Tea Towel Time!

I have spent the last 6 weeks (not successfully) recovering from surgery, so last week I decided to that even if I am not able to do much, I could be productive in the sewing department.  So I went to the storage room and dusted off my sewing machine.  It turns out that I had an enormous bag full of fabric, and so my goal became to use them up (at least mostly) before I allowed myself to buy any more.

What is a great use of a variety of random fabric you ask?  Tea towels... lots and lots of tea towels!!  I also added some matching wash cloths and reversible coasters to some of the sets.

To make my tea towels, I cut a rectangle 16.5" x  21.5".

My trick is that I use an erasable fabric marker, so I use it to draw lines where I need to sew, so my towels all turn out as almost perfect rectangles, and they are all the same(ish) size.

If you like it visual like me, then add lines on the BACK of the fabric, showing you where you need to fold it. This line will be inside the hem, so as long as it's not too bright, no one will ever see it.

Sew along the fold, until you have a slightly smaller rectangle.

Now, do the exact same thing again.  This makes you create a double hem on your towel, so the ends  of the fabric is completely hidden, and it just looks best this way.  Here is a tutorial with pictures to better explain how to do a double hem.  It is exactly the same as on a towel, with only a difference in size.

Eco-friendly Snack Bags

As most parents of young children, I often carry various snacks with me when we go places, and I have wasted more money and plastic than I care to think about, when sending snacks and lunches to school with my son.  I decided I should make something more durable, nicer looking and more user friendly, so I got some fabric, velcro and lining and went to work!  I used a thin vinyl lining to be able to use the bags for fruits and veggies too.  I think they would be just fine with cotton lining as well, since they are washable.

I used this wonderful tutorial, and I think they turned out great!!

Baby and Doll Quilt

Back when I found out that one of my best friends was having a little girl, I got to work and made her a quilt for her crib. At the time, I knew a little girl here locally who loved her baby dolls, so I used the leftover fabric to make a tiny doll quilt and matching pillow. The quilt is very basic, as I'm no experienced quilter. I got cute, pre-paneled fabric, learned how to bind it properly, and quilted star shapes into the blanket with my sewing machine. I think it turned out great for my very first quilt!!

And here's the project from the scraps and leftovers.  The can of Diet Coke was used to show the size.  I made a basic tiny pillow, then made a real (just small) pillow case for it that matched the doll quilt.  That way, she could get more pillow cases and "change the bed" of her doll. :)

Om Nom

Sometime last year, when Alexander was in his Cut the Rope (iPad game) stage, I "had" to crochet him a set of Om Nom and his various tools, so he could play and make Cut the Rope levels.

I got the pattern on Etsy as a .pdf download, and it was worth the $5 for sure!

Since the whole game happens inside a cardboard box, we just got a brown shoe-box to keep him in. Inexpensive, but Alexander spent hours playing with it :)

Flat Guys

My son, Alexander has a global developmental delay, which basically means that he is developing a bit slower than his peers, but for Alexander, it also means that his interests are VERY specific. For the last couple of years, all he wants to play with is anything related to Super Mario, World of Warcraft, Star Wars and Donkey Kong. This doesn't mean he spends a lot of time in front of a computer or TV, but rather that he spends a LOT of time playing and recreating things from these games. If I were to purchase the amount of "bad guys" and "good guys" from these games for him to play with, I would be in a huge amount of debt. My answer for this has been that we turn his favorite games into sets of "Flat Guys". I scour the internet for pictures of his favorite video game heroes and villains, gather them in 1 page documents, and print them on iron-on paper transfers.  After they are printed out, I iron the pages on to $0.50 sheets of white felt, then cut them out.  That's it.  It's basically a mix between a boy version of felt paper dolls, and the old felt boards I used to see in Sunday School.  He uses the items and creatures to create levels or areas from his games (he loves this the most), then uses a felt Mario or whatever, and completes the levels.  He even hums the right theme music and makes the sounds as he plays.  It's all pretty fantastic, and because they weigh basically nothing, it is a toy that always comes to the hospital when needed, or when we go anywhere.

If your child isn't as amazed by Mario, Donkey Kong and Warcraft guys, I am sure the same thing could be done with My Little Pony or whatever else he or she might be interested in.

For those of you with special needs kiddos, I've also used these kinds of printed felt cut-outs for social story like activities.  We've had food "flat guys", to learn what a meal vs snack is on a felt plate, and felt weather items (Sun, clouds, numbers, lightning, rain clouds etc) to talk about weather, and appropriate things to wear.

As long as you have about $20 in Canada, or $15 in the US (most of that would be spent on the iron on sheets, because felt is cheap), an iron, a printer, and a pair of scissors, your imagination is the only limit :)

Feel free to download the sets  here (Mario, Angry Birds, Warcraft, Donkey Kong), so your can make your own

Past Projects Gallery

As I don't have any links or tutorials to share, I still want to show pictures of successful projects from the past, that can easily be used as inspiration for your own.

You can download some of the printouts for my various crafts here.