Well, today is Monday, but no project yet. Thanks to a cold and a husband who was working all weekend, I am behind schedule. I do have an idea for a soft toy requested by my friend Laura, but we’ll see how it turns out. Hopefully by tomorrow?
Also, you may have noticed that I’ve thrown in the towel on the Valentine’s Day crafting. Yep. I might try a few more things this week, but in the meantime you can view links to other Valentine’s crafts here.
No store-bought cards this year! Make a special card for family and friends with photos of loved ones.
You’ll find the printable templates below for use with 8 1/2″x 11″ card stock. With an exacto knife and a cutting mat, you can cut out as many hearts as you’d like and insert photos. I printed my card on pink card stock and added an additional half size piece of card stock behind the photograph so that it would look neat when you open the card. I just glued it in place. One tip on folding card stock is to score it before folding (I used the tip of my closed scissors and a ruler to score the inside of the card). I re-sized a photo to 2″ wide by 1 3/4″ tall. Happy Valentine’s Day!
If you make a card and would like to share it, please add it to the Make It Monday Flickr group here.
I call my five-year-old a goose all the time, so I made her one. And then I made another for my three-year-old with some of the fabric I bought at Reprodepot. Below is a picture of Lucy and Gertrude. The template below is for the smaller goose, but feel free to play around with the design. I appliquéd a heart onto the goose’s tummy (which I did not include in the instructions below); but you could embroider it, use heart fabric or fabric stamps, or just leave it plain. I think this would make a nice Valentine’s or Easter gift and I found this book of the same name that looks really sweet.
Supplies:
1/4 yard fabric (canvas, heavyweight cotton, tweed, wool felt, etc.)
scraps of contrasting fabric for wings, nose and feet
stuffing material (bamboo filling, polyfill, buckwheat hulls, etc.)
scissors
thread
two buttons
Step 1: Cut out fabric according to template: goose.pdf. Draw a 1 1/2″ vertical line where you want the nose to be, fold over your fabric and cut a half-circle shape.
Step 2: Sew nose, wings, and feet right sides together (see photo below). To turn them right-side out, it might be helpful to have one of these tools. But I use the technique of safety pinning a piece of string into the top of the tube before I sew. Then I pull on the string to turn the fabric tube right-side out. (Caution: this technique can pull delicate fabrics and sometimes the safety pin comes open). Some people sew the string directly into the tube and then cut it.
Step 3: Pin nose to body (see picture below). Tack on by hand and then machine sew like you would attach a sleeve. Since this is so small I found that pins got in my way, so had to do the hand tacking.
Step 4: Sew buttons or use embroidery floss for eyes.
Step 5: Stuff feet with polyfill.
Step 6: Place body fabric pieces right-side together and insert wings and legs (as shown in photo below). Wings should be folded in half lengthwise. Pin. Sew around the edges, leaving an opening between the legs.
Step 7: Turn goose right-side out by gently pulling (I found it helpful to get the wings and feet out first).
Step 8: Stuff the nose and neck, then the body. Hand sew bottom securely. I stuffed the head and nose with polyfill, the body with buckwheat hulls, then a little more polyfill to keep the hulls from falling out as I sewed it together.
All done! If you make this goose and you’d like to share your photos, please add them to the flickr group here.
Inspired by Hawaiian quilts and folk art traditions, I created a flower pattern that can be appliquéd for a 20″x20″ pillow. I’m giving complete instructions for making the pillow, so if you’re not interested in trying the appliqué you can still use the tutorial to learn to make a pillow cover. I used a wool blend for the front of this pillow and a canvas fabric for the back. The felt is easy to work with and cut, but I would recommend using 100% wool or a high-quality blend for durability. I think this would be great in a variety of colors.
Rather than attaching a .pdf file, I will just give the instructions here, as they are pretty quick. This project may take an hour or two. This is difficult for me to estimate because I was working on it with kids “helping”. I think a beginner can do this, but you might want to practice sewing around corners and edges.
Supplies:
Step 1: Cut Fabric
Step 2: Create Appliqué Shape
Step 4: Buttonholes
Step 5: Sew Pillow Together
Make a “fabric sandwich” in the following order:
All done! Hope this makes sense. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
I’m adding a new feature to the blog called Make it Monday. I’ll be offering free craft and sewing patterns every other Monday (maybe every week, but I’m not promising). This week I’m posting a pattern for my Superhero Cape. This can be made with the fabrics of your choice and used for a superhero, princess, magician, sorcerer, or anything else you can imagine. The cape is lined with a contrasting fabric, appliquéd with a design, and fastened by Velcro so the wee ones can take care of themselves. I used matte satin and a shiny cotton print for this cape. It seems to fit sizes 2-6, but is easily adjustable. It was tough to get a good picture of the cape because Supergirl is always on the run!
Below is the pattern file and the shape templates. I have included a star, lightning bolt, crown and heart. If anyone makes this I would love to see some pictures. I have set up a flickr group here.
Of course with any of these patterns, they are intended for personal use and not for sale!
