No-Sew Felt Fortune Cookies

I had fun making felt fortune cookies for O and my niece for Valentine's Day. I saw lots of no-sew felt fortune cookie tutorials on various blogs, but for some reason I just couldn't make sense of them. I decided to just try to make one on my own, and it was so easy! Here's what I did...

First, I traced around a drinking glass and cut the circle out of felt. Then I put about an inch long strip of fabric glue on one side of the circle, folded the circle in half, and held it together with a clothes pin.

I waited a day before doing the next step. I folded the cookie and put a drop of glue on either side and held it together with a clothes pin. I hope the pictures make sense because I'm not explaining it well at all :) The clothes pins were stuck to a couple of cookies, but it worked well overall.

I cut small strips of paper and wrote messages on them. I slipped them into the cookies and was done! I think the girls will have fun writing their own messages and sharing the cookies with their family and friends :)

A Taggie Giraffe Softie Tutorial

My mom and I made taggie giraffe softies for Little Kicker and a couple of our friends' babies about a month ago, and I'm finally blogging about it :) They were so easy to make that I decided to do a tutorial.

1) I drew a pattern on newspaper and cut it out. I then pinned the pattern to the wrong side of a piece of fabric and traced around it with disappearing ink. Then I cut the giraffe pattern out of the fabric.


2) I pinned the fabric giraffe to the wrong side of a coordinating piece of fabric, traced around it, and cut the giraffe from the other fabric.


3) I pinned the 2 fabric giraffes to each other- right side to right side with the ribbons pinned in between them.


4) Here's a better picture to show the ribbons pinned between the 2 pieces of fabric.


5) I handed the giraffe over to my mom, and she sewed all around it leaving a small hole for turning. She sewed over the ribbons 3 or 4 times to make sure they were securely sewn.

6) We turned and stuffed the giraffes, and my mom sewed the small hole closed.

7) Ta-da!


O was a little disturbed that the giraffes have only 2 legs :)

How to Applique...A Tutorial

1) Trace your pattern on the applique paper. I use Steam a Seam 2 and LOVE it!


2) Peel off the backing and place the pattern on your fabric. Press firmly so it will stick to the fabric.


3) Cut the pattern out of the fabric.

4) Peel the paper off the back of the pattern and place it on your t-shirt.


5) Iron the pattern for 10 to 15 seconds twice or follow the directions that come with your applique paper.

6) You're finished! Show your child her new shirt and enjoy her excited reaction!

A DIY Child's Pouch Sling

One of the most frequently asked questions from this blog is "how do you make the child's pouch sling?" I've always felt like I wasn't explaining it very well, so my mom and I decided to do a tutorial. I hope it makes sense :)

1) I cut a pattern from newspaper. The pattern is 18.5 inches long and 11 inches wide. It has a curve on one end. I pinned the pattern to a folded piece of fabric and cut around the pattern.




2)Use this pattern to cut 2 pieces of fabric. They will end up being 37 inches long with a curve at each end.




3) Pin the pieces together right side to right side and sew around the edges leaving a small opening for turning at one end.




4) Turn the sling right side out and iron it well.


5) Top stitch all around the edges (you will sew your hole closed at this point). I'm still not very good at top stitching, so Guh-guh took over at this point :)




6) Fold one end up to the other end approximately 1/2 inch down from top as shown in the picture. Stitch across the curve to connect the pieces together. Be sure to back-stitch well at both ends.




7) Fold the bottom piece over the piece you just stitched. There will be some fullness that you will need to work in - to produce a rounded end. Be sure to back-stitch on both ends.




8) You're done! Give the sling to a sweet child and enjoy :)



O loves this sling since it's blue :)
Just in case you noticed...yes, she is wearing Halloween pajamas even though it is January, and she's trying out my Annie headband from 1985. My mom saved everything!