Easy 30 Minute St. Patrick's Day Pillow

Today I had the best afternoon!

My husband took our 3 girls to one of those inflatable bounce house places and I got some fabulous alone time with my sewing machine. It was glorious!  I've really been slacking in this area, and it was such a gift to be able to just sit and sew uninterrupted.

After sewing a baby bib (more on that in a different post), I came up with this adorable, super easy St. Patrick's Day pillow!

I decided to make it reversible, just because I love making things last for a long time. 

The heart on this pillow is actually 2 pieces of felt that were sewn together by my oldest. I wasn't sure what to do with it, so putting it on a pillow to keep sounded like a great idea!

Interested in making one?

Gather up the following supplies:
2 pieces of white felt (approx. 11 x 9in)

green felt and coordinating thread

pink felt and coordinating thread

scissors

pins

disappearing ink pen

That's it!

I free-handed the shamrock and then pinned it in place.  

I used a washable green marker to write the word "lucky" and then used my machine to sew over the lines. The washable marker worked fine, but I'd use a disappearing ink pen---if I could find mine!!  I'm sure the kids moved it...somewhere....

I pulled the thread to the back and tied them off instead of back-stitching. Because I can.

And this is a great project to use up scraps!  Perfect!  Then just repeat for the other side and you're done!

The best part was when I showed the girls and they gave it a big squeeze hug; it's soooo soft! I love felt!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!!

~Patricia

Why I shouldn't take shortcuts

So today I was making some wool dryer balls and my thought process went something like this:

Every time I make them, I have to put them in the nylons and then the nylons always getting snagged and I have to rip them off the felted wool....maybe this time I'll just throw the balls in the washer without the nylons.

Great idea, right?

Wrong.

Here's what you get when you don't add the nylons:

A huge mess. A big semi-felted wooly mess.

So clearly it's taking me a little longer than I anticipated to make more of the dryer balls, but when I do, I'll be sure to put them up in my Etsy shop. If you'd like to take a chance and make some yourself, check out my previous post. So check back soon!

~Patricia

The oil change can wait.....

...because these dolls are in need of some shoes.

We just returned from a fabulous month vacation away "up north" as we southerners like to say, and of course the kids had all sorts of ideas about what they wanted to do today.  My minivan, which I drove all the way up north, needs an oil change.

Mostly they wanted me to make shoes for their dolls (I think they look more like ice skates).  
             

Felt. A crafter's best friend.
Am I right?

Thanks for the shoes!

These are the girls' Lottie dolls. We have the Spring Ballet Lottie and the Snow Queen Lottie. Click on their names to see them or buy them from Amazon. (Note: these are affiliate links.) We found them at our local toy store, however, and have had a lot of fun with them. Both are really cute dolls and are a good alternative to Barbies. They aren't as big either, so that's nice for traveling too. And they like felt shoes. :)

Any excuse to craft, right? 

And to avoid getting an oil change. Or dragging all three kids to sit and wait for the oil change. Ugh. 

Maybe tomorrow.

~Patricia

The Advent calendar is finally finished!

If you follow along on my blog, you might remember last year when I started making an Advent Calendar  that was inspired by one I saw in a Pottery Barn catalog. I had such good intentions to finish it, but then came something, and something else, and then here I was again at Christmas time, with my Advent Calendar still not finished!

So I got busy, and finished it. And although I didn't actually put anything in it this year (the kids wanted to shove all their Halloween leftovers inside the pockets and then eat it all, so I had to put a stop to that), I have good intentions of making cute cards for each day of Advent next year. Yup, I'm writing it down, and it will happen!

My favorite part is that the girls helped make the pockets, both this year and last year.  It really was a lot of fun, and more togetherness was experienced than if I had just bought it from Pottery Barn, that's for sure! Next year I'd also like to add an Advent wreath, but I'm trying to not get ahead of myself. ;)

Easy American Girl Doll Cape

For Christmas, I decided I wanted to make a few things for my daughter's American Girl Doll. (You can see all of the ideas I've pinned on my AG doll idea board on Pinterest here). 

But probably the best tutorial I found was for a cute, easy cape from Strictly Homemade here. I made this in less than an hour, and it's so soft and cozy, I'd probably make a full-size one for my daughter, except there is probably only 3 days out of the whole year she could wear it where we live. :)

Here's the dolly looking pretty cozy!

I modified the pattern she gave a little bit, since I had already bought soft and cuddly fabric, not fleece (which would have been a genius idea, had I found the pattern before I bought the material). Originally I had thought I would just make a pattern on my own, then I searched Pinterest, because someone out there probably thought to make a cape for their AG doll before, right?  It probably took me 2 minutes to find this tutorial. Fleece is nice because it doesn't fray, so you don't need to spend time hemming.  I used soft and cuddly on one side and red felt on the other, so technically mine is reversible. I bought a cute 1" fur trim and hand-stitched it and the ribbon ties on. 

Here are some action photos!

After cutting out the pieces, I made sure to pin, pin, pin and then trim the circles to make them even! 

Pinning again!

I sewed everything but the interior circle, then I turned it right-side out....

...then hand-stitched the fur trim and ribbon ties. 

Ta-da!!! Super cute and ready to party!

Like I said, super easy and cute, right? My daughter was so excited Christmas morning! I also made some awesome reversible skirts for her doll too.  I'll share the details on those later this week, stay tuned!

~Patricia

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Halloween Wreath

Have I mentioned I love Halloween?

Problably not enough yet, huh?  Well, you're in luck because I have two more awesome Halloween ideas to share with you!

Remember that super cool Valentine's Day heart wreath that I did? Check it out here if you need to jog your memory. It was/is awesome. I actually left it up for a long time because I liked it so much!

I now have a new favorite wreath that I saw on this Etsy website. Whoever makes the wreaths in that shop is amazing. I seriously could order so many of them, I love them so much!  But, this got me thinking.....these wreaths are so similar to the style of the Valentine's Day wreath....why don't I just make another one in the style of my new favorites? And guess what (drumroll please...) it was sooo much cheaper!

I think I spent less than $5 total on this project. A nicely-made felt wreath that you'd buy on Etsy could easily cost upwards of $30, 40, 50 dollars, not including shipping!  However, I truly believe that what you are paying for is the maker's time. Because let's be honest, these wreaths take time. And if you don't have time to spend listening to your favorite radio programs on Stitcher Smart Radio, doing so much cutting that your hand starts to cramp, and almost burning yourself many times on hot glue....then you'd better just buy a wreath from Etsy.

Here's the How-to:
My materials:
6" strip of black felt (bought off the bolt at Joann's)
1/2 yard of purple felt (again off the bolt at Joann's)
6 googly eyes (just had these around the house, but they sell them at the dollar store)
cardboard box to use as a "form" (you could use a styrofoam wreath form, but then you'll need more felt to cover the whole area)
Hot glue sticks
Hot glue gun
Ribbon for hanging / bow

Basic instructions:
I cut out the "form" from a cardboard box, using a colander as my template.  I didn't want something too big, personally. I made another circle 2 or 3" inside of the colander one and cut it all out.

I wrapped the form with 2" strips of purple felt, securing with hot glue.

I used an old cd to trace circles on the felt and cut them out.  Then I cut a spiral out of each cd-sized circle. Starting from the inside of the circle, I rolled them up and secured with hot glue, making a sort of "flower".

Then I glued each "flower" onto the felt covered form. I added little pieces of felt to the inside layer to support it.

Add your googly eyes to the black flowers.

Tie a ribbon around the wreath to hang or add a decorative bow.

Hang and enjoy!


Stay tuned for my second awesome Halloween idea...it is seriously adorable!

~Patricia

Note: 
My new favorite app on my Nook is Stitcher Smart Radio. It basically holds a bunch of radio podcasts in one place and plays them to you for free.  No need to go to a bunch of websites and try to download them, oh no. They are all right here.

My current favorites:
This American Life
Radio Lab
Freakonomics Radio
Fresh Air

Halloween Felt No-Sew Banner

It's October!

October is one of my favorite months of the year, mostly because I love, love, love Halloween.  I know it's kinda silly, but I love getting dressed up in some ridiculous costume and parading around.  In previous years, I've tried to make the girls' Halloween costumes (I've done R2D2 and Fawn, one of Tinkerbell's fairy friends, for example) and even my own (I have a giant pink felt poodle skirt just waiting for me in my closet); but this year I really wanted to make something that I can reuse every year. I love the idea of getting out the Halloween box of decorations and finding all the cool stuff that the kids and I have made each year and putting them up. :)

Two years ago, I made a paper banner for Halloween. Click here to check it out. It's nice to see that it only took me two years to finally make a new banner out of felt! 

Here's the finished banner:

Didn't it turn out awesome?!  I really like it!  The last triangle is a spiderweb, made with glow-in-the-dark fabric paint--spooky! 

Close-up!

I bought some felt on sale at Jo-Ann's and made a few triangles, then I embellished them with some cute felt cut-outs that I free-handed.  I attached all the cut-outs with tacky glue (no-sewing!). 

If you didn't want to get out your sewing machine, you could then just attach all the finished triangles to a festive ribbon with glue as well, but I just got a new shipment of bobbins in, so I sewed mine on. I found the glitter/orange ribbon at Michael's. 

Don't forget to sign up and follow my blog! I'm working on a spooky Halloween wreath and have a bunch of easy Halloween decorations that you can make with the kids to share soon.  Stay tuned!

~Patricia

How to fix a tear in a dress! (creatively)

Awhile ago, someone gifted us a bunch of clothes, which was really awesome, since most of the items were exactly the things my daughter wanted.

There was a red pinafore-type dress in there, that would have been cute, if it didn't have a big rip right in the front.

I decided to get out the craft supplies and fix it! Felt to the rescue!

I stated by doing a Pinterest search for felt flowers and then free-handed one on a scrap of thicker paper (a good use for the million of tear-out cards that are in every magazine). I made 3 flowers in different sizes.

I was going to just plop the flower on top of the tear, when I got the genious idea to just continue the thread down to make a stem. I used the machine to make the leaves too, by adjusting the width of the zigzag as I went along. I then just sewed the flowers on and voila!

A super cute fix to an unsightly problem! I think it turned out great!

Felt flower heart

After making a cool wreath for Christmas, I found this awesome tutorial for one for Valentine's Day.

It took a few nights to make; there was a lot of felt to cut! Thankfully, I had some left over from a poodle skirt I made for Halloween a few years back, so the overall cost was minimal.  In addition to the big heart wreath, I made a smaller one using straight strips to make the flowers instead of cutting circles.

They both turned out great and are fun additions to our decor!

Countdown to Christmas!

Christmas is coming,

 the goose is getting fat

Please to put a penny in the old man's hat

If you haven't got a penny, a haypenny will do

If you haven't got a haypenny, then God bless you!

Anyone else remember this song? I remember singing it in elementary school, for our school "winter" program. Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, not only for the music, but for the fun of giving (and sometimes getting too!) gifts. This year I wanted to make an Advent Calendar for my girls to help them count down the days. My oldest is also helping me make the "pockets," and she is loving it! 

I bought some glittery green felt, folded it in half
and cut out a Christmas tree.
It's about 35"wide by 60" tall.

We decorated "pockets" for the days out of felt and hot-glued them on. Halfway done!

Add a little treat or message inside the pocket!

I wish I could say that this amazing tree Advent Calendar was my idea, or that I even found it on Pinterest, but alas, it was from Pottery Barn. :)  For some reason, they started sending me their catalogs, and I'm hooked!! It apparently was a very popular item because I can't find it online anymore, so I'm glad I ripped it out of the catalog when I did.  Sorta how we used to get ideas for things before the internet, huh? 

It's still a work in progress, stay tuned for the finished tree, Happy Holidays!