More sew news . . .

Finally, I've finished that blouse I was working on. I really do have a thing about buttonholes. Terror, is a good way to describe it. So I avoid them like the plague and never learn how to do them. Well, after a lot of agonizing I bit the bullet and tried my machine buttonholer on a piece of scrap fabric. Sure enough it didn't work. I pulled out the manual, and verified I was using the right foot, right settings, etc. Still didn't work. Finally I called the store where I bought the sewing machine ages ago. They were still in business, that was a good sign. And after I had explained my dilemma the first thing the nice man said was "you are pulling down the black guide, right? It won't work without the guide." The manual hadn't mentioned a guide and when I looked behind the needle apparatus, sure enough there was a black plastic thingy that pulled down. Then it worked just fine. Here is my finished blouse with six, count 'em, perfect buttonholes. Whew!

The blouse fits perfectly, with one exception. The neckline is a tad low for my taste. I will wear it with a camisole and I've already checked - it looks great. I did go back and alter the pattern to raise the neckline, and next time I make it I won't be over-exposed. Hmmm.

Here's the black knit shirt I made recently in a class I took called Sewing with Knits. I love wearing it, it fits like a dream.




So I'm going to make another one of the same fabric, a medium-heavy stretch knit, but this time in white. Like I said, I'm on a bit of a sewing binge!

Sew much news!

Here's what I'm working on now sew-wise! This is Butterick Pattern B6217, and it's a loosely fitted blouse I'm making out of this cotton fabric I've had for ages. Here's a closeup of the fabric - it's really pretty.


In the photo on the right, the blouse sleeves are just pinned on at this point. I'll get them sewn in today, and then I "only" have to do buttonholes (hate buttonholes) and buttons down the front, and the hem.

I have a new dress form that I got for Christmas, and it came with a whole box of padding pieces. Drat it all, I don't have the hourglass figure these dress forms have and, to be truthful, I never did. So I need to pad it up a bit to match my size.

Well that can get pretty sobering, let me tell you! Here's where you learn how much it means to you to look perfect. Not much in my case, apparently. So I padded and padded until the measurements of my doll matched me, and hoped the well-fitting clothes I would make would cover up a world of sins and shortcomings.

That said, I'm turning over a new fitting leaf and am committed to making a muslin sample of every pattern before I make it in the real fabric, just like you're supposed to. Here's my muslin for this blouse. I have to admit it didn't take long and it sure helped me figure out where to alter the pattern so it fits me. Yay!


 

True Confessions: I think this is the first time I've ever made a full muslin to test fit. Well, maybe I have in a sewing class over the years, because I've taken a few. But even then, I don't remember doing it.

I'm kind of on a sewing binge right now. I recently took a class on sewing with knits, and will post the knit t-shirt I made in class plus the knit pencil skirt I made later. These are so quick and easy, I got inspired! Of course I had to buy more knit fabric, so I have a piece of white knit to make another t-shirt and a piece of heathered blue knit to make a midi-skirt. Those are next, as soon as the red shirt is finished!

How'm I doing? Project update . . .

A few weeks ago I wrote about all the sewing projects I had planned for Christmas gifts. Now it's Truth Time - how'm I doing on all those projects? It's less than a week before Christmas, and tomorrow I must start wrapping and getting things ready to carry off for the Big Day!!

First, you know I already finished the pillowcases, which I showed you in my previous post.


Then, there was the 1906 costume for my friend who docents at a vintage farm/state park and must dress authentically. It turned out great! Here it is on the right. I gave my friend Mary the dress already, because she had a Christmas party to go to at the farm and she needed it! She just loved it and got many compliments. Yay!!









Next, I worked on the tablecloth for un-named recipients' 10-foot picnic table. I finished that plus 12 napkins, and have already wrapped it. It's sitting under the tree waiting to be delivered! Here's the tablecloth and about 6 of the napkins before I finished it. The tablecloth is a vinyl covered fabric that you can wipe clean (ketchup, red wine, you know, picnic stuff). I think they're going to love it!



After that there were cushions for sweet turquoise patio chairs. Just finished those two days ago and here they are! They're going to go really well with the one cushion she already has, which is turquoise and green striped. Doesn't it make you want to sip a MaiTai?? Or at least jump into a hammock?







And finally, the little purse for a birthday that falls right after Christmas. Such bad luck, it seems. However, it's good luck to be born into a good family, and so close to the same birthday as an Important Person, so there's that. Anyway, I always try to do a special birthday thing for this beloved family member so her birthday doesn't get lost in Christmas. Here's the little purse - isn't it cute?




I worked really hard on all these projects, and it was so much fun! Part of what made it fun was I started early - in October - so I had plenty of time to finish. Hope I remember this next year!

Have a very happy holiday and a fabulous, happy, prosperous, peaceful New Year! 2015 Woo Hoo!!

Runup to Christmas: Holiday sewing projects!

I'm so excited that I got an early start on Christmas projects this year! Don't you love hand-made gifts? After years of buying and gifting things I'm never sure my loved ones want, I've finally determined the things they want most are gifts I make myself. So fun, but best if you plan ahead. Let me tell you, staying up till after midnight sewing and crafting for the entire week before the Big Day takes some of the sparkle out of the accomplishment. I know; I've done it. Whew!

So this year I got started in October. I can hardly believe it. Here's what I'm making, with enough mystery that the recipients might not immediately recognize their gift in advance, should they read this post :-)

• One set of all cotton king-size pillowcases (COMPLETED and boxed for gifting)
• A winter dress in the style and fabric of the period for a loved one who volunteers at an early-20th century home (cut out, marked, and ready to sew)
• A tablecloth for a 10-foot picnic table (just try finding a narrow 10+-foot tablecloth in the store!)
• Cushions for some very sweet patio chairs
• If there is time, two, maybe three, adorable small purses from this Martha article

King pillowcases

I've got my work cut out for me, no?! I'll keep you posted on my progress. Here's a photo of the already-finished (yay!!!) pillowcases:

And another of the 5 yards of cotton corduroy (these 1900-ish ladies used A LOT of fabric in their skirts!) for the winter dress, which I now have all cut out and marked - ready to start sewing today. Speaking of history, did you know corduroy has been around in one form or another as a clothing fabric since the time of the ancient Egyptians? It was called "fustian" for most of its history until the 18th century when it was re-named "cord du roi" or "cloth of the king", probably a marketing ploy. And corduroy hasn't changed much since then, except today we sometimes add a little stretch to it.

Sage green cotton corduroy

Making progress! Let the Holiday season begin!

How to make zebra cushions

It's really easy to make your own cushions and accent pillows, so why are they so expensive to buy? Beats me. I can't justify it, and I often make my own. Here's some I just made for my outdoor chairs using a zebra-print fabric I bought online. So cute, don't you think?

Of course, you can use any print you want. I happen to like zebras. The most important factors to consider are durability and whether they are likely to fade in the sun. This zebra fabric is a light canvas, so it's a medium weight cotton fabric and pretty durable, although it's not so heavy that it's hard to work with. The black stripes are supposed to be sun-resistant. Time will tell.

Meanwhile I'm pretty crazy about them.

In case you want to make some of your own, here's how to make these cushions, which are called "knife-edge" because the edges come to a point all around the cushion. It's the easiest of all the cushion and pillow shapes to make.

I used black piping all the way around the edges of my knife-edge zebra cushion. Piping makes a cushion look so finished and professional, don't you think? And my method of sewing piping is fool-proof. Read on to find out how . . .

First make a pattern for your cushions. Cut a piece of wrapping paper or tracing paper a little larger than your chair seat. Then lay the paper on the chair and mark the edges of the seat. Cut along your marking and you have a pattern you can use every time you want to make cushions for this kind of chair.

Tip: It's smart to write on the pattern which chairs this pattern matches. That way, when you want to make new cushions in a couple of years, you have a pattern available without taking apart one of the old cushions. Also you won't accidentally make a cushion for a different chair that doesn't fit.


Here's what you'll need for each cushion:

• A piece of 1" or 1-1/2" foam cut to match the pattern.
• Optional: Cotton batting to wrap around the foam to soften the edges.
• Enough fabric to cover both sides of the cushion - for these cushions I used about 1/2 yard per cushion, or 2 yards for 4 cushions.
  
• Enough matching or contrasting piping to go around each cushion. Measure around the outside of the pattern and multiply by the number of cushions you're making to compute the total inches/yards you need. Look at the piping package to see how many yards of piping it contains and buy as many as you need to get your total, plus a couple of inches. Piecing the piping works just fine, as you'll see in the instructions below.
• Thread to compliment your fabric.

Use your pattern to cut 2 pieces for each cushion, adding 1/2" all the way around for the seam.

Pin the piping all the way around on the right side one of the pieces, lining the unfinished edge up with the fabric edge. Overlap the ends of the piping and angle them slightly to the outside edge. I try to put the overlapped ends on the edge of the cushion that will be to the back of the chair. Sew all the way around as close to the piping as you can.

Pin the two pieces of the cushion together with right sides together. Stitch 3/4 of the way around the cushion on the same line you stitched to attach the piping, stitching just around both corners of the edge that will be to the back of the chair and leaving the back side open. This is where you will insert your foam.



You can either wrap your foam insert with a light layer of cotton batting, or you can cut 2 pieces of cotton batting from the cushion pattern and add them top and bottom to the foam. Or you can use the foam by itself. Whichever you use, fold the foam (and batting in place) roughly in half to insert it into the opening in your fabric 'envelope'. Then manipulate the foam and smooth the fabric and foam out with your hands to fit it in the envelope. Your cover should fit tightly.

Pin the opening shut, folding under the edges, and stitch it closed by hand.

You now have a beautiful piped knife-edge cushion for your chair - zebra or seersucker or covered in hydrangeas, whatever you chose!

Hand made cocktail napkins

My friend Berta has moved to a new home, and I'm going over there to see it (and her) next week. Of course I want to bring a "Happy New Home" present, and not just a bottle of wine.

One of my favorite things that I found among my mother's store of linens was a little pile of small napkins.

We would call them "cocktail napkins" because they're much smaller than dinner napkins. I think they were my grandmother's, and I'm guessing she called them "luncheon napkins," because no decent woman would admit to any knowledge of cocktails in her day. They are obviously hand made - they are not a uniform size and they have that delicate pulled-thread decoration around the hemmed edges that women did a hundred years ago. No one has the time or knowledge for it today, which is a pity.

I decided Berta would like some hand made cocktail napkins in her new home. She and I definitely admit to cocktails, or at least wine, so let's call them what they are. And I would be willing to make them, although I'm not willing to start pulling threads.

I shopped around in my stash of fabric and found this fun dotted cotton I used a while ago to make pillow cases. It's a really nice fabric with a good cottony feel to it, and would make very cute cocktail napkins. I had enough left to make a set of six and, even better, I had already washed the fabric before I used it the last time. One less thing to do.

Using a paper cocktail napkin as a template, I cut 6 identical pieces from the fabric, each 11 inches square. This will leave me a 10-inch square napkin after hemming, which is the size of the paper napkin.

Then I started ironing. Yes, it's true - most of the process of making these little napkins involves the steam iron, and only near the last did I touch my sewing machine. This is fortunate for me, because I'm still running my sewing machine with my left foot, my right foot firmly encased in a big space boot because of my healing broken ankle. However, the future looks bright, because next week I'm supposed to try to fit, finally, into a shoe. My shoe. Here's hoping I find one that fits.

The process
Take one of the 11-inch squares and press a 1/4-inch hem on all four sides. Then work your way around and turn the hem a second time 1/4 inches and press each side, using steam to set the folds. Then, to make mitred corners, cut across each corner like this.

Holding the first fold in place, fold the corner up and join the edges of the folds to make the mitre.

This takes some bulk out of the corner's doubled double fold and leaves a nicely finished corner.

Next, press all the folds once again on the wrong side, and sidle on over to your sewing machine. I like to sew on the right side when it shows, because I'm convinced the stitch is more attractive on the top side. You can stitch on the other side if you want to, because it's easier to see that you're catching the fold. Either way will work fine.

I like to open up the length of my stitch a bit, so I set my length at 2.8. It makes for a prettier stitch and a little less bunching.

Sew the hem, whether on the right side or the other side, all the way around, pivoting at the corners. Then press both back and front again, and press into a 5-inch square.

Here's the finished result of the stitching, front and back

And here's the final stack of napkins, ready to be gifted! Hope Berta likes them!

 

Red Lace

I'm working on my old unfinished sewing projects once again, this time finishing the sarong-style skirt, which just needed hemming.  First thing, I looked through my odds and ends to see if I had any red hem binding. Nope. Everything else but red. Well, I had a bag of my mom's sewing things that I'd brought home from the big garage sale we had. Maybe in there.

I couldn't have been more surprised. Not only did I find red seam binding, I found a length of really nice red lace. My mom? Red lace? I remember at one time she was into making lingerie - slips and things like that. But I certainly couldn't imagine she'd have made a bright red slip. It just didn't seem like my mom.

Well, moms are women too, and how much do you really know about your mom, personally? Not so much apparently. Woo-hoo! Mom!

I read that Jackie Kennedy had all the linings in her dresses made with lace at the bottom, like a slip. If it's good enough for Jackie, it's good enough for me!







Lace made a lovely hem binding for my skirt. Here's the hem, and now the skirt is all done. It's possible I might wear it after all, rather than give it away. It's really pretty fabulous.

On to the next thing, which is both a wearable "reward" for having finished another old project and an unfinished project in itself. I only started it about 4 months ago, so it doesn't really qualify as an Ancient. It's a white linen skirt, lined. I haven't been sure whether I will really like a white skirt, but I've decided to make a black and white lace overskirt/apron thingy to go over it and now I know I'll like it. Maybe I'm into lace all of a sudden!

The new skirt reward

When I finished the corduroy jumper last week, I promised to make something current that I like and want to wear as a reward to myself before going on to the next unfinished project. Here I am wearing my reward, a fine-wale corduroy paisley skirt to go with the vintage aqua sweater Wayne's fashionista daughter, Marja, gave me for Christmas.

Pretty cool fabric, huh? Here's what it looks like up close.


 The light blue matches the sweater perfectly and I think the whole outfit has a 50s vibe to it. I like it quite a bit - very fun and comfortable too. I made it using an Amy Butler pattern called "barcelona skirts" that I've used several times before. In fact, my daughter-in-law Allie turned me on to it after she used it to make some skirts. It's lined, and is quite fast and easy, which is always nice - instant gratification!

Now I'm on to the next unfinished project. Here it is, a long wrapped skirt that only needs hemming. Kind of a pretty, tropical looking fabric, isn't it? I think I'll leave it ankle-length. Should be able to finish that tomorrow or the next day. I'll let you know.


Unfinished business

It seems I have even more unfinished business than I thought. (see The Hutch)  While going through my closet for candidates for donation to the White Elephant Sale, I found three sewing projects I had started and never finished. Well, to be honest, one was passed on to me by someone else, but still it was a project to be finished. Aha! I thought. The White Elephant Sale takes unfinished sewing projects - I've seen the rack of them in the sewing section. I bagged them up and happily carried them to the Sale the next time we went.

Alas. The guardian at the donation door said they had enough unfinished sewing projects, thank you very much. And I had to bring them back home.

What to do with them? I hate to throw good fabric and hard work out, but I was never going to wear any of these. Well, the Sale would take them if they were finished, of course, and two of these projects had minimum work left to do on them. It's just that I had lost interest. So why not finish them and then donate them?

I told myself: I will finish one and then reward myself by sewing something "real" that I like and will wear. Then I will do the next unfinished one, and so on until I'm done with the three.

The first was a corduroy jumper I started maybe 40 years ago. Maybe even before that. I did a really nice job on it, lining the top with plaid flannel and finishing it nicely. The only thing left to do was the buttons and all but three of the buttonholes ... all the way down the front. I think the buttonholes discouraged me. So many dratted buttonholes. I hate to make buttonholes.

So I left it forever, moving it from closet to closet and home to home. The matching buttons, all 12 of them, lived in the pocket of the jumper. Until today.

Yay!!! I just finished the jumper and I did it without having to do 9 more buttonholes, or even sewing on 12 buttons.

I sewed on the 3 buttons that I already had buttonholes for, and added a fourth to make an even march of buttons down the front of the bodice to the waistline. At the waistline, I used a large heavy snap behind and under the button.

Then I used 3 more heavy snaps down the front of the skirt and left the front open beyond that point. Styles are less conservative today than when I started this jumper - well, in some ways. That would have been soon after hippie times, and that wasn't really what you'd call conservative, was it?

Anyway. No more buttonholes, no more buttons, and the jumper is finally finished. Yes, it still fits, but it is no longer my style. I have outgrown corduroy jumpers, but someone much younger will probably love it. I'm going to send it out into the world.

One more step toward finishing all that unfinished business!

The lime dotted blouse

Gee, I made this cute lime green blouse. 

And it even has owls around the neck and on the sleeves. See? I worked hard on the fit and it fits me great. But now I realize I don't have anything to wear it with. Why didn't I think of this before? Has this ever happened to you?

Guess I'll have to make something to go with my lime dotted owly blouse. I'd better take it with me to the fabric store, so I don't mess up. Again.

Sew-very-British!

I've gotten very excited about a BBC reality show called The Great British Sewing Bee. Those who know me know I don't even have a functional TV - I mean, I have a TV but I don't have cable so I can't get any channels. I hate TV really and only use it to stream movies from the computer or to watch DVDs. Anyway, you can watch The Great British Sewing Bee on YouTube. Episode 1 is here, and there are 4 episodes total. They're all available on YouTube and, believe me, they are addicting. Begin watching at your own peril!

After watching the first two, I was so inspired I went immediately to my sewing stash and pulled out a skirt I started working on a year or so ago. I had been gifted with the fabric, a beautiful soft wool plaid, and I actually drafted the pattern for the skirt myself. It's not complicated, but I decided to put a ruffle of sorts on the bottom of it, and at that point I got stuck and put it away.

These British ladies and gents, who were pulled from the general public in London with varying degrees of expertise with sewing, really cranked me up along the lines of, "I know how to do that - I can sew that well. I'll bet I could do that even better." Well, you can see I got mildly insufferable, but the end product was good. It got me excited about sewing for myself again.

So here's the skirt with its ruffle - not finished, but all that's left is to attach the lining and hem it. Piece of cake, love, as the Brits say!

How to make a lion comforter for Baby Leo

My brother's family is exploding with baby boys! My brother has two daughters. The youngest, Kristin, had a beautiful baby boy, Lincoln, in October and Great-Auntie (me!) helped her celebrate with a baby owl comforter, because owls were the theme of her nursery. See Lincoln and his owls here.

Now Kristin's older sister Amber and her husband Jason have adopted Leo, also a darling brand-new baby boy. In the way these things are, they waited for a long time for Their Baby to show up, and then when he did, it happened overnight. Suddenly they were new parents! So the idea of a "theme" didn't happen - in fact the nursery was still a dream in their heads. When I went to get fabric for a welcome comforter for Leo, I was on my own. Well, not really, because Leo pretty much means "Lion", doesn't it, and what could be better than a comforter full of lions!? I definitely had lions in my mind.

Lan at Piedmont Fabrics, my favorite neighborhood fabric store, came to the rescue as always with the perfect fabric. First she said, "You have to make a book, because I have this great fabric with lions that is meant to be cut up and made into a book." Then we said, "Well, why couldn't it be made into a comforter with all the book pages on the front?" And that's what I did.

Here it is in my sewing room. I bought one set of pages and cut off the instructions on the side. You can see it in the photo. The remaining fabric with all the pages was 33" x 32", a perfect size for a baby comforter.

 

I also bought a yard of soft flannel baby-blue-and-white striped fabric for the backing, some soft cotton batting for the stuffing, and a ball of baby blue yarn for tying the comforter.

 

I washed the fabric front, the batting, and the flannel backing in the washer on "hot", dried them in the dryer, and then ironed them. Who wants a baby blanket that's not perfectly clean? And besides, someone (probably Amber) is going to be washing this baby blanket every other day from now on - might as well get all the shrinking out of the way from the start.

After the ironing was done, I cut the flannel backing to match the size of the lion fabric, and laid the two pieces of fabric right sides together (see photo) and pinned them on three sides, plus a couple of inches into each end of the fourth side. I machine-stitched the pinned edges together using a 1/2" seam, and left the remainder of the fourth side open so I could turn the "envelope" right side out and stuff the batting in through the opening.

 Then I used the fabric "envelope" as a pattern to cut the batting. I used two thicknesses of batting, which in this type of cotton batting results in a thickness of about 1/2". We don't want it to be too thick, because it can overwhelm a tiny baby and even restrict his breathing if it's so thick and stiff that it sticks out over his face. Not good!!

 

Stuffing our batting into the envelope is a piece of cake if we roll it up first.

 

 

 

Then stick the whole roll into the farthest end of the envelope and unroll it toward the opening. Adjust the batting inside until it's smooth and even all over. Pin the open edge closed, folding under 1/2" seam on each edge. I hand-stitched this seam closed. It could also be sewn close to the edge with a machine, but the stitches will show and it won't look nearly as nice. Hand sewing is therapeutic... let's put on some nice music and find a comfy chair.

 

Our lion comforter is nearly finished! All we have to do now is tie it in regular intervals with yarn to keep the batting inside from shifting around, and also to provide a pretty pattern. In this case, I tied the comforter at the corners of the printed book pages, more or less, and kept up the geometric pattern where the pages became irregular at the top. Here's a photo of how to tie a comforter; of course we are putting the yarn through all layers of the comforter, so a stitch of yarn shows on the back too. Then  tie a square knot on the front and clip the ends off to about half an inch long.

 

 

One more pressing, and we're finished. Here's our beautiful storybook comforter for beautiful Baby Leo!

 

The Dart Board Bib

Once in awhile you have to do something solely for your honey. My boyfriend Wayne likes to play darts. Let's change that - he LOVES to play darts. So, we looked for a good place in our home or yard to mount a dart board.

We live on a hill. Normally it's a good thing (floods, views, all that). But it's not great for darts. There's nowhere outside where there's a long enough piece of level ground to mount a dart board. So we looked inside, and we found the perfect place: the back of the door in a little hallway between the living room and the kitchen. Here's the dart board installed on the door:

And here's The Problem: As you can see, the door is made of wonderful beautiful hardwood, like all the doors in our craftsman home. So, if a darts player misses, God forbid, the dart goes into the door. This is not a problem for Wayne, who is the quality of darts player who does not miss the target. But for me? Not so much. Before we realized the extent of The Problem, I had already sunk several darts into our gorgeous door. Drat.

Obviously something had to be done. I envisioned a bib, like the kind you'd put on a baby to ward off all the food and dribble that naturally flows toward his chest. And I figured I could just hang the bib on the dart board like you'd hang a bib on a baby's neck, and it would stay put if it was stiff enough.

First I looked through my stash of fabrics to find something stiff and tough enough to repel a sharp dart. Last year I made tree skirts for Christmas gifts, and I had some leftover canvas and cotton batting. They could be used, although they were both light colored and wouldn't look so great on the door. I could use the canvas on the back of the bib.Then I found a piece of heavy dark blue denim and decided that would be unobtrusive enough for the front, and masculine enough for Wayne.

I made a pattern by taping a big piece of paper to the door over the dart board and tracing out the circle where the board was. Here's the pattern as I used it to cut out a double layer of the cotton batting stuffing for the bib:

Then I used the pattern and fabric folded in half to cut out the front and back of the bib, putting the fold of the pattern on the fold of fabric. I added 1/2 inch to all edges including the inner circle when I cut these two pieces, to allow for seams.

Using the sewing machine, I sewed a 1/2 inch hem all the way around the outside and around the inner circle of the canvas backing. Then I laid the batting on the inside surface of the back, matching all the edges, and layered the denim front over it all, pinning the denim in a 1/2 inch overlay to enclose the edge of the batting all the way around all the edges, including the inner circle. I sewed all the edges together with a 1/4 inch topstitch, dark blue thread on the top and white thread on the bobbin. It worked great, and here's the result:

Yay! It's a dart board bib, and even if you purposely miss the dart board, the dart doesn't go into the wood of the door. Instead it drops to the floor and sticks in the hardwood floor. Drat. Wayne loves it though, and that's what matters.

Another easy gift to make: Spice envelopes

Here's another easy gift you can make yourself. I've brought these as house gifts, and also plan to give some for Christmas. They're really pretty and useful for other things too - when you give them filled with little packets of spice mixes, they're two gifts in one!

This is a lined cloth envelope, filled with small baggies of spices and spice mixes purchased at a spice shop, in my case at Oaktown Spice Shop in Oakland.

To make the envelope, you'll need:
- 1/3 yard of a fabric for the outside
- 1/3 yard of a different fabric that complements the first fabric for the lining.
- a sewing machine

Cut a piece of each fabric 6" wide and 16" long. If you wish, you can cut across the corners of the top of each piece. This will result in a rounded flap, like the one you see in the photo.

With right sides together, sew the two pieces together with a 1/2" seam, leaving 2 inches open at the bottom for turning. Turn the piece right side out, taking care to pull out the corners. Press on both sides. Stitch the opening closed by hand, hiding your stitches as much as possible.

Turn the bottom up 5-1/2" to make the bottom of the envelope. Stitch along both sides of the turned up portion. Press well.

Turn down the top portion to make the flap of the envelope, leaving a little extra room at the top to account for the bulk of your spice packets. Press well.

Fill with spice packets and give proudly! Here's another photo of the envelope above, giving a peek at the lining...

All the measurements given above can be altered, making your envelope longer, wider, bigger, or smaller depending on what you're putting in it.