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!

Quiet Book Pages 17-20

Yah another 4 pages! The first page is a Rocketship that the kids can move along the string to the moon. This is a pretty basic page, but it's good to have some pages for the kids when they are smaller. The robot page took me forever probably because of all the detail that went into it. This page the kids can pull the elastic legs/arms and play a memory game that is inside the robots tummy. I got the ideas and templates from this site. The third page is a pages where the kids can button the flowers on and off. The last page is a dress me page. I made it unisex so it can be either a boy or a girl by changing the hair. I cut out a ton of clothes like a soccer uniform, a suit, skirts, dresses, etc. A ton of quiet books have both of these pages so it wasn't really my idea, but it's cute! I used this site for a template for the body of the dress-up page.

Quiet book pages 13-16

I whipped out another four pages! I'm trying to finish this project so that my house can be clean again this is a seriously messy project. The first page is Noah's Ark. Every good quiet book has a Noah's Ark page it seems so it definitely wasn't a new idea. The ark zipper opens and inside is a bunch of animal finger puppets that I got from Ikea for $6. The second page is a horse. This page is for kids to practice braiding by braiding the horses tail. The tiny pocket holds rubber bands and ribbon for them to secure their braids. The third page is a frog puzzle. I love frogs so I had to figure out how to include a frog somewhere in the book. I could also add more puzzles later if they get sick of this one. The purse page was actually inspired by my neice Kate. Last Christmas break she loved looking in purses and it kept her quiet at church. I'm planning on making felt makeup, a cell phone, keys, credit cards, and money to go into the purse. I'll wait until the rest of the book is done before I tackle that project. I will do it though!