Creating my way to Success: sewing for kids

Showing posts with label sewing for kids. Show all posts

Tomato Pincushions

When browsing the internet, deciding what kind of pincushion to make for my girls, I found lots of pictures of tomato pincushions. I'd actually never seen one before, but have since learned that many original pincushions were tomato shaped, and many people still have tomato pincushions passed down through generations of sewers!

So not only are they a traditional type of pincushion, but I also learned that a red tomato at a window helps ward off evil spirits, and one on the mantel piece attracts wealth and abundance! (Source)

So this definitely seemed a good choice of pincushion to make for my girls.

I found this brilliant video tutorial from Martha Stewart showing how simple it is to make one. Take a look...

Aren't they just the cutest, simplest pincushions ever?

I made one each for my girls

as part of sewing kit bag gift sets that I made for each of them

I gave them these gifts to say thank you for being such awesome pattern testers for my new e-book.

Have you ever seen a tomato pincushion? Or do you have one of your own perhaps?

Personalised Needle Book - A Tutorial

I made these needle books for my girls as part of a sewing kit gift I made to say thank you for pattern testing the tutorials in

my new e-book.

They are super simple to make. I used denim scraps from old jeans (white and blue) which makes the needle cases nice and sturdy.

To make this needle book you will need,

1 piece main outer fabric 16 x 10 cm (6.25 x 4")

1 piece inner fabric 20 x 14 cm (8 x 5.5")

Scrap inner fabric and fusible webbing for initial

2 pieces felt for pages 12 x 8 cm (4.75 x 3.25")

1 piece stitch in velcro 2.5 cm (1") long

First iron your fusible webbing to your fabric scrap, draw the mirror image of your initial letter, cut out and place on your main outer fabric piece.

Fold this piece in half to find the centre of the front cover. Iron then appliqué stitch into place.

Now place this outer rectangle face up on top of your main inner piece which should be facing down. In this case your fabrics should be wrong sides together.

Double fold the inner fabric over the edges of your outer fabric like this. Pin into place.

Continue this all the way around. At the corners, fold one side in as shown in this photo, then continue to double turn the edges on the next side.

Pin then stitch this 'binding' in place close to the inner edges.

Add your velcro

First cut your velcro in half lengthways.

Then lay one side each on the inner edges of your needle book cover. Pin then stitch into place.

Stitch around each velcro rectangle twice to make sure it's secure. The stitching will get tugged every time the book is opened.

The pages

Fold your main book cover in half and place a pin in the centre.

Then take your two felt rectangles and fold them in half both together and place a pin in the middle.

Now place your felt pages inside your needle book cover, matching up your centre pins.

Stitch into place along the pin lines.

That is your needle case finished and ready to add pins to.

I used the same fabrics as the girls sewing kit bags for these needle cases, so that everything matches.

My girls love their sewing kids and needle cases - I'm looking forward to doing lots more sewing with them!

This tutorial is also available as a free PDF download here.

If you want to see how to make the sewing kit bag shown in the picture above, you will find that tutorial here.

If you liked this tutorial - there are over 100 sewing tutorials for all kinds of things and all levels of sewing ability. Do take a look at

My Free Tutorials Page

New jewellery storage

It's the school holidays just now here in Cairns and I'm really enjoying spending time with my girls.

At the beginning of the week we spent some time tidying and sorting the girls' bedrooms. While we were doing this, my youngest accidently knocked a shelf in her room, bringing it and it's contents crashing to the ground. Unfortunately her big jewellery box was one of the things that was smashed apart in the fall.

I could look at glueing the pieces back together - but I'm not the biggest fan of glue, and a lot of the wood pieces are split quite badly, so I think the pieces might just be de-constructed for another use!

So - my daughter needed somewhere to keep her jewellery. Since her room is very ...erm...full, something smaller is definitely better!

I decided to make her a jewellery bag.

She chose the fabrics, and I went back to my own

jewellery bag tutorial and whipped one up.

It has several small pockets on the inside - so all those chains can be kept separate and not get all tied and tangled up!

It's such a cute little style of bag. They'd be great little Christmas presents I think.

I'm getting lots of sewing done with and for my girls this holidays. I'll have lots of projects to share on the blog, very soon!!

Jill

Another custom pencil case

A couple of weeks ago, my younger daughter designed herself a pencil case and asked me to make it (You can see that one here). Of course what I do for one daughter, I have to do for the other.

So this week my elder daughter designed her own pencil case.

She's been away at school camp all week but gets back today.

Hope she likes it!!

Making maths fun - or how I've stitched some fun into maths for my kids!

Yesterday I made a 'lockable' fabric box to use as an incentive to get my kids to practice maths problems. You can read about that here!

It got me to thinking about other things I've sewn when trying to help them with their maths!

First there were the giant foam dice

and a large chalkboard scoring pad I made so we could play Yahtzee outside. Yahtzee is a great game for practising basic maths skills of adding and multiplication.

Next I made Fabric Battleship Folders.

Battleships is great for practising co-ordinates, and it's a really fun game - and one than can be taken out and about to play in the car, waiting rooms etc. For a free printable battleships sheet go here. I sometimes slip word searches or other puzzles into the folders to so they can play on their own too.

Later on I made a set of Times Tables Memory Pockets.

Each pocket has as set of cards with a different times tables on so you can play the game memory with them, matching '2 x 3' with '6' for example.

We had this hanging on the wall next to our dining room table and often just grabbed a set to play a quick game.

I also wrote a free e-book for learning your times tables in just 5 minutes a day, which is available on my other blog - Be our Best. This book includes the printable templates for the memory game.

So that brings me to what I stitched yesterday to make maths fun for my girls.

A lockable fabric box, with a combination lock. I used scrap fabric and an old plastic place mat to help it keep its shape.

Now I'm going to use it to hold treats in that the girls can only get at if they can solve the maths puzzle correctly! I can change the combination on the lock each time I set a new puzzle!

All of these things can be done without sewing - but it's what I love to do, and my girls are always appreciative of things I make. Adding some colour and interest makes some simple boring things just a little more fun!

This is my favourite kind of sewing - something with a use and a purpose. Not necessarily something that we need, but something that we can use!

What's your favourite kind of thing to sew?

Jill

My daughter the designer!

This morning my younger daughter (aged 10) told me she wants to be a designer. After sketching a couple of skirts and hinting that I could make what she designs, I suggested she tried bags or pencil cases (I'd much rather attempt that than sewing clothes!).

So this is what she came up with this morning:

Before she left for school, I got her to choose the fabrics and notions she wanted from my stash.

And then I set to work!

The purple velvet she chose for her name didn't show up as clear as I wanted against the darkish background, so I did my applique stitching around the edges in white to make it stand out more.