The Little Artist Drawing Case

I bought this super cute pattern from CraftApple.com.

She has an amazing blog with lot of wonderful ideas, sewing tips and tutorials!

I made two "Little Artist Drawing Cases". One for Hannah and one for my nephew Max. The "Drawing Case" is a little fabric book that opens up to reveal crayons and/or a pencil and drawing paper. The pattern is very easy to follow and it arrived VERY quickly!

Hannah's Little Artist's Drawing Case

I love the fabric. I wanted fabric that Hannah would be able to use for a long time, so no Dora or Diego this time!

Flap covers crayons so they don't fall out when carrying the case around.

Here is Max's case. Very boyish :)

New Toy!!

Brother Lock 1034D

I bought myself an early Christmas Present. It is a Brother Lock 1034D that I bought from Amazon.com. It received great reviews so I decided that I needed it now, and I couldn't wait for Christmas. So here is my new toy! I haven't been able to play with it, but that what this weekend is for :)

Reusable (Recycle) Grocery Bags

My favorite bag

My Reusable (Recycle) Grocery Bags are finally done! The original idea came from Elizabeth Kartcher and this post of hers.

Here is my fabric that I bought from Joann's.

These are my bags. I bought them (wholesale) through our work so they were only $2.50 a bag. They are Port and Company brand which you can also purchase at Amazon.com. Bags measures 13w x 15.5h x 7d. I couldn't find any black bags like the ones I was trying to copy, so I bought these instead.

The bags are very sturdy and hold 2 gallons of milk side by side.

I used this pattern and enlarged it by 129%. Then I cut out the arrows in each color of fabric. Make sure the fabric is NOT right sides together. All the fabric must be facing the same way or you will have arrows facing the wrong way (I learned that the hard way). The arrows measure approximately 7" x 3 1/2", so you can get 12 arrows on a 1/4 of a yard of 45" fabric. (I'm still not sure why I bought 2 yards of each color!!)

I placed the arrows on each bag approximately 3" down from the top of the bag, and 2" in on each side. I tried holding the arrows down with pins, but that did work too well, so I used some temporary fabric glue to hold them down. I am sure heat and bond will work just as well.

Here's all the bags ready to be sewn! I stiched about 1/8" to 1/4" around the edges of the arrows. It took me about 10-15 minutes to sew each one (I made 10 bags total).

Here's a couple of my favorite color combinations.

Now I just need to go grocery shopping with them!

Cold Seat

Cold Seat

I didn't make this, but I'm posting it for all of you who can!

This is the most amazing thing I have bought for the Summer months! It is call Cold Seat and is a freezable car seat cooler. There are Velcro pockets sewn into the fabric that hold five different ice packs. You stick this in the freezer and then lay it on the car seat while you're out and about. It keeps the car seat (and buckles) cool. I only wish is had little "wings" that would cover the sides of the car seat too. When you come back home stick it in the freezer until next time you go out.

I also bought these small 8" misters at Walmart. I stick these under the Cold Seat, so when we get into the hot car we can get a cold mist of water to help cool us down.

Cutest Reusable Bags!

I bought this fabric to make these CUTE reusable/recycle bags. I love the fabric and can't wait to get started. Now, I just need the bags...

Bunnies!

I made these bunnies for Ernest in Christmas 2006. I don't have the pattern so I can't share that with you. I check just recently at Jo-Ann's in the pattern books, and couldn't find it so they must be discontinued.

Ernest loves bunnies, the color blue and things that are soft. These bunnies covered all 3 items! I love how the bunny friends arms are long and skinny (they are not stuffed) so that they can wrap their arms around each other. The second fat bunny is filled with micro beads. Filling him was a horror. Those little micro beads clung to EVERYTHING. I finally filled Mr. Bunny and it was worth it, he is so squishy and soft.

Here is my scissors (covered in micro beads!)

Recovering the Chairs

I don't think this counts as crafting or sewing,

but since I used fabric, I'm including it!

We have really nice bar stools for our kitchen, but after a while (with two boys and a little girl) the covers looked horrible. I bought some fabric from Jo-ann's, whipped out my staple gun and Viola! Well, not exactly... I had to pull out about 100 staples first, which was NOT fun. I think the chairs turned out great and I made sure to spray them with scotch guard before we used them!

Closeup of the fabric