Our Second #CrafttheParcel Sprocket Quilt Square

A few weeks ago we took part in a craft challenge for new postal service, InPost. Along with a group of other bloggers we had to design and make a 12″ quilt square, sew it onto the last person’s square and pass the quilt onto the next blogger. The #CrafttheParcel challenge, as it’s called, is a fun way to meet new crafty bloggers and try out a new postal service.

For our first square we decided to use applique to create a starry scene. We wanted to try something different for this square so choose to create a colourful sprocket effect rainbow square.

The postal service behind this challenge, Inpost, is an alternative way of sending packages through the use of a locker system. You pay for your parcel and book a courier online, then they deliver it to one of the lockers around the country for the recipient to collect.

When the quilt arrived one other blogger had created their masterpiece and it was over to me to add my colourful addition.

To make a sprocket square…

1.  Begin by cutting a paper triangle template that is 10 inches in height and 8 inches along the bottom.

2.  Next, cut out 8 different colours of fabric adding 1cm seam allowance all the way round.

3. Pin and sew together, in pairs, right sides together.

 4. Sew these pairs together to form two pieces each made of four triangles.

5. You’ll then have a nice straight edge to sew the two halves up. Pin, right sides together, and sew. Don’t worry if the centre is not completely lined up, that’s the beauty of putting a button on top of it!

6. To turn our fabric into a 12″ quilt square we drew and cut a square slightly bigger (to allow for the seam) and cut it out.

6. Cut a piece of wadding 14 inches square. Pin to the front panel and sew along the lines from centre outwards to quilt it.

7. The final touch is to sew a button onto the middle.

The square was packaged up and sent with the rest to Michelle at the Purple Pumpkin Blog for the crafty challenge to continue!

Nap Time Crafts: A Magnetic Pin Cushion

This little make evolved as a result of two problems. 1, I didn’t have a pin cushion – I was using a toy owl, poor little voodoo massacred thing – and 2, I kept dropping my pins on the floor. Probably 2 was a result of 1. I’d seen these magnetic pin trays and I thought it would be nice to combine something like that with a pin cushion. Voila!

Its easy to make a magnetic pin cushion. It took me half an hour, clay drying time aside. Which made me feel guilty about using an owl for all those years…

You will need: 

• fabric
• stuffing
• air dry clay (I used DAS)
• cookie cutter
• magnetic sheets
• Embroidery thread
• felt scraps
• button
• superglue

1. First you need to make the weighted part, so get a lump of clay the size of a golf ball, roll it in your palms then squash it into a cookie cutter. Remove the cutter and leave it overnight to dry out.

 

2. Cut a rough circle of fabric measuring 6″ in diameter. Tie a knot in the end of the embrodiery thread and stitch it all the way round the fabric.

 

3. Place the stuffing in the middle of the fabric, then put the clay on top. Pull the thread tight around the bundle then stitch a few times across the bottom until it is secure.

 

4. You will now have a neat little ball, very tempting for little hands (I know this isn’t relevent but I couldn’t help it. Sorry!)

 

5. Take a bottle top (measuring about 1.5″) and draw around it on the magnetic sheet. Cut it out and glue it to the bottom of the cushion.

 

6. Make embellishments for the top of the cushion – I cut out scraps of felt and glued them on top with a button.

 

 

Tia x

Applique Skirt and Braces DIY

We are big fans of the clothing range Little Bird here at Little Button Diaries. So much so that we would happily buy the entire range every time a new season comes out. After I spotted this adorable skirt with braces in the latest collection, I decided I wanted to try to make my own variation in blue, to fit with my Little Button’s wardrobe.

For this project you will need:

• Half a metre of lining fabric
• Half a metre of cord fabric
• Matching sewing thread
• Elastic
• Two buttons
• Bondaweb
• Scraps for fabric for appliqué

1. Begin by measuring your child’s waist. Next, measure from their waist down to their knees. Make a note of these measurements.

2. Cut your cord and lining fabric out into two rectangles. For the width of the fabric, use the waist measurement plus half the waist again. For the length of the material use the other measurement and add on three inches.

3. Next make the waistband. I tried a new type of waistband for me, one which has an elastic back panel and a flat front panel. This is made up of two tubes of fabric, one with elastic in, which are then sewn together. Cut two lengths of fabric that are 3 inches wide. For the length you need to cut it half the waist measurement of your child and add on five inches.

4. Press both tubes wrong sides together and sew one along the long edge with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

5. Next, cut your elastic. The measurement for this is the total length of the front panel plus an inch. Thread your elastic through the tube and gather the tube to fit the elastic. Sew in place at both ends with a zig zag stitch.

6. Turn the raw edges of each of the tubes under and sew the two pieces together at each end by tucking the elastic piece inside the flat piece.

7. To make the skirt, fold your cord material right sides together and sew in place with a half-inch seam allowance. Repeat with the lining fabric and press the seams out. Next, turn your cord material the right way out and tuck your lining fabric inside the cord material, making sure your side seams and the top of the skirt are aligned. Pin in place. Add gathering stitches along the top. Tia explains how to do this in this tutorial.

8. Attach your waistband to the skirt. Pin the waistband onto the top of the skirt, right sides together to hide the raw edges, and sew in place. Use a straight stitch for the front panel and a zig-zag stitch for the elastic back section.

9. Try on and pin the hemline. I wanted my lining to show so I turned the hem up twice (to hide the edges) and sewed. To make the hem less bulky, I cut off the front material then turned the lining fabric over twice to conceal the edges.

10. To make the braces, cut a length of cord material 3 inches wide. I cut one long piece of fabric and then cut that into the two braces. You want them to reach from the back of the skirt, cross over the shoulders and secure at the front.  Sew with a half-inch seam and press the seams out. Turn the braces the right way out and press flat. Using safety pins, pin to the front and back of skirt, crossing the braces over at the back.

11. Now it’s time to try it on your Little Button, and if necessary to adjust the length of the hem and braces.

12. Once you are happy with the fit of the braces, sew in place using a zig zag stitch at the back and attach two buttons at the front.

13. The finishing touch is to applique a design on the front corner of the skirt. For this, draw your design onto paper, pin onto your fabric and cut out. Iron Bondaweb onto the back of your fabric and press it onto your skirt. Finally sew in place using blanket stitch.

I was really pleased with how the finished skirt came out. My Little Button test-drove it at the park along with a Zara shirt and it remained intact, with the braces on the shoulders. Result!

~ Laura xx ~

Our First #Crafttheparcel Applique Quilt Square

We were recently asked to take part in a craft challenge with new postal service InPost to create a quilt with a group of other bloggers, each crafting a 12″ square and adding it together to create one big quilt that will be sold for Charity at Christmas. The challenge – #CraftTheParcel is like pass the parcel for crafty bloggers. What could be more perfect?

Inpost allows you to send parcels to lockers across the country – so its a good way of sending something without having to leave the house. You can pay online beforehand and InPost collect it straight from your doorstep – handy if you’re not a fan of standing in Post Office queues with two bored-easily babies. The recipient then gets a little text when it arrives as their nearest locker so they can collect it. The service is in it’s infancy so there were a few teething problems but we found the support staff helpful and efficient.

When the quilt arrived it had three squares completed. I decided to do a little starry appliqué scene, with added buttons of course! Here’s how I created my square:

First I attached bondaweb (we LOVE bondaweb) to some scraps of yellow fabric and cut out star shapes in various sizes. These were then arranged onto some backing fabric and pressed to seal.

   

I blanket stitched around the edge of each star and popped a button onto the middle. I stitched some straight lines to connect the stars and added a bit of text.

  

Finally, I stitched wadding onto the back and attached it to the rest of the quilt, ready to be sent by InPost to Kate at Craft on Sea.

 

Have a look at the other #crafttheparcel creations on this Pinterest board.

Turn a Photo into an Appliqué

Ages ago, before our little buttons were on the planet (and what a different planet it was…), I did a bit of experimenting with turning photographs into appliques. Iwould chop out pictures, often magazine images, place them onto scraps of fabric, and sew to create an applique like this one:

Flicking through some pictures the other day I came across one of Amelie that I thought would be nice ‘in fabric’. So I made a little applique picture using the photograph as a template.  If you’d like to know how to do something similar, read on. Its really easy (I know, I say that a lot. That’s because I can only do easy things!)

You Will Need:

• Picture printed on paper
• fabric scraps
• plain background fabric
• lightweight iron on interfacing
• bondaweb
• tailors chalk (or other fabric marker)
• sellotape

1. First, find your picture. I think simple is definitely best, something without faces or complicated shapes. I picked this one of Amelie. Print it out to the size you want your applique to be. Cut it out, then chop it into segments for each different bit, as below. You can see in the picture that the boots are cropped off, so I’ve just added the right one back in as I want this to show in my applique.

 

 2. Select scraps of fabric for each piece. Attach iron on interfacing to the background fabric – I went with cream for neautrality. Take the first scraps and cut them down to just a bit bigger (about 5mm all the way round) than the paper pieces. Attach interfacing to your fabric scraps too (to stop it crumpling up), then a small amount of bondaweb onto the centre of each one.

 

3. Now work out which piece you will need to attach first. The picture will be built up in layers, so the underneath pieces, i.e. the ones covered by anything else in the picture, need to go on first. In this case, it’s the legs as they are behind the boots and skirt.  Arrange them on the background fabric. and press to seal the bondaweb and secure them whilst you sew. roll up a tiny bit of sellotape and stick it onto the paper, then stick the paper in place on the fabric. Sew round the paper. Mark with chalk where the next pieces go, if you need to.

 

4. Now snip away the excess fabric, nice and close to the stitches. Then you can start the next layers, repeating the process above for each layer.

  

5. For the coat, I decided to stitch on the seams in a matching thread. I just drew over the lines on the paper with pen and then sewed over the paper, then pulled it away.

 

You can then embellish the picture however you like. I added a cloud, some rain and a couple of balloons to the coat to liven up the colour a bit.

  

 Tia x

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Sparkly Superhero Cape

My Little Button has taken to wearing her bath towel as a superhero cape of late, so I thought I’d make her an actual super ‘H’ cape in case she wanted to practise her superhero skills in public, with clothes on!

You will need:

• 1/2 metre of fabric for the backing
• 1/2 metre of fabric for the front
• Matching felt to the front fabric for the letter

1. Begin by drawing and cutting out the pattern as above. Place the template on folded fabric. The measurements I used for my 18-month-old were 62cm for the total length of the cape and 34cm for the width at the bottom. The cape gradually gets smaller as it goes up towards the neck.

2. Pin your front and back fabric to the pattern and cut out. Leave a 1cm seam allowance when cutting.

3. Snip the top of the neck hole (as per the photo) and round off the edges.

4. Design your superhero logo. I used Arial Black for the lettering (size 400), printed it on paper, and cut it out of felt. I printed a star to the size of an A4 sheet of paper and cut this out of the backing fabric.

5. Pin the star and letter to the back and centre of the cape and sew in place.

6. Pin the front and back pieces right sides together and sew with a 1cm seam allowance. Leave about 4 inches along the bottom edge for turning the cape the right way out.

7. Make small snips around the corners of the cape to help give them a rounded effect.

8. Turn the cape the right way round and slipstitch the opening closed.

9. Sew a piece of Velcro to the neck tie.

 

KAPOW! You’re then ready to unleash your superhero in public! Watch out Brighton – Super H is coming for you!

 

~ Laura xx ~

Balloons Baby Dress Tutorial

I’ve made a few attempts at following patterns to make myself some clothes recently.  I made two skirts and a dress. Well, both the skirts came out too small (I am telling myself it was the pattern. It WAS the pattern) and the dress didn’t fit round my boobs. All that lovely fabric… ugh. So, sod that – I’m having a break from adult sized clothes! But I love making baby dresses – they use less fabric, don’t require much shape and take a lot less time.

This dress is pretty easy – it follows a similar method to the little bunny dresses we made for Hobbycraft back in the spring. I made a dress to fit my 6 month old, but you can make it to any size – just select an existing non-stretch dress in a similar style to get the measurements. This dress is reversible by design too – you just need to use poppers rather than buttons and skip the pockets. This tutorial is for a pinafore dress. The dress you use as template doesn’t need to be a pinafore – it just needs to give you a guide for width, height and arm holes.

You will need:

• existing dress for template
• tracing paper
• fabric for dress
• fabric for lining
• fabric scraps for applique
• bondaweb
• buttons

1. Place the template dress onto some tracing/parchment paper and, using a ruler to give accuracy (and adding a 3/4 seam allowance), draw around one side and along the top and bottom to the centre point of the dress. You could draw around the whole thing but this method ensures symmetry.

 

2. Fold the paper in half and cut out the template. You now have the template for the front of the dress. For the reverse, you just need to trace the front panel and add an inch to the top of the strap, as below right.

 

3. Pin the templates to the fabric. Cut a front and back piece from both the outer and lining fabric.

4. Place the front fabric and lining pieces right sides together and pin along the top, from one armhole to the other (so… all the curved bits!). Sew this together with a 3/4″ allowance. Repeat for the back of the dress and snip all along the curved stitching.

 

5. Turn both pieces the right way out and press.

 

6. Cut a pocket shape from some paper. Cut a piece of outer fabric slightly bigger than the paper – apart from the top as this will be binded. Press the edges in around the paper. Take a thin strip of lining fabric, fold over twice and sew this in place along the raw top edge of the pocket.

 

7. Being careful NOT to sew the lining (I absolutely did not do this…) sew the pocket onto the centre of the front of the dress. I used satin stitch.

 

8. Cut out some balloon shapes from scraps of fabric adhered with bondaweb. Position these in place along the bottom of the dress and press to set. Finish with blanket stitch for a neater finish. Sew lines for the string.

 

9. Now take the front and back pieces of the dress and open them out. Place them so that the linings face each other and outer fabric faces each other (both should be right sides together). Pin together ensuring that the arm holes are matched up. Sew with a 3/4″ seam allowance, all the way along. press the seams open.

  

10. Try the dress on to check fit at this point, and place a pin on the front  straps for the location of the buttons. Sew buttonholes on the back straps and buttons on the front. Use a stitch ripper to open up the holes.

 

11. Finally, finish the hem of the dress by folding over twice so that the lining is visible on the outside of the dress. Sew along the out-turned lining.

   

Tia x

***ps special thanks to Viv over at Binoracle for finding me this lovely star lining fabric on the street! One (wo)man’s trash…***

A Dinky Dinosaur Tag Toy

My dear friend Esther recently gave birth to a beautiful son, and I wanted to greet his arrival with a handmade present – so I decided to make him this dinky dinosaur tag toy. I adapted the look and pattern from one I remember seeing in a craft magazine ages ago (sorry, I can’t remember which magazine!).

For this project you will need:

• 3 different thicknesses of ribbon (20cm long each)
• Bells or rattle
• Green fabric (I used large pieces of scraps)
• Black embroidery thread
• Toy stuffing

1. Begin by cutting out your pattern. You need to cut two body pieces, four leg pieces and one tummy piece.

2. Next cut your spikes. Cut two of your thickest ribbons 10cm long. Cut two of your medium size ribbon 7.5cm long and four pieces of your thinnest ribbon 5cm long.

3. Pin the ribbons onto one of the body pieces with the largest ones at the top and getting progressively thinner. Space them out as evenly as you can. Point the ribbons downward so when you turn the dinosaur the right way out, they are sticking up. Next, pin the other body piece of fabric on top right sides together. Sew with a quarter-inch seam allowance starting at the tail and ending at the neck.

4. Make small cuts in the corners to ease them out. Turn the body the right way out.

5. Pin the tummy piece to the bottom of the body pieces and sew, leaving a 5cm gap so the dinosaur can be stuffed. Make small snips along the seam on any curves.

6. To make the legs, begin by folding and pinning each leg right sides together. Sew around the curved edges leaving a small gap for turning. Next, fold each corner of the leg diagonally and sew across. This gives a base to the legs so the dinosaur will stand up. Repeat with the other three legs and turn them the right way out.

 

7. To get the positioning even, sew the legs into place before stuffing. Then stuff the body and legs of the dinosaur and add any bells/rattles into the middle of the body. Sew up the holes using white thread and slip stitch.

8. Embroider on a cheeky face. Use French knots for the eyes and backstitch for the smile.

Roar-tastic!

 ~ Laura xx ~

How to Make a Ruffle skirt

I’m a big fan of making clothes without a pattern. I’m just not good at following instructions. The last two patterns I followed were for skirts, and both of them came out too small (what did I do wrong? Did I just get too fat in the making process?! Blame the pattern, blame the pattern…). Its really easy to make kids clothes without patterns because they don’t need a lot of shape. I made Amelie a little ruffle skirt and it took less than an hour – this is a really simple little project. The same principles would apply for making an adult version. All you need is a button and some fabric – half a metre would do for a toddler.

How to Make it

1. First take the waist measurement and double it. You could add more, or less, depending on the amount of ruffle you want. Now cut a piece of fabric to this width by the length you want the skirt to be (plus an inch for the hem). Now cut the waistband – this should measure 3″ by the waist measurement (plus 2″)

Do the hem and seams first. Take one of the long edges and turn under twice. Press, pin and sew. Do the same with each edge of the fabric so that only the top of the skirt has a raw edge.

 

Now to ruffle and gather the fabric. Oooh this is a fun bit! Set your sewing machine on the longest straight stitch length (3 or 4). Pull the machine thread so there is a lot of excess.

Sew two lines of stitching along the top of the skirt 1/2″ and 3/4″ from the top of the fabric. When you get to the end, cut the thread so that there is a long tail once more (at least 4″).

Now take the top threads on one end with your right hand and pull the fabric towards you with the other hand. Do the same on the other side. Once the length of the fabric has reduced by half, tie each of the ends to secure.

 

Adjust the ruffles so that they are even across the skirt. Secure them in place by sewing once more over the bottom row of stitches (set your machine back to a normal stitch length for this).

Take the strip of wasitband fabric and press a fold 1/4″ along each length. Fold again, in half lengthways, and press once more. Position and pin along the top of the skirt, leaving an inch at each end of the skirt.

 

Sew in place with a neat stitch.

Okay, this is the hardest bit of all. Get your toddler to try the dress on for size. For me, this took about an hour. And a box of raisons. Place pins on the edges of the waistband based on the fitting to work out where to put the button. Tuck the raw edges of the waistband in and sew. Sew on a button and button hole.

 Take the two side seams and place one side over the other. Sew the two sides together with a neat top stitch.

  

If you like you can finish the hem with some pretty embroidery stitches (I have a new machine… EVERYTHING now has pretty stitches on it).

You’re finished! Get your toddler to try… no, put it in the cupboard and go and have a cup of tea.

Tia x

   

p.s. the final look isn’t as puffy as it looks in the picture… it was a windy day!

 

How to Make a Retro Telephone Soft Toy

My toddler is a little bit obsessed with our retro red telephone at the moment. She wanders over to it, picks up the handset, says ‘hello’ then wanders off. So I thought I’d make a matching telephone toy for her room so she can catch up with all her chums and hopefully leave our real telephone in working order.

For this project you will need:

• Red ric rac – 50 cm
• Red material for phone receiver and red circle (40cm x 35cm)
• White material (60cm x 30cm)
• Scrap of red felt
• White felt (30cm x 15cm)
• Red and white thread
• Rattle/bells
• Toy stuffing
• Small piece of velcro

1. Using the template above cut out your pattern pieces. Using the red fabric, cut out two phone handset shapes and one red circle. Using the white fabric, cut a front and a back piece for the phone’s main body. Finally, cut two dials out of white felt, slightly smaller than the red circle, and a stopper out of a scrap of red felt.

 

2. Pin the handset pieces right sides together. Pin the ric rac into the bottom right-hand corner in between the two pieces of material. Sew with a 0.5-inch seam allowance leaving a two-inch gap to turn the fabric out. Snip the corners and turn the handset the right way out.

3. Pin the red circle on the right side of one of the pieces of white phone fabric, about two-thirds of the way down, and centred horizontally. Sew with red thread as close to the edge as you can.

4. Pin the two pieces of phone body fabric right sides together. Pin the other end of the ric rac into the bottom right-hand corner of the fabric. Make sure the phone handset and the rest of the ric rac is tucked out of the way, inside the phone, so they don’t get caught when sewing. Start at the bottom of the phone and sew with a 0.5-inch seam allowance. Leave a 3-inch gap at the bottom, snip the corners and turn it all the right way out.

5. Stuff the phone handset and body of the telephone with toy stuffing so it is nice and cuddly.  Add bells to the body of the phone for a ‘ringing’ effect, pushing them into the centre. Sew up the gaps of the phone and handset using a slip stitch with white thread.

6. Using bondaweb, iron the two white dial pieces together. This is to make them stronger. Cut 11 number holes out of your white dial, each around the size of a 5p piece, using a small pair of sharp scissors. Using backstitch, hand sew the red stopper piece onto the white dial.

7. In the centre of the white dialling part, cut a line about one cm long. Pin the dial piece onto the red circle on the front of the phone.

8. Pin the red button over the white dial piece and sew in place. Check the dial can turn with ease; if it can’t, make the hole a little bigger.

9. Finally, add a little piece of velcro to both the handset and the body of the phone, so that your Little Button can hang up when she’s finished her call. Happy dialling!

 

~ Laura xx ~