Kick out the cold . . and keep the warmth in!: Door Covering

So we are in the process of winterizing our apartment, and while there isn't a ton we can do being this isn't a place we own, we are trying to do all we can to keep our heat. . .

Today, I made door bottom covers. I know you're thinking of those hideous weiner dogs that grandma always used to cover the bottom of the door and yelled at everyone that walked in to make sure they went back in place at the foot of the door. . . and yes this is essentially the same thing, with a twist.

I can't stand those frufru goofy dog shapes! they always seemed tacky to me and what's worse with people trapsing back and forth in and out of the house they always got wet and sometimes they'd start to either mold or get musty which all in all made them awful smelling. Plus they never stayed with the door and putting them back every time the door opens is a pain! Enter my solution:

The door cover is actually attached to the door by looping the button holes in the fabric over command hooks attached to the door, it's neutral to keep my tacky-hating design self happy, and it's fully washable! Essentially it's a bag, a little longer than the door (to cover the edges) that you stuff with sand or plastic bags or blankets (basically whatever you feel like stuffing it with) and hang on the door. Keeps the cold out, Stays in place automatically and when it's gross it goes in the washing machine!

and here's how to make it:

Take any fabric that you sorta like (durable is preferred) and an old dead pair of blue jeans.

Cut out a length of your blue jeans to 3 inches wide and about same length as the door plus 4 inches.

Cut a length of your favored fabric to about 2 1/2 foot wide and the length of your door (plus 4 in)

Turn the fabric down on the long sides about 1 1/2 inches and sew the edge down.

Take your ruler and measure 7 inches in on either side and make a vertical line on the hems you have just sewn. Then measure 7-10 inches in from each mark (depending on your door) and make another vertical line. What you should have now is eight vertical lines total on the two sides of the fabric toward the top of the door. These are the marks for your button holes.

You should now re-enforce all of the surrounding fabric by sewing a box around the line (make sure to hit the outer edge twice on your machine!) Then take a razor blade and slice the line to finish your button hole.

Now to re-enforce the bottom (So the wear and tear won't tear your bottom as easy!) You'll need to make a wide bias tape out of the denim strip. in the very middle (in between your hems) make a mark all the way across.You'll want the denim bias to follow  that line precisely. Sew it down.

Now with the wrong side of your fabric out line up your button holes. Sew the ends and reenforce the seams well. Turn your project right side out. Fill with your desired stuffing about half full.

Now to hang it on the door!

What are you doing this winter to keep out the cold?

Simple Child Pillows

I know I know you're thinking, hey I want to learn how to make that doll! The pattern is found in Meg McElwee's Book Growing up Sew Liberated
I'm showing you how to make the pillow. . Yes I know cheezy easy anyone can do it . . Here we go

Now since I didn't actually take pictures of the project my descriptions will have to be enough (they should be this is easy peasy lemon squeezy!)

Start with two pieces of fabric cut to 1/2 in longer and 1/2 inch wider than you want your final pillow to be (keep in mind that the stuffing will make it "smaller" as well when you are determining your size)

Place the fabrics right side together and sew almost completely around the border leaving about a 3 inch gap for turning and stuffing. I like to leave my gaps in the center of the end rather than at corners so that I can get a clean corner!

Turn your pillow so that the pretty fabric is on the outside.

Stuff your pillow with fiberfil or the guts from an old pillow (my daughter had a blast ripping apart an old pillow to stuff inside her new one!)

Slip stitch your seam closed.

You now have an easy pillow that id the perfect fit for your child (or project or you or you know whatever)

Baby Showers and Handmade Gifts

My husbands family has this thing it seems where every year there must be a new baby added (granted the last two years were my girls, but hey) so this means that in order for me to keep my sterling rep as a creative aunt, I make baby gifts. . . Blankets, toys, helpful items (maybe, hopefully?).

This time around it's my husbands little brothers first baby and it's a boy. This couple is quite a bit like us as they LOVE the outdoors and camping and all those things that might just leave this one in need of a really warm blanket. So we made a quilt-gan. Car seat sized.

I made a baby afgan and the face of a flannel quilt in baby colors and sewed them back to back for warmth. I could have also added a liner, but for the thickness and warmth the two layers had, I didn't see the need for another layer.

And then for good measure I made a stuffed turtle in the same fabrics to go with it using this tutorial (I eyeballed the pattern though)

What do you think?

What kind of baby projects do you make when attending baby showers?

Indoor Kid Fishing Sets

So this Christmas me being the crazy person I am, decided to make magnetic fishing sets for all the kids in our lives for Christmas (they are all under the age of 5) They actually were quite fun to make! Here are the individual pieces :o)

The Fish:

I cut a fish body out of felt and a few circles and triangles for eyes and fins. I sewed all of these together and stuffed them with Fiberfil. I made a braided loop with jute and glued a magnet into the edge. I then sewed the loop into the mouth of the fish to give kids two ways to catch the fish. They can be caught by the magnet or by the loop.

The Pole:

I had my amazing husband saw a couple of these bamboo garden stakes in two pieces (about 2.5-3 foot each) after sanding off the rough edges I wrapped the bottom (handle) in jute using hot glue to put a “grip” on the pole. Then I tied (and glued) a long piece of jute for the fishing line.

The Hook:

This was quite the challenge! I needed something that wasn’t going to cause severe damage if it was flung by a kid, be able to house a magnet and not be sharp edged like a traditional fishhook would be. I tried salt dough but my husband’s uncle (my kids’ godfather) proved that that wasn’t going to cut it by dropping it and watching it shatter into pieces. He then quickly twisted a hook out of thick copper wire that was almost perfect! The Magnet had to be wedged into the ends of the wire and wrapped in jute to hide, but the copper works well, is light, no sharp edges and well looks good!

The Bag:

My Simple Produce Bag pattern only made out of muslin and measured to the length of the pole.

Ta Da!! Full fishing sets for the babies!

Advent 2012

Advent is upon us and with that is my annual research into the holiday we commonly call Christmas. Every year I try to learn a little more about the holiday and "redeem" traditions of Christmas past.


Although I can't go into the specifics of my Christmas research right now, I'm sure you'll get to hear about it eventually on this blog. Today, I am sharing our Advent plans.


Advent is a time for us to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christmas, the day we celebrate as Jesus' birthday. For us we have decided to also try and make it a time for us to draw closer in activity and time to our kids and our family. Each day there is an activity planned as well as scripture to read. Time together as a family and time to discuss and spend with/for the Lord.


I also decided to make a simple Advent Calender for us to follow . .


First our lists . .


1. Put up the tree and decorate the indoors
   Isaiah 40:1-5
2. Decorate the front door and balcony
   Isaiah 52:7-10
3. Watch St. Nicolas as a family (on the computer)
   Isaiah 40:9-11
4. Make Paper Snowflakes
   Genesis 3:8-15
5. Watch A Little Drummer Boy as a family
   Genesis 15:1-6
6. Make Christmas Ginger Cookies for the Neighbors
   Deuteronomy 18:15-19
7. Make Neighbor Cookie Boxes
   Psalm 89:1-4
8. Make Hot Cocoa
   Isaiah 11:1-10
9. Hand Out Neighbor Cookies
   Zech 6:12-13
10. Make Cinnamon Christmas Star Ornaments
   Micah 5:2-4
11. Make a Christmas Candy (probably fudge)
   Mal 3:1-6
12. Sing and Dance to Christmas Music
   John 1:1-8
13. Watch The Toy That Saved Christmas as a family
   John 1:9-18
14. Take family Christmas Photo
   Mark 1:1-3
15. Decorate Christmas Gifts (for everyone else)
   Isaiah 7:10-14
16. Make Construction Paper Nativity
   Luke 1:1-15
17. Make and Decorate Christmas Cookies
   Isaiah 9:2-7
18. Make an Apple Cinnamon Struesel Dessert
   Matt 1:18-25
19. Make Pom-Pom Snowmen
   Matt 2:1-2
20. Make a Gingerbread Nativity
   Luke 1:15-25
21. Look at Christmas Lights around town
   Luke 1:25-35
22. Play a Christmas Game (toddler Friendly)
   Luke 1:36-50
23. Make Cinnamon Rolls
   Luke 1:51-66
24. Hot Cocoa and Christmas Cookies
   Luke 1:67-80
25. Christmas Breakfast
   Luke 2


So now that we've gone over the Advent daily activities, we can go on to how I made our advent calender. . .


I started by cutting and folding a piece of cardboard into a "Chinese take out" shaped box based on one I got with some dishtowels.'

I then folded up the edges using eyelets to hold the sides together,  I also ran ribbon with bells through the eyelets.

 I then made sleeves and numbers for our paper advent plans to reside in . . .

 I then wrote our plans out rolled them up into the sleeves and stuck them in the bucket. . .

 Cute little Advent calender for our family this year.

Oh and I'm sorry this post is slightly tardy. I was going to post it earlier, but then the baby got sick and clingy . . sad news!

Felt Magnet ABC’s

Somewhere on Pinterest (I can’t remember where or I’d point you there) I found a post for these adorable felt letters to help kids learn their letters. When I saw these I instantly thought how awesome would it be to have fridge letter magnets that wouldn’t leave dents in foreheads when kids got mad and threw them at each other? So I decided to take it one step farther and make felt stuffed fridge magnet letters! 

I started with different colored pieces of felt and cut fat letter shapes (two of each letter) out of the felt. I then hand sewed the edges using a blanket stitch. I made sure that as I was sewing them together I stuffed them with polyfil and a magnet.

 

I know I know sounds so simple and easy. It’s not. It’s painstaking and tedious but . . . 

They turned out so adorable! Don’t you just love them?

Making Sweet Butter

Sweet Butter is one of the easiest things to make, and yet often one of the things most people would rather buy. Although we have no access to Raw Milk right now and therefore no cultured butter, there are still a great deal of benefits to churning (or shaking) butter at home.

When you make it yourself you have the added benefit of knowing exactly what is in your butter. No natural flavors, no added coloring agents (such as Annatto), no added preservatives, oils, or nitrogen and if you trace where your milk comes from you can know that the milk isn't altered and is harvested from naturally raised cows.

Another great benefit is the limited processing allows for fresher butter which means more/better flavor.

If you have a raw milk supplier you can "culture" your cream and make cultured butter adding a great deal more nutritional value to your butter.

and finally .. . Drum roll please . . . . The Buttermilk. . . Oh how you will love the buttermilk! This milk is much better than any store bought buttermilk. Store bought buttermilk is often not buttermilk at all but rather fermented skim milk! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttermilk
The buttermilk you get from churning your own butter is by far superior and makes excellent pancakes!

Although there are many methods of churning your own butter at home some using blenders and whisks, some with traditional churns, I've heard of people using stand mixers, we shake our butter.

As we use it quickly we don't usually worry too much about pressing the butter and we usually make it in small batches. This method is cake easy and really doesn't even require too much thought. Our whole family participate! Ok ok enough blabbing are you ready?

Get an empty jar with a tight sealing lid. We use old peanut butter jars most of the time.

Fill your jar 3/4 full of Heavy Whipping Cream (or fresh cultured cream)

Let the jar sit until the cream is room temperature.

Shake the snot out of it! You will notice as you shake that the cream will become very thick (the whip cream stage) and then almost suddenly it will start to clump together and there will be liquid swishing in the jar.

Congrats you have butter. You then just need to separate the butter and buttermilk.











Pour out the milk (save it for your pancakes tomorrow!) and keep shaking. Shake and pour, shake and pour until you can't get much more milk out of the butter.

Refrigerate or freeze both your Butter and Buttermilk. Or just enjoy it on some rolls right away. This butter will last anywhere from 3-6 days in refrigeration. If you need it to last longer you can press more milk out of the butter either using knives and wax paper or a butter press, or even washing the butter with water. We rarely do this as we use what we make quite quickly.

Bon Appetite!

What methods have you tried to make butter? What do you think of fresh butter?

Toddler TeePee

Not to make every one sad now, but this post is more meant to share this awesome project than to tutorialize it. Even though I mostly made this teepee on my own pattern drawn from the back of my head it was inspired by Meg McElwee's book Growing Up Sew Liberated I figured it wouldn't be fair to give up her basic pattern.

  This TeePee has a door and round window, is made from a heavy muslin and outdoor fabric, and is supported by bamboo stakes from the garden department at home depot. And . . .

My girls (or should I say my oldest and her cousins) love it!!

Happy Projecting!

Stephie

Homemade Produce Bags . . Why pay $6.95 for three bags when I can make eight of them for $3?

Produce bags seem like a pointless project, I mean every grocery store provides plastic bags to carry your produce home right? But how often do you leave your produce in these bags in your fridge and have all of your food spoil?

I constantly was watching food spoil, I've heard that letting your produce breathe keeps this to a minimum, but a produce bag from the store won't let that happen!

Enter project: make simple produce bags to carry our produce, and store it in the fridge. We'll see how well they work in the next couple weeks.

These bags are so simple almost anyone can make them! I was impatient and spaced to take pictures while I was making them, but I don't think anyone really needs my amateur photo's to make these!

I bought a yard and a half of toole for $2.05. and had leftover jute yarn from a prior project, but you could really use just about anything to make a pull cord closure.

I cut the toole into rectangles, roughly a foot wide by 2 feet long. I then sewed a tube (for the closure) into one of the long sides. After that you fold the toole so that it is more square and sew the sides (except the tubed side) Run your ribbon through the tube and tie it so that it won't fall out. 

Ta Da!! Fabulous produce bags for almost nothing!!

Happy Projecting!

Stephanie

Simple Mason Sugar Jar

Over the past few months I have gotten sick and tired of my sticky messy sugar bowl and decided to get rid of it. There is just too much involved with the sugar bowl, Spoons and sticky messes left when an accidental drip lands in the bowl etc. Too much hassle!! 

The sugar bowl has been consistently gross for as long as we've had it! 

I wanted a sugar jar that I could use and not need spoons and not worry about dropping anything wet into it. So I arrived at a mason jar solution. I realized how simple the salt containers are when baking and decided to make something to work the same . . Version 2.0 might include a metal lid and will most likely work much nicer, but I decided that since I have no tools for the job I had better do the easy peasy way and avoid stitches. . .

To start I pulled out a mason jar and an empty salt container. . .

 

Ripping the lid off of the container was fairly easy . . 

After that I traced a mason jar lid onto the salt container top . . making sure to leave enough space around the spout to account for the mason jar ring. . . 

I used scissors to cut out the circle slightly smaller than the traced line . . Placed the new cardboard lid into the mason ring . . I had to secure it with a little hot glue to make sure that the lid doesn't buckle when opened and used . . .

All that was left is to fill the jar and label it! Easy Peasy Sugar Jar! No more mess, No more fuss! The morning coffee prep will be much less of a pain in the morning!

Enjoy!,


Stephanie