My newest idea, and a thrift find!

I was struck with an idea last night while in the kitchen with the kids.   I think it might have been inspired by my sewing machine cover on my chair.  I had the idea to make a little pouch thingie for the back of the kitchen chairs to store some creative supplies within arms reach of my son when he’s sitting down.  I also figured it would come in handy once he’s at school for completing homework, we can keep pencils and other supplies right there and not have to worry and fumble around looking for things.  So I went to my trusty sewing machine once the kiddies were in bed and whipped this up,

I still need to play with the design a bit, I’d like it to roll up and be portable so you could grab it and go, in the van, to Grandma’s off to the park, whatever. I’m hoping to make it fairly universal so it would fit almost any kitchen or dining room chair. It attached with ribbon that I just tied, thought that was more universal than sewing loops. The fabric is from IKEA, I wanted something kid friendly but not too loud and obnoxious for the kitchen. I have no idea how one is supposed to make a pattern but I relied on my trusty chart graph paper and sketched and cut a template out yesterday while the kiddies ran about.

It’s a very high tech process. Hopefully I can get to making a second one tomorrow.

In unrelated news, every other Tuesday I have my ‘night out’ with my bff! Lately I’ve taken to dragging her to thrift stores. Last Tuesday I found this and loved it!

It reminds me of my Nanny and all my summers spent at the trailer at the lake. Trailers and cottages always seem to have random vintage/retro stuff in them like this. Plus my Nanny, like most Grandparents, was happy to keep things around as long as they still worked, even if they were older than me. My favourite was the avocado green electric knife she had that didn’t actually turn off unless you unplugged it from the wall . . . because that’s safe!! I miss you Nanny, thanks for teaching me to knit and showing me how to cook a turkey, love you.

Another project from the other night.

The night I managed to get 4 projects done this was the second one, a baby lap taggie blanket.  I made these for my son about 4 years ago before he was born and I’ve been making them since to give as baby gifts.  They’re the perfect size for in the stroller or car seat.  Something to keep their legs a little bit warm, or out of the sun, and it has fun tags to play with.

I really like the cute little marbel print on this one.  In the past I’ve used fleece for the inside, this was the first time I tried that super soft minky stuff.  It was a bit of a pain to work with but it is waaay nicer to touch.

I was at a baby shower yesterday and along with the adorably cute baby girl clothes I shopped for I added in a pink taggie blankie I had made.  I was flattered when it was the only gift passed around the room and everyone ‘ooohhh’ed and ‘ahhhh’ed over it.

Moda – yet another crafty addiction

Ok, shopping online is way to easy and fun.  You can find things you wouldn’t be able to get otherwise and then one day you check the mail and SURPRISE! you’ve got a little present waiting for you!  Too cool.  This week I got some fabric in the mail (not the first time that’s happened) for this child’s activity bag project. I thought it would be nice to make a little tote bag for the boys with some fun activities in it that we can . . . tote around with us. So off to ebay I went to order what I needed, and a few days later it arrived!

I’m still dying to make this stripey table runner but I’m having a terrible time finding a 1 Figgy Pudding Honey Bun and a 1 Moda White Jelly Roll. But guess there’s lots of time before Christmas.

I finally got the fabric I needed for my Valentine themed craft. I’m hoping to get it finished over the weekend, but here’s a little glimpse of the felt embroidered pieces that I’ve already finished.

Why staying at home with the kids rocks.

Today is my day off, I work every other day, so 2 days one week, 3 days the next and repeat!  Last week on one of my days off we stopped at Michael’s to pick some things up and Wesley just randomly asked to go see the bird houses.  He said he wanted to get one so I figured we’d run with it.

We grabbed some sealer to spray over it once it was painted and some birdseed to fill it with.  He started by painting over the windows, which I had covered in tape, but he was really into it.  After some redirecting, he got the hang of it and was painting the wood.  He started with blue paint but I wandered off to put Nate down for a nap he ended up pouring some pink and white into it and stirring it up.  So it ended up mostly purple.

After many, many coats of varathane I figured it was good enough and we filled it with food and I hung it outside.  Then I had to move it so we could see it from the kitchen window and avoid going out into the freezing cold.  I haven’t seen a bird at it yet but hopefully someone will notice it’s there soon!

Cheap fun! and reuse before you recycle!

The other day I thought I was pretty smart when I got out a roll of transportation stickers I had kicking around and made Wesley a little paper with a road, train tracks, an airport, water and a train station (that looks a lot like a dog house I know).  He had a blast sticking on all the stickers and making a cool picture.  He asked to do it again a few days later.

Today after setting up my lovely table from IKEA I brought the box upstairs to flatten out and draw some roads on.  We made roads to Grandma and Grandpa’s, our house, Nana’s, some of our friends houses, the preschool, the indoor play place we hang out at and “Daddy’s friends’ house”.  I tried to get some specifics about who those friends were but that was the only answer I kept getting.   So while Daddy indeed have friends, apparently Wesley isn’t too concerned with their names.

That's 'Mommy's van' and 'Daddy's car' in the dirveway.

Of course after I had drawn all those places and added some trees, bushes and flowers Wesley requested an airport.  Into city planning mode!  I found some space behind the preschool for it.  Hope Grandma and Grandpa don’t mind.  When they got their 17 acres out in the country they probably didn’t think an airport was going in across the street.

Christmas tree action shot, and a match for baby bro.

Managed to get Wesley to sit still long enough to take a picture of his shirt.  He thought I was taking a picture of the front end loader and dump truck he parked in front of the Christmas tree.  I did take a picture of them but I moved slightly to include Wesley in the shot.  Once the flash went off he realised what I had done and said ‘No! Not me! The trucks!!’

Then I got ambitious and made a matching onesie for Baby Nate.

Ribbon Christmas tree t-shirt.

Made this today for my big little guy. I didn’t take an action shot for fear he’d get something on it and I hoped he can wear it out tomorrow.

I picked the red and green design just to make it look a little boyish. i didn’t have a star button for the top, and I was eager to finish it so it’s a circle, I’m sure he’ll cope. I cut the ribbons and planned them out based on the sayings. Then I stuck them to my new friend, Steam-A-Seam and ironed away. Once again, I am impressed.

I came across the idea online in the last few days but can’t find exactly where. Today when I searched in google I found some other tutorials on it as well. So while I can’t claim I invented this craft I also can’t really know who did. But I do know it’s neat, easy and I like it!

Santa’s plate, when he’s at our house.

I made this plate earlier this year to use as our special Santa plate. I figured we could bake some cookies and heap the plate with them on Christmas Eve. Sadly, we’re travelling this year and I don’t want to risk breaking it by taking it on a bunch of airplanes so it won’t get used until next year. I am debating adding a mug to match. I mean Santa needs a drink to wash down all those yummy cookies!

Crayon cozy – attempt #1.

Thanks to this tutorial I was inspired to try a crayon cozy.   It was fun and I only  made one ‘oops’.

I even got fancy and added my own little lable to it.  I did however make a mistake when cutting the pieces and for some reason it’s about an inch too short.  The result is it only holds 15 crayons rather than the 16 it should.  So out you go Red-Orange, who needs you anyway when there’s Orange and Yellow-Orange!?

I got a little bit inventive and added a button and elastic closure.  I’m a pro at that after my car cozy and playmat.

Tags: crayon cozy, sewing, toys

Soft book tutorial.

I tried to make notes as I went along, and take pictures, but it’s hard enough creating something from nothing and then to document it as well!! But here it goes.  Using some advice from Bella Dia, and what I think is my own good sense here are the steps I used in making my fabric counting book.  Hopefully it’s enough information to help you create one too.

1. Plan – First, because I was lounging at the TV when I was struck with this idea, I sketched out my plan for each page. Knowing what materials I had on hand helped me decide on the page designs.   I made the pages like this:  1 sun, 2 cherries, 3 blind mice, 4 triangles on a kite, 5 fingers on a hand,  6 flowers, 7 colours in a rainbow, 8 fall shapes, 9 buttons and 10 bows.

2.  Cut – I cut 10 pieces of fabric, 6 1/2 by 6 1/2 square. I was going to make the cover out of some other material but I decided in the end to use the same fabric and cut 2 more pieces. So you’ll need 12 altogether, split if you want to vary your prints.

3.  Create (I know it’s a vague step) – Based on your ideas for each page just go to work creating them on each of the 10 squares. I used a variety of methods to put my pages together.  Here’s a layout of all the pages before some finished touches and before they were assembled.

I used Steam-A-Seam, applique, yarn, rick rack, buttons, embrodery, ribbon, rubber stamps and paint to complete all 10 pages.  See my previous post for close up shots of each page.

4.  Page assembly – Pin pages 2 and 3, right sides together, here’s where it takes some thinking, leave the side that will go in the ‘binding’ of the book open for turning.  It’s going to covered by the printed fabric so it doesn’t matter about finishing that edge.   Since I placed all my numbers in the top left corner it was a bit easier to remember what side to leave open.  Turn and Press.  Repeat for pages 4 and 5, 6 and 7, then 8 and 9.  Sew, turn, press.

5.  Cover creation – Since I decided not to use my original cover pieces I went back and cut some from my linen.  But my supply was running low and I had to cut 6 1/2 by about 6, leaving me a bit short.  So I cut a piece of printed fabric to use as a ’spine’ for the book.  I accidentally put my fabric where my cold drink of water had been and it got a bit wet, ignore the spots.  I zigzagged stitched the spine to the front cover and back cover of the book.

6.  Personalize – Attach any sort of label/saying you want on the back page of the book.  Fabric stores have those cute, ‘Made by Mommy’ or ‘For Someone Special’ labels that would work well here.

7.  More Personalizing – Decorate the front cover, I personalized mine and embroidered it.  You could appliqué it, or sew some 3D embellishments on.  Then when finished, sew page 1 to the spine, leaving the binding side open for turning.  (Name blocked out for gift surprise protection)

8.   Cover assembly – Sew page 10 to the back cover, right sides together, sew on the top, right and bottom leaving the left side open for turning.  Then sew page 1 to the front cover , sew on the top, left and bottom, leaving the right side open for turning.

9.  Loop – I also attached a little loop piece of fabric, it was about 2 1/2 by 3 and I just folded it right sides together, sewed along the long side, turned it and pinned it to the top of the binding.  Sorry for the busy pattern of my ironing board.

10.  Top stitching – Top stitch around the edges of all the pages, as close as possible.  I used a brown thread so it showed on all my pages.  You could get fancy and change threads but at this point I was excited to get finished, hence the lack of photos.  Lay the book cover/page 1 and page 10/back cover page flat.   Fold over and press the book spine part to make a little hem.  Top stitch all around that piece.

11.  Inserting the pages – Once I finished all my top stitching I carefully set the pages inside the book making sure to line all the edges up along the inside at page 1 and 10.  Then I realized just how thick my book was and wondered how on earth I was going to get it under the sewing machine foot!!  I’m relatively new to sewing, and mostly I learn just by trying stuff out so here’s what I did in this situation.  I put the pages in, secured with some pins, folded the cover over the book and then slid it under the machine foot in the middle of the spine where it was thinest.  Then I sewed down to the bottom of the book and backstitched.  Turned the book over, inserted it where my stitching started and went in the other direction to the top of the book.