We love a challenge, especially a craft one! Hobbycraft set us the challenge of making something out of just a few items selected for us, and we decided to make a lovely little flower pot lady. Mrs. Pot is easy to make, takes very little time and is the perfect craft to do with little ones. For the full tutorial on how to make her visit Hobbycraft!
~ Tia & Laura xx ~
My little girl is in a sort of no-man’s land at the moment when it comes to sitting at the table. She’s too big for a high chair, but she’s too small for a chair. I thought about buying a booster chair – I haven’t seen any in the shops but I’m sure you can get them. Then I realised that all you really need is a bit of foam. And its easy to cover a bit of foam! You can buy upholstery foam from EBay, its really cheap and readily available. So that’s what I did. And here’s how I did it.
Materials:
1. cut the fabric as follows:
2 x squares measuring 14 x 14″
1 x strip measuring 50 x 7″
2. Draw a 12×12 square in the centre of each large piece of fabric and a mark a strip 5″ wide on the length of fabric. This will show you where to pin and sew. Snip the corners off each square.
3. Fold over the end of each strip and sew.
4. Pin the strip along an edge of one of the squares, right sides together, matching up the pen lines.
5. Fold the strip around the corners to line up with the next edge and pin. Continue all the way around. Snip off the edges on the stip to match up with the square.
6. Sew all the way along this line (including over the ends of the strip)
Place the foam cushion inside the fabric and put the remaining fabric square on top. Fold and tuck the edges in. Glue in place (or you could sew it, but strong glue works well on oilcloth and getting the foam in a small hole would be a challenge…) and place masking tape over the fabric to hold the glue tightly in place.
Hoorah! Thats a happy little raised up bottom. One thing I would note though, if I was to do it again, is that it would be better with ties on, as it does slip off the chair a bit.
If you like our blog, we would love you forever if you could take a tiny two seconds to nominate us for the Best Craft Blog at the 2015 BIB awards… click below to vote. Scroll to section 12 and select us. Thank you!
Tia x
Move over loom bands, paracord is the new kid on the block. Find out how to make this button paracord bracelet with our video tutorial over on the Hobbycraft website!
~ Laura & Tia ~
I have a tremendous amount of scrap bits of felt and fabric that lie in a box waiting to be used. After having a Spring clean I decided to use up my scrap felt to make an alphabet for my Little Button, along with its own fabric bag.
To make the alphabet you will need:
To make the bag you will need:
1. Begin by deciding what size and font you want your letters to be, and printing them out. My letters measured 3 inches high. I used Arial bold font in Microsoft Word and printed out a template.
2. Next, pin each letter onto two pieces of felt and cut them out.
3. Pin them together and sew. Trim the excess threads and neaten up the edges.
4. To make the bag you will need 2 pieces of fabric cut to 8 inches x 12 inches. Begin by placing your fabric right sides together.
5. Sew the fabric together. Begin down one side starting 2 ½ inches from the top. Sew and backstitch at the start and sew down one side, along the bottom and up the other side, stopping 2 ½ inches from the top on the other side. Backstitch to secure.
6. To make the drawstring part, iron your seam closed and sew. Repeat on the other side.
7. Next, fold the top over twice making sure the tie can easily fit through. Sew along the bottom of this section to secure it in place. Repeat on the other side of the bag.
8. Using a safety pin, thread the cotton tape through the top and secure with a knot.
This project was as easy as…well A-B-C! The bag is also perfect for storing a few toys in.
If you like our blog, we would love you forever if you could take a tiny two seconds to nominate us for the Best Craft Blog at the 2015 BIB awards… click below to vote. Scroll to section 12 and select us. Thank you!
~ Laura xx ~
… because you can! And they’re easy. Only three ingredients and ten minutes required. The good thing about making your own is that you know what goes in them, you can choose to add baby friendly essential oils and you can tailor them to your own child’s delicate little bottom. I found this tutorial from Ouroutofsynclife.com which I used for inspiration. Heres how you do it:
Materials:
1. Place the baby wash and oil in a jug. Add 1.5 cups of hot water
3. stir it all up with a whisk to combine.
4. Take a roll of kitchen roll and saw it in half with a bread knife. Surprisingly satisfying. Place it into a large bowl and pour the mixture over the top.
5. Leave for a few minutes then pull the cardboard tube out from the middle – it should be easy now that its wet. Place the roll into a plastic bag.
Place the roll and bag in the tissue holder, or another suitable container and pull the central tissue up through the top. And that’s it, all done.
Tia xx
I don’t know if you watch cbeebies. I mean… If you have a 2 year old, like me, you may feel like Mr Tumble is an old family friend and have a very slight crush on Mr Bloom (what!). If you don’t, you have no idea what I’m blathering on about and this post probably isn’t for you!
A new programme, called Twirlywoos, recently entered our lives and both my little ones are obsessed with it. Here they are:
You can’t buy twirlywoos yet, so I thought I’d make one for them. If you want to do the same, read on – its really easy.
You will need:
1. Begin by printing and cutting out the template below (scale the image to A4).
2. Pin the template to the felt and cut out.
From the maroon, cut 2 x body, 2 x head and 4 x arm pieces
From the pink cut 2 x tummy pieces
From the orange cut 4 x feet pieces
You will also need to cut 2 white circles and 2 tiny black circles for eyes, a 2 x 14cm strip of yellow that will become the legs and a few little strips of orange and yellow felt for the hair tufts.
3. line up the eyes and sew to the face with embroidery thread. Stitch on a little smile too.
4. Place the hair pieces on top, pointing inwards. Stitch along the top to secure, then sew the head pieces right sides together, with a 5mm seam allowance. Leave a 3cm gap at the bottom to turn. Snip all the way around the edge.
5. Place the tummy piece on the body and blanket stitch together along the edge of the fabric.
6. Sew the arm pieces together with a gap at the end to stuff – as it is felt these will not need to be turned out. Poke some stuffing into the arms then pin, facing in, on the sides of the body piece. Roll the strip of yellow felt lengthways, pin and sew along the length of it to make the legs. Cut this in half and pin to the bottom of the body piece, again facing in.
7. Sew the body pieces together with a 4cm gap at the top. Turn out, then stuff the head and body pieces. Pin the head into the body piece and sew in place – I used a visible stitch to match the blanket stitch (although it wasn’t my neatest!).
Finally, glue the feet pieces together to strengthen them, then stitch the feet onto the bottom of the legs.
I think she looks a little bit like E.T. and she isn’t quite as rotund as the tv version, but she’s a Twirlywoo, right? Lilah was very happy with her new friend. I’ll make another one for Amelie at some point (maybe…).
Tia x
It was my Little Button’s 2nd birthday recently so I made a batch of party hats for them all to wear. These hats are really simple to make and fun to decorate. One hat can be finished in the space of a short nap.
For this project you will need:
1. Begin by printing and cutting out the template to fit A4 paper. Draw round the template onto the scrapbook paper and cut out.
2. Fold the tab over and glue on the patterned side of the scrapbook paper.
3. Roll the hat up and stick it together. You will need to hold it in place while the glue becomes tacky.
4. Now for the fun bit, attach your decorations around the rim and centre of the hats.
5. I made 20 hats so did an assortment of different designs. I used the pom poms as trim and on top of the hats. I also used a sewing machine to stitch together circles cut from card, and glued those onto the bottom of some hats. Basically… anything goes.
6. The final step is to attach the elastic to the hat. Using a pin, make two small holes at either side of the hat. Then thread the elastic through and secure with a knot on the inside of each side.
They make a fun and colourful addition to any birthday table.
If you like our blog, we would love you forever if you could take a tiny two seconds to nominate us for the Best Craft Blog at the 2015 BIB awards… click below to vote. Thank you!
~ Laura xx ~
We’ve been busy little bees over on the Hobbycraft Blog, doing lots of tutorials for things to make for Easter. So why not (bunny) hop over to Hobbycraft to see how to make these Felt Pinwheels, Easter Bunting, little Egg Animals and a painted Mache Egg table decoration, complete with video tutorial.
~ Tia & Laura xx ~
It’s half-term. and we’ve teamed up with Hobbycraft to come up with crafts to keep your little (and slightly bigger) ones entertained this week. Our first project is this Duck Tape Pencil Case – it’s quick and fun to make. To see how to make it, hop on over to Hobbycraft where you’ll find our video tutorial.
~ Laura & Tia xx ~
I wanted to make something for the new arrival that might help him sleep (fingers crossed!). When Harper was a baby we had a toy with a musical box inside that seemed to work a treat. That toy became really tatty, so I decided to salvage the musical part of it and make a new one for the baby. This toy could alternatively be turned into a rattle if finding a musical box part is tricky.
For this project you will need:
1. Cut out your elephant pieces by pinning your template to the fabric. You need to cut the following:
2. Next, pin your body pieces together and blanket stitch from the back around towards the head.
3. Before sewing the head, pin in the head piece and blanket stitch in place. Sew around the trunk back to the neck.
4. For the belly, line up and pin your other fabric piece to your legs and attach using blanket stitch. Sew the front two legs and tummy part only at this point so there is a gap to add the toy stuffing.
5. Next, pin your ears together. You need one fabric piece on top of one felt piece for each ear. Blanket stitch around the edge of each ear and attach to the head using blanket stitch.
6. Stuff the front of your elephant so he is nice and plump. Then insert your music box and pull the cord through the back of the elephant to become his tail. You want to make sure that you have lots of stuffing around the music box so the elephant is still nice and cuddly.
7. Once you have stuffed the elephant fully, close up the gap in the legs and belly using blanket stitch again.
8. Finally, using black thread, embroider on the eyes using French knots.
~ Laura xx ~
Little Button Diaries 
