the results of this dress, and the possibilities for variations are endless!



We went out to a few places that afternoon and we got SO many compliments. Besides, she is at the age where she grows up, not out, so I think as she gets too tall it will make a cute baby doll top!

Also, this project took hardly any time, which is great. I made it before I replaced my night mare of a sewing machine and the whole thing, including cutting and making the headband took less than an hour.

Hope you enjoy, and have an excuse to make one. You can always make one out of a new onesie and monogram it our use some steam-a-seam to put a cute animal on it. That would be a really fun hand-made baby shower gift!

TUTUtorial! No Sewing required!

As I promised, I will be sharing my tutu making experience. I made a white TUTU for Duke City Derby's good VS evil bout. Our team won, by the way.

So, one of the most important things I have learned in life is that ALMOST everything is easier than it looks. The same is true with tutus.


You will need a few things. Ribbon or string, and Tulle. For ease I purchased rolls of Tulle that were not very wide. They sold it in many different colors at Micheal's in the wedding favor department. If you purchase it by the yard you can cut it so that it is 2"-12" wide. The narrower the strips the more ethereal and whimsical the outcome will be (see the tutu I made for Autumn) I used 12" strips for my tutu.

Measure your waist and add enough to the ribbon to tie the ends. I then folded the ribbon to make sure my tutu was centered and marked the waist measurement so I knew how many "knots" to make.

Decide how long you want the tutu to be and double that. Add about two inches (it will be dissolved in knotting and fluff) cut several strips of tulle that are that long.



I then tied the ribbon taught between two sturdy objects ( a bed and a playpen in my case) because I thought it made it easier.

This is the meat of making a tutu. this knot right here. To make it fold a strip of tulle in half and hold the loop up to the ribbon. Then bring the tails of the tulle around the ribbon and through the loop.



And repeat.


....and repeat

.... and repeat until you have filled the waist measurement. Then untie it from the objects that are holding the ribbon taught and tie it around your waist! Voila! An easy no sew tutu!


And just in time to make that fairy or princess costume for Halloween!



AND I used scraps (I trimmed the bottom of the tutu to make it more even) to make a tutu for Autumn.


If you like to sew you can make a variation where the string that you tie the knots around is just longer than the waist measurement and then sew the ribbon on top for a more finished looking waist.

Also, notice that in Autumns Tutu there are other colors, you can do this by alternating colors of tulle.