I’ve been a bit of a slacker lately with my online classes.  Don’t know if my brain just isn’t into it because I’m not in school right now and it’s still vacation or what, but I managed to get my act together and finish the tote project we were assigned in Home Ec.  Actually, not only did I finish it, I finished it twice!!  I decided to make the boys bags for when we go to the library.  I also thought they’d be a good place to keep the library books during their stay in our house so I can find them easily when it’s time to return them.  But now I’m thinking these bags are so cute they’d make great overnight bags too.  I used my cricut to cut out some big letters on cardstock and used those as a template to cut the felt.

I did make this a few days ago, LA included the tutorial from her blog as a bonus in the class, but I’ve been making those for months so it doesn’t really count as part of my ‘homework’.  I added the rick rack to be fun, and cause myself some headache, I still haven’t perfected the use of that stuff!

You can’t really see but there are little brown, pink and white birds on the first pants.  I added some brown with white polka dot fabric to the inside to make rolling up the pant legs more fun.  On the second pair of pants I actually cut the leg shorter and added that bank of green apple fabric so when she grows bigger and can’t roll up the pant legs they’ll still look like they have a fun contrasting cuff.

Now I just have to get her counting book all done!

Well I managed to get some time to myself today and was a mad sewing . . . machine?  I made 3 taggie blankies, and I must say working with that soft wonderful minky stuff is a bit of a pain.  Then I made my son a shirt.  I’ve had the plain white one sitting there for ages and ages.  Since I was in a taggie sort of mood I whipped up a taggie steggie!

This was the last taggie blankie I made and words cannot describe how totally soft and wonderful the white fuzzy side feels!  Plus the fun bright retro fabric is pretty cool too.

Got a few things lined up to work on while watching a movie.  Let the productivity continue!

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

A friend had given me a bag of hand me down baby clothes and there were some onesies in there that would be too short for Nate.  I cut them right at the bottom to make them into little t-shirts. I used Steam-A-Seam to stick the number 1 on.  But I was still worried it would be a bit short and wanted to add some length so I made my own bias tape to add to the bottom of the shirt.  Can’t wait to see him in it 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!

Looks like the car cosie you say? Ohhhhhh scroll down my friend.

When I gave Wesley his car cosie he thought it was pretty cool.   However, he looked up at me after a few minutes and said, “Where’s the rest of the road?”.  So I thought of making him a playmat, he has mats with roads on them already, but I thought one from me would be neat.  Then today I noticed he had all construction vehicles parked on his cosie and thought I’d make him a construction site playmat instead.  I even have the perfect fabric (which is also part of my work in progress car cosie for Nate).

And so once again here I find myself creating from scratch.  Not using my grid paper this time, but I will jot down the measurements of what I’m doing and make a template later.  BUT I asked myself, why make it just a play mat? what about the vehicles? does he have to carry his car cosie as well?  So I had the idea to incorporate the car cosie pocket idea into a parking lot and then the vehicles are stored easily and the playmat could fold and roll up just like a larger version of the car cosie!!  I’m getting pretty brave for a ‘sometime’ sewer.  Here’s how I’m doing it.

1. I have a construction themed fabric for the backing (18 x 22, from Walmart’s craft section), black for the road and parking lot, yellow for the lines, green for grass, brown for the dirt and a patterned stone print for here and there.  I may have to break out the Steam a Seam again for the appliqué, we’ll see.

Fabric selection

2.  I cut a piece of black fabric to be the pocket (10 x 22), fold in half and iron. I sewed it to piece of black fabric to be a road in front of the parking spaces ( 8 x 22, just because). I suppose you could just cut this all as one piece and press twice to be pockets and a road but I wasn’t being that logical. Attach the pocket piece to the road piece by sewing along the raw edges.

3. Pin it at about 3 inch intervals, leaving 1/4 for seams. This 3 inch part was a bit ‘ishy’, I eyeballed it after I didn’t like the 3 inch spaces. Sew along those lines over the edge of the fold a little bit. One tutorial I read said to be sure to backstitch as those pockets are going to get a lot of use from little hands.Then I got out my new love, Steam a Seam and cut out little yellow lines which I ironed on over the pocket stitching. I recommend not sliding the iron around the fabric but rather use a lift and press technique as those little yellow lines might jump onto your iron and get all sticky and messy. Just saying, it could happen.

Parking lot in progress

Voila, a pocket.

4. Decide how big you want your construction site.  If you attach the pocket piece at the edge of your outside material your mat will be around 18 x 22 inches total.  Depending on your needs and the child that might be big enough.  OR if you want more play for your buck you can slide the parking lot up a bit, cut a ‘filler’ piece of fabric for the outside, some nice co-ordinating print perhaps and have a bigger mat.  I had a scrap of black so I added a couple of inches to mine, making is almost square, 21 1/2 x 22.

Wrong side with strip I added for more space.

5.   Now it’s time to get wild and crazy!  I didn’t want to use interfacing but wanted to add some weight to the project, so I cut a piece of white lining to fit the entire area.  Then I marked off where my pocket/road section would end.  Then it’s time for a bit of freestyling to fill up the construction site!  Lots of mud?  dirt? a puddle of water? some grass? pile of wood? pilons? whatever!  Fill  up the remaining space either quilt style or appliqué with scraps or prints picked special for this purpose.

Decisions, decisions.

Rough plan (sorry for the sun)

6. Once you have that all worked out sew it to the lining. First I went all around the perimetre with a straight stitch. Then I used a zigzag stitch and just went around everything with black thread. I figured it’s a construction site it can look a bit rough. I also hope it stops fraying and secures the pieces down from my 2 little munchkins.

Look close for zig zags. Wesley was waiting at the machine and ran off with this to play. So no detail picture.

7. Now we got my trusty friend Steam a Seam out again and placed some mud puddles here and there. This part was fun because Wesley could help me do it and it can hide any stitching or spaces you just don’t want anyone to see.

Wesley wanted to put them all in the big mud area in the middle. I stifled his creativity and moved them around a bit to where I wanted them.

8.  Now put things right side together, sew all around, remember to place an elastic for the button and leave an opening to turn. I put the elastic loop in and sewed all around leaving the space across from the loop open to turn. Then I came upstairs and put some cars and trucks into the parking spots, rolled it up and got a feel for where a button should go. Then I reached into the hole and attached the button.

10.  Time for some top stitching fun!!  Turn the project right side out and press to get a nice crisp fold. Top stitch all around the edges of the project.  If you’re a quilter you can even get fancy and do some stitching around the playmat (not on the parking lot!).

I'm sure I have these all set up wrong, Wesley will fix it in the morning.

11. Ta da!

All rolled up and ready to go!

Things I learned:

- I should make my patterns and do my thinking during the day so I just have to follow steps at night when the kids are in bed and I try to sew.

- Lots of black scraps, left over from mistakes, isn’t so bad.  It can be parking lots on some other playmat.

- Having yellow thread on hand would have saved me a step.

- I need a bigger cutting mat.

- Don’t tell your child what you’re doing when making them something cool they will really like. It makes things go slower.

I got it home and cleaned it up and was inspired to make Wesley a smock for all the dirty painting and colouring he’s going to do.  Essentially it’s just a big bib.  However, I did add the challenge of making it reversible (although my husband said if it’s for painting why would you want to reverse it)  and I decided to add an appliqué design.  Here’s the sort of tutorial.

Things I learned:
- Bias on very curvy bits is not fun. In future I’ll just sew right sides together, turn and top stitch. While it looks really nice it cost more and was finicky.
- I should have sewn the ‘back’ pieces to the front piece a the beginning. I did them separately and then had to worry about the bias and edges lining up properly. I also had to cover the hem on the inside.
- The patterned side is already pretty busy. Next time the appliqué should go on the solid side to dress it up a bit.
- Despite all that, I’m pretty awesome.

I kept it simple the first time, I’ve never done appliqué, so I went with an easy simple shape and put a bright tie on the shirt. I used Steam a Seam and it worked like magic! I’m glad I explained to the lady at Fabricland what I intended to do, otherwise I would have bought the wrong thing entirely. It was really simple to work with and even requires no sewing, if you feel so inclined, apparently edges will not fray or separate. I did stitch around the tie for some extra detail.

one step in, sequins sewn on

So I’m not sure why I even have it around anymore, I remembered it was stuffed in a box, yes since 1994! My sons and I have some halloween parties to go to so I dragged it out to transform it into a costume. I’m going to be . . . . the tooth fairy!!!

flashy T for toothfairy

Since the dress was here it’s been a pretty cheap project – sequins $1, tule $2.49 (-25% thanks to my fabricland card), magic wand $1.50, wings $8.98, crown $1.50, and bright pink wig $8.99. Defiantly, will need a finished picture posted!

hem with sequins, tulle and felt applique molars