Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Golly! It's been a long time since I've posted anything. The whole school year has whizzed on by in a blink of an eye!

I told myself I was not making the teachers any gifts this as I had contributed to the class gift card funds. Then that little voice in the back of my head started talking and, of course, I had to listen to it. I started searching the internet and found some really cool ideas. I love the money book here: http://everythingispink.blogspot.com/2007/06/teacher-gift.html, but it would be class project and I certainly did not have time for that. I also found this page of poems (that could really be customized for any occasion) and liked the "mint" one: http://www.imakenews.com/storytimefelts/e_article001426483.cfm?x=bfv57JK,bb9CMG21,w.

So off we went to Wal-Mart on Wednesday after school to see what we could find. I had little plastic jars (afraid the kids would break glass on the bus) filled with mints or bubblegum in mind. No luck there or at DollarTree, so we just came home with 4 pounds of starlight mints and no idea what we would use to hold them.

I had been admiring this Japanese knot bag: http://showyourworkings.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/knotbaginstructions1.pdf and thought it would be great! Afterall, I would only need to make three, one for each of the kids' classroom teachers. Then, I found this similar one with fewer pieces: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/reversible-purse?lnc=13fbf423088. The little voice started talking again--shouldn't the related arts teachers be thanked as well? That's the librarian, and PE, health, music, art, and Spanish teachers. OH, and let's not forget the principal and the bus driver!

So I settled on the Martha Stewart bag and modified the mint poem. Several hours later (and sore fingers later!), we had Teacher Appreciation Gifts!!!!

I used the pattern as printed, no enlargement, and my own method of assembly (of course!) which eliminated all need of topstitching, but required the turning of those little tiny handles what seemed a billion times, thus the sore fingers. I simply closed the hole in the I had left in the bottom of the lining by machine, stitching close to the edge. If I hadn't needed to make so many so quickly, I might have actually slip-stitched it closed by hand. (But probably not!)

The kids were really excited when they found the bounty this morning! They could not wait to hand them out. They are also really excited about the 2+ pounds of leftover mints!

Red, White, and Blue Day

Today was Red, White, and Blue Day at school to celebrate the U.S. Constitution. 4th grade Daughter has been working on memorizing the Preamble. She didn't have much in her closet to make an outfit with those colors. So last night after I got everyone to bed, and unbeknownst to her, I made her a dress.

I had planned on it being a skirt, but the pattern I drafted was a little, ok a LOT, on the long side. So I added the straps and sash and turned it into a dress. She was so excited when she got up! It did turn out cute. Best of all, it was a stash eater! :)

I have wanted to make a swirl skirt for her, but hadn't yet gotten around to it. One popular pattern for girls as been Studio Tantrum's Redondo but I never purchased it. I do have a women's patten by Park Bench but knew it would be too big. Then while surfing, I came across this page on Flicker. That was all I needed to draft my own. I made 8 panels and serged the seam together. Then I pressed and top-stitched them to one side. I even did a rolled hem on the serger. It really was a quick project! Of course, it came out too big for the planned skirt, but it all worked out in the end!

Maybe I'll even try to re-draft a better skirt pattern for her some day.

Sewing for Children!

With the beginning of school, I've completed a lot projects for my kids. They started last Wednesday and all went with something Mom-made.

Here they are eagering anticipating that first morning's bus ride. Son2 has his Mom-made backpack. Daughter has the dress, sweater, and backpack that I made. Son1 wore Mom-made shorts. They all had a great day!

Yesterday, I used my serger to make rolled-hem on rectangles of fabric about 10" x 15". They are re-useable placemats for their lunches. I tried to use some I-spy type fabrics so they could have fun with their friends while eating. They said the teachers and principal really liked them.

I couldn't leave out Son3. Today he wanted to paint. I thought he needed a smock. He settled on some Thomas the Tank Engine fabric in my stash and patiently waited about 1/2 hour for me to sew it up. It turned out really cute, I think. I mis-measured and cut it too short, but it's perfect for him right now. Thanks to this site for the tutorial. It's easy to follow. I did a rolled edge on the armhole instead of the bias tape.

Off to see the next Picasso in action!

Swimsuit

Daughter needed a new swimsuit. We had bought one early in spring, but it didn't fit as well as we'd have liked. I thought she needed more protection from the sun. Although, we do most of our swimming in the late afternoon/early evening. We don't want Daddy to miss out on all the fun!

Anyway, enter my wonderful stash of patterns and fabric. Before the kids were home from their last half-day of school, she had a new suit. I did actually buy the solid blue this month because I had no solid colors. But the blue floral was purchased several years ago from fabric.com and had lived happily in the stash since. I did lined it with nude swimsuit lining I purchased at JoAnn Fabric. Please notice the swim cap. That was at her request and she loves it. It's a free online pattern at sundroptextiles.com.

Now I need to make shirts for the boys. They have put in their orders and think that Mommy can sew anything! I'll have to see if I can make their wishes come true!

Aprons, aprons, aprons!

OK, so that seems to be a really small picture. These are the aprons I made for the kids' teachers and bus drivers to express my appreciation. Two of them are butterflies with different purple borders, two are frogs with lavender borders (only one is shown), two are milk and cookies with white borders and the last is cherries. I think I'll be keeping that one for myself. It's the only one with a pocket, only because I ran out of time. I started this project awhile ago, but it got put to the back burner. I finished this afternoon and they'll be handed out tomorrow.

If you click to enlarge the picture, you can get a better picture of the frogs. The cherries are a long ago print from Daisy Kingdom backed with some Mary Engelbreit. It's one of my favorites. Everything came from stash! Wahoo! Soon I'll be able to empty another box!

I did not use a pattern, but was inspired by the Four Corners Apron by Vanilla House.

Gift Bear

Our daughter is a very sweet child. When she received birthday money a few weeks ago, she decided that she wanted to go to Build-A-Bear workshop to make a bear for her great-grandmother who is ill. Ironically, the money had come from her great-grandmother and her great-great uncle Paul (g.g.'s brother and caregiver). As things go, the illness is terminal and Grammy will not be with us much longer. We've known that for at least a week, but had not told the children. As I finished working on the first communion dress Saturday, I asked Daughter to look through my patterns for stuffed animals. Then, I suggested that we make one for Grammy instead. Daughter loved that idea! She picked out the fabric for a bunny but when we didn't have quite enough decided a bear would be fine. She hoped the bear would get there in time for Grammy's 91st birthday this Thursday. I ensured her that it would, but had then had to explain that Grammy might not live until then. Without missing a beat, she replied, "That's ok, Mommy. We can give it to Uncle Paul then as a memory of her." I was touched.

update: Grammy died May 5, 2008 at 10:40 pm. She did not get to see the bear. Daughter decided that she did want to give it to "Paul-Paul" as a remembrance instead of burying it with Grammy.

First Communion

Daughter celebrated her First Communion today. It turned out to be a lovely day! I was worried when I awoke and saw gray clouds as I thought her dress wouldn't be warm enough. It was perfect, though!

I made it from McCall's pattern 5309. When I got home with the pattern I was disappointed to see that it required 4 yds. of 45" fabric. I didn't see much in the store that I liked and knew most pieces that I already had wouldn't have that much. I was REALLY excited when a trip to the basement found the white eyelet with purple roses in my stash. I knew it would make a great dress and there was just enough. I had planned to work carefully and make a muslin to test the fit as I had plenty of time. But, things didn't work that way...if it wasn't for the last minute, I'd never get anything done! On Friday I cut the dress out, sewed most of it together before she came home from school and hoped that it would fit. She tried it one when she came home. It fit, but not as well as I would have like. I moved the ties up a bit and that made a big difference! It fit so much better after I had the lining in it. I had to cut quite a bit off the hem as it was really long, but I'll know next time to make it shorter when I cut it out.

This was the first project to use my new cutting table from JoAnn Fabrics. It is their Sew Essentials folding table that opens to 36" x 60". (I think.) The best part is that it stands 36" tall so I didn't end up with an aching back from bending to cut. I had wavered about buying it, but now I'm really glad that I did.

More quilts

Our "Caring for Cooper group" learned this week that Cooper Hospital in Camden is expecting 3 sets of triplets soon. One set has already made their arrival. I'm trying to get some quilts made. I still have many of the tops left from January, but most remaining sets are gender-specific. So, I made a new non-specific set pictured above. It's red, white and blue with cute sheep and stars. All from stash (aged for at least a few years)! Another 6 yds. gone! Yeah! The other picture is a scrap quilt. The pieced blocks are the "trimmings" from the January quilt tops. I simply sewed them together, then cut blocks. The extra squares are leftovers from my sons' curtains and a remnant piece. Although it's not very big, it's one of my favorite!

Bevy of Baby Quilt Tops

A few weeks ago, a friend posted a link to make a Super-Sized Nine Patch baby quilts on our charity crafting group. http://quiltmaker.com/patterns/patt230.pdf I was sold from the minute I opened the link and knew it was something that I'd try someday.

Walking through Wal-Mart on Tuesday, I saw some coordinating fabrics on clearance and knew it was time. I bought enough for 3 sets of quilts and even found some 1 yd and larger pieces in the remanent bin for the backs of a few. Here's the beginning of my addiction:

These fabric sets were bought for this purpose. The first is two Boyd's bear prints and a blue w/white polka dot. The next is two car/truck prints with a small black on yellow print. Then, I bought an animal print and put it with a mottled yellow and blue calico-like print. I had also bought a remanent piece of white with the word "moo" written allover. I had thought to use it to back one of the quilts.

While I was ironing the fabric, I remembered I had several yards of "cow spot" print that never made it into Christmas pageant costumes. If I could find it and a John Deere print I'd be able to make another set.

I didn't find John Deere, but I found wonderful pasture scene that I'd bought several years ago from Fabric.com. Turns out it is a Michael Miller print. Although the pictures don't justice to any of the sets, this one is especially cute! I have enough spots to back all three quilts.

This set is some retro prints that have been aging in my stash for a year or more. I had bought them to make a boutique-y dress from daughter, but hasn't happened so I decided I should use them. The colors are actually turquoise, pink, orange, and lime green. I have one more piece that coordinates to back one of the quilts.

Now I need to scour my stash for some more backing fabrics. I think that means this has turned into a stashing busting experience! Hip-hip hooray!

I hope to post some finished products before too long. I have enough batting here for 3 quilts, I think. More is on the way from Joann.com. Hope it travels quickly!

Thanks for looking!

2007 Crafting Year in Review

Sewing:

• several diaper bags for charity
• daughter's lunch bag
• daughter's dress
• 3 teacher's bags for end-of-school-year gifts
• purse/bag
• mermaid Halloween costume

Crochet:

• Husky afghan in tapestry crochet


• 3 apple necklaces for teacher goodbye presents


• snowman


• grocery bags


• doll's sweater/cape


• afghan for DH's grandmother


• school bus ornament and scarf


• spider ornament

Crossover Diaper Bag Tutorial

I have had requests for the tutorial of the bag I finished over the weekend. Click here: Crossover Diaper Bag Tutorial and you should find it I hope! It is a PDF document, so you will need Adobe Acrobat to open it. It is very image heavy, so give it some time to download. I think (hope!) it makes sense. I tried not to leave out even the littlest of steps.

This is a larger picture of the pattern than the PDF shows. It's still hard to see what I wrote, though. If you right click and save it to your computer, you can zoom in some with a photo imaging program. It's all in the tutorial, I just thought it might helpful for those of us that are visual learners to see a picture!


This is a good stash reduction project as it uses nearly 4 yards of fabric. For the one I made, I used 2 yards of 1 fabric and 1 yard of 2 fabrics. One of the best things about making bags is that they don't have to "fit" per se. If your fabric is a little shorter or narrow, make the bag a little shorter or narrower or not as deep.

Enjoy using the directions for your own personal use and charity purposes, but please do not sell the bags you make.

Enjoy!

Crossover Diaper Bag

I finished my crossover diaper bag. I made it larger than the test piece I posted the other day. It's about 19"wide, 15" high (not including handle) and 5" deep. It's also lined which makes for bulky seam allowances, but I think it turned out nice. I hope to make a bunch of these for the monthly projects of the yahoo group All Crafts for Charity and reduce my stash at the same time. Although it seems I keep buying more fabric with these bags in mind! :)

This the front:


This is the back. I thought it would be fun to mix fabrics.


Here it is filled with lots of stuff. Boy it will hold a lot! A blanket, changes of clothes, diapers & wipes...it'll all fit.


And, it will even stay somewhat organized thanks to the three inside pockets!


I love it! It would even make a good crafting bag for knitters and crocheters. I have a tutorial written. I'll be posting it somewhere soon.

St. Patrick's Sewing

My daughter is still at the age where she likes Mommy to make her a dress for the holidays. I offered to make one for St. Patrick's Day and she jumped at the offer. She picked the fabric out on Saturday at Joann Fabrics. I thought I had some green at home for the bodice, but a trip to Wal-Mart before I even checked my stash netted a perfect green polo on clearance.

The colors are much brighter than they appear. Of course, if you have a new dress, you need a new bag. I got busy making one that will be her new lunch bag. She's really rough on lunch bags and backpacks (she's on her 4th backpack this school year!) and has been carrying her lunch in plastic grocery bags for about a month. Today she had a cute one from The Children's Place and she actually brought it home to reuse. I was able to cut out a bag (no pattern...I made it up on the fly based on the size of the scraps I had left and the size I thought the finished bag should be) while visiting my folks today. I even interlined it with some canvas Mom had leftover from another project. This is the first time I've used the canvas interlining and I think it's a great technique. Here it is:



Cute, huh? I even put a zippered pocket inside for milk money when I'm out of drinks. I had thought the zipper application through and was happy when I came home and a search at http://www.craftster.org/ came up with the same method.



Here's the whole ensemble that a happy 2nd grader will get to use tomorrow:


Now, if the weatherman wasn't predicting 4-8 inches of snow we'd be all set! She was balking at the idea of needing to wear leggings and dress boots with this.

Update: There is a little snow and freezing rain outside with much more snow on the way. That all translates to a school cancellation....much to a certain girl's disappointment. It kind of makes Mommy feel good that the snow day was met with jeers, not cheers! The boys have planned a Veggie Tales movie day since it was going to be movie night anyway.

My Crossover Bag

I love sewing bags! Here's my latest:



I fashioned this after Four Corner Designs The X Bag. I've never seen the pattern except for photos of the cover on the web, so I have no idea if my way is the way they make their bag. This was a test so it is not lined. I wasn't sure if it would work like I thought and didn't want to waste the effort of lining it. I am happy with the results and plan to modify the pattern just a bit so the bag is wider. Then I can make a slew as diaper bags for charity. I definitely have the stash for it!


This is an attempt to show the 3 pockets made by the crossover.


I finished the raw edges and seam allowances with pink FOE (fold-over elastic). I love that stuff!

I look forward to tweaking the pattern and sewing these up.