Mini Sewing Kits

I've started making these for gifts and to sell, since I had everything I needed...except scissors! I'm tempted to buy those little manicure sets they have for $1 to take the scissors out of it, since I haven't seen any cheaper than that :D I have a few dozen of these small canning ones from yard sales, and an old quilt I'm lucky to have for crafting. Plus I saved all these tiny little pieces of decorative papers perfect for making the "matchbook" type needle holders. I hope you can see how I made those, since I didn't use a pattern. To hold the needles, I cut a small strip of felt and glued it between 2 strips of decorative paper. To hold the thread, I folded a piece of decorative paper in half and glued it, then snipped it to wind several colors of thread on it. For the matchbook cover I had a piece of decorative paper that looked like stamps, so I cut them out and used a solid color paper behind it to mount it on the cover. I should mention these are card stock type/stiff papers. I used double sticky tape a lot, too, much neater! I threw in some safety pins and buttons, and a strip of iron on hem tape. All they need is scissors :D For the lids, I spray painted them with red oxide primer and left them like that, on others I then painted them another color. I used the flat lid and drew a circle onto a quilt remnant and cut it a little less than 1/2" wider, and glued it to the inside of the ring lid, and used the flat lid to draw a circle on decorative paper to match the needle book. When it dried, I put a small piece of batting on the quilt piece, then glued the flat lid to the ring lid, and glued the paper to the flat lid, then screwed the lid back on til it dried. BE CAREFUL ON THIS STEP!!!! lol I managed to glue the lids onto several of them that I couldn't get off, so I had to soak them in water to get them off, and re-do them:D



These will be great gifts for guys or girls in these colors. I made rust,pink, lavender, green and blue ones. The hardest part is making the matchbook cover! I bought a package of assorted sewing needles for $1.49 at Michael's to use in here, and $2.49 for safety pins, and already had buttons and thread and hem tape.

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I've been getting my Halloween stuff together. I have an old chandelier to paint black and some Mardi Gras beads to paint black to drape from it; an orange plastic table cloth for the window, and a black plastic tablecloth to cut silhouettes from for the window. I'd read somewhere about using those foam swim noodles for scarecrow arms, so Hoss bought me 4 neon green ones, since they're on clearance right now... only .75 each. I want to use 2 of them to make snakes with. I scared the puppies the other day with them! I had an old pair of fishnet pantyhose and was playing around with the swim noodle, figuring out how to make a scary snake, so I slipped one leg of the hose over the noodle...it fits perfectly, by the way! I left it on the dining table, and when Hoss got home he asked me what the heck that was, and I picked it up to show him. Well......all of a sudden all 3 puppies were barking and growling....aren't they smart?? I said that answers the question "are they scary looking?"!!! LOL I have to find all my other stuff, there's a skeleton somewhere I want to paint a little green, and some fake barbed wire. I hope everyone is making their spooky plans!

kudzu