Fast and Easy Apron

 Recently I was thinking about birthday gifts for a couple of my friends who were turning three, and I really wanted to give them an apron and kiddie cooking stuff.  I wasn't sure that I would be able to find a child-sized apron, so I began googling how to make one from a tea towel.  I thought I had seen that in a magazine or something  a long time ago.   I found, and read, several sites with different ways to accomplish converting a tea towel to an apron.  I came up with my method by picking pieces of others and putting it together.   Since a friend asked to me, I am doing a blog.  I hope that I explain it well; I don't do much with a sewing machine on a regular basis.

So first I had to find some tea towels that would have pictures and colors that a 3-year-old would approve of.   I found mine at Target.   Next I had to purchase matching binding and thread.  I determined through experimentation that extra wide double fold bias tape worked best for me with my skill level.

 

Next, I folded the towel in half lengthwise, and then in half again, and marked the center.  Then I used a ruler, and marked a line at an angle to the long side.

 

I then cut along the line with it folded.  Next I opened it up and started attaching the bias tape with pins.  All you do is fold it over the edge that you just cut and pin it.

I didn't measure, but I left somewhere between 12-15 inches for the belt tie on either side, and probably about the same for the neck loop.   Since I was making this to be adjustable, I didn't worry about it being too much.  After I stitched it around, it looked like this:

 

Now this is a bit too long for a child.  So I folded the bottom of the apron and folded the belt ties up a bit and secured them with two safety pins.   This now gives the child a big pocket and a more suitably sized apron.  As the child grows, the pocket can be made smaller and the apron longer by adjusting the safety pins.

Bandit just had to check out the ribbons.

And here is the other one I did with strawberries.  Note the neck loop is tied in this one to make it smaller.

 

I also googled how to color my own safety pins with nail polish to match. How cool is that?

 

Seriously, I was able to knock each of these out in less than 30 minutes.  It is that easy.

Boo Boo Bunny

                            
I found the instructions for making Boo Boo Bunnies many years ago in a book.  I used it then as a craft for the children that I was babysitting.  Now I include them as part of a baby shower gift.  They are so easy!  The idea is that when a little one has a boo-boo, you can grab the ice cube out of the freezer and pop it in the bunny and hold it against the boo-boo.

Materials needed:

One washcloth

Reusable ice cube

Ribbon

I have found that the thin cheaper washcloths work better for these.   The reusable ice cubes can be found at Bed Bath and Beyond or probably any kitchen-y type store.

First, open the washcloth, turn it so that it looks like a diamond, and start rolling it up from the corner like this: (Sorry for the white on white. It's what I had handy.)

Continue rolling until you have one long roll like this:

Then fold it in half like this: (It won't stay together this close, I had to tape it to take the picture)

Then flip the front two ends back like this: (yep, tape again)

If you use a thicker washcloth, you might want to use a rubber band to hold it still while you tie the ribbon around its "head" and fluff the ears, but with the thinner cloths, I can just hold it and tie it tight:

The last step is to drop in the ice cube in the body of the bunny:

And now you have a really cute adder for a baby shower gift that only took minutes to make!

Dressed Up Gift Bag

Dressing Up a Gift Bag

Gift cards are popular gifts to give at our home, but I always like to dress up the package a little.  For a recent bridal shower, the gift was not available at the store and we had to order it and have it delivered.  I wanted to still have something to give at the shower, so I printed the photo of the item from the store’s website and placed it on a 5”x7” piece of cardstock with “On my way to your home!” printed at the top.  I then dressed up a plain gift bag to look like this:

Materials:

Large Kraft paper bag (10” wide)

White corrugated open stock paper, 12”x12”

Sepia rose open stock paper, 12”x12”

Coffee filter

“Forever” sticker

Adhesive dots

4 bronze brads

Tag:

Scrap of white pearlescent paper

Scrap of coffee filter

Wedding cake sticker

Hole punch

Jute string, 6” long

White bow

Trim white corrugated paper to 8” x 8”.  Attach corrugated paper to bag with brads, one brad in each corner. Be sure to place the corrugated paper below the handle reinforcement located on the inside of the bag.  Trim rose paper to 6”x6” and attach to corrugated paper with adhesive.  Hand tear coffee filter to appropriate size for sticker.  Adhere sticker to filter paper.  Place adhesive on back of filter opposite the sticker only.  This will allow the filter to “stand up” around the sticker. Adhere to middle of rose paper.

 Trim scrap of white pearlescent paper to 3”x6”.  Fold in half.  Hole punch upper left-hand corner.   Adhere sticker to scrap of coffee filter. Place adhesive strip or dots on back of filter opposite the sticker only.  Adhere to card.  Tie to bag handle with jute string.

 All materials were acquired at Michael's except the 'forever' sticker.  Attach white bow and you are good to go!