Ages: 9 and up. Parents may want to supervise, due to little fingers having to be so close to the needle and presser foot in the first steps.

Supplies:
At least 18 yards of cotton blend closeline rope can make a 4” tall with 10” diameter bowl.
I found mine at Meijer in the laundry basket supply section of the store.
All-purpose thread in any color or combination of colors
Sewing machine that does zig-zag stitches
A pencil or chopstick for starting out, so your fingers won’t get in the way
*Optional, pompoms acrylic craft paint or ½” wide strips of woven light-medium weight fabric and various thread colors. Mix it up and have fun!

Instructions:
Set your machine to the widest zig-zag setting.
Coil one end of the rope clockwise, until it’s about the same size as a quarter.
Sew across the diameter of the coil and use a tool to help push it along, so your fingers don’t get in the way. Raise the presser foot lever with the needle down and adjust the coil, so you can sew across in another direction. Repeat this until it feels like it’s going to stay together.

Begin rotating the coil as you sew, making sure the needle goes through the sewn rope and the rope being coiled around. If you miss a couple of spots, you can go back after it’s done and sew over any unsewn sections.
When the coil comes near the edge of the sewing machine, tilt it upward with a sharp angle so the sides of the bowl start to take shape.

After you get to the end of the rope, backstitch and forward stitch about 3 times to secure the end.

*So many options!
If you want to do some scrap-busting, wrap strips of fabric around the rope just before you sew it. Send Jamie an email to sewinghive@gmail.com and she’ll send you a video of that.
You can also paint right on the bowl with acrylic craft paint.
Another thing you can do is tie on some tassels or pom-poms.

Since it’s Gift Making Season, we thought we’d give you some simple gift tutorials to try.

Cell Phone Charger Holder

by Jamie Hevener

Skill Level: Adult Beginner with knowledge of how to use a sewing machine and a steam iron
Kids may need to have an adult help along the way, especially with the steaming iron
Make sure you read over the instructions, check out the illustrations and if you have any questions, please email Jamie at sewinghive@gmail.com, so we can help.

Use a ½” seam allowance

Supplies:
Sewing machine that can do a straight and zig-zag stitch
All-purpose thread
Heavy-duty hand-sewing needle
Fabric Scissors
Straight Pins
Ruler
Iron with water for steam setting
Cell phone and wall-charger
Pen or tailors marker
2 Fat Quarters
¼ yard 808 Craft Pellon for interfacing to back of fabrics for stability
Sheet of writing or drawing paper
*Optional decorative ribbon, buttons, etc for the front of the pocket

INSTRUCTIONS
Draft Your Pattern:

Measure your phone’s width and height.
Draw a rectangle = phone width + 1 ½ “ x phone height + 4” for the back panel template.
Draw a rectangle = phone width + 2 ½ “ x phone height for the pocket template.
Trim right and left sides of pocket template with the top being the widest as sides taper to the bottom edge being = width of back panel. It will resemble a trapezoid shape.

Prepare Fabrics:

Cut 2 fabric and 3 interfacing using back panel template.
Cut 2 fabric and 1 interfacing using pocket template.
Steam press 2 stacked interfacings to one back panel, 1 interfacing to the second back panel and one interfacing to the pocket front.
*Sew any decorative notions you like to the front pocket piece now.

Sew Front Together:

Sew pocket pieces at the top edge with fabrics facing.
Turn right-side-out and press. Topstitch top edge.
Stack and align bottom edges of pocket and the back panel (the one with 2 interfacings). Sew in place across the bottom.
Adjust the right edge of the pocket to align with the right edge of the back panel and sew in place. Repeat this for the left side of pocket and back panel.

Sew Front and Back Together:

Place the other back panel piece face down on the face of pocketed back panel. Pin and sew, remembering to backstitch at beginning and end, pivoting at corners, but leave about 2 ½” unsewn at bottom. This will let you turn right-side-out.
Clip corners and turn right-side-out. You will want to use the bottom of your pen to push out sides and corners. Press the whole cell phone holder, since it will be wrinkled from being pushed around.
Hand sew the opening closed, using a ladder-stitch (as shown) or whip-stitch.

Create The Charger Opening:

Lay holder upside-down and center your charger about 1” below the top edge of holder. Draw around it. Stitch just to the outside of the lines you drew. Cut the opening on the lines you drew. (Fold in the middle of the shape and snip the center to get started cutting.)

Set your machine to a wide zig-zag stitch and adjust the width to a short stitch length. (Test on a scrap of fabric until you like the look of the stitch.) Sew around this opening right on the raw edges. I repeated this zig-zag stitch 3 times, so it would look more “finished” on the opening.

You did it!
Wrap the charger cord around the phone and put the charger through the hole into your designated phone charging wall outlet.