Advent 2

Kieran's hand ornament! 

This was so much fun to make and super easy. Here is a quick tutorial with a bunch of pictures. 

1. Trace your little ones hand on a piece of cardstock.

2. Tidy up your hand. Kids are squirmy, take a look at your little hand to see if it needs a bit of tidying up.

3. Cut out the hand following your revised lines.

Awe...so little

4. Choose fabric for both sides of your ornament and grab some double sided iron on interfacing.

5. Iron the interfacing to the wrong side of one piece of fabric. Be sure to iron both sides of the fabric to insure a strong bond. (Following product directions.)

6. Peel off paper backing.

7. Iron on the second piece of fabric. 

8. Trace hand onto one side of bonded fabric.

9. Cut out just inside your lines. (Unless you used disappearing ink...)

10. Punch a hole in the palm of the hand. This will be what you thread your ribbon through.

11. Use a large punch to create a color coordinating paper disc.

12. Label disc with year and child's name.

13. LAST STEP! Thread a piece of ribbon through the hand and disc. I though it would be cute to add a jingle bell too.

I think this is a nice way to track an important little person's growth from year to year. It will definitely bring a smile to our faces in the future years when we dress our trees with this little whimsy hand. I hope it makes Auntie smile this year.

**Kieran received a handmade (of course!) cloth nativity scene in his Advent calendar (from Auntie Louisa) today.**

Advent 1

 Mini bunting! I think it's pretty cute, do you?

This is a quick and easy project. Just cut out a bunch of little triangles using scrapbook paper (or fabric, but use pinking sheers in this case). I made a template to trace out of cardboard.

Stitch the triangles together using 2 spools of thread in your machine.

And that's it! Pretty simple for a cute bunting that could be used in all sorts of places...Christmas tree, mantel or in a window. I think it would look nice pinned onto my sister's bulletin board maybe. 

Kieran enjoyed helping me package this teeny tiny gift.

**Kieran received a sweet Christmas book in our Advent Calendar from his Auntie.** 

Advent Calendar Tutorial

If you have never made an Advent quilt, this one is a good one to start with. It is really quite easy and can be completed pretty quickly. You will need to start with your color scheme. I had some very nice ivory wool in the fabric closet so that was an easy starting point. From there, I decided to go with bright and festive colors. This way, if my sister wants to use the pockets to hole things year round, she can without it screaming Christmas.

1. Choose heavy weight background fabric and felt for the pockets.
2. Make a template for the larger "back" square. I used a 4 inch square.
3. Make a template for the smaller "front" square. I used a 3 inch square.
4. Layout your color scheme and cut 24 four inch squares and 24 three inch squares.

5. Stitch the "front" square to the "back" square using a straight stitch. (Be sure to center the smaller square, you should probably pin them but I did not.)

Be sure to remove only one at a time from your layout, otherwise it  will be difficult to find your original layout.

6. Hem all 4 sides of your background fabric. Make sure you have laid out the pockets so you know what size you want the background. Mine was 23 inches wide before hemming.  Be sure to allow for a large turnover at the top for a dowel if you are not going to use tabs.

7. Pin the pockets onto the back ground fabric keeping even margins.

These flat head  pins are great if you have a little one in the house. They are very easy to spot when cleaning up. 

8. Stitch pocket to the background fabric. 

Take your time, I didn't and things got a little out of line.

9. Using leftover felt, stitch tabs to the top of your quilt.

Yes, it was that dark while I was sewing...sleeping baby.

10. Ta da! You are done! Now you just have to make something for each pocket...

 

My goal is to post each day's gift...check back each day of Advent to see what my sister in opening! 

Gift it...

Recently some Mom friends and I had a joint One Year Birthday Party. I was in charge of favors. This is right up my alley! Yippee! I decided that everyone likes a personalized gift, so why not make monogramed onsies? The funny thing is, I didn't make my own son one! So I don't have a great after picture but you can see generally how they ended up. 

Tutorial:

1. Choose a font that you like and a size that is right for your onsie. In this case I was using 18 month size Carter's Onsies, it's a safe bet that all the 1 year old babes would be able to wear that size at some point. Always error on the side of too big if you are unsure of sizing. I used Baskerville Semibold at 205 size. Print out the first letter in each child's name. 

Baskerville semibold font.

 2. Trace each letter onto your double sided fusible interfacing and mark "g" for girl or "b" for boy. This will help you choose the appropriate fabric for each letter.

3. Iron each letter onto the "wrong" side of your fabric.

 4. Cut out each letter carefully.

Use very sharp scissors.

5. Peel off the paper backing and iron onto onsie. Be sure to center it first.
6. Stitch Each letter onto onsie using a zig zag stitch.
7. Choose coordinating tags and ribbon to finish each favor. (I chose Martha Stewart's "Playground" paper. I found it at a Michael's store.) To make tags, just cut out a rectangle, use a corner punch on the 2 bottom corners, trip the top by cutting each corner on the diagonal. Punch a hole for the ribbon and you're done.

Make sure you make a tag with each child's name on it. 

At the party, I laid them out in neat rows so it would be easy for Moms to read the tags and grab the correct one. Anything to make a gazillion kids in one place any less hectic!

The party was a blast and the Moms enjoyed the favors. It was a lot of work having all those kiddos in one space. I would do it again in a second. They had so much fun!

And this was just some of the babes!

A much deserved cupcake for each Mama and babe!

Have you made any favors lately?

Birthday Bunting...

The hubby and I wanted our little boy to have something special for his birthday every year.  Something that we can take a picture of, with him next to it, to compare from year to year.  I came up with a "Birthday Bunting".  Don't they look happy and fun?   

 

Okay, this project takes a lot of time, let's be honest. I'm talking, lots of sneaking steps in during many naps. So start early if you are interested in this project. I used gender neutral colors so the "Happy Birthday" can be used for a second child. The second child would get his/her own name bunting. 

Tutorial

1. Choose a triangle size (large enough to hold your letters) and make a cardstock template.

2. Using template, trace and cut out triangles using chosen cotton fabrics.  (I used mostly quilting"fat quarters".) You will need 2 triangles for each flag, front and back.

3. Choose a size and font for your individual letters using a basic Word program.  Print out.

4. Cut out each letter so they can be traced onto contrasting fabric.  (I chose natural canvas because the contrast allowed for easy reading of the letters. )

5. Iron double sided fusible interfacing to the back of each letter.  Cut out each letter (you are cutting both the canvas and the interfacing.)

6. Lay out your triangles in order to be sure you are happy with the order of the colors. 

7. Peel off the paper backing from letters and iron onto triangles.  Be sure to center each letter.

8. Stitch canvas letters onto cotton triangles.  I used a straight stitch because it was easy to keep it looking neat.  It's probably best to use a zig zag stitch.  

9.  Using original triangle template, trace onto double sided fusible interfacing, one for each fabric triangle.  Cut each triangle out.

10. Iron interfacing onto the back of each triangle. 

11. Peel back off of each triangle.

12. Iron "back triangle" onto the "front triangle" that already has letter stitched on.

13. Topstitch the two sides of each triangle. Allow seam allowance.

14. Using a decorative rotary cutter,  cut the two sides of each triangle.

  

15. Pin bias tape to the top of each triangle.  Make sure to keep spacing between letters consistent.  Auntie Louisa made this bias tape for me.  So cool, right?!

16. Stitch bias tape onto triangles using zig zag stitch.

17. Have a glass of wine and admire all your hard work!  I told you, time consuming but oh so worth it!  

Note the cute little birthday crown that Auntie Louisa made!

Auntie also made this special onsie and cool jeans for the occasion! 

So what do you think? Worth the time? Have another great birthday idea?

NOTE: We hung the bunting in the beautiful yoga studio at my gym for an easy picture on his actual birthday.  Next year I will be sure to get a picture of Kieran with the bunting at his birthday party.