Making a Mobile Display Floor

Did you notice my lovely wood display floor in some of my recent posts?

Most of us are not fortunate to have a lovely studio space where we can set up backgrounds and displays for our picture taking. I know I don’t. So I was looking for some ideas of mobile displays. Simple things that can be brought out easily and then be put away without taking up a lot of space. I looked at the vinyl floor mats and stuff like that and besides the cost of the nice looking ones, they were still sort of clunky when it came time to figuring out where to store them when not in use.

I have a lovely friend who cut up some flooring boards. You know, the kind that slide together with little lips and slots. I am sure there is a technical term for the ridges and where the ridges go into neighboring boards but since I am not a floorer and no one will depend on my accurate use of construction terminology we will just call them slots and ridges. Just hit me that they are tongue and groove, right? All right, who really knows that anyway? Tongue and groove or slots and ridges, the end result is the same. They slide together and sort of stay in place. Once the boards are secured to something the slots and ridges hold things together nicely.

So, what to do? What to do? Nailing them down onto some big piece of plywood makes them clunky and cutting down the plywood to manageable size is not convenient. So, I had a light bulb go off above my head. I often have light bulbs flashing away up there. I tacked the boards to a canvas framed painting that I had done years ago, never liked, never got rid of, and felt no remorse in covering up. I tacked down the board with a nail thicker than the board. Then slid the next board’s groove into first board’s slot and tacked that board in place. And so forth.

Result, a handy, mobile floor that looks great for macro pictures. The frame of the canvas painting provides handy hand holds when putting mobile floor away after using. Away right now means standing it up next to the foam core boards covered with patterned paper, which are leaning against the wall on the shelf where I take the pictures. I have a few more boards that I plan to stain for a different finished look.

If you want to do this yourself, local hardware stores have cheap flooring boards with tongue and groove edges for a reasonable price. These aren’t the $20/linear foot boards. These are the $15-20 for a cello wrapped bundle eight feet high. It would look nice if a few were offset also, I think.

I just love it! It works so well and is so handy and I think the resulting photos look great. It's wonderful to have a handy friend with leftover wood from a house project who cut up a few leftover boards into the perfect working size.

Making Fabric Napkins

Fabric napkins are so wonderful to have on hand to use. I am always amazed at how many people say that fabric napkins are too fancy, a paper napkin or paper towel will suffice. Not fancy. Fabric napkins are economical, practical, and environmental. Grab a fabric napkin out of the drawer and when it has been used just toss it in the wash with towels or shirts or underwear. No big deal.

To make fabric napkins is a snap. The hardest part about making them is picking out the material. For every day casual use, just grab some canvas or twilled cotton. Just feel it at the fabric store. It should be absorbent and easy to clean. Avoid fabrics that are dry clean only. Other than that, the sky is the limit when it comes to picking fabric. You could even upcycle old towels or fleece items. That sort of heavy fabric could be difficult to hem but you could just use pinking sheers to cut fleece into 18" squares for super simple napkins. I prefer the cotton or a linen for absorbency.

I have used fabric napkins for years and years. My favorite ones are 18” squares. Fabric napkins can be made exactly like the earlier post for flannel baby washcloths. The only difference is the size and fabric choice. I suppose you could use flannel for your napkins also but I think a nice cotton or canvas will work better. But if you want to be fun, pick a colorful flannel print and use that.

Cut 18 ½” squares of your fabric choice. Serge edges. Fold over corner and fold sides down to get mitered corner and sew. You can also just straight stitch the four sides half an inch in and fray edges for a fringed effect. I have a set of fringed napkins and I don’t care for the fringed ones for daily use. I mean, they’re fine, but I notice I only reach for those when all the rest are gone from the drawer.

Have fun. Be brave. There aren’t really rules, just suggestions and guidelines to create a product in the process of having fun. See Baby Flannel Washcloths post earlier this month for more detailed instructions. 

Super Simple Fabric Bone Dog Toy

Want a quick and easy project that results in a toy for your furry friend?

Let’s face it, our little buddies shred fabric dog toys so we want to avoid spending too much money buying toys and avoid spending too much time making toys. Here is a quick and easy project. It will probably take about ten to fifteen minutes to make because of hand sewing the opening shut and it will take about the same amount of time for the dog to destroy it.

Download free PDF pattern. Or just draw a rough bone shape. That’s what I did for the pattern in the PDG.  When printing it be sure to uncheck the Fit Image box or it will slightly distort pattern. Then again, it doesn’t hurt anything. Don’t spend a lot of time fussing. Trust me, when you watch Fido destroy the toy in ten minutes you will be glad you did not spend an hour trying to get pattern to print out exactly spot on.

(Trying to get PDF to work but it's complicated. For now use image below and I will post PDF file when I can.)

Image is available as download option on Facebook page.

I cut out pattern with 1/4" extra from line for seam allowance. You can cut right on the line or add 1/2" extra room outside the line. The only difference it makes is slightly in size, depending on style of fabric. I used some scrap piled furry fleece here.

Cut out two pieces of fake fur, fleece, or your fabric choice. Sew around shape, leaving a small opening for turning and stuffing. How much stuffing you use depends on how much you want to pick up off the floor later.

Turn, stuff, and whip-stitch opening closed.

There you have it, a quick and easy dog toy!

Here's pattern in image form. You should be able to right-click and copy to print. I will work on getting PDF download available when possible.

Sew-In Labels

Using Ribbon and Iron-on Transfer Paper

Supplies:

1 ½” wide white, ivory, or light colored satin ribbon

Iron-on Transfer Paper for light fabrics

Word

Printer
Iron
Scissors

I know I posted information about labels a few years ago but here is an updated version.

I made my Robyn label unique by using a Type Mask in Photoshop with a lilac as a background but if you don’t have Photoshop you can still get some creative font and color combinations in Word. The horse image is a picture that I created in Photoshop. If you use images for labels on products you sell be sure not to use copyrighted images unless you buy the rights to use them.

I found the easiest way to create the multiple images per sheet was to copy an image into Word, tweak to get the size that I wanted, and then copy and paste the image to fill up the page. For 1 ½” ribbon I set up image to just under 1”. Once I create the master sheet I saved it to use over and over again.

Keep in mind that the image must be reversed because once you iron on the image from the back side. You can either do that step by flipping image in Word before copying it the multiple times in document. Or a lot of printers will give you the option to reverse it in print setup. My printer will automatically reverse image if I select iron-on transfer in paper type. You will need to investigate reversal options for your specific printer. I highly recommend printing on a plain piece of paper to verify final result then print on iron-on transfer paper.

I cut the printed iron-on transfer paper into strips with a trimmer and then use a scissors to cut the strip into smaller pieces and clean up excess blank space. But if you don't have a trimmer a scissors works fine. The trimmer just speeds up the process.

Cut 3” sections of 1 ½” wide ribbon and fold in half then press. This gives you a defined edge to line up image with to give consistent results. Now press image face side down on ribbon. It takes a high heat to transfer image so the little craft irons don’t normally work. You can try one to see if your craft iron is hot enough but I stick with a regular iron. When label has cooled, peel away paper.

You now have labels that can be sewn into your projects’ seams. For purses I like to tuck the end of the ribbon behind patch pockets or I will put on side of lining while making lining. You could serge or zigzag stitch at bottom edge of ribbon but it isn’t necessary. You could also iron image directly onto fabric of lining but I find that it’s difficult to see that way.

You could use fabric instead of ribbon. With ribbon the sides are finished and by folding it in half and sewing the ends within a seam the finishing is done in one step. If you use fabric you will have to finish the edges of the label.

Flannel Baby Washcloths

I started making these for baby shower gifts. The first time I made up a basket with a rubber ducky and bath items including several of these little flannel washcloths. The washcloths are always such a hit that people that get them ask about getting more.

 Cut 8” squares of flannel.
 Serge edges if you have a serger. (Sew zig-zag stitch with regular machine if serger not available.)

Fold corners then fold sides ¼” and sew.

That’s it! Such a simple project with wonderful results.