Preschool Prep and a No-Sew Personalized School Bag

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Sharpie, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia  #StaplesBTS http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

Forrest starts his first year of preschool in T minus 10 business days. Not that anyone’s counting, except that I am totally counting, and might I add: sing praises, all together now, hallelujah it’s almost time for preschool! When I signed him up, I had the option of placing him in a two day per week class or a three day per week class. And at the time, he was right in the middle of a super sweet, very adorable, obedient and well-behaved phase. Which I now believe was a carefully planned, expertly orchestrated ruse to ensure he was not shipped off for the maximum possible number of preschool days each week. Because I swear, the second—the very second—I checked the two day class box in a moment of flowery motherly weakness, thinking that I couldn’t possibly bear to be away from that sweet angel boy for three days each week, his inner demon returned and everything fell to pieces—tantrums, arguing, talking back, sending me to time out, the works. If it were an option, I’d send him to 7-day per week preschool at this point. (And yeah, I totally called to see if I could switch him to the three day class and nope, all the clever parents who knew what they were doing went for that class and it’s full.)

So yes. Yes, I am a bit excited for preschool. I’m not sure Forrest is entirely sure what it is I’m going on about as I try to pump him up for his first year of preschool, but he seems excited anyway. I think (and really, really hope!) he’ll love it—he’s very social and always excited about any sort of interaction—and I’m doing everything I can to make sure he’s looking forward to school. I thought he’d have fun spending a few minutes working on a little craft project together to help get him excited about preschool, so we worked together to make a special bag for him to bring each day. So simple and easy, but really fun for us to make together. And I’m telling myself that strutting through those preschool doors on his first day, carrying a special bag that he helped make and thinks is awesome, will help give him a little extra confidence. A trait he is certainly not lacking, but still. He’s my sweet little stinker, and I guess I’ll build him up however I can.

I briefly entertained the thought of sewing a tote bag myself, but when you get a 50% off craft store coupon in the mail which makes a plain canvas tote bag ring up in the $2-3 range . . . yeah. You change those plans real quick and go the store-bought route. While we were there, we grabbed two sheets of colorful felt, then swung by Staples to pick up some neon Sharpies.

Although it is always surprisingly difficult to let go of the reins and give full creative freedom to someone else (especially a pre-preschooler with limited motor skills and questionable artistic vision), I let Forrest go to town on one side of the tote bag, drawing and scribbling however his little heart desired. His preschool, his confidence at stake, his tote bag, and his artistic passion, unleashed.

He seemed super nervous about drawing on fabric, despite my insistence that it would be okay. I’ve put so much effort into drilling “we ONLY draw on paper!” into his little head, and never did I dream that I would have to convince him otherwise; that he could, in fact, just this once, go wild with Sharpies on a non-paper surface. It took some encouraging to get him to make that first artistic stroke on his canvas. But the artist finally emerged and he did a lovely(ish) job. (Just look at the expression—he absolutely thinks he’s getting away with something here.)

With his art filling one side of the tote bag, I took over for the other half. Each student in his preschool is assigned a color and a shape (what purpose this serves, I have yet to learn—I guess we’ll both be learning some new things this year). Forrest’s color and shape are a yellow star, so I figured they’d make a nice choice to adorn his tote bag. I cut a star as well as an F (for Forrest; hopefully not as foreshadowing of the preschool grades he’ll be receiving) from felt, and hot glued them to his bag. (I considered stitching them on by hand with colorful embroidery thread, but really. My hot glue gun was sitting right there on the counter. I didn’t want to hurt its feelings.)

Forrest seems pretty excited about having his own bag to bring to preschool, and especially excited that he got to help make it. Every time we do a craft together, I think, okay, this is more fun than I expected . . . why don’t we do this more often?

Just look at that artistic talent—undoubtedly the work of a prodigy, a budding genius. (Lest you think too highly of my at-home teaching skills, he did not write his name all by himself. He did, however, draw the happy face, and I think it’s pretty charming.)

If you’re in the market for Sharpie products for a back-to-schooler (or not—let’s be honest, any and all back to school shopping I’ve done so far has been almost exclusively for myself . . . oh, how I miss fresh crisp notebook pages and shiny new pens!), perhaps you’d like to know that all Sharpie Fine and Ultra Fine assortment packs and Sharpie Neon Marker packs are on sale at Staples through August 24th, while supplies last.

Happy back to schooling, everyone!

Quick + Easy Spring Chain Cowl

Is the weather getting a little more bearable in your neck of the woods? It’s getting better here . . . we even ventured outdoors for a walk yesterday afternoon! Sure, we only made it a block and a half, and okay, we required warm cookies and many episodes of Dora while wrapped in blankets to warm back up afterwards, but still. The end of winter is in sight!

So when I got my hands on some of Lion Brand Yarn’s new Zpagetti yarn, I knew just what to do with it. Turn it into an easy-to-make, easy-to-wear, lightweight spring cowl that will keep me warm until we can make park visits for longer than 20 minutes, but won’t make me sweaty once the weather gets warmer. Perfect!

The Zpagetti yarn is way cool—it’s made from garment manufacturing remnants, so each colorway is limited edition and unique. And since it’s a super bulky elastic and cotton blend, it’s very sturdy and great for dozens of home décor projects. It has the feel of a smooth, comfortable jersey or knit fabric, and I thought it would make for a great, stylish transition piece to wear into warmer spring weather. I love how soft and comfortable and wearable it is, I was really impressed with the feel and stretch of it, and it was seriously fun to crochet with.

You could of course make this cowl with any bulky yarn, although that might make it better suited to chillier winter weather, depending on the fiber content. If the Zpagetti isn’t an option for you, perhaps you could even try your hand at making a similar version yourself with knit or jersey fabric. But I’m loving the Zpagetti. Fun stuff.

Although portions of this cowl use crochet stitches, you certainly don’t need to know how to crochet! All you really need to be able to do is make a chain and a slip stitch. The absolute most basic basics of crochet. So don’t worry if this is new to you—there’s nothing to be scared of here.

Start by making a slip knot around your crochet hook. I used an N hook because that’s the biggest size I own—the yarn actually recommends a Q hook (mega!). The N worked fine for me.

(If you need help making a slip knot, visit this link for a how-to.)

Now, you’re just going to start making chains. This is pretty simple stuff, and you’ll be flying once you get the hang of it. Just wrap a loop of yarn around your hook, like so:

(Make sure you’re grabbing the yarn that leads to the ball, not the tail dangling from your slip knot!)

Then just pull that loop straight down and through the loop that’s already on your hook.

That’s it! You’ve made a chain. Now just keep chaining.

Chain chain chain. (Bet you’ll never guess what song was stuck on repeat in my head while I worked on this.)

You’ll go on and on and on. When you’ve got a big ol’ pile of chained-up yarn, start testing the length by draping it around your neck. Make sure you’re keeping it loose enough that you can pull it straight on and off—the little button cuff on the finished product is purely for show, so you’ll need to keep it loose enough to just slip on and off.

(Butterfly removable hand tattoo courtesy of my sister and the Valentines she gave us last week. Think I should make it permanent?)

If it isn’t big enough, chain some more. When you’re happy with the look, just make sure you have enough chains on your hook to reach back to the starting end. If you need to, add a few more chains or pull a few out so they’ll reach nicely.

To connect the ends, you’ll use a slip stitch. With your hook still in the ending chain’s loop, just insert your hook through one of the loops of the first chain:

Then grab a loop of yarn, just like you’ve been doing all along:

And pull that loop straight through both of the loops on your hook.

That’s a slip stitch!

To finish it off, make one last chain:

Then snip the yarn a few inches out and pull the chain all the way through.

You’ve got your cowl all finished! Now, if this marks the far reaches of your crochet experience, you can just wrap some of your extra yarn around a side of the cowl to hold it all together and secure it while you wear it. But if you know how to make single crochets (or are willing to try it out), then let’s make the button cuff.

Start by making a slip knot and 6 chains.

Now just work 5 single crochets back across the row, starting in the second chain away from the hook. If you need more details on this, you can visit this tutorial of mine, or this great one from One Dog Woof.

When you reach the end of the row, chain 1, turn your work, and single crochet back across. Repeat.

Keep going until your rectangle is long enough for the ends to meet when wrapped around your cowl.

Then just slip stitch the ends of the rectangle together—insert your hook through a loop on each end of the rectangle, grab a loop of yarn, and pull it straight through. Slip stitch down the ends until your rectangle is fully closed, then fasten off just as you did when finishing the chain cowl.

Once again, you’re at a good stopping point! If you like the look of just that little cuff, leave it as is and proudly wear your cute new springy cowl!

I thought some little buttons would be the perfect way to finish it off. You can of course sew these buttons on—I was in no mood to search through my mess of a craft room for a needle and thread, and my hot glue gun just happened to be left out on the counter from an earlier project, sooooo . . . I just hot glued them on. As long as you keep the glue along the outer edges of the button so it doesn’t squelch up through the buttonholes, no one’s the wiser.

There you have it! A quick, easy, comfortable and lightweight spring cowl. I love the cheerful red color, I think the little button cuff is a fun finish, and I love the feel of the jersey-like yarn.

(With most crochet projects, you’ll want to weave in the ends of your yarn to hide and secure them. I didn’t have a needle large enough, so I just made sure all the ends were pulled as tight as I could make them, then cut the yarn off about 1/2 inch away from the knot, and hot glued the ends down.)

Yarn provided by Lion Brand Yarn.

Monster Hoodie Refashion Tutorial

(This post was shared on My Own Road a few weeks ago--I forgot that I hadn't posted the tutorial here until this morning when I was folding laundry and came across this hoodie! I made it right before Halloween but have been really happy with the only semi-Halloweenie look; he's been wearing it since then and still gets compliments on it.)

Now, right off the bat, I'm going to warn you: I'm not one of those ladies. You know the kind, with their houses all decked out weeks in advance of every holiday, thoughtful handmade gifts to give, and clean, well-behaved children wearing home-sewn clothes (probably sewn from home-spun fabric, too). 

So I'm going to lay it all out right now: this is the only semi-Halloween-ish item in my home right now. And it's one of the only clothing items I've ever made for my little boy. And I purposely didn't make it too Halloween-ish, because I didn't want it to be limited to wear for the next week or so, so it hardly even counts as a holiday item. And, to top it off, it's dirty in the pictures (which, of course, are fuzzy). Gimme a break--he's a real boy and his clothes stay clean for all of about 20 seconds. If you're still interested and not completely turned off by my lack of mothering superpowers, maybe you'll enjoy this sneaky peeky monster hoodie refashion I pulled together for my little fella:

I have to admit, I think it's pretty cute! I bought him that hoodie on clearance recently, but he already has a few plain hoodies and I thought maybe he could use one with more character. I reverse appliqued these cute little monster heads onto it, and wild guess here, but I think he might like it!

Here's how I refashioned his little hoodie with some peekaboo monster fun!

You'll just need:

- a hoodie

- knit/jersey fabric scraps (I used squares from old polo shirts)

- sewing machine

- hot glue/fabritac

- googly eyes

- felt

I started by sketching and cutting out the monster heads on white paper. I thought it would be cute to have them "peekabooing," if I can make up that word right now, into the sweatshirt, so I drew one popping up out of the pocket and another poking out from the zipper.

Make sure your fabric scraps are a bit larger than the designs you sketched, and pin everything together. The layering, from top to bottom, should be paper, hoodie, fabric scrap.

Now sew around the shape of the pattern sketches--you're not sewing onto the paper, but using it as a shape/guide to sew around. Make sure you're sewing through both the hoodie and the fabric scrap behind it. Try not to stretch the fabric as you sew, and if you get to points or curves that are hard to navigate, just stop sewing while the needle is down in the fabric, lift up the presser foot, and swivel your fabric, then lower the foot and keep sewing. When you're finished, remove the pins and you should have a nice stitched outline of your sketch:

Here's what it'll look like from the back:

I sewed straight over a fabric fold by accident . . . whoops! No biggie--it's in the back, so I just left it. (Perfectionist? Not even a little. I can thank my mother for that--we've jokingly nicknamed her Kathleen "Goodenough" LastName.)

Now trim away the excess fabric from the back, being very careful not to accidentally cut the hoodie fabric.

This is the part that made my heart race. It's a little scary, so be cautious. Carefully, carefully, cut out the inner monster shape from the hoodie fabric. Make sure you're staying inside the stitching lines, and be very careful not to cut the scrap fabric from the back! It's easiest, I find, to pull the two fabrics apart as much as you can, and use small sharp scissors to start with a little snip in the center of the design:

Then work from there to cut the rest of the fabric away, without getting too close to your stitch line.

Add some googly eyes and teeth cut from a bit of felt, and you're all done! (I used hot glue to attach the googly eyes and felt, and time will tell if that was a poor decision or not. I'm sure something like Fabritac would hold up better in the washer and dryer, so it's possible that my son's hoodie is going to lose its facial features after the first wash. **Update! It's now been washed multiple times, and everything has held up just fine--the eyes and mouth are still firmly in place. Woohoo!**)

Such an appropriate look for him. He is seriously an adorable monster. Sometimes the emphasis is more on one of those words than the other . . . you guess which.

T-Shirt Sleeve Refashioned to a Cute, Easy Headband

My sewing machine is having problems. Who could have predicted that the ultra-bargain machine I bought 4 years ago on clearance at Walmart wouldn't last forever? I couldn't. I feel very betrayed by this unexpected turn of events--we've always gotten along so nicely. I'm torn between my love for it (the sweet memories! the quilts we've made together! the refashions! the home decor!) and deep anger toward it (how dare it rebel against me! I raised it and taught it everything it knows! I'm going to drop it off a building!). While we sort out our issues (rather, while I decide whether or not I can afford a new machine), I made a simple no-sew headband (originally posted a few weeks ago on A Little Tipsy).

My husband left a few t-shirt sleeves lying around the other day after cutting them off to make tank tops for working out (yes, he's that guy at the gym . . . I'm sorry), and I remembered a quick craft I used to do as a teenager:

Turn a cut off t-shirt sleeve into a headband! I remember making these when I was in a pinch in high school . . . headed to school, but suffering an awful hair day? Cut off a sleeve. Bam. Bad hair hidden. Going for a jog and need to keep your bangs off your face? Sleeve. Boom. Problem solved. I used to leave them plain and just wear them as simple knit headbands, but now that I've grown a little craftier (and am armed with a glue gun), I like to add a little embellishment to this simple headband.

And the best part is, there's no sewing involved (take that, ornery sewing machine!). There is one teensy stitch that you can feel free to skip if you don't want to bother with any sewing, and no one's the wiser. Since knit fabrics don't really fray, you don't have to worry about any hemming at all. Just cut and go!

Want to make one yourself?

Start with a sleeve cut off from one of the many big, worn out t-shirts you probably have in your closet. Make sure the sleeve isn't from a smaller size t-shirt, or it won't fit over your head. My sleeve was from a men's large shirt, and it's a perfect fit for me. Just cut it away from the body:

Then cut off the hemmed cuff of the sleeve and the end that was connected to the body of the shirt, leaving a 2-4 inch loop with straight edges:

Since the sleeve is sewn at an angle (which you can see at the bottom of the sleeve in the picture above), you may want to trim the point down a bit--just open up the loop and trim off any odd points or straggly ends. It doesn't have to be perfect--the ends will curl in and hide any imperfections, so don't worry about making it exactly right.

Now for the optional sewing--you can certainly skip this part if you prefer, but it's very quick and easy and, I think, adds a little extra interest to your headband. Thread a needle (with thread that matches your sleeve--I used pink so you can see the stitches better), tie a knot in one end, and sew a few loose, wide stitches across the headband. Don't tie off the end just yet.

Cinch up the sleeve fabric by pulling snugly on the thread. You can decide how loose or tight you want your fabric to be . . . when you like the look, just tie a knot and trim the thread.

You could also stop here and sport your simple cinched headband. I wanted a little extra embellishment (I can hardly help myself), so I got out my glue gun and made a few little felt flowers (there are quite a few tutorials to make these out there, so I'm not going to repeat one here . . . but here's a great example) and a few little leaves:

Just hot glue the embellishments right over the cinched portion of the headband:

And there you have it! A super quick and easy--not to mention really cute--headband.

 

You can also make sleeve headbands from a smaller size t-shirt for younger girls . . . bet you never thought you'd have a use for your husband's icky discarded gym shirt sleeves, did you?