More Christmas gifts

Now that Christmas is over and everyone has their gifts, I feel it's safe to post some of the things I made.  I didn't take pics of everything (though I should have), but I'll post what I have.  First is this hurricane vase I made for my Mom.

Ok, I didn't make the leaves.  I just thought it looked pretty with the red candle.  Anyway, I followed this tutorial from The Idea Room on glass etching, and it was so easy!  The hardest part was cutting out the stencil, since I had to cut it by hand with an exacto-knife and it has a lot of detail.  All you do is cut your stencil out of contact paper (which can be done on a Cricut or any sort of machine like that, or by hand tracing and cutting).  Then you stick the contact paper to the glass, leaving the cut-out area exposed, and you slather on the etching cream.  (It's ok if you don't stay in the lines, as long as you don't get cream on any glass that you don't want etched.)  The instructions on the bottle say you only need to leave it on for about a minute, but in reality it takes 10-15 minutes to get a nice "dark" etch.

As suggested in the tutorial, the cream is re-usable.  After the first 10 minutes, scrape the cream back into the jar (I always just use one of the boys' old craft paint brushes), rinse the residue from the glass, see if it is as dark as you want it, then re-apply for 5 more minutes if needed.  Just be careful when you rinse not to let the stencil come off, in case you want to re-apply.  Cute and easy, right?

Ok... enough of my horrible picture-taking!

Check out my Craft board on Pinterest for more etching ideas... the possibilities are endless!

Playing Santa's Elf

So several weeks ago I had the idea to make super hero capes for the boys for Christmas.  I happened to find some nice cute and red fabric at JoAnn's the other day, so I thought I would give it a try.  These capes were SO easy!  Here is the tutorial I followed, courtesy of How Does She?.  It was seriously super easy to follow.  The only thing I have left to do is add the hero logos.  Any suggestions on how best to do that are welcome!  :)

They are both double-sided--red on one side, blue on the other.
Ignore the lack or ironing!

And again... these are Christmas presents, so shhhhh!  Don't mention it to Evan!  ;)

I made a dress for my baby!

Hooray!  I finally got to make something for my little-one-to-be!  I made it without a pattern, thought I did get some inspiration from several blogs (and Pinterest).  I made it using a onesie and a scrap of cute little pink flowered fabric.  Now.  The band around the waist is not straight and I am aware of it.  I took the seam out and sewed it again, and it is still crooked.  Also, I am going to cover the stitching around the band with some ribbon or something,  That being said, I think it's not too bad for a first try at making something completely on my own!

Please ignore the dingy onesie.
This was a trial run with one of the boys' old onesies!

A lot of onesie dresses cut off the bottom part of the onesie, but I left mine whole so that I could still snap it around her diaper.  That way it won't ride up when she wiggling around or we pick her up.  I just hemmed a rectangle of fabric, gathered it, sewed the side edges together, then sewed the skirt onto the onesie.  Then I sewed a purple tube of fabric and sewed it right over top of the ruffle (mostly to hide the raw edge of the ruffle).  I thought about doing a whole tutorial, but didn't know if anyone would be interested.  If you want more detail, let me know.  :)

Reusable "zip-lock" bags

So I've seen several different versions of these around, but most of what I've seen has sounded pretty complicated (sewing vinyl to the inside, etc), but this woman on the I Can Teach My Child blog is brilliant.  She guest-posted (is that a word??) this tutorial on Oopsie Dasie, and it is fabulous.  She used a vinyl tablecloth to make her baggies.  You know, the kind you use on a picnic table that has soft cotton on the back?  The tutorial is very easy to follow, and the tablecloth only cost me about $3.  No more wasting money on plastic bags for me!

My first bag took about 45 minutes, mostly because I had to keep stopping and starting.  (The second one only took 20 minutes!)  I would suggest using a more heavy-duty needle than you would normally use, and be prepared to sew more slowly.  The vinyl gets very thick towards the end and I nearly broke my size 14 needle.  A 16 worked just fine.

In her last step she has you put the velcro together and stitch up the sides, so that the stitching is on the outside.  I did mine with the stitching on the inside.  Just fold the bag in half with the Velcro on the outside, sew up the sides, then turn it right-side-out.  .....it'll make more sense when you read her instructions.

The second one I made a little bit wider (I believe her tutorial says to make it 7.5" wide, but I went up to 8" for the second one.)  It only took about 20 minutes to make start-to-finish.  These really are very simple!

See the difference in the width?

These are the perfect size for snacks and (hopefully) sandwiches, they are washable, and they are somewhat insulated with all the felt on the back of the table cloth.  Plus, the bags only used about 1/100th of the oblong tablecloth (Ok, I just made that percentage up), so I could make a ton of these bags and still have enough table cloth left to make some bibs.  Hmmm... tomorrow's project??

Christmas presents.. shhh!

So I have started making Christmas presents--yay!  I will post one or two depending on who they're for.  If we have your kid's name and you want to be surprised, let me know and I won't post!  This first one is a scripture tote made from a place mat.  I got just a neutral-colored mat that cost about $2 at WM.  I read several tutorials to get the basic idea of how to do it, then I just sort of worked it out.  Here are a couple of the in-process pics, then the finished result.

Supplies:  place mat, ribbon, sewing supplies

Step one: sew on handles.  (This was my first ever handle, so excuse the un-even box!).
Measure in from the sides to get them evenly spaced

Pin and sew down any ribbon, lace, fabric or embellishment you want.
(It will cover the stitches from the handles)

Now put the right sides together and sew up the sides.

Flatten out each corner into a triangle and sew straight across.
I followed tutorials and sewed it at two inches, but might do it at about 1 1/2 inches next time.  2" made a very wide bag.

Trim corners, turn right-side-out and add a bow or flower or whatever you want!

Ta-Da!

Hey, I made this!

I made this a while back, and I just forgot to post it.  Here is the tutorial I used.  It only took about 20 minutes.  After I got it all wrapped and sewn together, I trimmed the top layer a little so it would give it more of a layered look.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  Next time I'll make it smaller though.  :)

Blocks, phase two

So here is part two of my "multi-purpose" blocks.  I guess I could call them multi-functional?  Anyway, I followed the exact same process as the FALL blocks, even printing holiday paper from the same blog.  When I actually set them out for Christmas, I will embellish them with garland/ribbons, etc., and I'm not 100% sure that I'm sold on my paper choices, but for now here is how they turned out:

Now, there will be a phase 3 of this project.  In the next couple of weeks, I will be decorating the backs of the blocks to spell the word THANKS, so that I will have three sets of blocks in one: Fall, Joy and Thanks.  :)  Coming soon!