Fingerless Mittens Tutorial

With kids running around and always needing their noses wiped or help with toys, I find myself constantly taking my gloves on and off.  So I decided to make myself some fingerless mittens and thought I'd share.  They are super easy.....here we go.

I made mine with fleece and then embellished with some jersey scraps and buttons I had around.

First, I traced my hand, adding about 1/2 inch all the way around.

I outlined a pattern with marker.  You want to leave extra at the top of the finger and thumb part since it's going to get folded over and sewn.  I made one set just leaving the raw edges and though it looks okay, it doesn't hold up well over time. 

Fleece definitely has a right and wrong side and one way stretches more.  So make sure you figure out which side is the right side and how it stretches.

Fold the fleece in half and cut 2 pieces for each mitten.  Sorry about the pink background, taking photos at night is tough!

Fold the top of the finger portion and thumb portion 1/4 inch to the wrong side and sew with a wide zig zag so that the seam will stretch. 

If you want to embellish, do it now!  Make sure you do the mirror image halves of the set.

Put the front and back together (1 embellished piece with 1 plain piece) and sew as shown.  Don't sew across the top or the thumb piece for obvious reasons :)

There you have it!  A cute pair of fingerless mittens!

Make a pair for yourself....

And for your favorite photographer friend.  Figuring how to to trace your friends' hands without them getting suspicious is the trick. 

Let me know what you come up with!
 

A Halloween to Remember

The day before Halloween, we woke up to almost a foot of snow and no power.  In 9 years in our house, we've never lost power.  We knew this wasn't good.  But, we had no idea just how bad it was until we tried to leave.

 Snow is nothing new in Massachusetts, but the combination of wet snow and leaves on trees was disastrous. 

 The main road in town was barely passable with tons of trees and power lines down.

 Almost 48 hours later, there were still crushed cars in the road and few people had power back.

 In all the destruction and loss, there is still some beauty. 

We were fortunate and our power was restored relatively quickly, but we still have family and friends patiently waiting.  
It's amazing how a community can come together and how loosing power for a few days can make you really appreciate everything you have. 

Jack O'Lantern Jars

 A friend of mine made these with her kids....so of course we had to try it.  Very easy and fun.  There are a lot of tutorials out there, we followed the instructions here.    

 So fun at night.  We light ours with some battery operated candles.  

 The kids were so excited to wake to snow on the ground.  Unusually early for Massachusetts.

They are predicting more for tomorrow night.  Looks like we'll have to put on our snow boots this Halloween.

What a Hoot

I made these cute owl cupcakes for an annual Halloween bash at a good friend's house.  There are a lot of owl cupcake ideas out there, but these were by far the easiest.  I followed these instructions. 

I can't help but smile every time I look at them.  Easy, cute and delicious. 

Something I've Been DYEing to Try

Now that the Halloween costumes are done, I've had some time to work on some more fun projects. As much as I enjoy sewing Halloween costumes, it feels like a lot of work, for one dark, cold night where (at least here in Massachusetts) chances are good you'll have to throw a coat on.

I've been hoarding onesies and fabric dye for a while now and finally got the courage to try it. I mainly followed Dana's instructions with a few modifications along the way.

I used Dylon permanent dye that I bought at Joanns. The only part of the instructions I followed was to add the salt. Here's what I did differently

• They recommend 4 cups of water, I used about 8-10
• I used more fabric than they recommend
• I left the fabric in dye overnight instead of 45 minutes
• After rinsing in cold water, I washed in the washing machine
  
• I dried mine in the dryer. The instructions say to dry "away from heat"
  

I used a few different brands of onesies and definitely noticed a difference in the color absorption. I didn't pre-wash them though, which I've read can make a difference. I dyed maybe 30 onesies total and found that the Target brand worked the best (without pre-washing)

For whatever reason, I had the most trouble with the pink. By the last batch (the yellow) I felt like using enough salt and mixing a lot is key. The salt is supposed to help the fabric absorb the dye, so for the yellow I added more salt since I was using more water than recommended. I also mixed much more than I did for the previous batches and I felt like the end result was the best.


I also tried some woven fabric. I had a white fabric with white polka dots that you could hardly see. It dyed really well and I like it much better than before.

So fun, and much easier than you'd think!

More Costumes

The Elephant Princess' dress is done which left me some time to help a friend make his 3 year old son a stove costume.

This was entirely my friend's design, I just executed it.


The oven opens up and you can stick different things inside.

Burners on the back. Not perfect, but fine.




It's such a relief to have all these costumes done. Now on to some more fun projects....

One Down, One to Go

The boy asked to be a rocket ship and I think I pulled it off. This came out so much better than I expected. The silvery fabric was pretty tough to work with, much like oil cloth but my usual tricks didn't work. Still puckered. Oh well...

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the hat I made to go with it. I used my friend Roselee, aka Jane of All Trades' cute party hat tutorial.

Now off to work on the elephant princess costume. The girl gets points for originality.

How are your costumes coming?

Super Easy Flower Pin

The little girl in my house has discovered tutus. Though I still can't get her to take a dance class (anybody else with a shy kid out there), I'm hooked on making her these tutus and pretty flower pins.

This flower pin could not possibly be easier. All you need is a fake flower, a pin, some felt scraps and a glue gun.

First, deconstruct the flower (this is easier than you might think)


Here are the parts.


When the flower is deconstructed, glue the petal layers together if they aren't already.

For this one I wanted to reuse the center, so I cut off the stem part and glued it back to the center.

I added a leaf to the back and glued on a pin.

Glue on a little felt scrap to extra secure the pin.

I'm totally addicted! It's so easy and the flowers are so pretty.

The perfect addition to a pretty tutu on a pretty girl.

A New Skirt For ME!

Simplicity 2226.  I had to make some serious alterations to this pattern.  I made a muslin first which I wish I took a picture of before I put it in the trash.  The basic design is cute, but the skirt was so full it was ridiculous.  Not flattering on me at all. 

I really like the end result and love the pockets.  I used contrasting thread, but it doesn't show up too well unless you're up close.

It was a fun challenge taking pictures of myself with my tripod and remote.  The kids got involved too.

  Who says blogging isn't fun for the whole family :)




 
And, I have to give a shout out to my good friend over at Jane of all Trades.  I made this skirt after seeing her in a very similar and very cute skirt.  Imitation is the highest form of flattery! 

Toy Bag Party Favors

My kids' both have birthdays in September and possibly for the last time, we're going to have one big party for both. In typical fashion, I think, why not make some toy bags as party favors....18 of them.....

At the time, it didn't seem like a lot, and I was on a roll until about bag 9. Then, I was done, the novelty wore off. But, I powered through and finished them up with a few weeks to spare.

If you are wacky like me and think this might be a fun thing to do, here are a few tips to make it a little easier.

• As nice as the mitered corners are in my original tute, rounding the corners goes much quicker.

• 
  
• use a zig-zag stitch to secure the bias tape. I found that often times I'd have to go back over parts where all the layers didn't get enclosed.

• I made these bags bigger than the original and also used spray adhesive to hold the velcro in place before sewing.

Hope the kids enjoy them!

Check back next week for a new tutorial for a fun and relatively easy kid's birthday present. Have a great long weekend!

Sneak Peek

I'm getting a head start on some projects for kids' upcoming birthdays in September. They are still young enough and have enough friends in common that we can do one bigger party for both of them.



Any guesses?

Stay tuned for more....