Christmas: Tree Skirt

After I made my stockings I knew I needed to make a matching tree skirt! Unfortunately I didn't have quite enough of the same fabric so I found some other fabric that coordinated that I fell in love with! To make the tree skirt I used a pattern found on Cloud 9 Fabrics. Rather than making the wedges 2 different fabrics, I chose to piece the pattern together and use a single fabric per wedge

Here are the fabrics I started with:

And here's what the pattern looks like printed out and pieced together:

Then I went to work cutting and sewing, ending up with this:

For a backing I used a cream flannel.
For putting it together, I put right sides together and sewed around leaving a few inches open. Then I flipped it right side out and ironed out the seams. Then I pinned some ball fringe around the back  and top stitched around the entire thing.

I love how it turned out! Now if my kitties would just stop destroying my tree!

Tablet Sleeve

This week I was totally spoiled for my birthday! My husband got me a tablet! Now my tablet needed a sleeve-protection. I pulled out some scrap fabric and got to work. I've been working on Christmas stockings for my family and decided to use the stocking pattern found here as a method to the madness! (http://tiedyedivadesigns.blogspot.com/2010/10/free-pdf-sewing-pattern-how-to-sew.html)

First I measured the tablet to see how wide and tall I needed to make it. I doubled the width, put right sides together and sewed up the side and across the bottom. I also did this with a liner fabric.

Next I turned the liner right-side out and put the outside inside.

After that I measured out another tube (it should be double the width & about 12 inches tall).  I sewed up the side, turn right-side out and fold on itself.

Then I slide it on itself and hemmed around the opening. You are sewing 2 pieces of 'cuff', the liner and the outside-all the way around.


You're almost there! Turn it right-side out. You will see the hem on the cuff, but that will go away soon.

Fold it down however far you want your cuff.

Then I added two snaps to hold it all in place!

All done! This would be super easy to adjust to whatever size item you need to slide in~Tablet, Ipad, Kindle, Nook.

Have fun sewing!!

"Mock" tie

I've had this post over at Sugar Bee Crafts bookmarked for a while knowing that I might need this idea sometime! Well, after we got my daughter her Easter dress I knew I needed to make my 3 boys something to match~here's what I came up with!

For the ties here's what you need:

• fabric (I chose to have a felt back, cotton middle and tulle on top)


• sewing machine


• scissors


• elastic

I started by stacking my 3 fabrics in the order that I wanted the final product in:

Then I drew out the ties. I used another tie and just eyeballed these, making a separate knot and tie:

Then over to the sewing machine:

Zig zap stitch around both peices:

Then trim as close to the stitching as possible:

Next zig zag stitch the knot to the tie:


The last step is sewing on some elastic, measure the neck so it will be snug, but not tight:

I decided to take one more step add some dots to the ties (since their sisters dress had polka dots). For this step I took a random piece of fabric and sewed a circle, then trimmed as close to the stitching as possible:


Super simple way to let your boys have a special tie (and in this case match their sister!):

 

Felt Heart Garland

Today I made a super easy and fun craft that would be perfect for a tween wanting to learn to sew. All you need is:

• felt (I chose red, pink & white)


• scissors


• sewing machine

The longest part was cutting the hearts. I didn't use a pattern, I just folded the felt over a inch or two and eye-balled my hearts. Then figure out a pattern. My daughter helped me lay it out to see if I had enough hearts!

Then start sewing. Start with the top of the heart and start feeding them through. You can overlap slightly or leave a little space. I chose to put mine right next to each other using a straight stitch.

Here's the final product:

And up on my mantel.

A super simple and easy way to dress your house up for Valentine's Day.

Organize your embroidery floss

I saw this super cute printable originally at Ucreate and knew I needed to print it up right away! The original is from Wild Olive.

Here's what my embroidery floss looked like before:

I printed the bobbins out on regular white cardstock and started cutting them out.

Here's the result!

What a great way to organize!!

Onesies with Tie Applique

I figured I should start making some fun things for this baby of mine and have been seeing these popping up all over the place. I have TONS of scrap fabric and had some little onesies sitting around. I used this tutorial: Inspiration for Crafting: Necktie Onesie Free Pattern

They're super cute, but super easy to do too! My kind of craft, especially when I only want to devote 15 or 20 minutes to a craft!


Hopefully my sewing skills will continue to improve as I make a few more. I also want to try putting a few onto bibs! We'll see.
A few tips~
I used newborn onesies and still did the 3-6 month tie. I think size-wise it still looks good.
I cut my fabric, then my wonder-under, then ironed them together rather than ironing a larger piece of fabric to the wonder under.
I used a 3 inch wide scrap of fabric, you really don't need much!
On one I zigzagged around the knot and tie twice, the other once. I think both will hold up fine.

Candybar Snowmen

While visiting my sister we attended an activity where they were making crafts to be donated and sold. The proceeds are going to a family shelter. It was a lot of fun to see the different crafts being made! One caught our eye though and we had to stop on our way home from the activity to buy supplies to make some ourselves!! They were Snowman Candy Bars! It's a perfect gift for a Visiting teacher, school teacher, friend. My sister was making them for her teenagers to give to friends at school!

So here's what you need: a large candy bar, brown paper to wrap, tape, glue, googly eyes, buttons, orange felt or fun foam, a short piece of ribbon or yarn and fleece.

First we started my measuring the width of the candy bar and doubling it. Then we cut lengths of felt that were 1/3 of a yard wide.

Next sew up the side (luckily fleece is pretty forgiving and you want it to be tight around the candy bar:

Then wrap your candy bar in brown paper (or scrapbook paper or wrapping paper-whatever you have!)

Next you want to fold up one end of your fleece tube about 1 inch and slide it onto one end of the wrapped candy bar:

Then cut thin strips about 1 1/2 inches long and 1/2 wide around the open end of the fleece tube:

Then tie a tight knot around the cut pieces of fleece and fluff:

Now glue on googly eyes and small felt or fun foam nose and 3 buttons:

Then take a thin strip of fleece (about 3/4 inch wide by about 15 inches long) and tie around between the buttons and the nose:

Then cut thin 1 inch strips on each end:

It's done!! We made quite a few of these. I think they would be fun to make using microwave popcorn or the movie theater boxes of candy too! Whatever you find for a good deal! It might even be fun to make different size and have a whole Snowman Candy Bar family!