Nap Mat Covers

One of my primary goals in learning to sew was to be able to do those projects (usually for school or church) where the kid needs something and someone involved looks at you, the parent, and says, "You can just make one -- they are so easy to sew!"

A nap mat cover falls into this category nicely. It's really just a pillow case made to measure with velcro (and I think you could make one without the velcro and it would be just fine).

I "measured" the fabric by putting the nap mat on top of it and cutting around, leaving enough for the seam allowances and the thickness of the mat, with extra room at the top so that the cover could stay on the mat when it's folded up without slipping off.

I then took the two pieces and hemmed the top, sewing the velcro on the folded over edges.

Next was just putting the two hemmed pieces right sides together and sewing the other three sides.

I went ahead and finished the edges on the inside so that the whole thing wouldn't unravel against the mat and then I made a coordinating pillow and blanket.

I can't say this makes nap time fun, but it can't hurt.

The first one went so well that I did the exact same thing for my son, just in more boyish colors.

Shorts from Leggings

I remember when my daughter was little and most, if not all, of her little dresses came with little matching bloomers and even when one of the dresses didn't, I could always find a plain white or pink one from another dress and use that.

At a certain point, though, I guess dress makers decide enough is enough and moms are on their own.

I found this site that sells shorts specifically designed to be worn under dresses and thought that was a really neat idea, but wasn't ready to spend $16 a piece on them.

So I decided to put my sewing skills to good use and make my own.

I made the first pair this last winter out of a pair of black leggings and they worked so well that I just got finished making six more.

First, I gathered up leggings in her size. Some of the pairs were given to us as hand-me-downs and actually had a couple of holes in the knees so this was perfect. Others were worn this last winter and I decided to just go ahead and get maximum use out of them by cutting them up since she probably won't be in the same size next winter. The black and brown ones I actually went to a consignment store with the intent of buying cheap leggings to make into shorts because I have found that you can't have enough black or brown shorts.

Then I basically just cut the legs off of leggings and hemmed them. Except I don't really know how to hem so I just folded the bottoms, pinned, and sewed two lines. It works well enough for wearing under a dress.

And since every sewing project (at least for a beginner) should have a lesson learned, here's today's: Cheap thread. Not worth it.

So frustrating.

Oh, well, I made it through and we should be set for the summer into the fall.

And I did go ahead and keep the legs from the leggings and I'll let you know if I decide to make homemade babylegs and how that goes.

A Truly FIRST Sewing Project

My three year old daughter was bugging me to let her have a turn at the sewing machine, and I thought, "Why not?"

Then I thought, what in the world could she actually make?!?

So I sewed two pieces of felt together with two lines in the middle, like so:


She stepped on the pedal and made lines across and learned to stop when she got to the end of the fabric to let me reset it.

Which along with never, never, never, never touch the needle and you can only sew when mama's right here were her first lessons in sewing.


And then I cut the rectangle into two squares and viola, two mini quilts for her little bear family.

Taggie Square Craziness

I cannot express how busy I have been this last week with making Taggie Squares for my church's annual harvest fest.

I know I have already posted the link to the tutorial and some other taggie ideas, but here's my "How to Mass Produce the Taggie Square" post.

First of all, set up your area:

Notice how I have the cutting board, pin cushion, scissors, materials, laptop with the tutorial pulled up and a Bumbo chair for my assistant (very important).

I went ahead and did everything in stages each night. Night one was cutting... I cut the ribbons, fabric squares and cereal bags.

Night two I assembled all of the squares and pinned them.

Night three I sewed all of the squares with right sides together.

Night four I turned all of the squares.

Night five I did all of the top stitching.

Final product:

I made 23 squares all together. I sent twenty to the church for the craft fair and held on to the three that I considered "extra."

Another Crinkly Taggie Square and Some Landmarks

I have been enjoying the crinkly taggie square making so much! I promise to stop posting individual pictures of each and every square soon.

But in making this one, I reached two important seamstress landmarks and had to share.

Landmark #1
I did not go out an purchase this fabric. When you start sewing, or any other hobby, you have to spend a lot of time (and money) accumulating the stuff associated with the hobby. I finally have enough fabric that I was able to say, "I feel like making this" and then go through what I have at home rather than dashing out to Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's to buy fabric for the project specifically. I learned this from my husband's Nana who has a small craft store in her third bedroom. In fact, this particular piece of fabric came from Nana. A while back, she let me go through her fabric and take a bunch of odds and ends. Her only requirement what that I had to show her what I made.

So, look what I made, Nana!

Landmark #2
I am going to be making Crinkly Taggie Squares for my church's annual Harvest Fest this year. That's right. I'm crafty enough to make things for a craft sale. How 'bout that!

Of course, this particular one is staying at my house because I like that fabric a lot and it makes me happy that it came from Nana. But be on the look out for more squares, mass produced.

Baby Shower Gift for Elissa

Well, I didn't get to actually go to Elissa's shower since I came down bronchitis and everyone knows it's extremely tacky to get the pregnant lady sick at her own shower, but I was well enough to make coordinating giraffe and crinkly square taggies to send to the shower in my stead.

I was really pleased by how well they turned out.

Crinkly Taggie Squares

You know what Taggies are, right?

The idea is that babies like the tag on blankets and so why not have a whole blanket with tags all around it. You can find them all over the place and they are pretty pricey.

Another thing that babies like is crinkly things. That's why so many baby toys have a crinkly part.

Put the two together and you have crinkly taggie squares:


I found out about these from Melissa over at Chasing Cheerios and she found the original tutorial here.

And since both of those lovely ladies have excellent tutorials on their sites, I won't both to post my own.

I will say, though, when Melissa says she uses cereal bags for the crinkly part, she means cereal, not crackers, not goldfish, not anything other random bag you can find in your pantry. Fail, fail, fail.

Only cereal bags will work (well, some people say wipes packages and microwave popcorn wrappers, but only cereal bags worked for me).

Yes, this does mean that all five kinds of cereal in the house are now stored in ziplocks.

But my son loved the square:

And since the squares went so well, I thought I would try Melissa's taggie giraffe as well:


Once again, her tutorial is excellent, so I won't include much of one on mine. But I will say, as I was trying to sew all around this giraffe, with all of it's rounded edges, I kept thinking of Melissa's step 5: "I handed the giraffe over to my mom, and she sewed all around it leaving a small hole for turning."

I wish I had a mom who would do the hard parts. :)

Final giraffe... very cool, I think. And notice that it coordinates with the taggie crinkly square as well. I'm thinking baby shower gifts (and if you happen to be the friend of mine whose shower I'm going to this weekend and you happen to read this blog, act surprised).