Almost ready for Christmas!

So, 2 days until Christmas! Am I ready? NO!! Am I working on getting ready or sitting at my computer? Well...... Here is a bit of what I've been working on.

This is a composition book with a cute cover, tutorial found here. Super easy, and I've had this fabric for over a year, bought for something entirely different!

This mug came from the dollar tree and my husband sent me to buy more so he could have one! The felt cozy took about 20 minutes and less than $1 to make. Cute but cheap and easy to make! What could be better? Oh, hot chocolate or coffee inside the cup could be better!

This cute owl was apparently an early present for Laelia since she came up from playing in the "man cave" before I could hide it :) The pattern came from this tutorial by Ashley Johnston and was really quick to sew. The best part: I didn't have to buy anything to make it. Every last bit of it came from scraps except for the princess fabric which was given to me.

Now it's time to get back busy on getting ready for Christmas!

More baby gifts!

I seem to have a gazillion friends having babies! The good news is, whenever it's my turn, I will have lots of practice making baby stuff and I'll be able to make tons of cute stuff! The burpcloths are just Gerber cloth diapers with flannel sewn on. I made them using a tutorial I found here.  The blanket was a simple thing to make too except for the fact that the Minky fabric moves around A LOT because of the dots! This was my first time working with it. The process of sewing the blanket was super easy though. You just cut the two fabrics the same size. Then put them right sides facing and sew it together, using a 1/4 inch seam and leave a few inches open to turn it right side out. After you turn it right side out, iron the seam and use a top stitch all the way around the blanket.  

 This blanket was made the same way only with fleece for the back side. Also, after doing the top stitch all the way around, I did another straight stitch all the way around, maybe an inch from the edge.

Fleece Pillow Tutorial

This is my first ever tutorial and I didn't feel like going to get my camera so the pictures are taken with my iPod and not very great :) This is a pillow made with fleece and the edges are joined without sewing or tying. To make this pillow you will need:

Fleece- 2 rectangles about 18" by 15"

Sharp scissors

Poly-fil or anything that you would use to stuff a pillow

I decided to add an applique letter so if you decide to do that, you will also need scrap fabric, a needle, and thread.

The first thing you need to do is lay the two rectangles of fleece on top of one another and trim to make sure the edges match up. I cut off a 2" square from each corner. Then I snipped slits all the way around 2" deep and about 1" wide (I eye-balled it).

Take one of the fringe strips and fold it in half.

Cut a small slit, making sure that you do not cut all the way to the edge.

This is what it looks like after cutting the slit.

Pick any fringe piece. Take the piece to its left and push from the back of the hole, up through it. It's easy enough for my 4 year old to do it - at least until she got bored!

Continue around until you have about 4 or 5 pieces of fringe left. Stuff it with poly-fil.

Finish pushing the fringe strips through the holes until you have only one left.

Take your final fringe piece. Pull the two pieces apart. Use the top one and push the end down through your original piece. You can either tie the top and bottom pieces together or use a little fabric glue to attach them.

*To applique the L, I cut out the letter from scrap fabric. I used a blanket stitch to attach it. I used this tutorial to complete the blanket stitch.

Baby Gifts

 Apparently I'm a little excited about Thanksgiving break and having a chance to sew! I made these fabric boxes and a blanket for my friend's baby that will be here in January. They are decorating her nursery in pink and brown so the boxes will blend right in. The tutorial can be found here. It's part of a 12 Gifts of Christmas blog hop.

The blanket won't quite match the nursery but it will be great to cuddle with! I have a LOT more sewing in mind for this week! Pictures to come very soon. Unless I do the responsible thing and work on lesson stuff...

Today we had no school so I was able to stay home and do some cleaning. I also got a head start on some Christmas gifts! I sewed a few bookmarks that I found a tutorial for on Pinterest. I also sewed a monster pillow inspired by Pajama Eaters at sewfearless.com My kids refuse to wear normal pajamas so the zipper mouth was not necessary. I just appliqued the mouth shape on. A month and a half to go to finish all of my gift sewing for the kids!