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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!