This was going to be a weekly feature in November, but life happened and I got interrupted. So where was I? Oh, right, making gifts in every shortening periods of time. Here is a set that I think will take a bit over an hour, but hopefully less than three. An evening's work, after the baby is in bed - that's how I measure my time these days!
1. Folding travel tote
Can you believe I have a Martha Stewart tutorial on a list of "just about an hour" crafts? Truly, though, this one is pretty straight forward. Though intended as a travel tote for gadgets and cords, it could be used as a journaling kit, a wrap for jewelry or an on-board drawing kit for a child.
2. Tee-shirt flowers
That is, flowers made from tee-shirts, or any other knit fabric. Apply them to clips or a headband, apply a pin-back to make a brooch, or group them together on the side of a cute bag or on a belt. The possibilities are endless!
3. Sock owl softie
This is the re-use edition of this series apparently. Make a cute softie owl from a sock! Gotta love cleaning out the onsie socks and making gifts at the same time!
4. Lip balm
I've made lip balm for gifts a couple of times and they have always been really well received. This can be a time-comsuming project, so I recommend you split it in two parts. Clean and set up your containers and prep the ingredients in the first session, then do the heating, mixing and filling in a second session. Use essential oils for scent. Try some fun and unusual combinations - chocolate and rose absolute, or grapefruit and mint. Yum!
5. Bandana cowl
You'd have to be a fast knitter to finish bandana-shaped cowl in an evening, which I am not particularly. But knit with bulky yarn, it will go pretty fast. It is a nice unisex pattern, too.
6. Jacket hooks from cool knobs
This last one is not a tutorial, just an idea, so I'm counting it as a bonus. I love this jewelry-hanging rack made from knobs attached to a board. I'm envisioning it scaled up, though - cool old door knobs for a jacket hanger. And really, who doesn't need an excuse to take a field trip to Anthropologie or Restoration Hardware to look at cool drawer pulls?
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