Saturday, July 20, 2013

Tutorial: How to Make a Kitchen Towel with Snaps

In the spirit of towels, here is another fairly easy tutorial on how to make a kitchen towel with snaps. This way you can hang your towel on the dishwasher or oven, and keep it hanging.

Material needed:
-kitchen towel
-fabric
-snaps

Steps:
1) Cut kitchen towel in half (widthwise). 
2) Print and cut out pattern. (Click HERE for PDF)

3) Trace pattern on wrong side of fabric. You will need enough fabric to have two pieces that will be sewed together.

4) With right sides of fabric facing each other, sew along traced line (refer to pattern to see where to start and end). 

5) Cut excess fabric off (I leave enough at the bottom opening to fold in and leave a nice clean edge). Flip inside out. Fold bottom extra fabric in. Iron.

6) Scrunch up the raw edge of the kitchen towel. Stuff into the fabric opening (about 1-2 inches of the towel should be in the fabric pocket). Spread out so the pleats are evenly distributed.

7) Zigzag stitch two lines.

 8) Put in snaps.

I made coordinating oven mitts. This will be a housewarming gift for a friend. :)

Tutorial: How to make a Hooded Towel

I can't believe it's been half a year since I last posted! I know I keep making these empty promises that I will post more...blah blah... I'm just not gonna make promises I can't keep. Sorry! I will post when I can, and I am grateful you are still here to read it. :)

Anyway, here is a tutorial on how to make a hooded towel. My little kiddos have grown out of their baby hooded towels, so I decided to make my own. Here's how you can make one for your kid, as a gift, or even for yourself. ;)

Materials needed:
-bath towel
-hand towel
-fabric

Steps:

1) Get fabric that measures (length of hand towel+3") by 5" (or so...again approximating). Fold the top and bottom of the fabric and iron.

2) Lay the fabric on top of your hand towel an inch or so from the bottom (so that it covers where you folded the hand towel up). Fold the extra fabric under (I like to sandwich it between the fold of the hand towel).

3) Sew all the way around.

4) Fold the hand towel in half lengthwise (fabric facing each other). Sew along the right edge (reference photo below). 


5) Fold the bath towel in half and mark the center with a pin.

6) (Note: I think it is actually better to not cut the bulky stub, but I did so for the one I made here.) Open up the hand towel, so the bottom edge lays flat. Align the centers of the hand towel and bath towel.


7) Sew the hand towel and the bath towel together. I sew at least 3 rows to reinforce.

8) You can applique the initials of your kids so you know which towel belongs to whom.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Birthday Shirts & More Baby Shower Gifts...

Happy New Year! It has been a llloonngg time since I last posted. It is so difficult to find time to sit down and blog. Didn't even get to post photos of our Christmas tree. I guess I will wait until December 2013~ ;)

Now that Noah is 7 months old, I am trying to get back into crafting. It isn't easy...seems like someone is always awake (usually my #2). So I try to just do short little projects. I need to do something other than change diapers and clean up spit-up. It helps keep me sane. I know this is just a season and it shall pass...and I will miss it (?)...but even so, little breaks of crafting is needed.

Here are some birthday shirts I made for a few of my friends' kids. I used the Silhouette to cut out Iron-On Transfer Vinyl. For the numbers I used my fabric cutting blade on the Silhouette, and then sewed around it. The caterpillar took some time, but the result was worth it~




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Here is another quick project I did recently. My friend is expecting a baby girl, so for her shower gift I made some burp cloths and these cute letters. I made these at night when the kids were sleeping and didn't think to take photos of the process.

Basically, I drew and cut out a quick stencil of the letters. I then traced the letter onto the fabric (on the wrong side). And then with the two pieces of fabric (right sides) facing each other, I sewed along the traced letter. (Remember to leave an opening) The letter "A" was a bit trickier because once it was flipped right side out, I had to sew the little inner "triangle" by hand. Anyway, then you stuff it and slip stitch close.








The "S" is for the baby and the "A" is for her big sister. Didn't want to leave the older sibling out. I wish I had sewn a little ribbon loop at the top so they can hang...oh well...next time~

Good to be back...hopefully it won't be forever and a day until I post again. :)

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Get Organized with Pretty File Folders


 After having baby #3, I realized I needed a better way of organizing all the paperwork I was accumulating for my kiddos. Originally I was stashing all the doctor visits papers, hospital paperwork, "school" paperwork, etc in one accordion file folder. It was getting way overstuffed. I decided to get them each a folder of their own. I love the Martha Stewart line at Staples, so I decided to get these.

I used my Silhouette Cameo (again) to personalize each one. The letters were cut out of vinyl, so they are easily removable.

Simple. :)

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Tutorial: How to Make Decorative Wooden Blocks


Wow, it has been too long!!! I am grateful to all those who have stopped by in the past few months, and I am so sorry I haven't updated in so long. Where do the days go? I feel like from the moment I open my eyes to the last few minutes before I fall asleep, I am completely ON! Having 3 kids under the age of 4 is no easy job. Phew~ Anyway, hope you are all gearing up for the holidays. I actually got my tree up already! (yes, I am one of those people who starts listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving has even passed) ;) I will post pictures of the tree at a later time. Hopefully it won't be months before I do.

I am glad to be putting up a new blog post. Seeing those burp cloths on my front page for so long was driving me nutso. Well, these blocks are dear to my heart. When I was pregnant with my first baby, I started my dreaming and longing for a sweet baby girl. I began to make these blocks to decorate my nursery. And of course instead of making them gender neutral (I made them before I knew gender of my baby), I made them obviously for a girl. And then I had a boy. I held onto them for the next few years, but with each sonogram revealing that beautiful boy part, I knew that using these to decorate our nursery was a dream that wasn't going to come true. So recently when a good friend of mine had a baby shower for her baby girl, I knew I wanted to give them to her. (and if one day I have that girl...I will snatch them back...kidding...).

Materials needed:

-4"x4" cubes of wood
-sandpaper
-scrapbook paper
-Mod Podge
-dark brown paint
-sponge brush
-vinyl (used for letters)

*Since I made these so long ago, I don't have step-by-step photos. But I think it is easy enough without seeing the photos.

Steps:

1)  Have a nice employee at Home Depot cut the wood blocks for me. Use sandpaper to smooth down the edges and corners.

2) Cut the scrapbook paper into 4"x4" squares. (I used 6 different sheets of coordinating scrapbook paper so each face of the cube would have a different design.) Then glue them on with Mod Podge.

3) After it has dried, use a sponge brush to dab dark brown paint on the edges. This gives it a vintage-y look.

4) Cut letters (or whatever designs you'd like) from vinyl (I used my Silhouette Cameo for this part).

5) I didn't do this, but you could mod-podge it after you're done so that it has a more finished look. I kept them as is in case my friend wants to remove them...(translation: "or in case I have that girl and I want to remove them"...kidding....)



The baby girl's last name is Choo. And her first initial "A". Hence "achoo"....bless you~ ;)






Note: These are not for the baby to play with. These are for decorative use only. :)

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Tutorial: How to make Burp Cloths



Burp cloths are a necessity with a 2 month-old. Spit-ups are inevitable...and oh does my baby spit up. I like to have lots of burp cloths on hand (since I don't like doing the laundry every day). Here are some simple burp cloths that you can make during your baby's nap. They also make great baby shower gifts.

Materials needed:
-Tri-fold cloth diapers (I got these on Amazon. I purchased the Regular 4x6x4 size.)
-fabric (cut a little bit bigger than the middle portion of the cloth diaper)
-thread

Steps:
1) Place your fabric on top of the middle portion of the cloth diaper. Fold the edges under so that it makes a neat rectangle covering the middle portion. Iron the edges.

2) Pin the fabric onto the cloth diaper.



3) Clip the corners a little bit so there is no fabric sticking out.



4) Sew using an 1/8" seam allowance (or at close to the edge as you can get it). Don't forget to backstitch at the beginning and end.




That's it! Burp away~! :)