superhero mask - tutorial & pdf

It is a superhero love fest in our house at the moment. "The guys" have to go everywhere with him, even to bed. I decided to have a go at making a simple superhero mask and all of sudden, best mum ever! I even had to make a second one for myself or Daddy to wear. As soon as he put it one he was out zooming around the garden and showing me examples of "incredible strength" as he puts it. 

Tutorial:

Materials:
8 - 10 inches of 1/4 inch soft elastic depending on your little one's noggin.
10" x 6" of felt or other material - 2 pieces.
PDF template
Note - if you use another material other than felt you might want to add fusible interfacing for support.

Print out PDF and cut out template.
Place PDF on both pieces of material with wrong sides facing. Pin and cut. 
Measure the elastic by putting it around your little person's head and pulling it slightly so that it will stay put. Cut. Hint - use a small scissors to cut the eyes out.

Place elastic between the front and back, like a sandwich with right sides facing each other. Pin.

I found it helpful to pull the elastic through one eye hole to be sure I wouldn't sew over it.
Sew all around the mask with a 1/4 inch seam leaving a small hole to turn it right-side out. 

Cut notches for turning or use a pinking shears as I have done below. 

Turn right side out and hand sew the small opening shut.
Zig zag stitch around the eye holes. This is tricky. I used the smallest zig zag stitch on my machine. Don't worry too much about perfection - kids don't notice :)

That's it, the mask is ready! 

And your superhero is ready to zoom! 

The "green lantern ring"on his finger is literally a strip of felt tied with a knot. I love imagination. 


I am sharing this post at some fun link parties - check them out. 

embroidered onesies - tutorial

Embroidery is an easy way to personalize and beautify simple items. It is especially nice for anything baby related. For this project I picked up a couple of white onesies for about $5 and turned them into something a little more special. 

To start out find the center of your garment so you know where to place the wording. Then using your embroidery hoop to stabilize the garment lightly write out the word you want to embroider in pencil. I write so lightly that you can barely see it but it's enough to guide you and then it will come out easily in the wash. You could also find some word art online to help you design your embroidery but I just free hand it. 

I used a simple back stitch for this. It is the most basic of stitches but it is nice and neat and for a lightweight garment like this it seems to work best. Just remember that when you are starting your first letter that you go one stitch length in from the bottom so you can back up to where you actually want the first stitch to be. 

The felt flowers are simple to make and you can find good tutorials for them here and here.

This kind of project makes for a great baby gift and of course you could personalize the garment with a name. 

I'm sharing this project at some super cool link parties - check them out. 

bulletin board

I am slowly working my way through a long list of home projects the biggest of which is moving my little man from the "nursery" into his own "big boy" room. As I am working my way through turning the guest room into his room I am coming across various things that have been stashed in there, out of the way so to speak! This includes the little hand and foot print set I did 2 years ago and never put together - it's now proudly hanging in our bedroom. Better late than never.

I have so many frames that were in that room and I have no where to put them so I decided to do something creative with one of them and make a covered bulletin board. I found some inspiration online and did some pinning. Love Pintrest!

Here are some of my favorites.

I like the layering of the buttons on these push pins

great color!

Totally my favorite. Love it.  

simple and nice

dreaming.....

love the idea of painting on the board

So after browsing through these lovely examples and many more here is what I made! I painted the frame in some fun purple/grey paint I had and used some funky 1970s style fabric. I also made some pushpins by making fabric flowers and hot glued them on to the pins. I also roughed up the frame with some sand paper to create a shabby effect.

I need to add some hooks on the back so I can hang it up but for now it looks nice on the shelf in my kitchen.

I just love the fabric It's actually a whole jungle them when you see the fabric. It was so cool I bought it without a particular project in mind and I haven't found the right way to use it yet but this is a start.

Here are the push pins I made. So easy and cute.

Hope you like it!

MC


Linked to:
Sundae Scoop Link Party
Think Pink Sundays
Show & Tell Saturday
Friday Frolic
Pity Party 
Friday Flair
Frugal Friday

square 1

You might remember a while ago I got a lovely bunch of fabric for a quilt I was planning to make for my bed. I've made some baby quilts before, simple ones without much piece work, but never anything of large size or real quilt making techniques.

So I have spent the last 2 months procrastinating about what I should do...then I realized that if I didn't make a decision soon winter was going to be over and I wouldn't even need a quilt. I settled on doing a log cabin style pattern using a 5 x 5 inch square of fabric as the center of each square.

Square 1

I made one square a few nights ago. Cutting the strips took FOREVER! I actually didn't cut up all my fabric because I got so bored of cutting strips that I just wanted to start on the square. The first square took a long time as I had to get the technique down. After unpicking a few seams I got the feel for it and finished it pretty quickly.

Square 2

Then last night I started on a second square. Only after I put the two squares side by side did I realize that I had done a different pattern with the fabrics!! That's what sewing late at night when your brain is fried will do! Actually I prefer the second pattern because I think it shows the beauty of the fabric patterns better so I think I will use the first one as a throw pillow and stick with the second style.

Side by side

This project is going to take a while but as it is my first big quilt project I will continue to post my project. Wish me luck!!


P.S. Apologies for the lighting in the photos - I sew in a cave (in my basement) and the light is really bad!

paper snowflake window display

After watching Elf for the 100th time I went in search of templates for paper snowflakes. If you've seen the movie you'll remember how Buddy decorates pretty much everywhere he goes with paper snowflakes.


I found some cool templates here. And I just saw another post today for some really fancy ones. Trust me, once you start making these, it becomes addictive!

I chose to make mine in red paper stock and used a heavier weight paper so that they would look more substantial. I felt like the red paper would really stand out against the white window nook.

I used red thread to hang them and I used a needle to pierce a hole in the paper while simultaneously threading the snowflake.

The neat thing about these snowflakes is that when I put candles on the windowsill below they rotate beautifully throwing shadows on the wall.

These cute little antique Santa mugs finish the look!

'A' for embellishment

Years ago I purchased a wooden letter 'A' from Anthro. I also purchased a 'Q' in an attempt to create a unique design on my office wall! Since that time, in a fortuitous coincidence my last name now begins with the letter A. The letter Q is in a pile marked "Yard Sale"(This is beginning to sound like an episode of Sesame Street).

Inspired by a blog post I can no longer find (sorry!) I decided to update and embellish this wooden letter for the holidays.

 Firstly I covered the letter with festive material and added in some fiberfill just to pad it out a bit.

Then I cut up a lot of little circles from red felt, plus a few from purple felt just to add some interest. 

I hot glued the circles on to the material and put them really close together to create a petal effect. 

I'm really happy with the finished product which completes my Christmas mantle perfectly.

Happy Holidays from the A's!

vintage christmas decorations

The other day my father-in-law brought over a bag of ornaments that he no longer wanted.

Some of them are great and really charming, especially these little elves.

The decorations are mostly from the 60s and 70s and although some of these ornaments had long ago seen their best days and were just too shabby to hang up there were others that made the cut.

I call the one below a Samurai Santa!

Some of them were made by my husband in 1st grade - obviously keepers!

I'm trying to think of something crafty to do with a whole cast of characters like this guy that are made in wool. I've got 10 of them. Any ideas?