Tissue Holder Tutorial

The gals over at Sew Mama Sew were so sweet to feature my tissue holders from the Handmade Holidays photo pool. Thanks girls!

Tissue holders are great stocking stuffers and a great way to use scraps of your favorite fabrics. I make mine a couple of different ways and I thought I 'd show you how to make a basic model and a variation. They work up quickly and you could add trim, ric rac, buttons...the possibilities are endless.

Basic Model

First you want to create a template. This is hardest step because those squirrely tissue manufacturers all seem to make their travel packs a different size. Mine is 5 1/4 inches by 7 3/4 inches. This fits the dollar store tissues I buy quite snugly but also fit Kleenex brand well.

Next cut out a front, lining and a piece of lightweight fusible interfacing using your template. Then iron the interfacing to the backside of your front fabric.
Place your two pieces right sides together and sew up the short sides using a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance. Trim edges close to stitching.
Turn right side out and press.
Turn lengthwise with the front facing you and fold the bottom up to meet the top. Press.
Unfold then fold the top down and the bottom up to the crease. Like this. Pin. Sew across the short sides using a 1/4 seam allowance, back tacking at the beginning and the end but also in the middle for extra durability.
Pink the sewn edges.
Turn right side out, place your tissues inside and away you go!

Now that you have the basic model down, you can get as creative as you like by adding more fabrics and trim. I like to use two different fabrics for the front and sew a ribbon or ric rac across the seam. This is a great way to use even smaller scraps.

Sew two pieces together that will be at least 5 1/4 inches wide, use your template to cut to 5 1/4 inches. Now, say your piece isn't 7 3/4 inches long, but only 6 3/4 inches long.
Measure your lining fabric and add to the 7 3/4 inch length the extra inch that your front fabric was short, making it 5 1/4 inches by 8 3/4 inches. Cut your interfacing to match your front fabric and iron it onto the wrong side of the front fabric.

With right sides together, sew up one short side. Then match the other short sides up and do the same.
Turn it right side out and manipulate it until you have the same amount of lining showing on both sides. Press.
Turn lengthwise and fold in half like you did for the basic model. Fold to find the midpoint.
Fold top and bottom to meet midpoint. Pin.

Sew across the short sides. Pink sewn edges.

Turn right side out and viola!

New Hobby?

Okay, my holiday plan has been scrapped. Is anyone really surprised? Oh, I'm still making tons of gifts. I just happened to start something new, and now everyone may be getting...jewelry.

I found a tutorial in Craft magazine about rolling beads from scrap paper and after a rocky start, began making bracelets. Initially I was rolling the beads on wooden skewers and using tacky glue which only made the whole process lenghty and sticky and causing me to think I would rather have a bracelet made just from safety pins. I tried again using a glue stick and before long was in bead euphoria.

Apparently, Victorian babes rolled these beads and made whole curtains from them. You go, girls. A bracelet is the extent of my patience with stringing anything. My beads are fairly primitive, made from magazine pages and sealed with clear nail polish, but I have since learned that they can be much more sophisticated.

Getting into the whole jewelry thing, I started thinking about what else I had around that I could use for bracelets and came up with this.




I bought a couple of Scrabble games at yard sales last summer and had a jar full of tiles sitting on a shelf just because I liked the way they looked. Using a tiny drill bit and a template so that the holes match up, I drilled through from each side and then strung them on elastic cord. Viola!




Scrabble bracelets rock! The possibilities are endless. You can make one for everyone you know and love.