Handwarmer Tutorial

This Mom-Of-Four thing is killin' me.
And I mean that figuratively,
of course.

My craft time is close to extinct these days
but my mamatime is through the roof.
Through. The. Roof. I tell ya.

So hang tight.
I'm planning on a homemade Christmas.
I've got the materials
now I need the time.

Here are some handwarmers
that I whipped up
out of necessity
during One's soccer season.


Cut four pieces of fabric (mine are 4x5)
I did two cotton and two something-fuzzy



Put front and back pieces right sides together
and stitch around all four sides
leaving a hole for turning



Turn inside out and stitch around outside again
still leaving the hole open (this time for filling)



Fill (I filled mine with rice) and sew opening shut.

(I will probably fill with something bigger than rice next time.
Maybe lentils? I'm hoping they might hold the heat longer.)

That's it!
I used scrap fabric.
It took about 10 minutes.
Super easy and would make a great gift
for teachers or any number of other people.

Just microwave and enjoy!

Two's Crafty Gift

A crafty girl needs a crafty gift!
And at 5yrs old, it needed to be "big girl".
I picked out an embroidery hoop
and loosely woven embroidery fabric
needles, needle threader, and needle holder,
embroidery thread in her favorite colors,
and her own pair of craft scissors



and packaged it in a cute carrying case.


It was a total hit!!!

She loved it and very much appreciated
what a big deal it was to get real crafting materials.
She's already asking for a sewing machine!

It's a cinch!

I needed a gift for a little superhero
who is turning 5 this weekend.
I decided to make a cinch bag
mostly using this tutorial from Martha
and some spiderman fabric from my stash.


First, I cut a 14-1/2" x 32" piece of fabric
and folded in the short ends 1/4 inch
and then another inch to make the tubes
for the drawstring:


Sew up your sides, but
stop before you get to the tubes!
You can also sew in short loops of ribbon
at the bottom for later.
(See Martha's tutorial or my picture at the bottom)


Then I cut letters of the superhero's name
out of interfacing
b a c k w a r d s
(remember that part)
(I do it wrong first everytime)
and ironed them onto some
coordinating fabric:



Cut out the letters and
sew them onto some black fabric:

I had red thread in my machine
and white thread in my bobbin...
something was definitely wrong with my tension
but in this instance,
I actually really like the outcome.



Cut two lengths of nylon cord - 50 inches
(heat seal the edges so they don't fray)
and slid them through the tubes at the top:

And knot them through the loops you sewed
into the bottom of the side seams
because you were too cheap
to fork out $22 for a grommet punch!

And there you have it!
A super-fun, personalized gift
for a superhero!

Going crazy

I love crazy quilts.
They seem so scrappy
and fancy
at the same time.

Since Four is such an urpy baby
-something I've never had-
I ended up making some
crazy quilt burp cloths.

Even better, I only used fabric
from my scrap stash!

I love it!

I also made another one
with scraps of my crazy quilt scraps:

What do you think?

Flower Girl

I made this cute little outfit
for a little girl who was turning 4.


Two picked out the shirt
and the fabric was a find from the remnant bin
of Joann's Tutti Fruitie line!

Hurray!

I cut out one of the larger flowers
from the skirt fabric
and appliqued it onto the t-shirt
with some green fabric from my stash
to create a coordinating outfit.



I also used my hem foot to make the skirt hem!


It turned out nice but let me tell you,
I felt like I was doing it wrong
the entire time!

I found several tutorials that showed you
how to sew with the hem foot,
but none showed you how to start
sewing with a hem foot!
So that part was a disaster
and when I sewed the sides together
I just left that part out!

The One Hour (ie-Three Day) Tote

I've had this bag, a basic tote,

on my to-do list for awhile:

(pic from sewmamasew)

The tutorial looked easy,
you can find it here.

Well, come to find out,
the tutorial is from the sister
of a girl I know!
As soon as I found that out,
I had to make it right away.

Okay, confession time:
What should take about an hour
took me three days.
Want to know why it took "only" three days?
Because Four took an insanely
long nap today! Hurray!

I made mine with home dec fabric
I had on hand from
the remnant bin at Joann's:


and decided to line it as well:


Then I decided the floral
looked a little granny
so I turned it inside out
and like it so much better:



There you have it!
If you're looking to make a bag,
it's a great pattern.

You could also
fill it with some fun things
and make it a gift!

Ruffle Baby Hat

I made this little ruffle hat
using GraceViolet's tutorial:


Super cute but needed something more:


How cute it this?!?


It's got that cute boutique look but...
it's bigger than her head!


Bummer, I don't know why I'm so surprised.

I think I'll take the flower off
and put a cute little bow on it instead.

A girl blanket

I made a blanket for baby #4
using this self-binding blanket tutorial.

It was easy
but I wasn't perfectly successful.
Possibly because I never
got up from my sewing machine
to actually smooth out all the angles
and, instead, just sort of winged it.

But still, I'm happy with how it turned out.
I love the color combo and the minky,
(although the minky was horrible to sew with).

It's the first thing I ended up sewing
for my own baby girl
and it has got me so excited!

Quilt for Three

I had a quilt started for Three
before he was ever born.
Considering he's 18 mos old,
I figured it was a good time to finish it.

I ended up adding borders of brown fabric
to make it what I think it a good size
(approx 40"x60")
and there you have it:


I even cheated on the binding
and went with rag quilt edges:

Red Baby Gift

Two's best preschool bud's mama
just had baby girl #3.
She already has all things pink,
tons of clothes, etc but I happen to know
that mama's favorite color is RED
and I have really never seen her
with any red baby gear
so rather than buy her something
sensible, like diapers,
I'm sticking with the homemade route
and went for some RED!

Here's a red burp cloth:



Some red and pink baby legs
using this tutorial:
(Target has a ton of cute knee high socks for $2 each that are just perfect for these!)


Some red fabric sewed onto a 3x5 card
made for a super-fast, super-cute card:



Wrapped it all up cute with a red ribbon:

And had a seriously cute RED baby gift
that cost me under $5
but made up for it in personalized
homemade goodness!

Mama was so excited about it.
She goes, "Did you know red's my favorite color?!?"
Uh, yeah, I had an idea.

I love giving homemade!

Burp Cloth & Onesie

I bought a package of cloth diapers
awhile back at the resale store.
They were brand new and quite a steal.
I'm not getting into cloth diapering
but I'd seen them turned into some super cute
burp cloths in blog land.

Here's my version:


I used some leftover fabric from this pillowcase
and the letter and yellow circle fabric are leftover
from this cute birthday shirt.
It's the ultimate "green" gift!

Here's a close-up of the letter:

I cut slits in the edge of the yellow fabric
so that it will fray with washing.



I also embellished a onesie
with ribbon and some fabric circles
from my scrap pile:

I love it!
Considering I have yet
to actually make anything
for my own baby girl coming soon,
I'm tempted to keep it,
but this is my friends'
first baby girl
and it's so fun to help load her up
with such girly cuteness!

Kid Achievements

One sewed on a button!

He visited a history museum
with the scouts.
DaddyMan was shocked
when they handed out
regular, sharp pointy needles
to a group of 5 & 6 yr old boys.
Seemed dangerous.

Don't know why.
They had them shooting guns
last summer.

I guess it's a matter of opinion
as to which one is more dangerous.

:o)