Adorable Valentine Aprons From Tea Towels

If you're big into celebrating various holidays, like Valentines Day, you might be one of those people who changes up their kitchen linens too. Let's throw aprons into the mix, and you'll be all set! 

Today, I'm going to show you how to turn Valentine tea towels into two different aprons. Any tea towel will work. So go to your local dollar store or splurge and get a nicer tea towel, whatever your preference. This project is quick and easy and I'm sure you'll want to share one of these with someone you love. Let's embrace the Valentine Day season, shall we?

Let's get started:

Supplies needed:

• Tea Towel
• Thread
• Ribbon (I found this lace red ribbon in the Christmas clearance section at Jo-ann's for 80% off.)
• Scissors

1.  If your ribbon has wire in it, pull the wire out.
2.  Measure 8 1/4" from the top of the tea towel, mark both sides of a tea towel for the back ties.
3.  Cut two pieces of ribbon 22 - 24 inches of ribbon for the back ties & sew right sides facing to the tea towel using 1/4" seam.
4.  Finish off the ends of the ribbon by folding 1/4" .  
5.  Cut a piece of ribbon around 24" for the neck tie.  Fold the ribbon in half and pin the edges together.
6.  Edge stitch the neck tie ribbon.
7.  Pin the edge of the ribbon under and sew the neck tie to the left side of the top of the tea towel.
8.  If your tea towel is large, you can add a tuck to the top, front center of the tea towel.
9.  Sew both ribbons onto the tea towel with the folded edge toward the wrong side of the tea towel.

10.  Sew 1 3/4" piece of the loop side of Velcro to wrong side of the top of the tea towel. 
11.  Sew the hook side of the Velcro to the right side of the neck tie ribbon.

For the second Valentine apron, you'll need a red bandana instead of ribbon.  A bandana makes a sewing project easy because it already has four finished sides and you'll be using all of those finished edges for this apron.  This heart tea towel was purchased from my local dollar store.

Cut red bandana as follows:  

• 10 1/2" long x 6.25 wide - pocket
• 2) 3 1/2" x length of the bandana using the finished edges on 3 sides - bottom ruffle
• 3) 2 1/2" x length of the bandana - neck and waist ties

Follow steps 2 and 9 from the above tutorial for the placement of the ties.

Now to create the bottom ruffle on this apron, follow the steps below:

1.  Sew the ruffle pieces together as shown, stitching the 2 pieces at an angle.  Iron this seam.

2.  Add a gathering stitch to the unfinished edge of the ruffle.

3.  Gather the fabric evenly and sew from the wrong side the ruffle to the bottom edge of the tea towel (use 1/4" seam).  Turn the tea towel over and top stitch the bottom of the tea towel.

To make the pocket:

• Mark all the unfinished edges 1/4" .
• Iron the edges under.
• Pin the pocket onto the upper portion of the tea towel.
• Edge stitch the pocket in place, pivoting at each of the corners.

Take the neck tie and fold it in half and iron.  Now fold the unfinished edges into the middle of the fabric and iron again.  This will leave all the edges finished.

For the waist ties, clean finish the unfinished edges.

To finish this apron, follow steps 6-9 above.

I shared these aprons with my youngest daughter.  Growing up, she didn't get a lot of Valentine gifts because it was her twin sisters' birthday.  So this year, I'm trying to make-up  neglecting her for all those Valentines Days and I'm visiting her family in Okinawa.  It's actually great too because now she cooks for me.  Happy Valentines Day indeed. 

Enjoy making these tea towel aprons.  xoxo Grandma

Linked to:  Sunshine and Munchkins & All Free Sewing

Make a Doll Sized Shopping Bag

It's coming down to the wire, Christmas is almost upon us.  Time to get that last minute shopping done.  To help with that shopping, I've created this doll sized shopping bag to share with you.  Never fear, this is an quick and easy sewing project.  An added bonus for this project is that today, I'm sharing with you my pattern along with the tutorial to help you make this darling doll accessory.  

These are so easy to sew together, you can make a bunch in very little time.  After you're done making your doll shopping bags, wrap a mini present or two and add them to your shopping bag.

These shopping bags also make a cute container to put a gift card into or a small piece of jewelry.   I'm sure you'll think of other creative ways to use these mini shopping bags.

Supplies needed:

2 beige felt squares,

18" of jute

Beige thread to match felt

Accent pieces of felt to decorate the bags

Mini red pom poms, optional

Contrasting embroidery thread

Free Pattern:  Download the pattern here.

Instructions:

1. Cut out beige felt using this pattern.  Pin the sides together and sew using a 1/4" seam.
2. Sew the bottom seam together using a 1/4" seam.
3. Fold the fabric together and punch small holes in the felt at marking.  (I used a tool called a Crop-a-dile to punch my holes.)
4. Pinch bottom seams on both sides of the bag together and pin.
5. Sew the bottom seams together with 1/4" seams.
6. Cut jute into two, 9" pieces.
7. Thread jute from the middle of the bag to the outside of the bag.  Tie a knot into the end of the jute.
8. Now the fun part, decorate the bag with small felt items like holly leaves and berries or mini red pom poms.

Have fun making this doll shopping bag.  Once you've made one, I'm sure you'll want to make more.  How are you planning to decorate your bags?  xoxo Grandma

Linked to:  Craft Gossip

Brother & Sister Penguin Pajamas

Via Facetime, I let my grandson choose the fabric for his and his sister's Christmas pajamas.  As you may have already guessed, he choice this penguin fabric.  Who doesn't love penguins? 

I sewed the coordinating brother & sister pants using this flannel. To my granddaughter's pants, I added a 5" ruffle from a contrasting flannel to the bottom of each leg. 

To jazz up the white pre-made tee shirts I purchased for these pajamas, I added a penguin applique.  To download your free penguin applique pattern go here.

After you've downloaded the pattern, cut out the pattern pieces from any scrap fabric you may have on hand.  I just happened to have fleece scraps that I used for these penguins.

Use temporary adhesive to attach the pieces onto a pre-made, pre-washed tee shirt.  Next place a piece of temporary tear away interfacing under the back side of the image.  (Tissue paper also works great.)  Now, using a narrow zig zag stitch and coordinating thread, machine embroider around the penguin.

Here's how the penguin will look from the wrong side of the fabric:

When you're done your penguin should look similar to this one.  Have fun using my new penguin pattern to make penguin Christmas pajamas for your little ones!  xoxo Grandma

The Witch & Her Witch Hat

If you've waited until the last minute to make a costume, keep reading because this is an easy, one hour witch costume that will be a crowd pleaser.

This granddaughter, pictured above, inherited the The Very Hungry Caterpillar costume from her cousin.  The costume wasn't what she wanted because while she was visiting me a few weeks ago, she would look at me and say, "Dama, do you know what a witch says?"  Then she'd say, "Look at me, look at me," and I'd look at her and she'd say, "He he he heeee....Dama, I want to be a witch!" 

How could I deny this darling girl, who can not pronounce her "G's," from having a witch costume? The next day, this little helper became my "pin" girl and handed me pins and more pins as we refashioned this old black lace dress of mine into her new witch costume:

To make this costume, you'll need:

• An old black dress or skirt
• A long sleeve black knit top
• A dollar store witch hat

To make this costume, here's what I did:

• Cut off the lace skirt from the dress. 
• Cut off 3" from the bottom of the black shirt.  
• Baste over the top of the skirt black, glittery tulle. 
• Add gathering stitches all around the skirt.
• Pull the gathering stitches until the skirt is the same size as the bottom of the knit shirt. 
• Pin the skirt to the shirt.
• Sew the shirt to the skirt.

The witch dress is complete. Wasn't that easy? 

To glamorize a dollar store hat:

• From the inside of the hat, tack in place leftover tulle.
• Tack or hot glue bright orange ribbon and stripes of black glitter tulle to the side of the hat.
• Tie the ribbon and then the tulle into a knot.

 

I'm not sure why the umbrella is in the above photo but I do know she loves her "zoo" umbrella and who knows, she just may need an umbrella on Halloween night.  I know, I used one quite often when I was a child but I grew up in the rainy part of Oregon and my costumes were never this much fun!  Year after year, I usually dressed as a hobo.  Yup, pretty boring costume. So, this little witch is much cuter. 

In an hour, this witch costume was ready for this happy little witch whom I'm positive will enjoy this costume and laugh her cute little witch laugh whenever she wears it.  Happy Halloween everyone...he he heeee!  xoxo Grandma

Make More Monsters

This post is a continuation of this post right here, "How to Sew a Few Monsters." Check it out and then join us back here to learn a few more monster tips and tricks to making your little creations unique. You'll be glad you did, because these little guys are fun to create and are pretty cute too.  All children will love the gift of a monster or two.

You can click here for the free pattern.

In my pile of fabric scraps, I came across the brown fur you can see I used in the monster in the title photo. I've sewn on this heavy fur enough times to know that to machine embroider eyes on this stuff would be a little difficult.  So, this is what I did: 

1. Cut out an oval from the head area.  From fleece, cut out an oval 1/2" larger that the oval you originally cut out.  Pin the larger oval to the hole.
2. Sew the oval to the hole.
3. This is what the face area now looks like from the right side of the fabric. Draw a face onto the fleece, using a fabric pen.  Find some buttons and sew those onto the face.  Sew on a pom pom for a nose.
4. Sew some arm shapes together.  Turn them and stuff them.  Baste the ends together.  Now pin on the arms to the basic monster and sew the front to the back, leaving an open space to stuff.

My next monsters you can see below were changed a little too from the basic pattern: 

Here are a few more suggestions to changing up your monster's look:

1.  Use plastic animal eyes. (These are a quick way to add perfect eyes to you monsters.)
2.  Off-center the eyes.
3.  Add only one eye instead of two eyes.
4.  Add pointy horns that look like triangles instead of the curled  horns like in the original pattern.
5.  Hand sew pom poms onto the monsters for fluffy noses.
6.  Add ears to the top or side of the monster's head.
7.  Don't have enough fabric to add the arms?  Just like the furry monster, cut your arms out separately and sew them together, stuff them, sew the arm's opening closed.  Baste them onto the body and you'll have movable arms.
8. One final monster I created was for a baby, into that monster, I added a few rattle elements. 'Not pictured'

If you think of more ways to make these guys unique, let me know! I'd love to hear all about your creativity! Enjoy creating!  xoxo Grandma
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How to Make a Simple Mexican Poncho

Need a last minute, super easy to sew costume for a baby?  Try a simple Mexican poncho.  Then add a sombrero and maracas and that little one's costume is ready for Halloween in under an hour.

Supply List:

• Fabric
• Bias Tape extra wide double folded
• Mini pom pom trim
• Thread
• 2" long x 1" wide triangle of black fabric

Measure your child's length from the top of the shoulder to the middle of the thigh or however long you want your poncho to be.  Multiply this number by 2 and add 1" for the seams.  

Now, measure from wrist to wrist plus 1" for seams.  The will be the width of your poncho.

Purchase fabric according to the above measurements times two if you want the lining to match the poncho.  

In the center of the fabric, cut an oval and a 4" slit. This will be the area the head goes through. Repeat this step for the lining fabric.  

Sew mini pom poms to the bottom of both widths of the poncho.

Now, pin the lining to the poncho, wrong sides together.  Sew around the large rectangle shape using 1/2" seams.  Leave at least a 3" long area to turn the poncho.  Turn and iron.  Baste the neck opening together.  Pin bias tape around the neck opening starting with the slit area and sew.  Sew the black triangle on top of the bias tape ends as shown below.  Wasn't that so simple?

Hopefully, your little one will entertain himself with the maraca and be happy.

 If not, at least you tried, right?  xoxo Grandma

Linked to: Project Run and Play

How to Sew a Few Little Monsters

One of my favorite charities is looking for people to make stuffed monsters for the children's ward.  Working toward my goal of using up the fabric stash I've accumulated, I found some scraps of yellow fleece. So why not use this fleece to make monsters for them? It worked perfectly. 

If you want to make some little monsters of your own, here are the details: 

1.  Download the free pattern here. Then cut out the pieces as follows:  2 each of the body, 4 each of the horn, 2 each of the eye, 2 each of the pupil and how ever many teeth you want your monster to have.
2. Place your eyes, pupils and teeth onto the head of your monster.  I use temporary spray adhesive to hold my pieces in place.
3. Machine embroider the white eyes.
4. Machine embroider the teeth in place.

5.   Machine embroider the black pupils and then the smile.
6.  To make the hair, wrap yarn around four of your fingers four times.  Cut the yarn and hold the ends together.
7.  Machine stitch the four strands of yarn together.
8.  Baste the stitched end of the yarn hair onto the top center of the head.

9.    Using 1/4" seams, right sides facing, stitch the horns together.

10.  Clip the curves and turn right side out.

11.  Stuff the horns with fiber fill.

12.  Baste the horn's openings closed.

13.  Pin and then baste the horns onto the head as shown.

14.  For the tail, cut 8 pieces of yarn 8" long.  Sew or knot the top of the yarn together.

15.  Braid the yarn and knot the end.

16.  For the end of the tail, wrap yarn around four fingers 10 times.  Tie the braid around the center of the yarn.  

17.  Tie the end with a knot and trim the ends so your tail looks nice and fluffy.

18.  Cut a tiny hole on the center of the back at the tail marking.

19.  Thread the tale's braid through the opening.  On the wrong side of the fabric, sew the fabric back together and sew over the tail's end several times, because little children will pull the soft fluffy tail.

20.  Now, pin the front to the back, right sides facing.  Stitch around your monster making sure the horns, hair and tail are inside the monster. Leave an opening at the bottom of the monster between his legs.  Clip the monster's curves. Turn your monster right side out and stuff.  To finish your monster, hand sew the opening closed.

Monster-making is a lot of fun because not all monsters need to look exactly the same.  You can tweak my pattern to create your own unique monster. Not having to make the exact same creature over and over again is just so much fun....don't you think?  

For more variations on monster making, go to this post.  xoxo Grandma 

Shared at:  Threading My Way
Featured at: Threading My Way

Sew Easy Boy's Bow Tie

Doesn't this little guy look so dapper in his bow tie?! It is the cutest little bow tie and it's so easy to make.  I promise, it'll take under an hour to complete. All you need is a little scrap of fabric. 

Materials needed:

• Fabric: cut per below.

1) 13 1/2" x 1 3/4"  - Neckband

2) 4" x 6 1/2" - Bow tie

1) 1 3/4" x 2 1/2" - Center of the bow tie

• Velcro
• Thread

1.   Add a safety pin to the ends of all the cut pieces.  For the neckband, add a safety pin to both ends.  

2.   With right sides together, fold the pieces in half and sew using 1/4" seam allowance.  Leave the ends open to turn. For the neckband, sew the small ends and leave the opening in the center.

3.    Once sewn, all the pieces will look like this.  Turn all the pieces and iron them flat.

4.    Mark with a pin, the middle of the bow tie pieces.

5.    Fold the ends toward the center of the bow and with a zig zag stitch, sew down the middle of both bow ties.

6.    Find the center of the neckband and mark with a pin.

7.    Stack the bow ties one on top of another.  Wrap the center piece around the bows and neckband and pin.

8.    Tuck one raw edge on the center piece under an edge that has been folded under about 1/4"  Hand sew the two edges together making sure you stitch a few times through the neckband.

9.    Sew  1.25" of Velcro loops on one side of the neckband.  Sew 3/4" of hooks onto the opposite side of the neckband.

Only 9 steps and your bow tie is complete. I told you it was easy! Make that little boy in your life handsome in a classy, new bow tie.  xoxo Grandma

Handmade Christmas - Christmas Tree Hot Pads

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Whenever Christmas time rolls around, I am always stumped over what to give my neighbors. If you have a similar problem, then I have a simple solution for you. Ever heard of "A Handcrafted Christmas?" It's a group of creative bloggers who have joined together for a monthly Christmas Blog Hop where one of us will be making a fabulous handcrafted Christmas gift to inspire and re-create each month.  Our goal is to make a gift a month so that by the time Christmas rolls around we'll have at least 12 gifts ready for the holiday season.  

This is my month to host "A Handcrafted Christmas," and my gift is Christmas tree hot pads -- perfect for neighbor gifts.  You can use scraps of fabric and ribbon to make these because no two hot pads need to look exactly the same. One added bonus to this post is that The Warm Company has agreed to give one lucky winner a yard of their "Insul-bright" lining. Simply follow this blog and leave a comment below and you'll be entered.

1. Gather your supplies:  background & backing fabric 2) 9" x 9" (round all but the top left corner), lace and/or ribbon, Double fold quilt binding bias tape (cut in half) or extra wide double fold bias tape, Insulated lining like Insul-Bright,  tree trunk fabric: 1" x 2",  thin cotton batting is optional, thread, scissors and the free tree pattern found here.  For the tree pattern, make an rectangle 6 3/8" x 6 3/4" x 6 3/4" and cut out your trees.
2. Position the tree trunk and then layer the tree shape slightly on top of the trunk and onto the background fabric. 
3. Cut ribbon or lace and pin onto the tree, tucking the raw edges under the tree shape.
4. With a straight stitch, sew the ribbon and or lace onto the tree shape.
   
5. Change your stitch to a blanket stitch.  This is what it looks like on my sewing machine.
6. Starting at the top of the tree, stitch all the way around the tree's shape.  Make sure to pivot around all the turns.
7. Now you'll layer your hot pad.  The first layer is the tree, then the Insul-bright (insulated fabric), then a thin layer of batting, then the backing.  The backing is "sandwiched" between all the layers and the right side of the fabric will be facing out.  To keep my layers from shifting, I found that temporary spray glue worked the best and was the quickest way to keep those layers together.
8. Take your seam tape and measure 4.25".  This piece will be sewn together first to create the hang tab.  Starting with the top left corner, at 4.25" open up the bias tape and pin one edge of the tape all around the back side of the hot pad.
   
9. Sew the bias tape through all the layers.
10. Wrap the bias tape around the front side and pin in place.  
11. Fold the tab over until it touches the hot pad's edge and sew a square to hold the tab in place.
12. When finished sewing the tab, it will look like this.  Sew close to the edge of the bias tape and all around the hot pad.

Your Christmas tree hot pad should look something like this:

Now, I hate to ruin any Christmas surprises, but if you're lucky enough you'll be getting one of these along with some melt in your mouth homemade rolls. Now that those Christmas gifts are already out of the way, I can rest a little easier come December. 

To enter the contest for free insulated lining to make hot pads, join this blog as a "follower" and then leave a comment.  

The Prize: One yard of Insul-Bright shipped directly to your home. Thank you to The Warm Company for sponsoring this prize!  This product can be purchased at your favorite fabric/craft store.  Just ask for it by it's name. 

The winner, Suzi who personally contacted me.  I love it when someone takes the time to let me know what they think.  xoxo Grandma 

Insul-Bright can be purchased from here:

Knock Off Sundress

When my daughter was visiting a few weeks ago, we went shopping at the outlet stores. We popped into one of her favorite stores, where she saw a child's J.Crew sundress that she loved. She wanted it for her two girls but even the sale price was a little ridiculous.  I looked at the dress and whispered to her that it looked like it would be easy to make. I was right.  I ended up making four of these sundresses for my granddaughters.

Here is my version of that sundress, modeled by two of those granddaughters.

This dress reminds me a little of a pillowcase dress.  The thing that sets this sundress apart is the fun knot on the back of the dress.  No more straps falling off little shoulders.

If you'd like to make this sundress too, I've included the pattern along with a tutorial below.

Here's what I used:

• Fabric:  My Favorite Ship, by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller Fabrics & accent is Out to Sea. (See the links below to purchase these fabrics.)
• Pattern:  self-drafted, free download here (size 3 only).  I ended up making a size 12 month (pictured above), 3 years, 2 years and 4 years.  I used the downloadable pattern for all these sizes.  To change the sizes simply shorten or lengthen the dress, shorten the straps for the smallest size and adjust the elastic around the front and back per child's width.

Here's how to sew this cute knock-off sundress:

1.  All seams 1/4" unless otherwise stated.  Sew extra wide bias tape onto the back top of the sundress.  You'll be forming a casing for the elastic so finish sewing close to the edge of the tape leaving the sides open.

2.  Sew bias tape to the armholes starting from the wrong side.  Iron the tape toward the front of the sundress and sew close to the edge from the front of the sundress.

3.  Add elastic the width of the back (I added 8") to the back casing stitching along the openings of the casing to keep the elastic in place.

4.  Sew the side seams together wrong sides facing (this step is from making French side seams).

5.  Iron the side seams and sew the side seams together with the right sides facing.

6.  Sew the straps together with 1/4" seams leaving an opening at the center.

7.  Shows the strap fully sewn.  Clip the corners.

8.  Turn the straps and iron.

9.    Leave 1/2" extended on both sides and pin the front strip onto the top of wrong side of the front of the dress.

10.  Sew the two pieces together.  Iron the top of the front strip under 1/4".

11.  Iron the strip in half toward the front of the dress.

12.  Top stitch the strip in place, close to the edge, leaving the ends open to insert elastic.

13.  Sew the straps.  Cut the corners and turn this piece right side out.

14.  Sew the back knot piece leaving the middle open to turn.  Cut off the corners and turn right side out.

15.  Iron the straps and back knot piece.  Top stitch 1/4" from the edge.
16.  Find the middle of the back and measure 4" from the center, marking with pins.

17.  Mark the middle with one additional pin.

18.  Add elastic to the front of the casing and stitch the ends of the elastic to the a strap that has been folded over.

19.  This image shows the edges of the front casing folded over.

20.  Stitch the strap inside the end of the front casing.  

21.  Stitch a small piece of ribbon onto the middle of one of the straps and thread one of the straps under the ribbon.

22.  The back of the sundress has markings which you'll add the back of the straps to.  Securely sew the straps in place.

23.  This is how the strap should look once sewn in place.

24.  Now add the back knot into place by looping the knot under the ribbon.  I stitched the knot by hand.  

This sundress is light and airy and perfect for a hot summer day.  I also made diaper covers out of the same nautical fabric for my youngest granddaughters.  May your little ones enjoy summertime with a comfortable, stylish and affortable sundress.  xoxo Grandma

This is the main fabric used: