tag: sew



Dec 01
2011
 

our advent calendar

There have been so many great ideas about activity based advent calendars on blogs and pinterest in the last month, that I wanted to make my own. But I wanted it to match my style and use things I already had. So first I went shopping in my house. I found this:

old ikea drape and a 16 x 20 canvas

A blank canvas and an old unbleached cotton drape. So I cut up the drape. One piece to fit over the canvas and the other into little squares that were about 2.5″ X 3″ in size. 48 of them to be exact. I had made my measurements on a piece of paper and then used a cardboard template to trace the squares on the fabric.

yes, pencil on fabric! ;)

Then I sewed the little pieces together like pillows, turned them inside out and ironed them to make little patches, so to speak. (side note: I did this because I did not have any reinforcement to stop any fraying if I left the edges raw).

Then using embroidery floss, I stitched the numbers 1-24 in random colours on the front of each patch.

embroidering the numbers

And using matching thread, I stitched each patch on to my large piece of cotton on 3 sides to make little pockets.

sewing the pockets

I then stretched the fabric over the canvas and stapled it to the back (I had a hammer to make sure the staples went in flush). I covered the staples with masking tape to make the back look nice too!

stapling it to the frame

Lastly I printed out my activity list in different (again random) colours to fit in each pocket.

some of the activity cards

Next year I may add some more embroidery decoration to the background fabric, but for now I love our family’s new reusable advent calendar. (excuse the early morning photograph/bad lighting!) It sits perfectly at home right next to our 3 foot nutcracker.

our advent calendar

And for those wondering about my list, this is what I have (not necessarily in this order).

  • hang lights
  • get tree
  • decorate tree
  • hang stockings
  • go see santa
  • pizza night
  • gingerbread houses
  • bake cookies (x2)
  • christmas shopping
  • wrap presents
  • go to the library
  • hot chocolate
  • bubble bath
  • dinner at a restaurant
  • movie and popcorn
  • play board games
  • make paper snowflakes
  • christmas colourings
  • give a toy to charity
  • go to the library
  • wear red to school
  • breakfast for supper
  • open one special gift (for christmas eve)
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Posted by Janet under create, decorate, our house
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Nov 25
2011
 

reflections

my advent calendar in progress - post soon!

So lately I have spent my time and the end of the day on the sofa, with my family, working on some hand stitching. This comes in the form of a cross stitch project that is LONG overdue (like a year overdue), an advent calendar for the kids this year, among other things. What I have noticed with this is that although I am sitting in front of the television and doing the same thing I may have done before, having the added activity for my hands to do, has allowed my brain to slow down MORE. Which is not what I expected. But I think what I needed.

These moments recharge me, they allow me to find a little hands on creativity at the end of the day. They make me sit, quietly and enjoy the laughter and games that surround me. They calm me.

And for that I am thankful.

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Posted by Janet under create, happy list, life, musings
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Apr 15
2011
 

quilted pillow in blue

I have decided to make quilted pillow covers for the living room. I have some great patterned fabrics that just look too modern and don’t suit the house style when alone. But cutting them up and piecing them togethers creates a modern/country twist that I love.

I have purchased and found fabrics I like within my colour scheme of yellow, green & blue. This pillow is using all the fabrics that had blue in them. Next I will be making a pillow with all the green fabrics.

I made this cover slouchy and squishier than the pillow I made for my daughter’s room. I want the pillows in the living room to have a very lived in look.

blue quilted pillow

blue quilted pillow

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Posted by Janet under create, decorate
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Apr 06
2011
 

our house: girl’s bedroom

I am VERY excited to post that I am finally done our daughter’s room. D-O-N-E.

Even though a lot of this I have changed/made myself, this will not be a place to share a “how to” with anyway. If I showed you how to paint furniture, you would have little hard paint drips in more than one place, like me, from not sanding enough or painting too thick. If I showed you how to quilt a pillow, you would be tracing your fabric squares out in PEN and not really caring if your corners match up.

But if there is one thing I would like you take away from this, is that no one ever looks close enough to see these imperfections, so let’s not focus on them, shall we? (This is a good lesson for other aspects of life as well)

Without further ado, here is her room:

girl's bedroom 1

Her bed, painted nightstand and bookcase

girl's bedroom 2

Her bureau, kitchen and table

This was an old fake wood bookcase I painted green. I followed Censational Girl’s directions for painting laminate. I also wanted to put numbers on the tags for her bins, but she demanded letters, and not just any letters but P, Q, R, & S. I figured, why not? [owl is from a great etsy store: Manic Muffin Totes]

girl's bedroom 3

Her bookcase

I just finished this today and LOVE it, but don’t look too close at my corners. ;)

girl's bedroom 4

Her quilted pillow

I love this nightstand. It was black from Loblaws and looks awesome green. I also like that I hung her night light super low so she can turn it on and off herself from bed. [artwork by Holli Conger]

girl's bedroom 6

Her nightstand and night light

This is her princess mirror. Again, it was black (from an Ikea bureau) and I painted it slightly greener than her walls. And added some rhinestone stickers from the dollar store.

girl's bedroom 5

Her princess mirror

This is her play kitchen. I made it out of an old nightstand of my parent’s and love it, although I would do a bunch of things differently if I did it again.

girl's bedroom 8

Her play kitchen

And lastly, this is her table and chairs where she serves all her meals. I painted two discount canvases with a window design to give her dining room a view (of the beach since I miss the East Coast).

girl's bedroom 7

Her table and chairs with a view

So there you have it. Now that I am done her room, off to finish my son’s.

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Posted by Janet under decorate, our house
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Feb 03
2010
 

heart garland

craft foam heart garland

I saw this idea on blog I love to read called Made by Rae and really wanted to do something like that for our house. But I didn’t have nice colour felt like she did and am really trying to stop myself from buying new crafting supplies before I use what I have.

So when I remembered that I still had a bunch of craft foam from the dollar store, I checked the colours and sure enough, I had fun and bright colours perfect for this idea. I made my hearts the same size (tracing a cookie cutter) but otherwise followed Rae’s tutorial instructions.

I love how it turned out. I placed some tiny 3M hooks in three places on my mantel (great for future banners, etc) and hung the strand up.

Love it.

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Posted by Janet under create
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Feb 01
2010
 

backpack & rescue pack

Rescue Pack, Backpack & Map

So, Munchkin loves Dora. I mean really LOVES Dora. For Christmas, we had this great idea of finding her a ‘Backpack’ toy. We used to have one for Hamster (a Diego ‘Rescue Pack’) and figured it would be no problem to find her the same idea.

Problem. Well, for us anyway. The plastic version of this toy had Map as part of the body, not as something you can remove and play with. What is Muchkin’s favourite part of Dora? Yup, Map. So I had to think of a different idea.

I was at the Dollar Store last week and saw packs of felt for $1. In each pack was about 6 different 9X12 sheets of felt. In various colours. I didn’t look too carefully at the colours except to notice that purple was there. So buying 4 packs for $4, I headed home.

I then realized I did need other colours for Backpack’s face and luckily the pack had them. So first I printed out the largest version of the real backpack to work from, and cut out shapes and zig-zag stitched them on to the felt. I then cut out the basic shapes of the felt for the backpack. Because the felt is a thinner quality I did line each piece with a piece of flannel (an old sheet) for stability. And I also zig-zagged the felt onto twill tape to create the straps.

Once I had the backpack made, I made the map by printing out a colouring page I found online (coloured it with Photoshop) and putting only Map’s face on it (so when it is rolled up, it looks like Map). I “laminated” this with packing tape. I thought of using my laminator but thought it would be too stiff and wanted the map to be able to be rolled.

Once I finished, Hamster decided he wanted a Rescue Pack too. When I realized I actually did have orange felt as well, I just repeated the steps for him.

Materials:
4 packs of felt (used purple, orange, red, white and black) – $4
2 packages of twill tape (on hand)
old flannel sheet (on hand)

Now, I am making him a field journal and some Valentines mailboxes out of the leftover felt. This may have been the best $4 I ever spent.

Loving Rescue Pack & Backpack

Side Note: I found this online group of people blogging
about their crafting. I love the inspiration I get from here.

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Posted by Janet under create
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