Teacher Appreciation Tote Bag

We love our teacher!  My girls have the same teacher because she teaches grades 1-3.  I figured out that she'll be our teacher for 5 years! Because she got our older daughter in 1st grade, both this year and has 2 more years with our youngest.  Very cool!

For teacher appreciation day, I made this Cat in the Hat tote bag for her and filled it with classroom supplies. I haven't heard from her about it, but the kids said she loved it.  I know totes of all kinds are handy for teachers, so I'm sure she'll find a use for it even if she has a bunch of other totes already. Can never have too many totes!

I made it with Cat in the Hat fabric and polka dot fabric for the lining.  I added a pocket on it and I embroidered her name above the pocket.

To embroider her name, I first wrote it in Microsoft Word, then turned it into a graphic. Then I threw the graphic into a free demo version of Sew Art which turned the graphic into an embroidery file.  I put it on a usb stick and put that into my embroidery machine.

Snappy Boy Shirts

Since I have 4 grandsons, I am sewing more for boys now. And I found a winner of a pattern! Charlie loves it! It is super easy.  Often times, easy patterns look very "homemade" because they just don't hang right or fit or fall together the way clothing should. But this one look good. I haven't tried the men's size, but maybe I will since the boys' size came out great. You get both adult and toddler sizes in the same pattern envelope.

I made one shirt for my grandson in March for Dr. Seuss' birthday, which is also Read Across America Day, and is celebrated in schools everywhere.  I looked at the pattern and thought, "this is way too big" so I shortened the body of the shirt. Glad I only made one shirt with that mistake! The shirt fit him great but was too short.

I cut out 10 more.  I mean, as long as I was cutting... why not do a pile of them? I thought I would give him three, he could choose, and the rest of them could go in my Etsy shop.  Now that six of them are done, he wants them all.  That sure is a great compliment!

I used plastic snaps instead of buttons.  Charlie doesn't like buttons, they frustrate him because he has to concentrate pretty hard on getting the buttons through the holes. He can do it, but he prefers snaps. That's the beauty of making your own, if you don't want buttons,  you don't have to use buttons!

He loves his new shirts!