Kids Craft: Emoji Pillows

The kids, neighbors and I made these emoji pillows as a summer activity.  They LOVED it!

Valentine's Day Crafty Night

My cousin Jill came over this week and we got our Valentine's Day craft on.  Dalton helped.

 Jill made a pleated heart pillow.

 I made these heart cut-out garlands.

Felt Flower Pillow

Here is my new pillow. Love. Saw this on Craftaholics Anonymous in March and my cousin Jill sent me the felt to make it. She loves me like that. I had to do a spectrum once I saw all the pretty colors, but I didn't have enough to arrange them in a square.

I used two felt circles of each color, and sewed them on with yellow embroidery thread and french knots. Then, I sewed the entire pillowcase by hand. I really felt for people in the olden days who had to do all their sewing by hand. Embroidery is one thing, but hemming, well... Anyway, it was one long piece of fabric. I hemmed each short end, overlapped them on the back, and sewed up the side seams. It didn't take as long as I feared, and maybe my hand stitching is getting more even. Maybe.

Hand Stitching

Here are the embroidery projects I've done since teaching myself embroidery stitches a little while ago. The first is Rachel's birthday present. Looking at it now, far away and several months later, I'm very impressed with myself!

Here is the sampler I made. It's been sitting in my embroidery bag, since I made it, and once again, now that I see it I really like it! I will have to display it somehow.

Then, last night I embroidered this scripture bag for Maggie. The Relief Society made this for the Primary kids and I found an extra under my bed, so I made it for Maggie. She picked out the colors and John did the writing.

Then I put her name on the back.

Continuing the theme of embroidery+stuff from the US, we got some goodies from a co-worker of John's today. Maggie was super excited about it. Here's what we got:
Of all the things you think you'll miss...

Maggie was begging to have "black jelly beans" after dinner. We thought she meant the M&Ms, but she wanted the black beans!

Baby High Chair Recover

I recovered one of our hand-me-down high chairs using this tutorial. I picked out the fabric with Jodi in mind (she told me she had picked out green bedding with elephants and brown trim) since we are sharing this particular hand-me-down (and many others). Technically, Erin wants the high chair back, so thanks to her for letting me ruin it before making it much better.
This high chair had a foam pad (and 10 year old crumbs) in between layers of cracked vinyl. I couldn't find the quilted batting that was used in the tutorial, so I ended up basically recovering the foam pad.

I cut the front off the existing pad and traced around the back to make a pattern. Then I cut out the green flannel and 8 gauge vinyl (wipeable and washable!) for the front and brown fleece for the back. I sewed it all around the pad using bias tape. We are making friends, bias tape and I. I sewed all the layers together at the joints, as in the tutorial. The foam pad had holes in it for this purpose.
I sewed button holes on the bottom flaps to hook around the tabs of the chair. The top part isn't quite wide enough for the method, so I sewed elastic loops onto the sides to hook around the upper tabs. Also, I need to make a belt for this chair. It didn't have one. I'll sew a large button hole for it to hook through, once I get the buckles to make the belt.

The big girl still fits, too.

Am I a Traitor?

I made a fleece University of Utah blanket for John's brother's birthday. He was pretty excited about it. The licensed fleece was really expensive - $15/yard at Jo-Ann, although Erin said she saw it at Wal-mart for $10. Definitely a good purchase to use a 40% coupon on. I bought 1 2/3 yards, but I didn't realize it was 60" wide. You really just need 1 1/3 yards for a good snuggle blanket size. I cut 1" wide strips 4" deep along the top and bottom, and knotted each strip. No sewing involved.
Since they'll take this blanket to games, I embroidered his last name on one corner. I did it on the machine, but it was freehand so it looks like I wrote it. Excuse my sewing-hand-writing.
Since Jo-Ann also carries BYU fleece, it was suggested I could make one of these for just about every member of the family. Not a bad idea!

Travel Crib Sheet

I made a sheet for our pack-n-play mattress using 1 yard of cheap-o flannel from Walmart and a bit of elastic. It was easy to make, and would have been easier still if I had noticed I was cutting 6" squares off the corners instead of 4"... Also, the fabric I bought was not 45" wide, but it is plenty big. Problem solved for $3.

Crib sheet instructions
Adapted for portable cribs

T-shirt Bag

Leonard sent me a t-shirt of Mom's with cute dinosaurs on it and I made it into a bag using this tutorial. The only thing I did differently was square up the bottom at the end, by pinching the sides on the bottom and sewing a diagonal line. Then I cut off the triangle of excess fabric.

Reusable Snack Bags

I whipped these bags up last night using some bits of fabric left over from other projects. I used a free pattern from Boogaboo Babies (click on the item to download the free pattern). ETA: this pattern is no longer free. Drawstring bags aren't that hard to figure out though, especially if you don't want a lined one.
The bags were easy to make. The one of the left was made from 10"x10" squares, and the one on the right from 8"x8". The first is too large, but the second is an awkward shape. Also, the left one is lined. I like the interfacing on the bottom to give it more support, but I think the lining is superfluous and make for an unnecessarily bulky bag. These bags are to replace Ziploc bags as snack holders, and also allow Maggie to get her own snacks. We don't have a snack tray on our stroller, so we'll use them on walks.

Laptop Case

Rachel finally got her birthday present so now I can post about it. I made this laptop case for her using this whip-up tutorial and stamp/letter fabric Rachel picked out online. This was my first attempt at using bias tape and I am NOT doing it again. Well, maybe as a last resort. I had a really difficult time with it and it doesn't look very good up close.

But, the good news is, it fits and Rachel loves it. And that's what matters!

Eye Mask and Pillowcase

I used a silk nightgown of my mom's to make these items for my sister. Here are instructions I've published for the eye mask. For this one, I added a layer of brown felt to help block the light. I also used elastic lace (originally bought to make baby headbands) instead of elastic. I can't find the pillowcase instructions I used, but it was really just two rectangles sewn together. I used the existing hem of the nightgown for the hem on the pillowcase.

Wonder Box

First of all, how cute is this fabric? I can't get over how adorable it is.

We made Wonder Boxes at Enrichment this week. (Someone else made mine because John is out of town so I had Maggie with me...) You heat up your food, get it to boiling, then put the pot in the Wonder Box and keeps your food at the same temperature to continue to cook it. You can use it if fuel is scarce or to keep something warm or cold on the road.
It was a really easy project. I had to buy 2 1/2 yards of fabric, and pay $4 for the filling. Then you are supposed to get a tub to put it in, but I don't have one yet. Here is a link to more information, the pattern, instructions and recipes.

Bedside Organizer

I made two of these, outer space for Leonard and scotty dogs for Rachel. Now I need to make myself one, because these are way better than what I am trying to use. You put the drawer liner between your mattresses, then you can put books, lotion, pens etc in the pockets.

You need a piece of rubber drawer liner and a length of fabric as wide as you want your organizer to be (I used 1/2 yard for Rachel's and I think that was the best - 18 inches x fabric width (40-44 inches)). This takes about 10 minutes if you iron.

Fold the fabric right sides together along the factory fold with the selvedges together. Sew along the two sides and turn right side out. Press. Fold up the bottom end as deep as you want the pocket (mine is about 8 inches). Iron, then topstitch in place along each side, then stitch where you want to divide the pockets. Insert the drawer liner into the open top. Fold down the raw edges on the top (should be the selvedge) and pin with the drawer liner in between them. Sew along the top edge, enclosing the drawer liner. Ta dum!

I got the idea here, but my way is easier and looks just as good and doesn't use as much fabric or expensive notions.