Silliness on mommy's bed.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
How To - ABC Photo Block Puzzle
I really went crazy this year for Valentine's Day. I don't think I have ever crafted as much as I have in the last thirty days! It was a lot of fun, and I am super happy that I was able to turn so many of them into tutorials to share with the blogosphere! This is the last one (for now)I think.
I got this idea from a newsletter sent out by Photojojo. I haven't visited the site that the newsletter linked to so I cannot give credit (I try to bookmark inspiration pages for crediting later) but I figured it could not be too difficult. Into the vault it went for later use. At Christmas I was in a chain department store and they had these alphabet block sets on for five dollars each. Now, Wednesday already has a plethora of wooden blocks and wooden alphabet blocks but five bucks, I couldn't pass them up. And when I remembered the photo puzzle and with Christmas on it's way at the time, I thought I was a genius. Well, Christmas came and went and I didn't crack the plastic fo the block sets let alone get to play with Modge Podge.
This valentine's Day and the obsessive nature in which I embraced it was perfect. Forget the fact that I made one on the eve of and the second on the day of! But, that should give you an idea of how easy and quick these come together! So, without further ado, I bring you our ABC Photo Block Puzzle construction instructions.
Materials:
Wooden ABC block set
Photos and artwork of and by child
Modge Podge
Foam brush
Pen
Ruler
Paper trimmer or scissors (A paper trimmer was my very first investment in my craft tools and it was the best fifteen dollars I have ever spent. Watch for Michael's sales if you do not already have one!)
Razor blade or Xacto knife
Construction Instructions
Start with a set of alphabet blocks.
Turn the photo over and grid it off the section you want to be included on the blocks with squares the same size as your blocks.
Cut photo into squares.
Coat side of block with Modge Podge, add picture and coat once with Modge Podge once more.
Trim any overhang with a razor blade or exacto knife.
Shampoo, rinse and repeat until all your blocks are covered.
You can cover more block sides with more photos or artwork. I used a hand print and a drawing to cover a total of three sides.
Let dry, if you put them in front of a fan it dries in record time and you can wrap them up for gift giving.
Once dry, you can put them back int heir cart thing and give them to a special person. I gave one of these to each Grandma in Wednesday's life. I should have made a third for Wednesday because she loves puzzles right now and continues to play with these.
This was so easy and a great way to hang out at the kitchen table with family instead of in the back room sewing. So maybe I'll make that one for Wednesday sooner rather than later!
Happy Crafting!
P.S. I know that my tutorials have been taking all sorts of different formats, I am trying to find a cohesive way to format them, but I find it really depends on the pictures, how of them there are and how clear the photos are the smaller they get. Because really, what is the point to a photo tutorial if you cannot see what the heck I am talking about right? So yeah, just saying, I noticed it too ;)
Linked up to Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts
I got this idea from a newsletter sent out by Photojojo. I haven't visited the site that the newsletter linked to so I cannot give credit (I try to bookmark inspiration pages for crediting later) but I figured it could not be too difficult. Into the vault it went for later use. At Christmas I was in a chain department store and they had these alphabet block sets on for five dollars each. Now, Wednesday already has a plethora of wooden blocks and wooden alphabet blocks but five bucks, I couldn't pass them up. And when I remembered the photo puzzle and with Christmas on it's way at the time, I thought I was a genius. Well, Christmas came and went and I didn't crack the plastic fo the block sets let alone get to play with Modge Podge.
This valentine's Day and the obsessive nature in which I embraced it was perfect. Forget the fact that I made one on the eve of and the second on the day of! But, that should give you an idea of how easy and quick these come together! So, without further ado, I bring you our ABC Photo Block Puzzle construction instructions.
Materials:
Wooden ABC block set
Photos and artwork of and by child
Modge Podge
Foam brush
Pen
Ruler
Paper trimmer or scissors (A paper trimmer was my very first investment in my craft tools and it was the best fifteen dollars I have ever spent. Watch for Michael's sales if you do not already have one!)
Razor blade or Xacto knife
Construction Instructions
Start with a set of alphabet blocks.
Turn the photo over and grid it off the section you want to be included on the blocks with squares the same size as your blocks.
Cut photo into squares.
Coat side of block with Modge Podge, add picture and coat once with Modge Podge once more.
Trim any overhang with a razor blade or exacto knife.
Shampoo, rinse and repeat until all your blocks are covered.
You can cover more block sides with more photos or artwork. I used a hand print and a drawing to cover a total of three sides.
Let dry, if you put them in front of a fan it dries in record time and you can wrap them up for gift giving.
Once dry, you can put them back int heir cart thing and give them to a special person. I gave one of these to each Grandma in Wednesday's life. I should have made a third for Wednesday because she loves puzzles right now and continues to play with these.
This was so easy and a great way to hang out at the kitchen table with family instead of in the back room sewing. So maybe I'll make that one for Wednesday sooner rather than later!
Happy Crafting!
P.S. I know that my tutorials have been taking all sorts of different formats, I am trying to find a cohesive way to format them, but I find it really depends on the pictures, how of them there are and how clear the photos are the smaller they get. Because really, what is the point to a photo tutorial if you cannot see what the heck I am talking about right? So yeah, just saying, I noticed it too ;)
Linked up to Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts
Monday, February 15, 2010
How To - Sparkly Filled Lace Tea Bags for Play
I hope your Valentine weekends were wonderful! It was a warm and loving weekend here indeed. We had a tea party with Wednesday and family for dinner last night. Good food (both real and fake) and good people, how can you go wrong? ♥
I know the previous Felt Sugar Cookie tute was a bit random, but it all came together so quickly I thought I would post it. I made them to go with the sparkly filled lace tea bags of today's construction instructions. Hence the statement of not being able to have a tea party without cookies.
**Note** Due to the nature of the filling, these are not recommended for super small children. Wednesday is two and a half and the hot glue is near impossible to get apart so I am confident that this is safe. If you are at all concerned, do not leave child unattended. OR you could just as easily fill with pieces of felt or stuffing.
I was really excited when I came up with these and even if I severely burned myself twice they turned out awesome! I hope you enjoy them too! Sans burns of course.
Materials:
2" wide lace (roughly 20" long)
Plastic gem stones (or felt scraps)
1/8" ribbon
Red felt
Scissors
Hot glue & gun
Ta -daa! Your front and back views.
Now, you have cookies and tea bags shall we have a tea party?
Linked up to Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
How To - Felt Sugar Cookies
Measure and cut your fabric. I used a cookie cutter for a template.
Sew ric rack to felt hearts in one long strip.
Snip every second felt heart. Fold over and with wrong sides together sew.
Stuff. I found tweezers helpful here.
Trim with pinking shears if you have them and voila, you're done!
You simply must have cookies if you are going to have a Valentine's Tea Party!
Thank You Donna!
I have a few thank yous owing to Donna of Homemaking Made Easy. First, a thank you for the beautiful candle pictured above. It smells as good as it looks! The label says spiced apple and it does smell like apple pie when burning. A lovely companion whilst sewing. I hadn't sent a thank you yet because I was hoping to surprise you with something nice in the mail, but you know how time can fly!
A second thank you for all of the support she has shown me over the last few weeks. A little bit of praise goes a long way in the blogging world and she has given me enough to last a year.
The third thank you is for making me the first "Featured Follower". How lovely to be in the sidebar of her happy and handy blog.
If you have yet to visit Donna I suggest you do. Her blog Homemaking Made Easy is a lovely combination of housework and house love. She sews, she crafts, she cleans and she loves her family. There is even a post on how to make the gorgeous candle pictured above.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Wednesday on Wednesday
Sideways ponytail, upside down sunglasses, powdered donut face. This is what being two and half is all about.
She loved the softness of the icing sugar. (It was only the second she has ever had.) "So soft and so cozy."
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
How To - Lettuce Edge Ruffle Onesie Refashion
Have you ever done anything so simple and so awesome that you have to share it? That is what this is. I have discovered the fastest way to refashion a onesie ever! For serious, this took me exactly half an hour from beginning to end. It is so simple I thought about not sharing it, but just in case...I mean, my mom who is one of my sewing mentors had no idea you could do this so maybe someone could use a photo tutorial. So, here is how to turn a long sleeve onesie into a 3/4 sleeve t-shirt.
Materials
Onesie that fits child in shoulders and neck.
Scissors
Sewing machine with zig zag stitch.
Construction Instructions
Choose your onesie, make sure that it is long enough at the hips where you will cut it off. Now, cut off snapable bottom at hips.
Cut off cuffs. These look like they are long but after I cut an inch off they were a perfect 2/4 sleeve.
Use the bottom piece you cut off for practice. This helps you set your tension properly and get the hang of pulling and stretching the fabric.
Line the edge of the fabric just beside where the needle lands. This gives you your edge stitch.
Pull the fabric out the back and pull the fabric toward you. This makes it super taught so that it contracts nicely when you are done.
Seriously, it is so easy this twenty second video shows it all. Stretch and sew!
I am not going to lie, I thought this was one of the cutest things I have done yet!
Ruffle close up.
Refashioning is serious business.
This technique has so many possible applications yo can bet you will see it here a lot in the months to come. Until, happy sewing!
Linked up to:
Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts
Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple
Hand Me Down Rehab @ Helping Little Hands
Fabulous Friday Finds @ Kojo Designs
Make It & Wear It @ The Train To Crazy
Sunday, February 7, 2010
How To - Machine Made Hemmed Ruffles
It Is Official, I Am Addicted To Ruffles, and after you get the hang of making them you will be too! Do you remember the shaggy ruffled skirt I made Wednesday a couple weeks ago? I love that skirt, and she was able to wear it to a birthday party this weekend. And she looked so cute in it. But, the torn ruffled I made? Well, they are still losing strings and apparently some people care about that sort of thing. ;) So, when I set out to make another skirt for Wednesday's youngest cousin I knew that the ruffles would have to have two finished edges. It was a wee bit tedious, but thanks to two feet I have for my machine it turned out quite wonderfully.
I made the skirt from two vintage bed sheets bought from Value Village. You might even recognize the pink and white fabric from my recent mailbox endeavor? I had been trying to think of a skirt for the wee one when I read this post at Confessions of a Sewing Dork. (She is sewing love!) Anyhoo, the ruffles on the bum of her skirt were just the inspiration I needed.
I had originally made this skirt. I had bought both remnants at a thrift shop that morning and just had to use it in some sort of kilty/punky thing. I loved the frayed ruffle look and so I painstakingly zig zagged down the edge of the cut strips of fabric before I gathered it into ruffles and I used another zig zag stitch to attach the ruffle. Like pinking, zig zag stitches inhibit fraying. I even machine washed and dried the skirt to make sure the the ruffles would not continue fraying. And they didn't but it just didn't scream "FIRST BIRTHDAY!" you know? So, I turned to my brightly coloured vintage sheets. Gosh I love them so much.
To make the finished ruffles I learned how to use yet another foot of my machine. The adjustable narrow hemmer. This is a brilliant little foot. It gives you an 1/8" rolled hem with little effort. I used this foot to hem the strips and the gathering foot to make the ruffles. I thought, I would share with you a quick photo tute on how to make ruffles with rolled hems. The first half are new photos for the narrow hem foot and the second half has photos from the Ruffled Toddler Skirt tute but they mesh well for this. In case you don't want to scroll through the post, here is link to the flickr set done as a tutorial.
Materials
Fabric, cut in strips (I like two inches if one side is finished if both sides need hemming, 2.5" works well.)
Adjustable holder and adjustable narrow hemmer foot for your sewing machine
Second wound bobbin (You will go through at least 1.5 bobbins for this, if you have more and plan on using the same thread for your project I would wind a third bobbin.)
Construction Instructions
On the left is the adjustable narrow hemmer foot and on the right is the adjustable holder.
Assembled adjustable holder and adjustable narrow hemmer foot.
Cut strips from your fabric. TIP. If you are using a sheet and you cut along finished edges you will only have to hem one side of the strips.
Roll and pinch a couple inches to start the foot off on the right foot. (That is seamstress humour.)
Slide your rolled and pinched fabric underneath the foot and sew about an inch. Once your seam is started roll your fabric into the scroll and keep sewing.
This technique really depends on your vigilance in how the fabric is fed in. Too wide and it flattens out for a single layer hem, too narrow and it does the same.
And voila! You now have strips of fabric with a tiny rolled hem. Rinse and repeat for the other side if your strips have two unfinished edges. If not, move on the the second part, detailing how to turn it into ruffles.
Instructional Insert: before you take off this foot and insert the gathering foot, take your pieces of newly hemmed fabric and join them together to make one long strip. (I didn't attach them before hand because I was unsure if the narrow hemmer scroll could accommodate the doubled material.)But the ruffle foot can no problem so now is when yo want to attach your pieces.
This is a gathering foot. It is my new favourite toy. I mean tool! All you do is attach the foot, put one layer underneath instead of the usual two and 'sew'. Sounds too good to be true right? Not so. Adjust your tension accordingly. The looser the tension, the looser your ruffles, the tighter your tension, the fuller the gather.
I did this on the tightest tension with the presser regulator 3/4 of the way down to achieve the hand-gathered look, but if you press it down fully you get a perfect, professional looking ruffle.
Don't forget, the fuller the ruffle the more material you will need to achieve your desired length of ruffle.
Isn't it gorgeous? See how I used the edge of the sheet for the top of the ruffle so I only had to hem the bottom?
You now have lots of beautiful handmade ruffles!
The end.
I hope that was clear, and I hope you are able to go forth and create. Thanks for stopping by!
I made the skirt from two vintage bed sheets bought from Value Village. You might even recognize the pink and white fabric from my recent mailbox endeavor? I had been trying to think of a skirt for the wee one when I read this post at Confessions of a Sewing Dork. (She is sewing love!) Anyhoo, the ruffles on the bum of her skirt were just the inspiration I needed.
I had originally made this skirt. I had bought both remnants at a thrift shop that morning and just had to use it in some sort of kilty/punky thing. I loved the frayed ruffle look and so I painstakingly zig zagged down the edge of the cut strips of fabric before I gathered it into ruffles and I used another zig zag stitch to attach the ruffle. Like pinking, zig zag stitches inhibit fraying. I even machine washed and dried the skirt to make sure the the ruffles would not continue fraying. And they didn't but it just didn't scream "FIRST BIRTHDAY!" you know? So, I turned to my brightly coloured vintage sheets. Gosh I love them so much.
To make the finished ruffles I learned how to use yet another foot of my machine. The adjustable narrow hemmer. This is a brilliant little foot. It gives you an 1/8" rolled hem with little effort. I used this foot to hem the strips and the gathering foot to make the ruffles. I thought, I would share with you a quick photo tute on how to make ruffles with rolled hems. The first half are new photos for the narrow hem foot and the second half has photos from the Ruffled Toddler Skirt tute but they mesh well for this. In case you don't want to scroll through the post, here is link to the flickr set done as a tutorial.
Materials
Fabric, cut in strips (I like two inches if one side is finished if both sides need hemming, 2.5" works well.)
Adjustable holder and adjustable narrow hemmer foot for your sewing machine
Second wound bobbin (You will go through at least 1.5 bobbins for this, if you have more and plan on using the same thread for your project I would wind a third bobbin.)
Construction Instructions
On the left is the adjustable narrow hemmer foot and on the right is the adjustable holder.
Assembled adjustable holder and adjustable narrow hemmer foot.
Cut strips from your fabric. TIP. If you are using a sheet and you cut along finished edges you will only have to hem one side of the strips.
Roll and pinch a couple inches to start the foot off on the right foot. (That is seamstress humour.)
Slide your rolled and pinched fabric underneath the foot and sew about an inch. Once your seam is started roll your fabric into the scroll and keep sewing.
This technique really depends on your vigilance in how the fabric is fed in. Too wide and it flattens out for a single layer hem, too narrow and it does the same.
And voila! You now have strips of fabric with a tiny rolled hem. Rinse and repeat for the other side if your strips have two unfinished edges. If not, move on the the second part, detailing how to turn it into ruffles.
Instructional Insert: before you take off this foot and insert the gathering foot, take your pieces of newly hemmed fabric and join them together to make one long strip. (I didn't attach them before hand because I was unsure if the narrow hemmer scroll could accommodate the doubled material.)But the ruffle foot can no problem so now is when yo want to attach your pieces.
This is a gathering foot. It is my new favourite toy. I mean tool! All you do is attach the foot, put one layer underneath instead of the usual two and 'sew'. Sounds too good to be true right? Not so. Adjust your tension accordingly. The looser the tension, the looser your ruffles, the tighter your tension, the fuller the gather.
I did this on the tightest tension with the presser regulator 3/4 of the way down to achieve the hand-gathered look, but if you press it down fully you get a perfect, professional looking ruffle.
Don't forget, the fuller the ruffle the more material you will need to achieve your desired length of ruffle.
Isn't it gorgeous? See how I used the edge of the sheet for the top of the ruffle so I only had to hem the bottom?
You now have lots of beautiful handmade ruffles!
The end.
I hope that was clear, and I hope you are able to go forth and create. Thanks for stopping by!
Friday, February 5, 2010
D'aww, I had a good idea!
I am being linked to over at Out of Office (A Fedex/Office site). My Valentine Photo Garland is being linked to.
Here is a quick description of their blog from an excerpt from the email I received requesting permission to link. "On the blog, we highlight ideas for the holidays, home projects, event planning, and more. In an upcoming post we’ve planned for February, we will share a round-up of Valentine’s gifts, décor and projects, along with links to great ideas we’ve seen online..."
I thought it was neat to be seen in the blogging world outside of Blogger and Wordpress, especially without me having to pimp my own stuff! :)
Here is a quick description of their blog from an excerpt from the email I received requesting permission to link. "On the blog, we highlight ideas for the holidays, home projects, event planning, and more. In an upcoming post we’ve planned for February, we will share a round-up of Valentine’s gifts, décor and projects, along with links to great ideas we’ve seen online..."
I thought it was neat to be seen in the blogging world outside of Blogger and Wordpress, especially without me having to pimp my own stuff! :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
