Fantastic Mr. Fox Scarf

I found this awesome fox scarf online when I was browsing around for quick and easy projects.  I've been enjoying simple sewing projects and I immediately fell in love with this fox scarf!  And the blogger who made it offered up a free pattern too. Awesome!  I found it at Prudent Baby.

I especially love the orange plaid flannel or wool or whatever she made her scarf with. It looks adorably foxy and warm. I looked and looked for some orange plaid warm fabric that wasn't fleece.  Fleece is super popular, and yet, I just don't like it.  Finally found some fall clearance broadcloth at Joann Fabrics and decided that even though it isn't cuddly, it would do just fine.  I picked up some white shaggy minky at Hobby Lobby.  I think that's really all I need, aside from some black trim and embroidery thread for the snout.  I'm sure I'll find something in my stash to accommodate the facial features.

When I think of this fox scarf, I hear George Clooney's voice. Thusly, I have named this scarf  "Fantastic Mr. Fox Scarf".  There ya go, George.

Cutting minky is best done outdoors!  In mid-January we have sunshine and temps in the 70s and 80s. Perfect weather for cutting fabric out on the back deck.  When I cut the minky, the edges of the fuzz fall off and float around. If you dare to cut this stuff, do not touch your nose or breath in too deeply!

I cut enough pieces to make four fox scarves. I think it will be so darn cute that I'll wish I had made more, so I'm just going to make more right off the bat.  One yard of each the orange and the white minky will yield four 36" fox scarves. A little extra will help with getting all of the legs and ears cut out though. Squeezing those pieces into the layout was tricky.

After I cut each piece, I shake it to shake off the loose fuzzies before bringing it in and running it through my sewing machine. I made it snow!

Putting together the legs and ears was fun. The small pieces are adorable. . Once I had them sewn together, I flipped them around and stuffed them with polyfill.  I didn't stuff the ears much, just enough to give them a bit of poof.  The legs are stuffed nice and plump. I then folded the edges in just a tad and topstitched the openings before I zig-zagged it to the scarf. I enjoyed having a bin full of legs and ears. Fox parts!

Sewing the legs onto the minky fox tummy was a challenge. My presser foot was continuously becoming tangled. I used a pair of tweezers to pull the loops off of the presser foot when they looped on, and I learned this by using my fingers and stabbing myself with the needle that is right there. Whoops. Jab yourself and you learn pretty fast the value of a nice pair of tweezers! The minky is fabulously soft and fuzzy! Cannot wait to wrap a fantastic fox hide around my neck!  Won't leave it on long in this summer weather though.

I didn't have much in the way of buttons, but I found a matching set of brown buttons. I also had a brown piece of fleece that I used for the nose. Very cute. Black is a better contrast, but the brown looks great too. I prefer the soft fuzzy nose to the embroidered nose anyway. The whiskers are just a couple of strands of embroidery floss.

Once I had all of the noses, eyes, whiskers, ears and legs attached, I sewed the fox tops to the fox tummies. Putting the right sides together, I sewed around the edges making sure not to sew the legs and whiskers into the seams. I left a hole in the side of the "hide" to flip it around. Then topstitched the opening closed.

I believe that if I had used a heavier fabric for the fox top, the scarf would lay better. It doesn't have that thick and wooly feeling that really keeps a neck warm in the winter. The minky is very soft and fuzzy, it feels wonderful. It is more of a whimsical feeling scarf, which is also great!

I tried the scarf on and immediately wished it was longer. Finished length is 35". My 5 year old thought it was great, and I like the length on her as well. Next set of fox hide scarves will be longer.  We both enjoyed wearing a Fantastic Mr. Fox Scarf!

And I just have to laugh at my "selfie" picture in the bathroom mirror! Notice the bandaid on my finger? That was my sewing lesson of the day: Tweezers are a great tool!

Horse Race Track Game

Last night we went to a party and the  hosts had a game that they made, it was tons of fun! They had a "race track" that was sewn on a large piece of green felt. And they had six toy horses and a pair of dice. Since we were at a party for adults, we played horse races by betting on the horses. Me, I was checking out the sewing on the felt and thinking how I could reproduce it.  My husband was thinking the same thing, he mentioned to me to take notice of the racetrack so I could sew one. Great minds think alike!

It was done on one piece of green felt. The stitching was in a contrast white. I asked the guy who owned the game about it and he said his step mom made it. It was serged around the edges and straight stitched with double lines for the lanes and single lines for the spaces.  I could do that.

Today, I looked through my fabric and what did I find?  A large piece of dark green polyester!  It was polyester, but it was the perfect size and color.  It would be great for a practice piece if anything.  I had a feeling sewing long straight lines might be a challenge.

My green piece of fabric is 40" x 56".  I made six "lanes" that are 6.25" wide and I made spaces that are 7" long.  Like the felt at the party, I serged the edges and straight stitched the lanes with double lines and the spaces with a single line.

I discovered that sewing straight lines is actually harder than it sounds!

I googled and looked for some tips online, but all that I found were methods of sewing straight lines by using the guides on the machine. That does work well, but only if you're sewing near the edge of the fabric.  In this case, the guide marks will not be of much use.

That's ok. I'm resourceful!  I measured and pinned to mark the lines.  Then I took my cloth to the ironing board and ironed a crease where my stitching would go.  Measured again to make sure I had 6.25" all the way down the row and was keeping my line straight.

Then I moved the fabric to the machine and sewed along the crease.  When I was done, I ironed the stitching and flattened out the crease. Ta-Da!!! Worked like a charm!  My stitches are (mostly) straight.

I repeated the same process with the spaces.  I made it six lanes across and 8 spaces long. I think my lanes are wider than the game board we played on last night, but that's ok. I think this is a flexible project. As long as the spaces are big enough for a toy horse, they're just fine. I'm sure that four lanes or eight lanes would be fine too, you could make this race track any size you think would be best for you.

Once I had all of the stitching done, I began to applique the lane numbers. The lanes or the toys need to be numbered. I printed numbers on Word, flipped them backward and cut them out of some bright red scrap fabric that was in my scrap basket.

Using Heat n Bond, I ironed the numbers on to the fabric in the first row (which is when I flop them over right side up again). I top-stitched the numbers and the race track was ready for action!

Since we didn't have six toy horses, we improvised and gathered up some toys that looked like they wanted to race.  The kids were all skeptical since Mom and Dad usually have really lame ideas, but they soon were laughing and cheering for their favorite toy to win.

The game is played by rolling two dice. Each die moves a player one space. For example, if a roll of the dice results in a 3 and a 5, the toy in lane 3 moves one space and the toy in lane 5 moves one space. If a roll results in snake eyes, the toy in lane one moves two spaces because it moves one space for each time the number one comes up.

When we played as a family, each person chose a toy to cheer for. We took turns rolling the dice. We showed the kids that it doesn't matter who is older, wiser, stronger, or faster. Everyone has the same chance of winning. It's a game of chance and random results. The winner can be anyone! Only the dice know.

Pantsuit for Grandma

My grandma is my biggest sewing fan; she loves everything I make!  Honestly, I'm not sure if that is entirely true because she would never hint otherwise.

I made a pantsuit for her once.  This was probably around 1995. I cannot remember.  I know I sewed this when I lived in the house on Filmore Street, which means I used my Brother machine.  

My Brother sewing machine was just a basic machine. It was my first machine. It wasn't fancy, but it had a buttonhole stitch which I used extensively.  

My grandma wanted me to make her a nice pantsuit. I tried my best, which at that time was not too bad! I've gained skills now though and I am sure I could do a much better job now that I have a serger and my sewing skills are more polished (still have lots to learn though).

I don't know if my grandma wore this pantsuit more than once, but she at least posed for this picture.  She looks thrilled, right? 

Around The World Day at school

My kids' school has a "Spirit Day" once each month. They choose a theme and the kids can dress accordingly. It's always a dress up sort of day, such as hat day or pajama day. The theme is also usually pretty easy to pull together and not much notice is necessary. Not all of the kids participate in the dress up days, they are not always something people have on hand, and notice is pretty short.

Last week, I read my Monday email from the teacher on Tuesday, and discovered that Thursday was a Spirit Day called "Around the World" day. The students were to wear traditional clothing from around the world.  That's a really neat idea!  Aside from reading the email on Tuesday, I was too busy to do anything more about it except let the idea simmer on my mind for a while.

Libby was easy. She decided to wear her Chinese Hanfu. It's her Princess Mulan dress that she loves to wear any chance she gets. Wear her princess costume to school? Why, yes!

Gracie has a Merida dress, but it's not all that representative of Scotland.  She also has the Cinderelly working dress which we could say is a German, Dutch, Norweigian style of traditional dress. It's close. She really didn't want to wear a princess costume though. She had her heart set on me making her something. She looked on Google Images for ideas.  Germany, Holland, France, Lakota, Sioux, hmmm.... she liked them all but Renaissance France was what she really wanted.  Well, gee, kid, I would love to  but I have limited time. We looked up USA and those were cute. I told her I could probably make something red, white and blue and that would work. Maybe some other time she could be France. She said, no.... How about Cambodia.  Hmm, ok, let's look.  Cambodia girls wear very pretty outfits. Yes, she wants to be Cambodia!

Since my serger isn't working, there's no way I could whip up a dazzling colorful Cambodian dress. I would have to use poly-satin and it frays so bad, I just wouldn't want to make anything using satin without my serger.  Sorry, Cambodia, but we'll have to make a Sampot (dress) another time.

Wednesday came along and I was again too busy to sew anything for Around the World day.  The girls were excited for it, but I was drawing a complete blank. I didn't have anything at all to make and I didn't have a chance to run out and buy something that was Red, White and Blue for the USA.  I told Gracie that she just wasn't going to be able to participate because she doesn't have anything and I didn't have time to make anything. She was disappointed, but I told her that I'm pretty sure they'll honor Dr. Seuss' birthday in March so I'll start working on something for her to wear for that day.  She was fine with that. Whew!

Wednesday night I thought about what I could do for Gracie to Around the World day. Seems like USA should be simple enough. And I started to dig around my sewing area. I was hoping to find an old 4th of July Tshirt that I could resize for her, or maybe some red, white, and blue ribbon that I could sew onto a plain Tshirt, something, anything?  And then I found some flag print fabric!  Score!  I quickly made a Tshirt style top for her out of it and was very happy with myself!  In less than an hour, I worried, searched, found and made a USA top! It turned out pretty cute too.

I went to bed happy and relieved, even though I know she didn't want to be USA, but she'd rather be something different, something exotic and foreign and exciting. I was just drifting off to sleep after 11 pm when it hit me.  I have France fabric!!! I bolted out of bed and dug through my fabric stash.  Eureka! I found it!  Fabric that I bought a while back that has the Eiffel Tower on it!  France!!! Thank you, Fabric Gods!

I cut out and sewed up another top.  Cute! Glittery Eiffel Towers, cute little coffee shops, and the word "Paris" all over the top.  Now, she had two countries to choose from for Around the World Day.  I think I just saved the world!  Unless of course, she wakes up grumpy, the tops don't fit, or she dreams about Cambodia and their beautiful Sampot gowns.  By no means am I in the clear.  It's worth a shot though.  If it's a total flop at least I can take pride in the fact that I made two tops in under two hours! And that includes going to bed and relaxing in between them. The last one only took me 30 minutes from finding the fabric to completion.

Luckily, Gracie woke up and found her surprise shirts to be very exciting! They fit and she was super happy. She knew I made them after she went to bed and she was so happy! Yay!  Of course, she chose France because France is her vacation dream and it had glitter.  It was itchy though. We found an old tank top to put underneath, it's an ugly battered tank top, but it's white and soft. She was comfy! I pretended not to notice that it hung down on one side. It wasn't a full traditional costume from France, but it represented the country well and she could wear it anytime too. Perfect.

The girls were so excited for school that they were ready early!  Taking advantage of that, I shooed them out the door before they could unravel themselves or decide they needed to do or play something.  With time to spare, I took the girls to the donut shop for a treat. The donut shop has a world map on the wall so we sat at the table under the map and found China and France. While we were at it, we looked at the oceans and continents. It was a nice little geography lesson before school. Yummy too!

As it turned out, Libby and her friend were the only two in their classroom who participated.  Libby wore her hanfu and Riley wore a Tshirt that said Vancouver on it. In Gracie's class, only four kids participated. The teacher forgot too. I didn't see many kids in the other classes dressed up neither. Riley's brothers are both in upper elementary and they wore Canada Tshirts as well, but we didn't see any traditional costumes. It was disappointing, but not surprising since there was such a short notice to the parents. A couple of girls in Gracie's class wore Flamenco dresses. They looked very pretty! Gracie was thrilled to participate too, and I thought it was age appropriate for her to decide against a Disney princess dress.

I used this pattern:  It's an oldie, but it's very basic and it fit great. She's growing so fast that I am always just guessing about how big to make things for her. I got lucky and the shirt fit great. It was quick and easy too. I think I'll whip up a few more shirts for her with this pattern just to build up her wardrobe.

Sandwich and Snack Bags

More sandwich bags!

Yesterday we went to the park and tested our new polka-dot lunch baggies with a little picnic. They were great!

After I got the kids to bed, I made eight smaller snack sized reusable bags.  They are cute! And handy to have.  One thing I noticed about the reusable bags is something I hadn't thought of at all - and it's a huge perk!

The kids can reseal the bags all by themselves!  As opposed to ziplock baggies. This is super awesome!

These eight baggies are destined for my daughters' school's Little Farmers' Market. The kids sell things (usually cookies, garden vegetables, and little crafts). They keep half of their profits and donate half to their classroom.  The school they attend encourages green living, so they are very appropriate for the Little Farmers' Market.

I think I'll buy some plain white PUL (polyurethane laminate fabric) and make some lined sandwich bags next. It will be fun to have lots of different prints and colors. Also, I have some Star Wars fabric that would be fun to turn into sandwich bags for my daughter's lunchbox!

A little tip with making these lunch bags:  I think using a plastic zipper is best. I have mostly used metal zippers because I am recycling my zipper supply.  I went to a fabric and notions garage sale one day and it was actually more of an estate sale; I asked if there were any zippers because I can always use a few and the lady running the sale said "wait here". She was back in a minute with an armload of zippers!  Almost all were metal and a lot of them were taken from garments, or had been used in some way. I washed them all and tested each one to make sure it worked (after I got home and untangled the huge wad of zippers).  That was three years ago and I'm still well stocked with metal zippers.

Besides, I broke two needles on my sewing machine putting in the metal zippers!

I hope the metal zippers do not pose a problem with the sandwich baggies. I'll buy some more plastic zippers soon.

Reusable Sandwich Bags

I finally ran out of sandwich sized ziplock baggies. I still have an endless supply of snack sized ziplocks though, so I will keep using those.

My kids go to a wonderful school that encourages healthy living. A lot of the kids use "green" snack bags rather than disposable plastic bags and now my kids will join the green lunchbox revolution. They will have reusable sandwich bags!

Honestly, I don't know how "green" polyurathane laminate fabric is, it's care and cleaning with use of soap and water, or the industry of zipper manufacturing as opposed to the manufacture and disposal of ziplock baggies, so I'll just leave that side of it alone. Let's consider the reuse of PUL bags as environmentally friendly.  I will use these in the girls' lunchboxes and for our snacks when we go on outings.

My friend uses them all the time. She's had her sandwich bags for years and she says they wash up great and stand up to all sorts of snack packing. She has three children and they all lunchbox at school and on outings too. I figure if a mom of three has been using the same little bags for years, they might be handy.

She has both zipper and velcro style bags. All of hers are PUL lined with something cute on the outer side. I decided to only use PUL which means my seams are exposed to the interior of the bag and might become crumb catchers. We shall see.  Maybe I will cover the seams with double folded bias tape, that might be a good trick.

These four sandwich bags took me about an hour to cut and sew together, although I had interruptions and I wasn't sewing in a hurry or anything. I am sure if I only had a half an hour, I could have still done up a couple of them at least. I used old zippers taking this reusable thing to a new level.

Here they are!  And yes, the green bags are actually pink polka dots. Who says being green can't be cute?

The Closet Shot - Background Photo

This is part of the girls' closet. I felt inspired to snap a photo of it with my handy dandy phone to use as the background photo of this blog.  Because.... I made all of that stuff!  And more!

Hanging there is:
Dr. Suess dress
Ferret Tshirt Dress
Daddy shirt #1 & #2
Easter dress
Cinderella Ball Gown
Ancient Egyptian Costume
Princess Grace Kelly dress
Jessie shirt and jeans
Princess Jasmine
Cinderelly Working dress
Rapunzel
Merida with short sleeves
Merida's matchmaking dress
Elmo Tshirt Dress
Another Easter Dress
Ariel print Dress
Owl Dress
Gingerbread Cookie Dress
Belle Dress
Doc McStuffins Lab Coat

Microfiber Burp Cloths

My 7 year old daughter is sewing this project.  She has to do a community service project for school, anything she chooses. She decided to sew baby burp cloths and donate them to Operation Shower.

My 5 year old daughter is also doing a community service project at school. Her class is all bringing baby gifts to send to Operation Shower. Since that donation is already set up, I guided my 7 year old to donate her baby items to the kindergarten class for their project.

Double whammy!  One daughter makes them and they both donate them. We're combining efforts!

Operation Shower is a program that gives baby gifts to expectant military moms whose husbands are deployed. My oldest daughter went through both of her pregnancies with her husband deployed. She was super lucky and he returned just before the babies were born both times! She didn't know about Operation Shower then, but we all know how much a little gift can cheer up any pregnant mom.

I purchased a pack of microfiber cleaning cloths at Sam's Club. There were 30 rags in the package for $15. I told her to make 12, that's a good number.

Gracie cut them all in half and serged the cut edges.She was enjoying serging the edges until she touched the presser foot with her finger and then she was nervous. It was hard for her to keep it straight, but she did a wonderful job and I didn't trim and redo any of her cloths.

I did finish the edges on the other 58 cloths so that they weren't left to fray and leave microfiber fuzz all over the place.  Plus, after Gracie finishes her burp rags, maybe I'll make some to donate too.

Next, she decorated each of the cloths with a little applique and/or a ribbon.  Just some trim to make them cute.

This project was great!  Not only did my daughter make some adorable gifts, but she was able to do it for a good cause.  We had a great time sewing together and teaching my daughters to sew is something very fun for me. My oldest is proud of her little sisters for cheering up military moms who are in the same situation she was in not long ago.  And the sewing project was easy and fun!

Baby Blanket for James

Soon, very very soon, James will arrive. He's overdue right now. His mama is excited.

Maybe he'll feel more welcome in this world with a soft blanket.  (I'm guessing he already has some waiting; I'm pretty sure his parents are ready).

I made this little blanket out of leftover fabrics.  I had some leftover dog minky from Halloween, and I had some leftover tan Cars fabric.  Actually, the cars fabric was going to be a dress for Gracie, but I never did get it made and then she lost interest in wearing Cars dresses.  Anyway, I still had it and the fabrics matched up nicely!  Yay for nice big scraps!

Since I overpurchased these fabrics quite some time ago and they now considered scraps, they are also in my mind considered cost free. Free! This blanket cost nothing! 

All I did was put the two layers together and topstitch the edges. There isn't any stuffing in between since the minky is so fluffy already. The blanket is small, just a little carseat or stroller blanket, or a good lovey sized blanket. But it won't keep him warm if he grows long legs in a few years.

Hurry up, James.

*Update:  Baby James arrived on January 8th.  He sure likes his soft blanket!