I’m a little obsessed with Hedgies at the moment, and found this idea and tutorial here. I had a shirt of The Peanut’s that was a hand-me-down. It was a nice shirt, but had a boring picture of a strawberry on it. (Not all strawberries are boring; this strawberry was boring.) Anyway, it was the perfect candidate of something to cover with an appliqué. It’s only the second I’ve made, but I’m content with the final product.
I’ve needed a couple of grocery bag holders, and have been looking online to purchase one. I didn’t even realize I could just make one until I happened upon the tutorial. After finding the directions, I didn’t actually use them—I just guessed on what it should be like, made casing for elastic, attached a ribbon for hanging, and went on with my plastic-bag-reusing life.
This bag holder is in the nursery, as I sometimes use plastic bags for diapers that are too full/gross to carry all the way to the diaper Genie. I used to just stuff a handful of bags in one of the drawers (which is not particularly safe once Little Miss can open drawers), but I had a lot of fabric left from making her curtains and crib skirt (and lamp shade…and accent pillow…and this ball).
It’s no secret that I love tote bags, and based on their shape (squareish) and their dimensions (variable), I figured I could make one fairly confidently. I found this tote tutorial which uses a dishcloth but could use fabric, and intrigued me by having a lining and interfacing, and made some tote bags. The only changes I made to the directions were that I added a squared bottom and interfaced the lining of the straps.
I made three sizes of totes, not for the three bears, but for me and the girls.
There’s the littlest tote for the littlest one: 
A medium-sized tote for the older daughter:
And a large tote with long handles for me:
If I could only carry one thing in my purse to soothe my toddler, it would be a roll of crayons. Restaurant crayons aren’t great, and if you use the fancy triangle crayons, they don’t roll off the table causing even more agony than the whole “eating out” experience. There is almost always something nearby on which a child could color—the back of paper placemats, receipts, scrap paper, shopping lists, the paper on the exam table at the doctor’s office—and the possibilities of things to draw are endless.
I created this crayon roll by looking at pictures and hoping for the best. I didn’t know if it would turn out at all, so I made it out of an old dress shirt with a hole in the pocket. So this is a fancy upcycled crayon roll.
I plan to eventually try another one, and will use interfacing (which I didn’t know existed when I made this one), and am going to try this tutorial: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/
For the next one I made (not pictured, but made before my discovery of interfacing), I used an elastic band instead of ribbon to tie it closed, since my child can do it herself much sooner. If I can get quicker at making these (and make my seams straighter), I might make these for birthday gifts for my kids’ friends. Oh, sorry if this ruins a surprise for someone.
Not every baby is overly urpy, though my first ‘chucked so much we put her on baby zantac. My current child is not such a hazard to clothing and furniture, but I still prefer to have a burp cloth continually within reach. I enjoy sewing ribbon on the edges of cloth diapers, which work overwhelmingly better than anything purchased specifically as a burp cloth. They make great gifts, too, as anything that’s a little bit pretty to carry around is a welcome change from a frumpy, sleep-deprived world.
I made it like this: http://grandrevivaldesign.typepad.com/ballpattern1000.pdf
And this is what I imagined in my head it might look like: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=1794
As you can see a little in the pictures, but definitely in real life, it’s going to take another try (or seven) to make it actually round. You can see to the left side of the second picture that it actually appears to have ears. Perhaps I should embroider a cat face on it.
But as a nice aside, I chose to put a jingle bell inside to make it more exciting for the littlest one. I found, in one of my craft drawers, a bag of jingle bells that my mom had labeled “keep these for crafts.” She knew!
I'm always on the prowl for new ideas for hair ribbons and clips, mainly because they take a minimal amount of time to make and because I have yards and yards of ribbon. I found this five-petal flower and tried to create some myself.
I love to craft and create, but have found that I have a short attention span. After having my second child, I found that my attention span isn't the only thing that limits my craft time, and gravitate toward crafts that I can complete in the time span of one nap. I find a lot of joy in making things, so I'm always on the lookout for new things I can make with this limited time (and, really, limited effort too).
There's already a lot of great tutorials out there, so I don't plan to reinvent the wheel, but I'll link to the best ones that I've found. Sometimes things I make turn out; sometimes they don’t. I can sew enough to make things for myself (thank you, Mom, and seventh-grade Home Ec), but am not patient (or learned) enough to be a seamstress who could sell things. Practice helps me improve, though, and I’m almost confident enough to make things for friends. Almost.
