Doughnut and Sweetie Cushions

Last weekend, my daughter had a birthday party to go to for one of her good friends. I almost always make the gifts my girls give to their friends for birthdays, but as the years go on, I'm finding I've used up a lot of my ideas and 'go to' birthday gifts.

Pencil cases have been a favourite for many years, and it's always nice to go into my daughter's classroom at school and see some of these pencil cases still being used daily!

So - this time my daughter wanted to give something other than a pencil case but wasn't sure what.  We both spent some time on Pinterest, browsing pictures and ideas, and eventually decided on a doughnut cushion.

I made the doughnut cushion following this great little tutorial from A Beautiful Mess.

 I think I made the hole in the middle of my doughnut a little bit big, and maybe should have used softer stretchier fabric to make a softer cushion.

Anyway - it all worked out and looks quite doughnut like!  I even made a mini keychain version to go with it!

Since this doughnut cushion is quite small and has a rather oversized hole in the middle, it may look cute, but isn't really much use as a cushion to lean or rest on. So I decided to add an extra cushion..

For this one I just made a small 'bolster' cushion then finished the edges off a square of soft yellow fabric and tied the ends with pretty ribbon to make it look like a sweetie!

So a nice, and 'different' gift selection for my daughter's friend.

Do you find you make the same kind of gifts for your kids' friends each year?  

What kind of things do you make and give for birthday presents?
I'd love some new suggestions!

Book Covers - A Birthday Present

Today is my elder daughter's birthday!

This year she asked for something I could make for a present, so of course I was very happy!

She started high school this year and has lots of exercise books for all her different subjects. She asked for fabric covers for them so she can easily identify each subject's book! I'd made a couple for my girls before for different sized books. 

Here's the tutorial for making them.

I had fun choosing my prettiest and most fun fabrics for her.

This one is a final remnant I had from when we decorated her room - it's on her roman blind, a bolster cushion and her pinboard...and now a book cover!

I'm sure she'll love them.

It's always nice to make things for my girls!

She'll definitely have the brightest books at school - and they're not likely to get mixed up with anyone else's.

Do your kids ever ask you to make things for them for their birthdays and Christmas presents?  

Jill

More upcycling - a birthday card

I've been wanting to try this for a while - and finally got

A Round Tuit!!

Our recycle bin each week has LOTS of cardboard in it - lots of packaging. And while it's great that it all gets recycled - reusing things is a step up from that - uses no energy (except my own) and if I can make something useful, so much the better.

I always make gifts for my daughter's friends when they have a birthday, and my girls make them cards.  But this time, I've got in ahead of them and made the card too!

We had an empty cardboard box destined for recycling.

Fabric scraps left over from making the gift itself:

I cut a rectangle of card, and fabric about the same size.

Then simply stitched it on around the edges of the card, using an old denim needle on my machine.  The fabric was stretchy, so I had to trim it a little when I was finished. I used pinking shears to stop the edges fraying.

Then I hand stitched along one edge of a strip of the denim scrap, and pulled it into a kind of flower. Stitched a button in the middle and then stitched it to the centre of the front of the card. Finally I snipped the flower into 'petals'.

The inside is blank so my daughter can write her own birthday message to her friend in it.

So now her gift and her card are all matching!

Now we just have to decide how to wrap it....

I think I might make some more birthday cards from card from our recycle bin and fabric scraps!

What do you think?

Jill

Upcycling jeans again - another Birthday gift

The first birthday party of the year is in a few days, so I had to think of something new to make for my daughters' friends again this year.

This time I made a small bag and matching notebook cover. I used my bag tutorial here and my notebook cover tutorial here.

This year I'm focusing using what I've got - so making the most of the 100+ tutorials I've already made!

Of course you know I love upcycling, so thought I'd use an old pair of jeans for some of the fabric - and matched it up with other fabric from my stash.

The bag turned out really cute..

I used a notebook from a stash of them I bought in the January sales, and included a pen in the jeans pocket on the front.

The notebook just slips into the cover, so once it's used up it can be replaced with a fresh one.

Hope the girl likes her birthday set!. I think I'm going to make up a few to have prepared for upcoming birthdays - and will add them to my Madeit shop in the meantime.

What are you making for birthday gifts this year? 

Birthday Gift Pencil Case

My youngest daughter has another birthday party to go to this weekend (what a great social life my kids have - much busier than my own!). 

So I made pencil case for the birthday girl (that is the gift of choice for friends this year!)

Its just a basic lined pencil case - with the name appliqued to the front.

I love the blue fabric I used for the name - it's shiny and sparkly (and very messy to sew with!)

But I do love the look of it!

Now we just need to get some pens and pencils etc to fill it up with!

Do you make gifts for birthdays? Do you end up making the same things for all friends each year, then choosing a different gift each year like me? Or do you make something different each time?