Homemade Christmas: Football Field

To: Peter

made with love

From:  James

Peter loves football.  He is a tough kid and can take even his oldest brother's tackles.  James likes football also so this field and field goal post were fun to make.  I don't know when the idea came to us but it came so we went with it and you can see from the pictures how much Peter loves it.

The base is a flat twin sheet we picked up at the thrift store.  James stayed up late painting it with fabric paint and used blue painter's tape for the lines.  What you may not know from the photos is this project actually involved a lot of math.  James was careful to scale everything down to the correct proportions.

I was careful to make sure there would be appropriate storage so I sewed up the back pack to keep it all together.

In addition to the painted sheet the backpack stores a pile of cut pvc pipes for the field goal.

Here is the illustrated diagram James included:

Here it is going together:

And again in action:

Homemade Christmas: Felt Food

To:  Maryanna

made with love

From:  Peter

Who would have thought a 6 year old boy obsessed with football would also enjoy late night sewing with his mom.  Peter really took to this project and what started out as just a few pieces of food turned into a felt feast!  Below are a few of the more complex pieces.  The grapes took the most work with Peter patiently cutting out all 19 circles and stitching them by hand.  Some of the other pieces we were able to cheat and use the machine, for example bigger pieces like the watermelon.  The peeled banana is funny because you can actually pull out the inner white felt banana, but Peter said for some reason it didn't look appetizing out of the peel.

Here is the sandwich spread.  The ham and cheese are basically just two pieces of felt cut to the desired shape and finished by machine around the edges, Peter was very pleased to complete these entirely on his own.  I on the other hand started to get nervous as he pedaled my sewing machine like a race car.

If you look closely you will see the bread was constructed out of felt from Joann's whereas the rest of the food is out of finer Japanese felt that Marie' so kindly got me from Japan.  I think with the amount of work and the amount of play that goes into this food it is worth using the better quality felt.

Here is breakfast.  Most of the pieces we did were from the Japanese felt food book but the bacon we just made up on our own.  What is really cool about the bacon is there is elastic on the inside to give it an authentic crinkled look.

When I got tired of the felt food Peter was not through sewing and came up with the idea of a hot mitt.  He got one from the kitchen and stitched two pieces of fabric and batting together in a similar diagonal pattern then I helped him navigate the zig-zag and bias tape around.

When we were through Peter was very pleased and said...."now I know why you love sewing so much".

Here is the food in action.  Maryanna always likes to use her pretty table cloths as forts above.  

It was a sweet and lovely party until Daddy showed up with big cones from Baskin Robins.  Then the girls got hyper and messy......... and please note Clara is still wearing the gift that Peter made for Maryanna 2 years ago.

Homemade Christmas: Felt Deer

To:  Clara

made with love

From:  Maryanna

While searching for the backing fabric for George's quilt I came across this cute little felt kit and knew it would be perfect for Clara's personality.  What I didn't know was how difficult it would be for Maryanna to actually participate in the making.

The deer are not very big so the pre-cut of pieces of felt were tiny.  On more than one occasion Maryanna misplaced the little deer's eye lashes, we were both on our hands and knees sifting through the scraps on the carpet.  The determined little girl found them!  So she did help.

Actually she was quite good at stuffing and beading the little necklaces.  Other than that she painted a piece of doll furniture while I worked on the intricacies of these cute felt creatures.  I should have started with the "mama" because the "baby" was harder to stitch and it took a while to get even stitches.

Maryanna named them Cutie (the baby) and Bootie (the mommy).  Here are some more photos of them in action:

Cutie and Bootie have seen enough action since Christmas to make them fuzzy felt creatures.  Even the nice Japanese felt becomes fuzzy after too much handling.  Also, Bootie got her head detached yesterday.  Here is a tragic picture:

But she was easily fixed up during a tea party I shared with the girls.  I also touched up Cutie a bit because her head was starting to detattch as well.  Here they are again good as new sitting on the green blankets Maryanna cut out (I only had to square the corners and roll hem them on the serger).

They sure turned out cute!  Even Peter is hoping I make him a pair (only maize and blue and wearing winged helmets) for his upcoming birthday.

And here is the China cabinet that Maryanna painted all by herself for Clara while I worked on the Cutie and Bootie. 

Homemade Christmas: Play Clothes

To:  The girls

made with love

From:  Mommy

As Christmas drew near I knew there was not enough time (or energy) to sew 7 pairs of jammies, the stack of knit fabric I ordered remained uncut.  I did however have a bit of time to sew something quick for the girls.  I admit sometimes I sew things for the girls that only I like then end up having to beg them to wear them.  But this time I determined whatever was created would be a gift for them, not me.  So I made them some very pink, very comfortable, little bit sparkly and very spiny play clothes.

I started with a natural thermal set from baby Gap.  Did you know size 4T and 5T are always on sale there because most people shop Gap kids for that age, they were a really good deal.  So I purchased them with plans to dye them.  So at between at 11:30 pm on Dec. 23 all four pieces turned a bright magenta.  They were through processing an hour later and out of the dryer ready to be wrapped at 1:30 am.  At that point I didn't think it was enough to just dye them so I added a little satin bow to the CF neckline.  

The skirts are from the tried and true twirl skirt pattern from Studio Tantrum.  They are so quick that one summer I ended up making 21 of them for each of my nieces, but I have not made them since.  My serger was already set up for rolled hem and lazy me did not want to change the settings so I experimented with exposed seams.  I liked the result!  The fabric is lightweight denim that sat untouched in my fabric stash for over a year.  It was the reverse side that convinced me to use it and the two sparkly applique pieces I had on had made them just girly enough. The waistband is a very pink satin. 

Here they are in action:

And because they were so quick I decided to make a few for my nieces.  I used up what scraps I had from the pink linen Sugar City Journal dresses, they too looked great with the exposed rolled hem seams.

Homemade Christmas: Play Mat

To:  Henry

Made with Love

From:  William

This may have been one of the most fun projects I got to assist in this Christmas, probably because William never tires of creative projects and he was so focused and sure of his idea and design, all I had to do was provide the materials and final sewing.  Here is a photo of it in the works:

It started as a simple piece of white canvas.  William drew two scenes with pencil then went over them with a fine point Sharpie.  Watercolors were added on top.  This proved to be a challenge because the canvas was so so absorbent it bled, we used a hair dryer to help.  We also noticed shrinkage wherever the watercolors were applied (should have pre-shrunk the fabric).  It turned out okay because the entire surface was evenly covered in watercolors.

Below is the suburban scene.  You may notice the DIA, Toys R Us, McDonalds, Trader Joe's, a playground, the zoo, a statue, a huge parking lot, Michigan Stadium, Whole Foods and a house all surrounded by train tracks or roads.

Here are a few views of the "country" side.

You may notice two pouches pulled out from the binding, those are to hold engines and cars and can be flipped to the outside of the mat to avoid obstruction on the tracks and roads.

William also decorated a Michigan car and family passenger car for the engines to pull. I helped him with the sizing on Adobe and he finished them with Modge Podge and paint.

The entire mat folds up neatly with a handle and snap. 

A few things we had to think about along the way..... what if Henry got so busy playing he had an accident on the play mat?  The watercolors had to be sealed.  We used Modge Podge again because it is non-toxic.  The only disadvantage is it made the play mat a bit stiff.  In that case it was lucky I got the outer binding on first because I don't think it would have been easy to sew through the Modge Podge.

Henry sure enjoys playing on it and I even like seeing William's artwork draped across the floor.  Good job William - you know you could probably sell these on etsy, this is definitely something I would have liked to buy for Henry.

Homemade Christmas: Baby Quilt

To:  George

Made with Love

From:  Clara

This quilt was made from Paul's old Brooks Brother's dress shirts, scraps from a linen skirt, some soft old corduroy pants, and a bit of fleece.  The appliqued "G" is a brown velveteen from the scraps of the girl's dresses, babies love texture and I love that this quilt is covered in it.

I started the machine quilting but the time crunch before Christmas made it sloppy so I stopped.  This week we may finish it but I can't promise it to be perfect because remember I'm not a quilter, nor is little Clara.  

Marie' is the one who got me interested in quilting - her finished projects always tempt me to give it a try.  When she sent me a link to Oh Franson, I could not resist.  Here is a peek at the back. 

The backing is a Japanese print from Super Buzzy.  Browsing through all their prints was almost as much fun (and time consuming) than sewing the quilt.  I was 1/4 yard short so I used the same piecing technique I saw on Oh Franson.  The machine quilting does not look great but it was my first try and enough to convince me it may be my last.

You may ask, "how is this from 4 year old Clara"?  Well, I certainly did the majority of the work but utlimitly it was Clara's idea, her layout, and her final say on the backing fabric.  She did arrange the pieces, clip some threads, sit on my lap, and keep me company during the process.  But what I think she enjoyed most was wrapping it up and hiding it under her bed (even though George saw the entire process while wrapped on my back).

Homemade Christmas

Homemade gifts are among the most heartfelt and has become our most favorite holiday tradition.  Christmas morning there was little talk about what Santa brought because each child was so overly excited to present the special gifts they so carefully created.

As Peter was wrapping his gift to Maryanna he noted "it must be hard for the elves to make gifts for all the children without really knowing their personality".  I agreed and we shared of the joy of giving to the people we love.

Here is what Peter made completely on his own for Daddy.  It is a Heisman trophy for all the front yard football games he won.  Peter made it in his homeschool sculpture class, it is a wire form slabbed with a mix of clay and cellulose then painted gold on a plaster base.  We were told that is it Daddy's this year but next year someone else might win it.  For now though it is sitting proudly on Daddy's desk.

Maryanna made a special gift just for me, all by herself when I wasn't looking.  It is a paper plate painted with acrylics.  She said it was for me to eat on but was disappointed to realize it was not a good idea to wrap something with wet paint, you can see where the wrapping stuck.  Not only did this gift bring tears to my eyes but it also explained a mysterious mess of paint in the laundry room.  I told her she could make me a felt lunch on it.