Tiny felt envelope

We had an exciting event take place at our house today- this young man lost his first tooth!


It was only a few minutes before it came out that I even realized it had gotten so wiggly, and that behind it a grown up one was peeking through, ready to take its rightful place up front. (That seems to be the trend with my kids.)

Of course he would need a safe place to keep that precious little gem until the Tooth Fairy makes her visit, so I postponed some furniture painting in order to do a little bit of sewing this afternoon. Instead of a tooth pillow like I'd made for big sister a couple of years ago, I decided on an envelope for my guy.

Here's what I did, in case you'd like to make one, too. (This may not be the correct way to make an envelope, but I was too lazy to look it up so I just kind of did what I thought would work. I'm sure there are tons of other better tutorials out there that you could use if this one doesn't make enough sense!)

Start with a 4"x4" square of felt. (You can adjust the size if you want it bigger or smaller.)


Round off two opposite corners (if you want).


Fold in the two remaining pointed corners so they're touching.


(I forgot to take photos when I did this for the bottom of the envelope, so let's pretend the photos below are actually of the bottom and not the top. But you'll do the same thing for the top as well.)

Fold the bottom rounded corner up and over the two touching corners. You'll notice that the folds at the top are a little bulky and unsightly.


Press those folds flat with your finger to create creases in the felt.


Snip along the creases.

I highlighted my cuts with green below to help you see it better, though your cuts will actually be a 90 degree angle.


Here's what your square will look like when it's unfolded. (See those 90 degree cuts?)


Fold your side corners back in...


... and your bottom corner up over those...


...and secure them together with pins.


Using some embroidery floss, sew the sides and bottom together using a simple running stitch.





Starting at the inner corner of one of the sides, make a running stitch that goes along the upper edge of the side, then over the top flap and down the top edge of the other side. (That sounds complicated. Just look at the pictures and you'll see what I mean.)


Almost done!


If you want to embellish your envelope you certainly can. How cute would a tiny embroidered tooth be on that top flap? I chose to add my little guy's initial.

And don't forget to add some sort of closure. A snap would be great, but I didn't have any handy so I stitched on a tiny button and just cut a small slit in the top flap for it to go through.
Press your envelope with a nice hot iron to get the creases to stay put.

Now hand it over to its new owner and watch their excitement as they bury it under their pillow in anticipation of that first magical visit from the Tooth Fairy!

(Then pray she doesn't forget...)

Baby Girl's Bird Mobile

Last night I got to go to another open house for an expectant friend. She's due to have a little girl soon so I couldn't resist making something pretty for her. She kindly shared with me the color scheme that will soon be implemented in the room the baby and her older daughter will share, which gave me the inspiration I needed for my project- a mobile.

You know how much I love mobiles, right? I decided to go with a similar design as the one I used for my son's mobile. Here's the post where I wrote about that one (pictured below).

Unfortunately I didn't remember to take a photo of this new mobile until I'd already gotten it secured into the box, but hopefully you still get the idea.

Instead of using felt for the birds, I fused two layers of heavy interfacing together with Wonder Under, then fused fabric to each side of that and cut out my birds.

Each bird has a different fabric on each side in turquoise, lime green, fuchsia and light pink.

I used bias binding to wrap the embroidery hoop that the birds and dots hang from, and some baby rick-rack for the hanger.

I really didn't want to lay the mobile in a flat box for fear it would get tangled, so I made one to fit using a really huge box I had laying in my garage. It took forever to cut each piece, tape them together and then wrap the whole thing, but it worked out so well that I think I was more proud of the box than the mobile!

A loop of string threaded through holes at the top keeps the mobile hanging on the inside and makes a nice little handle on the outside.

Three little bows keep the "door" shut until it's ready to be opened.

Can you believe I found that pretty paper at the Dollar Tree? Why did I not buy more than just one roll?!!
Anyway, this was a pretty simple project. Just ironing, cutting, stitching and gluing. And really the only sewing involved was running each bird and dot through the machine to string them together. Piece of cake! :)

Bits and Pieces

This week has been a little bit hectic, so I just haven't had a chance to do any new projects.

Today I thought I'd show you a couple of bits of my house that are kind of new additions. Just simple stuff that I really like.

This sweet little band of felt circles adorned the box that contained the thank-you gift that my brother and his wife gave me for reupholstering their couch. Isn't it cute? I'd also gotten one wrapped around my Christmas gift from them and just thought it was the most darling way to decorate a gift box.

So I tied it around this linen shade to add a little charm to this thrift store lamp. This would be super easy to make, too. Cut felt circles, make two slits about 1/4" apart in the middle, then thread some cotton ribbon through the slits.

Easy.

Another change I've made recently (okay, a couple of months ago) was to make some new curtains for my living room. They're airy, neutral, and let in as much light as possible, which is important since this is the only window in the room.

I pretty much keep the blinds up all the time so that the room doesn't feel cave-like.

The curtains are tied back with some pretty hardware that were black which I painted white and distressed.

But here's what I really love about them- they only cost me about $2 each!

The large white parts were actually beautifully clean linen tablecloths that I scored at a thrift store for $1 each. The two ends were already hemmed and the sides had a woven finished edge. All I had to do was add some length, which was really easy using some of that natural cotton fabric that I love.


With a little math and a little sewing, I came up with a pair of breezy curtains that are lovely for spring and summer.

Even though the bottom is hidden by my couch right now, I like that they're floor-length in case it ever shows. I just hate when curtains are a few inches too short. It feels to me like my living room is wearing high-water pants.
Hopefully next week I'll have more to share with you. But I guess that means I'd better get to work! :)

Tooth pillow

My six-year-old has a dentist appointment today that we'd both hoped wouldn't be necessary. But she's got two reluctant baby teeth that just won't vacate the premises for the impatient adult teeth that have already come through.

So after more than two months of wiggling, jiggling, pushing and pulling with no success, the dentist has recommended extraction. *sigh*

She's VERY nervous and just the thought of this visit brings her to tears. So last night I tried to come up with a little gift that I could give her to help to ease her anxiety a little.

I've seen these all over Blog Land and just had to make one myself. It's a safe little place to put those precious baby teeth in anticipation of a visit from the Tooth Fairy.

Complete with a heart-shaped pocket for the safe keeping of teeth & money.

Hopefully this will increase the excitement level while decreasing the panic and dread. HOPEFULLY.

I should be napping...

...but there's so much to get done! Instead of doing any of it, though, I thought I'd share a little bit of the spring crafting I've been doing over the past few days.

My brother is getting married next weekend so we'll be heading to Eastern Idaho for the wedding in a couple of days. We decided to take advantage of having the family gathered in one place so we're going to hold our little man's blessing while we're there. I decided to make him an outfit for the occasion.


Still not sure how I feel about it. I think it needs something but I have no idea what. I also goofed on the snap tape at the bottom and put both strips on the inside-- doh!! I hate unpicking stitching!

We'll be spending Easter Sunday driving home, but I didn't want the kids to miss out on the fun part of this holiday just because we're away. However, bringing 3 bulky woven baskets with us in our cramped vehicle just didn't seem like a good idea. Inspired by this tutorial from maya*made, I came up with a felt version.
Nothing fancy, just some felt buckets with pinked edges, handles, a little rick-rack for color, felt appliqued animals and a touch of embroidered detail.





I think they'll do nicely for gathering eggs and filling with some spring-time goodies.

This little guy was just for fun, inspired by this free knitting pattern from Rebecca Danger (by way of Whip Up). Unfortunately I don't knit (yet), so I thought I'd make one of these cuties out of felt. What else?

He's stuffed with some polyfill and I shoved a few dry pinto beans in the bottom to keep him weighted. I wish I'd taken the time to sew the pink inner ear to the ear, and I might go back and blanket stitch his tail on, but for now I think he's pretty much done. Maybe I'll make two more and put one in each of the little Easter buckets for the kids.

Okay, back to the house work. The in-laws are coming home with us next week so we've gotta have things in order before we leave. What a bummer of a way to spend a Saturday.

Valentine's Day projects

My 5-year-old daughter loves to do "projects", and it's usually up to me to come up with them for her. She's very much an artist and loves to draw, write, color and paint. Recently, though, when she came to me for a project, I decided to see how she'd do with stitching. So I grabbed a scrap of canvas, a 5" embroidery hoop and some red floss. I drew a heart in the middle and then showed her how to do a basic running stitch. And off she went! She really loved it. She even woke up early from her nap that day because she was so excited to keep working on her "stitching". She only poked herself once or twice, and once she'd finished with the red outer heart she decided she wanted to add another heart inside that... and then another... and then a button! It took her a few days to finish, but once she was done she gave it to me and said I could do whatever I wanted with it.




This morning I decided to turn it into a doorknob hanger. I cut the canvas into a circle, then another from some scrap polka dot fabric. I stitched some jumbo ric rac to the edge of the canvas then sandwiched that between the two circles and sewed them together, leaving a hole for turning. After stuffing some poly fill and a little dried lavender inside I added a scrap of ribbon that matched beautifully and sewed it closed by hand. It would've been nice if I could've thought of something useful to turn her first project into, but she's pleased with what I came up with, and so am I.



This next project was done in a hurry Saturday evening before we had to go out of town at the last minute for 4 days. I was to host a preschool Valentine's Day party on Thursday but we wouldn't be getting home until Wednesday afternoon, leaving me very little time for decorating. I'd seen this idea and thought it was lovely, but didn't want to take the time to paint. So out came the felt and in an hour or so I'd made several garlands of hearts to hang around my dining room. Super duper easy, just a little time consuming with the cutting. But even that went pretty quick because all I did was cut 4" strips of felt, iron them in half and then cut half-heart shapes along the fold all along the length of the strip. I then had to iron the hearts flat, but sewing them together was a breeze. You just want to try and keep some tension on the thread when you're between hearts by pulling it gently up and away behind your machine until you've fed the next heart in to be stitched. (Did that make any sense?) Anyway, I like the effect and it didn't cost me a thing. (Too bad the photos are awful. Sorry.)

If you do this project, try different positions of the hearts along the string- all right side up; all sideways; alternating right side up and upside down; etc. I also think using white or cream would be really pretty.

Have fun and have a great Valentine's Day!