Create: Sew a Felt Star Ornament

Boy, it's been a while, hasn't it? I've been here, just busy with life and not taking enough time to document all of it. But! Today I have a simple kids craft to share with you, just in time for Christmas.

For her birthday, Hailey asked for a sewing machine. She is 5 and has never touched a sewing machine, but she has watched me and decided she wanted to try. I was not about to spend money on her own machine without seeing her sew first, to be sure this is something she really is interested in. Instead I made her a small sewing kit with some essentials to get sewing. Life became busy and we never found the chance to take some time to sit down together and work on a project. Finally one afternoon in a search for something Christmas crafty for Hailey and her friend to do for some quiet time I decided it was time to pull out some of those sewing supplies and have that first lesson in sewing.

We made felt star ornaments. I'll show you what we did.

You will need:

• embroidery needles (for the beginning sewer- they are nice and big and easy to hold onto) 
• crochet thread (it is found by the yarn and is thicker than normal thread, which makes it easier for little hands to handle. You could use embroidery floss as well.)
• water soluble/disappearing ink marking pen
• felt
• star pattern (print one here)
• fiberfill (not pictured- whoops!)

I began by marking a small dot every 1/4 inch or so around the star on the front and the back. This was to help guide the girls in their needle placement so they would end up with reasonably even stitches.

We had a quick chat about the seriousness of using a real needle and I pointed out that the tools used in sewing are not toys. And then I armed them with pre-threaded needles and showed them how to move from one stitch to the next.

They loved it. "This is easy peasy banana squeasy!" Oh that made me happy to hear! I was unsure if they would really sit long enough to finish the simple project or if they would lose interest after two stitches.

Sew on they did. I did have to sit right next to them and help them solve their small issues and occasionally gently encourage them to keep going.

Once you get about 3/4 of the way around the star stop and squish in a bit of fiberfil to give it some puffiness. Then continue stitching the star closed.

When they sewed all the way around the star we pushed the needle back through the very first point we made, right through the knot.

Leaving a small loop of thread to hang the ornament by I slipped the needle underneath the last stitch and tight a knot tightly.

Tada! It was finished. The girls were so excited to have sewn an ornament all on their own. Hailey's hangs proudly on our tree. The first thing she did when her dad came home from work that evening was to show off her fine work to him. Fine work indeed!

I'm hoping she's game for another sewing project in the future and we'll keep working on those stitches. In the meantime, I think this little star is adorable. It makes my heart happy to see it hanging on our tree. My little beginning sewer's first project. :)

Create: Sew a Simple One Seam Child's Skirt

What is it about skirts that little girls love? It is a major struggle for me to get my daughter to wear pants or shorts. It usually requires a lot of talking it up and compromise on my part. Or a lack of anything else to wear due to my slacking on the laundry. :)

Well, if my little girl is going to insist on wearing a skirt everyday of her life, I need to at least provide her with an assortment to choose from so we're not wearing the same one over and over and over again. 

Enter: my quick cheaters method of skirt sewing. (Or really, I guess it is skirt resizing. However you want to look at it.)

Really what this takes is finding a cute (preferably low cost) already made skirt at the store, and sizing it down.

I have scored great deals on knit mini skirts in the women's section at H&M. When sewing for kids, the key really is to find mini skirts, because they are already the right length for short child legs. This past spring I found a few different skirts on sale for $3 and less that I thought would be adorable on Hailey.

Step 1: I began with a skirt of Hailey's that is already the right size and set it on top of the bigger skirt to gauge sizing. 

Step 2: I then factored in about 3/4" to 1" extra to account for a seam allowance. Use a rotary cutter to cut off the excess.

Step 3: I ran it through the serger. Easy peasy. If you don't have a serger, simply use a zig zag stitch so the fabric is still able to stretch like it should.

This skirt quickly became one of Hailey's favorites. It has the best colors and the proper amount of fantastic twirl. 

This works for making pencil skirts as well. Hailey has a couple of those she sports too. If you spot a great deal, this is an easy, minimal effort way of sewing a skirt. No hemming, no threading elastic through the waistband; just one cut, one seam and then you're done!

(Depending on the length of the skirt and the size of your child, you may need to hem a little bit. Hailey wears a size 5/6 and the length of skirts has been perfect on her. If you need to hem, but don't want to, just roll the waistband up. It works, and no one will notice, promise. :)

Create: Infant Hooded Towel Tutorial

Where has the time gone!? Seriously, anyone else feel this way? It seems to be that this time of the year gets busy, busy, busy for us. Nearly non-stop busy. Preschool is out, swimming lessons are in, and the park is calling our name. Besides that we have a wedding coming up, (My little sister is getting married and I have been trying to help out with preparations as much as I can. Some of which I'll share with you another day when I have a few more extra minutes.) family from both sides coming and going over the course of the next month and an entire backyard to tear up and redo.

We've been playing where we can, but nothing super structured. Come fall we'll start up again with fun activities. :)

In the meantime, while I'm trying to slow down just enough to catch my breath, let me share with you the tutorial I shared over at Someday Crafts back in March.

The crafting series for the month was Crafting for Baby.  My brother-in-law and his wife were due with a baby boy, so I chose to make a gift for them. I have been wanting to make new hooded towels for my girls (and still haven't done it!), so I thought I might try it out and make one for baby boy.

I know I haven't posted much sewing on here recently, but I really do love it. It is my happy place- sometimes it's just hard to get myself there. Besides a love for sewing, I also love monsters. I think they are adorable and just plain fun!  Once I spotted this monster fabric at the store, it was pretty much a done deal. The hooded towel became a monster hooded towel. You can use this same pattern to make a non-monster hooded towel, just skip over the applique parts.

Ready to get sewing!? (Just FYI: This tutorial is for an infant hooded towel (ages 0-18 months)

You will need:

• 1 yard terry cloth
• 1 yard cotton fabric
• scraps of white fabric
• scraps of black fabric
• small pieces of  fusible web (like Wonder Under)
• pattern (found here)

All seam allowances are 3/8" (the edge of the presser foot for me).

Step 1: Print out the pattern, cut out the pieces, and assemble the hood piece (labeled A, B, and C).

Step 2: Cut the terry cloth down to 30" x 30". You will have some fabric left over, save it, you'll need it for the hood pieces. Also cut the cotton fabric to 30" x 30". Take the excess terry cloth fabric, fold it over lengthwise and pin and cut out the hood pattern piece (like in the image below). 

Using the scraps of white fabric, and the white of eye pattern piece cut out the eyes. Use the white fabric to cut out the teeth as well. Do the same with the scraps of black fabric and the pupil pattern piece.

All cut and ready to sew! (This image is missing the teeth, they were an after thought.)

Step 3: Following the product instructions, iron the fusible web to the back of the eyes, pupils, and teeth. Peel off the paper backing.

Step 4: Lay out the eyes and teeth on one of the hood pieces. Make sure the eyes aren't too high or close to the edge, remember the seam allowance (3/8"). I placed the eyes approx. 1 1/2" from the top of the piece, and approx. 2" from the side. See the image below:

Iron in place.

Step 5: Applique around the eye and teeth pieces. I used a zig-zag stitch. I set the sitch width to 2.5 and the length to 1.5. The scrap fabric I used was knit, which doesn't fray, so a small zig-zag works fine. If you use a fabric that fays easily, like cotton, you may want to tighten up the stitch width.

If you haven't ever done applique don't be scared off by it! I hadn't either until this towel. It really is pretty easy, just go slow. Take your time and it'll turn out great! Around the curves, if you need to, don't hesitate to leave the needle down, lift the presser foot and pivot the fabric slightly. Tight curves can be tricky, doing this helps a lot!

Step 6: Now take both hood pieces. With the right sides together, stitch along the bottom of the hood. Turn right side out and press.

Step 7: Use the corner rounding piece to round the edges of the 30" x 30" pieces of fabric (both terry cloth and cotton). Either pin the piece in place and cut around it, or use a pen with disappearing ink to trace around the pattern piece. 

Step 8: With the right sides together, pin all pieces in place. Sandwich the hood between the terry cloth and cotton fabric.

Step 9: Starting in the middle of one edge, sew the towel together. Be sure to leave a 6 inch gap so you can turn it right side out.

It is helpful to mark the gap with double pins, so you don't accidentally sew it closed.

Step 10: Turn the towel right side out and press. Topstitch around the towel, closing the 6 inch gap.

You're done! I know it looks like a lot of work, but it really is pretty simple. The most time consuming part is cutting out the fabric and assembling the monster hood.

Do you share my love of monsters? Check out my zipper mouthed plush monsters (or Munsters) too!

I'm Guest Posting Today: Monster Infant Hooded Towel

Hey all! I'm guest posting over at Someday Crafts today as part of their Crafting for Baby Series. I am sharing a tutorial to make this monster infant hooded towel.

I know I have been a little sparse in posting recently. I've been busy working on this tutorial and playing outside with my girls. The weather here has been fantastic!  I have a new post to share on Monday, so be sure to check back then! And of course, click over to Someday Crafts and check out my tutorial, plus the others that have been shared by other bloggers.

I’m Still Here!

Gah! I didn’t post once in April. Not once! Shame on me.

April was a productive month for us, I’m just not completely ready to share all of the details yet. But, here’s a sneak peak at some of what we’ve been up to.

Stay tuned.

P.S. I really can’t decide on a color scheme for this blog. Any suggestions? 

[Tutorial] Reverse Applique Love Pillows

I kind of dropped the ball on Christmas this past year. I was due to have Keira, who was born 12 days before Christmas, and I was feeling extremely unmotivated. I really wanted to sew for family members, but just couldn’t get myself into it. I had ideas for my brother, Curtis and his wife, Chelsea, but I couldn’t decide on anything.

I still really wanted to make something for them. I was thinking home décor, of some sort. So, when I saw these his and hers pillowcases, I got an instant idea and knew that’s what I wanted to sew.

Reverse applique love pillows! I love them. I think I'll have to make a pair for our home as well.

What is reverse applique? Applique is stitching a design cut out from fabric onto another piece of fabric. Reverse applique is cutting out a design from the main fabric and having a secondary fabric sewn to the underside so that it peeks through the cutout. That is what I did. Let me show you how.

I Have a Project in My Head and Felt on My Table.

I picked up some felt at JoAnn’s the other day. I’m excited for what I’m going to do with it. I hope it turns out like how it’s pictured in my head. Prepare for some sewing to come. Yipee!

Mod Pod in Malibu from Michael Miller

P.S. Isn’t this Michael Miller print so fun!? I have no idea what I would ever use it for, but I just love it. I need to think of something to do with it so I can buy some.

Sewn Sandwich Bag Toppers

Kyle and I team teach the 12-13 year olds in Sunday School at church. They are fun kids who love to talk (mostly off topic.) We really like to have fun with them and get to know them. We’ve thrown a few homemade pizza parties at our house recently, which are some work, but totally worth it.

I decided to bring in treats this past Sunday. I made my favorite chocolate chip cookies. I wanted to tie them into the lesson somehow, but couldn’t think of anything. So I gave them a quote that went along with the lesson. I decided to put two cookies in a sandwich bag (one for each child), typed up the quote, printed it on cardstock, and sewed it onto the tops of the sandwich bags.

This is such an easy way to jazz up packaging goodies without a lot of money or extra crafty things. I used the same idea for party favors for Hailey’s friends who came to her birthday party. That time I used clear plastic sacks I found in the party aisle at Target.

Sorry the stitching is so hard to see.  I used light blue thread that was already loaded on my machine. And I did this in the evening, so the lighting wasn’t very good. Excuses, excuses. I know… :)

Seriously, this is so fun. I think just because it’s quick, easy, and gives good results. I used InDesign, you can use Word, or whatever program you’re comfortable with. Just make your text area the width of your bag, I think my sandwich bags were about 6 1/4 inches. I made them 4 inches tall, so when it is folded over the top of the bag it is 2 inches on either side. Keep your text on the lower 2 inches (the upper 2 inches will be on the back), and leave about 1/2 inch on the bottom for stitching. Print it out on cardstock, cut it out, fold it in half, insert the top of the sandwich bag all the way into the fold and sew a straight line.

I sewed about 1/4 inch away from the edge.

Voila! Super cute packaged cookies.