Today I am super excited to share a project from the newly released book Sew Adorkable: 15 DIY Projects to Keep You Out of Trouble by my friend Samarra Khaja. When she contacted me asking if I would like to review the book, my response was “I’m not great at reviewing things. I don’t hate enough. So how about I make something?” She went for it, and here we are!

To make this post even more awesome, there is a giveaway involved! You just have to read on a little more for all of the details.

The Book:

Samarra is one of those ladies who sees the fun in everything around her, and her sense of humor is great. When you flip through Sew Adorkable, you can see just how much of herself she poured in to this book. Every project has just the right level of cute, funny and nerdy and most can be made for kids or adults. All of my favorite things.

There is a nice mix of small and large projects, so no matter your time constraint, you can finish something! You can see above the super cute Toothy, the Tooth Fairy pillows and the Typewriter Tissue Box Cover, that are perfect one day projects.

Then there are projects like the Candy Dots Quilt and the fabric Prehistoric Portrait Painting

Plus there are clothing projects for both kids and adults, more home decor and even more quilts. Then to top it off, Samarra talks about her life as a textile designer and shows a peek at her process. I love a good back story!

If you would like to see more inside peeks at Sew Adorkable: 15 DIY Projects to Keep You Out of Trouble, and hear Samarra talk, then check out this cute video CT Publishing put together to promote the book.

The Project I Made:

It took a little while to pick out the perfect first project to try from this book. I was torn between the Calculator Quilt, The Odd Socks Quilt and the 8-Bits Bird Quilt. With help from my husband, I settled on the Odd Socks Quilt.

I’m not going to give away the secrets to making this quilt, but I will say the instructions are well written and not scary at all! You need to buy the book to get all the juicy details.

I used a nice mix of white on white fabrics for the socks, scrap fabric for all the details and Hoffman Fabrics new ME+YOU batiks line for the background and the binding.

The overall finished piece is 38″ square and I long arm quilted it using two layers of cotton batting to give the piece even more texture and dimension.

I absolutely love the finished piece and have already hung it up in my home, right outside the laundry room. I am also already planning on trying out one of those other projects I wanted to make. Maybe the 8-Bit Birds quilt first? I wonder if I have any family members who would like it as a gift? (I’m in holiday sewing mode these days)

The Giveaway:

Here’s that giveaway I was talking about earlier. Samarra and C&T Publishing are giveaway away a free copy of Sew Adorkable to one of my awesome readers! All you need to do to enter is leave a comment below telling me your favorite nerdy thing. It could be a TV show/movie, book/graphic novel, video game, board game, event or anything else I’m forgetting. Let it all out!!

Now the technical details: One book per winner. Open internationally, however if winner lives outside of the US, they will receive a promo code to purchase the ebook version free of charge. US winner will receive a hard copy. Entries are open until midnight, October 26th. Please make sure your email address is correct when commenting, otherwise I won’t be able to contact you! Winner will be chosen at random, using random.org.

The Rest of the Tour:

I am just the fifth stop on the Sew Adorkable: 15 DIY Projects to Keep You Out of Trouble blog tour. I highly recommend checking out all of the other super talented and interesting bloggers and companies involved. I’ve already seen some amazing projects, and from the looks of this list, I bet all the future posts will be just as awesome.

Today’s project is from a Martha Stewart book. oooooh, aaahhhh. It’s a fabric covered bulletin board from Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts.

In the book she talks about covering an entire top half of a room with a bulletin board and frames the top and bottom in molding. That’s not something I have a huge use for. Maybe it would be neat in CT’s room one day? Maybe.

I just wanted a HUGE inspiration board, something that would cover an entire wall in my sewing room, a wall that really doesn’t have much use otherwise.

I looked at buying a commercial cork board, but the prices just weren’t for me.

The way that Martha Stewart says to do it only cost me $25! and I ended up with a 4ft tall by 6ft long board! Super Awesome.

If you would like to learn more, continue reading.

The secret ingredient in this project is a material called Homasote. It’s an eco friendly building material made from recycled paper that is compressed under high temperature and pressure and held together with a glue. You can read more about it all over the internet. It was sorta hard to find in my area of Maryland, I checked Lowes and Home Depot with no luck. I eventually found it at the 84 Lumber down the street. a 4ft x 8ft piece cost $25! It’s very lightweight and easy to work with.

The only tools you’ll need are as follows:

• xacto knife
• yard stick, ruler or measuring tape
• staple gun
• drill with phillip screw bit
• dry wall screws

We started by measuring the 6 foot length on the board, measuring ON BOTH SIDES on the same end. Make sure the line is nice and straight and visible. I used a permanent marker.

My husband did the cutting. He first cut slightly into the first side, not all the way through. Then he flipped over the board and cut the other side, again, not all the way through. By not putting too much pressure he was able to just snap the end piece off! Now I have a 2ft x 4ft leftover piece that I can use for another project.

Martha says to use store bought fabric to cover the board, but her boards were a lot shorter than mine. I thought of possibly using a drop cloth, or shower curtain. I was really set on the shower curtain, but then while doing laundry I thought of something else! How about an old sheet? I happened to have a queen sized heather grey tshirt fitted sheet that had no use anymore and was slightly worn out.

It was way bigger than I needed, and had a lot of stretch. Though if you readers out there want to try this, I’d suggest not going with the tshirt material, it was actually kinda hard to work with.

I laid out the sheet on the ground, top side down. Then I just placed the homasote on top of it. Now is the time to get your staple gun out! Starting in the middle staple down one side, then move over to the opposite side and stretch the fabric as far as you can and staple again. Keep doing this on all the sides until you get the corners. They were a bit tricky for me. I just stretched as much as possible and made it as clean and smooth as possible.

Above you can see the finished piece, before it has been hung.

I apologize for the crappy flash photo, the days just seem to be shorter and shorter.

It didn’t take many screw to get it to hang safely. The middle screw are in studs, and the rest aren’t. Homasote hardly weighs a thing.

I LOVE the way it turned out, it was exactly what that wall needed! Now I have somewhere to put all the cool things I’ve collected, the random pattern pieces and anything else super small!

Maybe this will get me motivated enough to finish the whole room.

If any of you out there try this project, I’d love to see photos!!!

I was invited to a Pie Potluck at my friend Heidi’s house, and I wanted to make her a hostess gift. What do you make a girl who can make anything? Apparently a potholder.

I guess I’m kinda lazy, because my second project is also from the Spring 2010 issue of Stitch Magazine. This time its the Wraparound Pie Holder by Rashida Coleman-Hale. I figured it matched the whole pie theme.

Normally I would stay away from a project like this. I have never quilted more than two layers, I have never made my own binding/bias tape and I have never bound anything (the correct way at least). I was determined!

First things first, I had to figure out how to use my walking foot. My husband bought it for me two years ago, while I pregnant, in hopes I’d actually finish the quilt I’d been working on for weeks. I never did. I was too scared by all the quilt layers!

Turns out it’s not as scary as it looks, plus it comes with a nice guide to make all the quilting look even. It’s my new favorite gadget.

I chose fabric I already had on hand for the front and the binding. I did have to go out and purchase some Insul-Bright insulated batting and Linen. I had never worked with either of those. It’s was almost an entire project of “firsts”.

Cutting the linen was not fun, its very squirmy. Anyone have any tips on making that part easier?

The quilting part was a lot of fun, and I loved that walking foot. It really helped to keep all the layers even and there wasn’t any bunching on the backside. Awesome!

I couldn’t find the little bias tape maker I had purchased, so I just made it the long way where you fold the fabric in half and then fold the sides in, etc etc etc. There are instructions all over the Internet to explain it better than I ever could. I attached the binding and for the first time ever hand stitched it to the front side. I actually enjoyed doing that part, which completely surprised me.

I’m so happy with how the pot holder came out, and the instructions were super simple and easy to understand. Plus now I have a nice long list of new skills. Who knows, I might even try and finish up that quilt from two years ago.

a Flight Cap by Betz White from Stitch Magazine Spring 2010. One of my favorite magazines!

CT really needed a new hat, sorta. She won’t keep hats on for more than 6 seconds, so I figured that I would make her one. If she wore it then “awesome” and if she didn’t then no loss, I made a lined hat for the first time and had an example to go with my fabric. win win.

I used fabric I already had on hand. The pattern called for sherpa, terry or velour for the interior, I only had fleece. The whole project used less than a fat quarter of each, super awesome.

It only took me about an hour and a half to cut, piece and sew together. That doesn’t mean it was super simple. I had to read the instructions numerous times before starting since there were no step by step photos and I didn’t quite understand how to attach the side flaps.

Apparently I picked up on something because the hat came out perfectly. I was so happy I actually finished a project, and in ONE DAY! (a new record for me)

Now if only I could get CT to wear it.

**Edit: I have emailed Betz White asking about where this pattern can be found. She was very nice and replied back saying that anyone who is interested in the pattern should email her. If enough people are interested she will make the pattern available online!Her email can be found on her website – www.betzwhite.com

I LOVE to buy books! more specifically, I LOVE to buy DIY books. Books on Sewing, Crafting, Building and more. Anything with pictures and directions on how to make the things in the pictures.

I have accumulated many of these books over the years. I buy each one with the intent on trying one of the projects… but to be honest, I think out of the dozens of books i own I have only made maybe 4 projects total.

I started this blog to force myself to make things and show them to the world, even if they suck. So why not combine my obsession with my purpose?

Here’s my plan…

Starting this week I will try at least one project, from a book or magazine I already own. Maybe I’ll even make this a weekly thing. I don’t plan on going out shopping, so my first project will have to be something I can make with supplies I already have on hand. Lucky for me, one of my other obsessions is craft supplies.