I'm being crafty again

A few years ago when I first started to sew, my first projects were these softies for my 2 boys and my niece. They weren't pretty but they were cute in an ugly cute kind of way.  And I was proud of them, my first sewing project since grade 8 Lifeskills. 

My boys sofites

My niece's softie

 Well, who knew these things would catch on?  The softies are pretty simple really, just two pieces of fleece cut out, sewn together and stuffed.  Add a little face with a couple of buttons and embroidery thread and voila!  Both my boys still have theirs on their bed.  And my niece has dubbed hers "Ugly Teddy" and takes it with her everywhere she goes.

My Niece with "Ugly Teddy"

My daughter was not around in the fall of 2008 when I first made these.  She was not to come until early 2010.  Recently, the Blue Bear softie has been renamed "Tweebie" by my husband as part of a new bedtime ritual with all the stuffed animals that brings our youngest son and our daughter into hysterical laughing.  It has also raised the question in her mind - "where's her Tweebie?"  So using a couple of pieces of purple fleece I had stashed in my sewing box, Purple Tweebie is coming along slowly but surely.  I will post pictures when she is all finished.
*Thanks to my friend Jill for her original softie tutorial, reposted at her blog Jill is dreaming of...
You can also check out her current giveaway for a really cute tea cozy :)
 

How to Patch Pants for Little Boys

I have little boys. Little boys are hard on pants. I don't care how much you advertise things like "double patch knees" and "super tough style" they will find a wear to wear through the knee. I've tried to patch pants before and it doesn't work well. Patches come off, or, they just look funny. So my boys have a lot of play clothes with some stitching at the knee that I don't let them wear to school or daycare. Then I saw this idea on Pinterest (original post here). It was "oh my goodness cute". It didn't look hard to do and I figured if it didn't work, what difference would it make? Well, it did work. And it's cute. And I've washed it a couple of times now and it still works!

First, get your pants with the hole at the knee as well as your other supplies.

Red and White felt, scissors, regular thread, embroidery thread and some tough needles (we are going to be sewing through denim after all.

Cut out a red oval that is larger than the hole you are patching.  Cut out some zigzag 'teeth' from the white and stitch it on with regular thread.  It doesn't have to be great, neat sewing, just stitch it on.  Cut around the worn thread of the jeans to make a mouth opening.

Place you inside mouth patch inside to check that it looks right, hold it in place with a pin and flip your jeans inside out.

(Patch inside, minus the pin).  Start stitching around the patch with embroidery thread - neatness doesn't count, we're making patch monsters for little boys after all.
Flip the jeans back around.  Stitch on 2 white circles (they don't have to match) for eyes with embroidery thread. 

And voila - the cutest little monster patch you've ever seen.  BTW - these were for my younger son who is 5, it passed the coolness test from his 7 year old brother.

How to make a little taggie toy for baby

Two of my colleagues are expecting babies in about a month. Before they went on maternity leave we had a little shower for them. I had seen a little toy like this on Pinterest and thought it looked pretty cute and simple enough to make. Some of it was guess work as I'd made my own dear daughter a mini taggie blankie when she was smaller.  Some of it I did by guess work and some of it I was helped out by the trail left to me by Pinterest.  I first saw something similar on Tatertots and Jello which led me to Mmmcrafts which led me to Chez Beeper Bebe which had an amazing little Etsy story and tutorial (totally worth reading).  Here's what I did:


First I pre-washed some soft flannel (though any soft, cuddly fabric would do), folded it to double layer it and cut out a circle (making two identical circles).

I then cut a variety of pretty ribbons in varying lengths.  I folded them in half and pinned them on one circle (good side) facing in to the centre of the circle, so all the folded edged meet in the middle.  (This is probably the easiest step to get wrong as it doesn't seem to make sense, but it will - trust me!)

I then matched the other circle up and pinned it overtop all of the ribbons, good side facing in.   As you pin the outside circle on, you need to remove the inside pins that are holding the ribbons in place.  So basically, hold that ribbon down and re-place the inside pin on top so that it goes through all 4 layers (a fabric sandwich of flannel, ribbon, ribbon, flannel).  Continue on the circle.  Now you have a nice little packet ready to sew.

Now sew around the circle, leave a space a couple of cm (just under an inch) wide to turn the toy inside out.

Once you have turned the toy inside out so that all the ribbons are now on the outside you can start stuffing the toy with stuffing.

Once filled, sew up the little hole.

Use embroidery thread to stitch on a little face.  I'm certainly no expert at this, just go for it and see what you come up with :)

 

  There are my two little soft taggie toys ready to meet the new babies!

Mama Made Dress for Boo

I picked up this polar fleece material from the remnants basket last year.  I had in mind that it would make a great winter dress for my dear daughter.  Being me and not one to follow patterns so much, I thought, it can't be that difficult to make a little A-line dress.  And it wasn't.  At least, not after I found a tutorial via Pinterest.  (I can't say enough about Pinterest!  Loving it!).  The tutorial I found at From the Blue Shed (thank you!) confirmed exactly what I thought would be true.  If I just trace one of her current A-line dresses a little bit bigger, I could make a new dress.  She was also kind enough to mention things like 'clipping along the neckline and sleeves' to finish those off properly.  Her dress  has beautiful pockets on it, which I didn't do.  I did take her idea of making one sleeve fasten with a button - so cute!
My daughter saw me start this in the evening before her bedtime and knew it was for her.  The first thing she did in the morning was find the dress, pick it up and say, "oooh!  pretty!  mine dress!"  and promptly demanded to wear it that day.  (BTW - this was literally that simple to make, I made it in one evening, and that included fixing the fact that I first sewed it together with the back on backwards - the result of sewing tired, but the sewing did relax me, so it all evens out).
Here's my daughter modelling her dress in the early morning before going to daycare - we leave the house before 7am each day, hence the darkened windows and sleepy eyes.

Yes, she did get into modelling for me, and turned around to show the back, but would only pose for a couple of pictures - the life of a 2 year old!

*On a side note, we've been getting more than a few comments lately about how much people think our daughter looks like Boo from Monster's Inc - the big brown eyes, the ponytails...it was once I put this dress on her that I realized how right they are!  Take a look:

Sadie's Quilt

 This is my niece Sadie's quilt.  It is a labour of love that began last summer and was conveniently ready for the Express Post mailing for Christmas this past week.  The pattern is called Broken Dishes.  I consider myself to be a new sewer, having only been sewing for about a year and a half (although, I'm sure 10 years down the road I'll still be considering myself a new sewer as I look in awe at some of the projects that people have done).  I'm very pleased with the way this turned out.  In truth, when I finished the quilt top, I was so in awe, I kept asking my husband to hold it out for me to view from the other side of the room.

 This quilt started in a fairly typical Kris fashion of me thinking, well, I could do that.  I fell in love with the pattern and found a tutorial at About.com quilting.  (Seriously, this is what I do, I have learned to sew by reading and watching online tutorials and asking my mom and my friend Jill questions over the phone and via Skype).  I have made Sadie a few other little things over the past few years and discovered from my sister-in-law that Sadie loves the homemade stuff.  (We live on different coasts of the country so it's nice, I think, to send a little bit of homemade from one home to another).  So after I made my bee quilt, I thought, I'd really like to made a quilt for Sadie.

 I had a lot of fun collecting all the fabrics for the quilt.  I knew instead of a stationary white, I wanted to use a variety of pinks.  I also knew that I wanted to back it with a soft flannel, so it would be cozy to snuggle up with.  The bolder prints are a variety of everything.  Sadie is 5, so I knew it should be something that would appeal to a little girl, but I didn't want it to be so little girl-ish that it would be too young for her quickly, I wanted it to be something that she can treasure as she grows up.  So there's really a bit of everything in there.  I found some fun polka-dots and cute little girl storybook prints.  I used a couple of fabrics that were the basis of the rag doll I made her for Christmas last year.  I also added in some of my 30's Storybook prints, the fabric from the dress I made my daughter last summer and other odds and ends that were sitting in my sewing box.  This quilt took a life of it's own.  Though it follows the Broken Dishes pattern, there is also the element of the Eye-Spy quilt as each block has a matching fabric pattern randomly scattered throughout to find.

I know the quilt is far from perfect, and I've already asked my sister-in-law not to look to closely as there are several mistakes in it.  It was a real lesson in sewing for me.  I did a lot of ripping out with this one, repiecing, and re-sewing.  And it really did come down to the wire.  I knew there was a deadline.  I wanted Sadie to open it on Christmas Eve and that to Express Post from where we are to where she is takes 3 business days, I had to have it packaged, addressed, and leaving the post office on Monday, knowing confidently that if it missed being delivered on Thursday, they could still pick it up on Friday (which is what happened).  The true test of my patience came on Saturday night as I was finishing what I thought was the second to last line of stitching, my needle broke.  Not only that, but it was my last sewing machine needle.  And I don't live in town.  Town is 30 minutes away and Sundays where we are, not everything is open.  Fortunately a lady in church heard my tale and 'happened' to have a stash of a variety of sewing machine needles, and offered to drop on by after service to see if she had what I needed.  (Never doubt that God answers prayer!).  I finished that afternoon with what was almost the last of my pink thread too!
The real joy came this past Christmas afternoon hearing my sister-in-law thank me for the quilt and tell me how much Sadie (and she) liked it.  I'm glad.  I'm also a little bit tickled because Andrea also mentioned how she wished we lived closer so I could teach her how to do stuff like that :)
The tutorial and pattern I used can be found here.  I did make this bigger that that as it is a quilt for a little girl, not a baby.  I made 8 squares for each row (64 squares total).  Each original square that got pieced off to be a 'broken dish' was 4"x4" instead of 3 7/8" x 3 7/8".
I hope you enjoy your quilt for years to come Sadie!

Homemade Advent Calendar

I've been wanting a proper Advent calendar for a little while now. I get frustrated with the "holiday" calendars that some out each year with the cheap chocolate for 32 days. I really don't know why they are 32 days (maybe someone can explain that to me). I've wanted one that lasts for 24 days. Counting down to Christmas. I wanted something that could have chocolate for each of my kids (3) as well as some way of showing the days beyond an empty square. I found this cute idea at Make It Do.Com. Hers is seriously cute and much more professional looking than mine. But I love mine! The backing is a Christmas style pajama fleece - the tree and red front are also in pajama fleece. The numbers on the pockets are in white felt. The tree and numbers are attached with heat and bond. The ornaments are hanging on little jingle bells (picked up on sale at Michael's!). Each pocket is large enough to hold 3 chocolates (the good kinds) and an ornament. I do have a layer of quilt batting in between the front and back.  My kids really love it (as does my husband).  I'm pretty impressed that I can make stuff like this now.  I've only been sewing for just over a year.  This didn't take me very long at all.  I worked on it for  a few nights.  I did hang it just out of my 22 month old daughter's reach.  It's a good thing too - she has come up to me a few times already saying, "Choc-it mama pease!"  and pointing to the calendar :)
 

What I'm working on

I'm taking advantage of our storm day home and chain sewing all kinds of triangles together. I'm really glad for it as these seemingly endless triangles are to be a Christmas gift for my niece this year. Just what is it exactly? Check back and see in another month, once it's done and properly arrived in the hands of its owner ;)

How To Make A Beanbag

 

This easy craft was a moment of chance this morning.  I was preparing my Sunday School lesson and realized that I needed a beanbag.  I wasn't sure if the church had a beanbag or not.  I thought, I have the materials I need to make one of those, they can't be that difficult.  They were so easy.  My kids each wanted one and it took me no time at all to get them together.  They even helped me with the filling part.

Materials:  Scraps of fabric (large enough to make the size of beanbag you want), lentils (or beans or rice, lentils really make a nice feel to the beanbag), thread, small funnel, sewing machine (though you could hand sew these)

Step 1:  Fold your fabric in half so that you cut equal sizes of rectangles.  Use a rotary cutter on a cutting mat to size out and cut your fabric - I made mine 5 x 6

 

Step 2:  Reposition the fabric so the good sides are facing each other, rough sides out.

 Step 3:  Sew the fabric together, leaving a space of about an inch open on one side (that's what you will use to turn the fabric out and stuff with the beans.

 

 Step 4: Turn the bean bag inside out so it's now the right way around.

Step 5:  Put the funnel into the hole of the bean bag and scoop the lentils into the funnel to pour into the beanbag.  (Here's my son filling his).

Step 6:  Once filled, sew the hole up.  Now you are ready to play.  *note - I made 4 bean bags today.  2 of them used scraps of quilting cotton and 2 of them used a more durable decorating fabric.  It's up to you which makes the most sense for you.

All My Squares

I finished cutting out my 30's quilt top this weekend and last night laid out all the squares to get a sense of randomness of the pattern. I had no idea that this quilt was going to be this big! It's so big! It's 15 x 15 with each square being 5 inches square. I know that it will shrink a little once it's all sewn together, but I really was surprised. Here's the randomness: I couldn't fit it all in the picture from either angle:

*please excuse the lack of light in the photo - these were taken last night at about 10pm.