The May Pin It/Do It Challenge: Soap and Skirts

Trish is once again hosting a Pin It/Do It Challenge.  The title says it all - find something you have pinned on Pinterest, and do it.  It can be a craft, recipe, decorating idea, book you want to read - anything you have pinned.  I love these challenges for the motivation.  Dave even gets into it sometimes.

In fact, Dave helped with the first craft for this challenge:  Mason jar soap pump.  The idea came from a post by Julie on Babble, and it's pretty obvious.  Don't know why I hadn't thought of it before.  Drill a hole in the lid of a mason jar, insert pump, fill with soap.  Voila!  

I bought inexpensive soap from the dollar store to get the pump. The original instructions included painting the lid and ring, but I chose to leave mine as they were.  Dave drilled the hole with the largest bit he had, then reamed it to the proper size with a large metal punch.  This worked well because we could enlarge the hole in small increments until the pump fit in snugly.  On our second attempt the drill bit left some jagged edges that Dave smoothed with a Dremel.  This made the hole a touch too large, but a dab of glue handled that.  

My second project didn't come from a pin, it came from my mom.  She spotted these cute "candle skirts" at a friend's house during Christmas, created her own and gave me one to use as a pattern for making more.  The original was intended to use on a medium size pillar candle, but I don't use many candles in my home.  But aha! ..it fit perfectly on a mason jar so I combined the two ideas.  I'm not really a lace-and-bows kinda girl so my version is accessorized with ocean-themed charms in my beach-themed bathroom:     

                                          

Mom's version is created from a rectangle of fabric, laid wrong side up, top and bottom edges folded inward to overlap slightly  The lace is placed over the raw edges and top stitched - joining the edges and adding the trim all in one step.  A second row of stitching creates a casing for the elastic. Insert elastic, sew ends of fabric together and add bow (stitch or glue). 

Since I wasn't using any trim to cover the raw edges, I made a tube from two rectangles of fabric - the back is a coordinating print that is barely noticeable along the ruffle.  I then added rows of stitching to make the casing and hand-stitched the ribbon and charms.  If you would like more specific measurements and instructions, let me know and I'll post pictures of the process.

A second mason jar soap pump, skirtless so far, holds dish soap by my kitchen sink.  Now I'm picturing mason jars and skirts everywhere - holding buttons in my craft room, candy on the coffee table, homemade goodies as a gift . . . endless possibilities.