CLICK HERE to enter the giveaway. It is open until January 24th.
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Personalized Kids' Shirts GIVEAWAY!
Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls is hosting a giveaway by handmade artist Barbara from Sew Cute Creations.
The giveaway is for a personalized shirt from Sew Cute Creations and there are a lot to choose from!
CLICK HERE to enter the giveaway. It is open until January 24th.
CLICK HERE to enter the giveaway. It is open until January 24th.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Make It Myself Monday: Preschool Fishies
I'm a little delayed getting this Make It Myself Monday post out! That is because I've had to take advantage of the naptime today to get more work done on today's project!
One of the Christmas presents our 4 year old will receive is a felt fish set. This set include 10 large felt fish with numbers 1-10 on them and 26 little fishies with each letter of the alphabet on them. We will use these in our homeschool preschool activities...and our little Sassafrass can use them in her day to day play too.
I didn't have a specific pattern or tutorial to use...I made it up myself! I got the idea for the gift and thought...I can do that! So here's how I did it...
SUPPLIES:
Large piece of medium weight felt (sturdy, but yet thin enough to sew through 2 pieces easily)
Set of adhesive backed felt letters and numbers (I found a package of these at Michael's for under $3 full price)
Sewing Machine (or minimally a needle and thread)
Batting (I used the stuffing from an old pillow that I deconstructed...upcycling!)
Step 1: Find a fish shape online, print out a few sizes and decide which sizes to use. I found my fish pattern HERE and after printing out 3 sizes I decided to use the medium size.
Step 2: Glue the shape to a piece of cardboard (I pulled a cereal box out of our recycling and used that for the cardboard...more upcycling!), and then cut it out to have a pattern to work from.
Step 3: Trace around your pattern on your felt as many times as needed. As I mentioned before, I had originally picked the medium sized pattern. After beginning to trace the fish at that size, I realized I would have enough felt to make all the fish I needed to make! So after tracing enough at the medium size to make 10 fish (for numbers 1-10), I switched to the smaller fish pattern (following steps 1 & 2 above to create my pattern to use). Don't forget that each fish will need two sides...so count how many you will need for your project and then double it! (ie - for my project of numbers 1-10 and the entire alphabet, that was 10 + 26 = 36 x 2 = 72 fish to trace and cut-out! Whew!)
Step 4: After tracing all the shapes you will need, use some cut scissors and cut out the fish. I did this while watching a little HGTV and it made cutting out 72 fish go a bit quicker! :)
Step 5: Pair up your fish (pair the sides that show any marker remnant to the inside so it won't be visible) and then run them right side out through the sewing machine, leaving the tail unstitched. I used a zig-zag stitch on my fish for aesthetic appeal (makes them look a little more 'country handmade-ish"...), but a straight stitch would work just as well.
Step 6: Through the open tail, stuff batting to fill up the fish. Make the fish puffy but do not overfill.
Step 7: Return the stuffed fish to the sewing machine to sew the tail closed, using the same style stitch.
Step 8: Choose the adhesive-backed felt sticker that you'd like to use, and press firmly in the center of the fishy. And voila! You are finished! (unless your project has another 35 fish to go!)
Couple things to note:
**I thought it would be a great idea to glue magnets to the inside of the fish (before sewing) so that my Sassafrass could use the fishies on the fridge or on a cookie sheet. However I decided to use some leftover magnet announcements from our wedding. I cut them up and glued them on before testing them out. They weren't strong enough to hold the fish to anything through the medium weight felt. Unfortunately I had already glued the weak magnets onto all fish, so I just sewed them with those magnets inside. If you'd like to use the magnet idea, I'd recommend purchasing some stronger round magnets and testing one before gluing the magnets into all the fish!
**If you don't have a sewing machine, you can still do this project! Use a whip stitch to hand sew the fish pieces together. This will be more time consuming, but the fish will be finished with an equally strong and aesthetically appealing stitch.
One of the Christmas presents our 4 year old will receive is a felt fish set. This set include 10 large felt fish with numbers 1-10 on them and 26 little fishies with each letter of the alphabet on them. We will use these in our homeschool preschool activities...and our little Sassafrass can use them in her day to day play too.
I didn't have a specific pattern or tutorial to use...I made it up myself! I got the idea for the gift and thought...I can do that! So here's how I did it...
SUPPLIES:
Large piece of medium weight felt (sturdy, but yet thin enough to sew through 2 pieces easily)
Set of adhesive backed felt letters and numbers (I found a package of these at Michael's for under $3 full price)
Sewing Machine (or minimally a needle and thread)
Batting (I used the stuffing from an old pillow that I deconstructed...upcycling!)
Step 1: Find a fish shape online, print out a few sizes and decide which sizes to use. I found my fish pattern HERE and after printing out 3 sizes I decided to use the medium size.
Step 2: Glue the shape to a piece of cardboard (I pulled a cereal box out of our recycling and used that for the cardboard...more upcycling!), and then cut it out to have a pattern to work from.
Step 3: Trace around your pattern on your felt as many times as needed. As I mentioned before, I had originally picked the medium sized pattern. After beginning to trace the fish at that size, I realized I would have enough felt to make all the fish I needed to make! So after tracing enough at the medium size to make 10 fish (for numbers 1-10), I switched to the smaller fish pattern (following steps 1 & 2 above to create my pattern to use). Don't forget that each fish will need two sides...so count how many you will need for your project and then double it! (ie - for my project of numbers 1-10 and the entire alphabet, that was 10 + 26 = 36 x 2 = 72 fish to trace and cut-out! Whew!)
Step 4: After tracing all the shapes you will need, use some cut scissors and cut out the fish. I did this while watching a little HGTV and it made cutting out 72 fish go a bit quicker! :)
Step 5: Pair up your fish (pair the sides that show any marker remnant to the inside so it won't be visible) and then run them right side out through the sewing machine, leaving the tail unstitched. I used a zig-zag stitch on my fish for aesthetic appeal (makes them look a little more 'country handmade-ish"...), but a straight stitch would work just as well.
Step 7: Return the stuffed fish to the sewing machine to sew the tail closed, using the same style stitch.
Step 8: Choose the adhesive-backed felt sticker that you'd like to use, and press firmly in the center of the fishy. And voila! You are finished! (unless your project has another 35 fish to go!)
Couple things to note:
**I thought it would be a great idea to glue magnets to the inside of the fish (before sewing) so that my Sassafrass could use the fishies on the fridge or on a cookie sheet. However I decided to use some leftover magnet announcements from our wedding. I cut them up and glued them on before testing them out. They weren't strong enough to hold the fish to anything through the medium weight felt. Unfortunately I had already glued the weak magnets onto all fish, so I just sewed them with those magnets inside. If you'd like to use the magnet idea, I'd recommend purchasing some stronger round magnets and testing one before gluing the magnets into all the fish!
**If you don't have a sewing machine, you can still do this project! Use a whip stitch to hand sew the fish pieces together. This will be more time consuming, but the fish will be finished with an equally strong and aesthetically appealing stitch.
Have you made something yourself this week? Let a comment and let me know all about it!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Make It Myself Monday: Crayon Rolls
My project for this week was to create Crayon Rolls as stocking stuffers for my three kiddos for Christmas presents. I was inspired by THIS tutorial, found at Chocolate on my Cranium.
I had some fabric scraps that would work for part of the 3 Crayon Rolls that I had to make, but I needed to go out and purchase some coordinating odds & ends scraps to be set. Also, as a newbie, I had never worked with fuseable interfacing...so I picked up some of that as well. Finally, even though we have a ton of broken crayons with half-torn-off wrappers; since this was a Christmas gift, I decided to buy some new ones. I found some cute boxes of 32 at Michael's Craft Store for only $1.00 in various character boxes wrappers (I got Cars, Tinkerbell and Disney Princesses).
Supplies Needed:
3 pieces of coordinating 13x5 strips of fabric, cut and pressed
1 piece of 13x5 fuseable interfacing
1 piece of coordinating ribbon (24" long)
Sewing machine
Coordinating Thread
Iron
Scissors
Measuring Tape/Ruler
Marking Pencil
1. Measure and cut out the 3 strips of fabric and the coordinating ribbon. Also measure and cut out the fuseable interfacing. In retrospect it would have been wiser to measure and cut out a cardboard pattern to use for the fabric pieces and interfacing to save time and ensure better accuracy. I plan to do that for the other two rolls I'll finish this week for the girls.
2. Iron all 3 pieces of fabric. Iron the rough side of the fuseable interfacing to the wrong side of the piece of fabric you plan to sew the crayon pocket to. Make sure not to slide the iron, but rather press in sections for 10-15 seconds at a time.
3. Fold the pocket fabric in half and press. Situate the pocket onto the right side of the fabric that has had the interfacing ironed to it so that the folded edge hits the middle of the background fabric and the bottom and sides line up with the bottom and sides of the background fabric.
4. Using the marking pencil (or whatever you use to mark), measure out lines for the crayon slots. The first measurement from one side should be 1 and 1/4 inch. Every measurement thereafter should be 3/4 inch until the final measurement, which would once again be 1 and 1/4 inch. This should leave you with 15 lines (and thus 16 crayon slots).
5. Stitch each line, being sure to backstitch at both the top and bottom of the line The measuring, marking and stitching of these slots are what I found to be the most tedious and time consuming.
6. Once all the lines have been stitched, fold the ribbon in half and stitch it to one side of the roll. Make sure to then fold the ribbon so that it lays against the right side of the background fabric. I did not do this and later stitched the ribbon incorrectly while the fabric was inside out...causing me the need to cut the ribbon and improvise a new placement.
7. Place the right side of the stitched fabric to the right side of the backside fabric so that only the wrong sides are showing. Make sure the ribbon is tucked inside and not showing either (unlike the picture...).
8. Stitch at 1/4 inch all the way around the edges, making sure to the leave the side without the ribbon stitched in it open so that the item can be turned right side out again. When it has been stitched all the way, clip the corners and then turn it right side out again.
9. Press the item again to ensure front, back and pocket are laying straight.
10. Topstitch all around the item again on the right sides of the fabric at 1/8 inch from edge - making sure to cleanly close the still-open side. (note - this is where I place the ribbon that I had messed up earlier, and it worked perfectly).
11. Once it is entirely completed, press it one more time. Then insert crayons, roll up and secure with the ribbon tie.
I feel I was successful at this Make It Myself Monday challenge...however when you look at seams closely it is easy to see that they aren't as straight as they could be, nor was the spacing for the crayon slots completely accurate, which is precisely why this roll can only hold 14 crayons instead of 16!
It took me about an hour and 15 minutes to complete all 10 steps above to complete this project. I was certainly slowed down by the need to check directions frequently. I do anticipate I can do the other two crayon rolls in less time...likely more like 45 minutes. I did find this project more time consuming and slightly more challenging than the pillow challenge from last week. That surprised me! However I enjoyed the challenge and my kiddos won't care much about slightly crooked seams or 14 crayon slots vs. 16 crayon slots. These will make great travel companions along with a fun coloring book!
Stay tuned for Make It Myself Monday next week when my completed project will let you know what I used this shape for:
I had some fabric scraps that would work for part of the 3 Crayon Rolls that I had to make, but I needed to go out and purchase some coordinating odds & ends scraps to be set. Also, as a newbie, I had never worked with fuseable interfacing...so I picked up some of that as well. Finally, even though we have a ton of broken crayons with half-torn-off wrappers; since this was a Christmas gift, I decided to buy some new ones. I found some cute boxes of 32 at Michael's Craft Store for only $1.00 in various character boxes wrappers (I got Cars, Tinkerbell and Disney Princesses).
Supplies Needed:
3 pieces of coordinating 13x5 strips of fabric, cut and pressed
1 piece of 13x5 fuseable interfacing
1 piece of coordinating ribbon (24" long)
Sewing machine
Coordinating Thread
Iron
Scissors
Measuring Tape/Ruler
Marking Pencil
1. Measure and cut out the 3 strips of fabric and the coordinating ribbon. Also measure and cut out the fuseable interfacing. In retrospect it would have been wiser to measure and cut out a cardboard pattern to use for the fabric pieces and interfacing to save time and ensure better accuracy. I plan to do that for the other two rolls I'll finish this week for the girls.
2. Iron all 3 pieces of fabric. Iron the rough side of the fuseable interfacing to the wrong side of the piece of fabric you plan to sew the crayon pocket to. Make sure not to slide the iron, but rather press in sections for 10-15 seconds at a time.
3. Fold the pocket fabric in half and press. Situate the pocket onto the right side of the fabric that has had the interfacing ironed to it so that the folded edge hits the middle of the background fabric and the bottom and sides line up with the bottom and sides of the background fabric.
4. Using the marking pencil (or whatever you use to mark), measure out lines for the crayon slots. The first measurement from one side should be 1 and 1/4 inch. Every measurement thereafter should be 3/4 inch until the final measurement, which would once again be 1 and 1/4 inch. This should leave you with 15 lines (and thus 16 crayon slots).
5. Stitch each line, being sure to backstitch at both the top and bottom of the line The measuring, marking and stitching of these slots are what I found to be the most tedious and time consuming.
6. Once all the lines have been stitched, fold the ribbon in half and stitch it to one side of the roll. Make sure to then fold the ribbon so that it lays against the right side of the background fabric. I did not do this and later stitched the ribbon incorrectly while the fabric was inside out...causing me the need to cut the ribbon and improvise a new placement.
7. Place the right side of the stitched fabric to the right side of the backside fabric so that only the wrong sides are showing. Make sure the ribbon is tucked inside and not showing either (unlike the picture...).
8. Stitch at 1/4 inch all the way around the edges, making sure to the leave the side without the ribbon stitched in it open so that the item can be turned right side out again. When it has been stitched all the way, clip the corners and then turn it right side out again.
9. Press the item again to ensure front, back and pocket are laying straight.
10. Topstitch all around the item again on the right sides of the fabric at 1/8 inch from edge - making sure to cleanly close the still-open side. (note - this is where I place the ribbon that I had messed up earlier, and it worked perfectly).
11. Once it is entirely completed, press it one more time. Then insert crayons, roll up and secure with the ribbon tie.
I feel I was successful at this Make It Myself Monday challenge...however when you look at seams closely it is easy to see that they aren't as straight as they could be, nor was the spacing for the crayon slots completely accurate, which is precisely why this roll can only hold 14 crayons instead of 16!
It took me about an hour and 15 minutes to complete all 10 steps above to complete this project. I was certainly slowed down by the need to check directions frequently. I do anticipate I can do the other two crayon rolls in less time...likely more like 45 minutes. I did find this project more time consuming and slightly more challenging than the pillow challenge from last week. That surprised me! However I enjoyed the challenge and my kiddos won't care much about slightly crooked seams or 14 crayon slots vs. 16 crayon slots. These will make great travel companions along with a fun coloring book!
Stay tuned for Make It Myself Monday next week when my completed project will let you know what I used this shape for:
Did you make something yourself recently? Did you write a blog post about it? Leave a comment with a link to your post - I would LOVE to read about it!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Creating A Love for Handmade in Kids
Have kids? Love handmade? Ever put the two together to begin creating a love for handmade in your kids? Not sure how? Here are a few ideas to get you started:
1 - Encourage their Creativity!
All kids have a natural imagination built into them. Foster that! Provide your kids with many opportunities to cultivate their creativity. For some kids this will result in art project after art project! For others it will be more performance related (think drama, dance, athletics). Others yet will be more logically based such as building with Legos or K'Nex or ttaking apart/putting back together various items (with your permission of course!). If your child has a different style of creativity than you, it will take a bit more work to create opportunities for your child, but it will be worth it!
2 - Give Handmade Gifts!
Your kids might be drawn in by the commercials during cartoons or the huge toy catalogs that come out this time of year and ask for the latest gadget complete with blinking lights and the needs for four size D batteries. Resist the urge to overload their holidays with commercial gifts. Explore sites like Etsy and Artfire and find vendors that create gifts for children. Once the gift is open, talk about the handmade aspect of the creation and elements unique to that gift (ie - eco-friendly, one of a kind, custom made, etc.)
3 - Take Kids to Handmade Fairs/Craft Shows/Etc.
There is a wide variety of fairs and craft shows that you can find around your community (especially around the holidays) that could serve as a creative way to introduce your children to the idea of handmade products and vendors. While there looking at the various products and vendors, talk with your children about all of the positive attributes of handmade products. Have your children identify their favorite handmade products at the show and why. If funds allow, set a budget of $5 or $10 and encourage your children to figure out what they would spend their money on. Or if actual funds can't be used, make it a creative exercise. Give an example like "You have $50 to spend (hypothetically) to buy something for each member of our family. What would you buy and why?"
4 - Scour the Web for Resources
There are a ton of kid friendly resources on the Web that can help you in your endeavors to create a love of handmade in your kids. Here is a not-very-comprehensive list of some resources to get you started!
General:
Handmade News-Kids' Page
SimpleKids Blog
Art Projects:
Crafty Crow Blog (this is one of my personal faves for finding creative kids crafts + helpful tutorials.)
Family Fun Crafts
Craft Shows (find craft shows/art fairs/etc. in your community):
FestivalNet
Craft Site Directory
Handmade Stuff for Kids (Shopping):
HandmadeKids (Australian site)
Etsy Products for Kids (hope you have time to poke around...there are 2230 pages to browse through!)
Artfire Products for Kids (533 pages of handmade products for kids!)
Leave a comment and let me know how you encourage a love of handmade for YOUR kids!
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