Reusable Grocery Bags

I have a set of four re-usable grocery bags (or whatever you want to use them for) for sale now in my etsy shop.

I used four fun fresh produce prints for these eco-friendly bags.

Find them for sale here: 4 Yummy Totes!

Steering Wheel Cover

My Husband's car recently became my car. And, scorched by the Arizona sun- the steering wheel had begun to crack and the top was actually beginning to crumble.

So- to prevent further damage and to protect my hands from the super-hot steering wheel (Seriously- if you live in Phoenix, AZ you know- it gets HOT inside cars)

Here's the finished product:

To help grip the steering wheel and to cover the weird texture where little tiny pieces of the steering wheel came off I used cabinet lining in the inside:

 And, how it looks on the wheel:

An Attempt at Applique

I decided to try my hand at applique for the first time- I thought I knew the general idea, so I didn't bother looking up any tips or tutorials- and somehow I survived.

These are messy, but I was happy with it for a learning experience.

They're coasters- we re-use cups for a day or two in our house, and sometimes (often) I can't remeber which cup was my daughters and which was my sons.

Not a huge problem, I'll admit-- except when one has croupe or the other had brocnhiolotis. We don't want cross contamination on those days.

So to help fix the problem I sewed up some little coasters with our initials on them- so we always remember who had the red cup and who had the yellow cup.



'Daddy'



'Mommy'



'Parker'



'Aria'



Kids Apron

Here is one of the six children's sized aprons I made to go with the hot-pads and the oven mitts

Kids Oven Mitts

The next step in my process of making kids kitchen stuff was the oven mitts (six of them)

I had not pattern, but I drew an oversized oven mitt onto tissue paper and used that as my pattern to cut out 12 pieces of white fabric, 12 pieces of batting and 12 of the red gingham that matched the other portions of the kitchen sets

 I layered a set of white, batting and gingham, and 'quilted' through them by just sewing a few intersecting diagonal lines

 I took two pieces that were opposites of each other (in regards to which way the thumb pointed)

 And I stitched them right-sides together:

 I trimmed the excess, and turned them right side out

Then used some edging I made (exactly the same as the edging I made for the hot-pads) and hand-stitched that around the bottom edge: 

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