Easy DIY Gift: Corn Heating Pads

November 27, 2015September 16, 2016 spcountrygal Craft, DIY, Gift Idea, Snowman, Super Saturday Craft, DIY, Fabric, Gift Idea, Quick and Easy, Re-use, Sewing, Super Saturday

It’s that time of year again! Eeeek! The Holidays! Thanksgiving…Christmas…New Year’s…I love it all! Right now I should be packing for our trip to Utah, but I just have to share what I have been working on (instead of packing!). Making microwavable feed corn heating pads!

Last year I blogged about making rice heating pads using pillow cases. They really are simple to make and we love using them. After being over-heated too many times, however, the burned rice smell can get a bit nauseating, so I decided to try something different: Feed corn.

My friend Patrice told me about feed corn heating “bags” years ago and how they don’t smell like rice does and how they hold the heat longer than rice. I decided to give corn a whirl.

Just so you know, feed corn is dirt cheap. I paid $12 for a 50 lb. bag. For the fabric, I found a really nice heavy full size flat sheet with a plaid pattern that is a dream to sew on. I love plaid because the lines make it easier to cut and sew straight lines. I like to start out with a piece of fabric that is about 25 inches by 14 inches, but really, you can make these any size and shape.

With this size, I add 2 scant cups of corn to each of the outside edges and 2 1/2 cups to the larger center section. Again you can go to my tutorial to see how to make these. Once you get the hang of it, you could probably rival Santa’s elves in gift making!

Oh, another fabric idea: My son had outgrown his Grinch pajama bottoms, so I just cut off the legs, straightened out the seams to form rectangles and made microwavable heating pads out of them, as well.

As a side note, these take a bit longer to heat up than the rice ones do. I would start with 2 1/2 minutes, but I like how it feels after 3 minutes. For heaven’s sakes, don’t overheat them and fry yourselves! Or anyone else!

If you are stumped about what to get for anyone this Holiday season, I guarantee that these microwavable feed corn heating pads will be a hit. Moms, dads, grandparents, teachers, siblings, friends, children of all ages will love them. They are great for aches and pains, for warming cold tooties and pre-warming a bed on a cold winter night. Trust me on this one…these heating pads are a popular commodity in our home.

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2 Minute DIY: From Tank Top to Framed Art

April 6, 2015October 7, 2016 spcountrygal Craft, Decorating, DIY, Home Accessories, Quick Project, Recycling Craft, Home Accessories, Quick and Easy, Re-use, Recycling, Thrift Store

Got an extra 2 minutes? It’s time for some lightning speed DIY!

We have all heard it said that sometimes you’ve got to think outside the box. True in so many ways, including home décor. Case in point, this black tank top with a cool metallic gold American Flag detail:

I added the frame in this pic as a clue to my “out of the box” idea. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Of course you are, you smartie!

This tank was a child’s size that I got at my local thrift store in one of those “as much as you can shove in a bag for $5” sales. I love those. I can shove a LOT in a bag. I have seen similar tank tops in my days of perusing thrift stores and garage sales. My guess is that if you frequent these cheapo shopping venues, you are sure to run across frame-worthy art, as well.

You will notice that my frame in the above pic is black. I just applied a couple of coats of off-white paint and scraped off bits when it was still a bit damp to reveal the black beneath. FYI: I am not going to count that in my 2 minute (see my title) time frame. My blog, my rules! My thought is that you may already have a frame that you love that you don’t need to paint. 2 minutes: Ready? Begin!

Take apart the frame and use the glass (carefully) as your pattern to center your tshirt art. Trace around it with a pencil, pen, whatever (a white colored pencil works great on black), then cut it out. At this point you can just discard the glass, or keep it. Your choice. I tossed mine. Now, just adhere the fabric to the cardboard back of the frame, making sure that it looks centered in the frame. I used spray adhesive, but you can tape the edges down or in all honesty, you can just center it on the cardboard backing,

…then stick it in the frame. Voila!

Makes me feel patriotic, just looking at it! So, what are YOU going to frame as art?

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Tips&Tricks-LP-FEATURED

Thanks, to Brenna from Life After Laundry for picking this project as her favorite for Tips & Tricks week 10! Another big “Thanks!” goes to Nemcsok Farms and Witty Hoots for picking this project/post as a Frugal Family Linky favorite!

Recycled Jeans Satchel

April 2, 2015April 9, 2015 spcountrygal Accessories, Craft, DIY, Girls Camp Crafts, Quick Project, Recycling, Super Saturday Accessories, Craft, DIY, Fabric, Girls Camp Crafts, Quick and Easy, Re-use, Recycling, Super Saturday

At this very moment, do you have any jeans in your home that really should be in the trash? I’m talking holey, stained, terribly out of style jeans that you know will never be worn again? I recently came across some jeans destined for landfill and I decided to check out Pinterest (of course!) to see what I could make with them instead. Although I found some really fun projects, I didn’t see anything that screamed, “Make me!”. Not knowing what I was going to make, I started cutting and this is what I ended up with.

I kind of love them! Think of it as a satchel for putting your phone, lipstick, or whatever you need, in. Do you ever find yourself wearing an outfit that doesn’t have pockets? Maybe a dress, skirt, yoga pants? It’s kind of a pain. Make one of these simple satchels and you won’t need to carry your stuff in your hands or have a full on purse when you really don’t need it. Ready? Set? Go!

First step, cut off the pockets. Easy! Cut only the bottom layer (not the finished pocket edges) and leave a bit of fabric on the top.

Flip it over and hot glue the top edge down so you can have a finished-looking front. Back doesn’t look too bad, either.

For the flowers I did an internet search for “flower template”. Here are the two that I used: 4-petal-heart-template and Flower-Pot-Card-Template. It is best to have at least 3 different sizes, so I had to do some re-sizing in Word. Once you have a paper pattern, cut it, then trace it on your fabric,

then cut out the fabric. Might as well cut out two layers at a time, right? I wanted the denim to looked a bit frayed, so I just scraped the fabric edges with my fingernail to get that effect.

To assemble the flower, grab some thread, a needle and a button and sew the button through all of the layers…or…hot glue each layer and add the button to the top. Then just hot glue the flower to the pocket. Play around with positioning before gluing.

For the strap, cut out the inseam starting up one leg and once you reach the crotch, going down the other leg, then back up and down the other side. Most, if not all jeans have double stitching for the inseam so just cut near the finished edges on each side of the stitching. Easy-peasy!

And this is what you get:

At this point, determine how long you want your strap to be, cut to size, then hot glue on the back like so:

Done! Check it out!

I have been asked to be in charge of crafts for a young women’s camp this summer and this is definitely one that we will make. My goal is to have the girls create items that are useful, not something to shove in the back of a drawer once they get home. I think that they will like them.

What do you think?

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10 Minute Heart-Shaped Sweater Pillow

January 19, 2015September 19, 2016 spcountrygal Craft, DIY, Home Accessories, Pillow, Quick Project, Sewing, Valentine's Day Pillow, Quick Project, Re-use, Sewing, Valentine's Day

I love all of the awesome items made out of sweaters that I have been seeing all over Pinterest lately. So, when I recently found this red, cotton cable knit sweater at a local thrift store for the right price (as many items as you can shove in a bag for $2), I knew that I had to get it, even though it had a huge hole on the neckline:

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, so I figured that this sweater would make a perfect heart shaped pillow. Since it has buttons down the front, I knew that it would be a super quick, super easy project. You will see why, in a minute.

First, I made a pattern. Needing a bigger piece of paper, I just pieced together a couple of pieces of paper. Remember 1st grade heart-cutting lessons? Yep, it was that simple. Next, I pinned the heart pattern on my sweater and cut around it.

After flipping the right sides together, I quickly pinned them and sewed completely around the heart. This is where having buttons comes in handy. No need to leave an opening for stuffing and then hand stitching it closed… just unbutton to stuff and re-button to close it up.

Once I finished sewing, I just unbuttoned it and turned it right side out. For stuffing, I cut open an old pillow insert and transferred handfuls of the fluffy white to my heart and buttoned it up when it was full enough.