My First Minky Baby Blanket

I saw baby blankets made with Minky dot fabric on etsy and decided to make one for my brand new nephew.  I've never sewn with Minky before and it was a little challenging. I read a few tutorials while I was seeking advice on how to sew with the Minky fabric. It's extremely stretchy and I didn't want to mess up. That stuff isn't cheap.

A couple of very helpful tips were to, use a lot of pins (I should have used more), lay the Minky on the rug when cutting and pinning cotton fabric to it, and sew Minky side down. 


I really should have used more pins, it appeared that it would have helped maintain better control of the Minky while sewing. If you make one of these make sure you sew very slow. 


I used Kate Spain's Central Park Zoo in Aqua, and brown Minky Dot fabric. The finished blanket measures 43"x44".

I'm linking the tutorial I followed here.

I'm going to add a tip because the tutorial says to get your iron nice and hot and press before you top stitch. BE CAREFUL! Don't make your iron too hot it will iron the dots in the Minky away and they don't come back. I accidentally ironed a couple dots out. *sad face* There are a few imperfections in the blanket that I wish weren't there. I'm sure it's only noticeable to me.

Here is the journey from fabric to blanket.

Cutting and pinning on the rug was super easy

It would have been easier to sew with pins between the pins

Big blanket. More like toddler size than baby size. That's good though, it will last longer.

I love this Central Park Zoo fabric

I can't wait to see pictures of my nephew with his Minky. I have to send this to him, they live far away. *sniff*

Rolling Right Along - Colored Pencil - Crayon Roll

My youngest girls received crayon rolls from a friend last year for Christmas. I had never seen one before, but I loved it. I have seen a few now out in the crafting world and I decided to make some for the kids for Christmas gifts. After a few tries doing different things I have made my own creation pulling ideas from here and there.

This tutorial is going to be for a roll that holds Colored Pencils or skinny markers. This will also work for crochet hooks or makeup brushes. It's really too tall for crayons. This one is for an older child/pre-teen. A crayon roll would be shorter. I will post a tutorial for that later.

I really appreciate a lot of pictures when I'm trying to follow a tutorial, so I've tried to make this as detailed as possible.

ROLLING RIGHT ALONG PENCIL ROLL

SUPPLIES:
1 cut fabric 16x20
1 cut fabric 8x20
1 cut grosgrain ribbon 30 to 32 inches long
matching thread

~ Cut two pieces of fabric one 18 x 20" for the main roll and the other 8 x 20" for the pencil slots ~

~ Fold each piece in half lengthwise and press ~

~ Take the smaller piece and mark the places to divide the pencil slots. The raw open edge should be down. I marked 3/8" from the end to allow for  the seam ~

~ Using a fabric pencil or pins mark the lines 1" apart.  I made 16 1" slots and left a large 3" slot at the end for a larger item. And again mark a 3/8" for the seam ~ 

~ Open up the larger piece of fabric and pin the smaller piece to the bottom ~  

~ Sew along all of your marked lines to form the slots for your pencils. Don't sew the seam marks on the edges ~ 

~ Fold the large piece in half - right sides together and pin ~

~ Oh, I almost forgot! Be sure to get your sewing cat helper in place ~

 ~ Then sew along the 3 open edges 1/4" seams leaving 2" to 3" at the top side edge to allow for turning ~

~ Trim your corners ~



~ Turn right side out and press. You can carefully use your seam ripper to pull the corners so they are nice and flat and pointy ~

~ Fold in the edges of the opening so it's even with the sewn edge ~

~ Grab your cut ribbon and fold in half, press a crease. Place it in the opening right above the pencil slots about an inch in and pin in place ~

~ Fold the ribbon over and pin so that it doesn't get caught in the top stitching. Top stitch along all 4 sides staying close to the edge. Stop when you get to the ribbon. Un-pin the ribbon and fold it back over ~ 

~ Sew the opening closed and securing the ribbon inside the roll ~

Yes, you aren't going crazy, it was a white ribbon before. My daughter came up to me as I was sewing the seam closed and said "That would have been so pretty with a red ribbon" Since this is her birthday present (she doesn't know that). I took the white ribbon out and put in a red one. She was right, it's way cuter with red ribbon.  

~ Sew along the ribbon inside the roll to enforce it. See below ~

~ And...Voila... You're finished! ~

~ This is going to hold colored twist pencils or sketching pencils but I used Crayola markers for this picture ~

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I wanted to do more than just the pencil roll. I searched for an easy tote bag to make, so that she can take along a sketch book and her pencil roll easily. I came across a super easy tutorial for a nice reversible tote bag. The tutorial is here on Skip to My Lou. I didn't follow it exactly. I used it as a base and made my own creation. My straps are much thicker, and they're patchwork using all the fabrics in the tote and the pencil roll. Also, I added a pocket and each of the sides inside and out are a different color fabric. It really turned out nice and goes so well with the pencil roll.

I am also making a roll an tote for my other daughter who shares the same birthday. They are twins. I will post pictures of that one once I finish it. They don't know these are for them, so I'm having them help design them to their liking. Sneaky Mama, I know.

Please leave a comment and let me know if the tutorial was easy to follow or if I need some improvements. Also, if you make one, I'd love to see it so be sure to link it to me. I would love to be linked to your craft blog also so feel free to share my pencil roll.

~ Have a blessed day ~

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy!

I have been crafting and sewing quite a bit lately. It's been a lot more fun making gifts for people. I love finding creative tutorials for fun toys I can make for my kids. It's very easy to find things to make for little girls. Most of my close friends have little boys. As I was searching for little boy craft projects I came across this Fishing Game on From an Igloo. It is totally adorable. One of my friends little boys is having a birthday this week and I decided this would be his gift.

Here is my version of the Fishing Game.  

This is an easy project and can be made with left over scrap fabric. My problem was, I didn't have enough scrap fabric that wasn't girly. I only had a few neutral colors. My favorite thrift store was having 75% off day last weekend, so I bought some boy shirts and onesies and used those for my fabric. I think total it only cost about $2.00 for the fabric. The washers were also very cheap, the box was $1.50 at Wal-Mart. I used buttons from my own collection of spares. I filled them with poly fill and did a slip stitch to close them on the bottom.

The tutorial showed disk magnets with a hole drilled in to hang from the yarn on the fishing pole. Adam tried this, and broke the drill bit, so I made a small fabric pouch to put the magnet in.

The magnets were also inexpensive, $1.50 for 6 of them. Although it takes the time to make, it's a very inexpensive gift. I made this entire gift for about $10.00. Handmade gifts are always more special than store bought.

I made this "tackle box" container to hold the fishies, and added the little boys name with foam letter stickers. This box was $2.50 at Wal-Mart and the 10 little fishies fit perfectly inside.

Here is Emily being the model for our gift. She's all set to fish.

Here we are in action. The washers sewn to the fishies nose, connect perfectly to the magnets.

Emily and Julia really love this game. I will be making one for them this week. My older girls even love the game. I think this is going to be my new favorite gift for little ones.

Baseball "B" Ball Cap Holder

9" Wooden Initial "B" baseball paint with ball cap hook