Pin Loom Woven Gift Bags

Weave your own gift bags!

 

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Christmas is four days away and I decided today that I just had to weave 8 little drawstring gift bags for family members! Shouldn’t be too hard with a toddler and preschooler around. Not to mention that there is paint involved. What could go wrong?

I love these bags because they can be personalized to match the recipient and can be made for any season or reason. The color of yarn and stencil do all the work!

What you need:

Yarn

4 inch pin loom (I use the Zoom Loom)

Stencil and paint brush

Paint and some form of paint tray

Scissors, yarn needle

How-to Make a Drawstring Gift Bag

Plain weave 8 four inch squares per gift bag. I sewed the squares together so they were 2 x 4, then folded it in half so it was 2 x 2 with the top open. I always sew on the inside and use the double overcast method. It seems to make the nicest looking join on the front (in my humble opinion) and is sturdy for holding things in the bag.

Next I made a twisted cord. (I started with about 16 feet of yarn, twisted it, folded it in half and let it twist on itself.) Then I turned the bag inside out, folded the top of the bag over the cord, and sewed it to the bag making sure not to sew through the cord. I centered the cord in the bag and tied a knot about eight inches from the bag and trimmed off the rest.

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I bought several stencils at the store making sure they were small enough to fit on a project 8 inches square. I turned the bag right side out, inserted a piece  of paper in the bag (so the paint wouldn’t soak through to the other side), and painted the desired scene. To give it extra pizzazz, I used a Sharpie marker to add shading.

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And voila, I was on my way to making the gift bags I needed. Excuse me now, I need to weave more squares for the rest of the gift bags!

 

Party Mix Recipe and Crochet Football Jar Cozy

Party Mix Recipe and Crochet Football Jar Cozy

The party mix recipe is a staple during American football season. And we’re jazzing it up with a fun jar cozy! We’ve tweaked the recipe to add some of our favorite ingredients. Here’s our take on the original.

While this delicious party mix is cooling…whip up a cozy or two. They are super fast and fun!

Party Mix Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

  • 6 cups Rice Chex
  • 3 cups Bugels
  • 1 cup cashew halves
  • 1 cup Goldfish pretzels
  • 1 cup Three Cheese Snyder Nibblers
  • 6 Tablespoons butter
  • ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon seasoned salt
  • 1 ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon cajun seasoning

DIRECTIONS:

party mixIn large bowl, mix together the Rice Chex, Bugels, cashews, pretzels and Nibblers. Set aside.

Melt butter. Add Worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt, garlic powder, onion powder and cajun seasoning. Pour over cereal mixture. Stir until evenly coated. Spread in 9×13 pan

Heat oven to 250°. Bake Party Mix for 45-60 minutes stirring every 15 minutes. Cool on paper towel. Store in an air tight container like pint sized canning jars!

 

Crochet Football Jar Cozy for Party Mix

Front and Back of CoziesThis crochet footall cozy fits a pint size canning jar…making it a great gift idea or fun home décor item for your next football party! Fill the jar with your favorite party mix and get into the game.

Crochet a brown cozy to represent an NFL football. Add white stripes to represent college and high school football. Crochet in pink for a feminine touch or to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness month in October.

This is a great stash buster…pictured is Vanna’s Choice (a soft and vibrant yarn). I’m particularly fond of the Raspberry football cozy! =)

The cozy tapers in the back to give the cozy a football like shape.

Supplies:

  • 1 pint size canning jar
  • Vanna’s Choice Yarn: Medium Worsted Weight (4)
  • CHOCOLATE (RASPEBERRY – optional), WHITE
  • Crochet Hook: H
  • Yarn Needle

Instructions:

Chocolate (or Raspberry)

Note: Footballs used by the National League do not have white stripes. College and high footballs have white stripes. Use White for Rows 8 and 21 if you want stripes.

Ch 5

Row 1: Sc in 2nd ch from hook. Sc across. (4)

Row 2: Working in the back loops now and throughout: Ch 1, turn. Sc inc. Sc across. (5)

Row 3: Ch 1, turn. Sc inc. Sc across. (6)

Row 4: Ch 1, turn. Sc inc. Sc across. (7)

Row 5: Ch 1, turn. Sc inc. Sc across. (8)

Row 6: Ch 1, turn. Sc inc. Sc across. (9)

Row 7: Ch 1, turn. Sc inc. Sc across. (10)

Row 8-21: Ch 2, turn. Hdc across. (10)

Row 22: Ch 1, turn. Sc dec. Sc across. (9)

Row 23: Ch 1, turn. Sc dec. Sc across. (8)

Row 24: Ch 1, turn. Sc dec. Sc across. (7)

Row 25: Ch 1, turn. Sc dec. Sc across. (6)

Row 26: Ch 1, turn. Sc dec. Sc across. (5)

Row 27: Ch 1, turn. Sc dec,sc across. (4)

Row 28: Ch 1, turn. Sc across. (4)

Finish off leaving a long tail for sewing.

ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS

1. With White yarn, embroider football threads to the peaks and valleys of Rows 11-18. There are 8 short vertical stitches that cross one long horizontal stitch down the center. Weave in ends.

2. Join foundation ch with Row 28 with a whip st. Weave in ends.

 

More Cozies in Store

coffee cup cozy patterns ebookLove this football cozy? There are more seasonal, holiday and just for fun cozies in the store in our Crochet Cup Cozy eBook. We’ve created an entire collection with 28 designs one ebook.

Looking for the cup and mug version? They’re in the ebook.

Each design in the ebook has instructions to fit Mugs, Cups and Mason Jars. Every design has a delicious recipe or fun craft.

All 3 footballs pictured at the beginning of this post are in this ebook! AND the ebook includes 4 new designs – Dracula, Vampire, Mummy and Blue Jeans.

Available in the StoreRead more about the set:

Blog: Coffee Cup Cozy Collection

Store: Coffee Cup Cozy Collection

Pumpkin Seed Recipe and Pumpkin Jar Cozy

pumpkin seeds recipeFun Pumpkin Seed Recipe and Crochet Pattern for a Decorative Jar

Just in time for fall and Thanksgiving, make a decorative cozy for a jar filled with the spicy goodness of this Cajun Pumpkin Seed Recipe! Grab some seeds and your crochet hook because we’re getting crafty!

Let’s start with the recipe. Pumpkin seeds are known to have great health benefits (good source of zinc). Spicy foods are too (Cayenne Pepper is great as an anti-inflammatory and digestive aid). This is not necessarily a low fat food, but a tasty one for sure.

Let’s get the recipe in the oven so we can crochet while it’s cookin’.

CAJUN PUMPKIN SEED RECIPE

Ingredients:

  • 1      cup pumpkin seeds (medium size pumpkin)
  • 1      Tablespoon butter (melted)
  • 2      dashes Worcestershire sauce
  • ¼     teaspoon salt
  • ¼     teaspoon garlic powder
  • ¼     teaspoon paprika
  • 1/8  teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/8  teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/8  teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/8  teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
  • pinch red pepper flakes

 Directions:
In melted butter, add Worcestershire sauce. In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Pour the dry ingredients into butter mixture and stir until blended. Add pumpkin seeds and stir until evenly coated. Pour seeds onto baking sheet making them as flat as possible.Scoop pumpkin seeds from pumpkin. (An ice cream scoop works great for this). Rinse pumpkins seeds and pat dry with paper towel. Spread on a baking sheet to finish drying while mixing the other ingredients.

cajun seeds

Bake at 300° for 45 to 60 minutes stirring every 15 minutes. Cool completely. Sprinkle with salt. Fill jar or mug.

You will need two cups of seeds (approximately two medium to large size pumpkins) to fill a pint size canning jar. Do not overcrowd the baking pan. For best results, make two pans of seeds when you double this recipe.

Now the Pumpkin Seed Recipe is Done – Let’s Make a Cozy!

cozy and lidThis festive jar cozy is great for decorating your home or office for the season. And it makes for a fun container when serving snacks (like the above pumpkin seeds recipe…just sayin’) at Thanksgiving. If you’re short on time, fill a pint sized jar with candy corn and jazz it up with this fun and quick jar cozy.

This project is a great stash buster, but we’ve used Vanna’s Choice. We love that it’s strong, durable and soft…not to mention that this line has got just the right colors for fall and Thanksgiving! In the picture, we’ve used three different shades of green…and they all look great!

Supplies:

  • 1 pint size canning jar with lid
  • Vanna’s Choice Yarn: Medium Worsted Weight (4)
  • TERRACOTTA – remnant
  • Green of your choice: FERN, OLIVE, or KELLY GREEN – remnant
  • Crochet Hook: J

LID COVER INSTRUCTIONS

Green

Hook: J

Ch 5, join with a sl st to form a ring.

Rnd 1: Working around the ring not in the stitches, 6 sc. (6)

Rnd 2-3: Sc around. (6)

Rnd 4: *2 sc, sc inc* twice. (8)

Rnd 5: Sc around. (8)

Rnd 6: *3 sc, sc inc* twice. (10)

Rnd 7: *4 sc, sc inc* twice. (12)

Row 8: Ch 16, 2 sc in second ch from hook, 2 sc in each ch stitch. (30)

Sl st into the next st on Rnd 7. Finish off, weave in end.

Attach Orange to the same st as the sl st.

Rnd 9: *2 sc, inc* four times. (16)

Rnd 10: Lift up the Vine and connect the Rnd underneath. *Fphdc, 2 sc, sc inc* around. (20)

Rnd 11: *Fphdc, 3 sc, sc inc* around. (24)

Rnd 12: *Fphdc, 4 sc, sc inc* around. (28)

Rnd 13: *Fphdc, 5 sc, sc inc* around. (32)

Rnd 14: Work in back loops only. *Fphdc, 7 sc* around. (32)

Rnd 15-16: Work in both loops. *Fphdc, 7 sc* around. (32)

Sl st in next st. Finish off, weave in end.

JAR COZY INSTRUCTIONS

Orange

Hook: J

Ch 32, join with a sl st.

Rnd 1: Sc around. (32)

Rnd 2-9: *Fphdc, 7 sc* around. (32)

Sl st into the next st. Finish off, weave in end.

More Cozies in Store

coffee cup cozy patterns ebookLove this pumpkin cozy? There are more seasonal, holiday and just for fun cozies in the store in our Crochet Cup Cozy eBook. We’ve created an entire collection with 28 designs one ebook.

Looking for the cup and mug version? They’re in the ebook.

Each design in the ebook has instructions to fit Mugs, Cups and Mason Jars. Every design has a delicious recipe or fun craft.

All 3 pumpkins pictured at the beginning of this post are in this ebook! AND the ebook includes 4 new designs – Dracula, Vampire, Mummy and Blue Jeans.

Available in the StoreRead more about the set:

Blog: Coffee Cup Cozy Collection

Store: Coffee Cup Cozy Collection

Crochet Cup Cozy Patterns

Crochet Cup Cozy Patterns – Something for Everyone & Every Season

We decided to make a crochet cup cozy or two. But once we got started, we couldn’t stop! As you can see, we made animals, holidays and seasons, not to mention wild, crazy and elegant. There’s literally something here for everyone and something for most every season!

Cup Cozies

28 crochet cup cozy patterns with recipe or craft included!

Every design we came up has modifications to fit cups, mugs and mason jars….cause you never know when you want the design for tappered cups or mugs with handles.

As we were creating our designs we thought it would be fun to create cute gifts in mason jars. So, every other week for one year, we created a mason jar cozy gift. We’ve consolidated all the cozies, included all three sizes (mugs, cups and jars), added the gift idea (recipe or craft) and created an 80+ page ebook!

Includes 3 NEW patterns, too! We have a vampire, dracula and blue jeans cozy not seen in the Mason Jar Series.

The ebook is now available in the store:

Available in the Store

Skill Level: Easy (with a few intermediate stitches)

Vanna’s Choice yarn – worsted weight (4) – was used for our cup cozies. We love the color options in this line. Most cozies were made using a H or J crochet hook, but we used hooks as small as a C and as large as L.

animalsCrochet Cup Cozy Patterns – Animals

When you make one animal crochet cup cozy…more are sure to follow. That was true for us, anyway. These are fun for Easter, Bosses Day, Summer, Thinking of You and Just Because

Here are the designs and their recipe or craft:

  • OWL – Soap Dispenser
  • BUNNY – Robin Eggs Candy
  • DOG – Puppy Chow
  • BEAR – Chocolate Covered Graham
  • LADY BUG – Greek Salad Dressing

Crochet Cup Cozy Patterns – Holidays

holiday-coziesSome holidays are super fun to crochet into a cozy. We’ll be decorating for several special occasions with these cozies. These are fun for traditional holidays like Christmas, Halloween, Birthday, 4th of July, Memorial Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Thanksgiving.

Here are the designs and their recipe or craft:

  • HEARTS – Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
  • LEPRECHAUN – Sweet / Sour Grapes
  • AMERICAN FLAG – Apple Pie
  • CUPCAKE – Turtle Cake
  • PUMPKIN – Spicy Pumpkin Seeds
  • MUMMY – Mummy Pretzel
  • SANTA – Peppermint Bark
  • TUXEDO – Chocolate Covered Almonds

Crochet Cup Cozy Patterns –Seasons & More Holidays

cup coziesIt’s fun to get into the spirit of the seasons, even sports seasons. With these cozies we’re celebrating Spring, Mother’s Day, Earth Day, Football (Baseball and Basketball) Season, I {heart} Yarn Day, Administrative Professionals Day, Chinese New Year and more!

Here are the designs and their recipe or craft:

  • DAISY – Planter
  • BASKETBALL –Caramel Corn
  • FOOTBALL – Party Mix
  • PLUM BLOSSOM – Fortune Cookie
  • FLOWER – Bath Salts
  • HEART – Yarn Ball Bowl
  • CAUSE RIBBON – Potato Soup

Crochet Cup Cozy Patterns – Wacky and Crazy

facesWe had so much fun creating cozies that we couldn’t resist making some quirky designs as well. Some of these designs are season and just for fun like Halloween, Talk Like a Pirate Day, Father’s Day, Casual Friday’s and Just Because.

Here are the designs and their recipe or craft:

  • SMILE – Sugar Cookies
  • MUSTACHE – Beef Rub
  • JEANS / PANTS – Smores
  • PIRATE – Strawberry Lemonade
  • VAMPIRE – Red Velvet Truffle
  • DRACULA – Goulish Popcorn

Crochet Cup Cozy Patterns –Available in the Store

This crochet cup cozy ebook is now available in the store. All the patterns mentioned above are included plus Fall Leaf (dirt and worms) and Radioactive (spiced tea) cozies not pictured! What a screaming deal!

The mason jar versions of these patterns are highlight free on this blog in our Mason Jar Series (except Dracula, Vampire, Mummy and blue jeans which are only available in the ebook). You can get your copy of the ebook in the store.

Available in the Store

Ebook includes 28 Designs.

  • includes Cup cozy directions
  • includes Mug cozy directions
  • includes Mason Jar cozy directions
  • includes a delicious recipe or fun craft for each design
  • 3 New designs not seen in Mason Jar Series – Dracula, Vampire and blue jeans
  • 80+ pages in ebook with step-by-step instructions

Holiday Gift Bags

Holiday Gift Bags – Perfect for Religious and Non-Religious Celebrations

holiday gift bagsNo doubt you’ll need a few holiday gift bags this holiday season. Add a personal touch and a bit of whimsy with some hand crocheted bags! These are perfect for gift giving, to decorate for the holidays or for use as totes and purses.

These bags are great for both religious and secular holiday celebrations. The turkey bag will help you gobble up some fun this Thanksgiving. The Bethlehem and reindeer bag will help you ring in a little Christmas cheer.

Holiday Gift Bags – Ornaments

turkey and reindeer ornamentAs a bonus, this holiday gift bags pattern includes instructions on making the turkey and reindeer appliques or as Christmas ornaments! The ornaments will look cute hanging on a Christmas tree or as decorations on gifts.

The turkey measures measures 6.5″ (width and height). The Reindeer measures 4.5″ (width and height) when crocheted with an H hook and medium worsted weight yarn (4). We used Red Heart Super Saver.

Holiday Gift Bags – The Details

all holiday gift bags and ornamentsThese holiday gift bags are easy to crochet and fun to make. The body of the bag is made with a half double crochet which makes it whip up quickly. The edging is beautiful with a reverse double crochet. Of course, the turkey and reindeer applique make the gift bags simply adorable.

The gift bags measure 6.5″ x 4″ x 9″ (not including the handles). The pattern includes:

  • Turkey bag instructions
  • Bethlehem bag instructions
  • Reindeer bag instructions
  • Applique and Ornament instructions
  • Bonus Bag: The Bethlehem bag using bulky yarn (5)
  • Photos, detailed instructions, gauge info, materials list and more…

Spread a little holiday cheer with homemade holiday gift bags now. They are now available in the store.

Holiday Gift Bags pattern on Etsy.