Sammy Shark

Posted on February 19, 2012 by sewtheday

Last fall I won a Sammy the Shark pattern from Funky Friend’s Factory.  It was right about the time I started having difficulty sitting at my sewing machine because my pregnant belly was getting huge. :)  So the Sammy pattern sat, printed out, waiting for the time to come when I’d be able to sew comfortably again.

My mom got us a membership to the Seattle Aquarium for Christmas and after our last trip Bennett has been even more interested in fish and sharks.  While in the gift shop he really wanted a stuffed shark and I remembered the Sammy pattern I had just aching to be made up, So I promised to make him a shark.

The first time I make a stuffed toy pattern I normally cut out two and make them together in stages.  So I cut and started sewing on 2 Sammy Sharks.  I got all the pieces put together really quickly, but when I got to putting on eyes, I got stuck.  I had absolutely no buttons that would work.  So I let Bennett help to pick out some buttons and the felt for the mouth.

Almost immediately after getting the last bits to finish them I found out that my hometown of Covington, Louisiana is building a Children’s Museum.  I found out that a family friend is one of the Co-Chairs for a fundraiser for the museum.  I knew she was looking for items to raise money and I e-mailed her and offered her the second Sammy for their event.

Well, today I finished both Sammy the Sharks.  Bennett has his Sammy and he’s been “swimming” all over the house tonight.  And the second Sammy will be making his way to the Children’s Museum Fundraiser in St. Tammany Parish next week.

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Unexpected Surprises from Spoonflower

Posted on February 16, 2012 by sewtheday

It is always nice to receive unexpected joy.  I was very surprised yesterday to get an e-mail from Darci at Spoonflower. She informed me that I was the winner of two books, Handmade Marketplace and Craft Inc., from their business book giveaway contest last week.

I’m over the moon and can’t wait to delve into these books for ideas and help with my little business endeavor.

They announced my winning the giveaway in a Spoonflower blog post yesterday in which they are also running another giveaway.  This time it is for a 6 month subscription to  WhimseyBox! Now that’s sure to be lots of fun!  So go enter. Maybe you’ll win and have a joyful day too!

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A Great Day

Posted on February 15, 2012 by sewtheday

Normally I would avoid taking 2 kids shopping at all costs, but I really needed to get to the grocery store.  So with Bennett in the cart and baby Etienne on my back in a Beco carrier, I braved the Commissary on a pay day. Madness, I know.  I got there early, and found it oddly empty.  Normally on the 15th it is a crazy house, but I found some peace and calm there today.  Etienne was fast asleep in minutes and Bennett let Doggie drive the cart, turning the wheel mounted in front of him.

We wound around the aisles getting only what was on the list, okay we did get bananas and a toothbrush too, but mostly stuck to the list. :)  Pear were on the list, but they didn’t look great and were as hard as rocks.  So I guess it’s a fair trade and I really really needed a new toothbrush. We didn’t rush or dash from place to place, but took our time.  Bennett talked about the valentines he got at school yesterday and about his card from Nana.  It is just the simple things that make being 3 fun.

After about an hour we went and checked out only to find that Bennett’s hat was missing.  I knew he took it off at some point, but didn’t realize it had gone on walk about from the cart. Bennett got quite upset, as this was his very favorite hat.  So we took the groceries to the car and went back to look for it.  We walked through nearly the entire store and found that some nice person had picked it up off the floor and placed it on a shelf near the frozen foods.

Needless to say he is a happy camper again.  It would have been near impossible to find that exact sweater to make another hat out of, so I’m happy too.

Here he is at the aquarium a few weeks ago sporting his green stripy hat.

 Despite the lost and found hat, we had a great day.

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Conversation Hearts

Posted on February 13, 2012 by sewtheday

As a child, I remember getting Conversation Hearts for Valentine’s Day.  They were a fun part of my childhood Valentine experience, but for Bennett, they aren’t so much fun.  He has food allergies and sensitivities to artificial dyes.  So, I thought I’d make him some wooden ones of his very own to play with.

I bought small unfinished wooden hearts at JoAnn fabrics in packs of 6 for about a dollar.  I sanded them down just a bit to take the rougher spots off.  Then I painted them with acrylic purple, blue, pink, white, and green paints.  The red and white paints were left over from making the READ letters and the other colors I mixed from paint I borrowed from my husband.  It took a couple of coats to get it nice an even. After they dried well, I stamped the little saying on with small letter stamps.

There are 12 in total.  I hope he likes his play conversation hearts!  Now we can have valentines day anytime! :)

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Reading Nook

Posted on February 6, 2012 by sewtheday

Reading is not something that was emphasized during my childhood. I actually hated to read, mostly because of comprehension issues that I had. I read whatever I had to for school and that was it.   I didn’t read for pleasure until adulthood.  My husband reads like a mad person.  He can devour a novel in a day.  He loves to read and re-read books over and over. I want my children to love books like him.  I thought one of the best ways to encourage them to read is to have a comfy special spot to sit and read.

I saw a neat Book Nook by Naptime Decorator on Pintrest and knew I wanted to make some letters to put up on the wall by Bennett’s comfy chair like the ones I’d seen.

I bought some ready to finish letters at JoAnn Fabric and a bottle of red paint.  All total I spent about 4 dollars since the letters were on sale and I had a coupon. :)

Some of Bennett’s favorite books are Splat the Cat books. The characters often wear solid colors with tiny white polka dots, so I decided to go with red with tiny white dots. I love red and white together anyway…if you hadn’t noticed.

It took a couple of coats of the red to get a nice even look and then I painted the tiny white dots in a mostly random pattern.

I didn’t realize it until after I was done, but the ‘A’ is shorter than the other letters. It just makes it more unique.  My husband put a clear matte coat of spray paint on them for me since we were having such a nice and sunny afternoon.

I wasn’t sure how to stick them to the wall, so I tried out a couple of different types of stick-ums.  The Scott removable stick-ums didn’t last 2 hours and the letters were falling off the wall.  I switched those out with the Command removable strips, and we haven’t had any trouble with falling letters since.

I want to get to IKEA for some spice racks to use as little book shelves, but for now we just have a cube for a book bucket.  Now Bennett has a dedicated reading nook and he seems quite happy with it. :)

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Homemade Valentines

Posted on February 5, 2012 by sewtheday

Bennett really enjoys making crafts, and as he gets older there are more that he can do by himself.  This makes him infinitely happy.

I came across a fun way to use a toilet paper roll at Prudent Baby. The original post is from Rust and Sunshine.  You take a toilet paper roll and shape it into a heart to make a stamp!  Brilliant!

He made a bunch, about 12, to give out at his class Valentine’s Party.

I had everything already on hand, a pack of 4.5 x 6 cardstock sheets, red acrylic paint left from painting some wooden letters, and a toilet paper roll, of course.  A bit of scotch tape helps to keep the heart shape while stamping. We did end up buying some pink envelopes at Michaels with a $5 off a $5 dollar purchase the other day, so they were free!

Bennett was quite pleased that he made them all by himself and wanted to make sure there was a Valentine for his teacher too. :)  Hooray for Homemade Valentines!

This craft reminded me that I want to buy some trays to do this type of craft on.  Something to keep an eye out for.

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Sashiko Rabbit

Posted on February 4, 2012 by sewtheday

I’ve started making a quilt for baby Etienne.  I made a quilt for our son and finished it for his first Christmas, but since Etienne’s first Christmas just passed, I’m going to aim for his first Birthday.  So I have a little over 9 more months to get it completed.  If I can finish one panel a month I should make that deadline no problem.

Here is the first finished block:

 The next one is done in dark blue and is a different sort of stylized rabbit design.  I’m about half way finished with it, so I might have pictures up next week, we’ll see.

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Getting Settled

Posted on January 31, 2012 by sewtheday

After much frustration with my old blog, I’ve taken the plunge and am making WordPress my new blog home.

I’ve had all my posts from Blogger imported, but the links are different and it will take some time to fix them.  Please be patient with me while I learn the ins and outs of this new system.

 

 

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A Sleeping Bag for Doggie

Posted on January 26, 2012 by sewtheday

My 3 year old looked up at me on Christmas Eve and said, “Mama, would you make Doggie a present?”  How could I refuse such a request.  Doggie, you see, is the most beloved of all Bennett’s stuffed animals and he really isn’t a dog… more of a Giraffosaurus.

So after he went to bed I stayed up and made doll sized sleeping bag for Doggie.

 I made it a little bit wider than I probably would have, had it been for a regular animal.  Doggie has rather large feet and I wanted to make sure it would be big enough.

 All of the materials I had on hand.  It was late on Christmas Eve and there would be no running out to get anything.

I had more of this Alexander Henry 2-D Zoo fabric sitting around.  I had plenty of left over bias tape that I’d made from the dot fabric, so that went into the mix.

The M’liss green fabric with white dots didn’t match exactly, but it was close enough.  I used it on the back side as well.

And I always have a bag of poly fill around, so into the sleeping bag it went for Doggie’s pillow.

A perfect fit!

Bennett was thrilled with Doggie’s present and apparently so was Doggie.

 ZZZzzzzz….

Posted in craft, Plushie, quilting, sewing, Stash busting | 1 Comment

Snowflakes for Snow Days

Posted on January 25, 2012 by sewtheday

We had quite the snow storm last week! During some of those days we made some more paper snowflakes.

Several people have ask me about a tutorial after seeing them… so here it is.

This is regular printer paper.  I find cardstock is a little too thick with all the folding needed.

Bennett thoroughly enjoys coloring the paper for me.

Fold one of the short edges over to the long edge so the edges meet and make a nice point


Cut off the edge.

If you open your paper up, it should be a square.

Fold it back so you have a triangle again.

Along the folded edge, fold it in half again.

Fold the closed side over to just past the center, about 2/3 over.

Fold the open side over to meet the other edge.

This is what it should look like when you flip it over.

Cut off the corners

Now you are ready to cut out the shapes!  You can cut anywhere and in any shape, just don’t cut all the way across from one side to the other across the folds.


This pattern….

Looks like this when you open it up….

Here are the four in our front window.  I absolutely adore how the one on the top left came out.

Cutting paper with his new scissors is something Bennett can do for hours.  He cut up all the “ends” and collected all the cut out shapes from the snowflakes to play with.  He made “breakfast” for his stuffed animals.  How sweet.

Posted in cutting, paper, snow, snowflakes, Tutorial, winter | 2 Comments