Personalizing Lunch Boxes

 I don't sew as quickly as I would like to. So if someone needs a lunch box immediately, I won't be able to sew it in time. I bought a lunch box and then I personalized it for the recipient. 

It was difficult to sew through some parts of the outer material. I didn't cover all of the lunch box because cutting out the odd pieces would have been awkward for me. 

In the future, I may use this idea for personalizing other purchased items that I didn't have time to sew from scratch. 

My First Mug Rug

Here is my first mug rug. It will be a holiday gift for one of my husband's friends. 

I am beginning to lose my interest in novelty fabrics. The only creative part that I did for this mug rug was to add the long white stripe and then add the block of stripes between the helmet and the C on the left side. I really did not know what to do with the fabric as it was rather busy and I didn't want to minimize the Chicago Bears print. 

Doggy Bandannas

 Here is Jedi in his Star Wars bandanna.

 I measured the dog collars and subtracted 4 inches (for tags and clips) so that the bandanna would sit nicely on the collar. That measurement was 10 inches.  

I cut a 12 inch square of fabric, pressed, and sewed for finished edges. 

 Then I centered the ruler and made marks for the 10 inch width. That meant 5 inches from the center crease, pressed with iron. 

 Then I folded the bandanna over on my marks, sewed in place,and trimmed away the excess fabric. The upper right corner shows the folded corner sewn in place. The lower left corner shows the excess fabric trimmed away. 

 Then I folded the fabric in half and pressed. 

 Our dogs' collars are about an inch thick. So the sleeve of the bandanna needed to be wide enough to accommodate the collar.  

 I sewed a line to create the sleeve at 1 1/2 inches.

 I really don't know if Padawan understands what a picture is, but whenever I get my camera he feels the need to pose in his own way. So he had to have his picture taken with his biscuit before he would sit nicely for me to take a photo of his bandanna. 

 Here is Padawan's bandanna. He is cooperating now since I took the previous photo.

 Here is Jedi's bandanna, again.