Posts filed under ‘Toys’
An owl softie for Cameron
I have made some improvements over my last owl. I love the bright, springy, girlie but not icky fabric. And the sewing has improved drastically since the last effort, if I may say so myself.
This owl, along with some baby blocks, was a gift to my cousin Cameron for her first birthday. She was giving the owl hugs before we left, so, I am hoping that’s a good sign!
Tiny project – no idea what to do with it
I had a bit of leftover felt the other day and decided to try and make an owl inside of a tree. The idea was to make a puppet, though it ended up too small for a hand puppet and too large for a finger puppet. So now it’s cute, but I have no idea what to do with it. Add to a pillow? A blanket? A larger puppet/stuffed animal/softie?
Any ideas, dear readers?
Tiny owl
Some day, I will really learn how to embroider
Until then, I will pretend I know how. I had a bit of leftover cream-colored felt, and lots of embroidery floss.
I freehand drew a bird onto the felt and hand-stitched over the top. I thought it turned out pretty cute. Then I sewed on a colorful fabric back and a little piece of ribbon on top, and stuffed. It can be an ornament, a plushy toy, or sit happily on a shelf.
I need to learn proper embroidery stitches, and want to explore more of this art form. Quilting is expensive – I need to include cheap projects like this to satisfy my creative itch, too. 🙂
Meet Rufus, a sodaholic
You know that old joke about kids liking wrapping paper/boxes/bags better than the presents they contain?
Dogs aren’t much better. Ours have more toys that I can count or trip over in the middle of the night. Rope toys, squeaky toys, stuffed animals, nylabones … But what they want most are discarded socks or empty pop bottles.
Glug glug glug
Hey, it’s recycling, right?
Looks like we're not the only ones addicted to soda.
Good to the last drop
Sorry about the lack of crafts tonight. Feeling a bit under the weather and the most entertainment going on around here is watching a big, dumb dog pretend to drink soda. Ha!
Quick, cute baby gift project
Have you ever had a baby shower to go to and needed a gift really quickly? Or just a little something to add a homemade touch to a baby gift? This is the perfect project for a situation like this. If you craft on a regular basis, you probably have everything you need already. The project takes fewer than 30 minutes, and best of all – babies actually love them.
Cute, easy and practical - can you beat that?
First of all, can we mention how cute the fairytale flannel fabric is??
OK. This is a taggie-style little blanket, perfectly sized for baby’s pincher grasps and small enough to stick into a diaper bag, tuck into a stroller pocket or comfort a baby in a baby carrier. Making these is super easy. Cut out two equal sized squares from flannel fabric. This project had 6X6 inch squares. Cut out a variety of different satin ribbons – about 2.5-3 inches long.
Place flannel fabric squares right sides together. Insert satin ribbon, folded in half, between the two pieces of flannel, with tails of ribbon sticking out. Pin into place. Repeat until you have enough ribbon ‘taggies’. Sew 1/4 inch seam around the entire square, leaving about 1.5 inches unsewn in order to flip the blanket right side out. Flip right side out, sew remaining space closed. Then, sew a second time around the completed blanket on the right side, half an inch in, securing ribbons in place so that ribbons do not detach when baby plays/sucks on the tags. And that’s it, you’re done!
An owl for Luke
I brought in an owl I sewed for my cousin’s first birthday (to be posted this weekend after she has received it) to work today, and my coworker Kim requested one for her son. I realized I didn’t have many boy friendly fabrics. So, I broke my long streak of not buying fabrics happily, and went to the cute sewing store in downtown Maryville to pick out some beautiful woolen, brushed flannels in gender-neutral and boy-friendly prints.
When I finished the owl cut outs as I traditionally do, something seemed missing. I decided to add eyelashes and it made him perfect.
The only downside to this beautifully soft fabric (perfect for a baby boy’s hugs) is that it was much stretchier than the quilting cotton I was used to working with, which meant when it came time to stuff him, the stuffing stretched his shape a bit. However, I think it can be a worthy tradeoff for a snuggly baby toy.
I wish I had a better place to take photos after dark – the colors are terrible in this photo. Look at the eyelashes, though!
And on that note, back to the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. Yes. I don’t know which is better – the adorable dogs or the hysterical commentary.
Also, the Purina shelter ads are making me cry.
Another gift for Riley
I mentioned my cousin’s upcoming fourth birthday and the first part of his present here. The other half, I completed Sunday night.
Riley is the quintessential boy’s boy – he loves trucks, cars, anything with wheels. And recently, he’s fallen in love with fire trucks.
When trying to decide what to get him to go with the aforementioned monster mittens, I wanted to get something fireman/fire truck related but didn’t want to accidentally get him something he already had/would get for his birthday. So, after much deliberation, I decided to try my hand at creating a fireman puppet.
To the rescue
If I were to do it again, I might make a few changes. The hat isn’t quite right, and I would have sewn a separate jacket and sewed it on top of a puppet base. Nevertheless, I think it turned out pretty cute and I think a 4-year-old’s imagination might overcome my pattern’s shortcomings.
One of our dogs was certainly fascinated with the creation, though:
Mmm ... firefighter puppet ...
Another Martha Stewart project – what can I say, I love her.
This is a super sweet project, and you may already have everything you need to complete it.
– Pair of gloves
– needle and thread
– Polyfill
– Buttons
– Ribbons
This project, from start to finish, takes about 20 minutes. Project found here.
Whoo-too: How to owl softie
I would make some changes to this softie the second time around, but this is a really simple, quick, simple softie project that requires only a few items that you probably already have.
1 fat quarter
random scraps of felt
thread
sewing machine or handsewn
Ignore the top - yours won't have the same mistake 🙂
Take your fat quarter and fold in half. This should create fabric that’s 18 X 10.5 inches. Cut a shape similar to a gummy drop with the folded part uncut at the bottom. Pick one side of the folded piece of fabric to be the front of your owl. Cut two wings out of felt and sew onto the edge of the body. Then cut a giant triangle to serve as a beak, sew on. Then, cut two large white circles for eyes, and sew so they slightly overlap onto the beak. Sew on two smaller black circles to create the pupils for the eyes. Then, sew two little feather-shaped felt cutouts to the top of the face.
Now that your face and wings are done, fold fabric the other way so that right sides are facing in. Sew around the open edges of your shape (be careful to keep the top feathers sticking out), leaving about 1.5 inches to turn the fabric right side out, then fill with polyfill, sew the remaining hole closed, and you’re done!
The mistake I made in this that I would not make again is choosing to have the hole to flip the owl inside out at the top of his head. This made for an awkward seam. It would have been much better to the hole along the bottom edge. Next time I will do it this way.
For variations, add glasses or even little felt feet.
Modern mind, vintage heart 