Sunday, November 28, 2010

Blairs Dress





This is a dress I made for my niece.You can find the free pattern here. It was really easy to put together and only took me 2 hours including cutting time. Just as a warning this dress ran big. I originally made it for Sara Jane who is 2, but it didn't fit. It fit Blair who is 5. Maybe I didn't use the right seam allowance? Not sure since this wasn't included in the tutorial. Oh well it looks adorable on Blair and I'm sure if you had a child's measurements you could figure out how to make it fit right.Originally the bow was supposed to tie in the front, but it looked better tied in the back. Maybe I'll make a flower to go on the waistband and send it to them. She wore it to church today and she said she loved her new outfit. What a cute model! It's fun sewing for kids and how excited they get. Blair was so happy when she saw the dress. Also I got this fabric on sale for $1.00 a yard on fabric.com so this dress only cost $1.00! Not bad eh?

Believe Blocks



While I was at my in-laws for Thanksgiving I made these cute blocks while we had a craft party. It's been awhile since I've used mod podge. It was fun! I might just have to make some more for Valentines Day.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Felt Bakery Set

I had the privilege of being a pattern tester for Sweetie Pie Bakery. I got to test out an adorable pattern for a felt cookbook, canisters, measuring cups, brownie, cinnamon roll, cheesecake, macaroons, cherry pie, and peanut butter cookies.

I made the canisters, cook book, and measuring cups in red and blue because I have found that boys also really like my felt food (my nephew Sumner played with it for 3 hours) so I tried to avoid pink. I like how the color combination turned out looking retro. I love it! Wouldn't it look cute with a red play kitchen?

I used the pattern she gave me to test out all the food items. Except I had already made a cheesecake from this tutorial so I used her cheesecake pattern to make a lemon square instead. To get the powdered sugar look at the top I just dabbed white paint on the top. I think it looks just like a lemon square. If you are interested in the pattern she is now selling it on Etsy. Here is the link. I highly recommend it! Her instructions were very easy to follow and everything was fun to make. I especially like how a lot of it was hand sewn so I could do it while I was watching TV in the evenings or on long road trips.

Thanks Jessie for letting me be a pattern tester! I love how everything turned out. It's absolutely adorable! I will definitely be making more of her patterns in the future. It's so cute how can I resist? Now on to the pictures!


The felt canisters are adorable. They open up and even hold baking ingredients flour, sugar, and brown sugar. I even sewed beads on it to make it look like real sugar crystals. Also shown in this picture are the cinnamon rolls and peanut butter cookies.





These pictures show off the felt cookbook and measuring cups. The felt cookbook even has pages that include recipes for the cookbook item. The spine of the cookbook says Bake. Adorable? I think yes.



This is a picture of my cherry cheesecake. I used a tutorial online. This was not included in the pattern.


Here is a picture of the cherry pie and macaroon. I still have one more macaroon to get done. I've never tried them in real life, but they look delicious.


Finally here is the caramel fudge brownie and lemon square. I used her cheesecake pattern to make it.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Belle Costume





Matt's friend Levin asked me to make a Belle costume for his 2 year old daughter Ansley. His wife died in a car accident a year ago so I thought it would be nice to make her a costume. I used this New Look Pattern for the bodice and used this belle dress tutorial for the skirt. My mom helped me me make the pretty sash and rose. My mom is so talented! I think it turned out well. It fits her perfectly. Ansley loved it and cried when she had to take it off. She also kept wanting to carry it around when it wasn't on and saying, " Oh what a pretty yellow dress."

While I went to work on the Belle dress. Levin went all out on a beast mask which you can see in the picture. He made it using resin, plaster, paper mache, and fur from old Teddy Bears. I was pretty impressed. It isn't completely done yet so that's why you can see some newspaper. He told me his brother was going to go as the candlestick. I will have to post a picture of the whole clan when they send it to me from Halloween.

Tomorrow I plan on finally posting my felt food that I finished back in August from my pattern testing. Whoops I've been awful about blogging.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Sugar Cookies

I'm back and finally posting! My MBA has been sucking all my time lately so I haven't had time to do anything. I finished this ages ago, but am now just getting around to posting it. Now introducing the felt sugar cookie set. Kids roll out the cookie dough, cut out the cookies from the dough, toss them in the oven,decorate them, and walah they are done complete with pink frosting and sprinkles. So cute! I'm sort of thinking about figuring out how to make a pastry bag and a rolling pin to add to the set. I might just have to.





Notice anything different about these pictures? I got a new Cannon Camera this month. Notice how much better the image quality is? Yay for good pictures! Matt and I have been playing around with it all week, but we are still amateurs. It might be my next new hobby. That and learning Adobe Photoshop.

For the cookie instructions I used this tutorial I found online.

To display my lovely cookies I used this tutorial to craft up a cute blue cake stand.

More felt food to come soon. I'm going to show off the awesome pattern I got to test for Sweetie Pie Bakery!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Felt BBQ and More

While I was in Lake Arrowhead in May. Matt's mom and I had a sewing party. It's fun sewing with other people. I've offered to have sewing parties at my house, but sewing seems to be a lost art so nobody is interested. Our project of choice was making more felt food.

I had purchased this pattern a while ago so we decided to make some cheese burgers from this pattern. It was fun and they both turned out so cute. I definitely recommend this pattern and it was definitely worth the money.

When I got home I finished the set by making the hot dog, steak, and grill. The grill was pretty time consuming, but I did it while I was watching TV so I honestly didn't think it was too bad.



Eventually I want to add a soft drink, french fries, and condiments for the hot dog to the set. I'm planning on covering a small Pringles container for the soft drink. If only I had more time! Maybe I'll post a tutorial for them when I get around to them. This will definitely be after I'm done with my MBA in August.

Matt's mom and I also made a felt orange. We used this tutorial for the orange peel and this tutorial for the orange wedges. One tip is to make the orange peel first and then make the orange wedges. We ended up only needing 4 sections to fill our orange instead of 6 which is what the tutorial said. We also gathered the top to make an orange naval because our oranges ended up looking funky at the top. Maybe we did something wrong not sure? Overall adding the gathering at the top fixed it and it turned out so cute. I'm in love!



I also finished three other random felt food items. Felt strawberries, eggs, and a baked potato. I love just making random stuff to add to the collection and when I eat real food I think about how to make a felt version. I'm having a blast. If it doesn't entertain my kids it at least entertained me!

I used this tutorial for the strawberries. However the pattern printed way too small so I had to play with it to get it the right size. I guess I can't complain since it's free, but it was frustrating and I had to make a couple test strawberries to make sure it was big enough. I wasn't about to embroider all those french knots on them if they didn't turn out!

I used this tutorial for the eggs in the egg carton. I believe I used the larger egg size and it worked out perfectly using the edge of my presser foot. Very easy and fast. Also this seems to be the favorite felt food item with kids. Strange I know, but they love taking the eggs out of the carton.

The baked potato was pretty easy. I basically just sewed a white oval and stuffed it. Then I sewed a matching brown oval and cut down the center. Then I sewed some yellow fleece together in a small square for the butter. Pretty simple.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Making your shirts actually fit

So over the past week Matt and I have stopped by the Van Hansen outlet. They were having a mega sale and had some really cute T-shirts for $8. Problem was they didn't fit well. For some bizarre reason their shirts tend to be wider and baggier than most shirts even in extra-small. I decided to buy them anyways. I guess I fell in love with the cute ruffles and yoyos on them.

Today when I went to go wear it I looked in the mirror and sort of regretted buying them. They made me look fatter than I actually am. So I went on a search on how to take in a t-shirt. I came across this video. I then took a leap of faith and tried it out.

I was so surprised when after 5 minutes of work it looked great! I wish I knew how easy this was before!

Thank you youtube! Now I don't have to look frumpy and can enjoy my $8 shirts. I might just have to go through my closet and make more of my shirts fit perfectly.

Before


ew I'm even embarassed to post the before. Not flattering!

After




*The pictures don't show off the drastic change as much as in person. Just take my word for it. It was a huge difference. I took in 2 inches on both sides! Yes ironing does make a difference too, but aren't all before pictures supposed to look awful so everyone is shocked with the final result?

Saturday, May 15, 2010

T-shirt Makeover

I don't know about you, but my summer wardrobe is pretty boring. I usually just buy plain T-shirts and dress it up with jewelry. It's fine, but I wanted a change. I love how J-crew dresses up the common t-shirt, but I'm cheap and really don't want to pay those prices. So when I came across this tutorial I had to try it. It did take awhile, but I absolutely love the result. Plus I found the shirts for $3 a piece so the shirt only cost me $6!

Just pop in a chick flick and you too can make a cute shirt. It doesn't even require a sewing machine and if I pulled it off with horrible hand sewing abilities so can you!

* The color is a very pretty lavendar. My camera doesn't ever capture my crafts well. Maybe someday I will have a nice Canon camera. Until then everyone will just have to put up with my crummy camera and photography skills!



Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Puppet Theater



Introducing the doorway puppet theater! I tried to get Matt to help model it, but he kindly declined. haha

I used this tutorial for the curtains. Then I made up the bottom part by myself. It's really just like sewing a giant pillowcase. I just used ribbon for the ties. Make sure you use fray check on the ends!

Also it's not quite done yet. I really want to buy some of this cool fabric to make a sign. I'll probably use some red fabric scraps to make a border around the chalkboard fabric. The sign would just attach the bottom part of the theater with a safety pin for easy removal. How fun though for the kids to be able to write out with chalk what show will be playing in their puppet theater.

For another version of the doorway puppet theater check out my sister in law Jill's. I probably would've done her version, but I was too cheap to buy the book that had the instructions in it. I really should figure out how to sew that bag to keep it in, but that's a project for another day.

Now I just need to make some cool puppets! I wonder how hard Muppet puppets would be. hmmm....

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Humpty Dumpty



One of my favorite crafter's is Lier from Ikatbag. If you have some free time you should read through her archives. She makes the best kid toys, stuffed animals, dolls, dress-up clothes, and playhouses. I want to copy everything she does and stayed tuned in May because I'm going to make a fabric playhouse similar to hers and a few others I've seen (with a few of my own designs of course). Matt is even going to get involved and help me build the pvc pipe frame for it. So excited!

Anyways when I saw this free Humpty Dumpty stuffed animal pattern I instantly thought of Matt's sister Lisa. She decided to decorate her babies room with a nursery rhyme theme. How could I resist making her this adorable Humpty Dumpty? I think it will look adorable sitting on a shelf in baby Audrey's room. I even made him to match her colors baby blue and pink. His limbs are also detachable like Lier's so the kids can put him back to together again.

He was pretty easy to sew together except I got stuck on his legs. Eventually I figured it out, but not without some frustration. My machine was also not liking the button holes. I think it was the cheap thread I was using which kept breaking mid-button hole and it wasn't the needle because I just changed it. So I learned that when I'm doing button holes I should use high quality thread. Oh well I will just ignore those imperfect buttonholes and move on. I think he turned out pretty cute and will look good in the room. What do you think?

Friday, March 26, 2010

Sack Lunch


Introducing the typical unhealthy American sack lunch (minus the calories of course). A sandwich, chips, juice pouch, banana, and cookies!

I used this free pattern to make the sandwich and chips. However if you do use this pattern it takes a lot of work resizing because it prints too small. So I ended up just using the pattern for the bread and chip bag because I got frustrated with the resizing and printing it out to see if it was the right size business. The sandwich can either be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a bologna,cheese,lettuce, and tomato sandwich depending on the toppings added.

I used this site for both the lettuce and tomato slices since it prints the perfect size. I just traced a cd to make the bologna.

I then made up the juice pouch, banana, and chocolate chip cookies by myself. The banana was actually the hardest and took a lot of trial and error, but I finally got it to look good in the end. I wish I knew how to post patterns on blogger, but I don't. Otherwise I would post my patterns I used to help people out making the banana. If anyone has ideas let me know and I can try.

For the paper bag I referred to this tutorial. I love that it only took 3 minutes to make unlike that frustrating banana!

A special shout-out to Matt's mom for teaching me how to do french knots. She is amazing at embroidery and taught me. This came in handy with adding details on my felt food.

P.S. it looks better in real life. My photography skills are lacking and for some reason my bread looks lumpy. I'll have to take some lessons from my talented sister.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Baby Present for Neighbor



My neighbor had a little girl last Friday so I thought it would be nice to make her something. So I whipped up this onesie and skirt to give to her. I used this tutorial for the skirt and then just appliqued (use heat and bond then sew on) some pears and apples from the fabric on a onesie. I made it to fit a 3-6 month old baby. This entire outfit only took me 20 minutes to make. The skirt was probably the easiest thing I've made thus far and it turned out so cute. So give it a try it's super easy I promise! Another thing I love about this skirt is it takes hardly any fabric. You could get a fat quarter or dig through the remnant bins at Hobby Lobby and make these skirts for $1!

*One tip to make cutting easier is to use wrapping paper to make a pattern for the rectangle. Most wrapping papers have 1 inch squares on the back so you just have to count and cut out the shape. I do this for every rectangle/square I have to cut out because I hate measuring squares/rectangles by hand and having the pattern helps me cut more accurately. Then after you are done you can keep your pattern to make it again later.

* Another nice thing about this skirt is that it can be made to fit different baby sizes. The smallest is probably 3-6 months using the tutorial measurements, but you could make it bigger by gathering less in the waistline. You could probably even play with the rectangle measurements to get it down to newborn size.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Andreas Baby Dress

I decided I wanted to be better about sewing stuff for my families new babies. I haven't done so well so far, but I'm trying to turn a new leaf. So sorry if you didn't get something from me yet. I'm not picking favorites I promise it's just how much time I have to do stuff like this. I found time for this during Christmas break when I had no school. I definitely wanted to make a dress for Andrea so that she would have something handmade for her new baby girl. I used New Look Pattern 6842 in the newborn size (although newborn translates to 9 months so it's a little big). I bought the designer mother goose fabric on sale at Joanns during their mega Christmas sale for $2.00 yd. So the dress only cost $6 with the pattern and zipper. Who said sewing doesn't save money? I think this dress could easily sell in a designer baby shop for $40. Thank you to my wonderful mom who helped with this project. I couldn't have installed those adorable, but evil puffy sleeves without her! I also made a flower to go on a headband for the babies hair. I used this tutorial. I hope she likes it because I'm in love with it!




I could not take a nonblurry picture of this flower. I tried like 7 times even though the dress pictures turned out fine. So sorry this is the best I could get. I need a new camera!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Thanksgiving Feast





I tried to get this done by Thanksgiving, but that definitely didn't happen. I had so much fun making this and think everything turned out adorable! The turkey legs are attached with Velcro and are detachable.

I used this pattern to make the turkey and the small carrots. I'm glad I bought at least one felt food pattern because I learned a lot from the pattern and learned making it isn't as hard as it looks. Now I feel skilled enough to make up more by myself.

I used this tutorial to make the green beans.

I actually figured out the pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, and potatoes on my own. Although I sort of referenced this and this site for help on the pie. I used this tutorial for the whipped cream. I used my machine to sew it instead of hand sewing and it came together in 2 minutes literally.

I used this tutorial to make the big carrots, but I changed the top because I wasn't a fan of the top part.

The pumpkin pie is my favorite. I used my ruffle food to make the crust. I think it's the cutest!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Church Crafting

When Matt and I moved into our new ward we were called to be sunbeam teachers. I never knew how challenging it was until my first week. 3-4 year olds have little to no attention span and have a ton of energy. So all year I've been experimenting different ways to teach the children the gospel. I feel so good when I know that they actually understood what I was teaching and it got through to them. Here are some of my tactics I've learned over the last 6 months that are kid tested and work. I also am glad I'm preparing lessons now because I will have ready prepared FHE lessons when we start our family.

1.) Make a felt board. Kids are very visual learners and won't listen unless you have a visual aid. This felt board was so easy to make. It consisted of getting a thick poster board spraying it with spray adhesive and then sticking on the felt. After I just cut around the poster board to get rid of the excess felt. So easy and took 5 minutes.



Once you have your felt board you need to get some figurines for it. I bought a felt Book of Mormon kit at Deseret Book (shown above). Or you can print and laminate these figures on this website or whatever you want.

2.) Going along with the visuals. I like to laminate stories, puzzles, and games that go along with the lesson. I've found some good stuff at this and this website. The Friend is also an excellent resource.



3.) Make some puppets. Kids love puppets. I made some of these puppets to explain that we have a spirit and a body. I used fabric markers to draw it on. It started to die at the end so some of the puppets don't look as good. Don't use sharpies! They bleed and I learned that the hard way. I got the idea from my mom. She had one growing up and we used it for talks all the time.



4.)Make a memory game. Kids love this and are learning as they match things together. Matt made a really cool prophet one to go with our prophet lesson. By the end they started to recognize the prophets faces.

5.) Play the fishing game. I made a fishing pole with a magnet and a wooden dowel. I change it up each week by putting paperclips on different things that relate to the lesson. Kids love it and learn a lot at the same time.

6.) Arts and crafts. I use this book all the time for arts and crafts projects. Someone gave us a copy, but you can find it on Amazon or at Deseret Book. Works great!

7.) If all else fails tempt them to be reverent with gummy bears. That works too!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Complete Breakfast

What do you do when you have a ton of leftover felt? (I bought way too much for the quiet book). As you guessed it I'm progressing into the felt food realm. It's so much fun, so easy, and addicting! I'm planning on stowing these away for Christmas for my kids maybe to go with a cute wooden play kitchen. Here is my pancake, egg, bacon, and sausage breakfast! Doesn't it look yummy? I didn't come up with the idea for the food, but I didn't use a pattern and made them up by myself. The bacon is my favorite. I sewed a pipe cleaner into the middle to make it bendy which I think makes it cuter than the other bacon I've seen online. I also whipped up some of these donuts from this tutorial. Stayed tuned for more felt food I'm addicted!




I actually copied some of the sprinkles to look like Homer Simpson donuts. Nerdy I know!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Quiet Book Pages 21-24

I'm getting close to finishing. Can you say longest project ever? I'm starting to lose steam because I keep getting distracted by other projects I'm working on. The first page is a page for the kids to play tic tack toe. The second page is a page for the kids to match the shapes. The shapes snap on and off. I got the templates for the shapes here. The third page is a page where the kids can weave the pie as well as build an ice cream tower. I got to use my new ruffle foot to make the crust around the pie which was really fun! The last page is a gumball machine where the kids match the right colored gumball to the gumball sewed onto the page. This page came together really fast and looks very colorful!