Stain Glass Butterflies.

My friend Emily over at Bits of Everything posted this stain glass craft she did with her kids during spring break.  And Made posted about her paper butterfly sanctuary.

So I thought, why not?  We made stain glass butterflies. 

This made me a little nervous...

I could just hear my mother telling me not to do it.  But I thought, 'I'm the mom and I say let's do it!' We started out with about 4 butterflies, but we ended up making 12.

But here's what I'll add to Emily's instructions. Get your crayons out.  Make sure they look like this:

Yep, the old broken ones with the paper peeled off.  It's a great way to use those.. that you hate, but can't bring yourself to throw out.

I put my gridle on even cooler than Emily's, because Landen is pretty young.  You had to press a little harder but they still worked out well.

Hopefully, it means these butterflies can chase away our snow and bring us some spring!



Toddler Purse

I made this purse for my niece for her birthday.  She's really into girly things, like princesses, right now.  Landen loves to carry around things in my purse, so I thought she would really love this.

I started with a pattern for a scripture case, but of course I didn't follow it. This tutorial from Make It and Love It, is a great idea for a basic bag.  Seriously, it's like cut 4 rectangles (I think mine were 12x9). Sew the bottom and sides, make the corner and add the strap.  I didn't add any pocket, just a magnetic clasp- which I think the hardest part was thinking through which directions the magnets went so they didn't repell each other!  I don't think it took more than and hour or two!

And from what I hear, she loves to play with it!  Can you think of a little girl that would love this for Christmas?  I can think of another niece that might!

I'm not so Very Talented..

I used some scraps from my guitar strap to make Landen a new t-shirt. And, I messed them up a little. They aren't sraight and in the wrong order! I was trying to put the odd one in the middle.



Oh well!


He still looks cute!

Bucket Hat

I followed the tutorial provided by Sew Much Ado at U Create and made this! It doesn't take much fabric, and it went quite quickly! I still need some practice sewing a cylindar together... but it turned out cute for our little man!

Here's my cut pieces. Really, all you'll do is sew the sides together to get a tube, sew the top and then the brim. You'll then put the two sides together and sew the edge of the brim together, turn it and top stitch it.

Sewing the top and brim on were probably the hardest. It helps to divide it up and if your fabric and just a little stretch to it. I think I only sewed one pleat into the top.. whoops. I want to make another soon, so this was good practice!

The finished red side --which hubby thinks is to girly-- so maybe I should have added an something to make it more boyish. Oh well.

The finished denim side! So easy to match! It also added structure, so I didn't use any interfacing. If you didn't use a stiff fabric on one side, I would definately recommend using interfacing on all of it!

I did add a step to the instructions. I added a little darn where the seams met to keep the sides from moving around and making it reverse a little bit easier. If you look closely where the seams met at the top, you can see a little more red thread. That's it. Not even noticeable.

A Car Cozy

I followed homeade by jill's Cozy Car Caddy and made Landen a great new toy! It's great for stashing a few cars for church (I wouldn't recommend taking 6 cars to church) and doubles as a playing mat!

Our JoAnn's didn't have a a great selection of duck cloth (black, red, blue, army green) So, I went with the army green to contrast the denim. I picked up the other few odds and ends I didn't have for under $5! WaHoo!

So, Here's what I did. I followed Jill's directions because I liked the idea of the piping and the heavier cloth. BUT if I was making it again, I'm not sure I'd use duck cloth. My Little Gem's Car Cozie Tutorial used flannel, so I think any fabric would be good. Why? Well, it was really hard to sew the binding into it and then turn it and sew around it again. It was 8 layers of heavy fabric and my machine is a little old. But if your kid is rough on stuff, it might be really good.

But, it worked out great. I used wonder-under on the felt pieces, plus I stitched around the edge of the road. I guess I didn't pay attention to the dimension when I bought the felt because my felt wasn't long enough and I had to use two pieces, you could definitely use flannel or cotton here too. For the "parking" spaces, I went over them divided twice, and decided not to paint the number on. I think it looks cute without it. Landen loves these! He parks all his cars and then reparks them it's very cute!

I loved the idea of denim on the outside. So, I cut my car out of some yellow flannel scraps and used buttons on the wheels to avoid more sewing. (I was getting tired of it) And I think they are really cute! I sewed them on really good, and it's a good thing because Landen sure likes to pull on them!