Goodbye, October . . . hello, November.

I’m so excited for Thanksgiving in San Francisco. The city empties out, the weather is always crisp and sunny, and the farmers markets will be bountiful. This year I’m feasting with friends. Since I’m not hosting, I want to spend some time making a gift for my generous hostess. Here’s a smart project idea from Kaari Meng of French General. It’s the perfect thing to make a bottle of wine not just a bottle wine.

Floral Cocktail Coasters
Excerpted from Home Sewn by Kaari Meng
Photographs by Jon Zabala
Illustrations by Jody Rice

Using remnants from some printed linen, cut out large flowers, back them with hemp fabric, and stitch both fabrics together using your sewing machine’s zigzag stitch. Homespun or heavier linen works well for the coasters backs, as both will absorb liquid and dry quite fast. Pair this project with a nice bottle of wine as a gift for your favorite hostess.

Makes 4 coasters, 5″ x 5″

MATERIALS
1/4 yard (45″ wide) floral linen
1/4 yard (45″ wide) hemp fabric
1/4 (45″ wide) fusible webbing*
coordinating thread

TOOLS
Measuring tape
Scissors
Pencil
Iron
Pins
Sewing Machine

Preshrink your fabric by washing, drying, and pressing it before starting your project.

DIRECTIONS

A. Cut one 5″ square out of the floral linen, one out of the hemp backing fabric, and one out of the fusible webbing. Using the pattern from this PDF, trace the coaster shape onto the Right side of your top fabric with a light pencil. (You can make your coasters any shape — leaves, pumpkins, or Pilgrim hats would be perfect for Thanksgiving.)

B. Sandwich the fusible webbing between the fabric squares, Wrong sides of the fabrics together. Fuse the fabrics together, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Let it cool before proceeding.

C. Set your sewing machine to a zigzag stitch with very light tension. Test the zigzag on a scrap of fabric and adjust the machine’s settings until you achieve a zigzag that is about 1/4″ wide and produces a very tight, satin stitch effect.

D. Zigzag around the coaster shape on your pencil line. Go slowly, making sure to maintain an even satin stitch. If your coaster ripples around the edges, press the entire coaster again before trimming in the next step.

E. Trim away the excess fabric, close to the satin stitching.

*Fusible webbing is a type of interfacing. It is used to adhere fabrics to each other without sewing, and it adds stiffness. It can be purchased at most fabric stores in packages or by the yard.

Find this and many more French inspired sewing projects in Home Sewn by Kaari Meng.

Check out more Chronicle Craft posts.

Kate Woodrow
Craft Editor

Popularity: 2% [?]

Art, meet craft.

This summer we released an exciting new craft kit for kids 8 and up that celebrates the fruitful union of art and craft. Artful Jewelry offers 11 jewelry projects inspired by famous works of art: earrings that capture the soft Spring colors of Botticelli’s La Primavera, a necklace celebrating the swirly sky of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, and teardrop pearl earrings straight out of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. The kit even includes materials - beads, embroidery floss, earring posts, and more - to make 6 of the projects straight away.

Here’s a free project excerpted from the book, plus print-ready templates and patterns. All you need are a few other basic craft supplies to make this project. This necklace was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine, which he painted around 1490 when “long, ropy strands of pearls, stones, or beads were very much in vogue.”

Bewitching Beaded Necklace
Excerpted from Artful Jewelry by Jo Packham

Make your own Renaissance-style necklace using a simple material (paper!) in an unusual, creative way.

SUPPLIES
- Patterned paper and templates printed from here
- Stapler or tape
- Scissors
- Clear-drying glue
- Approx. 60 inches (152.3 cm) flexible bead-stringing wire

METHOD
1. Print four red patterned sheets and three gold patterned sheets from this PDF. Print one copy each of the large (1-inch), medium (3/4-inch), and small (1/2-inch) triangle templates.

2. Place the large triangle template on top of one red sheet. Staple to tape them together in the margin outside the colored pattern.

3. Cut out 13 large triangles.

4. Using each triangle template, cut out 27 small red triangles, 27 small gold triangles, 13 medium gold triangles, and 13 large red triangles.

5. Lay one paper triangle colored-side down. Starting at the base, roll it up. Keep the opposite point centered as you roll toward it. Stop about 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the point.

6. Apply a small amount of glue to the point and finish rolling up the triangle. Press the point in place with your fingertip.

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to make the rest of the beads. Separate them by size and color.

8. Poke one end of the wire through a small gold bead.

9. Slightly bend the end of the wire to keep the beads from sliding off. String on the beads in this sequence: small gold bead, small red bead, medium gold bead, small red bead, small gold bead, large red bead.

10. Continue stringing the rest of the beads, then tie the wire ends together in a small double knot. Cut off the excess wire about 1/8 inch (3 mm) from the knot.

11. Gently slide the beads over the knot to hide it.

BONUS PROJECT: BRACELET IN BLUE
Print one blue patterned sheet and one copy of the small triangle template. Roll up and glue 14 small beads. String them onto an 8-inch (20.5 cm) length of elastic cord threaded onto a needle with a large eye. Tie the ends of the cord in a knot and cut off the excess.

Project from Artful Jewelry by Jo Packham with text by Carol Spier, illustrations by Matt Shay, and photographs by Zachary Williams. All copyright 2009 by Downtown Bookworks Inc.

Check out more Chronicle Craft posts.

Kate Woodrow
Craft Editor

Popularity: 2% [?]

Thanks for all your supercharged enthusiasm for Lotta’s Printing Studio! I want to send you all a copy, but we could pick only one for our random giveaway. Congratulations to Laila Smith, who will be getting a free copy of the kit. She wrote:

This looks really fab! I have one of Lottas other books and it is so inspiring. I would love to use this and do printing with my 3 year old and he can make things for his 6 week old baby brother - maybe a printed baby T-shirt or two!

Laila, send us pics of what you make!

And in case you haven’t already heard about these gems, here’s a roundup of other crafty goodness Chronicle has recently released:

REPRODEPOT PATTERN BOOKS (FLORA and FOLK)
These chunky paperbacks are chock full of beautiful patterns from Djerba Goldfinger’s amazing fabric store, Reprodepot Fabrics. Each $24.95 book includes step-by-step instructions and photos for 10 papercraft projects (invitations, party decorations, and more), and (brace yourself!) a disk with all the 225 pattern files on it so you can print out the colorful designs and craft away. PS. As if Reprodepot weren’t enough, Grace Bonney wrote the foreword to the books and Mollie Green came up with all the craft projects!!

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Popularity: 2% [?]

It is with much pleasure that I announce the release of Lotta Jansdotter’s Printing Studio!

This craft kit has been literally years in the making. Creating these DIY delights involves many steps and lots of love and care to get it right. First, Lotta comes up with the projects, testing different materials and writing instructions and tips clearly so we mere mortals can achieve the same great-looking results she does. For this project, she even provided us with pages from her sketchbook to reveal a bit about where she gets ideas for her projects and fabric designs.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

This 63-year-old was by far the coolest lady at Renegade in San Francisco this year:

I bet she (and a lot of other people who attended Renegade) would like our Hot Stuff Temporary Tattoos!

The temporary tattoos in this matchbook-like pack were designed by Chicago-based tattoo artist Mitch O’Connell. Ever since we learned about him via Sublime Stitching two years ago, we’ve been big fans of O’Connell’s work. O’Connell designed a set of embroidery designs for Jenny Hart’s Sublime Stitching Artist Series (we first wrote about it here). The collaboration makes sense. As seen at Renegade, tattoos and crafters go together like needle and thread.

Image from www.sublimestitching.com

O’Connell’s temporary tattoos come out this week. Be one of the first to test them out by leaving a comment below with a link to or description of your favorite tattoo art, crafty or otherwise. We’ll send one lucky winner an advance set of Hot Stuff Temporary Tattoos.

Check out more Chronicle Craft posts.

Kate Woodrow
Craft Editor

Popularity: 3% [?]