A Sewing Tip

It is not often that I come up with an original idea when it comes to sewing. However, one day while I was sewing the projects with my SIL Beth I had an epiphany, so I thought I would share it with you.

I love using my rotary cutter, mat and rulers - they make cutting fabric so much easier. But sometimes when I am cutting a longer piece of fabric and using my 6 X 24 inch ruler, I would find that the ruler would sometimes wiggle on me at the very top.  The thought struck me - why not anchor the ruler with something heavy to make the ruler stay in place?

I went to the pantry and grabbed a bag of lentil beans and voila - no more wobbly ruler!! I decided to take it one step further and I made a cover for my bag 'o beans!

Since I actually needed those lentils for a recipe, I scrounged through the pantry and found a half-open bag of kidney beans, as well as a half-open bag of popcorn.

Since the bag of lentils worked pretty good, I decided to make my bag about that size. I found some home-dec weight fabric in my bag of scraps and set to work. I just cut the fabric to size, put it wrong sides together, sewed around the edges, and left a small opening for turning. Once I turned it inside out, I filled it up with the kidney beans and popcorn. My dear SIL Becky hand-stitched the small opening closed for me (because she knows how much I hate hand-stitching!)

Now I have a nice weight that I can use to hold my ruler in place while cutting.