Make a Panda Bear Hooded Towel

My son loves panda bears (love panda bears, too? You might like my panda party, panda ears tutorial or panda pancakes). Now that he's 2 and huge, he needed some bigger towels for bath time. What better creature to make a hooded towel like than his favorite snuggly panda?

I followed the same technique taught by Amber at Crazy Little Projects. If you have never made a hooded towel, do yourself a favor and read her very thorough tutorial. Then come back here and see how to adapt it to make a panda.

Supplies

• White bath towel
• White hand towel
• Black bath towel
• Black washcloth
• Fusible Interfacing (I used Heat'n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive)
• Matching thread
• Sewing machine, scissors, iron, Walking Foot if you have one.

Cut list:
White hand towel: Cut in half across the narrow width
Black bath towel: Cut off the top third of the towel across the longest width of the towel
Black washcloth: Cut out 4 ear shaped pieces (remember to cut them bigger than you need them). Then iron on the fusible interfacing to the remaining washcloth material. Cut out two kidney bean shaped pieces for eye shadows and a nose.

Hood

1. Fold in the front edge of the towel past any band that might be on the towel. Using white thread, sew across. This is the front edge of your hood.
2. Switch to black thread. Stitch around the curve of the ears, leaving the flat edges open. Flip ears so stitches are inside.
3. Iron down the eye patches and nose. Use a zig zag stitch to applique these pieces to the hood.
4. Cut slits in the hood where you want the ears to go. Insert ears and sew to hood from the inside.
5. Fold hood in half down the middle of the face, right sides together and sew with white thread.

(Are these instructions not making sense? They assume you're familiar with basic hooded towel construction. Be sure to read Amber's great hooded towel tute if you haven't yet.)

This is what your finished hood should look like:

Body

1. Placing right sides together and being sure to line up any bands on the narrow ends of the towels, lay the long black bath towel strip along the long edge of the white bath towel . Sew together and open. 
2. To keep the seam flat, I opened up the back side of this seam and stitched down the length of the towel on both sides.
3. Make a tuck along the top edge of the black section and pin in place (refer to Amber's tutorial).
4. Center the hood seam to line up with the tuck and sew, attaching the hood to the body of the towel

Enjoy!

Upcycled Thread Organizer

Today, I'm proud to show you guys a project that my mom made. I come from a long line of crafty women so it's fun to show off some of their work to you guys. My mom does lots of crafty stuff but one of her specialties is sewing. Currently, fancy Irish Dance Dresses are her thing (interested? check her out at Irish Rose Couture). All those dresses means lots and lots of pretty threads. With her thread collection multiplying faster than rabbits, she needed so do something but she didn't want to add another dowel-based thread rack to her wall.

Instead, she used some small divided tray organizers (she had a lot of leftover from another project), stacked them together and hot glued them to a piece of foam core board from the dollar store. The result is a super cute thread condo that uses the space more efficiently and looks way cuter. Plus it only cost her a dollar because she already had the little trays on hand.

Interested in achieving a similar look?

Look for divided boxes. Think silverware organizers or jewelry boxes. You should be able to find these kinds of items at your local thrift store or if you need to buy something new, I know both Jo-Ann's and Michaels sell divided boxes that they market at jewelry organizers (just don't forget your coupons!).

If your pieces are not already made of wood or something sturdy, be sure to attach them to one big piece of material (like foam core board or MDF) for stability.

Be sure to pop back in throughout January for more organizing ideas. You can also subscribe by e-mail to make sure you don't miss a single post!

Make a Cute Vintage Style Apron

I love aprons! I made my first apron just a couple months ago for a bridal shower. While I wouldn't call them fast projects, they are pretty easy to make. I made the apron in this post for my friend, Kathy and I'm pretty sure she loves it.

This isn't really a tutorial so much as a "walk through." I didn't take pictures while I was making the apron, but the pieces are not hard to put together.

Piece 1: The Top

The top is based on the Tea and Crumpets knock off apron pattern over at Sewing in No Man's Land (her post includes two aprons, scroll down until you see a white a teal apron called Tea and Crumpets). If you scroll about halfway down the page, she has links to download the pattern pieces via Google Docs and gives you great instructions with pictures about how to make the top.

I made the top from some khaki cotton. At the bottom of the top (where it would attach to the waist), I finished it with a piece of thin fabric that I double folded (think bias tape....without the bias).

Piece 2: The Waist Band

The waist band has three pieces. The front center piece is made in the print fabric with the khaki edging and then two side pieces that are from the khaki only. 

You can make edging for the front part using the technique Sewing in No Man's Land describes on her Tea and Crumpets post OR do what I did.

I cut the printed piece to be 4 inches wide and the khaki piece to be about 5 inches wide. I lined up the top edges, right sides together and sewed them together. Then I had to shift the fabric to line up the bottom edges with right sides together and sewed that down. When I flipped it right sides out, the khaki part is bigger, so when you look at the printed side, there is little khaki stripe along the top and the bottom.

Piece 3: The Skirt

The skirt was very simple: 1 rectangle of printed fabric (maybe 30 x 24?) and a rectangle of muslin that was the same size. I sewed them right sides together (with an opening) and then flipped it, pressed it and top stitched around the edges.

Assembly:

To put the pieces together, I center the top and skirt on the waist band then pinned them in place. Then, I top stitched the center part of the waist band, being sure to catch the other pieces as a cruised by. 

Are my pictures not making sense? Check out my video walk through to see if that helps:

Pin Tested: Carissa Approved! Owl Hooded Towels

Have you ever seen a project on Pinterest and wondered "Is it really that easy?" or "I wonder if that really works"?  Me, too!

So I'm going to start a new feature segment of my blog called "Pin Tested: Carissa Approved!" for projects and recipes I try from Pinterest that are worth your time.

Pinterest Project: 

Owl Hooded Towels from Crazy Little Projects

I saw the whole series of these towels on Crazy Little Projects and LOVED them. Amber does such a great job showing you how to make these and makes the whole thing look super easy. I decided to make one for my son's friend who turned two this week.

I think it turned out pretty good. Here's mine:

Project Review:
The instructions are great. Make sure you read the original hooded towel tute she has for the frog first to get more details on how the whole process works. I used polar fleece(purple, black) and parts from a washcloth (white) to make the eyes. I didn't add heat and bond until the end - which was a mistake. I'd made the three layer eyes first and then used it to help adhere the eyes to the towel. I should have used it for each layer of the eye to make them smoother and prettier so I'll definitely do that next time.

Also, if you've never appliqued before, I would do a test project on a piece of plain woven fabric to try out the technique first because appliqueing with terry cloth would be a horrible first project since the fabric can be kind of wonky. You'll want to have an idea of what you're doing first!

But overall: Fabulous project! Inexpensive. Not hard. Took me about 90 minutes and most of it was spent making and appliqueing face parts.

Check out the full tutorial and pin it yourself from Crazy Little Projects.

How I Made a Wedding Dress for Less than $15

Ok, so I'm already married. But I did make the wedding dress I'm wearing in the pictures even if I didn't actually get married myself in it. My husband and I took some time to get away to the Oregon Coast as a bit of a second honeymoon/family vacation and I wanted a pretty dress to wear on the beach commemorating us re-choosing each other.

Buying a new wedding-type dress was out of my price range (my price range being a mere $20 or less). Luckily ThreadBanger has a great video tutorial for how to make a wedding dress for $10. Check out the video below because it's important to understanding how I made mine. It's only about six minutes long:

Seems pretty simple. I am not a great seamstress by any stretch but I figured I could probably pull this off. 

I wasn't able to find a six pack of white shirts but I did find a five pack of 3XL shirts for $13.69 and I picked up a spool for white thread for $1. I wasn't a huge fan of the hanging bit in front on the inspiration dress so figured I'd just do without it and could pull it off with only five shirts.

To get started, I cut open all the shirts and ironed them. Then I sewed four of them together down the long sides and pinned them together around my dress form just like in the video:

I decided I liked how the back fell and made a bit of a train. I still followed the instructions about marking the pin line (I used a purple disappearing marker) but did NOT cut off the extra fabric.

When it was time to work on the wrapped part of the bodice, we ran into an issue. I am about a size 16 - and my bust is probably twice as big around as the model's. In the video, Corinne wraps the fifth piece of fabric around the model twice with enough leftover to tie a knot. I barely had enough to wrap around once and tie a knot.

So I decided to improvise.

I had all the material from the tops of the shirts left and figured I could use that to make a cool ruched top. And this is where I diverted from the ThreadBanger tute.

How I made my dress top:


Step 1: Cut the sleeves off three shirt tops

Step 2: Cut across
Cut straight across the front right under the collar and straight across the back right under where the printed tag is.

Step 3: Sew the short sides together
Split the pieces up into sets of two. Pin them right sides together on the short side and sew to make three strips with a seam in the middle.

Step 4: Sew the long sides together
Now, matching up the seams, match right sides together and sew them down the long sides.

Step 5: Iron and trim
Iron the pieces, pressing seams in the same direction. Trim off any extra material from the edges or seams.

Step 6: Make channels for ruching
Now we need to make channels for the straps to run through in order to gather the material for the bodice. To make sure the opening stayed large enough for the drawstrings, I used a dowel as my guide. I laid it on the seam that runs through all three pieces and then folded the material over and stitched as close to the dowel as I could get (I slid the dowel along as I went).

Then I folded the little pocket I made down onto the main part of the fabric and stitched really close to the fold to make two channels (on the right you can see there is a dowel in each channel).

Now join the ends of the fabric strip (the short ends) and sew together to make a big loop.


Step 7: Make strap
To make the strap (which will also be used for ruching), cut across one of the strips leftover from the bottom of the tshirt. Then use a safety pin to turn the strip inside out, making a long tube.

Step 8: Ruch top
Using the safety pin, thread the strap down one of the ruching channels and then back up the other one.

Try the bodice on your dress form over the dress base (ignore the blue bit and the pink straps there...they're just part of my semi-DIY dress form). Gather the material, arranging it as you like it.

I originally thought I would just gather one side but decided I wanted to do the other side, too. If you want to do the other side, mark the placement with a pin and then sew another set of 2 channels as before then thread the ends of the strap through. Sew the ends of the strap together once they are threaded through the second set of channels.


Step 9: Attach top to dress
Once you have your channels finished and threaded, put the main body of your dress on the form inside out. Put the top back on the dress form inside out being careful to place the channels where you want them to go and keep the straps in between the bodice and dress.

Pin around the dress until you get to the center back. Cut the bodice up the center.

So the you can sew the bodice back where it belongs, mark the pin line you already marked on the body with an X where you want the bottom of the bodice to be.

Sew around the top using a zigzag stitch, skipping the opening of the channels where the straps are to leave them free moving.

Once you're done, flip the dress right sides out.


Step 10: Sew dress together
First we have to pin the back of the bodice down where it belongs. To help gauge where to pin down the bodice along the center back seam, I first pinned the bottom edge to the X I made above. Then put dots down the line to divide the section in thirds. I gathered each bodice section between the seams and then pinned it down along the line between the dots.

Do this on both sides. Now pin the dress back together along the purple pin line you drew earlier and sew along line with wrong sides together.

I could get away with doing it this way because I stopped sewing where the tail/train ended and so when it falls on the finished garment, it covers the stitching. If you were to want to sew beyond the train, you may need to flip the part below the train in and sew them right sides together.

A big thanks to ThreadBanger for the inspiration and tutorial. Hopefully this will help you if you have some curves but are still looking to make an inexpensive wedding dress that works for you.

Shared with:

* Today's Creative: Get Your Craft On *

Stenciled Holiday Place Settings

I love seasonal decorating. But I'm also lazy short on time, so I really like having holiday decor that I can use for more than one occasion. I am currently in need of some holiday table decor that I can use for Thanksgiving, Christmas and maybe even into late winter.  So when a big box of paints and stencils from Plaid's Martha Stewart line showed up on my porch, I knew exactly what I was going to use it for!

This post is brought to you Plaid's Martha Stewart line of paint and stencils. I received product and payment for this post. All opinions expressed are 100% mine.

Holiday Place Settings for Four

A tablecloth, placemats and napkins

Supplies Needed

• 1 twin flat sheet in red
• 1 twin flat sheet in taupe
• Matching thread
• Stencils
• Stencil Adhesive Spray
• Masking Tape
• Paint brushes and pouncing sponges
• Paint (all are from the Martha Stewart Craft line)
• Multi-Surface Metallic in Copper
• Multi-Surface Pearl in Mother of Pearl
• Multi-Surface Glitter in Sugar Cube
• Multi-Surface Satin in Habanero
• Multi-Surface Glitter in Garnet

The Littlest Monk: A Halloween Costume How-To

I had these great plans for Halloween in my head. Fancy costumes for our whole family including hand-sewn retro style dress for me. Fabulous! Until it was 3 days before Halloween and I had neither time nor a Halloween costume budget. Snap! What to do?

When I was talking through my conundrum with my husband he suggested we make K a monk. And while it sounds like an odd choice, our son does have a physique to pull it off....a cute little toddler belly and so little hair on the top of his head that he almost looks bald. It also has the added geeky appeal of it doubling as a "Reformation Day" costume (Luther is one of my husband's favorite movies. Ever.).

It was cheap and easy to make. Less than $10 in material and less than an hour of time. Depending on how you accessorize this, you could be a more specific character (St. Francis of Assisi? Luther? Friar Tuck from Robin Hood?), too

You'll need:

• About 1 yard of brown polar fleece (In my stash. Purchased months ago for $3.99 on sale at Jo-Ann's)
• 1 1/4 yard of upholstery cord ($4.39 at Jo-Ann's without a coupon)
• A long sleeve shirt, a pair of pants and a hooded jacket or coat that currently fit your child (for sizing the pattern pieces)
• Brown Thread
• Sewing Machine

Cut Out Your Pieces

The monk habit is only 4 pieces: a front, a back and a 2 piece hood.  To cut your pieces:

1) Lay out your material, folded in half (the way it came off the bolt). Grab a long sleeve shirt and a pair of loose fitting long pants that currently fit your child and lay them out on top of the fabric. 

2) Cut around the outline of the clothes. Give yourself about 1/2 inch allowance along the upper edge of the sleeves. Cut the cuff-end of the sleeve to end where the shirt sleeve ends. For the bottom edge of the sleeves and along the sides, give your self a 2 inch buffer.

When you're done, it should look something like this:

3) Remove the clothing and cut a swoop for the collar line

4) Because you had your fabric laid out double, you should now have 2 identical pieces that look like this:

5) Cut out the hood pieces by laying the hood of a coat or sweater that already fits your child on top of 2 layers of fabric so the front edge lines up with an edge like so:

Cut around the outline of the hood, giving your self 1/2 - 1 inch of buffer. Cut the bottom edge of the hood at an angle, following the line of the seam on the garment you are using for a template. Like so:

You should end up with 2 identical pieces that look like this:

Let's get Sewing!

Thread your machine with matching brown thread and set your machine to do a long, straight stitch.

Next, you'll want to decide which side of the fabric you would like to have facing out as your child wears it. My fleece had a fuzzy side (usually considered the right side) and a flat, boring side (usually considered the back side). I wanted my monk to look plain, so I chose to have the boring side out and the snuggly, fuzzy side in. Decide which side you would prefer to having showing and proceed.

1) With (what you have decided will be) the right sides together, sew the body pieces as marked with the yellow lines. Now, turn the body right-sides out so the seams are inside. optional: You may choose to hem the cuff ends of the sleeves and the hem if you would like. I chose to hem just the sleeve and leave the hem raw.

2) Next, with right sides together, sew the hood pieces as marked:

Turn the hood right-side out. 

optional: The raw part of the seam will be inside the hood BUT if the hood is hanging and not on your child's head, you will see the raw seam. Decide if this bothers you. If it bothers you (it bothered me), with the raw seam turned inside the hood now (right side of the fabric facing out) sew along the same edge with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. This will contain the raw seam. Again, this is optional.

3) Attach the hood to the neckline by first inserting a pin to mark the center, back of the neck. Then lay the hood on the body, lining up the center hood seam with the pin.

Moving from the center seam out, pin the hood to the body.

With a 1/4 inch seam allowance, sew the hood to the body, removing the pins as you go.

optional: If the raw nature of this seam bothers you (it bothered me...apparently I'm neurotic), you can stitch down the inside of the raw seam with a wide zig zag stitch. Once you have stitched the seam open with the zig zag, you can trim any excess raw edges, being careful not to clip the threads.

Get Dressed.

Slip the little robe on your kiddo. Don't they look snuggly and warm?  Tie a knot in each end of the upholstery cord you chose to use for a belt and wrap it around their waist. That's it! Enjoy your cute little monk!

I'm linking up with these great parties...

* Made By You Mondays at Skip to My Lou * Mad Skills Party at Mad in Crafts * Get Your Craft On Tuesdays at Today's Creative Blog *