I wasn’t able to find a microfiber cloth fabric at the fabric store, but I did happen to find some stretch terry at Jo-Ann Fabrics, that happened to be on sale! It’s thin enough that it’s not so bulky it doesn’t roll up well or feel too thick when on the mat. In fact, it feels perfect. It’s soft, absorbs my sweat, and gives a nice extra bit of cushioning.

This one ended up being just a little bit shorter than my mat, which turns out to be ok, since I can’t stand in any pose with my legs at either extreme edge of the mat. The next ones I make however will be the length of the mat, and I ended up with twice as much fabric as I needed since I initially overbought just in case. I just did a simple folded edge seam for all the sides. I don’t know what the correct terminology is, since my sewing skills are very basic. I initially wanted to just finish the edges with a zigzag or something similar, like the commercial towels available. However, when I did that, the fabric wouldn’t lay flat, and it wasn’t very clean looking. The folded seam doesn’t add too much height or weight to the sides so it came out nicely.

Now for the main feature of the towel, the non slip dots! I have been a huge fan of E-6000 since I started using it for making jewelry, and knew that it would be perfect for this.  I initially bought it to make semi solid non slip bottoms for the sole of slippers I had been making in the winter. Still have to get around to doing that….Anyway, I practiced on a scrap piece of the terry with different types of dots, small, large, straight lines, wavy lines. The best were smallish medium dots. The larger dots ended up spreading out into an even larger flat circle, and tended to bleed through the fabric. The lines also bled through, and made the whole towel more stiff in the end.    
 
 

I took my towel out today to yoga practice and it was perfect! The grippy dots adhere just right to the “non slip” rubbery yoga mat surface that makes for a great sweaty-hands solution to yoga!

It’s been long overdue for a new blog post! So there are some obvious changes and mainly I have a new domain name! Fraftgal.com! I came up with this name when I realized I write not only about crafts, but also food. And I like to keep things frugal when crafting, hence Fraftgal! I’ve been working on a lot of crafts over the holiday break, and VERY soon I will have my Etsy store up and running.

I also hope to post AT LEAST once a week, and will be joining the WordPress Post a Week challenge.

In the meantime until I get things flowing and straightened out here, check out some of the things I’ve made recently:

iPod touch Case made from thrift store pajama fabric

Bought some SpongeBob pajamas at a thrift shop a while ago, and they were too small, so I’ve been using the fabric to make crafts. Here’s an iPod touch case I made for Chrsitmas for my best friend (who got the Touch for Christmas). It’s thinly padded and has a satin liner, elastic opening and a loop-button closure.

OK, so I designed this but my mom sewed it up (Thank you Mom!) But now I’ll have to figure out how to do it on my own, because I have some great fabric to use to make more of these (who wants an iPod case???).

Hand Embroidery

I did the stitching around Spongebob and Patrick

There’s a pocket on the back for earbuds!

Here’s a crochet needle case my mom sewed up for me with the rest of the SpongeBob Pjs and some other leftover fabric I had lying around.

It rolls up nicely like this!

Now here are two things I made ALL by myself:

A nice warm wool beanie for a friend

And some leg warmers for myself with the leftover yarn!

See my previous post on more about this project!

I started out with a shoebox, and a plastic box frame I picked up at Goodwill for 1 or 2 bucks. I put the frame on top of the shoebox and traced around it. I used a craft knife to cut it out. I am really terrible at being precise with the craft knife, so it ended up being a little too large of a hole in some places, and the lines were crooked. Ideally, I would do it again, but this actually turned out pretty well, because I just went crazy with super glue along all sides of the frame on the underside of the lid, and it’s in there pretty securely now.

That is a lot of superglue right there

As you can see here, it doesn't line up at all! But so far the superglue is holding up!

This is a simple flourescent light I picked up at Goodwill for 2 bucks!

Place a sheet of tracing paper on top to diffuse the light

And turn on the light, voila! Simple lightbox!

It’s really great for viewing slides

And for tracing embroidery patterns! Here is my next project. I figured I would make something for myself, since I hardly ever do. One of my favorite Hunter S. Thompson quotes.

It’s from Part 1, Chapter 12 of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

“No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride… and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well…maybe chalk it off to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.”

And here it is all ready to be stitched up, after I traced it with a transfer pen, which rubs off easily if any is still visible after it’s all done.

And by the way, that is the Treefrog font I used to make it.

All in all, this cost about $4, or $14, if you consider the shoes that came in the box. I already had tracing paper, but a pack of tracing paper can’t be much more than a few dollars as well.

Just finished an overdue birthday present…

I traced a map of Kansas onto the fabric, printed out the word Kansas in this font, AdLib BT and traced that as well. Everything else was freehanded.

This was based on one of my favorite souvenirs ever:

The Inspiration. Whoever came up with this magnet has never been to Kansas.

Just as I finished on the plane! The stewardess thought it was cute

First I drew up a little sketch. I googled an image of Spongebob surfing, and of a couch as a guide.

And then I traced it onto tracing paper, with colored pencil.

I used transfer paper to copy the image onto the fabric. However, it was very faint, so I used the drawing as a reference anyway.

I boosted the contrast here so it was visible in the photo. In reality, the blue lines are barely visible.

Then I started stitching away! Here are some close ups

I'm ready! I'm ready!

Some split stitches for the couch

And of course I had to sign it!

More to come…

I got the idea from this amazing site,  Learning To Love You More, that has a bunch of awesome little projects, called “Assignments”. It seems like the site isn’t maintained anymore, but there are still lots of good ideas!

I have been collecting paint samples from Home Depot for craft projects. They are amazing- so many colors, and they are free! And no one asks you questions when you take just about one of every color.

Colorful Freebies

As you can see I was not shy about taking tons of them!

Another freebie, I borrowed these foam letters from my classroom at work (Thanks Lynette! )

I traced the letters on the back of the card, and then used scissors to cut them out! My craft knife was not that good at curves, and although my scissor work isn’t perfect, once it’s up on the wall it will be hard to tell.

I trimmed off about half an inch from the top of the paint samples so they were plain with out the color names. Then glued on the letters once they were cut out! All done!

Well almost…I am still not sure how I would like to display it. I may string them together, or put them together in a frame, or just hang them individually. Once I do, I will post a photo! Try making one yourself to keep yourself inspired, it only takes a few minutes!

Peeled Off

I used some pretty strong alcohol wipes to clean them off after I bought them, so that may have helped the peeling, but seems like they already peel from age, after coming across this fellow crocheter who ran into the same problem. I knew I wanted to make crochet covers for the earpieces, I just needed a pattern!

"Peruvian Print" is the color

Once I found the pattern, I checked my yarn stash, and found this worsted weight yarn and an F hook.

The pattern worked up nice and quickly. Fortunately, I had to get my oil changed yesterday, and my tires patched today, so while waiting for both of those thingsI finished a crochet project in record time for myself!

After finishing the pattern I found, I tried fitting them on my headphones, they were a little small. I added another expanding round by doing 2 Double Crochet in one stitch, and 1 DC in the next. For the next round, I did a Half Double Crochet in each stitch all the way around. Then to make it fit snugly, the last round was a decreasing one, with Single Crochet all the way around, two consecutive stitches and then one skipped.

Here they are all done!

And they fit perfectly!

Now they are so cozy on my ears, and will keep them just a little bit warmer-Winter is coming soon! Maybe I will crochet all the way up the headband….I’ve seen it done before!

Rocking out to some Polyphonic Spree