Colored Pencil / Notebook Holder Tutorial

Today is Tamara's daughter birthday!  She is having a party, and my daughter is going!  This is what I made for her last night.  Yup, nothing like putting it off until the last minute!  That's how I roll!  :)  Anyways, I was wanting to make a tutorial so I took pics along the way!  Late last year I found these over at Skip To My Lou.  I changed the measurements just a tad because it didn't seem big enough for the length of the colored pencils.  My kids absolutely love them, especially for church!!

So to start off you are going to need 3 different fabrics.  I usually just buy 3 fat quarters and then I have leftovers to use for other things, such as making hair flowers.  Cut them into these pieces:

Front: 16"x12 ½"

Inside: 16"x12 ½"

2 pieces of iron in interfacing: 16"x12 ½"

Notebook Pocket: 7½"x10"

Colored Pencil Pocket: 10"x12 ½"

Iron all of your pieces so they are nice and smooth and ready to go.  Iron a piece of interfacing onto the backs of both the front and inside pieces of material.

Iron your colored pencil pocket piece in half...hot dog style...haha...that brought back memories of elementary school!  Line it up with the end of your fabric.  This is where you will sew it down.  I pinned mine down in a few places and removed the pins as I sewed it.  I have a hard time when I don't pin it because it tends to slide around.

Use a ruler and mark where you are going to sew your lines for the pencils.  I do my first mark 1¼ " inch in and then every 1" all the way across...there should be 11 marks...that will make 12 slots.

Now you are going to sew the lines.  Start at the bottom, well...the side...where you made your marks and sew up to the top, back stitch a couple times at the top.  I like using striped fabric here because it makes it a lot easier to sew straight!  

Here is what mine looked like when it was done.

Now take your notepad pocket piece, and fold under the top twice, press, and sew arcoss the top.

You will need to figure out where to line it up...I am still working on perfecting this one.  lol  You may have to try it a couple different times to get it right.  But you will put it on like this, and sew down the right side of it.

When you are done, fold it over and press it down.  The inside is now done!

I like to put an initial on the front.  This time around I did a letter and a flower.  I always use felt, because it's easy to work with and it doesn't fray.  I print out what I want on the computer, trace it onto some wunder-under and iron it onto the felt.  Cut it out and then iron it on.  I'm sure you all know how to iron stuff on!  :)  Anyways, since I am doing 2 things, I started with the flower, ironed it on, sewed it on, and then did the letter.

Not too bad...I need more practicing at sewing stuff on though.

Now you will want to attach some sort of thing to use to close it.  I usually use big buttons, but in this case, I used one of my ribbon flowers.  

Put your 2 pieces right sides together...like this...

Sew them together, leaving an opening along the top. Oooooh, I almost forgot.  You need to sew an elastic in at this time.  Looking at the photo above, you will want to put it in on the left side, between the 2 pieces.  Sew, turn and press.

Press the opening shut and then top stitch all the way around. And you are done!

There are lots of fun things you can do to these!  Here are some pictures from the last one I made...which just happened to be the same line of fabric!  I used a fabric flower instead of a button...I put some ric rac along the top of the inside pockets.  When you do this to the colored pencil one, sew the ric rac on before you start sewing it down.  And on this one I sewed fabric to the top of the drawing pad!!  Make it your own!  And have fun!

Oh, and I get my drawing pads at target....they are only $1.99...I've looked all over...and these are the best I have found!  :)

Ribbon Flower Tutorial

Right now we have a Japanese student living with us for 2 weeks.  Her name is Ayaka.  She is a lot of fun.  She loved the flowers I made for the girls and wanted me to teach her how to make them.  I started with the ribbon flowers, and some time this week I will teach her how to make the fabric ones.  She caught on very quickly and before I knew it, she had made 13 flowers!  My favorite is the picture of her wearing them all at once!  :)

Let's get started!  For the large flowers I use 1 ½" Ribbon.  You need 5: 4 inch pieces.  I like to mark my ribbon in 4 inch increments and then cut it all at once.  Makes it a little easier!

Next you are going to fold your petals.  Make sure you have your needle and thread ready to go!  First you fold it like this...

And then you will fold over the top to form this...

And this it really hard to tell what I just did...here is a little video that might help a little!

It may take a little practice to get the folding down, when you make the first fold try to keep it in the center of the ribbon, you want your ends to match up.  

After you finish each petal you will want to sew it together, I just stitch across the bottom of the ribbons, and then push it off onto the thread.

Make sure you hold them all the same direction when you sew them so they all have the fronts facing the same way.  Here are my 5 petals all on the thread.  This is a view of the backs of the petals.

Tie the threads together, pulling tight, but be careful not to pull too tight or your string can break, and that is the most annoying this, especially since you will have to sew them together again.  Here's my finished flower.

Here is a view of what the back of the flower will look like.

Now you can stop here and attach it to a hair clip and add a cute little center, or you can make a smaller flower to add to the top.  I use 7/8" ribbon.  You will need 5 pieces again, this time cut to 2 ½ - 3", depending on what you like.  Fold and sew them together the same way you did with the larger flower.

It fits nicely on top of your other flower.

I use hot glue to put mine all together.  I do it the same way I do with the fabric flowers, only I use a felt circle on the bottom instead fabric.  If you need, you can read how I glued them together here!  

Another idea...late last year I went CrAzY making these for my girls!  To make them a little more versatile I made them interchangeable!  I used large snaps and glued them to the top of the large flower and bottom of the small flower.  Then I could easily pop off the smaller flower and change colors to match different outfits.  Hot glue held the snaps pretty well...just be a little careful when pulling them apart.

Oh, and don't forget to add a cute center to your flowers.  You can use anything...gems, glitter discs, brads.  

Prairie Points Pillow Case Tutorial

Sometimes I want to make something....anything.....just because I am in love with a certain line of fabric and want an excuse to buy some. In this case, it was Early Bird by Cosmo Cricket. I love the colors and the cute retro feel of it. I decided to try a pillow case. It seemed fitting, because one of the lines of text on this fabric reads "if we were meant to pop out of bed, we would all sleep in toasters". That is SO me. I am not one to pop right out of bed. I have to hit the snooze at least three times before I'm up.

This is the first time I've made a pillowcase like this and it turned out just like I imagined it, with the exception of the side trim. I made mine wider than I will suggest to you, because I would definitely trim it down when I make another. In the photo above, I folded it in a bit so it will look the way yours will if you follow the measurements in this tutorial.

You will need 2/3 yard of your main fabric, 1/4 yard for your side trim, and two fat quarters for your prairie points.

Trim your main fabric to 20"x24", your side trim fabric to 20"x9", and cut your fat quarters into 5" squares. (The fabric in the photo is folded in half lengthwise).

Fold your squares into a triangle once, and then once again, and press.

Sew your main pillow fabric together along one short side and the long side.

Lay your side trim fabric out on a table and arrange your prairie point on it the way you would like them to look. If you are using two different prints, the way I did, start and end with the same print. We will add in the missing piece later on. Pin them in place.

Stitch the prairie points on using a 1/8" seam (we are just tacking them on, we don't want to see this seam later. That's why it is so small)

Now sew your side trim together along the side, forming a loop (keep in mind that the one in this photo is wider than yours will be).

Press the seam open, then with wrong sides together, fold the loop nearly in half. We want an extra 1/4" or so on the side without the prairie points sewn to it. (Sorry, this is the most complicated part!) This step will allow us to hide some of our raw edges later so that you don't get all kinds of strings coming off of your pillow case whenever you wash it.

This part is a bit hard to explain as well, I hope it comes through ok. Now pin the side trim to the pillowcase body, as shown in the picture. Slip in the missing prairie point at this time and pin it in place (it will go right at the seam between the first and last prairie point). When you have it ready to sew, the prairie points should be sandwiched in between the main pillow body and the side trim material.

Sew the pieces together using a 1/4" seam.

Turn inside out and press the seam away from the opening of the pillowcase.

Keeping the pillowcase inside out, turn the raw edge under to cover all the other raw edges (shown in picture). Sew right along the edge to hold in place. You might want to pin your prairie points out of the way so that they don't get caught in your stitching (mind did!)

Here it is with the raw edge sewn under.

And that's it! I think these would make darling wedding or bridal shower gifts along with a set of sheets. Enjoy, and please leave a comment if you have any questions.

Self Binding Baby Blankets

When I was pregnant with  my twins I got tons of fun stuff at my baby showers!  My husband's aunt made me 2 super cute flannel blankets.  They were perfect for swaddling!  And my boys looooved to be swaddled!  One day my mom and I were trying to figure out how she made them...after quite a while we finally called my aunt and she told us how easy they were and explained them.  I was still a bit lost, but managed to figure it out!  I have no idea how she said to do the corners, so I found a way that works!  Before I begin, here are my boys all wrapped up in the ones I made for them!  Oh how I wish they could be so still these days!  They are almost 2... :)

So you are going to need 2 squares of flannel!  I am using the brown material as my backing, the white as the front.  The front square is 10" smaller than the back.  Since fabric usually comes about 44" wide, I get a 44" piece cut for the back, making a 44" square...for the front I get 34" and then trim it down so it is an even square.  But you may run into a problem like I did, my brown fabric had a huge 2" license sort of deal printed along the edge.  So I lost 2" of fabric, so my back square was 42" and my front was 32".  It's not a huge deal, it will work out either way!

Mark the centers of each edge of fabric.  I crease mine with the iron.  Lay them right sides together, matching up at the center.  

Begin pinning from the center and work your way out until you have reached the edge of the front fabric.

Turn to the next edge and line up the center again, pin and work your way outward.

The back is going to be really loose since it is quite a bit larger.  Your corners will kind of poke out like this.  Continue to pin all the edges of the blanket the same way until you are done.

Here is mine, all ready to start sewing.  I'm just trying to show how baggy all the fabric is.

Start at one corner and begin sewing each edge.  I use a  ¼" inseam.  Make sure you leave an opening on one of your edges to be able to turn the blanket right side out.  Mine is about 4-5" long. It is easier if you do it away from the corners, so try to put it in the middle of an edge.

Here is my blanket after I sewed all the way around.

Flip it right side out and press.  I line up my backing and press the border down.  On the edges I iron them out like this, and then fold them even with the other edge of the blanket and iron again.

This will give each corner a crease like this...so then will know where to sew it at.

Pull each corder back through the opening, one at a time.  You can see the crease I ironed in so I can sew along it.

Sew along the crease.

Cut off the excess fabric.

Push the corner back through and press.  Repeat with the remaining corners.

Once you are done with that the blanket it ready to top stitch.  You can use a straight stitch, but I like to use a cute scalloped stitch.  Start at your opening and work your way around.

That's it!  Pretty easy!  Here is my blanket all finished!  I am going to go pick up some cloth diapers and use my extra fabric to make some cute burp clothes.  It will be the perfect baby shower gift!