"Stick With Me" - Wool Felt Valentine Monster

 I wanted to share this pattern of a little felt monster I made last year for Valentines day.  I didn't get my blog started soon enough to share it last year, so I figured I would put it on here now!  He's really simple to make.  I cut mine out of red wool felt...a front and back of the body.  I sewed around it using a whipstitch, leaving a little opening for the fiberfill.  I also did a stab stitch through the arms, securing them between the body front and back. I know that it says to cut 4 pieces for the eyes...and you can, but another thing I did, was put a small piece of pipe cleaner bent like a V up and out of the eye-sockets. I then coiled the remaining pipe cleaner and glued on the felt eyes (you could also use googly eyes).  Once the monster is done, cut 2 pieces of felt  for the heart, whip stitching around it and filling it with fiberfill.  Bring the monster hands forward, either gluing or stitching them to the heart.
You can make this alien/monster happy or sad...or a combo of  both.  I called it "stick with me", but there's no saying it can't be "stuck with you" as well!☺
Like I said, it's quick to make,  fun and a good gift for a boy!
Here's the pattern.

Feel free to ask any questions or leave comments!
Enjoy! ♥

When it Rains it Pours!

"When it rains it pours!" my grandma would always say to me when things weren't going her way.  However, sometimes when it rains and pours, it can be the very cause of nothing going your way!
First I want to apologize for the lack of posts lately and offer an explanation for my absence.  My father owns a historical building that did not weather the recent storms.  A severe wind storm peeled back pieces of the roofing and left a historically huge disaster behind.  We were not aware of the damage until after it rained for days, filling the building up like a bucket.  When I first discovered what had happened, I wanted to cry.  Pieces from the 18 ft ceiling had fallen down, and the beautiful hard wood maple floors buckled up about 1 ft off the ground.  The whole building was basically ruined!
My father is out of town on business.  So for the last 2 weeks, I have been dealing with this disaster and a renovation team that is trying to determine if the building is even going to be salvageable.  It has been heart breaking to watch them tear everything out of there and toss it into dumpsters....100 year old doors, the entire original maple floor, all of the contents that we had in there.  The news just keeps getting worse and it looks like our historical building will soon be history.  I can't even image them knocking it down.  It is the 2nd oldest building in our town, and it has been there forever.  I have spent so much of my life in that building. I grew up dancing in there (yes I used to be a dancer haha!). I opened my first business up with my best friend there too.  Lots of good memories!

Anyway, sorry for rambling on.
I have still managed to get some crafting done in between the chaos.  I cut out about 350 wool felt covers for the needle felted hair clips I make on Etsy.  (It was actually kind of therapeutic.  Crafting often can be good therapy!)  I also did some needle felting...nothing helps you distress like stabbing something with a needle a couple thousand times!

I had a baby shower to go to for my cousin this weekend too, so I made her baby girl a matching gift set.  I appliquéd and sewed a onesie dress, two burp clothes, a pacifier clip, and a reversible bonnet.  I made everything the morning of the baby shower and still managed to arrive looking like I've slept and showered recently! =)








So, that's what's been going on with me for the last couple of weeks.  Hopefully, I will have so more free time soon, to put a decent tutorial on here, and catch up on my 870 items I haven't read yet in Google reader!  Wish me luck!

Travel Tissue Cover Tutorial

Today was the last day of Jam Junction (an after school program my daughter liked going to at our church).  She really liked going and is bummed that it's ending for the year.  So to thank the Pastor and all the volunteers for the fun she has had, I decided to make little "Bless You" travel tissue covers for her to give as gifts.  I am sure there are plenty of tutorials out there on how to make these, but I am going to share my version anyway. =)

I made them with 2 different fabrics- 6" x 7"outer fabric and 6"x 8" lining fabric.  These dimensions will give you a 1/4" border around the opening.  If you want more lining fabric to show, creating a thicker border, cut the lining fabric bigger and the outer fabric smaller.  For example- for a 1/2" border, cut a 6" x 6 1/2" outer and a 6" x 8 1/2" lining.  Another option is to put all of the lining fabric to one end, creating a wide border only on that end (making that the side you use when you overlap the ends). Confused yet???  Maybe some pictures will help!

I made 4 covers with a 1/4" border. (as you will see by the multiple covers in the photos)

First, cut out 1 outer and 1 lining fabric.  With the right sides facing together, sew along the 6" side on both ends with a 1/4" seam allowance (the lining fabric will be kind of bunched up in the middle).  Once you have sewn both ends, turn right side out and iron. (Here is where you can either put a 1/4" border on each side, or 1/2" border all to one side.  I chose to put 1/4" on each side).

The next step is optional, but sure makes the cover look a lot nicer.  It's time to embellish it!  I chose to use decorative stitches on my sewing machine.  I chose a flower pattern with the words "Bless You" (since these are for our church).  I know not everyone has a decorative stitch option, but instead you could sew on some ribbon, ric rac, appliqué, buttons, hand embroider it, or just sew some zigzags!  Anything you want!

Now that your cover is embellished, it is time to finish sewing it together.  Find the center and overlap the borders on that center line (not overlapping more than 1/4").  Make sure to put the side you want to show more of, on the top (for example- I put the "Bless You" side on the top).  Here is where you would also overlap the one sided border on top, if you chose to put all of the lining fabric to one side.
We are going to make a french seam, so we will be sewing it together how the finished cover is going to look.  Sew very close to the edges- about 1/8" seam allowance. Do this on both ends.  Trim and cut any stray threads, then turn the cover inside out (use a chopstick to push the corners out nice ).  We are going to be enclosing our seam to give the cover a nice smooth lining.  Sew another seam (a little over 1/8") enclosing the raw edge of our previous seam, like in th photos below. Do this on both ends.

Turn the cover right side out again and fill with a pack of travel tissue (Our Wal-Mart sells them in the travel sample isle, 3 packs for $1).   Be even more eco friendly and fill it with washable hankies! =)

These travel tissue covers make a great quick gift idea for almost anyone!  I hope you enjoy making them as much as I do!

As always all questions and comments are welcome! =)