No tutorial today!

I didn't work on any tutorials today. I was really productive though. I made three tops today. One for P, one for J, and one for my sister S. I know that P's and J's fit but I forgot to make a photo of it.  S didn't have a chance to see hers yet because she is still at work. I really like her top and I hope she will too. I will get pictures later on when they actually wear their tops. 

I also wrote detailed instructions down for a friend of mine. She wants to make a little tote for her son. She also needed help cutting the fabric. 

I also had to cram in a bit of work at the office otherwise my boss would have complained :-) 

Tomorrow we are driving to Nuernberg to visit our family. There will also be a huge fabric market. Some people might think that I planned our family visit around the date of the fabric market :-) I wouldn't deny it...  I'll post some pictures of it if I remember to make photos.

So have a good weekend and I'll see you next week.

Rice Heating Therapy Bag Tutorial

The Rice Heat Therapy Bag Tutorial is another tutorial that I have tried out for my tutorial month. I found it on the Sew , Mama, Sew! Blog. The instructions are very clear with photos accompanying every step of the tutorial.

I made the heating pad size as well as the Boo Boo bag. The Rice Heating Pad has been used already several times with great success. Also the Velcro didn’t seem to be damaged by the heat of the microwave nor did it stink like plastic afterwards. So it’s all good! 

I think those would make a great stocking stuffers for Christmas. So my dear friends don’t be surprised if you get one :-) 

The T-Shirt Dress Tutorial

M and I had a conversation when I first got a sewing machine about 5 years ago; M said that I should sew clothing. And I remember telling him that I would never, ever in a million years sew any clothing. Nope, I would never do that!

Well, I guess I am eating my own words now. I have started sewing clothes around Christmas time. I got inspired by the T-Shirt Dress Tutorial

on thelongthread.com blog.

The tutorial has step-by-step instructions. But there aren’t any photos showing any of the steps except for when you place the skirt part inside the T-shirt. No worries though – the construction of the dress is very, very easy. You basically take a t-shirt and cut off the bottom hem. Than you’ll take about half a yard of fabric (cut to your specific length) and sew the two short sides together. You hem one side, and on the other side you’ll sew a basting stitch to gathering the fabric to the same size of your t-shirt. The last step is sewing the skirt piece to the t-shirt.

The tutorial mentions that a 10” length would fir a 3 year old and a 12” will fit a 5 year old. I cut my length just a tad different. I made dresses for a 6, 8, 9 and 10 year old. I used a 13” length for the tall 9 and 10 year old girls, and a 11” for the rather small 6 and 8 year. They are wearing the dress with leggings and I figured that the dress shouldn’t be that long than.

It doesn’t take long to make this dress. It takes me about 30 minutes from start to finish. I would be a great present with accompanying accessories for any stylish girl.

The Gratitude Wrap

One of the tutorials that I have been using over and over again is the Gratitude Wrap from SouleMama. It can be found here: Gratitude Wrap (Did you notice? I am now able to embed links – yeah!)

Anyway, I used this tutorial to create the Christmas presents for the teachers and a few friends.

This tutorial doesn’t have any pictures accompanying each step. It might take a few readings of the instructions if you are a visual learner like me. But I promise that once you wrapped your head around it, it’s easy going!

I did make some modifications to the inside pockets and to the straps. On some of them I used buttons instead. One of the pockets is also larger to accommodate a pen.

The wraps were a great hit. I just made one for myself and I made a few extra to have on hand for when an unexpected birthday sneaks up on me. So now I am all set :-)

"Best Hairband Ever" Tutorial

I used to wear headbands as a kid all the time. They were all different colors and widths. They would compliment any outfit I put on and to my mother's pleasure kept my long bangs out of my face. Aren't all mothers concerned with that?! I used to be so annoyed when my mom told me to put my hair out of my face, and now I am doing it with my girls! :-)  

P doesn't keep the hard plastic headbands on her head for too long because they start hurting her behind her ears after a while. So I found the "Best Hairband Ever" tutorial from foofanagle - http://foofanagle.wordpress.com/2007/06/12/best-band-ever/

It is an easy and quick tutorial. It takes you step-by-step (with great pictures) through the construction of a headband. The tutorial gives you two template types - narrow and wide - something for everyone! I have created many to give away to many happy girls and women and even some for myself to keep. This tutorial has definitely come in handy over the last few months!

Enjoy!

Our new Baby!

I was trying very hard to keep up with posting a tutorial every day. Alas, I wasn’t able to on Thursday or Friday. You see, we had an addition to our family. No, it’s not what you thought – no baby - but a new vehicle. You see, when you leave overseas and you buy a new vehicle, it normally get’s delivered by the agency to your place of duty. That can take some time. Last time when we ordered the Jeep, it took about 4 months from the time we place our order. This time it took a lot less but that’s because we decided to pick it up from the customs warehouse ourselves! We left around 01.14 a.m. on Friday morning with a rental. M and I drove up 8.5 hours to Bremerhaven. We picked up the vehicle, turned in the rental and came back down. We made a little detour to Wiesbaden to pick up a very good friend of ours who had sold his car up there and needed a ride back down. We didn’t get back home until 10.32 p.m. It was a very long road trip. But well worth it - it cut off about 1 month of delivery time!

We couldn’t have done it without my sister’s S and my really, really good friend J. They took care of our three little ones and I am forever grateful to both of them. Life sure is good when you have a sister that is also your friend and a friend that feels more like a sister!

So on Monday I am back to regular tutorialing. With that I leave you to ponder if that is even a real word? J

Pink Penguin Basket Tutorial

I am what you call a chaotic organized person. I like to organize things however even after cleaning and organizing there is still chaos all around me! So I am always on the lookout for pretty containers in the hopes that it will help me to tame my chaos. So I found another lovely tutorial for storage baskets from the great Pink Penguin blog.

The tutorial is very easy to understand. A photo accompanies every construction step. There is nothing to confuse you. The tutorial is not only easy but also fast. A basket won't take you longer than an hour! And it is a great scrap stash buster as well!

Here is the tutorial:

 http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-fabric-basket.html. 

Check it out! The entire blog is so beautiful and full of inspiration.

Please excuse the low quality of my pictures. But the only way for me to remember to make pictures and actually post them is to use my Iphone camera. Heck, whatever it takes!

Frogs and Toads jumping all over!

T and J are in their first year at an American school. The switch from the German to the American school system was a great change for them. I know it isn’t easy to be in 5^th or 7^th grade and not always understanding what is being taught. Both make great strides in their learning and we try to celebrate the little milestones that they reach to give them a sense of accomplishment.

The first book that T was able to read on his own in English and actually understand everything that he read was ‘Frog and Toad’. He loves that even though the characters are somewhat different in their approach to experiencing life they are still finding enough in common to be friends. He has read all the books available in this series. That is quite a feat for him because he really doesn’t like reading that much!

So when I came across a frog tutorial I asked him if he would like one. His answer was: “I can’t have just one. I need two – Frog and Toad. See, there are two! Can I have two?” How can I refuse that?

So off I went downloading the pattern at http://www.purlbee.com/storage/purl%20frog%20pattern.pdf. The pdf file includes a little frog poem, instructions and the template. The construction of the frog really is easy peasy. The only tedious thing about these frogs is that the legs and arms are a pain to turn around. But oh well!

I didn’t like bead eyes so I drew the eyes on instead. I also didn’t have beans at hand so I filled mine with polyfil. The kids like a soft, huggable toy more anyway. So there have been no complaints! Rather the opposite – the girls wanted their own sets J

The Pyramid Purse

On Friday we made the Five Stone game. This fun game just called for a unique bag! I searched the internet and found just the right bag with a great accompanying tutorial - http://www.nicolemdesign.com.au/tips/index.html.

The bags of the Five Stones game look like a pyramid that has been pulled to one side, and the pyramid purse is the perfect compliment to it. It is just the right size to fit the five bags and the instructions.

The purse might look intimidating but I promise it is not. The tutorial walks you step by step through the process with lots of accompanying pictures. It just makes perfect sense.

I even used this tutorial to teach my friend how to put in a zipper. She has very little sewing experience yet she was able to sew up a pyramid purse within 30 minutes.

It is definitely a gem to keep in your tutorial arsenal!

Five Stone Game

How often do you get to hear “I didn’t need a Nintendo DS to be entertained when I was a kid! No, I used sticks and stones!” from older people around you?
Yup, I heard that from my dad not too long ago. I tried hard not to roll my eyes when he made that comment. I decided to check out how many games could be played with sticks and stones and entered “stone game” in to my trusted Google search engine since he wasn’t the first one who said that.
The first link that popped up was a post on how to make a ‘Five Stone’ game on the Zakka-Zakka blog - http://blog.zakka-zakka.com/make-your-own-five-stones-a-traditional-game.html.
(What a neat blog with tons of ideas. It hasn’t been updated in a while with the last entry dating 1 Oct 08. However it is full of inspiration and ideas and worth a visit!)

Back to the Five Stone game: You basically make five little bags filled with rice. Very simple, very fast. It takes very little fabric – scraps are probably best! The tutorial is very easy to understand with lots of pictures guiding you from one step to another.

The rules are just as easy to understand. Here are the rules that we are playing by: The first player starts the game by throwing the five bags on the ground and then picking up one of them.
Using only one hand, the player throws the bag up in the air, picks up one bag and then catches the bag with the same hand before it hits the ground. The bag is then put into the other hand. This is repeated until all the bags have been picked up. The player then throws the bags back on the floor and starts again, but this time, two bags must be picked up each time. This continues on except for the third round, when obviously, first three bags and then only one bag is picked up. Once all bags have been picked up in the fourth round successfully, the player starts again by going back down.
When the player misses the ball or does not manage to pick up the required number of jacks, the turn immediately finishes and the next player has a try. The player who manages to progress furthest in the sequence of throws wins.

There are many variations on it and you can adapt them easily. I do have to admit though that the rules that we found calls for people standing. We tried that a few times and failed miserably. We couldn’t even get passed the first round. So now we sit on the floor ☺
The game is addicting! Everyone who has played with us ended up requesting a set for their personal use. I have made 12 sets already and given them away to very happy kids.