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

Fabulous Felt Food

Just like a lot of you, my Thanksgiving weekend was spent preparing a lot of food too. My food was a little different though. And inedible. It was made out of felt. 

A few of my granddaughters are getting a play kitchen for Christmas, and their mom asked if I would make some felt food to go along with it.  I knew it would take a while to make these items and since I had to ship them to her, I worked all Thanksgiving weekend to crate these delectable but non edible treats.

Click on the description under each photo for a link to my personal favorite free patterns which I used to make these felt food delicacies.

 Ice cream cones, Circus animal cookies.....

Strawberries, Donuts....

Carrots.....

Birthday cupcakes complete with little candles.

Slices of cake....(This kit came from a 100 yen store.  If you're lucky enough to visit Japan, make sure you visit these stores.)

Bananas with real stickers....

and oranges. 

I think my food turned out pretty fun looking. Hopefully my little granddaughters will enjoy playing with it as much as I enjoyed making it. 

Happy gift making.  xoxo Grandma

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

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 Spider Costume

A spider costume is just so much fun to wear for any active little boy in your life!  

Download this free spiders arm pattern here.  Make sure your print option, "fit to page" is not checked.  For the hood pattern, I used Butterick #5597.  

Supplies Needed:

Large 3" orange Pom Pom

Black sequins

Red sequins

White sequins

Black fabric

Clear elastic

Black Velcro 

Black thread

Black ready made long sleeve top

Black leggings

1.  Sew together the spider legs leaving the bottom of the pattern open.

2.  Stuff the legs with fiber fill.

3.  Sew the legs onto the black long sleeve top at the sides.

4.  5" from the end of each leg, run a gathering stitch around the width of the legs and then attach the arms together by sewing clear elastic to these areas. Leave about 4" of elastic between each leg.  Do not cut the tread until all the arms have been sewn to the bottom of the long sleeve top.  Tie the elastic thread off securely.

5.  Sew the hood according to the directions on the pattern.  

6.  Onto the eyes, sew the white circle of fabric and then onto the center, the black circle of fabric. 

7.  Sew the eyes together leaving the bottom open.

8.  Stuff the eyes with fiber fill.

9.  To the eyes, sew white sequins in a circle.  Then to the black pupil area sew a circle of red sequins and then around the interior of the eye, sew a circle of black sequins.  Now sew more black sequins to fill in this area.  Onto each sequin, sew a clear bead.  This step will keep the sequins in place.

10.  In the very center of the eye, add one white sequin.

11.  Hand sew the eyes onto the front portion of the hood.

12.  Hot glue or hand sew the orange pom pom in-between the eyes.

13.  Sew together the fangs leaving the bottom open.

14.  Lightly stuff the fangs with fiber fill and hand sew these to the edge of the hood, right below the eyes.

 That's it, your spider costume should be done.  My grandson loved watching his arms move together and the sequins made his eyes glow and shimmer.  Enjoy making costumes!  xoxo Grandma

For More costumes with free patterns, see these posts:

Free pattern for a moppet hat here.

Pikachu Free Pattern & Tutorial

Shared at:  Project Run and Play

Make a Vintage Looking Moppet Hat

A moppet hat may be just the thing to top off a vintage looking outfit.  This is an easy sew project. Here's how I made the moppet hat for my granddaughter's Little Miss Muffet outfit:

1.  Start by cutting out a 17 inch round circle of white fabric .

2.  2" in from the edge of the circle add single fold bias tape all around the circle.  Make sure you leave an opening in the tape to insert elastic.

3.  Add lace onto the edge of the cap.

4.  Insert the elastic around 1/2 - 1" smaller than the head circumference.  
5.  Sew the ends of the elastic together.

6.  Make a bow out of ribbon.  Tack the bow in place.  

You're done.  Now, wasn't that easy?

This type of hat works great for a vintage looking costume and it's so easy to make without a fancy pattern.  xoxo Grandma

Linked to: Nap Time Creations

How to Make a Child's Pikachu Costume

Anyone here into Pokemon?  My grandson absolutely loves anything and everything Pokemon.  My children were never into this phase, but oh my grandson and his sister sure are.  For Halloween last year, my grandson wanted to be Pikachu, a Pokeman character, for those of you who aren't into this character. I am one of those people who is clueless about this stuff. This meant I had to look at a lot of images to figure out how in the world to make this costume. 

First who is this creature? A quick Wikipedia search told me that "Pikachu are often captured and groomed by humans to fight other Pokémon for sport. Pikachu are one of the most well-known varieties of Pokémon, largely because a Pikachu is a central character in the Pokémon anime series."  

Next, I downloaded a few images for reference. Then I created the following pattern for your personal advantage, so if someone you love wants this costume, you won't have to search and sketch and figure it out like I did. You're welcome.

Supplies needed:

• Download Free Pattern Pikachu here and back strips here
• 2 1/2 yards of yellow fleece (I made a size 6 costume)
• Scrap of black fabric
• White felt for eyes
• Red felt for cheeks
• Yellow and black craft foam for the tail (get sticky back kind if available)

For the basic hood pattern, I used Butterick pattern #5597, the lobster head.
For the body pattern, I used this same pattern enlarging and rounding the front to about 6 inches larger, width wise for the back.

Being the cool dad that he is, my son tried on the Pikachu hood at the school party. Doesn't he look so hip?  Alright, back to your instructions... Machine embroider the eyes and cheeks onto the head. Then machine embroider the black tips of the ears onto the yellow fleece. Sew the ears together leaving the bottom of the ears open. Stuff the ears and pin in place onto the hood. Hand sew the ears in place.

Cut the tail out of craft foam, and if you're not using the sticky back kind then use foam glue to piece this tail together. You'll sew the tail into the back of the costume by slitting a hole where the tail needs to go. The foam is easy to sew right through so don't worry about that, it's just very awkward to sew, as you'll see. 

To get the tail to stay pointing upward, sew a piece of the tail into the upper portion of the costume.  I wish I had made a larger tab for doing that because my grandson's tail came undone & I'm all the way across the US from him and can't fix it.  

Oh well, he still seems to be happy in his costume.  I asked my son if people knew what he was supposed to be. He said not everyone knew, but apparently there are those who are a little wiser (or cooler) than I am and knew exactly what a Pikachu looks like. Happy costume making all!  xoxo Grandma

Linked to: Nap Time Creations, 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