Super Hero Capes!

For Christmas I decided to make my two older kids some super hero capes. They love the show super why and in the past whenever they wanted to be a superhero I would put a towel around them and secure with a pony tail holder. So, I decided they finally needed real ones. These are so easy to make. I found a tutorial on this link . I made both of these capes within thirty minutes and they cost $1.20 since most of the fabric I used for from old projects. I used cotton for the bulk of the cape and felt for the design on the back.

Hooded Towels

I've been working on Christmas presents and my gifts to my neices and nephews are hooded towels.  They are super cute and very easy to put together.

I tried to get my son to model his cousin's towel, but he wouldn't stand up... I guess he's used to the routine of when you're wrapped in a towel its time to lay down so we can put on the diaper. :)

What you'll need:

1 bath towel

1 hand towel

sewing machine

pins

 

I got my towels off of Walmart.com.  They had packs of two towels, two hand towels, and two washclothes for $10.  Later I also found some towels off of Kohls.com when they were having a sale and got 2 towels for $2.50 each.  Then I just added 1 matching hand towel to my order.  (FYI: Towels will be $1.97 each at Walmart on Black Friday!)

What to do:

First you are going to take your hand towel and cut it in half.  (One hand towel will make two hoods.)

I have a fancy embroidery machine, so I added some stabilizer where I was going to embroider the name of the child I was making the towel for.  If you don't have an embroidery machine, you could always get some no-pill felt or some other sort of fabric and make a design on it (IE: Flower, Rubber Ducky, etc.)

Then I stitched out the name.

Once you are done adding a name or decal, turn the hand towel wrong side out and pin the raw edges together.

Then sew the raw edges together.

Next stitch a curved line to make more of a hood shape or else, as my husband said, your towel will look like a klu klux klan hood.

Then cut the excess fabric above the curved stitch.

Turn your hood right side out and you've got your hood!

Next center your hood to the bath towel and pin.

Stitch the hood to the towel.  I used a zig sag stitch.

And you have your hooded towel!

I packaged these in gift baskets along with the washcloths, some bath toys, and bubble bath soaps!

Apron and Chef's Hat

I stumbled upon this blog http://secretstitchclub.blogspot.com/ one day and fell in love with their adorable creations, especially the apron and chefs hat tutorial that they got from this blog http://makingitfun.blogspot.com. I knew it would make the perfect birthday gift for my daughter and eventually my son (who must have everything his sister has). It is very easy to make. I made the hat and apron in one night! I didn't put in the D-rings on the neck strap because I didn't have any at the time but I might go back and do it later on because it is a little too big around the neck for her. I also did not put a piece of cloth on the back. I didn't really see a need to do it but it does look nicer if you do. One other thing that I did differently is that I did a zigzag stitch (sorry if I am not using the correct terms, I am new at sewing) to attach all of the straps and did it back and forth a few times to make sure that it was secure.
Tutorial for the apron http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/Blog/Classic_Apron.pdf
Tutorial for the Chef's hat http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/Blog/Chef_Hat.pdf

No sew tutu

Recently I saw some tutorials for a no-sew tutu and knew I had to make one for my daughter. There are a variety of tutorials out there but I really liked this one from http://littlewindowshoppe.com/create-a-princess-tutu, mainly because it showed how to tie the knot that I decided to do. In the other tutorials they do a square knot. Another great tutorial is from http://plumtickled.typepad.com/plumtickled/2007/08/tutu-tutorial-t.html. This one goes into a little more detail with the instructions, measurements and what to buy. This is very easy to make and makes a great gift.

This first one I made for my daughter's friend who just had a birthday













This next one I made for my daughters birthday. It is sort of hard to tell but it is brown and pink. It looks a little more messy than the other one because I have had the fabric for a long time and it became a little wrinkled.

Placemat purse

Another great idea came from Shannon. I went to her house and saw some adorable purses that she made out of a placemat and decided to go home and make one for Adrianne! It is very easy to do and Adrianne loves taking it to church with all of her books and coloring items.

















Purchase:
Ribbon
placemat
needle
thread
large flower if you choose

Directions: (this will be hard to explain so hopefully I can do it)
-buy a simple placemat, I bought mine from Bed Bath and Beyond for $1.99.
-fold the placemat in half, with the tag on the outside.
-measure a half an inch in on the top and three inches on the bottom and sew a diagonal line connecting the two. Do this on both sides. If you want you can sew a straight down instead of a diagonal line.
-To form the bottom of the purse, open the purse (it is still inside out) and lay the corners flat, forming a triangle. With the seam opened flat, sew across from the corner (it will be about two inches from the point). Do this on the corner too.
-Turn the purse right side out. There are a variety of ways to do the handles but I chose to do ribbon. Measure the length of the top of your purse and create two points where you would like your ribbon to be and do the same on the other side. I wanted mine close together, so I measure about 4-5 inches in. I did a zigzag pattern when sewing the ribbon on. Next attach a flower on one side or create a bow out of the extra ribbon and sew it onto the purse.

There are a lot of different things you can do with this purse. Shannon added a large flower onto hers and ribbon going all the way around. I have also found some with a variety of different handles.