Clutch for Kids

These are my first Christmas gifts of the season. They are little clutch purses made of placemats. I thought it would be fun to fill them with hair bows, and a cute little quiet activity for church (that's for another post). Anyway, I was going to do a huge tutorial about how to sew them, but for the most part it's self explanatory. However, Jessica from Happy Together has an amazing tutorial for them, here. So this tutorial is mainly on embellishing one and making it personalized.

These are the placemats I chose. I got them at Kmart. A lot of stores have placemats on clearance. These were on sale for $2.39!! The one I'm going to show you is for my niece in Texas.

Cut a long strip of coordinating fabric for the flowers. When you cut the strip it does not have to be perfect at all. Like mine!! You won't be able to tell. The larger the flower you want, the wider your strip needs to be. Mine is about 2". I also make the strip long just in case I want to do two flowers.

Fold the strip in half and stitch it closed.

Baste stitch by the seam and pull to make it all gather together, like a flower. Cut the excess fabric (save for another flower if you want).

Now you can just hand stitch it closed.

Then you end up with a little flower. Also like a yo-yo (if anyone knows that sewing term).

Then stitch it onto the clutch. And add a cute button in the middle. I made two flowers, because I didn't have bigger buttons so I made my flowers smaller. The bigger the flower, the bigger the button.

If you want to personalize it, then all you need is to cut out a letter in felt (cuz felt doesn't fray). This was the most time consuming part, because I chose to stitch it on. You can glue it and it will look just as cute.

And there you have it! All done and ready to go to church/school or...whatever. These are actually quite spacious and can be fill with school supplies or quiet things for church. My very talented sister-in-law uses these as baby shower gifts and puts diapers and a travel wipes case in them. They are great all around.

Christmas is Coming!!!

Christmas is Coming!! I've been telling some friends about my new found blogdum, and I'm super excited (even though I only have one follower---thanks, Ashley). Even still, I'm going to try to post tutorials for most if not all the Christmas gifts I'm gonna make. The thing I like about them, is how simple and inexpensive they are. So this way, (if you want) everyone will have something to give to family and friends without putting a dent in your wallet. Ill hopefully be starting them up tomorrow. Until then...

Ta-Da!

You guessed it! I still don't know how to rotate pics. Anyway, here is a nightgown that I made for my oldest out of an old t-shirt i had. I would've just used it as a dress, but it's a little see-through in the back. It was super easy. I'm gonna have to do a tutorial on them. It literally takes 10-15 min. ---hat not included---

Eating Grapes

I was ironing in the dining room the other day when I looked in the living room to find my 5 mo. old's cheek bulging from a grape in her mouth. I look at my 2 year-old and she says, "Now, go like this." (chomp, chomp) I admit, I freaked a little and when I told her not to do that she said, "Mommy, I'm showing her how to chew." As sweet as that is, we'll just stick to milk and cereal for a while.

Matching Shirts

I've been in a revamping kick recently, so I went through my garage sale pile for fabric I could use for the little monkeys of the house. I found two shirts that I am sad to say, go under the category of "no longer fitting".
I used the green for most of the shirt and the white ribbed shirt for the bottom and a little flower for some pa-zazz (do people still say that?).

The outcome was good. My oldest thinks that the flower is special and she smells it throughout the day. She can be odd sometimes. I have no idea where she gets that from. :)

Men's Shirt=2 dresses

I bought this men's shirt at Goodwill for $2! Sorry, I wish I knew how to rotate it, but...I don't. I'll have to ask my very talented friend Tammy to help me with that. Anyway, after a little cutting and sewing:

My oldest was too busy playing to stop for a photo, but the straps on her dress cross in the back. My little chunker's dress was made with the sleeves of the shirt and turned into a smocked dress. I added some matching hair ties with what was left over.

I love sewing!