Ombre Wall from P.S. I Made This.
Tablet Case Tutorial from Luv in the Mommyhood.
Girl’s Breezy Tunic Tutorial from Elegance and Elephants.
Bon Appetit Printable Tag from Eat Drink Chic.
Two Methods for Making Boxed Corners from Sew 4 Home (I use the first method, but press the seam open).
Painting on Fabric with Lucie Summers of Summersville.
Since I’ve been working most of the summer, the kids have sort of been on their own for craft projects. I thought I’d share some of the things that have inspired them lately.
Luckily, Jen from Kiwi Crate offered to send a free crate for our review. It’s a package filled with ready-to-make crafts that comes right to your door. I helped the kids get all the supplies sorted, then they pretty much made the craft on their own, following the simple illustrated instruction booklet. This is a stellar idea. I thought the craft ideas were creative and the supplies were of high quality. They were thrilled to get a package in the mail and tore it open right away and made this cute firefly craft on the spot. The firefly comes with a plastic bottle and decorations. Then after the kids assemble it, they put it on a zip line and place the small glow sticks inside to make it light up while flying. My nine-year-old declared it “awesome”. The other project in our kit was a painting project with educational facts about bugs, which looks fun too. You know I’m all about coming up with creative ideas to make things on your own, but sometimes you need a little help! These kits would also make great gifts.
Now my nine-year-old is on a full-on crafting kick, started by this website, My Froggy Stuff. The woman who runs this YouTube channel makes videos about crafts for dolls. All kinds of dolls, big and small. She makes beds, kitchens, and really anything you can think of for dolls. My daughter watches the instructions, then gathers supplies (often improvising with what we have on hand), then makes the projects pretty much on her own. There is a commercial before each video, but you can skip through it. And of course this site links up to other YouTube channels and other sites pretty easily, so there are the issues of the open web. But both my kids LOVE this site and it is keeping them busy! It gets them thinking of projects of their own too. You can see the little bunk beds below that my daughter made. She’s made a paper house and is working on all the furniture for it.
I recently spent some time looking through the photos over in my Flickr groups and I’m so excited to see you making things! The photos above are:
Kids’ Drawing Case by JulieFrick. You can find the tutorial here.
Blockhead Bunny from Sosae Caetano, made from my pattern in 1, 2, 3 Sew.
Little House Pouches, made by Sandrina Kay. The tutorial for these is here.
Little Red Riding Hood from katiemartin1, made from my tutorial found here.
Clothesline Caddy from Dakota Gal, made from this tutorial.
Goose made by Princess Bubblegum. This was one of my first tutorials, found here.
There are also lots of superhero capes, water bottle slings and ribbon wreaths. Seeing people make things from my patterns and tutorials is perhaps the biggest reward for me as a blogger and a reminder that people actually read this blog. This is good to know as I am thinking about making some changes to this site. I’ll still be working on finishing up this book over the next month, but after that I really hope to get back to creating things that I can show you. I know you all love tutorials and I hope to give you a few here and there, but I realize that if making things starts to feel like work, I won’t be able to make anything interesting. Anyway, more on that soon.
I know I haven’t been posting much this summer, but I just turned in my manuscript for 1, 2, 3 Quilt and I have another month of finishing projects, testing patterns and then photography. But I’m really excited about the projects in the book as I see it starting to come together.
Anyway, I thought I’d also share some summer links:
The Family Cooking Action Pack from Kathreen of Whip Up is pretty great with tons of recipes that the kids can make and enjoy. I’ve also been enjoying Kathreen’s Creativity Series. You can read my post here.
This Flutter Circle Skirt from Shelly Figueroa over on Sew, Mama, Sew! is really adorable.
I also like this Magnetic Tangram Puzzle and this Mesh Bag.
Looks like Heather Ross’ new fabric collection Nursery Versery is available now, and should be in more stores by the end of the month. This is my favorite collection from her so far. I love those precious little mice that remind me of vintage children’s book illustrations. I’m also loving the Seven Seas collection from Cloud 9 and still loving the Monsterz collection. And I’m so excited that Rashida Coleman-Hale will be designing for Cloud 9 with her new collection coming to fall market!
And I got to meet these amazing women a few weeks ago when they invited a few of us Atlanta bloggers down for dinner at their blogger sewing retreat. I have really enjoyed reading all of their blogs.
I’m also busy finishing up a new fabric collection which will be shown at fall market. More news about that soon. So I am working a lot, but just can’t share much of it now.
Printable U.S. Map Puzzle from Mr. Printables (via How about Orange).
Lace Flower Pots from A Beautiful Mess.
Happy Travels Wallet from Sew, Mama, Sew!
Rope Basket from I Heart Organizing.
Open Wide Zippered Pouch from Noodlehead.
Picnic Basket Liner from the Coletterie.
Wellen Tank from Luvinthemommyhood for Art Gallery Fabrics.
Poolside Roll-Up from Design Sponge.
