Portable Racing Car Play Mat

The three year old boy of the house has recently gone through a sudden change. Up until now he has happily played his big sister's games while wearing an old dress that belonged to me as a child. But now a fascination of all things with wheels has arrived and a collection of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars has materialised out of what seems like nowhere.

The racing car mat began on a Sunday afternoon as a few ideas that looked something like this below.



Some felt and cotton fabric (how cute is that racing car fabric?!?!!) and a little refining and it became this -

Three cars can be parked in the pockets at the top. They can line up at the starting line and drive around in laps, stopping off at the pit stop to refuel along the way.

Pack it away by folding over the car pockets (this stops the cars from falling out in transit) and then folding the whole mat over twice and tucking away in a bag to carry out with you.

Check it out in my etsy store.

Riches and Roses July Etsy Update

It's been a BUSY past month in the Riches and Roses Etsy Store!

Top 3 Viewed Items

1. Toddler Quiet Book

2. Baby Doll Diaper Nappy Carry Bag

3. Balloon Cover



Top 3 listing favourites

1. Toddler Quiet Book

2. Kids' Tool Belt - orange

3. Kids' Tool Belt - pegs design

Biggest sales

1. Toddler Quiet book

2. Balloon Cover

3. Reversible Whales sun hat

Monday Minute

It was a cutting out sort of weekend round here ~

I cut into my new Hungry Caterpillar fabric to make a new version of the case for the Hungry Caterpillar felt set in my etsy store.



I cut out some colourful page backgrounds and chalkboard vinyl numbers to put together a new counting quiet book.



Watching my three year old son's obsession with cars keep growing, I finally cut out some car play mats. First, this racing mat.



And then this little town mat. Stay tuned for some of the detail I plan to add to this one!



And finally.... a whole pile of fabric pages to start putting together a new batch of quiet books! Yay!

Sewing Tutorial Quiet Book Pages - Rainbow, Butterfly, Hot Air Balloon

A few months ago a custom order came through my Etsy store. One of my most popular existing items is the Quiet Book that I sell through the store and one of the great things about it is that it is so easy to add extra pages to it as I join the pages together with ring binders.

The request was to add in one extra page (two-sided, so two extra designs) more suited to a smaller child. See the finished product below!

To make the rainbow, I cut the red (largest) semicircle first and then cut each next colour a little smaller. I then sewed the red semicircle onto the page and followed with each smaller one until I was done.

I overlapped two little light grey clouds over the bottom edge and cut out two identical pieces in a small butterfly shape. I sewed these together, inserting antennae and leaving a small opening on each side so that I could feed through the thin ribbon. When constructing the page and joining it to the previous one, I fastened in the ribbon between the pages. 

The cute little butterfly can be pulled along the ribbon to fly around in front of the clouds.

For the hot air balloon, I first sewed the blue felt rectangle onto the background page as the sky. Then I added two little white clouds and sewed on the main hot air balloon shape (here in the white with coloured spots). I attached four short lengths of ribbon to the base of the balloon cover (here in orange), and then sewed this felt piece at the top of the balloon. I attached the ends of each ribbon at the bottom and then hid the ends by sewing the balloon basket over them.

The doll is used in another page (the tent and sleeping bag page) in the book, so rather than add another, and in order to make it easier to handle for a small child, I attached a ribbon to the doll so that it could be used for both pages, and also couldn't be easily lost - double win!

Baby Doll Swaddle - Pattern and Tutorial - Easy DIY

You will need:

• Approx 0.5 metres/ yards of a print fabric for the main fabric.
• Approx 0.5 metres/ yards of a plain lining fabric for the inside of the swaddle. 
• Approx 0.5 metres/ yards of a light wadding, such as Pellon fleece.
• Velcro
• Small scraps of felt for heart decorations.

1. Start by printing the three pages of the pattern and cutting out the pattern pieces along the solid line. The pattern pieces for the main part of the swaddle will need to be joined together along the dotted line, by matching and then taping the two pieces together.
2. Place pattern pieces with the marked straight edge along the folded edge of the fabric and cut out one piece in each of the two fabrics (main and lining), as well as the wadding.
3. Depending on the wadding used (and following the directions for the wadding type), iron the main fabric over the wadding piece to secure.
4. Begin by sewing the darts into the separate fabrics. Fold over the fabrics along the centre line of each dart and sew along the outer line to create shape in the foot pocket and top part of the swaddle.
5. Then take the two pieces of lining fabric, right sides together, and sew together around the round bottom edge. Repeat for the outer fabric. Snip along the curved seams and turn one of the fabrics out the right way.
6. Place this piece inside the other, so that right sides are together. Now join the two fabric cases together by starting in the middle of the top seam and sewing around all of the edges, leaving a space of about 4cm (1.5in.) as you return to where you started.
7. Trim all corners and curved edges and turn the swaddle out the right way. Iron the seams flat, especially where the opening is at the top seam.
8. Top stitch around all edges, closing up the opening at the top seam.

9. Pin a strip of velcro to the position indicated on the pattern for the foot pocket. Sew this down and sew the matching velcro to the flap that you prefer to fold down first (on the inside). Then sew two small pieces of velcro onto this same flap, but on the upper side and the matching velcro to the underside of the flap that will fold down last (see picture above for velcro placement).

10. Finally, attach your felt shape (be imaginative to match your fabric, or to suit your child's preferences here!) to the top flap.

Sewing tutorial: Kids dress up ideas - firefighter

This is all you will need to make your own firefighter dress up costume:

• a long sleeved red shirt (I bought mine from a thrift store)
• felt - bright yellow and grey/silver
• thread, pins etc.

The first step is to cut strips of felt. The strips of yellow felt should be approx 8cm/3in and the grey will need to be about 2.5cm/1in.

Pin the grey felt to the centre of the yellow felt and sew along both edges of grey felt, in a few millimetres.

Then pin your strips in place on the shirt - the top strips will be placed level with the arm pit of the shirt and then the next strips down about halfway. Sew along both edges a few millimetres into the yellow felt.

Simple, but very effective!

Sewing tutorial and pattern: Mermaid dress up tail for kids

We love dress ups at our house. Little by little I've been adding to the kids' collection of costumes for play.

I wanted to make Miss 4.5 a mermaid tail that would grow with her and not be too tight at the ankles that she wouldn't be able to walk or play in it. 

You can download and print the pattern for the fin here.

First, choose your main fabric. I wanted something shiny, so I went for this sequined fabric. You'll need a rectangle - it should reach from your child's waist to the floor (length) and wrap around their body with a 15cm overlap (width). You can allow a little extra for hemming. Hem around the rectangle - I rolled approx 0.5cm over, then rolled over again and sewed along.

Cut two mermaid fins on the fold. Optional is to also cut iron on interfacing to iron onto one of the fin pieces to make the fin a little firmer.

Place right sides together and starting at the top right, sew around the edges, finishing at the top left. The fin can be sewn to the skirt along the bottom.

For fastening the waist, sew velcro along the waistline.

I trimmed the edging of the fin with some of the left over sequin fabric, but it is totally optional.

Felt crafts

I really love working with felt for kids' toys. I made these felt foods for my daughter almost a year ago. They get played with almost every day and are still in the same condition they were a year ago. They are also so much more pleasant to play with than all the cheap plastic play food that is available in the shops.

You can find tutorials for how to make some of this food here on my blog (here and here).

I've also used a lot of felt for making Quiet Books. It's so easy to sew as it doesn't fray and the good quality stuff doesn't stretch out of shape either.

My next felt project is felt money for my daughter :)

Kids' craft: cardboard cash register

This is a very simple attempt at making a cash register from cardboard:

We (Miss almost 3 and I) were playing shops and needed something to help our imaginations along, so we dug out some cardboard we'd kept from a purchase a while back and found some heavy duty tape. We ended up with a cash register, eftpos machine and a scanner.

Of course we discovered that we now need some money, so I'll be working on some felt money next :)

Felt snacks: watermelon, strawberries and cupcake

Watermelon

For each watermelon:

1. Print and cut out the paper pattern. Cut out two red pieces for the watermelon flesh and one green piece for the rind.
2. Sew the two red pieces together along the straight edge with a blanket stitch. I used three strands of a green embroidery thread.
3. Line up the edges of the rind with the curved edges of the watermelon flesh. Sew along one side with a blanket stitch and then two-thirds along the other edge.
4. Fill with polyester filling or felt scraps and close the seam.
5. Use three strands of a dark coloured embroidery thread to sew seeds randomly on the watermelon.

Strawberry

For each strawberry:

1. Print and cut out the paper pattern. Cut out one red piece and one green piece. Fold the red piece in half. Cut the tip off from one end, to make a flat tip as right. Sew together along the bottom and side with a blanket stitch.
2. Sew a running stitch around the top. Fill with polyester filler or felt scraps and pull the running stitch tight. Fasten to close the top.

3. Fasten the thread to the top of the strawberry. Place the green piece on the top. Sew in a cross to hold the green part to the top of the strawberry.
4. Using three strands of a light brown embroidery thread, sew a small, well-spaced running stitch on the strawberry to represent seeds.

Cupcake

For each cupcake:

1. Print and cut out the paper pattern and felt pieces. Using a blanket stitch sew the cake top to the cake side.

2. Sew the edges of the cake sides together.

3. Sew a running stitch along the bottom edge of the cake side. Fill with polyester filler and pull the stitching tight to match the size of the cake base felt piece.

4. Sew the base to the cake side using a blanket stitch. Pull out the running stitch.












5. Sew sprinkles or other decorations onto the top of the cupcake.

Felt breakfast: egg, sausage, croissant tutorial

Sausages

For each sausage:

1. Cut a rectangle 7cm x 9cm from dark brown felt.
2. Fold the rectangle in half lengthways.
3. With needle and matching thread (I used three strands of embroidery thread), use a blanket stitch to join the edges.

4. Fill with polyester filling or felt scraps.

5. Use a long running stitch around each end of the sausage. Pull tight and fasten to close the ends.

Eggs

For each egg:

1. Print and cut out the paper pattern pieces. Cut out two egg whites from white felt and one egg yolk from yellow or orange felt.
2. Place the yellow egg yolk on top of one of the white pieces and sew two-thirds of the way around the yolk. Fill with polyester fill or felt scraps and continue to close the circle.
3. Place the second egg white underneath and sew around 1-2mm from the edge.

Croissants

For each:

1. Print and cut out the paper pattern pieces. Cut two crescents from light brown felt and a wrapping each from light and darker brown felt. The larger piece of wrapping should be from the darker felt.
2. Use blanket stitch to join the light brown crescent pieces, leaving a small gap. Fill the crescent firmly with polyester filling and close the gap with blanket stitch.

3. Sew the wrapping pieces together using a running stitch.

4. Place the widest part of the wrapping along the outer edge of the croissant and secure together using blanket stitch. Secure along the sides, wrapping the main croissant piece as you go. Finish off by sewing along the narrow edge of the wrapping.