Felt Needlebook

      I really enjoy working with felt, so when I stumbled onto a Pinterest board dedicated to a ton of felt crafts, I had to do at least one.  I found this pin that inspired me to make a needlebook.  That way, I made something cute and useful with felt.  Here's my inspiration:

Here's mine:

      Of course I wanted mine to be purple, and it worked out well to use some scrap fabric as a bit of decoration.  I thought I'd need a pocket for my cross-stitch needles, which are more blunt, but my felt is not as tightly woven or something; they were fine.  I made some labels for mine since I wanted to keep track of the several kinds of needles I have.  There's also a blank page at the front for basic hand sewing needles.  I really like how it turned out!  Cute and functional, if I do say so myself.

Springtime Grassy Yarn Wreath

      I know, I know, it's definitely not springtime anymore.  The fact is, I've been wanting to make this wreath since March and have been looking for the supplies for this craft for months now.  The pin basically shows you how to make it; it's simple enough to figure out.  Apparently, no one carries yarn that looks exactly like this, and I haven't seen any ribbon with flowers like those either.  In June, my sweet in-laws gave me a Michaels gift card for my birthday, so I was determined to find something to make this work before the end of summer.  It's a very springy wreath, but I think it carries over into summer pretty nicely.

      So I found some yarn that I thought would have a similar effect, and I stumbled across a plastic can of flower confetti (the Brides brand that Michaels has, I just wish they'd had white), I added the flowers using some yellow-tipped quilting pins, and voila!  Here's mine:

Monster Coloring Totes

      It's probably no surprise to any visitor of this blog that I am an avid Pinterest user.  I love the sharing of good ideas, whether they are for date nights, kids' activities, recipes, or crafts.  I also love the way that people in the blogosphere can inspire creativity in each other.  This pin links to a blog with these adorable monster coloring totes, but they're actually the second version of them (she links back to the original blogger).  Since creativity is not exactly my greatest strength, I basically copied the second poster's design.

      Since I am also cheap, I picked up two tote bags on clearance at JoAnn crafts instead of making the bags too.  This ended up being the harder way to do it, in a way, since I had to sew and then attach the monster face to the bag with more difficulty.  I made mine to size for crayons, but you could make the faces and slots longer for colored pencils too.  Here are my two, all laid out, pre-sewing:

      I don't have kids; I am actually making these to put in our two shoeboxes this year for Operation Christmas Child.  Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse (originally Billy Graham's ministry, now run by Franklin Graham) that packages and sends millions of shoeboxes filled with small gifts and basic necessities to children all over the world.  I have been involved with OCC since I was in junior high, either through packing shoeboxes or volunteering at the processing center here in Orange County.  Last year, my husband and I packed two shoeboxes, for a boy and a girl in the 10-14 age range, filling them primarily at back-to-school sale time, when you can get school supplies really cheaply.  This year, our boxes will probably be for two boys in the 5-9 category.  I picked up some flip-flops on sale for about $1 each, and plan to pack these two totes, along with notebooks and/or coloring books next month.  The great thing about this project was that it was very inexpensive; the gusseted tote bags I got on clearance were just 30 cents each, and I was able to make each monster face from one sheet of felt at 33 cents each!  The crayons were the most expensive part, and an 8-pack was only 99 cents.

One finished tote (so far):

Stegosaurus Softie

      Ever since I saw this pin and attached tutorial for a felt stegosaurus, I knew I'd have to make it eventually.  I am married to a huge paleontology buff -- we have dinosaur toys models on shelves in our bedroom; I'm not kidding.  Then my sister sent me fabric scraps from Africa (she's been volunteering as a teacher in Tanzania, and will be returning next month -- shameless plug for her blog here) and I knew I had to figure out how to use those. 

      The tricky thing about this project was that the tutorial gives you a pattern for a felt softie, but I needed one with fabric in mind.  I ended up drawing my own pattern (don't do that, just use the printable one the tutorial gives at the end of the post) and adjusting it for fabric.  It was certainly a challenge to have to think about how to make this work with seam allowances.  I knew from the beginning there was no way I'd use anything but felt for the spinal plates!  I screwed up the sewing of the felt to one fabric side of the body, so I was trying to fix that for awhile afterward.  It turned out alright, but I wish I'd had little black beads for the eyes like the original blogger had.  Since I wanted my stego to have a face as soon as I finished him, I made do with what I had.  My husband approved, anyway. :)

      Isn't this African fabric great?  I used a solid green portion of the same fabric for the underbelly.

Baby Door Muff

 
      So a friend of ours is having a baby this fall, and that is all the impetus I need to go nuts with all the fun baby craft and sewing projects!  I have tons of them pinned to my sewing for kids board on Pinterest, but I thought I'd start off with this one, since I expected it would be a quick project and something I could make with materials I had on hand.  This baby door muffler or 'door muff' is available for sale on Etsy in various colors.  It lets you open and close the baby's door without the click, so you don't wake the baby, and keeps toddlers from locking themselves into a room.

      I had some denim scraps left over from the denim quilt I finished recently, so I thought I'd use some of those.  I also wanted my door muff to be gender neutral, and denim works pretty well for that idea.  Basically, the door muff ended up being three layers of denim, with the ends sewn down around two elastic hair ties.  The elastics serve the same function as the ribbons, but are a little less girly, and perhaps more straightforward if you ever want to take it on and off.  It sounds simple, but it took longer than you might expect to get the measurements right.  Also, my sewing machine was being extremely uncooperative.  Anyway, the basic finished product was boring, so I added two felt stars to hint at a night sky theme.  Here it is!

Denim Rag Quilt

      When I saw this picture on Pinterest (no real link attached), I thought it was a brilliant idea for old jeans, because you could make a quilt with such character, and reuse clothes you might normally donate or toss.  I was given a pair of very light blue colored jeans by a friend, and I knew they wouldn't be worn, but the color was unique enough to inspire me to make this happen.
      This quilt was the first I did 100% on my own, start to finish.  My only previous quilt was from a kit, with all the pieces pre-cut, including the fringe (it was a fleece rag quilt).  Although this was a little intimidating, I loved the idea and wanted to make one for a picnic blanket, (that I could maybe even use this summer) so I was motivated.  I bought the denim from thrift stores in the form of denim dresses and jeans at good sale prices.  This way, I avoided buying denim fabric new, which runs $12/yard, and got the additional character pieces like pockets and pleats (from a dress bodice).  I recommend against doing what the picture shows, with all the seams running across and sewing on waistbands to keep the labels, because it was hard enough to sew through 4 layers of it when all my fabric was smooth.
      I also made sure to get denim that was generally lighter weight (my machine is by no means industrial strength).  If you do buy the denim new, I think my weights were in the 7-11 oz range, and I recommend keeping it under 11.  I say this not only so you don't kill your machine but because if you go heavier the finished quilt, especially if it's bigger than mine, will weigh a ton!  I wasn't sure how well the quilt would turn out if I left it fringed all around the outside, so I went ahead and put some quilt binding on it.  It was really easy, but I think you could go either way.  I think it makes it look a little more put together, and hopefully it'll hold up a little better long-term.
      If you're going to tackle a denim quilt, make sure you buy the special denim sewing needles for your machine, some heavy duty thread, and definitely spring action sewing scissors like these.  Here's my finished product! I'm pretty proud of it.

Here's a close-up so you can see the cool square with buttons I got from a pleated dress bodice.   I ended up with 4 pockets, so I put those by the corners so I can hold down napkins or keep track of silverware on a picnic.

      I also used the ties from one of the denim dresses to make a tie for my blanket to keep it neat when it's rolled up.