Therapy Sacks (aka Wheat Sacks)

I have made these in mass production this year.  I've used these for as long as I can remember.  My hubby loves them, so I figured, they would make great Christmas gifts for the men in my life.  My kids also love them, because it's a great way to keep toes warm at night.

For those of you have never seen them, they are wheat sacks.  You throw them in the microwave for a few minutes, it heats the wheat up and you have a hot pad.  If you throw it in the freezer for awhile, you have a cold compress. 

They are pretty easy to make.  I could go into detail, but you can follow this tutorial and she can guide you.  You don't necessarily need to use flannel, but it is much softer on those sore spots.

Emergency Car Care Kit Tutorial

These are stinkin' cute! 

I got one for Christmas last year and I love mine.

I decided to reproduce something similar.

I love the big chunky buttons and the cute potholders.

These cost me $3.50 a piece to make.

First thing will be to find some cute potholders.  The one that I got was a larger sized pot holder, but a standard size will work just as well.  These came Dollar Tree

Take 6 plastic, zipper seal Ziploc and place them inside the potholder.  You will want 3 going out each way.  I hope you can see what I mean in the picture.  Measure your potholder across to find the center.  I used a dry erase marker to draw a line down the center for a sewing guide.

You are going to stitch a zigzag stick right down the center of the bags.  This is kinda hard and I messed up the first one, because the bags are slippery to sew on. 

Go back and trim the excess off of the bottom of each bag.  Trim it as close to the stitching as possible.  Be careful not to cut into the stitching.

Sew a cute chunky button on the outside and now fill it with goodies!  I put in antibacterial wipes from Walgreen's,a couple of Tylenol packets, band aids, tissue, dental picks, safety pins, nail clippers and a file.  You can fill it with whatever you want.  Mine had all of these things plus an emergency sewing kit.  You can also save a slot to put in some cash.  Mine came with a $5.00 bill.

I whipped out 15 of these in 2 hours.  All of the filler came from the dollar store and Walgreen's.  This is an easy present to mass produce if you want to do them for Christmas.Happy sewing

Punky Brewster Elephant Shirt

This one was a little bit labor intensive. I kept trying to come up with the perfect color scheme. In the end, I really liked this. Reminds me of Punky Brewster! The yellow stiching all the way around is what gives it character and is perhaps my favorite part! I know it's not perfect, but that is what gives it character. I hope the jewel will stay on. If not I'll find a bright button to stitch on. The templates can be found on Martha Stewart! I am working on an owl shirt right now! It looks so cute on!! She even broke it in by making mud pies and getting it dirty!

Vintage Apron

I needed a birthday gift for Piper's best-friend, Addison. I didn't have time to run to the store, so I hurried and threw together this cute, vintage themed apron!

I love it! I made one before and you can see it here. It is an easy pattern to follow! And if your a beginning sewer, it is a good one to start with. I modified this one just a bit and changed the waistband, but it is so cute. You could also flip it so you could see the entire strip of pink across the top, but you'd lose the cute flower.

I have more of the material, so I am thinking thinking that I need to make another one for my little girl!

The Best Applique Templates

Aren't these cute? Makes me want to have another baby boy!!! So, I am still loving the applique's. I have a few others I am working on. But it seems that I am surrounded by friends who are having boys! Gotta stock up. I want to share some great sights to find free applique templates.

Homemade by Jill, she has the cute tie printable! There is a link to Martha website, and as always, she's got the goods!!

Planet Applique, has a ton of free appliques, plus some you can buy.

Better Homes and Gardens, has a HUGE list! However, you do have to sign up to access them. But that is free.

Free Appliques, has oodles of great templates. Everything from Christmas to baby!

Scherenschnitte, has these great templates, that are used for paper cutting, but could definitely be used for some appliques!

Martha's got two darling downloads on this post. A cute wren and a horse!

Wee Folk Arts, also has a ton of free templates and huge list of fun and free patterns.

Oh, and this guitar shirt is darling and she's included a free download!

Popsicle Cosies

Type Popsicle Cosie into your google search and see what pops up. HILARIOUS and somewhat disturbing.... Anywho, I saw this idea last year, and I can't remember where, hence the google search. I thought about making them, but just never got around to it. My 3-year-old loves Popsicles, but doesn't like to hold them, so she wraps wash clothes around them. The other day, I was watching her and remembered these!
So easy and my kids are in love with them. Every time they have a Popsicle, they have to run and grab a cosie now. Even my older kids! I love it. I took pictures to post a tutorial, but they are the simplest things ever to make.

1. Cut yourself a piece of 3x4 felt. The 3 being your height and the 4 your width.

2. Fold the felt in half, so that you have a 2 inch piece of felt. Sew a stitch down the side. I did a fun zig zag stitch. I used the edge of the zipper foot as my guide. Trim it up and you've got a Popsicle cosie that will fit an otter-pop!

That's it! So easy and so cute! We have a huge stockpile in different colors, because we are the neighborhood party house.

Placemat Scripture Tote

Mandee's little girl is getting baptized next weekend. I wanted to try my hand at making a scripture tote from a placemat. I've heard it's really easy and so I gave it a go. I got the placemat at the dollar store. It was a thick, canvas type material. I lined the inside with some coordinating fabric. I followed a tutorial from Little Birdie Secrets. It's pretty self-explanatory. I totally complicated by adding the lining. I really just got the basics and did my own thing!
Add a big huge flower and it's darling!

I am really tickled with how it turned out. It's defiently not perfect, but it will do the job. And really, who's going to be looking that close at it!

I am going to try and make some with just fabric and some interfacing. I would probably make some improvements, by adding a pocket inside and possbily a closure on top. I'll let ya know how it turns out!

Applique Tutorial

Remember to scroll down and get entered in the giveaway!

Step 1. Find an applique that you like. Cut it out. Cut out a piece of Wonder Under, that is big enough for your applique.

Step 2. Iron your material, wrong side up.

Step. 3. Place the wonder Under on the material, placing the bumpy side to the fabric. Press with a hot, dry iron for about 15 seconds until it is stuck well.

Step 4. Trace your applique onto the wonder under. Cut out the applique.

Step 5 and 6. Remove the backing on the applique. I use a seam ripper to carefully slice a small line in the backing and then I peel it off. It is the easiest way that I have found to get the stuff off!

Step 7: Press the shirt that you are putting the applique on.

Step 8: Place your applique on the shirt. Adjust it to where you would like it. Press with a dry iron, set on the wool setting until applique adheres to the shirt. This only takes about 30 seconds.

Step 9: Wear your cute shirt!

You can also sew a cute top stitch around the edges of the applique. I recommend this. I left the top stitch off of this shirt and washed it to see how it held up without it and it was did great! However my little 2-year-olds fingers managed to peel it off.

This is great for those stained t-shirts and onesies!! Extends their lives and makes them oh, so cute!

Cute Apron

Isn't this darling? I am so in love with it. I am more excited about this apron that I was the skirt. Oh my!!! I kept getting up in the night to just sit and stare at it. I am amazed that it turned out so well. The pattern say's it's easy. Which I guess it may be if you've sewed a little bit, but for being the second thing I made, it was a tad bit hard. I pinned things wrong and had to completely unstitch the ruffle, it took me about 4 hours to finish it start to finish. And agian, it's not perfect.

The saddest thing was that my little girl who I made it for, won't wear it. But it's for about a 6 year old, so we have a few years for her to change her mind :). I put it on my 5-year-old little boy and he wouldn't let me take a picture of him. He said if I made one in boy colors he'd wear it. I'm tempted to make one and put on a blue ruffle!!!

Anyway, if you want to give it a try, you can get the pattern from Skip To My Lou. I found the pattern on a link party on The Creative Itch, which is also a great blog. Misty is awesome and she does so many fun projects! You should go check out her blog too!

My new Obsession: Fabric Flowers

I'm obsessed! My husband is freaking out and wondering what we are going to do with all of these flowers. He wants me to sell them, but everyone sells them!! I am just having fun.
This was taken about a week ago, there have been oodles more since then!

This is a fun little no sew flower. You can get the template here. These one's actually take a a bit longer than the ruffle flowers, but if your an anti-sewer, these are the ones for you!

These headbands are so much fun and so easy to make! You don't even need to add the flower, but it's fun to add a little something to it. I followed her measurements exactly and apparently I have a big head!! It's squishing my brain!! So I made some more and added about 2 inches in length and now it's almost to big, so maybe just adding 1 & 1/2 inches next time. This one was way cute on my 2-year-old and fit Mandee's little gal who is 7 perfect.

This is my favorite flower. A little bulky. I actually took it apart to make it smaller. My husband thinks this is way to big to wear, but I tried to tell him that it's the style and big is better!

This is perhaps my favorite one I have made and I just gave it to a friend for her birthday!

I know I am a behind in jumping on this train, but I am loving it! There is definite a learning curve on the flowers. I will do a tutorial on one, because I have kind of changed up a few different set's of instructions and have been making my own. Let me experiment a little and then I will share!!

I Made This All by Myself!!

Your probably thinking, wow, big deal!! But it is. I have never sewn a piece of clothes in all my life. My sewing experience consists of sewing straight lines and never more than a few inches. SERIOUSLY! Learning to sew was a goal I set for myself this year. My mom, bless her heart, tried to teach me a few things in high school and so did poor Mrs. Anderson the home economics teacher, but I hated sewing!! Hate, hate, hate, hate, hated it! My poor teacher. I made a bath robe and a pair of sweats in class, but she did probably 90% of the sewing, because me and that Bernina, just did not get along!! Oooh, and me and the serger!! Cut a huge gaping whole in that robe, but that is another story all together.

I got the idea for this skirt from Ruffles and Stuff. She did a guest post on Somewhat Simple, and I stumbled across her blog. AMAZING!

I basically followed her instructions. The only thing I really changed was the ruffle at the bottom is made from material instead of tulle. It did turn out a little bit bigger than I wanted, but that's okay because she will be able to wear it for a long time! I think it's pretty cute. I am pretty proud of myself. I have some more cute material, that I may try to do another one with and make it a touch smaller. I have to give some credit to my mama, because I called her several times to make sure I was doing what I was supposed to and testing a few ideas with her.

What do you think??