Tutorial: Santa Sack

I wanted to revisit a tutorial that I made back in November 2011 for home made Santa Sacks.

I don't know what your Christmas was like as a child - but one of my highlights was the stocking. The arrival of Santa (Father Christmas) and the stocking was huge. The stocking was one of my father's thread bare socks (it was not at all attractive.) So when we had children I knew that the stocking was going to be one of my little Christmas obsessions.

Tutorial: No Sew Hanging Tent for $20

We took our basic $20 hanging tent (tutorial below) and jazzed it up into a Frozen Hanging Tent with another whopping $6!

 What you will need
- 1 hula hoop (mine is 65")  - purchased from the Dollar Tree $1
- 3 packets of Ikea Lill curtains - $12
- Ribbon (not too thin) - two lengths of around 54" - mine are from my recycled ribbon bucket - but lets assume you can find something at the dollar store or JoAnn's bargain bucket $1
- 1 yard of fabric - $6
TOTAL = $20
(In this price I am assuming you have a small amount of some sort of glue in the house at hand.)

Tutorial: Four Simple Hooded Capes for under $15

This Hooded Cape (and the variations you will see below) is a really really easy & quick project to make. It is a fabulous addition to your kids dress up box. You can make this cape to any size (even for adults) in under an hour.

Tissue Paper Dyed Silk Pillow

Here we decided to revisit our success as dying silk with tissue paper but this time use the technique to make a pillow. This is a super easy & quick no mess project that you can do on your own or with your little one.

Tutorial: Sixty Minute Split Strip Quilt

And try and say that in a hurry!

Tutorial: Continuous Cable Border

This tutorial has been a long time coming. My apologies. It was back in November 2009 when my first was just a little one when I first showed this continuous cable border and I used it again for my sisters wedding present in August 2012. I have received so many e-mails asking for the pattern. Here is the pattern that I will leave up for the month of March on the blog before putting a PDF version it in my Etsy store. If you would like a PDF version of the pattern e-mailed to you during March - please let me know.

I haven't done much hand knitting for a longtime. My little bunnies are SO fascinated by knitting needles and the wonder of throwing a ball of yarn around - I can't tell you how many times I accidentally left the knitting within arm reach of one of them and they pulled the needles out! You would have thought I would have learnt after the first occurrence of needle pulling - but apparently not!

Continuous Cable Border Pattern

Tie Dye Sharpie T-shirt

I first saw this at Fun at Home with Kids (if you have little ones visit Asia's blog - you will never be stuck for ideas with your littles again!). As soon as I saw this idea and the results I really wanted to make a kids art quilt with this method - but first we tried T-shirts to see if we liked the results.

You draw on the fabric with the sharpies and then drizzle rubbing alcohol over the drawings - it is nothing more complicated than that. 

 

We liked the results A LOT!

The bunnies had a surprisingly long amount of concentration for using Mummy's 'special pens' and being allowed to draw on clothes (something I would never ever allow normally.)

Here are their t-shirts after they had finished drawing on them.

(Bunny #2 - 2 years old)

 (Bunny #1 - 4 years old)

Then it was time to add the magic water (rubbing alcohol - again something I would never let them get their hands on!) The colors spread so prettily - and they kept spreading & changing.  

At this point my 1st little bunny lost it completely insisting that her sister's t-shirt was much prettier than hers. She finally recovered for the photo shoot. Though I have to say - for a 2 year old I think her t-shirt more than rocks!

The dried t-shirts really are so pretty - even my husband (who rarely comments on such projects) said how pretty he thought they were.

I used a packet of (Sharpie Fine-Tip 80's Glam - pack of 24 sharpies). I have many fabric projects lined up for these guys. The project was really fun and practically no mess - only a bit of sharpie on the fingers. I would recommend this to anyone of any age!

Two-tone Playsiks

Our coffee filter butterfly tree has gotten many a compliment (we sadly just took it down to make our Halloween tree.) If you remember we made many of our beautiful butterflies by simply dipping and hanging our coffee filters in liquid watercolors. I know I must seem mildly obsessed by dying silks but it did make me wonder if we could make play silks this way. Just dip the silk in two pots and let it sit there and soak up the colors.

In each container is filled with approx 16oz of hot water, 6oz of vinegar & a good squirt or more of food coloring. You can read more about dying play silks with kid friendly dyes here, here & here.

We left the silks to soak for 30mins or so.

The results were really quite pretty - I gave into the imperfections in the color and enjoyed the design that the process resulted in. 

 

Here is Bunny #1 running around the garden pretending to be a butterfly. 

They also make really pretty neck scarfs.

Other dyeing fun we have had:
Tissue Dyed Silk Pillows
Two Tone Play Silks
Teacher Appreciation Gift: Home Made Play Silks
Easy Silk Scarf Dyeing with Tissue Paper
Kid Friendly Dyeing - Making your own Play Silks

Home Made Play Silks: Dyes from the Kitchen Cupboard

One of the really fun things we did this Summer was discover all the things we could dye play silks with (tissue paper & food dye.) We had so much fun dying them and then playing with them. Recently we have been playing a with red cabbage water experiments - which made me think what play silks would look like dyed with these mixtures.

And why limit it to cabbage water? In my cupboard we also decided to play with turmeric, paprika & beetroot.

Here is my little chemist ready to mix away to her hearts content with the cabbage water. The pink glasses are her safety goggles .....

Cabbage

• Chop up red cabbage and add some bit water. Bring the the boil and simmer until cabbage is pale. Split the cabbage water into two pots. 
• Add silk scarf and soak for 30mins to one pot. 
• In the other pot add some vinegar - the mixture will turn dark pink - add silk scarf and soak for 30mins. 
• Once your silk scarf has finished soaking in the first pot. Remove the scarf and add in baking soda (the mixture will turn greeny blue) - add silk scarf & soak for 30mins. 

Note: Cabbage water changes color depending on its PH. When they were washed & dried the colors became much less vibrant.

Silks soaked in with cabbage water before washing

Turmeric

• Mix turmeric & water - bring to the boil - add silk scarf and soak for 30mins

Paprika

• Mix paprika & water - bring to the boil - add silk scarf and soak for 30mins.

Beetroot

• Boiled 3 chopped up beetroot in some water for about 40mins- puree everything together - add silk scarf and soak for 30mins. 

Cabbage Water = Soft Purple
Cabbage Water + Vingear = Soft Pink/Purple
Cabbage Water + Baking Soda = Silver Blue
Paprika = Gold (honestly - it is a gorgeous gold hue)
Beetroot = Cream
Turmeric = Bright Bright Yellow (just look at that yellow!! See below.)

Note: After we had soaked the silks I dried them on their own on the hottest setting on our tumble dryer (sanitize) and then put them on their own through a 20mins cold wash (no detergent) and dried them again on the hottest setting.  

I'm not sure we have anymore space for playsilks in our dress up box. I am playing with the idea of making a quilt from these. 


Other dyeing fun we have had:
Tissue Dyed Silk Pillows
Two Tone Play Silks
Teacher Appreciation Gift: Home Made Play Silks
Easy Silk Scarf Dyeing with Tissue Paper
Kid Friendly Dyeing - Making your own Play Silks

Kid Painted Quilt #2 - Throwing Paint

You might remember my girls throwing paint at fabric this summer. Here is what the fabric looked like after we had washed & dried it.

Many of you might not see my vision here - but I decided I wanted to try to piece together curves. I used the Drunkard's Path block - I found this great tutorial at Stitched by Crystal. These blocks were very quick easy to make.  

I liked the circles layout to begin with - the design made me think of moons & planets.

 But in the end I settled on this design.

I am very pleased with this quilt - for a couple of reasons. I really love the fabric the girls made and the way it looks in the quilt against the bright white.

I feel like I pieced the blocks together well & accurately.

And I have conquered my fear of free motion feathers. I have feathers on a curves & bends, feathers in corners - feathers in the middle of other feathers. This quilt is covered in feathers.

Some of my feathers are not perfect - but on the whole they have improved so much. You might remember my feather peacock - which was obviously a good exercise and helped me learn some skills.

Once you have the feather pattern down - you can cover the quilt really quickly. Although I have to constantly remind myself to slow down - speed seems to be my biggest enemy when it comes to free motion quilting. 

I am really liking these little projects with the girls. They provide fun activities for us. They give me something to work with that the girls created. And they give me valuable practice in piecing & quilting skills.

Our other kid painted fabric projects this summer have included:

Kid painted Teepee

Kid painted Garden Picnic Blanket

Kid painted Quilt #1 - Blotter Art

Kid painted Quilt #3 - Spraying Paint

Kid painted Quilt #4 - Shaving Foam Paint

WIP: Kid Painted Quilt #3 - Spraying Fabric

We seem to be on a roll with splashing paint on fabric. This time we used spray bottles to apply our paint to fabric. To say I'm bored of the standard pink & purple color request from the girls would be an understatement. But I like to indulge them in some areas.

I added orange and gold to the mix of our BioColor and the BioColor Fabric Medium and I added a little bit of water to ensure the paint left our spray bottles easily.

My eldest worked out how to spray straight lines immediately. 

They had a remarkably long attention span for this project. Here they are considering what they have made so far. 

They were at the spraying for a LONG time ... it was very quiet. They liked the spray bottles a lot more than the throwing of paint. Such concentration.

We will have to see how the fabric looks after it is washed - but it does look quite cool!

Our other kid painted fabric projects this summer have included:

Kid painted Teepee

Kid painted Garden Picnic Blanket

Kid painted Quilt #1 - Blotter Art

Kid painted Quilt #2 - Throwing Paint

Kid painted Quilt #4 - Shaving Foam Rainbow Quilt

 
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Please do not forget about the charity I Spy quilt - we are still looking for scrap fabric donations.

Kid Painted Garden Picnic Blanket

I am very excited that this post is being featured at Make it Handmade.

My girls love anything that involves copious amounts of glue and spray bottles. This project held their attention for 1+ hours - which I think must be a record for us!

For this project I used:
- a piece of plain white muslin/cotton
- a bottle of Batik EZ (you might be able to substitute this with a liquid washable glue like Elmers) I poured the Batik-EZ onto a craft tray - but I think you could use any vessel as long as you can dip your leaves into
- cotton balls
- spray bottles
- fabric paint - I use BioColor paint with their BioColor Fabric medium - it is non toxic and certainly works!
- leaves & flowers from around the garden
- plastic sheet - I just used a large black bin liner cut down one side to protect our patio
- additional fabric for the border, backing & binding
- batting

The girls were told to dip things into the Batik EZ and then place them on the fabric. Our aim (I say 'our aim' but really is was 'my aim') was to make a sky with clouds in the middle and leaf prints and grass on the outer edges.

Putting the cotton balls apparently was boring and the girls wanted to move on to cutting leaves off plants and sticking them down asap. Once they had finished with the cotton balls I just emptied the remaining balls from the bag into the middle of the fabric - no additional Batik EZ.

There was some consideration to where every leaf or flower should be put.

Find a leaf, dip and stick. They didn't seem to tire of it. 

Everything was precisely placed.

Here is our finished fabric after the cotton balls & leaves were all stuck down and they declared the project to be 'done'.

What they didn't realize was that after lunch - once everything had dried we got to spray everything. I used four colors - two green tones & two blue tones - I also watered down the BioColor Paint & Fabric Medium combo so the paint would be lighter.

My four year old was good at following the 'blue in the middle for sky' & 'green around the outside for grass' instructions. But my 2 year old just sprayed what ever and where ever she fancied. 

Here is our fabric after the spray paint. We left it to dry in the sun & then I moved it into our boiler room where it sat for 5 days - just to make sure.

To remove all the leaves and cotton balls I just soaked the fabric in cold water. Everything came off very easily - but the waxy coated leaves (Ivy & Lillies leaves) came off the easiest. I put the fabric into the washing machine and ran it on a hot cycle & tumble dried it on a hot cycle too.

Once I had added a simple border to the fabric I layered, quilted & bound the picnic blanket.

I don't think you need to quilt your picnic blanket like I did - you could tie it if that is easier. If your children are older you could also get them to outline the leaf shapes with a fabric marker. There are many ways you could take this idea.



The girls LOVED having a fairy tea party in the garden with their new picnic mat.

You can tell these kids are somewhat English by their tea party skills!

After the tea party was over the girls set about inspecting the clouds & leaves on the blanket.

Our other kid painted fabric projects this summer have included:

Kid painted Teepee

Kid painted Quilt #1 - Blotter Art

Kid painted Quilt #2 - Throwing Paint

Kid painted Quilt #3 - Spraying Paint

Kid painted Quilt #4 - Shaving Foam Rainbow Paint

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Please do not forget about the charity I Spy quilt - we are still looking for scrap fabric donations.