Happy Easter weekend!

I'll catch up someday, but here's a quickie if you're running late on Easter gift ideas. Grab a toilet paper tube, some felt, and some craft glue. Cut two ears, two arms, circles for eyes, and some big feet from felt. Glue onto tube. Add a pompom tail, and voila! -- an Easter bunny gift holder. Fill it with jelly beans, socks, or anything else that's small and fits into a tp tube!

I have to admit, this was E's idea ... and she did most of the gluing together. I think it took us all of 10 minutes to make, and she just plain loves it. If I ever have the time someday (IF!), I could do a tutorial, but I know that the rest of you can duplicate this pretty easily yourselves.

Have a happy Easter!

Yummy felt foods

Sorry to leave y'all hanging, but now that the birthday girl has opened her present, I can show you how those tomatoes turned out and what they are for. I have been wanting to make a sandwich for a year now and found this fantastic tutorial from Tania's Myrtle & Eunice blog (tut is on her sidebar). Hers are beautiful, as is her photography. The tut is perfect, and though mine were not as lovely, they were fun to make and came out well. I just love the lettuce! Oh, and I added a burger and will eventually make some lunch meat as well since Miss E requested it.

To add to the fun, the sandwich inspired me to make s'mores. My daughter was only mildly impressed with the results, and then I realized ... d'oh! She's never HAD the real thing! My description only got her halfway to understanding, so I emailed the DH, who stopped at the store on the way home and bought supplies. After dinner, we fired the grill back up and showed her (as best as you can with a propane grill on the back patio) how real s'mores are made and ... better yet ... how they taste! She was instantly smitten and has enjoyed the felt ones much more since then!

And finally, I loved this idea I saw others making, and whipped up two, one for my daughter and one for the birthday girl: roll, cut and frost cookies! So simple and so cute; I need to have some small rolling pins and cookies cutters on hand for the next gift because these are truly fun. Both girls, mine almost 4 and the birthday girl just turned 3, knew exactly what to do and immediately had fun making their own decorated sugar cookies. What a blast! (I realize these are the plain cookies; perhaps better photos to come later on.) I boxed them up in cute bakery boxes. :)

That's probably it for the felt for awhile, but I do have a birthday cake to finish before Miss E turns FOUR. I started it a year ago and must finish it this time!

Enjoy!

Got felt?

Over the past few weeks, a common thread seems to be felt ...

For two back-to-back 3-year-old girls' birthdays, I made pink crowns to compliment the tutus I had my sister make. The tutus were so gorgeous, and the crowns were fun to make. Fav color for all girls this age appears to be PINK. I've heard that the crowns were a hit with the little princesses. (As were the tutus, of course!)


Miss E collected a few acorns after preschool the other day, so we borrowed an idea I'd seen and made a Waldorf-inspired acorn doll. I never found a tutorial, so I just winged it, but she turned out okay. I was a bit too sloppy on the floss around the legs and arms, but Miss E doesn't seem to mind at all. I followed that immediately with the tiny felt house from the "Toys to Sew" book -- adorable, and a quick and easy project.


... and I've been wanting to do a larger Black Apple Doll, so in between making fairy/mermaid/princess* dresses, tops and skirts, I took another break and made a doll. I enlarged the pattern to 200% and it's the perfect size, according to Miss E, who has been carrying her around most days ever since she was created. Miss E reports that she is the right size to be a big sister to most of the other dolls she has, and that, as we all know, is an important duty! She's got bright orange felt for hair, this time with cutesy "bunny ears" as they are called in our house, and I loved the hair paired with the Erin McMorris fabric I had left.


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* They are somewhat interchangeable, aren't they? I need to get some photos of the clothes I've sewn ... a different direction, indeed. Since costume fabric is on sale this time of year, we've bought quite a bit and made use of it. I also bought a serger and have been having a blast playing with that. More to come, one of these days. More sewing and more blogging!

Princess crown

Today, I was asked to make a princess crown, so I did. Not like I had anything else to do! I didn't have any fancy wool felt; all I have in my stash is the 9x12 stuff made from recycled plastic bottles. Thus, it's not as thick as the wool felt, but it ended up working. The fusible interfacing I have is light/medium weight. Regardless, the crown sits up straight on the princess's head, so all is good.

I found the pattern and tutorial from a blog that many others seemed to be referencing, and it was very straightforward and simple. I was not in the most creative mood for decorating it, but felt kind of Amy Butler-ish, so I used a couple of the smidgens of AB fabric left in the bottom drawer. A couple of felt flowers and sequins, a strip of flower ribbon, plus a cute flower button from my mom's stash (got that at Christmas -- thanks, Mom!). The only thing I'd check closer next time would be the head measurement. It seems a bit tight, and my 3-year-old has a smallish sized head. She says it fits, though ... And who's to argue with a princess?


(oops: updated 7/22/09. I realized later on that the reason it's tight is b/c I only had 9x12 felt, so each side was probably 1/2 an inch shorter than the actual pattern. My fault! I should have added the extra inch to the elastic and fabric, and we would have had the right size! But ... she still doesn't care!)