Party Bag Coloring Activity - Tutorial

My five year old daughter loves coloring in. She has had an obsession with it now for about 3 or 4 months, since just before her fifth birthday.

A while ago I bought a whole lot of this Tidny fabric from IKEA. Sadly they are not stocking it anymore in our local store. But it is seriously amazing and I'm hoping that they will replace it with something just as amazing (if not more so).

Anyway, I had this idea for her fifth birthday party - little party bags that each of the kids could color in themselves and then I would fill them with goodies as they leave to go home.

I cut a rectangle out of the Tidny print and another of the same size from a plain cotton fabric for the back. Placing the front and back fabrics with right sides together, I sewed along the sides and the bottom.

To make the drawstring casing, I cut a rectangle from the plain fabric that was two centimetres more than twice the length of the top of the rectangle and around 4cm wide. I folded the ends over by 1cm and ironed down, then folded the strip in half lengthways and ironed it down. I pinned the long folded plain fabric along the top edge of the bag (right sides together) and sewed along. Folding the plain fabric up on the right side, I sewed a top stitch along near the top of the Tidny print fabric to finish off.

Thread a drawstring or ribbon through the casing and admire the cute little bag!

A huge hit with the five year olds!

Kids can color the bag with fabric markers and by applying heat with an iron to the colored in area (place baking paper or similar between the fabric and the iron), the colors will last longer.

Works in progress: baby boy shirt, a pretty top for me, birthday party favours...

How cute is this new top of mine?

I used the pattern from here: http://www.coletterie.com/colette-patterns-news/free-pattern-to-download-the-sorbetto-top and was so happy with how it turned out. It's such a lovely flattering fit! If I make another (which I no doubt will), I'll add a little to the length though as it's a little short for me.

And how cute is the birthday boy's new shirt?

I used the pattern and super easy to follow instructions from here: http://www.smalldreamfactory.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/free-pattern-short-sleeve-shirt-size-12.html. He looks SO grown up in it, that it almost makes me a little sad to see him wearing it ;) If you use the same patterns just note that they're a smaller fit than I expected, and if you've got a tall little boy you might like to add some extra inches in the length.

Miss 3 had a lovely birthday last week and loved her birthday bunting so much that it's still hanging in the living room. We had a great little party at the weekend with her other friends who turn 3 this month, and this weekend we have a joint birthday party for her and Mr 1 at home with other friends, where this cute little shirt will be worn (perhaps my new top too) and the bunting will hang as decoration. I'm also working on some crayon roll party favours which I'll share on here next week, a dress for myself and some little pre-walker sandals for Mr 1.

Lesley

Works in progress: Richie's new doll, birthday bunting, dinosaur shirt, clothes for me at last!

Meet Richie's new doll:

My baby boy is about to turn one, so I've made this gorgeous little doll to add to his birthday presents. The pattern came from: http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2013/02/girl-boy-fabric-dolls-pattern-pieces-included.html, where there are also pattern for some girl dolls and clothing. I'm sure I'll be making one of those for his big sister soon :)

The more pressing birthday though is Miss Almost 3 tomorrow. Eeek. We've decided on a joint birthday party as the two children have their birthdays about a month apart. So tomorrow there'll be balloons, presents and a simple birthday cake at home with just the four of us. And this pretty bunting which we can reuse for the party in two weeks:

I found the free pattern and tutorial for this little shirt online last week: http://www.smalldreamfactory.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/free-pattern-short-sleeve-shirt-size-12.htm, which I've just cut out (beware the pattern does not include seam allowance - I found this out the hard way of course... must read instructions before cutting into my fabric!). I'm making one for Mr Almost 1 for the birthday party out of the dinosaur fabric below (top left):

I picked up all these fabrics for 40% off at a sale a week ago - some great finds there! It was so hard to limit them as I didn't want to spend too much money all at once. Already I've started cutting into most of them :-) The blue green one on the top right will become a top for me and the navy/orange fabric with cherries will become a simple dress for me. Not sure yet what to make out of the underwater fabric, or the bugs....