7 Layer Studio

His, Hers, and Theirs

Remember the office space that we created for Steve and myself?  Below you'll see a picture of what this wall was like before Christmas...

Well, we realized that our office was the hub of family activity more than any other room...which means that our kids were always begging for our computers and bringing all their STUFF into our office.   Which, of course, means big messes everywhere and not enough storage or desk space. 

So we bid adeiu to the reading chair and the bookshelf (the ottoman got a facelift and so did the dark bookcase) and bought a nice long, skinny table from IKEA.  I considered making the table too, but with my mammoth list of other things to make/change/remodel I decided to go with the store bought one....besides, it was on sale!  Then I got to work designing and building a custom hutch with custom boxes to go in it.

Presto change-O!  We now have a family office/creative center with all the crayons, markers, yarn, playdoh, foamy shapes, paper, glue, etc tucked away in pretty boxes and the kids have their OWN table to do crafts on so they'll (hopefully, crossing my fingers on this one) leave me to my own messes on my own desk.

I actually remembered to take plenty of "during construction" photos on this one, so here goes!

I used a big sheet of cabinet grade plywood for the back, then cut 12" wide pine boards to the proper dimensions.  Steve helped me glue and nail (I super-duper heart pneumatic nail guns!  Can't live without 'em) the 2 sides of shelving together that you see in the pic above.  Not exactly a one-person job! 

I had drawn out all the lines where the shelves were to go beforehand, and during construction I used these awesome spring clamps to help hold the shelves in place during the glue+nail process.  Because, as much as I would sometimes like to be, I'm not an octopus.

I made sure I drew lines on the BACK of the hutch that were exactly the same as the lines on the front of the hutch.  This made it possible to send the nails through the back and into the shelves in a much more precise manner...although we still managed to miss occasionally - but much less than we would have otherwise!  Blame it on the knots in the wood - they can be so hard that the nails would rather deflect than go through them.  Or user error.  Either way.  :-)

Two of the three shelves in the middle section were in line with shelves on the other sides, so nailing into them from the opposite side wasn't possible.  I attached cleats made of quarter round to those places, and the shelves rested on the cleats.

Then it was time for the trim, which I glued and nailed in place.

After filling the nail holes, sanding, and using painter's caulk in all the seams, it was ready to paint!  It took far too long to paint that thing, and I resolved to paint the pieces first next time.  I was lucky that my good friend Christine came down from DC area to visit me, because she helped me finish painting this hutch AND prepainted the pieces to the unit I built in the laundry room!  (More on that later)  See what happens when I get visitors?  I put them to work!  Actually Christine is a kindred spirit and likes doing stuff like this, so I didn't have to feel too badly.  We got to go to the beach too, and the sand dunes - good times, good times.

I made the large boxes out of cabinet grade plywood, because that's what I had on hand and I actually like seeing the lines of ply on the box edges.  I painted these with 1 coat of white paint and then sanded back through so the ply edges were partially visible and only a thin coat of paint remained on the box sides, with the wood grain peeking through here and there.  I knocked all the sharp edges and corners off with a hand-held sander prior to painting, then went back over it with the sander after painting as well.  I then coated everything with a thin layer of furniture wax and they are smooth as a baby's bum! I also glued sheets of felt to the bottom of the boxes to minimize friction and potential damage to the shelving.

These 2 little guys were made the same way, but I used thin pieces of poplar instead of the thick, heavy plywood since they were so small.  The shiny boxes with lids were ones I found on clearance at Lowes right after New Year's.

We screwed the hutch to the studs in the wall in several places, so it's actually not resting on the table at all.  That baby was so heavy we didn't want to stress the table, and this way we know that, no matter how crazy our little monkies get, the hutch won't tip over on them. 

Ah, finally...one little corner of my world where there really is a place for everything and everything is in its place.  Hmmm....how long do you think it will last?

 

PILLOW PACKS for Kids on the Go

Anybody out there traveling with kids for Thanksgiving or Christmas? 

Well, have I got the ideal pattern for you!  Actually, it's for your kids...

It's a soft and comfy pillow on one side,

and a handy storage case on the other side with room for a few books and a separate pocket for markers, pencils, and/or other small treasures.

The pattern includes 2 different closure options for the pockets.

The Pillow Packs are 13" square so they're not too bulky for the airplane or a crowded car, and the pillow form can easily be slipped out whenever you need to wash the case.  The ribbon strap is designed to slip over a child's shoulder or adult's forearm with ease.  It's super easy to sew, and very "fat quarter friendly" (meaning you can make the whole thing with 4 fabrics measuring 18" x 22" = fat quarters). 

So where can you buy this handy new downloadable pattern?

Yes, you guessed it!  Right on over at the H.O.P.E. shop site for the very reasonable price of $5.  And all of your money will go directly to the orphans of Bulgaria through One Heart Bulgaria.  So please click on over to the H.O.P.E. shop and download your pattern today! 

Moms and Grandmas, you know this would be a perfect thing to make for your kids/grandkids!  Thanks in advance for your support of the orphans!

 

My Mega Giveaway + Quilt Raffle for orphans

Remember the Create H.O.P.E. Designs website dedicated to raising money for orphans?  Well, this week I'm very happy to be the featured designer! I'm giving away LOTS of things to promote awareness of the H.O.P.E. site and to raise money for One Heart Bulgaria through the raffle of my quilt you see pictured here.

Here's how it works:  For a chance to win my quilt, click on the H.O.P.E. shop link and you'll get 5 entries for every downloadable pattern of mine you buy.  Right now there are only 2 of my patterns available (my Huggable Slug and Hazel Skirt), but I hope to get at least 1 quilt pattern up before the end of the raffle. 

You'll get 3 entries per pattern for buying any other pattern available in their shop.

AND, if you make a drawstring bag for my Sewing For Orphans project (see sidebar), you'll get 5 entries per bag!   More details are available on the H.O.P.E site, please check it out!

The quilt raffle is a fundraiser, so even if you don't sew but would like a chance to win the quilt, please just buy a downloadable pattern (or more than one!) and you'll be entered.  You can choose to print out the pattern or not...perhaps there's someone else in your life who could use it if you don't want it, or save paper and don't print it out at all.  The important thing is that we raise lots of money for the orphans!  And please remember, nobody earns any money from these patterns - 100% goes to the orphans.

We're hoping to raise enough money to fund the sewing education program for the teenage orphan girls, so they can learn a useful life skill to earn a living after aging out of the orphanage instead of turning to prostitution, drugs, and gangs.  The girls in the sewing program provide bedding, curtains, bags, and fabric toys for other orphanages as well, so it really is an extremely beneficial endeavor all the way around. 

We're also hoping to help fund a Grandmother position for an orphanage with infants and young children, so these beautiful babies can experience the loving hugs and interactions with an "adopted" grandmother instead of being warehoused in jail-like conditions with almost no adult interaction for the first several years of life.

In addition to the quilt raffle, I'm giving away:

The red bag from my Infinity Tote pattern;

THREE different sets of 3 of my hard-copy patterns (your choice which of the 7 patterns you prefer...see my sidebar for all of them);

TWO YARDS of my fabric, mix-n-match or all one fabric, your choice of color and design(s) ... with 1/3 yard minimum cuts so the maximum different prints you would get would be six...does that make sense?  You can click on the Garden Club button in my sidebar to see all of my fabric.

PLUS they're giving away a $50 gift card to The Fat Quarter Shop!

Please click on the H.O.P.E. site to learn all the details about how to enter the giveaways and the raffle - it's all handled over there, I'm just telling you about it.

So, if you haven't already, get clicking and see how you can enter!  We're trying to get the word out to as many people as possible, so Tweet, FB, and whatever else you all do with your smart phones (I wonder if I'll ever get one of those?) as much as you can!

Thousands of orphans are counting on you.  :-)

 

Scrap-Busting Strip-Pieced Pillow Tutorial

I'm not sure what I had more fun doing....making the Crazy Triangle Quilt (you can peek at it here, but I'm still working on the pattern) or making use of all the leftover strips of fabric afterwards!

They're beautiful even just sitting in the trash can...but I didn't actually throw very many of my awesome Halloween fabric scraps away.

I used the tiny scraps to cover buttons for different pillows....

 

and I promise I'll post tutorials for these cuties soon.

 

For this one I sewed long strips together and then cut the strips into triangles, which I pieced together into a whats-its-called-agon.  Not a pentagon, not an octagon, but a hexagon...and yes, I had to look that up to make sure.  :-) 

Again, a future tutorial-to-be.

In case you hadn't guessed, I have had a LOT of fun playing with these strip scraps!

But I'm getting way ahead of myself....

 

Time to start the instructions for the pillow in above photo.

Gather your strip scraps and organize them according to width.  I used strips which were 2" and 1.5" wide.  The width can vary quite a bit, this is just what I had on hand. If you have super long strips, cut them into rectangles varying from 2" to 10".

As shown in photo above, start pairing up the strips which are the same width and run them through your machine, one pair after the other, without stopping to cut the threads in between.  Use a 1/4" seam throughout this project.  Try to pair contrasting fabrics for best results.

Clip the paired strips apart and repeat process of pairing the new groupings together, repeating until you have ended up with one big, giant strip.  Press seams to one side.

Repeat process with other strip widths.

Decide how big you need your pillow to be, and cut all the big long strips into shorter sections that are that measurement + 1/2" (for seam allowances).

(I apologize for a lack of step-by-step photos for this, by the way...I really thought I had taken more pictures along the way but apparently not.)

Arrange the strips however you would like, paying attention to the most dominant fabrics and making sure that they are spaced the way you would like.  Stitch the strips together until you have enough to create the dimension you're aiming for, + 1/2" for seam allowances.  In this case, I made a square.

If you would like a flanged border around the pillow as I have done, sew 2 strips on either side, press toward outside and trim even with pieced square.  Then sew 2 more strips on the other two sides, repeating the pressing and edge trimming.

For the back of the pillow, either use a zipper closure (not shown) or do what I have done with the two pieces of backing fabric:

Cut 2 rectangles that are the same width as the pillow front but the length is determined by adding about 3" to whatever the half point is on the pillow.  In this case, the pillow front is a 15" square.  I cut 2 rectangles at 15" x 11" (11 = 8 + 3).

Press under 1/4" of one of the 15" edges on each rectangle.  Press under again to hide the raw edges.  Stitch along that "hem".

Place pillow front face up on table.  Place the 2 rectangles face down, aligning outer raw edges so that there is about a 3" overlap over the middle of the pillow.  Pin in place all around outer edge of pillow.

Stitch 1/4" all the way around, clip corners to reduce bulk.  Turn right side out, press edges.  If no flange is wanted, insert pillow form now. 

 

 

If you're sewing a flanged edge (like mine), "stitch in the ditch" all the way around the dark border fabric.  Insert pillow form.  And now you're done!

Tutorial for Christmas Ornament spheres

 

I'm really proud of myself that I'm getting this out to you well before Thanksgiving, even!  I think this is the furthest in advance I've ever posted a tutorial for a holiday.  Doing the tree for the DC temple Visitor's Center has helped me get all my ducks in a row, although it feels pretty weird to be full-tilt into Christmas stuff before even planning our Thanksgiving feast.  I don't even have all my Halloween stuff put away yet!

 
These are the Baby Cousins to the Big Daddy-O ornaments that I made for the other tree, pictured below.  I figured that most of us without 15-foot ceilings and 12-foot trees would appreciate this smaller scale for our 6 or 7 foot trees, but if you want to go big, go for it!

 

To make ornaments 6" wide like these, you'll need to buy 6" styrofoam or, even better, Smoothfoam balls.  These can be quite pricey ($5 to $7 each).  I found some great Smoothfoam balls online at Plasteelcorp.com for $3 each.  Since I made 15, it made a big difference in the price, plus I got free shipping.

You'll also need to use 2 wordstrips instead of 1 per ornament. 

About the text...I used white wording for the large balls, which was not very legible once the glitter was applied.  For the small balls, I printed the wording in black, but I should have made the lettering thinner.  I went back and fixed that after my ornaments were completed, so yours will look better.  Everything's a learning process...

 
 


 Okay, enough chatting:  here's how to make these glittery musical spheres!

 
MATERIALS NEEDED:

3" or 3.5" styrofoam balls

Bamboo skewers

Music note napkins (I bought mine at PianoSupplies.com), cut into small squares.  The squares you see pictured here are too large for this size of ball.  After this picture was taken I cut them in half again once I started working.  Squares that are 1.5" would be ideal.

Modpodge (mat finish) and a chip brush or equivalent, plus a little container for the Modpodge. 

The wordstrips which you can click on and print out here:

"Forever and Ever....Hallelujah..."  wordstrip

"Peace, Good Will Toward Men" wordstrip

"For Unto Us a Child is Born..." wordstrip

 Cut them into the strips, taking care to preserve the black line which outlines the red.  A paper cutter or ruler+rotary cutter are recommended to keep the lines straight. 

NOTE:  many home printers have ink that smears when wet.  For best results, go to a commercial printer or make sure your printer ink doesn't smear.  If it does, just let ink dry at least 2 days before attempting this project.

Clear glitter and a tray/large sheet of paper to catch excess glitter

Ribbon:  skinny 1/8" for the hanger (9" length per ornament) and 1/4" for the bow (about 12" length per ornament). 

Glue gun or craft glue

 
1)  Insert 1 or 2 bamboo skewers into ball.  Brush a generous coat of Modpodge over ball and lay the pieces of napkin down one at a time, brushing a thin layer of Modpodge over top of napkin piece after each one is put down.  A little overlapping is necessary to ensure that none of the styrofoam is peeking through.

When ball is entirely coated, place bamboo skewer+ball into a heavy vase or jar so it can dry without touching anything.

 

2)  When ball has completely dried, brush a thick coat of Modpodge around the midsection of ball.  Wrap word strip all the way around --UPSIDE DOWN--, trimming ends if necessary so that only about 1/4" is overlapping.  Take care to center the strip around the "equator" of sphere in relation to where the skewers are so that the ball won't hang crooked like some of mine did.

 

3)  Carefully brush Modpodge over the strip, using the metal part of the brush to help press down any edges that don't want to conform to the curve of the ball.  If you have used a printer with smudgy ink, wipe away any pink-tinted Modpodge on the music part of the ball before it dries.  Otherwise you will have a pink ball.  Let dry.

 

4)  When ball has dried, coat entire ball again with Modpodge and sprinkle clear glitter over entire sphere.  Don't worry about how cloudy it looks here - it will become clear and legible when it dries.

 

5)  When completely dry, remove bamboo skewer(s) and use the tip of skewer to push the raw ends of skinny ribbon into hole.  Squirt glue into hole to secure skinny ribbon.

Tie a little bow with the 1/4" ribbon.  Using another dap of glue, attach bow to ball right at the base of the skinny ribbon.

ps.  I am NOT moulting, nor is the skin on my fingers peeling off.  It is merely the stubborn remnants of dried Modpodge which had not been scrubbed off yet.  Lovely, I know.

 

And there you have it!  Your very first music sphere ornament (insert Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" here).  Enjoy!

 

Is it too early to post about Christmas?

 

I know it's only the beginning of November, but I've already decorated a Christmas tree.  Oh, happy happy joy!  My favorite time of year, my favorite thing to decorate for.

 
Can you guess the theme?  I've been planning this tree for an entire year, ever since I was asked to redo all the ornaments for one of the trees in the Visitor's Center of the Washington DC temple.  It has been a very time-consuming yet extremely fun project, and I'm honored to have been chosen to do it.

 

Yes, the tree is crooked (I didn't notice until it was all done and I stepped back to look at it) but I'm told that will be fixed.  In the meantime, it adds character, right?  Each Christmas the Visitor's Center hosts a myriad of free concerts and has a gorgeous display of Christmas trees that congregations in the Maryland/Virginia area are in charge of decorating.  They also have a beautiful collection of Nativity Scenes from around the world on display and thousands of colored Christmas lights adorn the trees outside, much like the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  If you live in the DC area, I would really encourage you to look up the schedule of events and make an evening of it - besides, then you could go and see my tree in person!  The Festival of Lights, as it is called, starts in December but you can go to the Visitor's Center anytime.

 
In case you haven't caught the theme yet, I based it on Handel's "Messiah".  Hence the Biblical phrases and the musical references.  It is my personal opinion that Christmas has been largely stripped of its original meaning and purpose, and I wanted to bring the Christ back in Christmas in a very visual way.  I made some of the ornaments from scratch, like these phrase boards, and I added personal touches to many of the store-bought ones.  I bought all the musical instruments and the silvery spangle balls from a delightful Christmas shop in Virginia Beach that I serendipitously found while on vacation this summer.  It's called The Christmas Mouse, and it's wonderful.  There is also a store in Williamsburg, which I didn't know until looking at their website.

 

The large round (not spherical) red ornaments from IKEA were spruced up with a few layers of circles cut from sheet music (from the "Messiah", of course) and ribbon.

I hot-glued the ribbon to the back of the circles, then hot-glued the whole thing to the flat part of the ornament.  I bought a bunch of red and silver ornaments when they were half off last year at IKEA.  I wish I had purchased some of these flat ones for myself - I really like how they turned out.  Hopefully they'll have those ornaments again this year and I can make some for my own house!  They'd be great gifts too - very easy and quick, but lovely.

 
I'm planning on doing a tutorial for the phrase boards, but these particular ones are too large for the typical 6 or 7 foot high tree.  I worked up some smaller phrases on Illustrator in the same style as these were done and will post links to the PDF files so you can recreate the exact look that I have done here.  If you want PDF's for these large word phrases (they're about 10 inches wide) just let me know and I'll email them to you.  But wait for my tutorial so you know how to make them.  :-)

 

I had been planning these musical orbs for a year, but just last month I noticed a tutorial for a similar one on FaveCrafts.  Just wanted to let you know I didn't copy, I promise!  Mine is different due to the paper wordstrip decoupaged around the center and it's very large = 6" across.  I decoupaged paper napkins printed with music to create the musical background, and coated the whole thing in clear glitter.

 

I'm planning a tutorial for this one as well, but for the tut I'll use smaller styrofoam balls to make them more suitable for a standard-sized tree.  As with the phrase boards, I'll have the PDF file linked up so you can print out your own word strips.

 

Now, about the star:  Yes, I made it, and no, it wasn't the easiest thing to do...but well worth it!  I took 2 large metal stars (about 12" across) and glued them together with epoxy glue, inserting a 2-ply roll of cardstock at the base to create the tube.  Then I decoupaged white paper over all of it, let it dry, and freaked out about all the rust that bled through the paper.  I gave it a double coat of white Ceramcoat paint, which hid most of the rust spots, and decoupaged the music napkins over all.  After giving it a couple more coats of Modpodge, I sprinkled clear glitter over the wet Modpodge.  When completely dry, I hot-glued the wired ribbon in place and then the center "Gloria" emblem which I created in Illustrator.  C'est finis! 

Not sure if I'm going to get a tut done for this one or not.  I need to find some smaller metal stars so I can do a smaller one for my own tree...I've looked for years for a tree star that I loved, to no avail.  Guess I'll just have to make my own.  If I do I'll try and get a tut up and running before December.  Lots to do, lots to do...

 

Here's Eliza, my sweet little helper for the tree decorating project.  She was a trooper - from fluffing the tree to decorating to taking photos, it was a 4 hour event, and she didn't complain a bit.  We had some good mommy-daughter bonding time.

 

 

 ...so here's the next question:  am I allowed to switch my music list over to Christmas songs yet?  I don't think I can hold off until after Thanksgiving.....

Sewing For Orphans Project = Large Drawstring Bag Tutorial

 UPDATE AS OF 2013:  Unfortunately, I'm no longer able to ship the bags over to Bulgaria.  Please consider making these bags for underprivileged children in local foster care and/or orphanage facilities.  You may want to make smaller bags and fill them with toiletry items for poverty-stricken children in your community as well.  Thank you for your interest in this project!

"All I want is a mommy. I promise I'll do whatever she says, I'll be such a good boy! Why can't I just have a mommy who loves me? That's all I want...that's all I want..."

These words would be heart-wrenching enough coming from a lonely orphan boy, but they become indescribably painful when one watches a grown man in his 40's repeat the general idea of those words over and over again. A man who grew up in a decrepit Bulgarian orphanage and who remains institutionalized today. I do not know the details of his medical or mental condition, but he clearly is painfully aware of his lonely world on the very fringe of society, and it simply breaks my heart that this is happening by the thousands in Bulgaria, which has the highest number of abandoned/orphan children in Europe. There has got to be something we can do halfway across the world to ease the suffering and mind-numbing conditions of these disadvantaged children.

For those of you who read my post a few weeks ago regarding the orphans of Bulgaria, you'll know what this is about. For those of you who haven't read it, please do!

After working closely with Deborah Gardner, Co-founder and President of One-Heart Bulgaria, I've come up with a little plan to help provide comfort to the thousands of abandoned, seriously ill, and/or special needs children currently warehoused in Bulgaria. I'm creating the organization Sewing For Orphans to rally volunteers to help me sew these large drawstring bags to send to the children who are crowded into the overwhelmed and under-funded orphanage facilities.

Words cannot express the pain I feel when I watch their plight on various videos posted on YouTube. Some facilities are better than others, but all suffer from insufficient funding, understaffing, and primitive conditions. Not to mention the incredibly damaging psychological effects of 1) Knowing that they will likely never have loving parents or a "normal life" and 2) Being stuck in a small, sometimes unbelievably worn down building their whole lives with very little attention or care and almost nothing to break up the mind-numbing monotony of every single day. Can you imagine living your whole life in one or two rooms, sleeping with a crowd of lonely, parentless children crammed together, or being left in your crib practically the entire time for the first several years of your life?

That's where OneHeart Bulgaria has stepped in, providing not only for their physical needs and upgrading facilities, but they work hard to provide enriching activities for the souls of these children as well. Things that will help them to see the joy in living, and to help them understand that they are cared for and loved - that they are important. They are also learning life skills so that when they are old enough to leave the orphanage they will be able to be contributing members of society instead of being sucked into gang culture, prostitution, or other negative lifestyles.

So where does my little Sewing For Orphans project fit into all of this? Well, by providing these handmade bags for each child, they will hopefully be able to take comfort that somebody, somewhere knows about them and loves them enough to have made a special bag for them to keep their meager possessions in. It just might make a difference in their lives, and help them hold on to a glimmer of hope that they are going to be okay, that life will turn out alright. At a minimum, the bags will provide a cheery and colorful symbol of love that will give them a bit of their very own space in the midst of crowded institutional conditions.

I have already given an updated PDF version of the tutorial for a small drawstring bag to Deborah, which she will translate and make available for the orphans involved in a sewing program over there to use. The children will make and sell the bags as part of a broader mission to help them learn self-sufficiency and life skills.

The best way we can help is to make these larger bags for boys and girls ages 7 - 18. Each bag takes one yard of fabric (1/2 yard for outside, 1/2 yard for liner) and if you're at all involved in sewing I KNOW you have extra fabric lying around! I have yards and yards of fabric that I will never have time to use for its original intent but I don't want to just get rid of it. I keep holding onto it thinking that it will come in handy someday....Well guess what? NOW IS THE TIME TO CLEAN OUT THAT FABRIC! :-)

The bags are very simple to make and go together really fast. You can either make some on your own or, better yet, get a group together and have a sewing party!

 

Click on the link here to download a PDF version of this tutorial that can be more easily printed off and used while sewing.

PLEASE NOTE: If you use this tutorial to make a bag/bags for yourself, please also make a bag/bags for the orphans. It doesn't take long and the orphans are the reason I'm posting this tutorial. They need our help, please give a little of your time and talents to make this happen. Thank you!

 

1) Cut out 2 pieces of fabric, each piece measuring 18" x 42". It's okay to make it a little bit smaller than that if necessary, but make sure both pieces are the same size.

Cut 2 pieces of ribbon at 19" lengths. Ribbon can be 3/4" to 1.5" wide.

You will also need some sort of nylon rope cord for the drawstring. This mason line can be purchased for less than $3 in the hardware section of Walmart, or you can buy it at any hardware store.

NOTE: If you don't want to go buy the string, just send the bag(s) to me without it and I will insert it before shipping it to Bulgaria.

2) Fold each fabric in half with right sides together. Stitch 1/4" seam up both sides of the outside fabric.

On one of the sides of the liner, measure down about 11" from top and mark a gap about 2 or 3 inches wide. Stop and start your stitching between those marks.

3) Once side seams are sewn, pull front and back apart so that side seam is facing straight up and the front and back create a triangle at the base of the bag. Mark the lines for the box corners, 2.5" down from peak and about 5" across. Stitch on that line.

Repeat for all corners on both bags. They should now look like the photo below.

4) Turn exterior bag right side out and tuck it inside the liner, which is still inside out. This way the right sides of both bags are facing eachother. Match up the side seams and pin like photo below.

5) Stitch 1/4" seam all around top edge.

6) Through the gap that was left in one of the sides of the liner, gently pull the exterior fabric completely out so that it looks like the photo below:

7) Stitch the gap in the liner closed either by hand or by sewing very close to the edge with machine like photo above.

8) Tuck liner inside bag, and press the top edge so that it lies flat. This is best accomplished by fitting the bag over the tip of the ironing board and pressing one bit of it, rotating bag, press another bit of it, and repeat until you have come full circle.

9) Press one end of each ribbon under about 1/2".

10) Fit the bag over the arm of the sewing machine with one of the side seams facing up. Place one of the ribbons (pressed-under end facing down) along the side seam about 1.5" away from top edge of bag.

11) Stitch, backstitching a little bit at beginning, all along top edge of ribbon. Stop stitching when you get almost to the end of the ribbon. Fold under raw edge of ribbon so that it lines up with the second side seam. Stitch to the end of the ribbon and backstitch.

12) Leaving needle in down position, lift up presser foot and place second ribbon in place. Align it with the first one and make sure you start with the pressed-under end just like you did with the first ribbon.

Stitch all the way down and repeat process of folding under excess ribbon, stitching, and backstitching to secure.

Lift up needle, clip threads, and stitch all around the bottom edges of both ribbons, backstitching for extra reinforcement in side seams areas. You have now created a casing for the drawstring.

13) Cut 2 lengths of string that measure about 42" long each. This nylon string unravels quickly, so I recommend tying a temporary knot at each end.

14) Attach a large safety pin to one end of string. "Scoot" the pin and string all the way around the entire casing so that it comes full circle and meets up with the tail end of the string. Remove the pin, and tie the ends together in a firm knot.

15) Repeat process on other side of the casing, so that you have 2 separate strings going full circle around bag on opposite sides.

You may want to use a match and singe the loose ends of the nylon string to help prevent unraveling.

Congratulations! You have now created a tangible gift of love which will brighten the life of a lonely, disadvantaged young person in Bulgaria. Doesn't that feel great?

If you don't have time or skills to sew the bags, please consider donating money (even a few dollars at a time would really add up) by clicking on the paypal button in the right sidebar so that I can get help shipping the bags over to Bulgaria, which is going to be expensive. I am also going to be using donated funds to purchase and ship Pellon Durabond interfacing to the Bulgarian sewing class to use for cute little purses they will be making to share with other orphan girls. Hmmmm...perhaps I should write to Pellon and see if they would donate some interfacing? I just thought of that. It's worth a try! Of course, 100% of all funds donated to Sewing For Orphans will go to shipping the bags and/or buying and shipping the interfacing.

PS. If making drawstring bags is not your thing, perhaps sewing pajama pants is! Deborah recently became aware of an orphanage hospital which has requested cheery PJ pants for its patients. The facility is struggling to provide basic medical care and cannot afford to buy adequate clothing for the suffering children in its care. Please contact me to know where to send your PJs.

ONE MORE THING...I've created this page of 3 bookmarks for you to download here if you'd like to include bookmarks with your bags, or if you would like to send them without bags. There is lots of blank space in case you want to personalize them with drawings, stickers, a photo of you or your child(ren), etc. Please print them out on cardstock and send them to me, with or without bags, so I can laminate them, punch a hole in the top, tie a ribbon, and tuck a bookmark into each of the bags before sending to Bulgaria. If you would like to do the laminating and ribbon tying yourself, that would be great too! This would be a great idea for a school or church project, and would help involve our children in reaching out to the orphans.

I truly hope that we can all step outside of our busy lives for a few hours and take the time to either donate a bit of money or make a priceless gift of love in the form of this simple bag and/or pajamas. I promise you that you will feel happier about yourselves and about life in general as you give up some of your time and/or resources to benefit these precious children. It will also increase your gratitude for your own blessings, I just know it. Service is magical that way. Please join me in making life a little better for the orphans of Bulgaria. Thank you!