Ruby red and mouth-watering sweet, strawberry jam is a summertime treat! Slather it on warm, buttery toast first thing in the morning or pair it with your favorite peanut butter for a special PB&J sandwich lunch. You can even make the berry season last throughout the winter by preserving some of this yummy homemade jam. These little jars of deliciousness would make great gifts or party favors and imagine everyone’s delight when they find out you made them yourself. Let’s get jammin’.
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When the time comes to venture out and stock up on essential groceries, there are a few things you can do to keep yourself safe. In addition to social distancing, wearing a mask and having a list to reduce your time in the store, attach a washable handle cover to give yourself one more line of defense. Keep it in a plastic zipper bag until you’re ready to use it. After sanitizing the handle with a disinfecting wipe, attach the cover. When you’re finished shopping, just fold the cover up and put it back in the bag. Throw it in the wash when you get home and your handle cover will be all ready for the next time you need to head to the store.
All you need is a couple of fabric pieces and some velcro.
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Spring has arrived! Trees are budding, birds are singing and asparagus is popping up all over. Time to pick up some fresh, local asparagus and get your pickling pants on.
Keep these handy jars of deliciousness in your cupboard for quick appetizers. Wrap up a spear in some ham or just simply place them on a relish tray along side some fresh vegetables. Pickled asparagus can also be warmed and served as a side dish with sausage, pork chops or roasted game. And let’s not forget to add a couple of tall, pickled asparagus spears to your favorite refreshing adult beverages this summer.
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Made from an on-trend fabric and a few sewing steps, including a feature that attaches serving spoons to the top, this carrier will turn heads as soon as your mom walks through the door.
Your mom’s salad bowls deserve so much more than plastic wrap. They deserve a cheerful, washable fabric bowl cover to keep those bugs out of her salads.
Summer means backyard BBQs, fun in the sun, and beach parties, but your mom doesn’t want to slap pesky insects when she ventures into the great outdoors. She can wave bye-bye to bugs and look great doing it when you make her some of these fun insect repellent bracelets.
You can put these colorful books all around your mom’s house so she can record her thoughts, generate unique artwork, make lists or even document her travels. She never knows when a bright idea is going to hit her and she needs to make a note of it.
Your mom will look forward to her lunch break with a colorful, insulated lunch bag that you made for her. She’ll get to relax, visit with friends and recharge with great food: it’s exactly what she needs in the middle of the day.
Soup Bowl Hot Pads
I love the idea of this Soup Bowl Hot Pad. Use it for hot bowls of soup, or even cold bowls of ice cream. My friend Barb suggested using them to put between dishes in the camper to keep everything safe while traveling. BRILLIANT!
If you’re looking for a great gift to make for your mom or if you want to make one for yourself, you can make this in a few hours and in any color combination you’d like. All you need is some cotton clothesline and thread.
Combine your love of sewing and your mom’s need to be organized by creating these fun fabric bins. Make one for her silverware, surprise her with a fabric gift box, or organize her drawers.
Your mom could just store her pins in the plain plastic container they come in, but why not give one of her hardest working sewing tools the presentation they deserve with a bright, handmade pin cushion?
Since celebrating together with my friends and family isn’t an option this year, I put together a fun basket tutorial for you instead. Hope it comes in handy when planning out your days in quarantine.
Baskets are great for storing, organizing or just to dress up an empty area of your home. They can be used as a versatile way to decorate your living space and when you make them yourself, you can choose the size, color and design. Fun for the whole family, this technique is an uncomplicated way to get introduced to the art of basket weaving. Just print off the template, grab a few skeins of yarn and before you know it, you just might have a new favorite hobby.
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Whether your sleeves are too tight or you’re just trying to create a statement with some billowy new sleeves, adding an insert is an adjustment that even a beginner can do.
You can choose your level of drama by varying the width of the insert. Keep the bottom of the insert around 6-inches for a subtle increase or amp it up to 10 or more inches for an exaggerated statement.
Whatever you choose to do, you can update a few pieces of your wardrobe in an afternoon with this fun and uncomplicated fix.
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When you need a helping hand, a listening ear or a good laugh, our besties will always be there to help us through the good times and the hard times. Especially those friends who have been by your side since childhood, sharing memories like summer bike rides, sleepovers in the back yard, and making friendship bracelets.
If these fun bangles were a part of your childhood, now could be the perfect time to teach this simple weaving technique to the young people you love. It’s therapeutic, relaxing and fun.
Grab a little cardboard, some colorful yarn, find a comfy spot and get to work on a few bracelets for yourself or make a few to send to those sidekicks your children might be missing right now.
Here’s something you can create with the rest of the jacket:
When things go back to normal and you’re on vacation, shopping at the store, strolling through the park or enjoying an afternoon at the zoo, a cross bodybag will be a must have item. They are perfect for carrying the essentials and keeping your hands free at the same time. You can even make your own from an old thrift store suede jacket or shirt to put your own personal touch on a bag that just might become a new favorite.
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Happy Sewing!
Beth
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For many of us, our normal days have been temporarily halted.
It would be so interesting, for the sake of history, if we kept journals of what life is like now and what we learn through these unprecedented times. Each of our individual perspectives are important when recording our experiences.
Keeping a journal is also a wonderful way to clear your mind or help you to destress. Writing each day can also be a great tool for self-improvement or just a way to keep track of important events. Even though we can’t travel right now, you could make one to document your future travel adventures.
To source the suede for this project, I used an unwanted suede jacket that had been hanging around the thrift store for awhile.
(I got some comments on Facebook about destroying a perfectly good jacket for this but let me assure you, I only buy the unwanted, on-sale items. We all know what happens to the unsold thrift store clothing… on to the landfill they go. Plus, I have another project for you that uses the rest of this jacket.)
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We are all in this together.
Beth
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The Renegade Seamstress 