Family Game Quilt

  This is the quilt I made for my husband for our second anniversary.  The traditional gift for the second anniversary is cotton so I wanted to sew something.  I wanted to make a quilt large enough for all three of us to spread out on during a relaxing picnic, and also incorporate some family fun when the food is done!  Here is what I came up with: 

 The quilt has a checker/chess board, backgammon (we don't know how to play, ...yet), tic tac toe, and a bean bag toss.  The next pictures are the words on the border.  Sums up exactly what we will do on this quilt:

and enjoy being a 

 

the hardest part: 

my favorite part: 

My boys enjoying lunch. Smile.

Quiet Book / Travel Pillow

You might guess by the title that we are taking a trip soon!  I am so excited to visit my folks in Texas, but a little wary of how Peanut will travel now that he is more of a big kid.  A 3 hour plane ride is a long time to be still for a little boy who spends most days chasing his puppy and playing with his hockey stick!  So I decided that along with some other quiet toys, dvd's from my sister in law (thanks Missi!), and PLENTY o' SNACKS, I would make my boy a quiet book.  He is 13 months old and loves flip books and taking things out and putting things in, but not quite ready for coloring books (I've tried) so I wanted to be creative yet practical with this project.
My requirements were:
The book must be interactive and pack alot of activities into each page
There should be no parts that can fall or get lost (I had to ammend this rule on one page, but I think we'll be ok)
The pages must be able to be taken out and the book should be able to be added to in the future. (I love that the pages can be taken out so in the future if we have 2 kids they can each pick a page and work on them at the same time!)
I googled images of quiet books, searched them on pinterest, and just thought about what my little one likes best.  The travel pillow addition was a happy accident.  The whole book is made from thrift store felt, along with a few fasteners and some old clothes.  I had some very soft fleece and thought that maybe a cover would be good to keep it clean.  I was going to do a zipper and handles, but quite frankly I was tired and that just seemed a bit much. I just decided on a simple bag and when I folded the fleece over the book to measure it I realized it made a great little pillow!  The material is thick and the metal rings are inside the pages so they cannot be felt at all!  So without further ado:

 Travel Pillow

 Matching balloons (when you use felt you only have to use the rough side of velcro to stick) and a ribbon to tie.  All the balloon strings are long enough to reach the "wrong" colors to mix and match.

 Mr. Potato Head with a zippered suitcase for his parts.  I didn't attach the parts with string because I knew it would get tangled, but the felt cutouts are no biggie to replace if we lose a few!

The inspiration for this page came from a picture of a fishtank page with fish that could be slid along a string.

 Button flowers.  You can't see in the picture, but each flower is attached by a thread so it will not get lost.  The threads are long enough to reach any button on the page.

 This page was entirely my own idea and I am so happy with the way it turned out.  Peanut loves "Itsy Bitsy Spider" so I knew that we should have a page in it's honor.  The pipes are unattached on the side closest to spine so spider can sneak into them and also the grass is a pocket.  The sun also hides in a pocket until it's ready to come out.

 

The glove page is probably my least favorite because I just don't think it's as cute as the others.  However, this has no bearing on how Peanut will like it, and I suspect he will enjoy putting on the gloves and also playing peekaboo with the cat face.  There is also a removable (velcro) purple hand under the top glove.

I love these colors together.  Just more fasteners and bows to work with.  I had not attached the overalls hooks before and bent one of the buttons in the process slightly, but it works fine.

Ok, this is my "aesthetic" favorite...I really thought that this page would be tons of work, but I knew it was a must.  I love the barnyard theme and we are working on animal sounds (right now all the animals make a monkey sound, smile).  I wanted to include finger puppets as well, but couldn't figure out where to store them.  I really didn't want to do a whole other page, but wanted them to travel in the book somehow.  So finally I realized that if I left the roof of the barn un-sewn I could use it as a storage pocket.  I put velcro on to secure it when shut.  It ended up being a quick, easy page and Im glad I didn't talk myself out of it!

My finger puppets are rather amateurish, but it was my first time and as I said before I was running out of steam so I am proud that I got a handful done.  They are sewn around the edges and I also used hot glue for some of the facial features.
  So there it is.  I am not kidding myself into thinking that this book will entertain a 13 month old for an entire 3 hours, but I hope it will help.  And truly I think it is the most fun I have ever had sewing.  I love the combination of creativity and construction and how the pages felt (pardon the pun) like mini projects.
Hope this inspires you to make the most of some quiet time...if you have any!  Sew long. :-)

Subway Sign

Ok, so technically this is not a sewing project, but it falls right into the category of my "diy, forge ahead with reckless abandon, re-purposing materials, learn from my mistakes" kind of craft I like to share on this blog.  In the interest of giving credit where credit is due, I must mention that I got the basic layout from a blog entitled "The Winthrop Chronicles."  I used a different method however.  It was a tutorial on printing the stats on paper and gluing them to wood, whereas I chose to hand paint mine. So here is my finished "Subway" sign with my son's stats on it.

Now let me tell you exactly how I did it, what materials I used, and what I would do differently if I did it again.  Things I like...everything but the 6 lbs 12 oz.  I may even repaint it.  I think it looks like the odd man out...too bubbly or something.  I would ( and might) change it to more of a stencil or boxy font.
Here is my material list:
1. Old piece of board left over from garage shelves
2. Old house paints
3. brushes from thrift store
4. paper plates for "palettes"
5. computer and printer
Here is my wood with the base coat on.  It is our hallway paint.

Now for the nitty gritty how-to:  As with many of my projects, I didn't really have a game plan.  Just knew what I wanted the finished project to look like and thought about how I might do it.  I knew I would use printed words with different fonts and my first idea was to cut out stencils.  Here's how that went:

Oh my gosh, cutting out the numbers was VERY tedious and then it just left messy painting...ok, on to a new method.  I had read about this method before on a blog aptly titled "The Perfect Letter" and it works pretty well.  I say "pretty well" because you still need a very steady hand if you want perfection.  Thank God I don't have a need for the latter because I sure as heck don't have the first!  Anywho... This method involves taping the printed words/numbers to the wood and tracing with lots of pressure to leave an indentation to guide your painting.  The indentation was so light it would not photograph.  I recommend working under a good light when using this method.

I wasn't about to try to trace all the little details in the 8,3, and 5, so I just did the outline and painted messy inside.  Another idea is to sand paper the edges to create a distressed look.  I'm not into that style as much but if you are that's a good way to achieve it.

So here it is again.. a little leftover wood, some house paint, some mistakes, some patience, and a lot of wonderful memories of the exact moment that this sign commemorates.

Hooded Towel Tutorial

  I am excited to tell you that this is probably the easiest project I have done so far.  And I am also happy to tell you that I did it twice so you will only have to do it once!  This hooded towel is for a toddler and made from one regular size bath towel and one hand towel.  You will only use half of the hand towel so if you are buying these items you may want to buy 2 bath towels along with one hand towel to make 2 projects.  Here are my towels:  Already had the bath and bought the hand towel for 3$ at the store next door. 


Start by cutting the hand towel in half.  (Hold it as if it were hanging on a towel rack and cut at top) Once you have done that, fold it in half lengthwise and measure 6 in. in to make your "arc" shaped cut.

Now sew only what you just cut.  I suggest lining up the edges, pinning, and sewing from top to bottom seam.  Now you have your hood.

Now you will pin the hood to the towel at the center of towel and bottom of the seam you just sewed.

Then you will pin the sides to the top edge of towel.  You will have to move the towel after pinning one side in order to make the hood reach the other side.  This is what makes the towel wrap around your little one!

Here it is all pinned and ready to sew. I turned mine inside out to sew and used a tight zig zag stitch, but I don't think it really matters... Here it is all finished up!

Now I will show you the first one I made and you can see the lesson I learned:

The one on the left is the first one and the hood is too big for a child because I did not measure 6 in. from edge when cutting my arc.  If you wanted to make this project for an adult you could measure in farther, but you would also want to make the hood longer (not cut towel in half, but just some off one end).  The one on the right is success and we will use it after bath tonight!  I plan on making more and thinking of ways to embellish them.  Maybe a yellow with a Duck face?  Name on the back?  And the great thing about this is that you can make the towels ahead of time and then personalize them whenever you want.
*Note: It was actually very easy to fix my first towel.  It is actually the one Peanut is wearing in the first picture.  I just used a seam ripper and ripped a few inches off each side and cut the hood shorter, then folded the edge over and sewed.  Two great hooded towels for my Peanut for 3$!

Pocket bib from tablecloth

   I am proud to say that this is really my own, original design.  I have found that pocket bibs are so great for catching everything my little Peanut drops while eating.  Not to mention he enjoys checking the pocket for leftovers when he's done.  I think the only member of the family who doesn't like pocket bibs is the family dog.  There is alot less falling to him as he sits under the highchair...
   I pinned some sites from Pinterest on pocket bibs, but decided that if I knew the basic concept I could forge ahead on my own...which as you know is what I love to do.  Decided that waterproof fabric was a must and these bibs are made from a vinyl 60 x 84 in" tablecloth from Walmart (less that 5$).  Didn't even make a pattern for the first one.  Just free handed and held up the fabric to baby to "measure" and came out with a decent product seen here:

    I decided it could be improved upon so I set out to make a pattern and improve it with a bigger pocket and neater looking edges.

     Here is the pattern I drew and cut out of poster board.  ( I drew half and then folded and cut to make sure it was symmetrical) The dimensions for the bib part are 12" x9" and the pocket 3"x14.5"

Here are my cut out pieces:

Then I put them together and folded the bottom as it would be once assembled for pocket.

That let me know where I wanted to sew my velcro rounds on.  I wanted to sew them on before sewing the bib pieces together so the "back threading" wouldn't show.  I used white thread to match velcro.
Here are the X marks so I know where to sew!

And then here are the pieces still seperate with the velcro attached. ( BTW the detachable pocket is great because it's easier to sew this way and it is nice to undo and empty crumbs over trash. )

Then I just pinned the pieces together (yes, I hate to pin but am getting better at doing it...) and zig zagged around the edges.  You can cut off any uneven parts when you are done.  Mines not perfect, but it works great and is a big improvement from my first attempt!

If my calculations are correct, I can make about 7 of these bibs from one tablecloth.  (My calculations are correct about 75% of the time).  So that's about .70 cents a bib.  Not bad and it goes quick!

Hope this was helpful! Sew long!

Giraffe Shirt

I wanted to make a shirt for my little one to wear on his first trip to the zoo!  I purchased these stencils
 recently and found this cute giraffe.

  I knew it would be great for the front of his shirt and I wanted to put the writing on the back (like a concert shirt).  I will mention that I got these stencils for 8$ at a craft show.  They are intended for kids to use (and Im sure he will eventually) but right now I am finding them handy for all sorts of things... like homemade Birthday invitations.

 I have instructions for how to do the appliques in more detail on a previous post (click here), but here is the basic instruction:

1. Cut out (pre-washed) felt in squares larger than what the design is and adhere heat n' bond to the back.
2. Draw design on heat n' bond paper remembering that it will be turned the other way on the shirt.  Critical for letters and some designs, but not all.
3. Cut out design, iron on shirt,and sew.  If you are doing a layered design with lots of pieces like my giraffe, I suggest bonding the top pieces (i.e. spots on my project) to the base (giraffe) and sewing those first before ironing on to shirt. 

This is such a fun way to personalize a tshirt or onesie and felt is inexpensive and easy to work with!

Pool Bag

Sometimes you have an idea for a project just from the fabric itself.  This was the case with Peanut's pool bag.  I got the fabric in the scrap bin at JoAnn's for 3$.

I got the idea from where else...Pinterest of course...to make a barrel bag.  The website I used for directions is http://2littlehooligans.blogspot.com/2011/06/fat-quarter-friday-beach-comber-bag.html If you are going to make this I would suggest following that link and getting the idea, then coming back here.  The bag on the website had elastic inside for holding sunscreen which I didn't care to include.  I also decided I wanted to put my son's name on the bag.  I am starting to think I should quit putting his name on everything as I plan on having another little soon and might want to hand-down a few of these items... but I do love his name on everything.  I think I may name my next child "Lil" , smirk.

OK, so here is what I did:

Got the bowl I wanted to use to trace the circles for the base of bag. 

Figured out how much fabric I would need.  I did this by folding the fabric in two and then laying the bowl down and measuring the rest to see if it was the height I wanted (you can pick however tall you want your bag to be) and then wide enough (the circumference of the bowl plus 1 inch.)  I will remind you that Circumference = Pi (3.14) multiplied by Diameter.

 Then I cut out the pieces I would need: my 2 circles and 2 rectangles and ironed them.  Sometimes I am too lazy to do this step, but it's pretty hard to iron a round bag so I figured I should do it now.

Here are all 4 of my pieces and my pattern letters (cut out of notecards):

I folded one of the rectangles into fourths to see how I could fit the name on a "side", but ended up putting the letters diagonally.

Next you will need to put on any applique (such as a name) that you want. Make sure you have the fabric pattern right side up (top to bottom) if there is a picture.  i.e. you don't want your sharks upside down! The applique part is easy. You can see how to do this on my previous post:  click here

Then you will need to take the fabric piece that will be the outside of your bag (the one you appliqued on) and make a button-hole about an inch from the top.  I made mine down too far and don't like it. (the directions say two buttonholes, but one will work.)  I did two, but next time will just do one.

Gosh this big photo really makes it look awful...reminding myself that this is the purpose of the blog...quite humbling though.

So, the next step is to fold both rectangles right sides together and sew sides to make tubes.  Here is where I made my (first) mistake.  I just sewed them without measuring when in actuallity I shouldve measured in from edge 1/2 inch to account for the extra inch (circumference +1, remember?) Oh well....Then turn tubes right sides out and iron seams.  The next part is the trickiest part.  I hate pinning, but pin you must!  Turn tubes inside out again and pin bottoms (wrong side out) to them.  If you measured when you sewed your tubes it should work perfectly...if not, you will I(like me) have to pinch your fabric at the seam a little. 

You can see (at bottom left) where I had a gap.  I just folded it over and pinned and sewed and it was fine.  I would be a little more precise next time (gosh, I say that alot don't I?)  Smile.

Do this for both pieces and then put one bag inside the other with right sides facing.  Now you will sew around the top, leaving a hole (I'd say about 3 in.) open for turning.

Iron seams flat again and push the lining into the outer shell.  You will now sew around the top of the bag above your button hole (this is where you can fold in your turning hole and sew it up).  You will then want to sew below button hole.  Then just get a rope or ribbon or make a tie from left over fabric.  Attach a safety pin to the end to help you thread it through the bag.  All done!  Here are a few things I learned:

As I mentioned... I would make sure that I measured the 1/2 in. before sewing my "tubes"

I would not put applique or button hole(s) close to the seam.  I would also sew the top seams closer to the button holes.

It turned out okay and I learned alot.  This will not be my last drawstring bag.  I have one a friend (who really sews) made for my son's blocks and it's adorable!  I will keep on keepin' on.  Smile and sew long.