In the Kitchen with Tsuru | Hanging Tray Holder + Tutorial

Here’s something nifty. This project was inspired by an item hanging in Michelle’s mom’s house. We’ve been meaning to make one for this blog, and Tsuru really lent itself to the idea. Click for the directions to make the Hanging Tray Tutorial.

This piece can also be used to hold cook books and other rather flat items. We hope you enjoy this project and if you make one of your own, we’d love to see!

Note: Image shown is slightly different from project directions.

In the Kitchen with Tsuru | Runner

We are kicking off a new blog series highlighting Tsuru by Rashida Coleman-Hale. We borrowed (heavily!) from Rashida’s own books I Love Patchwork and Zakka StyleIn the Kitchen with Tsuru will feature a variety of kitchen-y ideas and later on this week, we’ll have some new tutorials to share with you.

Today we have a pretty runner in Tsuru and linen adapted from the Lap Quilt project in Rashida’s I Love Patchwork. The dappled arrangement of plus signs in various tones makes an eye-catching accent on a buffet, cabinet and would feel equally at home on the kitchen table (or even a wall!)

Simple Table Runner Tutorial

Time to update the credenza with something more vibrant. This project took about 1/2hr start to finish. Little time, big impact!
GeoCentric in ZigZag | Coral and as a back, Earth Solid from Nursery Basics.
Measure your table top. I subtracted 2″ from both lengths so that the wood of the table top would evenly frame the piece when finished. This table top was 46″ x 18″ – so, we measured our fabric to be 44″ x 16″.
Pin right sides together (lining up the edges) Stitch around perimeter using a 1/2″ seam allowance.

 

Stitch all around leaving a 3-4″ opening in order to turn inside out.

 

Clip the corners.

 

Turn inside out. Using a pointy object (like a bone folder) push out the corners to make them neat. Crease the edges and press, making sure to that the base fabric does not peek past the edge of the top fabric. Pin to hold in place.

 

Topstitch 1/4″ from edge all around, including the area that was open- this will seal it closed. Press well. Finished!

 

Tutorial | Oval Bathmat

Oval Bathmat

A perfect addition to your shower area.

Oval Bathmat Project
To make this 20″ x 30″ oval bathmat, you’ll need:
2/3 yd of fabric (best to pre-wash and dry to shrink)
1 old terry towel (one that coordinates well would be best as it can peek thru from below) or 2/3 yd of terry cloth
2 1/2 yds of jumbo ric rac
tape
marker
*this .pdf template will print on a single sheet of 11×17 tabloid paper. If you cannot print that size, you can print it in sections and piece it together. Essentially, the piece is a 1/4 slice of a 20″ circle (so it is only 10″ wide) plus, the addition of a 5″ piece to create width of mat.
1. Make your pattern piece. Print 2 of your pattern piece. Cut along the long edge of a single piece and then align it to the dotted line of another. Tape in place. Trim the completed pattern piece on the line.
2. Cut your fabric. Place pattern piece on fold as directed. Pin and cut. Press.
3. Cut your terry. Lay the fabric over a freshly pressed terry. With a marker, outline the fabric with the addition of anywhere to 1/4″ or 1/2″ extra. It is not important to be too accurate here, but you definitely want the terry piece a little larger than the fabric piece.
*As you might notice, we cut it very close here and when it came time to sandwich our pieces together we were wishing we had a little more wiggle room.
4. Finish the edge of the terry. If you have a serger it will be much easier, but it can still be done with a regular machine. This will save lots of little loopy fray fragments from getting all over your project.
4a: Serger: trim the terry leaving up to 1″ excess around. Your serger will trim as you go. Serge right on the line you drew allowing your machine to trim the excess.
4b: Sewing machine: trim on the line you drew. Using a zig zag stitch on the widest settings edge the entire terry piece.
Press when finished.
5. Attach the ric rac to the top fabric.
5a. Ric rac can pucker your fabric edges, so when you’re done, expect it to be a little bumpy along the edge. Pin the ric rac in a place so that when you sew your 1/4″ seam, it will be in the position you want it. For me if left about 1/8″ at minimum exposed.
5b. Make sure to tuck under edges of ric rac and make it tidy at the ends. Be sure to place this seam in a rather inconspicuous area- I made it happen about 1″ into the straight edge of the mat- this way it was not on the curve, nor was it in the center of the mat which could be distracting.
5c. After you pin, baste 1/8″ from edge of fabric. Press to flatten ric rac, but be careful if it is polyester, as the iron might make the puckering worse. You just want to give it a decent pressing to smooth it out a bit.
6. Pin the pieces together. Layer the top fabric to the terry, right sides facing. Make sure your front fabric is centered within the terry oval. Pin in the center of the oval. From there, smooth out the fabric to the top- pin. Smooth to the bottom – pin. Smooth to the left- pin (this curved edge is where the ric rac curls up the most, so be sure to flatten it down well and secure with a pin. Do the same to right side. Now, while continuing to smooth, keep pinning all around the circumference of the oval, be sure to keep the fabric edges from curling by pinning well. This should do the trick as the terry will pull it back into place once pinned.
7. Sew the mat pieces. Sew 1/4″ from the FABRIC edge all along the circumference leaving a 6-8″ section open for turning inside out. It is IMPERATIVE you do this along the straight edge. It makes sense to do it in the same location as your ric rac seam as well.
8. Turn inside out. Turn the mat inside out and smooth out the edges. You will need to fuss a bit at this point. Working from the top of the mat, use your fingers to push the seam flat along the ric rac and fabric, while simultaneously, pushing the terry under the mat so you can’t see it. Pin well as you go along and if you seen the terry peeking through, just go back and roll it under some more.
9. Secure the opening. In the area where the opening is, you’ll note that the ric rac is not stitched as deep as where it’s been sewn into the terry. So, using your fingers, press the fabric into the ric rac at the same distance to make the seam look continuous from the front. Give a little press with the iron to keep the crease.
9a. Roll the terry under and inside the mat in much the same way, so that it look continuous from the back. Pin well.
10. Topstitch. Topstitch about 3/4″ from the seam where the fabric meets the ric rac. It is easiest to topstitch here first as the terry creates a bit of thickness. Once you go all the way around the circumference, give it a press.
10a. Next, topstitch a scant 1/16″ from the seam where the fabric meets the ric rac – this will give it a nice clean flatness as well as seal up the opening. Press.
Enjoy!!

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Christmas Tree Skirt

Nature Walk tree skirt in action

This is a variation on a great tutorial on Sew 4 Home– only we wanted to be able to see all 8 patterns in this collection. Click here for the .pdf pattern piece. There is a full size for people who can print out large format 13×19 pages, or a version for letter-sized 8.5 x 11 which will require piecing and taping. Once you’ve sewn together the pieces (inner panel to outer panel) and have your slices of the pie ready to sew together, go back to this tutorial to finish through.

Nature Walk tree skirt

Couple of things to note: Our skirt measures 48″ wide. We used 3 packages of store-bought bias tape (3yds ea). Our skirt is backed with flannel which gives it some stability and density. There is also a layer of thin batting between the layers. It is stitched as noted on the tutorial, plus we stitched in the ditch of the horizontal seams.

A few other directions:
1. Here’s an image of what the letter-sized format pattern pieces should look like when pieced together- the outer print panel is shown above, the inner print panel below).
2. To create a full panel, sew the outer panel to inner panel (right sides together) matching notches. Press seam flat. Then continue to the tutorial.

Now, to decorate that tree! Hope your holidays has its share of crafty goodness!

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