The Traumatic Fix

My sweet little Pretty has two sleep items, the bunny and the blanket.

But as much as she loves that bunny, it's really the blanket that is important. Whenever I check on her in the middle of the night, the blanket is being snuggled, while the bunny is tossed to the side.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that the blanket had a hole. I put it on the mental list to fix, but didn't worry too much about it until I saw Pretty playing with the hole. So I decided to fix it right then. Pretty wasn't too happy with me taking her blanket.

Here she is throwing a fit on the floor.

And here she is pulling on the end to get it back.

I decided to do a cute circle patch using Heat 'N' Bond. I traced two circles onto the paper side of the Heat 'N' Bond.

Then I cut loosely around them and ironed them onto the back of the fabric. I picked a scrap piece that had similar colors and tones as the blanket.

Then I ironed one circle on each side, centered over the hole, matching them up as close as possible.

I should have sewed the hole together first, but a bit of a distraction that kept me from thinking clearly. Here's Pretty, tugging on the blanket and crying.

The last step I took was to sew around the circles by hand to add a bit of security. I decided on sewing by hand, rather than machine, to purposefully give it that home-fixed look. And, of course, I had to do it quickly and deal with Pretty tugging and crying the whole time.

So it turned out a bit more home-fixed looking than I wanted, but I still think it is cute.

She was so happy to get her blanket back, she went right into playing with it.

I have mixed feelings about needed to repair it again. I kind of hope I need to so there's more than one lone spot, but I don't want to go through that again. This is much better:

And that's just awesome.

Birthday Card Quilt

Wow, it's been a good while since I posted anything. I have excuses, but the most relevant one is that I'm busy enjoying the summer with my kids. But I did want to post about this project.

At the beginning of the month I mentioned that I was machine quilting my first quilt. Well, it was this big "Birthday Card Quilt" for my mom. 

As you can see, my mom just turned 50. Our family always has a pot luck breakfast to celebrate the 4th of July. This year, we turned it into a surprise birthday party for Mom! 

Everyone ate, played and of course, signed the quilt.

It was my mom who taught me how to sew and to piece quilt. I knew she would appreciate the work it took to make. It was a fun project for me because I was able to take ideas from blogs I love and sketch out a one-of-a-kind blanket just for Mom.

Don't you love the crazy scribbles of sketching? Ignore the math...

After I figured out just how I wanted to do it, I made the back first. I kind of based it off of this beautiful quilt over at Noodlehead. (I actually took a lot of advice from this post by Anna, about her quilt.)

And the front was based off of this adorable baby quilt by V and Co.

I used picnik.com to print out the letters. There were large enough, and enough of them, that I needed two pages. The first one, I printed normal and had to trace on the back of them to get the backwards on my Heat 'n' Bond. But then I remembered that picnik has a feature where you can reverse the images. So I did that for the second page. It just makes it less likely to mess up if they are already backward for you.

Anyway, I traced the letters backward on the Heat 'n' Bond, then ironed them onto the wrong side of my fabric.

 Then I cut them out, peeled the back, pinned and then ironed them into place.

Because Heat 'n' Bond will eventually dissolve, I stitched the letters down with the blanket stitch function on my machine.

I used the sandwich tutorial from Oh Fransson! to make this:

So many safety pins! I used regular safety pins, instead of "quilting pins".

I then used this tutorial for straight-line machine quilting. I used masking tape, and spaced them 2 inches apart, because it was easy with my 2-inch-wide ruler.

I sewed along the edge like I was told...

When it came to the words, I taped right across them, and then just back stitched at the beginning and end, just skipping over them.

For the binding I used this tutorial by Crazy Mom Quilts. The tutorial was easy to follow, and I chose to hand quilt it for a nice clean look.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you!

Rockin' Boy Slippers Tutorial

These slippers were supposed to be part of Hero's Christmas. But then my machine decided to die. . . so I didn't get to them before the holiday. (I was also going to make a matching set for Jake, but that might never happen. What's cute as matching Christmas gifts isn't as much on every other day. . .).

Anyway, ready to make these adorable slippers?!

Supplies:

• Pair of kid's shoes
• Hero is a size 8, but you can adjust for different sizes
• 1/2 yard each of 2 coordinating flannel fabrics. 
• (I bought a yard each and it was way too much, and I think 1/2 yd will give you plenty!)
• 1/2 yard of Fusible Fleece
• 1" thick High-Density Foam
• Jiffy Grip
• 1/2" wide elastic
• matching thread
• other basic sewing supplies

-------------Make Pattern---------

The first step is to make your pattern. These are Hero's every day tennis shoes.

Start with tracing one shoe's sole onto paper.

To make the toe part of the pattern, measure across the top of the shoe starting and stopping just above the rubber sole (1). Mine was 5". Then measure from the center tip of the toe to how far back you want it to come (2). Mine was 3". From these measurements, make the toe pattern. Add 1" to each number for seam allowance.

 The last piece doesn't really need a pattern since will be a rectangle. Measure from the sole to the top of the shoe in the back center (I got 2"). Lastly, measure around the back of the shoe from side to side on the rubber sole part. You will want to over lap with the toe portion by at least an inch (I got 11"). Add an inch each way for seam allowance and I end up with 3" x 12".

Using a ruler, add 1/2" seam allowance all around the sole pattern.

------------Cut Out Pieces-------------


Cut out your pattern pieces. Cut the 2 soles out of the lining fabric and the jiffy grip.

Cut off the 1/2" seam allowance. Lay sole onto foam and trace. Flip pattern over and trace a second time. Cut out the traced soles.

Make a mark on the back center of the cut out sole and use the mark to measure around the sole. I got 17". Add one inch and cut a long rectangle 2" wide by your length. Mine is 2" x 18", cut 2.

Cut out 2 each of both fabrics and fusible fleece for toe pattern piece and back rectangle. You should now have all these pieces:

* this picture shows the shape of the first draft back piece. I ended up scrapping this shape and using the rectangle described in the pattern making section above.


I suggest separating the sole pieces into two piles for right and left to make sure you don't mix them up later. the lining and jiffy grip will sandwich around the foam soles with wrong sides on the foam.



-----------Assemble Slippers--------------


Iron the fusible fleece to the linings of the toe and back pieces.

Pin and sew the toe lining to the outer fabric with right sides facing along the straight edge. Use a 1/2" seam.

Turn and press. Baste along raw curved edge on 1/4" seam.

Pin and sew lining and outer fabric with right sides facing on two short sides and one long side of back pieces. Use 1/2" seam.

Trim corners. Turn and Press. Baste along raw edge on 1/4" seam.

Cut 2 lengths of elastic 3" long each.

Lay the back piece down with lining fabric up. Find the center of the back piece and place a pin.

Measure 5" and place a pin at each end. Make sure it is centered over the center pin. Pin the elastic to one end about 1/2 in down from sewn edge. Use a zig-zag stitch to sew elastic down. Stretch elastic to reach the last pin.

It will look like this afterward.

Take one sole lining and back piece. Pin together with linings facing each other. Try to match the back centers as best you can.

Sew on 1/2" seam.

Pin toe piece onto the lining over top of the back piece with linings facing. Do your best to match centers. The toe will over lap by about 1 inch on each side.

Sew on 1/2 in seam, back stitch at start and stop.

Fold long rectangle in half with right sides facing. Sew 1/2" seam on short side.

Press seam open.

 Pin onto the jiffy grip with the seam at the back center. Sew on 1/2" seam.

Here's what you should have now.

Pin the assembled slipper top to the bottom/side piece you just made. Leave an opening of about 4" for turning.

Sew on a 1/2" seam, backstitch at start and stop.

Turn right side out. Use the opening to insert the foam sole piece. Take your time to move the foam in the proper place, and have the seams run along the side of the foam piece.

Pin the opening closed and hand stitch closed.

The last step is to pin and hand stitch the toe piece to the back piece along the top edge of the toe piece.

DONE! (well, except for the second one...)

Put it on your kid and enjoy the warm toes!

At first, I was worried that the toe portion didn't come up high enough on his foot. But they stay on great and with the bigger opening, Hero can put them on by himself!

 Obviously, these could be made for a girl. Just switch the colors, maybe add a cute flower or ribbon. There are a lot of options!