Sewing kit wrap.....a tutorial

When Mary and I traded addresses, it was implied that we were going to be mailing each other a gift.

When I got that ridiculously gorgeous yard of fabric and the beautiful bag that she had made, I knew that I had to reciprocate her generosity.  A gift for a beautiful gift.

I thought hard about what I wanted to send to her, but what do you give to the girl who can and DOES make anything for herself?

Something to help her in her creativity.... was what I came up with.

And so this is what I mailed off to the sweet and talented Mary.

A sewing wrap.

And now that I know that Mary got the wrap, I can share the directions with you.

error:  you only need three 4x4 cuts of  one printed cotton and one 4x4 cut of a coordinating cotton.

For the linen, I cut the hem off of two linen skirts that I got at the Thrift store.  They were pretty, but stained and I was glad to find a use for them.

Please note that the 1/2 inch measured in the above photo should READ one AND a half inches

Please note that the 1/2 inch measured in the above photo should READ one AND a half inches

Pin them into place now to make sure that they don't move.

 

Fill the wrap with pins and needles

Fold the wrap into thirds.

Tie the kit closed with a ribbon.

And send it off to a super sweet friend.

Our first Nature Table...

It is no secret that I am NOT a Waldorf, Montessori homeschooling Mother.  My son goes to Public School, watches more TV than I care to admit to, and he eats his fair share of Chef Boyardee (I hear you Tisk, tisking me!).  But with my new involvement in Rhythm of the Home,  And with my research for the blog, I am learning.

A LOT.

I have realized that I am way more Waldorf than I had originally thought.

Getting outdoors..check.
Reading together...check.
Baking with my boy...check.
Nurturing the life of the soul...man, I hope so.

But there is one Waldorf thing that I have really wanted to give a try.

The Nature Table.  I had seen Erin's post on her table and it was just so darn springy...I needed one too!

We had a bird house which had no more inhabitants in it.  Fran had taken it down to empty and clean it so that another family would be able to use it.  Aside from the expected nest of pine needles and grasses, it was full of funny things....2 hunks of bread, some twine, a piece of rubber.... and one thing that we found particularly special.

A single infertile egg in the loveliest shade of turquoise.

The boys fell in absolute love.

They helped me to wind some leftover roving from the Christmas time around a plastic egg and felted it using Nicole's wonderful tutorial.  While we let the wool egg sit to dry,  I washed off the tiny egg.

Which prompted it to crack in my hands under the stream of water from the faucet.

Thank GOD that it was not fertilized.  I don't think that I could have handled it if it was.

They boys were pretty upset that I had cracked their sweet little egg and so I distracted them with finding things around the house to add to our Nature Table.  We found 2 of the tiny antique Beatrix Potter books in their bookshelf (the boys can fully relate to Tom Kitten, and I can FULLY relate to his poor mother!) and Eben remembered some cookie cutters from last Spring when we made cookies for the Easter Bunny.  We tied yarn ribbon around the little bunny and duck's necks and the boys promptly replaced the broken egg's spot in the nest with the new wool egg which was still not completely dry.

There, it's a start.

We gathered them all together and set them on our makeshift Nature Table....ie.)the coffee table.  Where they sat for all of 5 minutes before the boys swatted the nest onto my freshly swept floor.

A full FIVE minutes before the nature table became...nature windowsill.

Out of the boy's reach.

(Hey, I am new to this...cut me some slack.  The whole interactiveness of the nature table might have been a bit more doable for me and my neat-nick tendencies.... had I not had a nest of dirt and pine needles to deal with.)

And do you know what I realized at the end of our Nature table creating?

I learned that you don't have to be a die hard follower of any one philosophy or anthroposophy (or whatever you want to call it) to be a mother.  Motherhood is a blending of many theories, thoughts,  experience, and trial and error which leads us all to become who we are and who we raise.

All that you have to do is do what feels right for you and your kids and follow whatever winding path it is, that you are led on.

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So now I want to lead you all over to the Rhythm of the Home blog where we are collecting links to your nature tables.

Busy Bees...

 The final bit of homework before the Spring Break Vacation.

YIPPEEEE!!!!

Watching the snow melt and leave the signs of friends existence in their wake.

Finding treasures at the thrift store to make create some fun projects with.  A linen Eddie Bauer skirt, a morning glory and pretty rose printed pillowcase, and 2 gorgeous king sized pillow shams that I am toying with the idea of putting on my ever so big and cozy bed.

Making fun little crafts with my boy.

(If you want to see the final project as well as a directions for making this fun little friend.... just head on over to the Rhythm of the Home blog where I have posted a tutorial.)

Another gorgeous weekend full of skiing, working, visiting and crafting.


What could be better than that?


See you all on Monday!

Hugs, Julia

Easy (but long) repurposed baby pants sewing tutorial

When Eben and Sam were babies Laura and I spent what felt like half of our income on their clothing.

 (Eben left, Sam right)

A trip to the city was not complete unless 4 pairs of baby sweat pants or sleepers, or overalls found their way into our trunk.  I could just kick myself for not learning how to sew before that I had him.  All of the sweet outfits I could have made for them and all the money that I could have saved.

Well, today I am sharing a tutorial for the pants that I would have made for our boys.  I finally got around to re-doing the tutorial for the baby pants that Laura and I used to sell online and at the Farmer's Markets.

Now, don't be intimidated by all of the photos, they are actually super easy.  I just have a thing for posting insane number of pictures in my tutorials.

Sorry about that.

This tutorial is for a pair of baby play pants.  You know, the kick around /crawl around type.  They are upcycled since I used a thrifted receiving blanket as the main fabric.  It is the perfect size and crazy soft!

Warning: Due to the fact that I am making pants, do not be alarmed at the amount of times that I use the word "crotch" or "crotches".  I swear, it is the worst word EVER!  Why couldn't they call it "toothpick" or "dog biscuit" or something a bit less offensive.  Anything but "crotch".

Any way, on with the tutorial...


CROTCH....(sorry, I just wanted to ease you in.)

These pants are approximately sized for 9-12 months, but you can use any size pair of pants that you want as the template when you make your own.  The fabric that I used was a flannel receiving blanket but you can use any fabric, I have done them in seersucker, flannel, fleece, velour, cotton, linen...you name it.  They all work perfectly.

First things first...you need to get the fabric into 4 layers to be able to cut 4 identical pieces all at once.

You will do this as follows....

Now it is 4 layers thick.

Your margins for cutting are as shown..3/4 inch on sides, 2 inches on top and bottom.


Draw a dotted line as shown in the picture (following the lay of the pants) with a fabric marker so that you know where to cut.

You can see the marker lines on my fabric, they are in blue ink.  You just have to connect the dots using a rotary and make sure to cut through all FOUR layers of fabric.

Now, I like to add a little detail to the pants that I make, usually I do a patch or mock pocket.  You can skip the next few steps if you just want some basic pants.

Take out the pins.

Meaning that it forms the crotch of the pants.

If you are making very small sized pants, the leg cuff may not fit over the machine as shown, that is ok though, just feed the pants cuff through the machine making sure to not sew the front and back of the leg together.

Now to make the waistband...

Following shows how to gather the waistband using elastic.

 

 

 

Voila!!!

And the bonus of this pattern is that there is no right or wrong way to wear the pants.

Because of the symmetry of the pattern, the patch can be either on the front or the back, your choice!

I hope that you have a blast making a few pairs of these!  They really are simple.... once you do it once, you will be amazed at how quickly you can do a bunch more.

Hugs, Julia

Psst... come see me over at the Rhythm of the Home blog!