Where’s the Beef?

According to the meat market employees, we’re “waiting for our truck to come in.” Yeah, aren’t we all, buddy? With more snow falling today, I’m not feeling too hopeful. Unfortunately, empty shelves aren’t an unusual sight in our small-town Wal-mart. But this. This has potential for becoming a real situation. Good thing it’s gonna warm up to 22º today! If the roads don’t clear from here to civilization, we may end up eating Tuna Fish and Spaghetti O’s next week.

I jest, because I am prepared. But the hospital has gone four days without a truck. You can only get creative for so long. Let’s be thankful this storm is on its way out!

Global Warming Wood Carrier Sewing Pattern

For the first time in several years, we are using our fireplace for its intended purpose. I recently took out the pretty little candle display and turned it into a real wood-burning fireplace. We mostly did this to prepare for a possible power outage (that we thankfully did not get) with this week’s blizzard. But we were also ready to once again enjoy the warmth and atmosphere of a crackling wood fire. We have enjoyed it so much that I have considered moving my sewing machine into the living room. But that’s not quite so easy as grabbing the MacBook and plopping down in the rocker.

It has been so long since we burned real firewood, that I don’t have all the necessary arrangements for storing and carrying such elements. I quickly realized I would be vacuuming every single day if I didn’t do something about it. Bill asked me if I could whip out a carrier for the wood out of some black duck cloth and using an old car seat strap for the handle. While I was proud of his resourcefulness (he can do some serious business with a sewing machine), I did not feel inclined to sew anything with black canvas and seatbelts. So I set out on my journey to find a tutorial online for making a firewood carrier.

I found a great little tutorial from Noel Home, but read in the comments that it needed to contain something to catch the crumbs. I thought the dowel rods were a great idea, and if I had some on hand, I probably would have opted for that approach. But since I didn’t, I designed one with just some simple handles and a crumb catcher. I happened to have just purchased some adorable fabric with no project in mind, so I paired it with some burlap I have waiting to be fashioned into a valance for my kitchen.

I’m still trying to figure out the best way to share a tutorial/pattern on my blog without having to turn it into a pdf, and to make it as quick and painless as possible. I’ve opted for a “gallery” for this one, and the “captions” are the instructions. The pictures are only small generated thumbnails, and if you click them, you will get the whole image.

So here it is…the tutorial.

Global Warming Wood Carrier

Material

1 1/3 yards Burlap or indoor/outdoor fabric
1/2 yard coordinating fabric

Cutting Measurements

2 40″ x 22.5″ pieces of main fabric
2 4″ x 22.5″ pieces of coordinating fabric
2 15″ x 2.5″ strips of each fabric, cut with the grain
2 crumb catcher pieces of each fabric (download printable crumb catcher template here)

Notions and Tools I Use

Coordinating Thread, Scissors, Rotary Cutter and Mat, Transparent Ruler, Iron and Ironing Board, Seam-ripper, Straight Pins, Tape Measure, Fabric marking pen

Notes

This tutorial assumes a 1/2″ seam allowance, unless otherwise specified. All seams should be back-stitched at beginning and end, and corners and curves should be cut. While the carrier would look best top-stitched around the crumb catcher as well, I opted to leave this step out of my project, and therefore did not include it in these instructions.

Instructions

: 1. Cut out your fabric.

: 2. Iron 1/4″ seam on one long side of each accent band.

: 3. Fold a 1/2″ seam down each long side of each handle piece and iron. If you are using burlap, the thickness of the fabric may require a slight adjustment in the size of your folds in order to make the handle pieces align evenly.

: 4. Pin accent bands on ends of outer main section with raw edges flush and folded edge toward center of main section.

: 5. Baste raw edges of accent band to main section, then sew folded edge to main section with a top stitch, or a stitch approximately 1/8″ from the edge of the band.

: 6. For each handle, place wrong sides together and edge stitch down each long side. Then pin handles on outer main section, pointing toward center of fabric, with raw edges flush with raw edges of main section. The outer edge of each handle should be 7 1/2″ from the outer edge of the main section.

: 7. Pin crumb catchers to center of each side of the main sections. If you are using an accent fabric for the outer section, be sure you are pinning it to the outer main section.

: 8. Pull the edges of the main section up and pin all the way up to the top of the crumb catcher and stop.

: 9. Sew around the crumb catcher with a 1/2″ seam allowance, being sure to backstitch.

: Wrong side of outer main section

: Both main sections sewn to crumb catchers

: 10. Iron crumb catcher seams and clip around curves.

: 11. Place inner main section into outer main section, right sides together, and carefully pin around the perimeter. Sew around the perimeter, leaving a several-inch opening to turn right side out. Reinforce handles by backstitching across them.

: 12. Trim corners, turn right side out, and push inner main section down into outer main section. Push your corners out nicely and iron edges. Then stitch around the entire perimeter 1/8″ from edge. If you are using burlap or another thick fabric, set your stitch a little longer than usual, like at a medium setting. Reinforce handles again by backstitching across them.

: Firewood Carrier

Reversible Crayon Pouch Tutorial

Ever need a quick and easy hand-made gift? This one is perfect for a child who loves to color. Having two crayon fanatics in my household, I have made countless bags and pouches for crayons, always looking for the perfect take-along crayon organizer. I’ve made crayon pouches out of placemats (and even sold one), I’ve made crayon pouches that hook around seatbelts (big-time flop), and I’ve made cinch-able bags to just plain stash a handful of crayons in to throw in my purse. And do you know what? That’s the best one of them all!

We always stock up on crayons at Target during the Back-to-School madness. This year we bought a gazillion boxes for 20 cents each. Pair that with a dollar store coloring book and a handmade crayon pouch, and you have less than $2 in a gift with at least a $10 value. So this Christmas I have perfected my crayon pouch to actually hold a box of 24 crayons, box included, and I’ve made it reversible to give it even more of a flair. I’ve made three of them for some children in our extended family, and Hunter even ran the gas pedal for one of them. She loves to sew!

So without further ado, here is the tutorial.

Reversible Crayon Pouch