sewing – Page 22 – the long thread

May 10, 2011May 10, 2011

Textured Baby Cloths

To begin our baby week, here’s a guest post from Jessica of the crafty blog Scrumdillydilly. Today she’s shared a quick tutorial for textured baby cloths and she also talks about an interesting approach to infant care called RIE that promotes independence from an early age. This theory seems to have a lot in common with Reggio Emilia and Montessori, two programs that we tried with our kids. From experience, I can say that a hands-off approach is harder for parents than it is for children, but probably benefits both in the long-run.

Hello there! this is jessica from scrumdillydilly and scrumdilly-do! I kinda dabble in all sorts of things from photography, baking and kid crafting (oh how I love crafting with the kiddos). You may have seen my tutorials pop up on CRAFT and I have even been linked up here on the long thread. I’m a recent graduate in the field of Human Development with a focus on the child. I’ve been a long-time fan and follower of the RIE theory for infant development and put together a simple tutorial for creating your own baby “toys” by way of fabric cloths. Hop on over to scrumdillydilly for the full How-To. Thank you for peeking!

April 27, 2011April 27, 2011

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Goodness knows, we should all appreciate teachers more. Cindy of Skip to My Lou is featuring teacher appreciation gift ideas from guest bloggers over the next few weeks. She asked me to contribute, so I came up with this simple “Thank You” drawstring pouch that can be used to personalize a gift certificate. And the kids get a chance to show off their neat handwriting!

April 18, 2011

Bunny Round-Up

Egg Bunny and Carrots from Martha Stewart.

Quick Little Bunny from Elsie Marley.

Bunny Bowling from my post for Etsy’s How-Tuesday.

Betz White’s Cashmere Bunny Tutorial.

The Purl Bee Finger Puppets.

Bunny Embroidery Pattern from Orange You Lucky.

Easter Bunny Pattern from Revoluzzza.

Funny Bunny from Sew4Home.

And bunnies aren’t just for Easter! But if you are looking for Passover crafts this week, you should check out these here, here and here.

April 13, 2011

Reverse Appliqué Pillow

Making pillows for our den has been on my list for some time now. I finally got around to doing some experimenting with reverse appliqué using cotton and linen with a raw edge. I stacked the fabrics together, drew the design with a fabric marker, sewed a zig-zag stitch over the lines and cut out the shapes. You can learn this technique and basic pillow instructions in my new book.

Over the next few months, I’ll be making variations of projects in the book so you can see what else you can do with it. I know there are mixed opinions about raw edges on fabric and I only like them in certain applications. What do you think?

March 31, 2011

Stitched Skirt

My older daughter is now only wearing skirts that I have made, so she needs more of them for spring. I had this lovely Nani Iro fabric and decided to add some running stitches around the flowers for more color, then I made the lining poke out the bottom with more stitching.

As you can see, we’re having another gray day here in Atlanta, so not the best for photographs. Oh, and if you want to buy some Japanese fabric and help support Japan, you can check here and here.