Tropical Snow in Cairns - a Penguin suit tutorial

Finally snow day has almost arrived!  Tomorrow (Tuesday) my daughter's school, up here in tropical far north Queensland, Australia,  will be snow blasted with real, cold, white snow!  (the result of a competition win earlier this year)

Everyone is very excited - me included! I mean how often will we ever get snow in Cairns???

It's an early start to the day - up at 5am, and out with our warm clothes, hats, gloves etc - in 30C heat!!  And of course my camera!

As part of this special snow day, which will be televised here in Australia on the Today breakfast show on Channel Nine this morning;  all of the prep students (4 and 5 year olds) are dressing as penguins  and will have a penguin breakfast in the snow.

I was asked to make 36 penguin suits and I'm so looking forward to seeing all those little penguins waddling about in the snow!

Here's what one looks like (in school uniform!)

The penguins today will be wearing black sleeved tops and tropical shorts underneath - so the overall effect should be better.  And the actual orange beaks are brighter than this one:

Here's the pile of suits - ready to be worn!

For now - here's a tutorial on how to make a penguin suit like this.  When I get home later - I will post photos of the actual penguins having fun in the snow!!

I wanted the suits to be easy for the kids to take on and off and able to be worn over their clothes.  So I decided to make a simple sandwich-board type suit:

First of all, the materials:

Black for the main body and hood:

Main body: 2 pieces - 50cm x 36cm

Hood:  2 pieces - 20cm x 30cm

Wings: 2 pieces - 30cm x 12cm

White for tummy and underwings:

Tummy - 36cm x 28cm

Underwings: 2 pieces - 30cm x 12cm

Orange and stiffening for beak

2 triangles - 24cm base, 14cm high

1 triangle of stiffening, same size

First cut your white tummy piece into an oval as large as possible - I folded the fabric in half so that it was even on both sides.  Then place the white oval on one of the black main body pieces and pin then stitch in place using a zig zag stitch:

Then place the 2 black main body pieces right sides together and join just 3cm across each top corner (the shoulder pieces) Leaving the top open most of the way across for the neck hole.

Then open the 2 pieces out into one large rectangle and neaten all 4 edges with either an overlocker (serger) or for a nicer finish - double turn and stitch.

Next the wings:

Place the black and white parts of the wings on top of one another like this:

Then fold each double layer in half lengthways, and cut in a curve to form the wingtips:

Open out and pin the white and black pieces together:

Then stitch around the edges, leaving a small opening at the top flat end to turn them out:

When you have stitched both wings, turn them right sides out and pin then stitch to the shoulders of the main body:

Now to the hood:

First the beak. 

Layer the 3 triangles with the stiffening on the bottom and 2 orange pieces on top (right sides together).  Pin and stitch along the two shorter edges of the triangle:

Turn right sounds out and press flat.

Now the hood - I forgot to take a picture of the pieces, but you need to cut the 2 rectangles you have into a hood shape, with the short edge on the bottom, then stitch together:

Here's a drawing :

I joined them using my overlocker - so this finished the edge of nicely too.  If you don't have an overlocker you could do a french seam, or put a row of zig zag stitching close to the seam and trim.

Then you need to pin then stitch the beak to the open hood centrally - right sides together:

Then finish the edges of the hood on either side of the beak by double turning under and stitching.

Next you need to put a row of large stitching across the bottom of the hood itself and pull one end of the stitching to gather the fabric so that it's the same length as the back of the neck hole you've left in the main penguin body.

Then pin it on - right sides together and stitch into place.

You then need to double turn and stitch the front of the neck hole just to neaten the edge.

DONE! 

This fits all the 4/5 year olds at my daughter's school (there are many shapes and sizes of child!)

For the downloadable PDF version of this tutorial, click here.

I didn't take as many detailed photos as I usually do for my tutorials, but hopefully there's enough info here for anyone who wants to try making their own penguin suits!

Go here to see the penguins in the snow!

And for over 100 more free sewing tutorials for making all kinds of things and all levels of sewing ability, take a look at 

My Free Sewing Tutorials Page.

Bed pockets - a tutorial

A while ago I made some pink bed pockets for my daughter's beds, for them to store some of their many books in:

They proved to be a big hit - my girls love hanging over the side of their beds to choose a book - and even now - months later, they still put them away in them!! That has got to be a bonus!

At the time, several people asked if I had a tutorial for these pockets.  Well finally, I got around to making up a tutorial, as I decided to make more pockets for the spare bedroom bed to accomodate the girls growing book collection!!

So here finally is the tutorial:

First you need to choose your fabric, and cut the following:



Main fabric:85cm x 40cm (33.5 x 15.75”)

Top flap: 15cm x 40cm (6 x 15.75”)

Inside drawer magic grip: 20cm x 34cm (8 x 13.5”)

Stitch in velcro 10cm piece.(4”)

(the magic grip stuff is the rubbery mesh rolls you can buy to line your kitchen drawers with - this just helps hold the bed pockets in place under the mattress - but you could change this for velcro straps or ties - it just depends on what kind of bed base you have. My original ones had velcro straps which tied around the metal frame base under the matress)

First of all take the top flat piece and make all 4 edges neat by double turning them and stitching:

Then stitch one side of the velcro piece centrally and close to one one edge:

Next take your main fabric piece, double turn and stitch one of the shorter edges to neaten, then stitch on the other velcro piece centrally and 3cm (1.25”)

  down from the finished edge.

Next fold the main piece of fabric right sides together to form the pocket. From the fold to the finished edge should be 28cm (11”).

(of course beds may vary in height - the one I'm working on, where the base and mattress meet to the floor is 34cm (13.5”))

Stitch both sides (I use 3/8" or 1cm seam)

Next you need to box out the corners of the pocket so you can fit lots of books in!

To do this, reach your hand inside the pocket you just created and flatten out the corner with the seam in the middle:

Make sure the seam is central on your fold, then stitch across the triangle  4cm (1.5”)
  in from the point.  It's worth doing a double row of stitching here for extra strength.

Then snip off the triangle of corner just below the stitching, and repeat with the second corner:

Now turn the pocket right side out.  For the next part, I finished off the edge of the fabric that will sit under the matress.  This part will not be seen, but is worth doing to prevent fraying.  Of course it depends on the type of fabric you have used as to whether it will fray...

Just double turn the edges over and stitch:

Next you need to attach the grip material.  Just place this on the right side of the main fabric piece above the pocket-

Pin in place and stitch around the edge.  I found that I needed to firmly hold the fabric behind the needle as I sewed so the foot would move along the rubber grip.

Finally you need to attach the top flap. Place this above the pocket, slightly below the line of stitching from the grip material on the other side. Then pin and stitch on.

Now you are ready to put your pocket in place . Lift up the mattress and place the top piece of fabric with the grip material stitched on where you want it to hang on top of the bed base. Put the mattress back down, and fill with books!

You can fit around 8 large books in a pocket (depending on the thickness of the books)

There you go!

I hope that's clear!

For the downloadable PDF version of this tutorial with measurements in both cm and inches
 click here.

And for over 100 more free sewing tutorials for all levels of sewing ability, take a look at 
My Free Sewing Tutorials Page.

The importance of enjoying what you do! - curtains to tablecloth tutorial

Here in Australia it's winter.  Up in FNQ (Far North Queensland) that means that weather-wise it's one of our most pleasant times of year.  Low humidity, little rain (the dry season in the tropics), sunny days and temperatures around  25C. Just lovely!  BUT, not very conducive to sitting inside at my sewing machine looking out of the window at this gorgeous weather!  

But I know I need to find the motivation to get things done - I can't justify being a stay-at-home mum if all I do when my kids are at school is sit by the pool in the sun and read a book.....I need to feel I'm being productive, otherwise the guilt at thinking of my husband working so hard when I'm enjoying myself at home is terrible!

So, I decided to take my work outside to enjoy and appreciate the fantastic weather we are having, while still being productive!

The task I set myself to get 'A Round To' last week was to transform an old pair of curtains that I no longer needed into something useful. I decided to turn them into a tablecloth for our old round plastic table:

(These curtains have already gone through one transformation - you can read about that here!)

Since the curtains were in need of a wash anyway, I figured cutting out outside, and laying them on the ground wasn't a problem. Washing could be done after I'd finished sewing!

So finding a nice shady spot, I checked the curtains would fit around the whole table:

Then letting them hang to the ground where I wanted the tablecloth to reach to,

I just cut around leaving a large overlap from there I figured the join would be.  I did this for both curtains:

Next was to use the remaining top part of the curtains to cut the round table top part.

One curtain for each side:

So now I had all the parts for the tablecloth, they just needed putting together:

At this point I allowed myself to be a little distracted, by a beautiful pink flower in the secret garden..

And looking up at our palm tree with the stunning clear blue sky background:

But back to the sewing!

Next I pinned the top parts together along the straight join at the centre of the table. 

 I put in two pins to make sure and leave a gap in the centre that will allow me to use the tablecloth on the table in the future if I decide to get a sun umbrella to go over it! (pole would slot through the hole in the top centre of the table):

Once I'd stitched the top together (a brief interlude out of the fresh-air into my sewing room), I placed the fabric upside-down back on the table outside, and pinned the drops to the top, again inside out:

Once that was pinned, it was inside for the last time to stitch it, then back outside to trim the seams, then test it on the table!

Perfect!  Then I just needed to throw it in the washing machine and I'll give it a good iron before using it out our next market stall!

I really enjoyed doing this project outside.  I think it's really important to remember and enjoy all the good things we have in our lives - not just take them for granted and plan to enjoy them another day!

To end, I want to add a quote from the little book of inspiration I won in a giveaway :

"When faced with a problem, free your mind and think creatively - the possibilities will be endless."

I hope you all have a great day!