Tutorials Archives - Page 34 of 53

Boy Week: Turkey Craft

November 17, 2010 By Michelle Barneck 3 Comments

Hi. I’m Tauni from It’s a Tradition. I am so excited to be guest posting on A Little Tipsy today.

Like Michelle, I am surrounded by boys. I am always looking for fun things to create with them…Some of them, like the Halloween cookie house we created, fall flat. Others, like this fun turkey hat, are such a hit they become a tradition…

I think the kids table is more fun than ever with this playful turkey hat, with brightly colored feathers and the ever popular googly eyes!

This is a simple project that takes about an hour at most. Not only that, but most of the items can probably be found around the house…

Start with a piece of fabric that wont fray. In the photo of the finished turkey hat above, I used brown felt. For this tutorial however, I used yellow fleece. The best thing about fleece is that it has a bit of stretch in it – you can make a one size fits all!

With your fabric folded, cut out a strip of fabric. For my headbands I cut the fleece a little big – 18 inches long – because I couldn’t measure all of the kids heads…I went with three inches wide.

Once your fabric is trimmed, sew around all of the edges. I went with a straight 1/4 inch seam (but I have also used a zig zag stitch). When finished, it should look like this:

Next, prepare the body of the turkey. I’ve tried this two ways. I created a pattern for the first set I made. You can pick it up over on my blog It’s a Tradition. For this set of hats however, I decided to wing it and see how hard it would be…

For the body of the turkey, I used two sides of a class as a guide.

Next up, the feathers. Again, I winged it 🙂 Just sketched the feathers out on some felt, but the patter is available over on my blog.

With felt, I like to do a lot of the sewing before I cut the shapes out. Sew around the edges of the body, leaving a little room at the bottom for stuffing. Sew all the way around the edge of the feathers and then straight up the center…

Once the items are sewn up, go a head and cut them out with scissors (don’t worry if the shapes aren’t perfect, it all works out).

Once everything is cut out, arrange the feathers on the headband.

I pinned the feathers down and then stitched along the bottom of each to secure them (with the bigger feathers in the pattern, it may be helpful to tack them down up higher as well).

Once the feathers are stitched on, go ahead and add the body. I simply stitched around the outside of the turkey’s body again. Glue on googly eyes, gobble gobble and beak (yes, I forgot the beak in this case).

Next, add a little velcro to the edges of the hat so that it can be adjusted and secured. You just need to use the rough side, as it will stick directly to the fleece.

Super great! You’re all done. Unless you want to add some embellishments…We added names to ours.

Even with the embellishments, these aren’t as fancy as some of Pottery Barn’s hats, but hey we’re talking boys here. Cutesy just doesn’t fly!

If you like this project stop by my blog. This week, I am posting alternate versions of the Thanksgiving hat. And, though I don’t have any girls, I’ve even come up with a girls hat…

Thanks Michelle. It was fun participating in your boys week!

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Thanks Tauni for such a fun turkey craft just in time for Turkey day!

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Boy Week: Kid Suspenders

November 16, 2010 By Michelle Barneck 5 Comments

Hello Tipsy Readers! First, congratulations to Michelle on her new addition!!! Also, thank you to Michelle for allowing me to share my tutorial to her lovely readers – all of you!!

This is my second tutorial for suspenders, when I first started sewing again (after years away) I made this tutorial for suspenders. Now that I’ve sewn some more I decided to rehash it, pretty it up, and re-post it. Here goes:

To start, gather your supplies:

Tape Measure
Rotary Cutter
Scissors
Thread
3/4 or 1 inch elastic x 7 inches (5 inches finished length)
3 Suspender Clips
Fabric:
1 piece 3×5
2 pieces 2.5 x length needed

Step 1: Measure your child for the suspenders. For this step, I had my husband help, cuz my little guy can be a wiggle worm! We started on the front right, and brought the tape to the middle of his back. I like my elastic to be about 5 inches long, so we measure 5 inches up from his pants line. If you measure straight to the pants line, you will have too much fabric.

Step 2: Cut cut cut. Take your measurement for the suspender fabric and add 2 inches, 1 inch for extra for seams on each side. For my son, we measured 16 – so I cut my fabric 2.5×18.

Step 3: Put your elastic end through the suspender clip. Fold end over the back 1/2 inch.

Stitch once using straight stitch, then I use a zigzag stitch over the raw edge.

Step 4: Iron your 3×5 fabric piece. Fold and iron short ends back.

Fold and iron long ends back.

I did iron both sides, and didn’t realize I didn’t have the picture until I was done. Sorry!

Step 5: Fold 2 1/2 x 18″ fabrics in half long ways – right sides together.

See my pins?

Sew 1/4″ seams along edge and turn right side out.

I use a dowel to help me turn.

Iron with seams in back.

Step 4: Fold raw ends of fabric inside 1/4 inch. Iron, then sew.

Step 5: Attach suspender clips to fabric. Like we did previously with the elastic, insert fabric through suspender clip, and fold back 1/2 inch.

Sew once using straight stitch, and then use the zigzag stitch. Do this for the other fabric strip also.

Step 6: Sew the two fabric strips together. Match up your edges and pin.

Sew in a square for durability.

Step 7: Wrap 3×5 piece over elastic. Leave a small gap at the top of the fabric, where you will connect to the “Y”.

Step 8: Sew “Y” and elastic together.

Step 9: Put them on your little man, and try and get a picture with him holding still! 😀

He wasn’t too happy with me or Daddy 😛

Hope this tutorial works for you! If you have any questions you can email me here. Also feel free to visit my blog with my lovely sister here, or my quilting blog here.

If you use this tutorial for suspenders, I’d love to see them in the flickr pool here!!!

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I just love these suspenders and how perfect would they be with a Trendy Tikes boys tie!! Thanks Tiffany for this great tutorial!

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Baby Week: Baby Clothing Art

November 12, 2010 By Michelle Barneck 3 Comments

Hi, I’m Danielle from A Few of My Favorite Things.

I’m a working mom with twin girls, Gabrielle and Alaina, who were born at 27 weeks and just turned two.

I blog about fun and unique finds for babies, kids and the people who love them and I also do some crafting now and then. Here’s one of my favorite projects.

I have a huge container in Gabrielle and Alaina’s closet full of clothes that they’ve outgrown. My husband looks at it and thinks “Hoarder!” and while I will admit that I can be a pack rat, I’ve been good about giving away most of the things that no longer fit them. But this container is filled with the pieces that have sentimental value, like the first outfits they wore in the NICU when they were barely 3 pounds.

And the onesies they wore on their first Valentine’s Day.

And the adorable tees they sported for their holiday photos this year.

I could go on and on. I’ve been holding onto them to make a quilt for the each of the girls but who am I kidding? A quilter I am not. Eventually, I’ll probably pay someone to make them for me (maybe a few years from now when I can include their outfits from the first day of school, etc.) but in the meantime, all of those clothes are collecting dust. Until now! My hubby was out of town so I decided to attempt a different type of craft project with them and I’m pretty proud of the results. In just a few simple steps, what started out as a collection of tees and onesies:

Was transformed into art!

They’re cute, right? The best part is that they’re so so easy to make. Here’s what you need:

1. Different sized wooden embroidery hoops. I happened to have these five from my cross-stitching days so that’s what I used.

2. Paints and brushes. I used samples we had lying around from when I was planning the girls’ nursery and foam brushes just because I like those.

3. Whatever clothing you want to work with. That’s it!

The how to is pretty straightforward. First, paint the outer rings of each hoop.

Then, let them dry for at least 30 minutes (I waited longer to be safe. Actually, I tuned into the Glee finale and forgot about them so it was about an hour). I laid the hoops out on wax paper and used the inner circle to prop the painted ones up and keep them from sticking while they were drying.

Time saving tip: You can actually skip the painting step altogether and leave the wood natural or buy the plastic embroidery hoops that come in fun colors like these:

Once the paint is fully dry, insert the smaller, unpainted hoop inside a piece of clothing and put the larger painted circle on top. (I played with the hoops and shirts before I painted to see which size circle worked best with each one.)

Position the design where you want it and then tighten the screw to hold the hoops in place.

Once you have all of your clothes positioned, they’ll look like this:

Then cut the excess fabric away and your art is done!

When I cut the fabric, I left enough excess so I can still use the swatches for a quilt someday and taped the extra back in the meantime. Ta da!

I really love the way they turned out. Not only are all of these fun appliques too adorable to toss but they all hold memories, if not for Gabrielle and Alaina, then for me. I’m going to hang their clothing art collection in their room and may try to frame the photos that coordinate with them to put up too. Once their “wall of fame” is complete, I’ll post photos of the whole shebang. And how fun would this project be for a nursery using the mommy and daddy-to-be’s baby clothes? The possibilities are endless! Oh, and did I mention the cost? Less than $10! I worked with items I already had, but you can get five embroidery hoops for about $5 and crafts paints and brushes for another $5. Not too shabby.

I hope this project inspires you to do something fun with the outfits your little ones have outgrown too. And because I know I’m going to get asked this, here’s where all of the girls’ fun shirts and onesies are from.

#1 & #6: Personalized embroidered baby onesies from Sheryl Sheehan (no longer available)

#2: Gingerbread girl tee (and the coordinating reindeer shirt in the holiday photo) from Bushel and a Peck Boutique

#3: Initial Valentine’s tee from Peanut and Pumpkin Design

#4: Three hearts onesie from The Nook

#5 & #7: Felt initial onesies from Savvy Sarah Designs

Come by and visit A Few of My Favorite Things for more goodies for you and your little ones!

Images: AFOMFT

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Thanks Danielle! What a great idea to make keepsake art form those adorable outfits you just can’t bear to get rid of. I so wish those onesies from Sheryl Sheehan were not discontinued.

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Baby Week: Chenille Baby Washcloths

November 11, 2010 By Michelle Barneck 4 Comments

Hello tipsy readers! I’m Kara from Creations by Kara and I’m thrilled to be here doing a guest post while cute Michelle is busy doing the new baby thing. (Man I’m jealous!)

I’m a stay at home mom to four boys. I love all things creative crafty. I guess you could say I have “Craft ADD”. I can’t stick with just one thing, I like to try everything. . .

From dollar store projects:

To hair accessories:

To trying new recipes:

To remodeling our master bathroom:

Yep, I try it all, and then I blog about it. Fun times baby!!

We are also in the process of trying to adopt a baby girl, so I was excited to come up with a baby project. I decided to do something basic that every mom needs. Baby washcloths. I was never thrilled with the kind from the store, they were always a little on the flimsy side. Plus I thought it would be nice to have a really soft side, and a side that had a little more texture. So I came up with these. Chenille backed baby washcloths.

I love how they turned out, and I can’t wait to use them. Hopefully one day very soon!

Here’s how you can make some of your own. Have fun!

First you need to pick two coordinating fabrics. I used flannel on one side and chenille on the other.

Place the two fabrics right side together and cut a square. I cute mine about 7″.

Pin the squares together. You see that space on the left in between the red and blue pins? You are going to leave that open so you can turn the washcloth right side out.

Now sew the squares together, using a 1/2″ seam allowance. Don’t forget to leave that space I talked about open! When you’re finished sewing, clip the corners.

Now turn it right side out.

Now you’re going to sew a stitch all the way around the edge. This will not only sew the hole closed, it will make the whole thing more sturdy. Before you start stitching, make sure the pieces of fabric at the opening are tucked in to the inside evenly. You can iron the opening if you want, but you don’t have to. I sewed as close to the edge as I could get.

Stitch up a few of them and you have a great baby shower gift.

Wouldn’t they be perfect tucked in a cute basket with bath supplies?

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Thanks so much Kara! I just bought some baby washcloths last night and was unimpressed with the softness and thickness. These are great! And I hope you get your little girl soon!

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