sewing

I am a scarf fiend. I wear one almost every day, usually the same one over and over. From what I understand, scarves are now a year round accessory. I want to introduce more into my life, but, as is the case with most mamas, I lack the funds to buy them and the time to make them. Enter the jersey scarf!

I’ve found several tutorials on the web for both no-sew and sewing required scarves. I believe anyone can make these….for some all you need is a t-shirt! Click on the photos for the tutorials.

No-sew circle scarf from My Waking Memories

Sewing required t-shirt scarf, sized for a child or adult, from Ruffles and Stuff (remember their petal backpack?)

Another sewing required ruffled scarf, but a little more fancy....from Hope Studios.

Just cut and wear! Jersey scarves from Little Birdie Secrets.

I would love to hear if you guys make any of these? Leave a comment and I’ll link to your sure-to-be gorgeous creation. Have fun!

Photo from urbanthreads.com

OMG, someone actually made these boots from an old sweater and cheap lil’ flats! I’m dying to try this! Too bad I just packed up my sewing supplies.

Urban Threads has the tutorial, and if you are semi-handy with sewing you can make this one. They did their own embroidery, but you can get an embroidered patch at any craft store.

Pretty awesome, huh?

I have a friend whose family has made a pact to create at least one homemade gift for each other this Christmas. Inspired, I decided to go out on the search for some very easy and inexpensive gift ideas, using items you might already have on hand.

Photo from Blue Cricket Design

I have told you of my love of Blue Cricket Designs (remember the Halloween Ornaments? FABULOUS!) so I was not surprised to find this fun little item on her site: Holiday Clothes Pins! It is a very easy project and can be done with a few supplies, by you or your kids. As she mentions, you can use them to make a garland of Christmas Cards, or put magnets on the back to use on the fridge. If you do not have scrapbook paper at home, tear out colorful magazine pages instead…Reuse, one of the 3 R’s! 

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Photo from elsiemarley.com

I ran across this hysterical handmade ornament on a link from the How about Orange? blog. Click here to go to Elsie Marley’s site for a pattern and tutorial for making this easy and hysterical twist on your typical gingerbread man ornament. Reminds me of Gingy from Shrek.

Did you know they are making a fourth Shrek movie? It’s good times, but dang, really…do we need to drag it out?

First off, let me share a very yummy picture with you-

yummy goodness.........

No, I did not jack up the soup with dog medicine; it just happened to be sitting right there. Along with a toy from a Kinder egg. Anyway, this is the fabulous Corn Chowder Arkie Mama shared a while ago, a recipe she got from Mom on a Wire. People, this stuff was GOOD! Make some soon.

A couple of years ago, I decided I wanted to make some sort of Advent calendar for the kiddo. I wanted to be super thrifty about it and tried to think of how I could create something with what I had already. I thought about making one of those wall calendars (like this or this) but let’s face it, that is a ton of sewing and I’d need to buy more things than I wanted to for it.

Then I saw something on a random blog where the mom used plain socks on a garland for an advent calendar (similar to this) and decided this was the way to go.

I had some red felt left over from making our stockings, and the green sweater from my Professor Trelawneycostume I wore to a friend’s Halloween party was dying to be reporposed. I drew a simple sock shape and set out cutting 48 little stockings, half red and half green.

I forgot the sweater was made of wool. Oops. I got a sore throat from breathing in all the little wool fibers floating around as I cut and sewed the green stockings. I was cursing them, actually, as I finished that last one. But yes, I did cut about 12 stockings from one sweater. Pretty good, if I say so myself!

I sewed a little loop into the stockings, so I could hang them from the garland over our front room window. I cut 24 pieces of muslin and stamped each one with the date, using my foam numbers and brown craft paint.

They turned out pretty darn cute:

Adorable

I love the raw edges of the number patches.

I had a small bit of this fabric that I LOVE, so I made the last one with it.

So there’s no real tutorial on this one, it’s pretty straight forward if you can sew. If not, get out the glue gun, even though you will probably not want to use the sweater idea with if you do that. Hot glue + sweater with tons of tiny holes = a hot mess.

Photo from berlinswhimsy.com

I am a big believer in my Swiffer, but hate the thought of throwing all those disposable pads away. Instead, I have been using a microfiber reuseable cleaning towel. It works well but is too big and flops off the ends as I try to clean the floors.

I stumbled across this tutorial on Berlin’s Whimsy for making reusable Swiffer covers and thought they would work wonderfully with the microfiber towel. Cute, huh?

She also makes bento box lunches for her kids(I picked up one just like hers in Dallas a few weekends ago) and loved all the photos on Flickr.

Inspired by Moody Mom’s post on the sweet note she left in her daughter’s lunch box, I went out on the web for ideas for lunch box goodies…

Photo from AlphaMom.com

Skip to My Lou (who I love, love, love…I made her crayon roll recently)  has her free printable lunchbox notes, tags and stickers on Alpha Mom. All you have to do is print them off and cut them out! Super cute, and I want them badly.

Photo from FamilyFun.com

As usual, FamilyFun.com has some great ways to jazz up your kids lunches while keeping them healthy in their series called A+ Lunches and Snacks. Like Moody Mom, this mom from FamilyFun.com used cookie cutters to jazz up her kid’s lunch sandwiches, but she’s got her method down to a science. I love this reader’s idea for letting the kids pack their own lunches, while reigning in on the junk food. And this post for six different ways to make a turkey sandwich is sure to keep some variety in the lunch sack.

Photo from ReusableBags.com

Photo from JumillaStories

A step beyond buying a reusable bag is making your own. The Sew,Mama,Sew! blog has linked to several different styles of lunch bags for kiddos and yourself. My favorite was the kid’s lunch bag from JumillaStories, a blog that I drifted away with for a while as I was researching for this post.

What cute and useful ideas do you have for your kiddo’s lunchbox? Drop me a line and I’ll share with everyone. Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

Leigh

Oh, I’m so excited! I got a chance to do a little shopping at yesterday and picked up some super cute fabric for my next projects…crayon rolls and those reusable sandwich bags!

I made one crayon roll Friday night that turned out 85% perfect. I used the wonderfully easy tutorial on Skip to my Lou to make it, but I skipped on the interfacing not knowing how important it was (gives it more oomph and stability), and sewed the ribbon with the wrong sides facing out.

All rolled out, and cute as a button!

All rolled up!

I love all those pointy crayon tips.

So talented!

This is a really easy project to do, involving a small amount of fabric, that can be whipped out in about an hour or less. They would make great birthday and Christmas gifts. Set aside an afternoon or evening to make several of them to stockpile for gifts.

i love cruising the internet for new ideas and inspiration. it’s kindof a bad thing, really, because there are so many great ideas out there that i want to try them all! but i have my outlet here on crafty, thankfully, and i love sharing the ideas with you.
anyway, i ran across a tutorial for a fun little tote on a blog called just deanna, made with a your child’s art. i’m picking up some fabric markers this weekend to make one with my son…i’ll let you know how it turns out!

Photo from Dabbled

i am trying to calm down after running across this WONDERFUL idea on my friend anne weaver’s blog craft gossip. it’s for *gasp* reusable sandwich and snack bags! not only is it a precious idea, but it’s eco-friendly, which is so right up my alley. thanks to anne and dabbled for sharing the wonderful idea.