Sewing Day

The other day, J came to me and asked if we could have a sewing day. It was rainy and dreary and it just seemed like the thing to do. A sewing day - what could be better? I found a simple project that I thought J would like to do - these cute little owls. It's fall, pumpkin time, and owls just seemed to fit right in:)

 The owls came with two different sizes and they were simple enough to made in a day.

I had her cut out the pattern, pin it, and cut the fabric all herself. I walked her through the process of making it verbally and she did great.

My sweet girl and her first owl - I love it.

She made another for her room and then she also made a mini one. They turned out so cute:)

And this is my sewing project for the day - a mini sunshine quilt. It is nice to stop and take a day to do something you love.

Links

Sew Can She - has the pattern for the easy owls that we used.

Sew Can She - also has the pattern for the mini sunshine quilt.

By The Shores of Silver Lake - Sewing Day

J and I are currently reading through our fourth Little House book in the series - By the Shores of Silver Lake. J has been asking me to find some dress patterns for her American girl doll that looked like her prairie dress. We finally took a whole Saturday and sewed until our hearts were content:)

J wanted a prairie dress and bonnet to make. She was concerned about the sleeves and such so I helped her with the tiny seams. J is cutting out her pattern using a cute blue calico that my mom sent (thanks mom!).

Here is J's prairie bonnet - it turned out cute and was a simple project to sew. This gave us courage to try the dress.

The dress turned out to be somewhat harder that expected. But it turned out pretty cute. But now I know why I don't sew dolls clothes:)

Links

Ag Play Things - has the free patterns for several of the American Girl dolls including the one we used for the bonnet and dress.

Pumpkin Fun

I know that we are late on our game but we were finally able to work some fall crafting into our schedule. I found a simple tutorial to make some stuffed pumpkins from bandanas (link below). They looked easy enough and you can get two pumpkins from one bandana.

J is now my sewer :) She sewed the bandanas and got them ready for stuffing. It was a simple straight stitch and then you close the bottom and top with a running stitch.

Our finished pumpkins. We had a snafu - we didn't have a long enough needle to run the thread through the pumpkin but we improvised. Instead of running the thread through the pumpkin (and killing our fingers), we tied the pumpkins with yarn on the outside. They still turned out cute and now, we have four pumpkins that my tot can carry around the house without fear that he will drop and break one (true story).

We were able to go to a fall fest in our area and purchase several pumpkins at their pumpkin patch. I wanted them to do a small investigation of their pumpkins before we started carving/painting them. We used a free printable from Busy Me Plus Three (link below). Kaleb is discovering how many blocks tall is his pumpkin. He is amazed, can you tell?

J is making a face at her brother because he is informing her that his pumpkin is way bigger than hers.

I didn't really get a good picture of this but the highlight of the pumpkin investigation was to see their faces when they discovered that pumpkins float! J couldn't believe it.

Kaleb was sure since his pumpkin was heavier and larger that it would sink (even though J's floated). But, it did not sink. That was great. After our investigation, we will carve and paint our pumpkins but at least we had some Science fun ;) See You soon.

Links

Sadie Season Goods - has the tutorial that we used for the bandana pumpkins. You need a long needle but if you don't have one, you can tie your pumpkins with year like we did.

Busy Me Plus Three - free printable pumpkin investigation sheet from her TPT store.

Sewing School

J and I had to take a break from sewing because of our big move. It took some time to finally get back into school and such, to pack and unpack the boxes, and to arrange the rooms of our house. But, we are finally ready to resume our crafting - yay! We finally cleared out our sewing room (my DH calls it the utility room since his tools and stuff are sharing the space), scrubbed the floor, and set our machines up so we can just sit down and sew when the mood hits us.

I will be working on curtains, pillows, and things for the house but J has a few projects she would like to do. Most of them involve making items for her new room. But, I wanted to share a mini project that she put the finishing touches on - a dog pillow for Riley. It is super cute and now sits inside the crib unless my monkey throws it out to the floor:)

This project was found from Craft Tuts Plus (link below). It had a free downloadable full size pattern which I love. I hate trying to reinvent the wheel. She sewed everything using her machine. Have I mentioned how much she loves her machine? (Thanks Mom!)

It was a rainy, yucky day and we decided to sew (after J played with the legos:). I helped J find a new project to try and she chose a mini messenger bag from Crazy Little Projects (link below). I was somewhat nervous that it was going to be frustrating for her but she was determined to try it.

J worked with fabrics that were in our stash. I smile overtime I say that I have a fabric stash now:) That would also be thanks to my mom:) She ironed all of her pieces herself.

She cut out all of her pattern pieces as well. I just directed how to place the pattern on the fold.

Here she is sewing her strap. She used the heart fabric from the dust ruffle pockets that I made her.

She sewed this messenger bag all by herself. I am so proud of her. She even didn't fuss when I suggested that she rip out some of the stitches to correct her mistake:)

Isn't it cute? She is going to sew velcro to the flap to keep it closed. She loved it so much that she took it to Friday School with her lunch in it. Nice job, J!

Links

Craft Tuts Plus - has a cute dog pillow with a free printable pattern.

Crazy Little Projects - has the pattern and tutorial for the mini messenger bag.

My Projects

With the move to the house and all of the repairs we had to complete, it has taken me a while to work on the decorative items that I wanted to complete. The house still needs repairs but the list is getting shorter. Here are a few things I have been working on lately.

J chose a pink of all pinks color for her room. We decided to go with a butterfly theme and I wanted to make her butterfly curtains. I love how they turned out. I had to line the curtains which I didn't like doing but I think they turned out cute. I lined them with a sheet that I found at a thrift store and I bought the fabric with a coupon. Yay! So they weren't too expensive to make. I love the butterflies. You can't tell from the picture but only the bodies of the butterflies are sewn down so the wings will flutter (somewhat). My inspiration for the curtains came from this quilt by Shabby Fabrics.

Recently, I was blessed by some friends from church. We had a crafty weekend away from the kids. We ate, worked on crafty things, and then, went shopping at an awesome flea market. It was my kind of weekend! One of the projects I worked on was a name banner for J's room. It was a simple project but it turned out super cute. I hung in in her window.

J's room is small and she has plenty of stuffed animals. I found a white dust ruffle for a twin bed at a thrift store that was brand new. I made pockets for the one side of the bed that shows. The pockets will hold her stuffed animals and fluffy toys. This was an easy solution to add some more storage to J's room. I bought the fabric at JoAnn's. Kaleb was so impressed with the pocket dust ruffle that he asked for one of his own.

My last completed project was a banner for our sewing room. It says "Create." This was also simple to make and it just adds something to our sewing room until I have the money to add other things:) I found a pattern online and went with it. It doesn't take too much fabric, you could really use your scraps if you had some. I am able to get crafty. I have missed it so. I still have plenty of things to make for the house but I am crossing some things off the list. Hope you have time to be crafty today:)

Tot Tuesday

Guess who got into our fabric stash....wow, I get to say that I have a fabric stash, that is awesome:)

I found him under the table playing with some fabric. Maybe, he's a sewer at heart:)

Sewing School

Recently, my mother blessed me with a new sewing machine. I had been feeling somewhat lost since all of our possessions are overseas and I hadn't been able to create/sew anything in a long time. My mother knew that I missed sewing and blessed me with a machine! Thanks Mom, I love it.

J and I had spent this past December sewing ornaments for our bare Christmas tree and I noticed that she truly enjoyed sewing with me. We would wait until the baby was in bed and sew a new ornament each night. You should see my tree! The ornaments turned out so cute.

Lately, J mentioned that she missed sewing and we decided to devote one night a week to completing various sewing projects. One night, when I had my shiny new machine out, she stated that she would love to have a sewing machine of her own. Well, my mom blessed J with a mini sewing machine of her own! I can't tell you how excited she was waiting for it to arrive. Because of the new interest, we have started Sewing School.

Now, in no way or form am I a seamstress - that's my Mom:) She makes the gorgeous princess dresses and costumes for my kids. But I can use my machine and I love to sew/quilt. So, we will be working on some easy sewing projects for beginners. (Look at the excitement on that face! The machine just arrived and she couldn't wait to get it out of the box!) Sorry for the blurriness, she couldn't sit still!

Here she is working through a sewing maze and a dot-to-dot sheet for the sewing machine. I started with these so she could get used to the movement of the machine, working pivots, stopping and starting, etc... She did well with these and quickly moved onto another simple project.

She was looking for anything else to make, so I suggested a simple coaster with a heart on it for Valentine's Day. She made one for me, for her Dad, and then began a few for her friends. (Thanks Mom for the fabric, J is having a ball!) Join us for her next Sewing School Project....see you soon:)

Links

Skip to My Lou - has the free printable sewing maze and dot-to-dot worksheet for beginners.

Thirty Handmade Days - the original idea for the coasters came from here but I simplified them. We may still make these as they are super cute.

Rainy Day Quilt and a Pirate Skirt

I was looking through some crafty websites and I found this quilt pattern that was just calling my name. Did I really need another project to add to my list? (I think I have craft ADD) Probably not, but I knew this one would not take too long to finish and I felt like my heart quilt needed to be changed. In one rainy day afternoon, while my Kaleb was sleeping, I worked on these projects.

I found the free pattern  here. It isn't quilted yet but I love the colors. Most of the fabric I used came from America. It was easy to put together. It is not perfect but I like it. I hope to have it finished by this weekend. (J is singing a rainy day song for you)

This was definitely on my project list. I had the sewing machine already out and Kaleb was still sleeping (for another ten minutes). The bandanas came from America this summer. That's how long I have wanted to make this pirate skirt. It was easy to do although I didn't have a t-shirt to cut up for the waist band. I used the left over sheet from Keke's Red Riding Hood cape that I made in October. The idea came from alphamom.com. I think she likes it but she is now asking for a pirate hat and sword.

It is pretty short, I should have made the waist band longer. She will probably only wear it for dress up or over some black leggings. It turned out cute and it IS in her favorite color.

Another Finished Project!

Sunday, I had a couple of hours with the kids. This gave me the opportunity to start and finish a project that I have been thinking about for awhile. We have tow IKEA chairs that I absolutely love but with Kaleb always climbing up in them when he was not necessarily clean, the cushions have become yucky. So, I finally found some fabric that I loved at IKEA - I broke down and bought it. I used my free hours to cover the chair cushions while watching The Three Musketeers. I like the way they turned out. I know the fabric is a little busy but I love the colors. Now, the covers are removable and washable. What's better than that?

The next project that I finished was my table runner for my buffet. It has been waiting to be finished for a couple of months, probably closer to a year. I finally sat down and sewed the binding on. That is all I needed to do to finish but it seems that sewing binding is tedious for me. I really have to make myself do it. And this project was so long, that it took quite a while to do that, through a movie and a half! But it is done. My project list to finish is still long and my bin is full, but I am working my way through it. One more down. Yay!

Our Nativity (finally finished!!!!)

About two years ago, I found a pattern on Etsy for a felt nativity. I loved the simplicity of it as well as the ability for it to be loved by small hands without worry. So I ordered it and began the journey. It took two years and I finally finished it. It is not that the pattern was too difficult because it isn't. It was just that other things needed to be done or made and I just never could get it finished. Here is my homemade nativity:

a close up of baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph

the three Wisemen that I finished this year....

a final view with our nativity by our phone in the living room so little hands can play with it. I would like to add some freestanding sheep but not sure how I would do that since it wasn't in the pattern.





Seussmas!

I have a teenage daughter who absolutely loves Dr. Seuss. This Christmas I wanted to give her something she would (hopefully) cherish. I made her a Dr. Seuss tree. Some of the ornaments were just laminated books covers or finger puppets that I found. But I did make some from felt. I am pretty happy with how it turned out, I just hope my DD will love it.

I made a Cat in the Hat hat for the top of the tree and some mini bunting as garland around the tree.

Here is my Horton Hears a Who.

My Lorax trees, I think that is what they are called.

Green Eggs and Ham

The Grinch and his heart that grew...

Ten Apples on Top...

Thing 1 and 2...

and a quote for Dr. Seuss himself.

It was difficult to put together with my younger daughter around. I didn't want her to let the cat out of the bag so I kept telling her I was making a game. I think it turned out cute. Now, if I can find some Dr. Seuss fabric while in the states next year, maybe she will get a tree skirt.

Some Dr. Seuss Links....

2 Teaching Mommies printable unit on Seuss

Making Learning Fun printable activities

Seussville this is where I found the finger puppets

Crack of Dawn Crafts this is where I got the pattern for Thing 1 and 2

Oh, My Handmade tutorial for the mini bunting

Class Room Jr idea for the Lorax trees

Craft Snob top hat tutorial

Obseussed everything Seuss

The Rag Coat (part 2)

We are still working with the book The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills. We are working with our shapes and I brought out our magnetic shapes board for J to create pictures on while I read.

As our daily read-aloud, I began Raggedy Ann and Andy - A Read Aloud Treasury by Johnny Gruelle. In addition to our daily reading of our FIAR book, I also read aloud from another. I chose this one because in The Rag Coat, Minna makes her own cloth doll from scraps of fabric and stuffing.

We also have been learning about how we breathe. In the book, Minna loses her father because of the Miner's Cough (known as Black Lung) and I thought it would be a good idea to learn about how we breathe. I found these paper models from a Scholastic book that I recently purchased for a dollar in their Teacher Express store which allows you to download all of their great books. Every now and then, they run an awesome sale with soo many resources for a dollar each! The book is Easy Make and Learn Projects: Human Body by Wynne and Silver. (the dollar sale has been extended until 9/24)

We also made a breathing vest from some craft paper (we don't have large paper bags here). I helped her color as she will only do so much.

and here she is uncovering her heart....

I love Scholastic books! Any chance I get, I bring games here from America. I take them out of the boxes and put them in ziplock bags for easier transport. The reason I bring games as they are extremely expensive here and I believe that kids can learn from playing them. My last trip to 'Merica, I came across a game from Animal Planet that was marked down at Toys'R'Us. I couldn't pass up the deal and I bought it. J loves animals and this game - Creature's and Features was all about animals.

I paid a small amount and she loves it. The way you play is that you choose an animal from the pile and have to place markers on what features this animals has - such as does it have...teeth, fur, feathers...does it lay eggs...is it awake at night? For every correct answer, you move your token up the board. We have learned quite a bit about animals and it was well worth the money.

I have been trying to pick one different game a week to play with J. This way we aren't always doing "book" stuff for school and it helps us to have fun. I will be bringing this one out again. Now, if you look closely in the picture, you will see two fabric pumpkins. They are small so you might have to look hard.

They are silly looking things but I found this post today on Fiskars and the weather was just a tad chilly, I was feeling like fall. I made these in about a half hour. J stuffed them for me. The only missing is the brown thread stem which I don't have the starch for or possibly the ribbon. I will work on that. I think they turned out cute for a quick sewing job. I also don't have the cute fabric but I used what I had on hand. I am thinking about making a bigger one and then using them for a centerpiece for the table, maybe with some candles and such. I won't be using then for a pincushion and I really think J is eyeing them to play with. She has requested a family of them! Here is a close up of one -

kinda cute, an extremely easy project. I leave you with my Kaleb....

He was busy reading his books and playing with his toys while we were doing school.