ETSY Make For Good 2016

This year, I'm participating in Etsy Australia's Make for Good Campaign, which supports Plan International Australia's "Because I am a Girl" initiative.

The theme this year is "Creating Brighter Futures" and my two products that I've included in the campaign - Colour Me Party Favour Bags and a Colour Me Art Folio Bag fit the theme nicely. Both products feature fabric that kids can colour in themselves with fabric markers. Part of the proceeds from these products will go towards empowering and educating girls around the world.

Sewing tutorial - Colour your own art supply bag

Ikea. I love the stuff that they sell, but I'm not a fan of the shopping experience. Finding a parking spot, finding what you want in the store and then getting out before two young children lose it. This time we went in with a plan. Fabrics only. Straight there and straight back out. I didn't believe it could be done, but that is how it went. And they even had a little play area at the fabric section! Wow!

So I bought a few metres of the Tidny fabric and we love it. The kids spent part of a lazy Sunday afternoon colouring in and then I made it up into art supply bags. The bags now travel with us when we eat out, filled with some Frozen colouring in pages, coloured paper, markers and stickers. A success!

I washed the fabric and cut a wide strip out (allowing for handles and pockets too) and then the kids used fabric markers to colour in the designs on the fabric. Later I placed baking paper over the fabric and ironed over, applying heat to fix the colours.





I cut a lining for the bag, pockets and handles, and a second fabric for some of the inner pockets.



For the handles, place right sides together and sew along one short end and the long side. Turn it out the right way. Top stitch along the two long ends.

For the top pocket, place right sides together and sew along the two long edges. Turn out the right way and press. Top stitch along the top long edge.

For the two bottom pockets, place right sides together and sew along the top long edge. Open out, press and top stitch along that long edge.

Take the top pocket and pin it in place on the lining fabric. Sew a few mm above the lower seam to fasten the piece to the lining. Sew vertically to form smaller pockets.

Sew velcro strips to the lining and the lower upper pocket. Use a tacking stitch close to the edge to put the lower pockets and handles in place. Now sew the bag outer and lining together by place right sides together and sewing around the outside with all pockets and handles in place between. Be sure to leave an opening to turn it out the right way.

Turn the bag out the right way and press. Sew a top stitch around all outer edges to finish off. Fill with goodies and enjoy!

Sewing tutorial: Quiet book pages - Bead counter

This is one page I really like to include in my books. Both of my kids love counting and one of their favourite pages in their quiet book is the bead counter. They enjoy moving the beads across, and they also learn their colours by practicing with the beads. It is an easy and effective page.

The starting point for making the page is deciding how wide to make the counter (then cut your thin ribbon in appropriate lengths), to what number to count to (in my larger books, I have include counters that go up to ten), and finally what colours to choose. 

The ribbon I use is very narrow and I do not like to take any chances with safety with beads coming loose, so my first step is to space the ribbons on the page and sew them to the page background. My green felt is about 1.5cm wide, so I sew along the ribbons for about a length of 1cm on one side first. Then I thread my beads on and sew down on the other side to secure the ribbons down and lock the beads in. 

Place the felt lengths over the ribbon ends where you have sewn and pin down. Sew a stitch around the edges. Finally trim off the threads and ribbon ends and your bead counter is done!

Works in progress: quiet books, hats

This week I started on the new Quiet Books. The idea is to make four different kinds, each following a different theme.

I'm starting out on the colours and alphabet books, and will later add a numbers book and a shape book.

The colours book is turning out as also an animal book, as it will feature a yellow baby chicken, orange goldfish, green frog, red crab, pink pig and a blue whale. I'm planning on making each page interactive with either zippers, magnets, buttons, velcro, finger puppets or some kind of movement.

The alphabet book will go from A to F: Apple, Balloon, Cat, Dog, Egg and Fish, and in a similar way will also have interactive pages with velcro, buttons, bow tying, buckles, zippers and magnets.

So many little pieces go into making these books that the first thing I've had to do is order a few more supplies (such as magnets and buckles). I've also cut out all of the pages in cotton calico, using a cute three little pigs fabric for the front and back covers.

I'm in the process of drawing up the pattern pages at the moment and will make some of these available here soon.

With the weather warming up here on the east coast of Australia, my newborn baby hats have been selling quickly from my etsy and madeit shops, so I'll also be cutting out and making up some more of these in the next few days.

Lesley :)

July and August

I recently looked back over my posts and found that a year ago, I'd finally started again on the blanket I had started making for Mia when I was pregnant with her. Going through a knitting phase back then, I had started knitting a multicolour striped blanket, but of course ran out of time (I couldn't stay awake long enough in the evening during pregnancy to get anything done on it). For this baby, I decided I wanted to make something that would be finished before the birth, so I found some ideas for a baby quilt online (I'm now addicted to Pinterest - it's awesome for finding craft ideas). Late in July we found out that our November baby is going to be a boy, so I chose some fabrics from my leftovers pile and powered through making this simple quilt (http://befickle.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/you-can-make-quilti-have-proof.html). It's not huge, but it's the perfect size to fold up and take with you to put on the floor at a friend's house for bub to lie on, or to keep baby warm in the pram.

Another find that I was keen to try out when I found out we were having a boy were these pants (http://www.made-by-rae.com/2010/10/free-raes-basic-newborn-pant-sewing-pattern/). Super easy, but so cute. There are some great free patterns at this site - my sister made the little premmie dress for Mia after she was born 4 weeks early and very small. It was so cute.

And I made a couple more backpacks. This time to add to my Etsy store which was looking a bit empty. I'm still working on a couple of quiet books to add too.

Recently, I've also been putting together a craft box for Mia with lots of different supplies. In the process of trying to work out what to include I've found some really great ideas, like the coloured pasta for threading and using contact (clear adhesive) as an alternative to glue. I had searched everywhere to find beads large enough and with big enough holes for Mia to use for threading and all I could find were really expensive ones from educational supply shops. It should have been obvious, but I didn't even think of using pasta. A much cheaper alternative and we had a fun craft lesson just doing the colouring.