Clean Your Iron... This Really Works!

     I recently bought a new iron. This will be my second. My first was a wedding gift over 36 yrs ago!! I can here it now......."She must never iron"......"I would hate to see her clothes"...yada yada. Well I did iron......just not a lot,lol.
   Anyway my poor ol iron was looking cruddy. Nothing I tried cleaned it. Then I read to try baking soda and vinegar and iron with a hot iron. I did........Didnt work, and for some odd reason my iron finally bit the dust. Gave me reason to buy a new one.
    I did... Then after a few uses, I accidentally ironed some iron on adhesive. Yep....Im sure you guys have done it too. Anyway I was upset. I tried the vinegar and baking soda again......crazy I know....
   Didnt work. So there it sat with a dull sticky residue on my nice stainless steel.Then today I read someone used a dryer sheet. Weeell I didnt figure it would work so didnt take a before pic. It wasnt blackened, just gummy looking with a little drag when I ironed. So I got a new dryer sheet and a hot iron and started ironing. I couldnt believe it.....IT WORKED!!

Love that shine!

Empty Nest and New Sewing Room

       Well my youngest are soon to be 25, and other than keeping a couple spare bedrooms for when grandchildren visit, I now have a room that I claimed as mine. I had grown out of my old sewing room/closet. This room is so much larger. It is about 10x11 feet. I have everything moved in. I still want to add more shelves  in the closet, and maybe a small peg board or some hooks on the wall above the cutting table.

 This is the  first real pincushion I have ever made for myself. I have another one that is embroidered that I havent finished to my liking yet.

 The bottom is the little 4" clay pot saucers. They can be found in walmart for less than a $1

I thought this little quote about small things was perfect for my little mini dresdan plate.

Dresdan plates are so fun to make. I made a large 20" one and put on a baby quilt once.

I would have loved to put together one of those big cutting table made from book shelves underneath, but I think it would have been way too big for this room.Plus hubby has been busy and not in the building mood,lol. So I opted for this quickie one. It is a 3 foot metal rack from Home Depot, and I added the castor wheels to the bottom. I believe the shelf was under $50. We found the counter top from Lowes. It had been ordered with the rounded edges and then wasnt taken. We got it for around $65. It is  4 ft long. With the wheels I can move it out from the wall, or any where else I want it.

I also had to make me a new sewing machine cover. I held a piece of paper up to the end of the machine and drew around it. Dont forget to add seam allowances . 

I am still not real settled on the colors, so it may change later. The base is drop cloth from home depot with quilted on stiff interfacing for body.

I am trying to get my fabric scraps organized. For right now, I am storing the little $1 bins under my counter. That may change when I get more shelves inside the closet. I am organizing them by color. That works well for me.

I moved my 2 old bookshelves in here on one wall. I like the little mini bolts of fabric.  My soon to be 25 yr old son built me my thread rack about 5 yrs ago.

And here is my new room. So much bigger than the little 6x8 I had. The counters were made by my husband many yrs ago by building a wood shelf and glueing on the counter top stuff. Man, has that stuff gotten expensive now. We just moved the shelves to my new room.

Organizing Your Lace

   Sometime back, I promised some posts on getting my sewing room moved to a now empty room. Kids moving on, don't ya  know. My youngest are almost 25. Well I didn't get started on it as planned and didnt get the larger room I wanted since my summer visiting granddaughter claimed the large room as hers,lol. And we all know how kids get spoiled at grandma's house,lol. So the room I took over is about a 9'x11'.  Surpr
isingly it has worked out fine. A huge improvement over my 7x7 space I had. Anyway, I will post more on the moving in and how I am finally getting my stuff organized on my next post.
    Today, however, I am posting about one of my recent crafting sessions in this quest to get organized. I have been using the plastic shoe boxes that is sold at Walmart for under a dollar to label and organize different supplies. These have been working out great.
    I have been working n making cards or bobbins to wrap my lace and other trims around to store in my plastic shoe box instead of the jumbled mess they are in right now. I have seen several people posting how they cover their cardboard cut-outs with decorative paper. However, I am usually not into paper crafts, but did have about 10 large sample books of wallpaper that I got from Lowes many yrs ago that were discontinued. Got em free..
    The wallpaper is unglued and a little heavier than decorative paper so I didnt have to worry about the glue buckling the paper.Everything slipped smoothly into place. I did ,however, have to do a test print of my paper template about 10 times to get a perfect fit in my shoe box. I am going to offer my template for printing below. So here comes the tutorial so you can make your own.

    Here is how one of the cards turned out. One quick note tho, after making 6, I decided I wanted them taller and a little wider for a better fit in the shoe box. I love the shabby chic/vintage look.

This is one of wallpaper sample book I am using for these. Plus a picture of my paper template and the cardboard piece I cut out.

I layed the cardboard over my selected piece of wallpaper. Cut it out leaving flaps at the bottom and the sides. The top is slightly rounded so I didnt cover that edge. You can certainly cut this straight across and cover it too if you like but I thought the little peek of cardboard showing at the edge.I snipped in at flap sides as indicated in pic, leaving paper intact.

Turn your board over and repeat covering the other side without flaps. Glue paper on cardboard bobbin and cut it out to fit perfectly. Then using ink or like me, use brown craft paint. Told you I wasnt into paper crafts,lol. Using a rag rub on some ink/paint along the edges to antique it. Then allow to dry thoroughly before using.

And here is a pic of the 6 I made. Now to go make a bunch more in the RIGHT size,lol. 

HERE is the link for the template.

PS: I was able to cover these boards completely, even on the curved top edge, simply by cutting out small elongated triangles along the curved edge. Then when you fold this edge over in lays nice and flat. However , I think I still like the look of the corrugated edge of the cardboard showing.