Sew-Less Summer – Featuring Katy Cameron

Today is another installment in the Sew-Less Summer series.  Today I am happy to welcome Katy Cameron of The Littlest Thistle.  Katy has been a loyal follower of my blog for a while now (for some reason she keeps coming back!) and this gal never fails to make me laugh.  Our emails generally include casual references to crossing the atlantic via swimming or sacrificing goats to help a deadline happen…that sort of normal stuff. 😉

I’ve been sewing for years, doing embroidery when I was little, moving through some mad fleece garments when I was at Uni, followed by teddy bears after I graduated, a good few bags over the years, and some more structured clothes last spring.  I made my first quilt last September :o)

Hi everyone, I had so much fun creating these as part of Angela’s Sew-Less Summer series, in fact I think it’s a project that you could rope your kids into too (if you happened to have any).

I’m sure I’m not the only one that is a little mournful looking at the tiny scraps in their scrap bucket, and wishing there was a use for them, so I decided that this was the moment to leap in.  I can be quite sensible about only keeping pieces at least 1 1/2″ square in my scrap bags, because I do regretfully have to admit that anything smaller cannot be used for sewing except, perhaps for applique.  I did think I would maybe have a go at creating my own fabric at some point – one of those projects where you put the scraps between water soluble interfacing, sew like crazy all over the top and then dissolve the interfacing away, so I’d been emptying my little scrap bucket into a special ‘mini scraps’ bag for the purpose.   It was this that I raided for this project, however, it wouldn’t take long to collect scraps like this to make your own, without undignified dumpster diving in your workroom bins ;o)  I *may* have spent about twice the amount of time picking out scraps as I spent actually making these, but we’ll gloss over that for now…

You will need:

  • As many plain tiles as you would like coasters + 1 (I got a pack of 25 for £5 from my local DIY store)
  • Tiny fabric scraps
  • Mod Podge
  • Foam brush for Mod Podge

1. Lay your tiles out on your working area, setting your extra one to the side for now.

2. Arrange your scraps on top of each tile in a pleasing manner – feel free to hack them around a bit more so that they fit better, after all, there wasn’t any other use for them!

3. Once you’re happy with them, bring back your extra tile.  Coat the top of the extra tile in Mod Podge, and then move your scraps from one of your arranged coasters over on top of the glue, keeping the arrangement the same.

4. Repeat until all your scraps are stuck down, then remove your extra blank one again.  Now starting with the first tile you stuck down, brush another layer of Mod Podge over the top, making sure that you don’t end up curling any of the scraps over or moving them around too much.

5. Sit back and wait patiently to dry – be aware that this may take a while, especially if it’s hot outside!  If, like me, you’re in the ‘we’ve entirely forgotten it’s meant to be summer’ UK though, 24 hours should be plenty…

Now go off and host fabulous drinks parties just so that you have an excuse to show these off…

Thank you so much for sharing this fun idea with us Katy!  I think I need to make a drink now. 😉

19 thoughts on “Sew-Less Summer – Featuring Katy Cameron”

  1. Now this is the kind of thing I could get my non-crafty friends to do! Of course beer and wine will make the waiting time more tolerable! thanks for a great idea, Katy.

  2. So cute! My 4yo goes through a gazillion cups a day, and I've been meaning to give him a "spot" to keep his one cup in all day.now he can make his own spot!

  3. Oh, I love Katy too! She always has the kindest things to say:). These are great coasters-I have a hard time throwing away the little bits too!

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