Spring is here! A flowery brooch to celebrate

My little monkey's key worker (so they call the girl who looks after her at Pre-school...at my time it was "the Teacher") is moving to pastures new. Nothing special there, a part from the fact that my motherly anxiety has kicked in...it is already difficult to leave your child with somebody that is not family for 8 hours a day...then you realise pre-school staff are also human beings, and that actually that is a JOB for them...but I really liked and trusted this girl! so the penny dropped this week, which is the last one at little monkey's pre-school for this sweet girl, who has been truly amazing in the last year and a half and a reference point for my daughter.
I have been thinking about her leaving present since when it was announced she was leaving, and I even bought the fabric to make her a little purse...until I decided to make a flowery necklace for her, which in the end became a brooch ;) - by the way, am I the only one who changes her mind one million times before finally sitting at the sewing table? Sometimes I feel like I'm going to the cinema and I'm not quite sure which movie I want to watch...that same excitement that precedes something good...
Anyway, cutting a long story short, this is the brooch I made for Chelsey this week:

I got inspired by some beautiful hand felted and fabric jewellery I found online. And for the first time, I hand-felted a few little balls of wool. It was surprisingly easy and quick (a couple of minutes per ball) and I just followed one of the many tutorials there are on the web. Check this tutorial out, for example.
I also used sheet of craft felt, various fabric scraps and a button. I started with the polka dot fabric rose, just rolling a stripe of folded fabric on itself to make it look like a rose bud, and fixing it with a couple of stitches when I was happy with the result. But again, if you want a more precise result, there are lots of tutorials on the Internet for fabric roses (this one for example). I then laid and twisted a few felt and fabric circles next to the rose, as a sort of calla lilly and added a felt ball at the centre. I repeated the same with a different scrap of fabric and felt and added a button and a machine finished leaf to the lot.
All finally stitched to a piece of felt on which I attached a brooch pin. This flowery brooch is hand stitched a part from the leaf.

I hope Chelsey will enjoy her flowery brooch, which I hope will remind her of my little monkey and will probably sit pretty on a bag or a coat...and good luck to her for her next adventure!

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Easy DIY monkey costume for last minute dressing up!

So, I was blogging a few days ago about the dilemma around World Book Day and nursery dressing up as book characters (yes, I know I should go out more!).
This year Little Monkey chose her costume for the first time (sob sob! she is not a baby anymore!), so she picked "MONKEY" in line with her favourite book of the moment: "Monkey Puzzle" by the authors of the Gruffalo.

The usual quest on Pinterest (did the world exist before Pinterest?!), and the fantastic and rich creative community came to help. A quick and easy monkey costume made using a brown hoodie and some felt...this is what I needed! Using a brown hoodie a friend gave me, and some brown and pink felt, it took me only a couple of hours to put together a really simple, but cute, costume.
The felt was used to cut out the ears (pink at the front and brown at the back), the tummy, and a tail. I then stuffed and sewed the ears to the side of the hood by hand; the tummy shape was drawn by using a plate to have a perfect circle on the pink felt, which was then cut in half and sewn by machine on the hoodie; and the tail was a simple, long rectangle of brown felt, folded in two and sewn along the longer dimension, then to the back of the hoodie.

And here is the monkey in action...

But being me at the moment, with lots of things to do and running around all day, I thought World Book Day was on Friday the 8th...turns out it was the day before! So, poor my little one arrived at nursery WITHOUT a costume, when all the other children were dressed up...and went to nursery the day after WITH her monkey costume, the only one dressed up....ehm ehm, I hope I didn't emotionally scar my child for life!
For more simple ideas on dressing up, have a look at my post on Children Dressing Up Fun. I would love to see your creations too!

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Earphone tidy and cosy...how to solve the tangled wire issue

Dear friends, isn't it wonderful when outside it is snowing and you are on the sofa, ready for guiltless rubbish TV?? What happens when, instead, your TV only shows you THREE channels, sort of 1950 style, due to lack of signal in your area and the most interesting programme of the lot is a snooker match??? What do you do? Well, in my case, I came up with a earphone tidy and cosy! Since I made my iPad cover (yes, I know, I still have to write to you about it...), the "tangle earphone wire" issue has been bothering me big time. I failed to think about a closure to the back pocket of my iPad, so the earphones, which I keep there, often fall in my bag and become a mess in no time.
So tonight, while a very exciting snooker match was shown on TV, I took all my scraps of felt and started thinking how to make an earphone tidy and cosy. I was inspired by this little rabbit tidy, but sort of made my own along the way.
So here it is, my earphone tidy and cosy. It looks a little like Little Red Riding Hood to me...

If you want to make one, you'll need:

• The free template I have made for you (not for commercial use please!)
• Scraps of felt; I have used red for the outer and yellow for the inner part, pink for the hair, white for the face and blue for the heart appliqué
• A little piece of sturdy but flexible material; I found the perfect material in a plastic disposable bowl. Or you could use some cardboard
• Thread to match
• Pinking shears
• A pair of snap fasteners (or Velcro)
• All purpose glue

First, cut two hearts out of felt using your pinking shears, one out the red piece, one out of the yellow.

Then cut the plastic bowl; shape it to make the inner support part of the earphone cosy using the template.

Cut the hole in the red (outer) heart through which the face will show.

Cut the face out of white felt; this will be slightly larger than the hole to allow it to be sewn at the back.

Sew by hand the white circle to the red heart; I used a simple running stitch.

Now have fun embroidering the eyes and mouth of Little Red Riding Hood...

Cut and stitch the heart appliqué (or any other appliqué you like...) on the front of the earphone cosy, and the hair. For the heart I've used blanket stitching, for the hair I have used again running stitching.

Now place the two snap fasteners on the yellow (inner) part of the cosy, so that they can snap easily leaving space for the earphone wire in the middle. Stitch them to the felt.

Glue the plastic support to the back of the red heart, centring it so that some space is left all around to stitch the outer and inner felt parts together.

Then glue the support to the yellow (inner) part.

Now stitch all around the felt to secure the two pieces together, using a running stitch.

And that is it! I hope you have enjoyed my first tutorial with template; and if you make an earphone tidy and cosy, it would be great if you could post a picture of it on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/virtagegetscrafty... and don't forget to like it! ;)

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How to make a soft octopus out of an old glove: upcycling while watching TV

I really couldn't resist today, I had to post immediately about my little un-winding activity from last night: making a little soft octupus from an old glove!

We will be moving to a bigger house next week, so this week is all about packing and decluttering (and working 9 to 5, of course).

Yesterday was my wardrobe's turn to be emptied and decluttered. Mountains of old woolly hats and gloves and scarves attacked me as soon as I opened the door...half of them ended up in the charity shop bag as I haven't worn them for so long (can you picture me with a pink, sparkly scarf? Brrr...me neither), but while I was closing the bag I noticed a spare, holed wool glove...mmmm...the eco-warrior in me rebelled...and a lightning bolt of an idea hit me (well, almost...)!
Anyway, I sat on the sofa in front of the telly (you can see the glare from it below) and placed next to me my sewing box.



 

I started stuffing the glove's fingers with stuffing stuff :) - from a cushion's interior material

(Yes, I'm wearing yellow Crocs, so what?!)

 



 

With stuffed fingers, it was easier to mend the holes (there were a few of them)

 

Once the fingers were mended and firmly stuffed, I started sewing right at the top of the fingers, all around the glove, with the purpose of narrowing the "neck" of the octopus. The fingers are its tentacles.

It's important to try and sew the thumb at the same level as the other fingers (as illustrated below), so there won't be difference between arms, when the octopus is finished.

Then I simply pulled the thread at both ends, made a knot and stitched a few more times across to secure the "neck".

A bit more stuffing...A LOT more, actually, to make a round, firm octopus head

I sewed around the base of the glove (at the wrist), then pulled and knotted the thread to close the head.

 

Ta-dah! it does look like an octopus, doesn't it? But let's make it cuter...

 

 

Using some felt, I cut white circles (and blue coloured for the pupils) and hand-sewed the eyes on the head.

 

 

...and the extra fancy bit: I applied a felt star I previously made by dry felting

(a technique I've just learnt, using felted wool and cookie cutters as forms - really liberating activity, with all that furious pricking the felt with a needle!), but you can use normal felt or any other decoration/material that tickles your fancy

 

 

What about some buttons (just a bunch of old, mismatched ones did the job) as tentacles' suction cups?

 

 

And there it is, a cute little octupus ready to be played with (...after Christmas Eve, that is!)

 

 

Travelling with children: two 30-minute ideas to entertain them on the way: I-Spy bag and Crayon Roll

I know, the summer holidays are almost over, BUT...you may be thinking of a small trip before heading back to winter life?
If so, and if you have a toddler like I do, you will know what I mean when I say I DREAD travelling...especially flights and car trips, and I'm lucky because my girl is not a hyperactive kid...
So, before leaving for our trip to Sicily a couple of months ago, I looked up on the Internet for ideas of simple things to make to entertain toddlers (I don't like electronic stuff for small children).
If you have time before leaving, why don't you have a  look at my Car Cosy? It could be another good travelling toy...
I only had an afternoon to make my toys before leaving (as usual, I should say), so here they are:

I-Spy Bag

I won't get tired of referring to the wonderful projects of Homemade by Jill.
Her I-Spy bags appear so neat and precise that I would just suggest to have a look and follow her tips on how to make some. Check also out Gluesticks' I-Spy Dry Erase I-Spy Bag Tutorial, she gave me some pretty good ideas too (including the use of a dry erase pen to cross off found objects on a picture).

By the way, I didn't know I-Spy bags before stumbling upon those (I don't think they are very well known in England, or in Italy), but I think it's a simple and wonderful little game, that can entertain a child as young as two for a long time and improve his concentration skills. The game simply consists of looking for some little objects within the bag, hidden among some neutral material (rice in my case, or poly pellets, if you can find them), and cross the objects off a list. You can play the game against time, or you can look for similar objects (e.g. all the green ones, all the animals, etc.).
The bag is made of cotton fabric (or fleece, as some other tutorial on the Internet suggests), and a clear plastic vinyl window (I've cut mine out of a plastic envelope some crayons originally came in), inside there is rice (as said, you can also use poly pellets, but I couldn't find any in the time frame I had, and rice seems to be a more environmentally friendly option too...just remember not to wash the bag, though!) and a number of trinkets I found around the house, including a 5p coin, a tiny peg, a bead...but the majority of my little objects were novelty buttons, which I bought over the Internet. My Little Miss loves to look for the little pink rabbit in particular...The bag is not exactly square, I didn't measure the fabric (yes, I know, terrible corner-cutting attitude), but the finished bag is 12 x 13 cm, and it works quite well with Little Miss' little hands.

Because she is only two and can't read yet, I've taken Jill's suggestion not to write a list and took a picture of the objects instead (the one you see below) before I put them in the bag and sealed it. Then I printed the picture off and laminated it, in a size small enough to fit in the back pocket of the I-Spy Bag (but you could simply print it on photo paper or card, the laminator simply makes it more resistant: you can use the picture to identify easily and cross off any found object with a dry erase marker, and use it over and over again). I made a number of copies so that if we lose one picture we always have a spare.


The whole I-Spy bag took me no more than half hour to make (excluding the laminating and cutting pictures bit!), and I'm so glad I made it (in spite of my husband thinking it isn't a very interactive game), Little Miss' loved it and we spent over half hour on the plane looking for objects and classifying colours and learning new words (including "purple diamond"). And it's also a useful little game to keep in my bag for unexpected waiting at the doctors', at the station, etc.

Simple Crayon Roll Tutorial

A VERY simple project, this one, to make a roll to carry crayons with us when going around (before I used to shavel them in my bag!). Little Miss' loves drawing, so it was a no-brainer for me.
This project took me less than half hour to make.

All you need is:

• 19cm x 22cm of felt (this will make a roll to contain 9 crayons)
• a stripe of cotton (or another fabric that won't stretch too much) measuring 50cm x 3cm
• matching tread.

Felt is great for this project because it doesn't need hemming, so just procede to fold the longer side of the felt by 6.5cm to create the pockets for the crayons.
Pin the fold in place.
Sew the edges of the pocket to the back.
Now sew at regular intervals of 2cm each to create 9 pockets as shown in the picture (you can see mine was done in a rush, I didn't even measure properly the pockets!). Go over each seam twice to make them stronger.
Now fold the other side of the piece by 3.5cm to create a flap that will prevent the crayons from falling. Sew close to the edge along the top to fix the fold.
Your crayon roll is done. Now to be able to tie the roll, you'll need your stripe of cotton (you could use instead a strong ribbon or a herringbone tape, but I wanted to add a touch of pretty to the roll).

Now, take the stripe of cotton, and fold lengthwise as you would to make bias tape (i.e. you could use a bias tape maker, or fold the edges towards the centre by hand and iron as you go...I did it, and then I run to the shop to buy a bias tape maker!!! you do the maths). Fold in the centre lengthwise, and press. Sew along the open edge.
Now you can stitch the tape you obtained to the back of the roll, somewhere above the pockets and below the upper fold as illustrated below.
And that's it!
Remember to take some colouring books with you and you are set for your next trip!

Summer Project #5: Noah's Car Cosy and Race Track

Where do you put your favourite toy cars when you go out and about?
A plastic bag? Your mum's purse? Your pockets??? well, there is a better place where to put them when you carry them around, where they can be nice and cosy and ready to play whenever you are!

The car cosy is the last of my projects aimed at Little Miss' friends; Noah is a great car (and trains, and buses...) lover, so I thought I could create something for his cars to stay in place and be carried in when he was out with his mum.
The car cosy idea comes from the always wonderful Jill of Homemade by Jill. Her Cozy Car Caddy was the inspiration for mine.
However, I wanted this cosy to be also a race track, so that Noah would use it to play with his cars on it as well as keeping them "cosy"...
So I modified the instructions to make my cosy 1/3 bigger (to allow for the extra roads), and added a few details to make it a little more interesting.
I used the wrong side of a denim quarter for the roads, and green felt for the rest of the landscape. A few scraps of fabric were used to recreate houses, trees and a pond, whilst three bottons worked as traffic light.

Also, I didn't follow the structure of Jill's cosy because I didn't have any decorative pipe, and I thought simply sewing all around the inner and outer panels of the cosy (wright sides facing) and turn the work where the pockets are before sewing them would have been much easier.
My denim and felt roads and landscape panel is shorter than the outer panel of the cosy (as you  can see from the picture below) so that it was easy to turn the work inside out and sew the pockets on top.

 

Before sewing the inside and outside panels, I secured with pins to the inside panel a piece of elastic pipe to allow the cosy to be wrapped and secured with a button (which I sew on the outer panel), and added a decorative applique double decker bus (this is England, after all!) at the centre of the outer panel.

Once inside and outside panels were sewn together, I pinned the stripe of denim, with hem already sewn, that will make the 6 pockets for the cars, to the outer panel as illustrated. 

I then sewed the pockets to the cosy all around, leaving the hemmed part open. Then, I turned it inside out so that now I had a big pocket inside the cosy, which I then divided into six individual pockets.

 
The pockets were made in denim as well, and showing the right side of the fabric to create some chromatic contrast with the roads.

The numbers on the pockets and the road markings were drawn using Tulip Puffy dimensional paint.
A word of caution on this method: I've made some card "masks" (see picture below) to make sure the markings were consistent and homogeneous, however the paint often spread underneath my card mask and made a little mess here and there (to my frustration! I really could scream...); dimensional paint is SO difficult to take off even when it's still wet that really you'd better not make any mistakes!

And this is how you fold the cosy once it's finished: