General Sewing & Fabric Guides

Winter is coming and so is the final season of Game of Thrones! Here's how to make a GOT inspired blanket that will keep you warm through the long night and your premiere party! UPDATE: This blanket is absolutely perfect for cuddling up and crying yourself to sleep over the death and destruction of your favorite television show.

Traditional shower towels are really abrasive on your hair. That's because the piles on the towels act almost like little hooks that pull on the fibers of your hair and make them split and bunch up. Here's a super easy to make a towel wrap that will do less damage to your hair and will stay in place.

Looking to cut down on waste? These baking dish and bowl covers are great for storing food in the fridge and they're washable so they can be reused. Also, if you use 100% cotton thread and cloth materials (instead of vinyl) these dish covers can be microwavable.

Remember how I said I love these stinking sustainability projects? Well I have another one for you. Single use plastic bags are the most frustrating form of waste to me. I never know what to do once I get handed a bag. Like "thank you, let me just bring this home and throw it away.

Ready for another sustainability project? ! Get rid of plastic wrap and cut down on waste. Here's a great way to make beeswax wraps for your leftovers. Beeswax wraps can be used for about a year if taken care of properly, just wash with cool water and hang to dry.

Want a space efficient way to store your shoes? This organizer is going to make your tidying up dreams come true. Here's how to make a hanging organizer for the inside of your closet or the back of a door. It is super customizable, just use any decor fabric as a base and clear vinyl for the pockets. It can also be modified to different sizes to hold other things like jewelry or toiletries.

I really love sustainability projects. I think they are really important and that more people should start adopting clean practices in lieu of what is "easy" and disposable. A saying that I really love is "The world does not need one person doing zero waste perfectly, but 7 billion doing it imperfectly" So I have set a goal for myself to share with you as many sustainability projects as I can while still bringing you our classic OFS Content. Today, I am making a sustainable alternative to paper towels (The UN paper towel) with a little bit of cotton print fabric and terry cloth.

Dog toys can be expensive and if you're fur baby is like Winnie, those new toys rarely last more than a day or two. Even those branded as "indestructible" are no match to her very patient, very calculated, gnawing and nibbling. Then, when she finally reaches the stuffing on the inside she will remove it (ALL of it) with the full amount of care a dog can have. Winnie has met her match with this one though. Today I'm going to show you how to make a heavy-duty toy that your dog will love and won't cost you an arm and a leg.

Making popcorn over the stove is delicious but can take a long time and is super annoying. Skip the hassle with this reusable microwave popcorn bag. This bag makes a great gift for all those popcorn lovers in your life and is a great sustainable alternative to regular microwave popcorn. Wash it as needed and enjoy for years to come. We used a lightweight cotton print fabric but many other 100% cotton fabrics will work like cotton broadcloth or muslin.

Log carriers can be heavy and awkward to carry so I decided I wanted to make one for my grandma that would help lighten her load and last her a long time. I came up with the idea of a firewood tote that has both backpack straps and handles for a new take on a traditional look. So far, its been a life saver. So much so that I am really surprised no one has ever though to put backpack straps on these bulky bags. We used PVC-coated polyester because it's a very durable fabric that can hold up to lots of wear and tear.

During these chilly winter months newborn calves aren't big enough to create the body heat necessary to keep them warm. So, if you've been looking for a cheap way to keep your newborns warm let us help by showing you how to make a calf blanket. This design is super easy to put on your calf and even easier to adjust as they grow. Nylon fabric is durable and water resistant so it can withstand the weather and not get soggy. We used a medium weight nylon pack cloth, for the outer fabric and lightweight nylon ripstop for the lining.

Have your trees, bushes, hedges, shrubs, or saplings been taking a beating from all the salt being dropped on the roads? Wrap them in burlap so they are protected from the elements and salt. The best time to wrap trees is in the late fall just before the first frost but this year we noticed the trees that line the road near our office were getting particularly beat up so we decided to make a wrap for them to keep them from becoming more damaged. Burlap wraps like this will protect your trees from sunscald, salt, wind, and will keep them from becoming deformed or splitting under the weight of the snow. The bushes I covered are large so I used burlap squares.

Sitting through an entire game on a hard seat or bleacher can get uncomfortable, especially if your team is losing. This stadium cushion has a handle and Velcro closure so the cover can be washed. Whether you're at a high school football game or a professional baseball game, get comfortable with a stadium cushion. It's a winning gift for sports fans.

The people who make and use these kitchen scrubbers swear they are better than anything you can buy. Our nylon netting is super popular for these scrubbies. You can also use tulle but the texture of the nylon netting works particularly well. They last a surprisingly long time and can be washed on the top rack of your dishwasher. There are many other ways to crochet scrubbies with different combinations of stitches.

Hi, I'm Cathy. I was trying to figure out a way to let my cats enjoy some nip without making a mess, and thought 'What would happen if I sandwiched some of that good stuff between fabric? '… Well, it turned out to be pretty simple to do, and they loved it. So if you're someone like me who doesn't know a whole lot about sewing, but you still want to make something that's pretty quick and easy for your fur babies, this is the tutorial for you, so let's get started.

By making your own oven mitts you can choose the fabric and trim that matches your kitchen decor. Or you can make it more eclectic like I did by using a fun print such as the the Amy Butler Harriet's Kitchen Sugar fabric. What's great about this tutorial is that you can custom make these oven mitts to the size of your hands by following the instructions below.

An ironing mat is a great addition to a sewing or craft space, and is sometimes more convenient than an ironing board. You can make it any size you want with the cotton fabric of your choice, and the heat resistant fabric will protect your table top. When not in use simply roll up the mat and tie it for easy storage.

This year, I really wanted to up my Christmas tree game. While "tree collars" are the trendy thing right now they are a large space commitment the rest of the year while they sit in storage, and I like the traditional look during the holidays. I have also been itching to use this new Taupe Velvet we started carrying. It is wonderfully soft with a very subtle golden sheen. I chose to make both sides the same material, but it could be reversible if you play with the materials and colors you use.

Just in time for valentines day! Make a DIY heating pack for someone you LOVE. You can make it in any shape, but considering the time of year, I am going to make mine into a heart (I also recommend this shape because it's perfect for treating cramps. ) Unfortunately, this specific pack is not washable because you don't want to rice to get wet, but if that is something you are concerned about, make a cover that is about the same size as your heat pack that you are able take off and wash separately.

Today we are going to be making a Yoga Mat Strap. This type of strap is super versatile, and we are making ours to carry a portable sun shade that we made in another tutorial, but it can be used for yoga mats, skis, umbrellas, and even logs. Anything that is long and heavy enough to give you a little counterweight could be put in here and carried around by the shoulder strap.

Today I am going to show you how to make reusable paper towels. The material on this fabric paper towel roll clings together, so they can be used on cardboard tubes. That way they'll fit on your existing paper towel holder. These unpaper towels are a little different than the ones that we had made in a previous video. They actually cling to themselves because of the flannel material as opposed to the snap method that you saw previously.

Today I am going to show you how to make a plastic bag holder. After having that mess of bags under my kitchen sink, I set out to figure out how to store them in a space effective way that looks nice and neat, and this DIY bag holder fit the bill perfectly.

Today I am going to be showing you how to make a kitchen laundry bag. Lately, I've needed a place to collect dirty wash cloths and towels so I decided to make a laundry bag for the kitchen to go underneath my cabinets. This bag can easily be made into any size to fit the needs of your space by simply changing the measurements of your first rectangles.

Learn how to make some great nylon dog toys to make for fetch and tug of war that will be strong enough to withstand years of use. Shop coated nylon oxford fabric here.