Sewing -- In the JAR!!

Last week I shared that September is National Sewing Month. That got me to thinking -- whether you are a seasoned seamstress or not, we all need to be prepared to do SOME sewing -- you know, replacing a button, fixing a hem, stitching up a busting seam. Nothing that requires a lot of talent BUT you have to have the supplies to do these jobs. I have a young woman at work who asks me to help her with these little chores. Last week I stitched on a wayward sequined star on her daughter's jeans. I don't mind helping but she doesn't do it herself because she isn't prepared to do so. My grown daughter is in the same boat (she just brings what she needs fixed to Mom's).

While browsing the internet I came accross the perfect solution to this......


Isn't this sweet? This one is sold by ANTHROPOLOGIE and I have to admit that I about choked on my coffee when I saw that it sells for $48.00 (GULP).

Anyone could make one -- including me. My plan was to make several to hand out as gifts for my co-worker, my daughters, and to have a few on hand.

So I made a list of what was in the Anthropologie Jar --
thread (just 2 spools), thimble, safety pins, needle threader, straight pins, measuring tape, needles and scissors. Then I thought, what else would be handy....an assortment of buttons, more of an assortment of threads and a seam ripper.

Off I went to the BIG BOX store to price and purchase all the items to stuff the jars with. YIKES -- these were going to be a bit spendy to stuff with style. Then I spyed a ready made kit by Dritz with all the components I had on my list -- selling for under $5.00. Perfect!! It also came in a variety of great colors - hot pink, purple, lime green.




What else was I going to need --

1 Large Canning Jar (with two-piece lid and ring) - I have a pantry full of these

1 small piece of fabric (1" larger than the circumference of lid) - from my scrap bag

small handful of batting - I have a bag of this in my sewing supplies but if you don't have some already, you could use a few cotton balls instead

Hot Glue Gun

Plug in glue gun to warm up. Lay fabric face down on work surface. Place a small amount of batting in the center. Place lid, top down on the batting and pull around. Slide the ring portion of the lid over the batting/fabric, and pull fabric taut. Trim any excess fabric. Glue the fabric to the underside of the lid, making sure to maintain a bulge on top. I embleshed the lid ring with some rickrack scraps but you could use ribbon, twine like the Anthropologie jar or no embleshing at all. Since I have a large supply of canning jars and used scraps, my total cost was the approximately $5.00 for the Dritz sewing kits to stuff the jars with. A handy and economical gift!



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