Kids Pot-Holders

A "customer" (my mother) is paying me to make a set of six kids "play kitchen sets"

Meaning: six children's aprons, six pot-holders, six oven mitts and maybe six chef hats.

The pot-holders were the easiest so I started with them.

I cut approx 4" squares- 2 of fabric, and one of batting.

I sandwiched the batting in the middle and then stitched all four sides:

I 'quilted' the piece by just sewing a few lines diagonally across the piece:

Then I trimmed the edges very close to my stitch lines.

Then I made my edging

I stared by cutting a strip about 1.5" wide (left), then I folded it in half and pressed (middle), then I folded the raw edges into the center and pressed again (right)

This is similar to bias tape, except I didn't cut it on a bias.

Then I placed the edge of the hot pat in the fold of the edging I had created and pinned it in place

I left some extra at the end to make the 'loop' that you see on all potholders and oven mitts.

That extra piece hanging off is actually where I started my stitches. I started on the tail end and then sewed around three and a half sides. Once I was an inch or two from completing the square, I would fold the end of the 'tail' back and then loop it around. Then I would stitch to the corner and do some back-stitching back and forth and at an angle to reinforce that corner and the loop.

TA-DA!

Then I just did that 5 more times.

Disclaimer:

This is a project for kids, so they can pretend to cook- don't use this tutorial for real hot pads/potholders- I doubt this is safe to use on hot dishes, the general idea would be the same, but you would need to get material and lining that is more effective against heat.

My First Wedding Cake!!!!

This past weekend was a big one for me!

I go to make my first ever wedding cake--and believe it or not, it was a success!

It's a basic design, which is great, so I didn't have to have a major heart attack over it. I was happy with it and so were the bride and groom.
I can't believe I made a wedding cake, just a few years ago- I could barely scrape frosting from a can onto cake from a box without totally messing it up- I can't wait to see where I'll be in 3 more years.

Crayon Roll

So, this is nothing new... you've probably seen them a few times before, but I decided to make a couple of crayon rolls.

Here's a look at the full item:

Back of Crayon Roll



Front of empty crayon roll



Roll it up, to keep your crayons neatly in place while in your diaper bag (or whatever)

And all wrapped up:

  These are great for allowing you kids easy access to their crayons, but keeping them in place so they don't get dropped/lost while at church, in the car, or even at home.

I have one in my diaper bag, and the other one is going for sale in my etsy shop.

Book Cover

I had an order for custom book cover on my etsy.

She needed a cover to protect her books from dust and cat/dog hair. I got some plastic from the upholstery section at Joann's and made it the size she needed... 7'x4.5"x7"

Here are a few pictures of it filled with books after I finished it:

I cut vertical slits every ten inches to allow easy access to the books.

I'm also in the process of making a similar cover for a couple of strollers, to keep them clean while they are stored in the garage.

Cowboy Cake

My BFF's son turned one- so I made a cake for the occasion!

His birthday party was a "cowboy" theme so that's where I decided to go with the cake:

Almost everything is fondant. the cow print, the hat, the number one, the borders and the red bandanna.

I just used icing to pipe on the decorations for the bandanna

Onesie Dresses

So, like every other novice sewer/mother of a young girl, I had to try my hand at onesie dresses.

These are relatively simple, plus they are an entire (cute) outfit in one piece.

Here's what I made:

Black and white polka-dotted double gathered skirt, and a once gathered purple paisley.

I purposely made the purple one shorter, thinking it would be cute to see those chubby baby legs:

I also love that you see the little bit of the white onesie-bum sticking out.

 And I made a little yo-yo hair clip to match.

Cake!

I made another little cake this month. One of the girls that I work with a church had a birthday and she is a violin player and quite the little singer so I went with a music theme for the cake:

Cute, right? Nothing amazing, but still cute.

That picture is actually upside down, though.

The notes actually play the beginning of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (if you add B-flat and E-flat to the key signature)

So this is what's it's supposed to look like:

Up-side-right Cake

I just thought it looked better upside-down.

More Pillows

Do you know how hard it is to find a plain orange pillow? I'll save you the trouble- and tell you it's impossible.

However, a plain pillows are just what we wanted in our living room. Our living room is a bit modern, we like clean lines, neutral colors as the background (couches, carpet, big furniture) with big bright pops of color.

Orange and red went with the art in the room, as well as our rug- and contrasted nicely with our light couch and all-black furniture.

But Like I said- it was impossible to find them- So I made them. This was a few years ago when I was a very novice sewer, but they turned out and they've hung around on our couches ever since.

This is just another example of the custom pillows I can make, order through my etsy shop!

Clutch

So after I made my larger bag from my Chinese fabric, I still had some material left over. So I made a small clutch and/or carry-all and/or whatever you want it to be :)

When it's closed, it measures about 7.5"x5"
It has a magnetic snap closure, so it's easy to open but stays firmly closed when you need it.
The inside is lined with the reverse of the fabric, so you get the same design, but with the colors reversed.

 Available now in my etsy!

Another Bag!

This bag was made from repurposed fabric. My mother is the queen of buying unique/unnecessary items. On one trip to China she bought me a robe.

A Chinese Silk robe with dragons and such on it.

Believe it or not, I have very little use for a silky Chinese robe in my life. But it was unique and kinda cool looking so I held onto it-- even if I never wore it.

Well, a couple years later I was about to throw it out when I realized that I could use this cool fabric, just not in the form of a robe

TA-DA!

I made a bag from the fabric. It's another over the shoulder tote.

 I didn't line this bag on purpose, so that you could get the negative color affect on the inside of the bag.

So, where there is red on the outside it is gold/orange on the inside. And where there is gold on the outside, you get red on the inside.  

Of course, I added pockets. What good is a bag without pockets?



The outside pocket



The inside pocket.

 This bag measure about 12"x15" and it's available in my etsy shop

Pillows

For my church I currently do work with the youth. So I deal with a pile of silly girls between the ages of 12 and 18. I personally spend most of my time with just the 12 and 13 year old girls.
We recently decided to make pillows for a project- unfortunately not one of them knew how to sew... or had even attempted it before.
So I had my work cut out for me, but I helped design and sew a bunch of 14" pillows.

Here's the silliest pillow first:


Ducky Pillow

 A pink pillow, with little yellow duckies, and yellow ric-rac for trim. I warned you... silly.


Blue Paisley Pillow

 You see those two little pearls in the middle of the pillow? That girl insisted upon putting buttons in the middles of the pillow... I'm not sure why, but it made her happy.




Hawaiian Print and Blue 'envelope' Pillow

We added a grey button on the bottom of the triangle flap on the blue 'envelope' pillow (So named because she wanted to have it look like it had a top that folded over like an envelope)



Zebra Print

This one I liked a lot- I'm happy that I was able to talk her into using the red thread to accent the black-and-white.
We even used a honeycomb stitch to make it a little bolder.


Red Honeycomb Stitch on Zebra Pillow



And finally, the twin pillows.

Because 13 year olds aren't always logical- this girl says she wants a set of boy-girl twins when she's older, so we made pillows for just such an occasion.

The reason behind them may be silly, but I loved these pillows. And her Uncle (who is apparently very 'into' home design and decor) swore that these were designer pillows- he couldn't believe they were home made.

I was very proud, I helped design these pillows, guided a novice sewer (and corrected many mistakes) well enough to create something that appears to be made by a top name designer.

Here they are in more detail:



Boy Pillow, front



Girl Pillow, Front

 Are those pockets cute or what?



Girl Pillow, back

 Of course, the boy pillow was backed with the brown and blue stripes, I just don't have a picture of it.
Here's what you see on the side:


Both Pillows, back

  So there is the pile of hand made pillows that I made with my young girls.

I really loved making the pillows so if you want some customized hand-made pillows you can leave a comment for me or request an item via my etsy shop