Ode to the Canadian Penny

Gone but not forgotten...

Gone from our pockets for the past seven years, the Canadian penny coin inadvertently became the inspiration for my entry into a Spoonflower design competition recently.

While many countries — except the US (go figure) — have gradually eliminated their lowest denomination coins over the years, it's not to say that they have been forgotten in our collective minds.

When the Canadian Mint decided to put out a commemorative $20 coin to celebrate the retired penny, I picked up several of them. They are made out of silver, however, not the copper that normally makes up the coin.

Commemorative $20 silver coin celebrating Canada's penny...

When Spoonflower announced a Neutral Retreat design challenge last month that would be judged on the print appearing as a duvet cover, I was intrigued. Having taken many photos of the scenery around our place in the mountains, I had no doubt that I would be starting from a photo.

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In my collection were pics of large rocks, petrified tree trunks, pebbles under water, and foliage of various kinds. While flipping through them, I recollected encountering a large maple leaf once while on a quadding adventure. After some searching, I found it in a folder from 2009. Turns out the photo was taken just over ten years ago.

Here it is, cropped into a square.

My source photo...

Next, I applied a seamless tile effect and then colorized it.

Colorized and tiled...

Then I selected and colorized the main leaf.

About seven iterations later, I had the following. (Having access to a Roostery shop where one can generate mockups like these is a tremendous asset.)

Duvet mockup courtesy of Roostery...

Giving a fabric design a name is not always easy or intuitive, but when I saw how this turned out, it reminded me of the maple leaves on our retired penny.

Pillow sham mockup courtesy of Roostery...

Thus, this design is called Ode to the Canadian Penny. I thought this colourway was decidedly neutral and apt for the competition. (The actual entry was resized slightly larger than shown here.)

I later created two simplified versions without the smaller leaves, one in a dark brown and the other in a sky blue.

Placemats mockup courtesy of Roostery...

Here is the dark brown version as a set of placemats. In case you were curious, a set of four placemats from Roostery starts at $50, depending on fabric.

Round table cloth mockup courtesy of Roostery...

They offer both round and rectangular table cloths in two sizes each. The round versions are $89 for the small and $119 for the large.

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I believe the advantage to ordering the large items from Roostery is that they are not restricted by the normal fabric width offered by Spoonflower. I am not absolutely one hundred percent certain about this, but I don't get the impression that they are making oddly seamed duvet covers, curtains, table cloths, etc., you know what I mean? (By the way, I would personally love to own this bedding set, but there is no way in the world that I would ever spend what it costs to purchase it!)

Table runner mockup courtesy of Roostery...

A table runner will set you back between $49 and $69 depending on size.

And here is the blue version mocked up as a table runner and dinner napkins (starting at $46 per set of four).

Napkins mockup courtesy of Roostery ...

For those of us who sew, these smaller types of kitchen essentials — i.e., table runners, napkins, dish towels, placemats — are definitely DIY-able (at a huge savings) by purchasing fabric from Spoonflower and making them ourselves.

At the risk of repeating myself, being able to see my own designs come to life as fabrics has been highly satisfying. I am no more likely to get rich from designing fabric than from selling PDF sewing patterns, but I have to say, the former was something that I never anticipated doing at all.

Has there been something unexpected in your life that you never thought you'd be doing (and are enjoying)?

Celebrate Canada 150 With Me

A Canada Day tree...

Today marks the historic occasion of Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation. It's a day for all Canadians to be proud and thankful for what they have. To be sure, our country and our lives are not without issues but most of them are miniscule compared to what they could be.

The majority of my posts are prepared weeks in advance, and this one is no exception. So while I can say that I will be partaking in some of the local festivities this Canada Day, I don't yet know what they will be... and the extent will depend on the weather.

For the past many months, however, I have been creating little tributes for the occasion and displaying them around the house. I thought I'd share them with you today.

This picture that you see here is of our birch tree in the front yard. We had it pruned last fall and a rather substantial lower branch was removed by the arborist. When I saw the flat surface that resulted afterwards, I told my hubby that perhaps I should paint a happy face on it.

Months later, we decided that it was the perfect place to display a little bit of Canadiana.

How did I do it? After tracing the perimeter of the flat surface roughly onto a sheet of paper, I sat down and drew this, which was then scanned and colourized to see if it would pass muster.

Drawing a modified Canadian flag for a branch stump...

We both thought that the design would stand out sufficiently, so the next step was to decide how to transfer it onto the tree. Actually painting it wasn't the ideal solution. After mulling it over, I decided to make something out of paper that I could just somehow glue.

So I picked up some red and white poster board, cut out the required elements and then applied several layers of Mod Podge to get this result...

My Canada Day tree "sticker"!

I figured the Mod Podge would protect it from the elements for at least the remainder of the year.

That flat surface of the tree faces the street, so it has been a unique sight for people walking or driving past our house.

My other Canada Day crafting revolves around flowers. These ones were made out of scrapbooking paper per my tutorial.

Canada Day mini flower...

The above mini flower is at the centre of a small potted arrangement that's been in our main bathroom forever. Hanging from the window in the same room is this larger set of flowers.

Large Canada Day designer flowers...

I had previously said that if the weather cooperates, I'll hang these out on our tree, but now they look too nice to be moved from where they are! (Plus, the weather this weekend holds the distinct possibility of rain virtually every day.)

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Remember my fabulous fabric flowers tutorial? I had previously made one out of waxcloth, but for a Canada Day version, I tried ribbon.

A variation of my fabric flowers made out of ribbon...

It turned out pretty well. The bonus part is that it became an almost no-sew project, since all I had to do was cut a scalloped edge along a 2.5" wide length of ribbon, gather it, and then hot glue the strip together. This particular ribbon was red underneath, so I could have reversed it for a different look.

My last decoration is a set of three "floating" maple leaves. Using the same poster board and leaf template from my tree decoration, I cut out six leaves. I Mod Podged the heck out of them on both sides and then Mod Podged a fishing line between each pair of leaves.

Closeup of one of my floating maple leaves...

Until it was time to take them outside to hang over our front window, they were strung from a light fixture in our upstairs hallway, as shown below.

Oh, and here's one final project that is near and dear to my heart since it was my first pattern for sale... I made a Canada themed flap for my Hot Hues Convertible Crossbody Fooler Bag.

A new flap for my Hot Hues bag...

In truth, I don't think it quite "goes", but at least it's a demonstration of the concept behind this (occasionally controversial) bag! And it served to give me other ideas about how to use all that ribbon that I have.

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Of course, three days after our holiday, it will be the birthday celebration of our closest neighbour. I, for one, know that the US of A is turning 241. (The bicentennial being 1976.)

Floating maple leaves...

We Canadians mostly accept that the majority of Americans know very little about Canada, other than as a deliverer of cold air in the winter. (We make fun when a prize offered on a TV game show is "a trip to Canada!" Really? Is it to Tuktoyuktuk to see the northern lights? To Jasper or Banff National Park to admire the Rocky Mountain scenery? Or to cosmopolitan Montreal to soak in the culture?) To be honest, many of us resent the lack of interest and knowledge on the part of our closest neighbour, but I'm actually fairly pragmatic about it. When you live on top of the mountain, it's hard to be concerned with what's below you.

Still, in today's world, a little knowledge can be an olive branch, so I thought I'd close this post with a list of ten fun facts about Canada for our American friends.

1. Several months ago, I saw a video of a couple of young American girls being asked what they thought Canada's population was. After a bit of discussion, they settled on a guess of four thousand. Now, population totals are impossible to get bang on the gong, but in reality, our 150-year-old country has about 36 million inhabitants. Way more than four thousand, but on the other hand, that's just about the population of the state of California.
2. Measured in total area, Canada is larger than the US. If you count just land area, the US is bigger.
3. The next time you're asked to identify the capital of Canada, try to recall that our equivalent of your Washington D.C. is Ottawa, Ontario.
4. Our metropolitan areas are much like yours in appearance; you won't instantly see a vast wasteland with nothing but igloos and polar bears as soon as you cross the border. (I actually lived in Canada's remote north for many years and never once saw an igloo. And the closest I came to a polar bear was a polar bear pelt that hung in the Yellowknife Inn.)
5. Speaking of igloos, our weather is not so much different from yours except for the extremes. Due to our location on the globe, we don't generally get temperatures over 100F degrees but temperatures into the 90s can be experienced in all areas of the country during the summer. (And of course, Canadians refer to those temps as "the 30s", but the metric thing is a whole other matter!)
6. The basic equivalent of your fifty states is our ten provinces and three territories. Eight of our provinces touch our longest common border while twelve of your states do the same. Since we only have thirteen entities, perhaps you can learn the names of some of them. I'm familiar with the names of all of your states and can readily list off over forty of them at any given time. (On an episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, when a contestant asked for assistance with the question of "There are exactly seven what?", 44% — the vast majority — of the audience answered "provinces in Canada". The other options were islands in the Cayman Islands, countries that end in -stan, or nations in the European Union. The correct answer is countries that end in -stan.)
7. Speaking of provinces, maybe start with Prince Edward Island. It's the equivalent of your Rhode Island in that it's our smallest province. However, PEI actually is an island... and you can get there by car from Rhode Island in about eleven hours!
8. Canada is not totally "to the north" of all of you. If you live in Detroit, you can actually drive south to get to Canada, to Windsor, Ontario to be exact. (And of course, if you live in Alaska, you can head east to Canada too.)
9. We had a female prime minister waaay back in 1993. She didn't serve long, and was never actually elected to the position.
10. Finally, in a great show of sportsmanship and goodwill, 18,000 Canadian hockey fans — from my own home city, no less — recently belted out the Star Spangled Banner when the mic failed for the singer. I've heard jokes all my life about many Americans not knowing the words to their own national anthem... well, we know 'em. ;-)
    

Whatever side of the border you're on, enjoy the birthday celebrations, people!

Quasi-Tutorial: Quick Sew Crop Top

A super quick crop top project to enjoy this summer...

We're now just four weeks away from Canada's 150th birthday, so it's time to unveil my fourth Canada Day themed project: a fat quarter friendly quick sew crop top.

It's a project that can probably be done in ten minutes if you're like those brave people who can be seen cutting away freehand in YouTube videos.

This is made out of one of my Canadiana fabrics (Maple Leaf Multi 3D on White) from Spoonflower. It's a fat quarter of performance piqué ($12.00), measuring 18" long by 28" wide. Again, due to how the fabric is printed, there is always a bit of white along all four sides that can be used in a pinch to "extend" the fabric.

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This "crop top over t-shirt" fooler top was the inspiration behind the project.

One piece crop top and t-shirt fooler...

It's technically one piece, but the black t-shirt part of it extends all the way up to attach at the shoulders, so the amount of material is the same as two pieces.

Anyway, I had the idea to make the crop top part of this out of one fat quarter of Spoonflower performance piqué. It wouldn't have the exact same dimensions, but it would be close. The patterned top part of this fooler — which is a North American size 2-4 — measures 18" wide across the hem, and 16.5" long from shoulder to hem. The fat quarter only allows for a length of just over 14".

I did some creative folding with the fabric first to confirm that the result was achievable.

Imagining a crop top that can be worn over any t-shirt or tank...

As a sewing project, this can't get much simpler. All that needs to be done after squaring the fabric is to fold it in half with wrong side out, sew a seam along both edges and then cut a neckline out of the middle. The fabric doesn't fray so none of the edges need to be finished. Construction is very much like the quick sew kimono-inspired jacket that I made with P&P fabric.

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One word of caution before proceeding. In this particular case, I'm using the width of the fabric as the length of the finished item. If you do the same — in whatever fabric you use — choose one that does not feature a discernible directional pattern, as well as something that has a bit of two-way stretch for when you put it on.

Fold in half and pin along the edges...

In the above picture, the folded edge measures over 18" across, due to the white space around the printed fabric. The distance from top to bottom is about 14".

Straight side seams...

You can sew the side seams straight as shown above, or sew them at an angle as shown below.

... or angled side seams

Whichever you choose, ensure that the total length (when measured straight along the side) is no more than 6" or 15cm.

After sewing up the side seams, fold the whole thing in half. Similarly fold a piece of clothing of your choice and place it on top to use as a guide for cutting the neckline.

Trace a neckline from another top...

Refer back to my second "sew up side seams" picture above. If you want the front of your crop top to have a different neckline, fold just the front section (while matching the side seams) and make an additional cut to create — in my case — a "v" neck.

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I realize that making this out of a single fat quarter means that it will only fit those who are on the smaller side.

However, you can easily take two fat quarters and sew them together with pretty much the same results. All that's different would be a need to sew a shoulder seam. Not to mention that you would then be using the fabric along its 18" length and not its width.

For other fabric choices, a fat quarter of Spoonflower's cotton spandex jersey ($13.75) comes in at 18" x 30", which gives you a little extra material to work with if sticking to the one fat quarter method.

It's wearable!

I like how it turned out. Don't you think it's a handy cover-up for a camisole or tank top that might be too skimpy on its own?

For many years now, I've been wanting to have something simple to wear on Canada Day, apart from cheap t-shirts made overseas. (And in fact, I don't even have any of those anymore. They just seemed tacky to me.)

This will do the job nicely on July 1st... and any other day for that matter.

Free Pattern/Tutorial: Portable Pocket Pouch

A multi-purpose Portable Pocket Pouch done up in red & white ribbon...

We are now approximately two months out from Canada's 150th and today I am presenting my third Canada Day project: a multi-purpose hanging pouch that can be made with ribbon or fabric. You can dangle this on the inside of your front door to store your keys or mail, put it on a wall in your office to hold small stationery items (stamps, receipts) or travel with it to keep from losing your hotel key card!

I came across a similar item recently and was intrigued by the possibility of — once again — putting my own spin on it.

The original was made out of fabric and meant to be reversible, but it hung via a large vertical slit cut into the back. The opening is meant to allow it to hang from a traditional door knob. The look of this huge "buttonhole" didn't appeal to me, however; and in any case, I'm willing to bet most doors these days are installed with levers. So I opted for a grommet, from which a variety of other hanging solutions can be employed (such as my choice of hair elastics).

An added bonus is that my pouch can hold taller items since there isn't a doorknob in the way!

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When I was at Michaels making my scrapbooking paper purchases for my designer paper flowers, I also picked up several rolls of 2.5" wide ribbon from their clearance bins for $2 each.

Red & white ribbon...

Given that these were red and white, I set them aside for a Canada Day project, although I wasn't quite sure just exactly what that was going to be at the time. I knew I would be joining the ribbon to create a "fabric" in the same way as I've done previously. In this particular application, the scale is larger than I've attempted in the past, but this ribbon is also wider, so it actually wasn't a hassle to join them together.

The only thing I did differently was to sew the ribbon onto the fusible side of the Decor Bond rather than the non-fusible. Since the ribbon is wide, I wanted the finished result to be smoothly fused onto the interfacing rather than potentially bunching up in unsightly ways.

Portable Pouch holding some mail...

This means that the lining is not fused onto the interfacing as it normally is using this technique, but I don't think the result suffers.

A look inside at a garage door remote and a set of keys...

Also, while I'm all for reversibility, this doesn't need to be reversible, since I don't want to hide the striking effect of the ribbon.

Back view of the Portable Pocket Pouch...

I estimated the size of the original that I saw and used the good old pythagorean theorem to come up with the dimensions for this. Before it's folded into a pocket, it's merely one half of a square, cut on the diagonal. Therefore, depending on how large you want your finished pouch to be, you can go with anything from a 16" to an 18" square (or in metric terms, a 41cm to 46cm square).

Mine was 16"; it produces a finished result about 7" wide by 10.5" high (or approximately 18cm by 26.5cm), depending on seam allowance.

Make a paper template...

To accomplish this, I taped together several pieces of scrap paper and measured out an equilateral triangle where the two short sides are 16" long.

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Using this template, the first step is to arrange and cut the strips of ribbon required. (Tape comes in handy to keep the pieces of ribbon lined up.)

Use template to lay out strips of ribbon...

Align the first strip of ribbon along one of the short sides and proceed from there. As you can see in the above picture, the far right corner is still missing a teeny bit of ribbon; I eventually used the triangular overhanging bit from the first strip of ribbon to fill this space.

The next thing is to cut a piece of medium weight fusible interfacing (I used Decor Bond) using the template. Once you have that, pin the strips of ribbon onto the fusible side of the interfacing.

Pin strips of ribbon onto fusible side of interfacing...

Now it's time to sew. Put down rows of satin stitching between each pair of ribbons to secure them to the interfacing. (I also sewed along the open edge of the first ribbon; it's not required since the ribbon will eventually be fused.)

Close-up of the satin stitching...

As I anticipated, merely sewing on the ribbons results in a rippled effect that's not ideal... but that'll soon be fixed.

Satin stitch the ribbon onto the interfacing...

Trim away the overhanging bits of ribbon so that the piece is now the correct size.

Ribbon is trimmed and ready to be fused...

Using a pressing cloth, fuse the ribbon to the interfacing to get rid of the ripples!

Next, cut a piece of fabric for the lining (using the paper template) and pin it right sides together with the ribbon piece.

I used the white pins to mark a turning gap...

Notice how I've used both clips and pins? The two pins are to remind me to leave a turning gap, which should be located in the middle of the long edge. (It needs to be big enough for your hand to reach into and pull everything right side out; 4" is usually what I use.)

Sew together with a 1/4" seam allowance. Trim the corners as shown to reduce the bulk once it's turned right side out.

Trim away excess fabric the corners...

Turn right side out, poking out the corners carefully. Clip all the way around, tucking in and securing the raw edges along the turning gap.

Pin and prepare for pressing...

Press well.

It's almost there!

Fold the piece into its final configuration and clip together for now. (The two matching points of the triangle should extend all the way to the edge both inside and out.)

Clip into final pouch configuration...

At this point, you can install a grommet (or make a button hole) if you wish, or you can wait until the very end. Here's how I threaded a couple of hair elastics that were joined together as a mechanism for hanging.

Tying two hair ties together...

And now for the finishing part... my machine — or maybe more correctly, my needle — wasn't up to the task of stitching through all those tough layers at the bottom, so I sewed it by hand. (Yes, much as I hate that.) It wasn't horrible, as I chose to sew through the lining fabric for the most part.

Believe it or not, though, I actually broke a needle while sewing by hand; first time that's ever happened!

Side view...

I would also recommend that you sew a couple of stitches to secure the middle point where the two side panels overlap, so your pouch contents won't slip out. You could also add a button for decorative purposes, like I did here in this sneak peak at my fabric version of the same pouch.

I had just the right button for this...

Last but not least, you can probably hot glue all of these areas if you want to avoid the hand-sewing.

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If you make this with fabric, it's fat quarter friendly. Since it does look nicer with a contrasting lining, I would suggest that you either make two at a time (by cutting two squares of fabric and then slicing them each in half diagonally) or make and use a paper template to cut pieces from two different fabrics. For the fabric option, you'll also want to cut your interfacing a quarter inch smaller all the way around to keep it out of the seam allowance.

Fabric version of Portable Pouch...

Whether or not you choose to interface both sides of your fabric is a matter of choice. In the interests of being frugal, I only interfaced one side (the exterior) of this Robert Kaufman version and it seems to be fine that way. If you're not concerned with the cost, interface both pieces.

This one is much faster to sew up...

I didn't do this, but you could also run a row of topstitching along the top edge as a finishing touch.

One final advantage of the fabric version... your sewing machine should be able to sew up the bottom seam easily. In fact, the whole project from beginning to end shouldn't take you more than half an hour.

I hope you find this project worthy of your time; I had fun doing it (broken needle aside). The pouch is truly multi-purpose, so let me know what you're going to use yours for!