Oh Toodles!

How to make a toodle belt

I don't know about you guys, but my little guy is in love with the Mickey Mouse Club House.

So much so that he does not call the plastic craftsman tools on his work bench "tools" but toodles. The other day the little man requested a "toodle-belt" for his toodles. So I happily obliged.

 

I had some flour sack towels laying around that I thought would be perfect. I figured I share a quick and dirty tutorial on making a toodle belt. No flour sacks? No problem use some scrap canvas, jean or home decor fabric. Just be sure it is wide enough to cross the waist of the little fella (or girl!).

Simplicity Bias Tape Machine Review

The big man got me one of these for Christmas and I finally got  to take it out and play with it.

It is a machine that basically folds and irons your bias tape for you. The compact machine comes with a 1" single fold bias tape tip, however there are many other sizes available for purchase. I also have the 1 1/8" tip as well. To make this size you will need 2 1/4" strips for bias tape. Using the method I showed in the bias tape tutorial make yourself a nice pile - o - bias.

(notice I got the fancy bias tape ruler?? REMEMBER for the larger tip the strips need to be 2 1/4" wide NOT 2 1/2")

Then following the directions for the bias tape machine I ran it through the machine. This machine only makes single fold tape. I always use double fold so I opened up the single fold tape and folded the raw edges to the fold line. Then ran the tape through the machine sans bias tip. 

Do I like the machine...

Yes and No. 

It would be totally rockin' if they came out with a double fold tip because it is hard to keep the raw edges folded in and even while it is running through the machine. It is pretty fast though, if your doing single fold. That alone will keep me working on getting more proficient with it. Nothing will motivate you more than burning the crapples out of your fingertips with the other method--even though it is perfectly folded that way.

Another finish!

I've finished a quilt that I have been dragging my feet on. I always seem to do this. I love to start the quilt tops but hate the actual quilting process.

This one is a present so I can not show the whole thing but here is some snippets!

I decided to go out on a limb here and use a wide double needle for the quilting. It worked just okay. 

This is a picture of the front in the left lower hand and my hand made bias tape. On the top right hand is what the quilt looks like on the back using a double needle. I kinda like the zigzag look there.

For a tutorial on how to make bias tape go HERE.

As much as I drag my feet finishing a quilt I jumped right into another. While my sewing machine cooled down I started using up MY jelly roll to make these.

I used the some of the fabrics that are in my GIVEAWAY . It is only going on for ONE more day and if you were looking for some inspiration....go and enter:) Low entries here so you have a good shot at winning!

I used this VIDEO posted by MissouriQuiltCo. This was made by 3 Dudes Quilting originally though I believe. The only thing that I did differently was that I only used 3 strips vs. their 4.

Pinspiration post #2

The Original

post that got me started:

Came from a fun blogger named Jenn over at

www.cleanandscentsible.com .

She has a lot of great ideas on her blog so you should definitely set aside some time to check it out.

My Supplies:

Paint

Cheap o' canvas from Big Lots. A whopping $5.00 for 2 canvases.

Paint brush/foam brushes

A little one to steal their hand prints

Picture frames (or you can use them without, tit is hard to find deep enough ones to fit the canvas)

Sticky sayings from the scrapbooking section (or if your handwriting is nice you can just write your saying. Mine sucks sooo stickers it is)

I have a 2 1/2 yr old and he must have big hands. 

The canvas on the left is 11 x 14 and the right one is 8 x 10.

My little guy does not like having dirty hands; AT ALL!

 I may have had to bribe him with a batman cupcake.

Paint Laced Bag Tutorial

A quick tutorial

Supplies:

Elmer's Craft Bond (or similar)

Tulip Fabric Paint

Tote Bag Blanks (I got mine at JoAnns)

Not pictured:

Paper doilies-10"

Sponge dauber thingie

COVER your work surface with newspaper or paper bags! This stuff is SUPER sticky and will stick to your table for a VERY long time.

Take one paper doily and spray the back with craft bond. Do yourself a favor here; it is not more-the-better. Use just enough to make it stick. The first one I did I used way tooooo much and the doily ripped when I was taking it off and I had to remove bits of paper with a pin.

 

Place the doily sticky side down firmly

Starting from the edge of the doily start applying the fabric paint with the foam dauber thingy. 

Then fill in the rest and while paint is still wet gently remove the doily.

Ta-Da!

I am going to go back and put a letter in the corner of the bag to personalize the gift but it really isn't necessary. I also had a thought; what if you did a second layer of lace but in another color like a grey closer to the corner?

Bias Tape? Anyone?

Yeah, you read that right. I am going to show you how. I have Christmas presents to finish and I'd rather not spend money on tools so necessity is the mother of invention (or so I hear).

So herrreee we go and I hope you don't mind this MILE long post with a lot of pictures!

First you need 1/2 a yard of fabric.

Wash, dry and iron it (if you must). 

I'm not saying you have to or anything, 

because honestly, I don't do it all the time. 

I ironed it before I got started using steam...

does that count??

I use a Clover erasable marker to mark my fabrics. I like it because it goes away when it gets wet. The only draw back for me it is that 

the ink is very light.

Okay in person not so much in pictures, hence my red arrows:)

You should be cutting off a triangle here people!

Measure twice--Cut once right?

Here is the first tool that I don't have and made myself--

a Bias Tape Ruler.

First use masking tape to mark the first section. For 1/2" double fold bias tape you need and original strip width of 1 7/8". I used the masking tape to make the first section 1 7/8" solid tape. Then take the ruler and line it up with the edge of the fabric and tape again at your marker pen line on the fabric. Repeat on the whole ruler.

It is hard to explain here but I will try:

Take the ruler's first taped section and line it up perpendicularly to the angled edge of the fabric and mark with pen and each side of the ruler.

THEN

Now if that was not confusing enough for you...
there's more...

Fold the fabric right sides together-it's wonky but then off set the lines as shown here:

Pin the long edges together getting the lines you drew on as close as you can. Don't worry if they are off a hair (ignore the little OCD monster if you can).

It is going to look CRAY when you are done but sew it up anyhow.

Lay one side as flat as you can and start cutting following the lines, starting at the offset bit (remember).

Now it is time to make the strip in to finished bias tape.

 Then you feed the end of the tape through the pinned section folding then edges to the middle and iron as you go. Then you fold the tape in half again and feed/iron it again.

This is a slightly tedious process. I'm not going to lie.

However, I do not have a Simplicity Bias Tape Maker, so this is what I came up with to fold and iron with out burning the CRAPLES out of my fingertips. I would love to have one but I just don't (donations?? Haha)

I was very proud of myself for coming up with this! It works beautifully.

Radio Silence

My bad.

 

It has been just crazy here but I beg your forgiveness!!!

 

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving and successful Black Thursday/Friday shopping:) I know I did.

 

We had 20 or so people at our house for Thanksgiving and everything turned out great. Everyone brought a dish to pass and we had to make the turkey and ham. I also made an AWESOME Spinach and artichoke dip in the crockpot. The recipe can be found at the bottom of this post:)

 

Yesterday we took the little man to a parade with a marching band and a horse drawn sleigh with Santa! It was FREEZING though so the little guy was all bundled up! He was waving to everyone passing by, it was just adorable.

Then we went to Kraynak's in Hermitage, PA. Again we had to stand in line outdoors to walk through the Christmas land. It is basically display after display of Christmas tree's.

Then Hunter got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas. Can you guess what he said??

 

 

Toys.

 

I have not done much sewing/crafting until today. I had to tear down my sewing room to turn it back into the dining room which it really is. Big man was happy to have his dining room back-until I started bringing stuff back down today.

 

 He was hoping to have it clear until Christmas but I told him No Way, I have Christmas presents to work on!

 

I'm doing three pairs of super duper easy leggings in a hot pink and black houndstooth knit for three little girls. I love this pattern, so many cute peices to make later; if your wondering, I am using Simplicity 2156. I only worked on them for about 2 hours and have one pair done and the other two just need the waistband/elastic casing made. Told ya they were easy-peasy:)

 

Also--Little man is THISCLOSE to being potty trained. All on his own too. I think he just wants the skittles he gets as a reward. No going #2 but pee-potty all day long!!! YAY!!!! I know your as excited as I am. The day your kid is completely potty trained is a glorious day!



Spinach and Artichoke Dip

2 10oz frozen chopped spinach
2 8 oz cream cheese, softened. Regular or Low fat, NEVER fat free-it doesn't melt right.
1/2 cup parmesean cheese
3/4 half and half
2/3 cup shreadded monterey jack cheese
2 garlic cloves chopped
1 tbs finely chopped onion
1 15 oz can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

Mix all together in a crockpot except  for 1/2 of the monterey jack cheese. Cook on high for a couple of hours. Top with remaining monterey jack cheese and cook on low for another hour.

Too Early For Christmas?

Christmas gifts

Is it too early?

I hope not because this is my second post on presents with that homemade touch.

Today I am sharing the three wristlets I made for my niece and my brother's girlfriends' two girls.

I started with these wristlets I got at SCORED at Goodwill for 50 cents a pop! Paired with my trusty yo-yo maker by Clover and some scrappy fabric (recognize the blue crepe back satin from little man's Halloween costume?) I know that these wristlets originally came from JoAnn's because of the labeling.

I made 2-3 yo yo's for each bag and used the Scribbles fabric paint. I stole borrowed two wooden blocks from the little man for the letters. I used a paintbrush to apply the paint on the block as well as painting on my designs. I really stink at hand painting and was pretty much holding my breath the whole time.

What?? Too much Christmas up in your face with the colors above? LOL Well get ready Black Friday is right around the corner and all the stores are playing the music already.

Pumpkin Playdough

So today is Little Man's Halloween party and we were in charge of the treat bags for 20 2-3 yr olds!

We put in some random little toys from JoAnn's and I made ghost bags with white lunch bags and black card stock eyes and mouth. I decided that I needed one more homemade thing and decided on pumpkin playdough. I have seen this ALL OVER the place and decided I could adapt  own recipe from my basic 'dough recipe. 

I thought as a last minute Halloween post-I should share it with you!

To make 20 palm-ish sized pumpkins of dough (lol) you need:

2 c. Flour

1 c. Salt

1 tsp. Cinnamon

4 tsp. Cream of Tartar

1 tsp. Allspice

2 c. H20 

2 Tbs. Veggie oil

Yellow and Red food coloring

Directions

 

Mix dry ingredients in a large sauce pan or pot, mix with a whisk  until well blended.

Add wet ingredients and mix until blended. I used 28 drops yellow and 12 drops red food coloring.

Put pan on burner over medium heat and with a rubber spatula stir constantly-even if it feels like your arm is about to fall off! It took me about 6 minutes or so for the dough to form a dough. Try not to over cook it (it gets to dry)

Turn out when it cools a little on a clean counter top and kneed until smooth. 

Roll the pumpkin into a log and cut in half, cut that in half, then into fifth's to make 20. Roll into little balls.

I put mine in sandwich baggies tied off with green ribbon "stem" and drew on little pumpkin faces. 

These will keep about a week; if it gets a little to dried out you can dampen your hands and roll again.

15 Minute Boot Covers

Today I am going to share with you my son's boot covers for his halloween costume.

No Lie, they took 15 minutes!

I was literally laughing out loud when taking theses pictures. This is the first time I had let him touch his sword and he was TOTALLY in to it.

Any how on to the tutorial!

I measured my little guys leg from his ankle to his knee and it was 9". I took that measurement and then did the ankle part 9" across and the top (knee) 12" across. I used the left over felt from his musketeer hat.

                                                                                             



                                                                         Your felt peices should look *something* like this. I have a tall 2 yr old that is pretty thin and these measurements fit him. His upper calf is 9" if that helps you upsize/downsize your pattern.

Next you just stitch up the back right sides together (or the sides you drew on to the outside). I used 1/4" hem allowance because I wanted to be sure that his clothed leg would fit inside.

Next to make the floppy top to the boot...err boot cuff I mean.

I made a trapezoid that is 12" on one side and just 14" on the top. It is 3" tall. It should look like this:

Lucky for me I had *just* enough of the trim left from his tabard to use on these.

To attach the trim I use the zigzag setting (Stitch #4 on Brother CE-4000) on my sewing machine set like this :

                                                         

I think that the trim just adds a little something. It's all in the small details:)

Now, to attach the cuff to the boot shaft. You need to turn the boot shaft right side out and put the cuff inside the boot with the right (trimmed) side of the cuff facing the wrong side of the boot. That way when you flip it out you have no seams showing.

Flip that cuff out, finger press the seam (beacause with felt you can do that and it stays).

That is it!

Unless of course you feel the need to put some elastic from the bottom edge of the boot cover to run under the shoe. I didn't, he was running around in them and they were not riding up. Plus I feel like, what if he's walking and it gets caught on something in the *dark* Halloween night?

Maybe I should discuss proper handling of swords-even if it is fake!