March 7, 2014

Book Cover

We have a birthday party this weekend for a (soon-to-be) 7 year old.  I figured most little girls love arts and crafts, so I sewed up a personalized cover for a sketch book.  Between the book and a few pretty pens, we're in business! 


 I added a little pocket to the inside cover for papers or pens or whatnot.


I love how it turned out.  Although the size is different, I used this tutorial from Delia Creates.

March 5, 2014

Pirate Wand

My little guy (the pirate for Halloween), wanted a wand too.  But not a fairy wand.  A PIRATE wand, of course!

So I took one of those sparkly, glittery wand sticks and sewed up a poofy skull and crossbones (the image is an iron-on transfer).  Here you have it!

February 24, 2014

Rainbow Loom Case

Have you seen this Rainbow Loom case pattern by Noodlehead?  I haven't purchased a pattern in quite a while, but went ahead and splurged this time and really enjoyed this project for my daughter.



The instructions were easy to follow, and I love the multiple style cases you can make from this one pattern.

This is the inside of the case, with a vinyl pocket for your bands, or whatever...and two pockets at the bottom for your loom(s).


The only gripe I have with my case (not the pattern...she certainly does mention you can do this by hand)....is that I SHOULD have done the last binding step by hand.  I quilt, I know how.  And I found it difficult around the curves to match the inside/outside pieces.  So, although the binding looks nice on the outside, on the inside I have this...

Annoying, when the rest of it is so beautiful!  Oh well, next time I know.  And I'm sure there will be more!

February 23, 2014

(Fairy) Wands

This is a project that was really truly a complete joy to work on.  I found the idea here, on 'heartmade'.


I didn't add a pocket to my wands as they do in the tutorial. 

I started making just a few of these for Miss A's 6th birthday....but couldn't stop!  Here's when I knew I was in trouble...

"Oooooo they're so pretty!  And I have so much more felt...and so many more sequins.....I should just cut out a few more....."

And then there were the sticks (dowel rods).  I didn't have any glitter glue so I just combined a bunch of glitter to my Mod Podge and went to town.  It took about 3 coats to get them as sparkly as I wanted them.

And so, I ended up with SEVEN wands.  For 3 little girls.

And then you KNOW Miss A wanted to make a wand.  Since she has decided to be a 'rainbow flower fairy' for Halloween, we made hers a rainbow wand.  She sewed on the sequins and I sewed the layers together.


I did want to say, I loved the idea on the tutorial where they glued a bit of stuffing to the end of the dowel rod to keep it in place inside the star.  That worked great (I used hot glue).  But when I got all the way around the edge of the star, I found it easiest to use a dab of hot glue to keep the ribbons and star firmly in place around the dowel rods.  THEN I finished with the last few stitches to close the star completely around the dowel.  Sometimes I had to sew a few stitches through the hot glue....that's what thimbles are for, people.