my little bears

it's carneval season again....

i knew i needed to keep the costumes simple. Ji usualy runs around with his friends the whole time and ends up taking off obstructive parts of his costumes, and little St doesn't enjoy any type of getting dressed too much...

 

the boys were watching the czech cartoon "the bears from kolin" the other day, and the bears look just like them - tall and slim and small and plump :), so i got the idea of having them dress as the bears. Ji liked it too, so that was that! :)

 

 

i ordered the fabric and picked out some nice fitting t-shirts that the boys had and Ji's baseball cap as patterns and used some helpful tips i found here and here... 

i was pretty pleased with the outcome, since this was only my second(and third) time sewing a

t-shirt, but i was also VERY reluctant to be finished, phew!

p.s. the cap is made from felt fabric :)

 

 

here are the boys trying their costumes on.....St took off his ears after about 10 seconds (lol!),

 

some fabric...

 

why do i always come home with more fabric, than i intended on buying? ;)

simple bias tape holder

i love the new pretty "stripes" of color on my sewing-corner of my desk :)...instead of being in a stacking container on a shelf!


need:
- piece of wood
(mine was a piece of scrap wood i had lying around :)
- wooden dowels
- drill + bit(dowel size)
- empty paper spools
or
- make little paper rolls

tips:
- i cut the paper spools using a saw
- when you run out of spools like i did :), you can make little paper rolls - cut strips of paper and twirl around a dowel (or something that has a little larger circumference than your dowel holders), applying glue to the outside "beginning" end(before twirling) and the inside "end" end

 

....and if you don't have one yet, make a holder for your spools of thread too :)!

sandwich napkin-bags

made some cloth sandwich napkin bags for my nephew, who is starting kindergarten in a couple of days :)

(inspired by ikea pillow cases, only with the flap on the outside!)

really easy...

- cut desired size (plus flap)

- with the fabric heighth-wise, sew a top and bottom seam,

- fold over with what is going to be the outside facing in with the flap folded in and pin sides,

- sew the right and left sides together + zigzag edge stitch,

- turn inside out (you will have the flap open), put sandwich inside and flip flap closed! yay!

- after you finish eating, you can use it as a napkin ;)

p.p.s. when washing make sure you rince well and don't use fabric softener so it doesn't get into your food!

snail pouch

.....Ji loves snails :)

....btw, this is an awesome! stitch library that i came across and plan on visiting often!

t-shirt applique

it was sailor day at Ji's preschool today :)

this was a last minute t-shirt applique and it was quick and easy.....yesterday i found out that it was going to be sailor day today at Ji's preschool and since he didn't have anything appropriate, i had to make something.

i've had some freezer paper on my supply shelf for a while and so i decided i shoud finally try it.

- it worked great! it made drawing the design and cutting it out so much easier! just drew the deisgn onto the f-p, cut it out, ironed it on the applique fabric, cut it out, peeled off the f-p(careful w/ sharpangles!), glued onto shirt (using fabric glue) and sewed it on.

kašpárek

the carneval season is almost over, but we still have 2 more to go to!

.....we like to play at home too ;)

costume:

- ikea hat

- shirt and tights

"skirt" - i cut fabric triangles, sewed them with bias tape and added jingle bells

- wand - covered rod with fabric, added jingle bell and ribbon

carrot scissor pouch tutorial

need: 

- scissors

- outer fabic

- lining fabric - i like to use ikea bolmull

- ribbon or make your own bias tape ribbon ;)

- for template: carboard paper - cheerios box ;) and ruler

1. make a template (sorry, no photo):

 - outline a "carrot" on your pattern-cheerios-box-paper

aprox. 1,75cm larger than your scissors, then cut out.

2. cut fabric:

- using your template, trace 2 outer-fabric

and 2 lining-fabric "carrots"

- cut 2 pieces of ribbon - 15cm long

3. sew ribbon into place with the "right-sides"(if you're

using prints, etc.) of the fabrics facing each other, then

turn inside out.

   

4.  press(iron) so the lining fabic won't be "showing"

when both halves are sewn together

 5. pin both halves together with the right-sides

facing in (linig facing out)

 

6. sew together - carefuly, since you have 4 layers

of fabic...so you don't make overlapping creases

like i did - luckily it doesn't show on the outside!

7. turn right-side out and topstitch and voila!

fleece knee patches

i don't know what kind of gymnastic acts Ji has been doing at preschool, but lately he has been coming home with a new hole in his long johns and play pants almost every day! and eventhough i love sewing, i REALLY hate mending...well,i guess probably everybody does! and since my mended holes have come home as even bigger holes and plain ol' iron-on patches weren't working very well either, i decided i had to make a more heavy duty kind of solution...fleece patches! i think they're cute and the extra cushioning is also great! hope it lasts!

1. cut out patches                                                                       
2. apply fabric glue                                                                       
3. zig-zag stitch                                                                          
                                                                   

1. didn't have my chalk w/ me, so i just pressed a cup against the fleece and twisted it to the right and left a couple of times to leave a mark- quick and easy! btw - if you want an oval shape patch, do 2 overlapping circles.

2. apply fabric glue (i have a dritz fabric glue stick) to patch and glue on to pants...since the knee area is a pretty tight squeeze to do on the sewing machine (and there was no way i was going to hand-sew 3 pairs of johns!...did that already in the fall), i did glue instead of pinning! 

3. zig-zag stich around patch - voila!

p.s. if your hole i a bit larger, you will want to stitch up the hole before doing the patch, so your little one doesn't catch his toes in it! :)     

felt conifer christmas garland

....same directions as my garland wand,

only(as you can see) i didn't make such
large gaps in between the felt strips.
- my strips are approx. 3cm wide.

p.s. - place your strips onto your sewing
machine - makes the "feeding" go so
much more faster, than when you have
them on the table....found that out when
i was almost finished.

p.p.s. - a wreath would be nice too!

     

         p.p.p.s.  h a p p y  second advent sunday!

log pillows

a little wedding present for our friends

to keep them  w a r m  and  c o s y!!!

- log basket from a local basket maker

- very large log pillows made by me :)

snack-sac

cotton is better than plastic :)!

paper garland wand

it is REALLY quick and easy to make!!!

takes only 10 minutes and the fun is everlasting!

all you need is:

- plain paper - it "flies" the best!

- scissors

- wand - mine is a wooden craft-stick,

but anything will do - even pencil :)! 

- sewing machine

 - cut paper lengthwise into strips about 4cm wide and have your kids cut them into smaller strips....if they're not all the same width, the better ;)!

- then slowly feed the strips into your sewing machine, leaving gaps between them about 0.5 to 1cm long - Ji and i turned this part into a color game having him find and hand me the color i called out.

- the final length of our garland is 1m, which seems to be the best length - long enough for a nice flying tail but not too long to get tangled!

- tie garland to wand - make a little notch on your wand where you are going to tie your garland on so it doesn't slip.

start/stop car pouch

everyday morning Ji picks 2 cars to take with him to preschool. he usually carries them in his hands (sometimes stuffs them in his pocket), so i made him this little start/stop car pouch to carry them in. (this way  we can also keep better track of the cars he takes home - which are sometimes not his... :)