Holey Sheet!

Yeah, seriously. Actually, two of them. But "holey sheets" didn't sound as fun.

I love jersey knit sheets. Especially for kids' beds. But apparently there's something tempting about them. Tempting to pull at them or poke a pencil through them or.... well... honestly? I have no idea where these holes came from.  I was dismayed to find them. The kid we're talking about here is 4. "Four-and-a-quarter" if you ask her how old she is. And if you ask her how the holes got there, she'll just shrug and say "I don't know." Riiiiiiiight. I know that when I first put these sheets on the bed, there were no holes. And now there are.  Curious.

Both of the holes are smallish. I thought briefly about doing the eyeball thing. But I think I'll save that for another occasion. Might be too creepy at bedtime. We're already talking a lot about monsters. I don't need to add fodder to that.


This one begged me to let it speak for itself.

To remedy the holey sheet(!) situation, I decided two simple patches would work. I guess I could've tried to patch them from the reverse side and pretend it didn't happen, but in my mind it's not worth the effort. Really I'm just trying to keep the holes from getting any bigger so that the sheets will last longer.  Fusible interfacing to the rescue. I keep all of my fabric scraps that have the stuff (Heat n' Bond, Steam a Seam, Stitch Witchery) in a bag for quick projects like this. It's a very, very fancy zippy bag.

For each patch I cut a heart out of scrap Heather Bailey fabric. I could've cut out around an existing flower shape in the print, but I didn't want anything that big or busy. Keeping it small and simple. Also makes it easier to stitch around the edge.

I just put the applique where I wanted it, put a piece of scrap paper behind the hole so that the applique didn't stick to my ironing board and ironed it down.

Quick stitching around the edges to be sure it wouldn't peel off. I'm quite sure the same fingers that poked at the original hole will try to peel this thing off like it's just a sticker. I used a very small stitch length to help keep it on there.

K was pretty pleased with the patches. She looked so pleased, in fact, that we then had a quick conversation about how the patches are cool and all, but if she ever wants to put holes in something on purpose.... let's talk about it first, okay? She thought it was cool that she could feel the hole underneath.


I thought that by doing this I'd be solving a problem and could get back to other things on my to-do list. But now I just want to applique more stuff.  And put eyeballs on something.

The Best Crayons Ever

We don't go nuts talking about individual products all that much. We're not infomercial people. But I decided I wanted to write about these crayons because there's so much I love about them. I'm a materials geek, especially with anything that features a set of colors. We've gone through a lot of crayons, colored pencils and markers 'round here. Some I can stand, others I've looked for opportunities to "lose" as soon as the kids were distracted.

These are now the go-to coloring tools at our house. For a number of reasons:

1) They don't roll. So I'm not picking them up off of the floor as often. Or stepping on them as often because I've failed to notice that they've rolled on to the floor. Or faaaar under something that I don't care to climb under for retrieval.

2) They're washable. This is a must at our house. It's still surprising to me how many crayons aren't. I know this makes me completely uppity and plenty of moms say "crayons weren't washable when I/my kids were little and we did just fine." Yes, many crayons marks can be removed even if the crayons aren't "washable". But some can't. And if (really, it's just a matter of time) one goes through the washer or dryer somehow? Fooooorget it. I'm sticking to washable.

3) There's no paper wrapper. Not only does that make them neater since my kids like to tear the paper off for fun, but that makes them more readily useful for rubbings and coloring large areas with the side of the crayon.

4) They don't break easily. They're solid, but not so solid that they don't color well. 

5) They come in a cute and sturdy snap-closed case that doesn't pop open when you're traveling or moving things from place to place. Or when a kid yanks the case off of the table.

6) Both my nearing-two-year-old and 4+-year-old can use these happily. Easy to hold, easy to share.

7) Because of #1, #4 and #5, after several months of use, they're all STILL HERE. We haven't lost any yet. We've used them lots and there's still lots of use left. I really can't believe they still look so new.

I'm thinking of stocking up on them and then making DIY coloring books for little friends' birthday parties. 

So.... the only downside is that they don't come in an assortment of 72,000 colors and glitters and metallics and stuff. I can live with that.

I Love You More Than __________

I was a frustrating child. My Mom doesn't acknowledge that a lot now. I've grown up and I have two children that she gets to enjoy and I think she's been able to breath a few generous sighs of relief that I turned out okay. So far. In most ways we "get" each other now-- quite a different relationship than the one we had when I was, ummm, about 8 to about 20.

Thinking about her birthday gift, I wanted to make something that coordinated with her quilt but included a message. I could go with a simple "I love you", but I wasn't feeling it. I do and all, but that's a little too straightforward for my family. We deal mostly with humor and sarcasm.


I decided to go with "I love you more than derby pie" because only she (and a few other members of our family, and Adrianna, who said "wow, that's a lot" when I showed her the pillow) get what that means. The derby pie is a classic piece of our family's culinary history. It's rich and sweet and delicious and one of those I-beg-her-to-make-it-for-me-any-chance-I-get recipes. Even though I can make it for myself with her recipe. It's still better when she makes it.

To make the pillow, I used my Silhouette to cut a freezer paper stencil. You could certainly do this design with a craft knife... it'd just take you a looooooong time. And if you're one whose hair grays from stress... this'd further that. I ironed the stencil onto some linen fabric and then painted in the spaces. I've not done a freezer paper stencil on linen before, and the lines definitely aren't as clean as they would be on your average knit tee or a quilting cotton. But given that this is an ooey, gooey chocolate pie we're talkin' about, I decided it worked here.

After the paint dried, I embroidered the places where negative spaces would have been inside the lettering. Kind of a modern, funky and still folksy look to go along with the fabrics.


In making the pillow, I pieced a scrap of one Good Folks print into the band of another on the top edge. And a third Anna Maria masterpiece on the back.



Because my mom was coming to visit, and the pillow was in the works, I haaaaad to make the pie too. If you love chocolate and at least like pecans, you'd be hard-pressed not to lick your plate after trying this recipe.


Pawley's Island Derby Pie

9" deep dish pie shell, unbaked
2 eggs, beaten
1 c sugar
1/2 c flour
1/2 c butter, melted
1 t vanilla
1 c chopped pecans
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Bake pie shell for 5 minutes at 350. Set aside to cool.

With a wooden spoon, blend together the ingredients in the order given. Pour filling into pie shell and bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes until firm.

Allow to cool before serving. Can be served warm or at room temperature.

I hope you like it as much as I do. Which is quite a lot.

Easy & Temporary Garland

I think it's no secret that I adore the now-discontinued Wonderland line of fabric by Momo.  When I heard it was going out of print, I bought some yardage and a layer cake, both of which have been sitting on my shelf for over a year now because I'm too indecisive to use them.

Finally I decided I may as well get to look at all the lovely prints, so I used my layer cake to make this fun & easy garland.  After my complicated 3 day hat tutorial, I decided this was just the thing to counteract all that math and ease us into the weekend.

Now pay attention, because it's really complicated.  Grab a layer cake.  Fold your square in half, so it makes a triangle.  Knot the ends of the triangle together with another one.  You still with me?  Keep doing that.  You're done.

This way I can see all that loveliness whenever I want, all strung up around my craft room.  And with no cuts or seams, I haven't committed to anything.  Though I'm fairly certain that when I do work up the gall to sew this fabric, I'm going to straight up copy this:

{photo and quilt courtesy of the amazing Ashley of Film in the Fridge, who has had the temerity to make something like 7 quilts with this fabric!}

Why mess with perfection?

Military Hat: A Tutorial (Part 3)

We're almost done!  A few more steps and you'll have a fun military cap to astound all your friends with.  For some reason, people just can't get over the fact that you can make a hat.  Just smile, nod, take a bow or two, and don't tell them how easy it was.

First, sketch out a bill for your hat.  The easiest way to do this is to lay your hat down on paper and eyeball how wide and deep you want your bill to be.  Tracing the bill of another hat is a good option too.  Once you have your width and depth marked, connect them with a curved line.  If you're drawing it from scratch, I recommend just drawing half and cutting on the fold so it ends up symmetrical.  Tip: much like the rise of the hat, I found that the size of the bill doesn't really change much from toddlers to adults.  

Once you have your bill pattern, cut out two pieces in your main fabric.  Then cut out a piece of  stabilizer .5" shorter all around.  In my first attempt, I used Peltex 70.  Even though it's an extra heavy weight stabilizer, I found the bill to be too floppy.  For my final version, I used chipboard.  Chipboard is found in lots of packaging. I used a piece that came with a stack of cardstock to keep it from bending in it's plastic wrap.  Basically you're looking for something really firm (firmer than a cereal box) but still very thin and smooth.  This is why you should never ever throw anything away.  I bet those hoarders wouldn't have a hard time finding chipboard.  Oh, you could also try cutting out plastic from a margarine container or something like that.  I bet that would work, and you would know that it's 100% waterproof (though it would take a whole lot of submersion for chipboard to disintegrate.) Tell me if you use it and how it works.

Sew your bill pieces right sides together, trim and clip seam allowances, and flip it right side out.  Then stuff your stabilizer in there really well.  Aw, it looks like a little pita pocket!  I used to love when my mom made me those for lunch.  Random factoid: the pitas here don't have pockets :(

Now sew a line or two or seven of stitches around the brim of your hat to keep everything together and for some visual interest.  Hm, I guess this is where you'd run into problems if you used plastic.  Scratch that margarine idea.  (yeah, I could've gone back and deleted that part, but now you're seeing tutorial writing in action, edit-free, just the grisly raw material.  It's your lucky day.)

Pin your bill right sides together with the designated front of your cap.

Now, place your cap right side out and your lining inside-out.  Pull your lining down over the top of your cap.  Make sure the brim of the cap is tucked up between the two.

Using a .5" seam allowance, stitch all around the bottom circumference of the hat, catching the base of the brim as you go.  Now use that hole you left in your lining to pull the whole thing right side out.  It'll look like this:

Sew the hole in the lining shut either by hand (if you're a perfectionist) or by machine (if you're like me and know that nobody is ever going to see it so it doesn't matter if there's a couple inches of barely visible seam.)  Then stuff the lining up into the hat, smooth it out nicely, and topstitch all around the lower circumference of the hat once again to keep everything in place.  My stitches are camouflaged in my band of twill tape, but they're there, I promise.

And guess what folks, you're done!  Wahoo, you made a super cute hat!  Pat yourself on the back!  Now stop patting and go add pictures of your creations to our flickr page so we can all give you a virtual pat on the back too!

Here's my girl, all ready for her first day of school with her mama-made hat and bag!  (she's totally going to resent me and buy everything from Forever21 and Claire's when she's 15, right?)

Part 1

Part 2

Military Hat: A Tutorial (Part 2)

Yay, we're finished with that stuffy boring pattern-making stuff from yesterday and ready to get cutting!  Grab your cutting mat, rotary cutter, pattern pieces and fabric.  I suggest something medium to heavy weight.  I used twill because I had it on hand, but I think a textury, bumpy wool or plaid would be super fun.  

First cut out your hat band pattern.  Place the edge of the pattern on the fold of the fabric.

Now cut the oval top pattern.  First fold your fabric up like this:

Now fold it over like so:

Now place your pattern so it lines up with both folds and cut around that curve.

Voila, a perfect oval!

Ok, now for the hardest part of this whole hat construction business: deciding how you're going to decorate it.  I basically emptied my whole "ribbons and stuff" drawer onto the floor and started playing.

Here's just a teeny tiny list of possible decorative materials:

-lace or crochet trim

-bias tape

-ric rac

-cording

-twill tape (plain or custom printed!)

-ribbon

-buttons

-embroidery thread (make big stitches, outline a feature, or stitch an actual design)

-felt shapes

-fabric flowers

-applique

-freezer paper stencil

-patches

Hm, just playing around with some options...

I finally decided to go with a feature that I really like on my mom-sized store bought hat.  First I sewed a length of twill tape around the bottom.  Make sure, if you're going to make this type of band at the bottom, that you sew it at least .5" up from the bottom edge.  That part is going to be tucked up as a seam allowance later, so anything on it won't show.

As I was sewing the twill tape down, I inserted short lengths of folded twill tape "belt loops".  Then I made a little "belt" with my twill fabric and secured it on both ends with a decorative button.  As you can see, I put this little feature close to the edge.  You can put the seam of your hat where ever you want, but I decided to put it on the side, so that little belt feature is actually front and center.  Pay attention to placement if you want to center something above the bill.

I added a couple of completely practical and functional patches.

And then I decided I was done for this one.  Wanted to keep it nice and simple and neutral so it would match everything she wears.  But I'm planning a crazier version for next time!  When you decide you're done, you can go ahead and sew the band right sides together.  I decided to insert a short length of crochet trim as I did this as a little accent and to disguise the seam.

Now sew the oval top to your hat band, right sides together.  This might take a little pinning and finagling, since you're stitching a curve to a straight edge, but go slowly and keep the edges lined up and you'll be fine.  If you end up with a small little tuck or gather, don't sweat it.  My store-bought hat has a little tuck in it too.  If it's good enough for Target, it's good enough for me.

Now you'll need to pull out some lighter weight fabric for the lining.  Make it match, or put a crazy print in there for a little surprise.

Cut out another band and oval from your lining fabric and stitch them together the same way you just did for the hat.  BUT, leave a gap in your stitches as you're sewing the band to the oval.  3 inches or so is fine.  You need this hole to pull it right side out later.

Almost there!  Now that you've had your fun decorating, come back tomorrow to see how to put the whole thing together!

Part 1

Part 3