Thursday, February 18, 2016

Craft Thursdays: Mystery Themed Utensil Holder




Kerry Hammond is here to show us how to sew a silverware holder for your next thrilling party, book club or murder mystery dinner.

This craft isn’t very difficult, assuming you can work a sewing machine. Each one takes a small amount of fabric, and you can make as many as you need for your next event. I chose fingerprint fabric because I had some lying around from a previous craft.


Materials

  • Sewing Machine
  • Fun Mystery Themed Fabric
  • Felt
  • Scissors
  • Pins
  • Thread


Step 1: Cut Fabric
You will need to cut four pieces of fabric, two backs and two fronts. Since these are rectangle in shape, I used a business sized envelope as a template for the larger back, and cut it about ½ inch bigger on each side for the seam. Then, for the smaller front, I cut the same size as the backs, but about 2 inches shorter. Iron the fabric flat.


Step 2: Sew Backs and Fronts Together
Sew your two large rectangles together, good side of fabric facing good side of fabric. Sew around the whole rectangle, but leave about an inch unsewn, this is where you will pull it right side out. Do the same for the smaller, front pieces.

Step 3: Turn All Four Pieces Right Side Out
Using the inch you left open, push the fabric through each hole so that it’s right side out. You can use a pair of scissors to poke the corners out, but be careful not to push too hard. Before you turn it right side out, you can cut the corners off, this makes the corners sharper because there is less fabric to bunch up. Iron each flat.


Step 4: Cut Out Your Felt
I printed some outlines of crime related things on the internet and used them as my felt templates. I used four different images, but you can also make a matching set if you’d like. Cut the template out of your paper and pin it to the felt. Then cut around the template in the felt and remove the pins and paper template. I used felt that had a sticky back, and I would really recommend this, you’ll see why in the next step.


Step 5: Sew Felt to Front Piece of Fabric
Here’s where the sticky felt comes in handy. Peel the back off of your cutout and stick it to the smaller front piece of your utensil holder. Be careful to center it because if you put it too close to an edge, your seam will cover it up. If you don’t use sticky felt, you’ll have to pin the shapes to the fabric, and this is hard to do without having the pins stick out where you need to sew, and the felt will shift as you sew. Using the same color thread as your felt, sew along the entire edge of your cutout.


Step 6: Sew Front to Back.
With the felt image face down (you can see the outline of my gun in the picture above) sew the front to the back along all edges of the front except the top. This step will seal up the inch holes you left in each (that you needed to turn the fabric right side out). 



Step 7: Turn Right Side Out
Turn finished piece right side out so that your felt cutout is in front. There are a lot of layers here, and it may help to cut the inside excess fabric from the corners and edges before you turn it. Don’t get too close to the seam, though. Again, you can use your scissors to push the corners out. Iron flat, but NOT on the side with the felt. Felt can burn, so put it felt side down and iron flat.

Fill with silverware, and start scheduling your next party.


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