Spring Has Sprung!

Well, I have been so busy keeping my other resolutions that the blog has sort of fallen to the side. I lost a bunch of weight already, and have also been in a frenzy of organizing and purging and planning new projects... Don't worry, though, I have all sorts of craftiness to share!

I finally finished and sent the Giftmas goodies for my DearSis and all her awesome family. I know, I know, I know... it's March. Last year the gifts went out in May (I think?) and I didn't even have a good excuse, so I figure I'm ahead of the game!

Also, instead of some handmade and some store bought, this year I sent all handmade gifts. Hand knitted skirts for her 3 girls,

a car caddy for the nephew,

a crocheted scrubbie mitt for my sister (which was one of the fastest things I made, so I forgot to take a picture, of course) and just a gift card for BIL - by that point, I couldn't stand making anything else. Sorry, bro. You'll get homemade brownies next year. In July. ;)

So, here it is, the first day of spring, and love is in the air! The baby lambs are frolicking in the fields, and I'm starting to see calves in the pastures and smell the scents of spring. (I seem to forget every year that the first few days that are nice enough for me to open the windows are also the first few days that are nice enough for the farmers start spreading manure.) In the spirit of love, rather than manure, I whipped up this nifty little gift pillow today!

It has a zipper down the side, and is actually two small pillows with a heart-shaped space in between for your gift to hide.

To make this, you will need:

• 4 pieces of appropriately sized fabric, 2 for lining and 2 'pretty' pieces for the outside (we'll look at how to determine the size in a minute)
• batting or fiberfill
• zipper, velcro or other fastener
• needle and thread (You can hand sew this if you want a small one, or use your sewing machine for a bigger one. A zipper foot isn't necessary, but might make your life easier.)

See? Not too complex. Of course, I made it harder than it had to be. Cuz that's what I do. Make sure you read all the way down, and check out the "What I Learned" section before attempting!

The first step is to determine what size you want your pillow to be. I had a 7" zipper on hand*, so I determined that one side of the pillow needed to be at least that long. So I made a half-heart template, making sure that the outside straight line was seven inches long. I just used a paper plate to trace the curve, cut out my template, and made a few snips here and there until it looked just right. Make sure to leave an even seam allowance!

*Had I thought just a little more, I would have realized that it could have been any size had I used Velcro instead.

The pillow itself would have been more even, and the opening seam would have been almost completely hidden, like I wanted it to be. Of course, I went right ahead and used a zipper, not even thinking about the fact that a) I have only ever sewn in a zipper once before, and b) with my limited sewing skills, there was no way I was going to be able to successfully hide a zipper in a seam. But hey, live and learn, right?

My fabric was a really soft and slinky remnant that I had picked up somewhere, perfect for a pillow, but scary for me to work with. I debated for a while, and finally decided to use the freezer paper stenciling idea and just adapted it to my needs. I cut the pattern pieces out of waxed paper, then carefully pinned and ironed the waxed paper to the fabric before cutting the fabric. Worked like a charm!

I just left the waxed paper on while I sewed the lining and outside pieces together, of course remembering to leave a small hole (in the same place on each half) for turning and stuffing.

I pinned the zipper in place on the wrong side of one half of the heart. I aligned the two hearts, and pinned the second half to the other side of the zipper. Then I flipped the pillow over and topstitched the zipper in place, and all around the outside edge on both sides.

Then I stuffed* it. Not too firmly, remember. I turned and pinned my stuffing holes, then ran another top stitch all the way around to connect the other sides, making sure to catch the raw ends of the stuffing holes in my stitches. Unzip, et voila! A nifty pillow with a semi-hidden zipper to stash your love notes, or... y'know... other things.

No judgement here.

*All of the lint is from my stuffing - I used shredded socks. Seriously! Gives the pillow a nice weight, and is soft and comfy. They were bleached within an inch of their life before being consigned to the shredding bin, fyi, because I know my imaginary readers are all like "Ewwww..." right now.

What I learned from this project:

• Waxed paper is awesome.
• I could have sewn the zipper in at the same time that I was sewing the lining and front pieces together, and saved a few steps and a lot of time. I will do that, or use velcro to close the pillow, next time.

Making Christmas #3: Toy Car Tote

I was clicking through the internet one day and saw a little tote for toy cars, with pockets for the cars on one side, and a play area on the other side, that folded up and had a carrying handle. I loved the idea, and after weeks of thinking it would require much more than my feeble sewing skills, I had found enough courage to try it. So of course I couldn't find the web site again. After hours of fruitless googling, I figured that there were a few design features I hadn't been crazy about, anyway, so I would (as usual) just make up my own pattern and (of course) just wing it. And here is my version of a toy-car tote - nowhere near as cool as the original that inspired it, but super-simple to make, small and portable and enough to keep that certain little boy entertained on the go. Enjoy!

This is how to make the toy car tote I made for my nephew, out of an old shirt. First, find an old cotton shirt, or some sort of leftover fabric. I chose the shirt because it was a slightly heavier, durable cotton, but you could use any type of fabric, I suppose. This was a women's large, and I had more than enough fabric.

Next - measure and cut your fabric. I just pinned an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of craft felt to the shirt, and cut around the edge through both layers of the shirt to get 2 pieces of fabric. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. The cat even helped out.

Now you will add your "road". Pin it 2" in from one short edge on the right side of one of the pieces of fabric. You will notice I forgot to embroider the yellow lines on the road before I sewed it on - it is not fun trying to embroider them on afterwards, so if you want them take care of it before this step!

Pin one end of your elastic, and use your cars to see where you need sew down in between, like so. First one car, pin to mark it,

Then the next car, pinning to mark, and so on.

I found that 5 cars fit well on this size fabric.

Sew next to your pinned markers, going back and forth a few times to make sure the elastic is secure. Make sure you sew the edges, too. Turn your piece and sew the long edges of the "road" to your fabric.

I also neglected to put on a handle at this step, when it would have been easiest. If you have a piece of nylon webbing, that would work great as a handle. Pin one piece to the bottom, with the handle part pointing towards the center of the carrier. I know it seem counter-intuitive, but it works. Promise. Lay your two pieces of fabric right sides together, with the handle sandwiched in between, and sew down one side, along the bottom, and up the next side. Reach in, grab the handle, and turn. Ta-daa!

After that, raid your recycling bin for an old cereal or cracker box near the same size, and cut it as shown. Since I was using paper sized fabric, I just cut the front of the box to 7 x 3, 7x3, and 7 x 1-1/2.

Maybe there is an easier way to do this, but I don't know how, so this is what I did - put one piece of cardboard in to the bottom of the "bag" you made, between the two layers of fabric. Leave a small allowance so that you don't sew through the cardboard, and sew across. Insert the 7" X 1-1/2" piece of cardboard, leave a small allowance, and sew across. Add the final piece of cardboard, your second handle if you're using handles (the ends tucked in between the fabric pieces with the handle part out and pointed toward you), and fold the ends under. Pin and topstitch across to seal it shut. Sew on a button to keep it closed when it's folded up, and yay! Done! Fill it with cars and give to your favorite little boy!

Feeling Crumby

I know I promised to post one finished project each week in October, and I thought at the time that maybe that was a bit too ambitious, but the only way we can grow is by challenging ourselves, etc., etc., and so on and so forth. So the plan was, after a whirlwind weekend planning and executing a fun birthday celebration for Thing2, I would set myself down and finish one project before the weekend (and the whirlwind planning and executing of an anniversary celebration for DearHubs and myself).

Well, the Universe had other plans for us, and the evening of Thing2's birthday, we were blessed with a completely useless transmission in DearHubs relatively new used car. So the rest of the week was spent getting the car diagnosed, priced, and making the decision to buy a new used car, and looking for another vehicle. So please, be sympathetic and understanding, and accept instead of the glorious finished project that I had hoped for, a small, quick how-to.

How To Make Your Own Bread Crumbs

Does this seem obvious? Maybe it does, but it took me a little bit to figure out the fastest, easiest, neatest and quietest way to go about this.

But, you say, why would I bother? Bread crumbs can be bought at the store cheaply and much faster than making my own.

True, but as I tell my kids, just because you can buy something doesn't mean you have to, or you should. And besides, maybe you are out of breadcrumbs and don't want to waste the gas to go all the way to the store for a 99 cent can of breadcrumbs. That's actually how I started making my own breadcrumbs in the first place. so if you are interested, here's the quick, emergency method of making your own breadcrumbs.

You will need:

• Bread - of any kind. I have used hot dog buns and sub rolls; potato, 12 grain, and rye bread; and just plain old sliced white bread. Whatever you have is fine.
• An oven, toaster, toaster oven, or microwave.
• A heavy duty plastic bag (I have an old Malt-O-Meal cereal bag that I use over and over again for this purpose - the plastic is tough and durable, and much better than even freezer bags. )
• A rolling pin, or glass, or bottle. Or even a rubber or wooden mallet.
• A sieve or colander with larger holes.

Step One -Toast your bread. If you are using rolls, fitting them in the toaster might not work out so well, so you will want to use the oven, toaster oven, or microwave method.

• In the toaster - Toast the bread to a light-med brown, then leave it in the toaster until it's completely cool. The residual heat in the toaster will dry the bread out nicely in just a few minutes.
• In the oven or toaster oven - break your bread into chunks, place on a tray, and bake at about 350 for maybe ten minutes. Not so long that it burns. Turn off the oven and let the bread remain inside while the oven cools. (This is actually my preferred method for making bread crumbs - when I have enough stale bread that I feel I'm ready to make crumbs, I put the pieces I've collected on a tray and leave it in my oven while it preheats to cook something else. After the dinner is out of the oven, I pop the tray back in and let the bread dry some more while the oven cools down. Works like a charm, and doesn't use any extra energy!)
• In the microwave - again, break up the bread into chunks, and place on a plate. Microwave on high for 30-second intervals, rearranging as needed, until the bread becomes firm and crumbly.

Step Two - place your bread in your bag, and seal it well. I mean really well. If you think you've sealed it just fine, check again to make sure. You do not want to move on to the next step until you are sure you've sealed your bag well.

Step Three - or as I like to call it, relieving stress! Crush the bread with your rolling pin, glass, wine bottle, or mallet. Very satisfying. If your bag isn't sealed well enough, you'll find out! Crush thoroughly, but don't pulverize the pieces of bread. You want crumbs, not dust.

Step Four - Pour the bread remains out of your bag, into your colander (which should have a bowl or a tray or a plate underneath). Shake the colander gently, or stir the bread bits with your hand to encourage the crumbs to fall out. When the crumbs that are falling out get bigger, and few and far between, you're done. Mix with your desired herbs and spices, then store (or use, if you're in a hurry!) your first batch of homemade bread crumbs!

Wondering what to do with the bigger bits left over? You can re-crush them to use for crumbs, if you like, but I store them and use them as stuffing!

Please excuse the awful cell-phone picture, my camera seems to have wandered off.

And now, because I am not shy about sharing the wrong way I do things as well, let me tell you some inefficient and unhelpful ways to make bread crumbs that are not nearly as fast, easy, quiet, or neat as this.

• The first time I tried making bread crumbs, I just shredded the stale bread as small as I could with my fingers and stored it in a jar. I thought it was dried out enough, but when I went to use the bread crumbs, I had a jar of mold. Eww.
• My next attempt, I toasted and dried the bread, broke it up into bits with my fingers, and threw the larger bits into the blender to break up. The result? Flour, more or less. Eww.
• Having figured out a successful system for drying/toasting the bread, I thought maybe grating the bread with my hand grater might work. It actually worked well, the times I did do it that way, but - this method left random larger chunks in with the bread crumbs where the bread would break instead of grate; it was messy as all get-out; and also too noisy for my DearHubs. Apparently he needs to hear as well as see while watching championship baseball games on television. Pfft. Plus it takes forever.

While this isn't technically a finished project, I hope it helps at least one person out there. Off to wait for the tow truck to pick up the old new car...

Doggie Beds

We recently decide to crate-train our dogs. Even though both are seniors, its been working really well (for us, anyway - the dogs don't seem to be as thrilled about it!) but the crates themselves - well, they're just ugly. And the plastic liners in the bottom of the crates were uncomfortable for my poor arthritic old dogs.

I finally decided to do what I could about it. I had priced some of the beds and cushions available, and they were either prohibitively expensive or too hard to wash and take care of. So, my pups used their ratty old dog bed and a fleece blanket.

Beautiful, huh? I had been puzzling over what to do about the problem for a while when I came across this while cleaning out a closet :

If you're not quite sure what it is, it's a foam mattress topper. We used it for the old guest bed. This one has actually been around for a while, so I didn't feel too badly about cutting it up.

I used my super- precise measuring method of looking at it and guesstimating, and cut it about an inch smaller on each side than the tray that fits in the bottom of the crate.

I also had a pretty, unmatched old top sheet that I had been keeping around, trying to find a use for. It's just a twin sheet, but it was more than enough fabric for both dog beds. I folded it in half horizontally (right sides together) and cut using the same measurements as before (that would be none) but I left an inch or so extra on either side for seaming, and cut down the whole length of the sheet to the fold. You will have some excess fabric if you do this, like so:

That extra length will be useful later on. After I cut the fabric, I simply pinned it, and stitched up both sides from the hem to the fold. Essentially, I was just making a big, long pillowcase. (These are the longest seams I have ever attempted, and they were harder to keep straight than I thought they would be, even with pins!) I turned it right-side out, lay the foam in the plastic tray, slide the plastic tray and the foam in to the case, folded the edge under the tray and slid it back into place under the crate.

Ta-daaaa!

It was greeted with muted enthusiasm, but I think it looks great.

*Edit - I used an old cotton sheet, but I will be replacing this cover - probably with some cotton duck or upholstery fabric - down the road. The sheet didn't stand up well to the dogs 'nesting' habits. On the bright side, though - my larger, more arthritic old pup now loves her padded crate and lays in there even when she's not told to.

For The Man Who Has Everything

My DHubs is a hard guy to buy for. Mostly because I am a complete sucker, so we buy him pretty much whatever he wants when he wants it rather than waiting for special occasions, partly because he has expensive tastes, and also because I prefer to make gifts, not buy them, and he's just not into that. I'm okay with that most of the time, but sometimes the stars align and he gets a homemade gift or two.

This year, it just worked out that he got 2 handmade gifts to use in his office, and he seemed to really appreciate both of them. I never get to see his office, so they may just be stuck in a drawer somewhere, but he said he liked them, so I'll just take him at his word.

One gift was the ultra-cool Baseball Bat Hanger and Stand, the second was this business card holder. I hadn't planned on making it for him, the way I had the stand/hanger, but we found out about his promotion right around the same time as Father's Day, so I wanted to give him a little something extra. I was just winging it (as usual), but here's my best explanation of how I made it.

Business Card Holder

Materials:

• scrap wood (I used an old 2x4)
• Hand miter saw and box
• Sandpaper
• wood burner, or paint (optional)

This is so simple to make, but there was some trial and error involved and the directions are not exact, so if you have any questions, please comment below.

Cut approximately 3" off a scrap 2x4.

Using the 45-degree angle of your miter box, make two cuts, approximately 1 inch in from the back and the front edge, as shown:

Please excuse my wonky paint illustrations.

Next, make a cut straight into the 45-degree notch you made, like so:

Now, simply sand the edges and decorate as you'd like. My original intention was to decoupage one of his new business cards to the front bevel of the holder, but he didn't have any yet, so I tried to wood burn the front of it instead. Because of the age and softness and heavy grain of the salvaged 2x4, it wasn't as professional-looking as I was going for, but he swears he likes it, so I believe him.

If anyone makes this, good luck and please post pictures!

Batter Up!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my sister? She's pretty cool. My DH had a milestone birthday recently, and she was on the ball so to speak (~giggle~) and worked with me to get him a pretty awesome gift. She knew that the Things 1&2 and I were going to take him to the

Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown for his special day, so she got him a bat engraved with his name and a message.

He absolutely loved it (I knew he would, because I had to work pretty hard to distract him from buying one for himself while we were in new York!) and he immediately wanted to display it, but... we had no way to hang it.

There are hangers available out there, as well as display stands. Some of them are all fancy and laser-engraved, and some are even reasonably priced, but I hate buying something that I know I could make myself. I searched the internet to see if I could get some tips on how to make one, but for once the internet failed me! I found not a single thing about making them, just ads to buy one. I was amazed,because they seemed so simple to make. Well, I cleaned up my rarely used basement workshop, and the spiders and I spent some quality time together while I figured out how to make a baseball bat hanger for my dear DH.

I just used what I had available, and as usual I was completely flying blind, but I'll explain it all as clearly as I can and give you my suggestions for doing it better than I did.

The holiday coincided with DH getting a promotion at work, so I also made him a business card holder for his desk. That was pretty simple, so I'll throw it in, too.

Baseball Bat Hanger or Stand

I designed this to do double duty, since DH's office has cement walls and he can't hang it there, but he may want to hang it if he decides to display it at home instead.

Materials and tools:

• 4 wood screws (at least 2" long)
• Wooden board. I used an old 2x4 I salvaged. For both the holder/hanger and the business card holder, I used less than a 3ft length.
• Jig saw
• Drill with standard bits
• 2" paddle bit
• Sandpaper
• Wood glue
• Wood burner, felt, picture hangers (all optional)

Okay.

This is my first attempt at a tutorial slightly more than basic, so bear with me, and feel free to ask questions in the comments section below.

First, measure, measure, measure! My brain hurt from all the math I was doing, because I'm one of those people that just eyeballs things. So, this was definitely outside my comfort zone.

Measure the neck of the bat (handle? Not a sports person, sorry) just under the knob at the end, and the widest part of the barrel. A flexible tape measure, like for sewing, will give you the circumference, but mine went MIA just when I needed it so I used a ruler to measure the width, and just used that number. It worked out fine.

I used centimeters because doing fractions gives me hives, and got 3 1/2 cm for the neck measurement, and 6 cm for the barrel.

So now I know that the parts I cut out (where the bat will rest) need to be at least 6 cm long, but I added some length for stability. I believe the final measurement I went with was 10 cm, but this ended up being a bit too thin, and when I was jigsawing the base where the barrel of the bat would rest, it broke. This was probably partly because I was using an old board, but I would recommend doubling your largest measurement, which would be (because bats are pretty standard) 12 cm.

Cut 4 pieces of your 2x4 to this length. One will be notched out for the top of your bat, one will be notched for the bottom, one will be the backing to the top and the last one will be the backing piece to the bottom.

Still with me? Okay, here we go. More measuring. Deep breath.

Take one of your cut pieces and mark the center by using a ruler to make an x from corner to corner. Determine what you want to be the front of your piece and draw a line from the center of your x to the front of your piece. It should look like this:

We good?

Okay.

Now measure from each side of the line you just drew along the front of the piece, and mark 3 cm to the right and the left of the line. Use these lines to draw a curve to the center of the x that mimics the curve of the bat. I actually stood the bat on my piece of wood and traced the curve, which worked pretty well. Use your jig saw to cut out the curve you just drew. I found that cutting through the center line to the middle of the x, and then along the curve from each side to that point worked well. Sand the inside of the curve and along all the edges (except the back ones!) really well.

Almost halfway there!

Mark the center of your next piece of wood in the same way, with an x, and then draw a line to the front like before, and another to each side. Your piece will be marked like this:

Measure 1 1/2 cm to each side of the line you drew to the front of your piece and mark. Draw a line from each of these measurements to the second line you drew. Now your piece is marked like so:

Now, those of you who are mathematically sharp are saying "Hey! Our measurement was 3 1/2 cm, and that's only 3 cm wide! What gives?" Or maybe not. But this is slightly narrower because the neck of the bat flares at the end, so making this measurement narrower than where we measured means that the bat, once placed lovingly in its handmade display hanger, will be locked in securely enough to not accidentally fall or slide out.

Now, after securely clamping your wood to your work bench (found out the hard way that this is much safer than trying to hold it - ouch!) take your 2" paddle bit and place it with one edge on the center of your x, and the center of the bit on the line you drew to the front of your piece of wood. Drill about 3/4 through the piece of wood and flip it over. You should be able to see where the center of the bit has already punched through the back, so use that to center your bit (remembering to secure the wood first!) and drill through the remaining 1/4. Turn the piece back over, use your jig saw to cut along the last two lines you drew (the ones marked in red on the diagram), and sand all your edges except for the back ones.

Hooray! Almost done!

Now, spread some wood glue on the back narrow edge of your top hanger, and align with the bottom of one backing piece. Clamp and let it dry.

Apply wood glue to the back edge of your bottom hanging piece, align in the center of of the second backing piece, and let it dry (clamping this seemed awfully difficult, so I deemed it unnecessary).

After about an hour or two, these pieces should be stable enough that if you'd like, you can use wood screws to secure them. Just make sure that you drill pilot holes and countersink your screws. I would think that glue would be sturdy enough to hold them, but I screwed them together because I didn't have time to let the glue dry. Sand all the sharp edges, and decorate!

I -again, because of time constraints and because I liked the look of the salvaged wood- just used a woodburner to add DH's initials, but you could paint this or seal it and really make it look amazing. I glued felt to the back so that it would not scratch DH's desk (because I forgot to countersink my screws - again, do as I say, not as I do, I made the mistakes for you!) but if you wanted to hang this on the wall you could either screw it directly to the wall from the front, or use picture hanging hardware to hang it.

I'm worn out, I will have to post how to make the business card holder separately. Good luck and I would love to see pictures if anyone makes this!

Sister-In-Law Summer Apron Guide

My SIL is big into the holidays - she always goes all-out with the decorating, creating themes and generally making a big fuss. Christmas, Halloween, New Year's Eve, Easter, Fourth of July, birthdays - all are cause to get the house dressed to the rafters, and the people, too.

I've noticed that aprons seem to be coming back as a trend lately, and she has a few themed aprons, so I thought she might like a nice picnic apron to wear for their many backyard cookouts. Add to my inspiration a neat black and white checked shirt in the donation bag, and this apron was born.

Modeled by my nifty dress form (with my favorite Tshirt preserving her modesty), this apron looks longer than what it actually is, although it is longer than a standard apron, falling to below the knee. My SIL is pretty tall (taller than me anyway) so I made this a bit longer than I would need it, using the whole front of the shirt from just below the collar, all the way to the hem. For a shorter person or just a shorter apron, you could very easily adapt this to be a bib apron, with a tie around the neck and ties added at the lower edge where the sleeves are cut off.

Anyway, to make this, all you will need to do is find a suitable shirt. I chose this button down with a collar and a pocket (because aprons need pockets), but most any shirt should do.

First, iron the shirt. I hate ironing, and avoid it whenever possible, but this will make your job much easier.

Now, cut the shirt straight across as close to the neckline as possible, without involving the collar. Then cut off the sleeves along the seams. You can pick out the side seams, but this shirt was very ruggedly constructed, with jeans-style side seams, so I just cut them out, as well.

Pin the button plackets together, and run a straight stitch up both sides of the buttons, through the top and bottom layers. I disguised my stitches in the seams that were already there. Now your buttons look cute, but they won't come undone.

Hem your raw edges. I used a plain old ruler to make where the shoulder seams were cut out more angled rather than curved, by measuring an equal distance from the buttons to each shoulder seam and marking it, then cutting off the excess and folding it over twice and hemming.

I made the ruffle by cutting two 3" wide strips from the back of the shirt and sewing them together to make one long strip. I then hemmed the bottom edge, ran a basting stitch through the top, and ruffled it as I pinned it to the bottom hem of the apron. (Here is a great tutorial for making ruffles. It's sooo much easier than it looks!)

All that was left to do after that was to fold over about an inch of what used to be the neck of the shirt, and sew all the way across to make a casing for the waist tie, thread the tie through the casing (I used a piece of salvaged woven cotton tape, hemming the ends so they wouldn't ravel) and voila! new apron!

If you want to go the extra mile, you can add an appliqué, like I did. The fabric reminded me of a picnic blanket, so I decided a watermelon would be perfect. I just cut a triangle out of red craft felt, a semicircle out of green felt, and sewed them to one corner of the apron where it looked right. Of course, it wasn't until after I had folded it all neatly, tied it with its own strings, and taken this picture

that I realized I had forgotten to embroider the watermelon seeds. {sigh} I did get them done, in the car on the way to her house. I thought about embroidering a line of ants across the bottom, too, but decided against it.

Hope this is inspiring, and if you make a shirt apron using this idea, I'd love to see a picture of it!

Pants-tastic!

I am a recycling jeans-ius! This is a fun, cool, and super easy way to stretch a few extra months out of those old jeans that your kids worn out but haven't outgrown yet, and recycle some that they have. All you need is heat bond (and an iron, of course), a marker, scissors and some old pants.
I cut a large piece of fabric out of some old jeans, and ironed the heat bond sheet to the back before trimming the edges. This way, the heat bond isn't wasted or accidentally ironed to the ironing board. I'm clumsy like that, so I try to think ahead.
Then, I just did a Google search for silhouettes, printed them and cut them out (or you can just freehand, which is what I did with the splat), traced around them on the back of the heat bond with the marker, cut this shape out of the heat bond fabric, and -after checking to make sure the design would adequately cover the hole in the pants we are trying to save- ironed said shape to aforementioned pants. My children now are certain that I rock.
Thing 1 got the splotch, Thing 2 got the bat.
ETA: After a few washings and dryings, the patches did start to pull away from the jeans in certain spots. Maybe it was just the type of heat bond I used, maybe I didn't heat it well enough during the initial bond, whatever... just letting you know it may happen, so it might not be a bad idea to add a running or blanket stitch along the edges of the patch once it's ironed on.




And I had another pair of jeans to recycle, so I made this little cutie... I just cut the fabric into strips and crocheted the jeans-yarn into a bowl. It looks even better filled with Mrs. Meyers laundry and dish soap samples.