Making a bag from a kiddies t-shirt

I saw this idea in a Disney Family Fun magazine about 6 or 7 months ago, maybe more than that, and it has been on my "to do" list since then! Yes, my list is long, so it takes a while! :) I actually put aside the t-shirt when I first saw the article, because it was one of Rylan's favorites (dinosaurs, of course) and it was getting too small for him, and too worn out to save for Damian. So, I thought giving it a second life as something else would be perfect. I started the project, and there it sat with pins, waiting to be hemmed up for many, many months. Well, when Rylan started piano lessons, he needed a bag for his lesson books, so I finally had a reason to go down to the sewing machine and finish it off! And here it is...

Super easy project: step 1: take a t-shirt, cut off the neck edging, the sleeves and the hem on the bottom.

Step 2 (hopefully your step 2 won't happen 6 months later ;) ): turn inside out and sew bottom pieces together to form the base of the bag (I used a heavy duty stitch to make that seam stronger). Then fold over, pin, and hem the remaining cut edges to give it a finished look, and your done!

A t-shirt gets a second life and you get a new bag. These are great for reusable shopping bags too.

This has been added to: Show and Tell and Kiddos Create

Fabric "Happy Ayyam-i-ha" banner/bunting

Okay, so you will all remember when I brought this pile of fabric home with me and said I was going to get started on Ayyám-i-há decorations. Although I have had them finished for a while, I have just not had time to share them on this blog, with the exception of this advent calendar, which we have been using to count down for a good many days already (boys loving that, by the way!).
I wanted to make a banner that would last, so that we can pull it out every year and re-use it. We liked the idea of a spring theme, and I threw in some Hawaiian flavour with the aloha prints.

It was VERY easy to make. I found this excellent tutorial online which I used to make the banner. It is a threaded banner (yay, no bias tape!). I added felt lettering to it (I simply found a font I liked on Microsoft Word, printed the letters out, and then cut them out of the felt). I had originally set out to do the letters in different colours, corresponding with the fabric, but I thought the letters got kind of lost that way, so I ended up doing all blue lettering.

To attach the letters I sewed around the edges each one with a machine, but I am sure you could use double sided applique paper and just iron them on if you didn't want to sew. But, honestly, it took me about 20 minutes to sew them all on, and I think it is worth it because now they will last and make it through the wash too.

Ta-da!

Curriculum choices and starting some of the projects

I have been doing some research on reading curriculum. Rylan is doing really well right now with Bob Books as a general review, but call me a newbie to homeschooling, I still feel like I need to follow some general curriculum path. I think I found something suitable. I have included Rylan in the selection process, because I want him to be involved in his learning path, this is one of the amazing things about homeschooling.

This afternoon the boys and I went to fabric stores and craft stores looking for all the odds and ends to work on our upcoming decorating projects. Cannot wait to get started!
We are going for a spring motif, and I couldn’t resist throwing in some Hawaiian prints as well…the Aloha spirit is highly infectious! I love all the bright spring colours (as a contrast my home décor is mostly subtle beiges, creams, blacks and browns, which I also love), but really, I am a sucker for colours, just look at my embroidery thread boxes.

One day I will post about my embroidery…

While at the fabric store the boys spotted this and absolutely had to get it. Rylan already has several projects in mind for it…we will see what we come up with!

Happy weekend to you! May it be a creative one!

Making our own animal softies

Last week the kids made their own set of animal softies. I got them two types of cotton fabric, one smooth, the other soft and fluffy, just to give them a chance to experience drawing on two different textures. We used fabric markers to draw with (if you do this project remember these markers will not come out of clothes, so use old ones, or wear art aprons).

Rylan helped me with the sewing during one of Damian's naps.

Both working on stuffing their animals.

The finished toys. You could also sew around the edges of the drawings to give them specific shapes, but we are going to use some of these as cushions for another project which is underway in our house...hopefully I will be posting about it in a few days, because I am excited to get it all done!

This has been added to: Kiddos Create

Introducing

Super Rylan and Super Damian – two new superheroes coming your way to save the day! Or at least to make mine, because they look super cute (no mama bias here, of course ;) ).
This is also the unveiling of that little sewing project I mentioned a few days ago.

I haven’t sewed in about ten years, and I have never made my own patterns from scratch, but this was a super easy project, so I decided to give it a try – initialed capes complete with masks and wristbands (Rylan chose the fabric - orange is his favourite colour - and he loved the flame print for the letters. I added the black ribbon for the neck ties. It was never intended for outfits to be Halloween colours, but it kind of worked out that way!).

They may not be perfect, but all that matters is that my boys LOVE their new costumes, and I love that they are their own superheroes.