Tutorial: How To Make A Stretchy Carseat & Nursing Cover

Stretchy carseat/nursing cover free tutorial!

You've all seen these awesome covers by now. They're amazing. And they're so easy and inexpensive to make! Follow these instructions and you'll be done in no time. You literally only have to sew 2 lines and you can make your own pattern with some copy paper.

You need 1 yard of 60" wide jersey knit fabric OR 2 yards of two different 60" wide jersey knit fabrics if you like the combo look better (like my striped/floral cover). Doing it this way will make 2 covers. 

Don't forget to wash and iron your fabric before starting.

Now get 4 pieces of 8.5x11 copy paper

And line them up like this, cutting one of them into 3 equal parts

Lay them out as pictured. Measure and mark, then draw a rounded edge

You will mark 7" from the top left corner and then draw a curved line ending where the top papers meet at a 90 degree angle. Draw another curved line on the top right paper from its top left corner to its bottom right corner as shown.

Cut and tape pattern together

Repeat the steps above tracing your previous cuts as to get the same exact curve on the opposite side

Pin the pattern to your fabric and cut out 2 pieces; a front and a back. Now put your two pieces together with the right sides facing each other pin them together. Use pins to mark 7 inches from the center on both sides of the top line.  

Sew the cover all the way up the sides, leaving a 14 inch space on the top.

I leave the edges unfinished because they curl up and look just fine this way. Plus, I don't have a serger.

Voila! You have a handy dandy cover with like a hundred uses!

That floral/stripped one was a gift I made for a friend's brand new baby but the one below is one I made for my son who is now old enough to use it in highchairs and shopping carts.

I hope you enjoy making this! I love it when I can make something that is both easy and inexpensive and SO USEFUL! Not to mention cuuuuuuuuute. Hope you love it too!

  

Fabric Doll

What a doll!

 

I followed the instructions on Make It and Love It here.

Instead of felt for hair I just used some fabric I had on hand that matched some yarn I had on hand! Which is why her shoes are white as well. I used muslin for the body and machine stitched the eyes and mouth on as soon as the pattern pieces were cut out, I didn't want to hand embroider them on cuz I'm lazy like that. I also skipped the cute little sleeves and collar for the same reason. And to top off my laziness I didn't even enlarge the pattern so mine turned out smaller. 

Those tiny arms require a surprising amount of batting to stuff completely so be sure to put enough in before sewing them onto the body especially if you omit sleeves like I did. 

Oh one more thing! If you use fabric for hair like I did, after you sew it on, try cutting little slits in it to fray it a little along the edges.

Now go make a special little handmade doll for someone you love :)

Tutorial: How To Recover An Ottoman

Love my ottoman.

Found the little lady on my local classified ad website and she was in need of some TLC.

Besides the tears in the top of the vinyl she was in good shape so I found some old curtains of mine and made a new cover. I measured the top (3'x3') and sides (3'x16"), adding 1/2 inch to each side to account for seam allowances and about 2" on the bottom to tuck under. I sewed the cover together with invisible thread and used the already finished curtain hem for the bottom of my cover.

Demolition time! I removed the feet and the mesh lining that was covering the bottom of the ottoman. The original tufting was created with a string (no buttons) that was tied and stapled underneath so I cut those strings and carefully peeled the vinyl cover off, leaving the foam and batting untouched. 

I placed my slipcover on, reattached the feet and stapled any loose fabric that needed it. You could leave it like this but I wanted the tufting like it originally had. And I wanted buttons. 

So I added my own covered buttons that I made with some leftover scraps of fabric. You can make your own buttons using the same fabric as your slipcover with a cover button kit from Walmart. They're cheap, come in lots of sizes to choose from and make covering buttons easy. BUT... make sure you check out my tufted fabric headboard if you're using a thicker fabric. I used 4 large regular buttons on the underside of the ottoman. These buttons allowed me to pull tight when knotting so that it made a deeper tuft.

I could have pulled the bottom right button a little tighter...

The great thing about this is that you can remove it if you need to wash it. I debated about using velcro on the bottom like Tiny Side Kick did here which looks very nice and easy!

But my ottoman's feet were much bigger than hers were so I figured they'd hold the majority of the fabric under for me. One day I may switch the feet and copy her to make removing it for washing easier. I would still have to untie the buttons each time but it's worth it because I love them.

OH! And it's not pictured here but I was able to use a leftover piece of fabric to make another pillow (since I'm clearly in desperate need of some more pillows). I used the "wrong side" of the fabric for my pillow so that the color of the pillow wouldn't match the ottoman exactly. It's shiny and a bit darker so it works well.

Ain't she cute? Soooooooo comfy. I will never go back to a hard coffee table again. Top her with a cute tray and you're good to go!

This is easily my most favorite piece of furniture. I love the color, how comfortable it is and the tufting. What's yours and why?

Tutorial: How To Make A Tufted Fabric Headboard

 So as you know there are a lot of DIY headboards out there. But this one is a bit different.

 He was originally inspired by Ikea's Bekkestua Headboard:

Then as I set out to find a tutorial online I decided I liked this beautiful headboard on Jenna Sue Design better because of the curve:

But my guy has a secret... he's made out of cardboard instead of plywood! Shhh! Don't tell! He was cheaper, lighter and easier to cut so that's why I chose him. 

Now I must tell you that although this is how I chose to do it, I would still recommend you use plywood over cardboard any day. But if you really want that curved edge and have no tools then cardboard would be the way to go. If I did it over though, I would use plywood and just leave the top edge straight. In fact I may still do that so be prepared to see that on my website in the future!

Anyway, all I did was cut the cardboard from a box we got a new table in, into the shape I liked. I wanted the bottom of the headboard to hit the top of my mattress so I just eyeballed where I thought I wanted it above my bed then measured. Taping the wall off with painters tape first is probably a better idea though. That way you can really see if that's the size you want. You also have to consider the width of your fabric when determining the height of your headboard.

There wasn't any prep work on the cardboard for the button holes (like drilling holes ahead of time) so I just layered the foam, batting and fabric over the top of the cardboard. I used some spray glue to hold down the foam but that was pretty pointless so don't bother. Then I stapled the batting and the fabric to the back of the cardboard (I had to get some longer staples for my gun as the short ones weren't cutting it). Then I covered my buttons with the leftover fabric and used a chunky needle to attach them to the headboard where I wanted them. I used a regular button on the back to hold the thread in place. Once it was ready I poked two holes in the cardboard for hanging the headboard with a couple of 3M hooks!

I will mention that the buttons were a bit harder to cover than they would have been with a thinner fabric, like my ottoman slipcover. In fact my husband had to do this part for me. I also found that because of the weave on the fabric, when I take a picture with a flash at just the right angle, I can see the metal shine through. You could remedy this by using a marker of the same color on the silver metal button before covering. Take a look at the shine...

And that's all folks. So what do you think? Straight or curved? Cardboard or plywood? Tufting before or after stapling the fabric on? I do like the look of this deep tufting from Involving the Senses where they added the buttons before stapling:

There's just something so cozy about a fabric headboard that I love. Resting your head against it while you read a book or watch a show just can't be beat. 

Tutorial: How to Cover a Trucker Hat

How cute is this? 

I needed to come up with some fun crafts for a bunch of teenage girls to do (I am the young women's girls camp director at my church) so I looked on Pinterest for a DIY option for trucker hats and found this awesome collage of hats made by Tiff Brady Designs (who sells these babies if you'd rather not make one of your own): 

I knew this was what I wanted to make! So I set out to find a tutorial.


I found one here and printed the template. Unfortunately my hat was a different size since I ordered them from a different place than she did (and bought them in bulk at a discount) so I had to adjust it by trial and error a bunch of times. It was still helpful to have her template to begin with. 

Once I got the size I wanted I cut out my fabric, sewed the dart together on my machine and used Fray Check on the edges. I then pinned and hand stitched the fabric onto the hat with regular thread that I tripled up on to make it thicker. When pinning, I suggest sticking the pin straight through as opposed to down and back up like you normally would. This helps you avoid bunching and rippling. I wanted to leave the raw edges showing instead of folding them over because it was easier and I was going to have to teach 10 girls how to do this. 

My friend made one and didn't fray check hers and the frayed edges are super cute. 

When I taught the girls, they used embroidery thread instead which worked well (just make sure the needle you use has a big enough eye hole). They added buttons, ribbon, stitch work and more to embellish theirs.

So give it a shot! I wanted to add an applique (a cutout of a flower) to mine, or even buttons, but I thought the fabric was too busy for that so make sure to consider that when you're choosing your fabric.

Tutorial: How To Make A Tulle Boa

Does your daughter like to play dress up? 

Have you ever bought a feather boa? 

I hear they come apart easily. 

Why not make a boa out of sparkly tulle? 

(It has to be the SPARKLY kind, the fabric is different than the plain kind. Keep that in mind.)

1. Buy tulle on a roll using a craft store coupon

2. Fold entire length in half a million times until it's approx. 3x the length you want it to be

3. Pin in place down the middle and cut ends so they no longer "fold over"

4. Sew a basting stitch down the middle then gather to the length you want it to be

5. Pin a 1/8" ribbon down the middle the same length

6. Sew ribbon to tulle

7. Cut toward the center almost to the ribbon in 1/2" wide strips all the way across each side 

8. Scrunch it up and you're done!

Stuffed Batman

I know it's not perfect but I'm happy about how it turned out...


Actually I'm happy that it turned out at all! I didn't know what I was doing so I'm surprised it looks as good as it does! I just drew a pattern and used an old pillowcase for the body and felt for all the embellishments. 

My son seems to like it!

Stuffed Owl

I love this little owl! It's the first stuffed animal I've made and it wasn't hard either. My baby girl loves owls so I searched for a tutorial and found the cutest one at Mile High Mom. I used a pink minky dot fabric on the back for the cuddle-factor, and all the fabric on the front matches the ruffled quilt I'm making her for Christmas (besides the black on the eyes - that's felt). 


I have to mention the tutorial I found and used for closing the seam. It was just what I needed and it worked great! I was amazed. Go to Quilt Taffy to see how to finish off a stuffed animal with an invisible closing seam!


I don't know how I'm going to hold off another week before giving this to my baby. I showed her brother and he said, "Wow! Can I see my stuffed Batman"? Mind you, there is no stuffed Batman but apparently there's gonna have to be now! I will be sharing that tutorial as well as their coordinating twin quilts (since they share a room) in the near future.

Vinyl Stenciled, Fabric Painted Onesies

I set out to make freezer paper stenciled onsies for a baby shower gift and realized that some of my designs were too intricate for freezer paper (mostly the tires on the jeep). I had some leftover blue vinyl that I wouldn't be using for anything, so I decided to use it along with some transfer paper to apply the stencils to the onsies before painting.

The first batch of stencils were way too big (I guess I forgot how small newborns really are!) so I had to start over and I was already in a time crunch so my sweet husband helped me out by blowdrying them. He tried to be nice and help even more by adding a second coat and ended up getting a blotch on the black guitar onesie. I had to improvise by adding some more blotches all around it using a cut-out of an oval shape. I think it looks cool that way!

 I used my one of my huge vinyl stencils from the first batch to make our son a Superman shirt. After seeing this and helping me with the onesies, my husband decided to use the other huge stencils to make our son a brown jeep shirt with black tires and our daughter a guitar shirt. He was really into it too, he wouldn't even wait for the paint to dry before taking the vinyl off because he was too excited to see the finished product lol!

Because of the cost, I wouldn't recommend regularly using vinyl for this project but if you really want a specific design that's too hard to do with freezer paper, this sure works great! And you don't have to break out the iron :)

Freezer Paper Stencil with Cricut

I don't know why but I've always been too chicken to do the freezer paper stencils... maybe because all the tutorials I found said you had to take an exacto knife to the image and that sounded like way too much work!

Well I went to a craft night with some friends and one of them was doing a shirt for her husband for Father's Day and she was using this tutorial from I Am Momma, Hear Me Roar. This girl was using the Cricut to cut out her image so I decided this was a way cooler idea than my original one (which was actually cool too - I was going to have my 3 year old son write "Dad" on a shirt and then use a bleach pen to trace over it). I found this website describing how to do this with your cricut.

This project was so fun for my son because after I applied the freezer paper to the shirts with the iron, he could paint on the stencil and essentially be the one to make Dad and Grandpa's shirts. My husband needed a green shirt anyway since he's going to be coaching my son's soccer team and their jerseys are green. I think I may do another one just like it but use heat transfer vinyl instead of fabric paint for a more professional look.

The "Grandpa" one was tricky to design because of the swoosh part... it took forever to design in my Make The Cut software.

Happy Father's Day!

Jedi Robe

My 3 year old son loves Star Wars (despite the fact that he's never even seen it) so I made him this Jedi Robe using a great tutorial I found online at www.DeGraeve.com.

The tutorial is wonderful but since I was doing it for a child instead of an adult, figuring out the hood and neck was a bit of a challenge. I also could have been much more generous while tracing around and under his arms so keep that in mind if you try it. Good thing he doesn't care about the details :)

I used a twin flat sheet (from his bed, actually) to make this one and one for his baby sister and it was plenty of fabric and the cost for one of those at Walmart is only $4 :D

May the force be with you...

Tutorial: How To Make A Ruffled Monogram Pillow

Thank goodness for birthdays or I'd never have an excuse to make stuff! I feel like the only time I get to create anymore is when my kids are going to a birthday party. My poor neglected kids don't ever get anything made by me either because it's just getting harder to find the time as they grow. Not to mention the fact that we just moved AND started a new job. But ANYWHO...

Here is an adorable pillow for a little girl's bedroom that you can personalize with her initial.

I used my Cricket to cut this letter "M" but you could easily print it then trace it onto your fabric and cut. This was my first time cutting fabric with my Cricket machine (using these instructions) and it worked great.

It was also my first time applying an applique. I'd had the stuff to do it forever but was intimidated. For no reason I might add. It was so easy. All you need is Fray Check, Heat n' Bond and a somewhat simple shaped applique. For me, sewing around the applique was too hard when I used a super curvy font (i.e. "Curlz").

So this is what you do:

Cut out two squares for your pillow in any size you choose. Also cut out a letter (or anything else you want to use for your applique) and apply Fray Check to the edges. Cut four strips of fabric for you ruffle that are each about 1.5 times as long as one of your pillow's sides, fold them over length-wise with wrong sides together and iron.

Then open them up and sew them right sides together on the shorter sides until you have a big loop. Iron the seams open and then re-iron it length-wise over the seam. Come to think of it you might as well just wait to iron the entire thing lenth-wise until after you've sewed each strip together.

Now gather the whole thing by sewing the raw edges together with an extra long stitch length and pulling on the ends.

Now attach the ruffle to the right side of one square with pins. Use your seams as a guide by pinning them to the corners so that it's all even. Speaking of corners, make sure your ruffles aren't bunched right there because mine were sloppy and I had to use my seam ripper and redo them after sewing over the outter edges of my ruffle the first time.

Use your Heat n' Bond to apply your applique to the other square. Once attached you can sew around the edges of the letter using your zig-zag stitch and a very low stitch length setting.

Next, take your monogramed square and lay it face-down on top, right sides together, and re-pin, removing the pins used in the previous step as you go.

Now you're ready to sew! Leave a small opening to pull it right side out through (it's best if this opening is in the center of two corners instead of at a corner). Once right side out, stuff with batting and sew opening shut using invisible thread or a matching thread if fabric is a solid color.