Bean Bags

I made the kids bean bags for Christmas. Each child will get 3 bean bags in a drawstring bag. I cut 5 inch squares of fabric for the bean bags. I sewed the squares, right sides together, leaving an opening on one side to put the rice in. (I chose rice because it is smaller and might not hurt as much if someone happens to throw a bag too hard.) Then I turned them and top stitched on the three sides where there was no opening. I did this so that the bags would be sturdier. I also made a little bag out of old pantyhose to put the rice in. (I guess I just wanted to be really sure they wouldn't bust and we would end up with rice everywhere.) I then inserted the rice filled pantyhose into the fabric bag and top stitched the opening closed. I made the drawstring bags just big enough for the 3 bean bags. They are 8" x 6". This was an easy project that I hope inspires fun and creative play.

Bean Bags

Artist Drawing Case & Pillows

I have been making more things for Christmas gifts. I made 14 of the Little Artist Drawing Cases pictured above. They are for various kids on our Christmas list. I followed the tutorial on a site. Thankfully, I printed them because the link no longer works. Here is a link I found from the same site. http://craftapple.wordpress.com/2006/12/06/little-artist-crayon-cases/ It doesn't have the instructions, though. The cases are made from fabric I already had in my stash. My husband made the notepads and made enough for each child to have 2 extras. I found a good deal on the twistable crayons online. Hopefully, the kids will like them and be able to use them to stay entertained when out and about.

I made the pillows above for my children for Christmas. I had thought about trying to make bean bag chairs, but decided to go with large floor pillows instead. I made an inner pillow that was 28" square and used a 1/2" seam allowance. The outer pillow was cut at 29" and sewn with a 1/2" seam allowance. The fabrics coordinate with their rooms. I had the bright idea to stuff them with foam microbeads. I found them on Ebay and bought 20 gallons. I think the kids will like the way they feel, but they were very hard to use. They were tiny and got everywhere. Note to self: do not use above mentioned microbeads again. Anyway, the kids can use them to sit on to read or whatever they want.

Artist Drawing Case & Pillows

Homemade Baby Toys

I have been busy sewing lots of Christmas presents recently. I have made four things for our new baby. Considering the baby will be born right at Christmas I know he won't be interested, but I wanted him to have presents under the tree like the other kids. All of the fabrics used to make these items were ones I already had. I have been enjoying the money saving and creative aspects of sewing toys for the baby.



This first picture is of a tag blankie and a tag ball. I had found the patterns at this site http://www.newconceptions.com/patpdf/TagToyspdf.pdf. I didn't make the blankie exactly the same. I used my 12 1/2" quilt square to cut out the pieces for the blankie, so it is slightly smaller. I also embroidered the baby's name in the center. The blankie and ball were pretty easy to make.

The picture above is of a fabric baby grab ball. I found the pattern on this site http://sewing.about.com/od/babyshowergiftsewing/ss/babyball.htm. I used the pattern for the smaller size. I did put a jingle bell in 3 of the sections which resulted in a muted jingle. I didn't want it to be really noisy, so it worked well. The pattern was pretty easy to follow. The project was somewhat time consuming because there was quite a bit of hand stitching to put it all together.

These 2 pictures are of a cloth color/texture book I made for the baby. The idea seemed simple enough, but I did have some trouble sewing it all together. What I did was cut out 16 pieces of fabric using my 6 1/2" quilt square. I sewed 2 pieces , right sides together, and then turned them. I used fabrics such as fleece, fake fur, denim, satin, and cotton. I wanted to sew all of the pages together, but the stack was too thick. I then sewed every 2 pages together to make the stack more manageable Then, I had to sew a piece of fabric on the edge of each section. I was able to sew those pieces together. It looked alright, but I decided to make a band of the outer fabric to go around the middle. I also embroidered the baby's name on the front of the book. It may not be perfect, but I think he will enjoy the colors and textures. If I make another one I will have to come up with a better method.

Homemade Baby Toys

Felt Play Food

After all of the recalls that have happened this summer I have decided that we have too many plastic toys made from China. So, I sacked up all of the plastic play food for starters. I thought it would be fun for the kids and I to make food out of felt. We had a lot of fun. Julia and James came up with the ideas for the foods we would make. I did sew pieces together for some of the foods (except the pizza), but Julia created most of the designs.

The foods that we made were an apple, an orange, a tomato, a carrot, an ear of corn, 3 pieces of broccoli, an egg, 2 chocolate chip cookies, a pepperoni pizza in a new pizza box, and a sandwich. The kids did a great job and had lots of fun.

Felt Play Food