One of my first blog posts was about some baby blocks that I made our goddaughter. I made some more and am now offering them for sale in my Etsy shop. I didn’t create a tutorial for these, but I have looked over this one from London Mummy and it’s basically how I made mine. You could appliqué or hand embroider the letters.
What a clever idea! This new line of fabrics and these flip doll kits from Umbrella Prints will soon be available. Love them.
I don’t typically wear clothes with a lot of pattern, but I’ve been breaking out of my mold lately. Here’s my new skirt from Made with Love by Hannah. She designs, screen prints and sews these fun Swiss Miss clothes. You might have seen the recent Craft magazine article about her. This skirt has a zipper that zips from the bottom up, which would have made me nervous to wear to school in 8th grade, thinking that some clever person would de-skirt me. Maybe I should now worry about the kids doing this, but it’s good fine motor skill building.
I was inspired by this post about paper butterflies on craftster. The photo on the left is of my mobile hanging on the wall and the one on the right is the mobile hanging from the ceiling. I made each butterfly two-sided with contrasting fabrics. I think it would be sweet in a child’s room or you could use more adult fabrics and hang it in celebration of spring. A smaller version of this butterfly could also be used as an embellishment or could be made as a garland.
Supplies for Three Butterflies:
Step 1: Cut fabrics and interfacing according to template: butterfly.pdf (48KB)
Step 2: Sew fabrics right sides together with interfacing on top (as shown below). Begin sewing about 1 1/2″ from the top center of the butterfly and sew around until you are again 1 1/2″ from the center (this will leave an opening about 3″ wide). Trim excess fabric, particularly around curves, and turn right sides out through opening. Press down corners. Fold under fabric at opening 1/4″ and press down. Sew opening closed. Repeat for other two butterflies.
Step 3: Cut the full length of monofilament (about 4′) and thread through the needle. Take first butterfly and fold accordion-style. Hold in place with one hand. Then insert needle at the center top of the butterfly and pull through (you’ll have to push hard to get it through all layers of fabric) leaving the length at the top of the butterfly that you’ll need to hang it (about 12-18″). Thread monofilament back up through the butterfly and then down again. This should be secure and you will not need to make a knot. Continue to next butterfly leaving a space between them. Repeat. Tie a knot at the end and trim the monofilament, leaving an inch so the knot won’t slip out.
All done! Obviously, if you are going to hang this above a crib, you should hang it securely and well out of the child’s reach. If you make these, please submit a photo to the Make it Monday Flickr group here.
Finally finished the other dress just in time for hunting eggs. This one reminds me of a summer picnic. I used Nancy Ann Liberty fabric, which I love. I had an idea of what I wanted to do with this dress, but was afraid to try on this fabric without a pattern. So I used Burda 9644. I’ve made this before and it’s really more full than twirly, so I think next time I will increase the width of each layer for more twirls. And I’d like to try the skirt with a more fitted bodice and open back for a sundress. We’ll see.
