Candy Corn Bean Bags **UPDATED

I am in charge of coming up with a few games for our Trunk-or-Treat. The event is only an hour long so I'm not getting too crazy with my ideas.... just keeping it simple. One game I think would be fun for he kiddos and easy to put together is a bean bag toss. I wanted to make some Halloween themed bean bags, but I was just too tired to go to the fabric store yesterday for cute Halloween fabric, so I went through my stash and came up with this idea.... Candy Corn! I had some yellow flannel, orange fleece and some black and some white cotton something-or-other (I am so limited in my knowledge of what material is called). I started by sewing together strips of the orange, yellow and white. Then I laid out the black and colored pieces right sides facing, and laid an additional white piece on top. This piece will be the lining. Then, taking a trick I learned from Bend the Rules Sewing back in my bib making days, I sewed then cut the material. SO much easier this way. Then I turned the bag right side out, filled them with 1/2 cup split peas and top-stitched them shut. It is sort of hard to top stitch a bean bag when it is already filled with beans, so some of the stitching is a little wonky, but who cares? They are only bean bags!It wasn't until I was all done and got out a few real candy corns that I realized that the orange should go in the middle. Oh well. If I were to do this again I would have used a brighter/darker yellow as well, but I was just using what I had on hand. (Sorry for the lousy photos... its a grey day here today.)

Now I just need to figure out what to toss them into??? My friend offered up a plastic black cauldron. That could work. Maybe a cut-out of a trick-or-treat bag? Any suggestions???

**UPDATE: I went with a big cat. Thanks for the suggestion Amber! He's a little freaky looking, but o-well.

Ethan gave it a trial run when he got home from school. Celia (who I babysit for) confirmed it's creepiness.

Pleated Beauty

A few weeks ago I was so excited to find that there was a Bend the Rules Swap going on. I have never done a swap before, but always read with great interest about other swaps...it seems like everyone was having so much fun sending off and receiving goodies in the mail. So after finding out about the BTR swap I bit the bullet and signed up. I only received this book at Christmas time, and have only made a handful of projects from it, but I thought, "What the heck?" The worst that can happen is that my project will be a complete failure and the poor recipient will politely email the lovely lady in charge and ask to never be paired with me again, right???

So I sign up and am paired up with my partner. How fun! The first swap is the Pleated Beauty Handbag.... not a project I have made before. And the reason I hadn't made it is that it looked to complicated! But I read all the corrections that were posted at the BTR flickr site and all the suggestions from folks who have made one before, and headed off to Joann Fabrics with my partner's likes and dislikes in mind. And here it is.....

I didn't realize until I just put this picture up how similar the photo is to the one in the book.... this bag must have a "hanging from branch" vibe going. Honestly I hung it there because it happened to be a sunny spot.

I have never ever used interfacing before, but it wasn't too scary once I got going. I also took someones suggestion and put in a magnetic closure...also something I have never done. I'm glad I did though, because this bag is so big and it seems like it would gape open if it didn't have something to help keep it closed. I also took a few liberties with the pattern- just little things, like for the handle I sewed the fabric right sides facing (and added a layer of flannel lining as well to make it sturdier) then turned my tube inside out and top stitched the edges. It seemed easier to me to do that than try to iron 1/4" because I know I would burn myself doing that! I also lined and backed the pocket as well.

So, all in all, I am pretty pleased with the outcome. It was fun and not as hard as I thought it would be, although I really took my time (about 4 hours!) and carefully read the directions... normally I am not so conscientious about things like that! I wish I had done something more to embellish it. I wanted to try to do some free motion quilting (I think that is what its is called) around the flowers, but I chickened out, and instead all I did was add a few buttons. I sure hope my partner likes it!!

New Projects

Here are a few new projects I've made recently....
A "Busy Bag"- my new name for the kidlet style bags I've been making. They follow the kidlet pattern, but I add a second handle (to make it a true tote) and add an inside pocket with tiny pockets for pencils to slip into. This one, all purple and girly, was for my niece's 5th birthday. I filled it with a few colored pencils (they have a different color on each end, so it was like giving her six colors!), a blank notepad, some stickers, a snow globe and a new book.

A second girly Busy Bag... I was so happy when I found this remnant of ballerina fabric in the sale bin at JoAnn's because I used the same material in my daughter's quilt and now I can make her a matching pillow or something!

This one is for my husband's friend's son Fritz. Working on a similar, yet different, bag for his brother.

Now this I LOVE! A Bend the Rules bib with a matching burp cloth. I just think it is pretty cute.

Here's a second bib/burp cloth set. Not as cute or funny as the other set, but o-well.

Hope your weekend is going well!

Kidlet

I thought I'd give the kidlet tutorial a go. It looked pretty easy, very similar to the simple tote in Bend the Rules. I had plenty of fabric on hand and a quiet evening after the kids went to bed, so I went for it. The only thing I didn't have was interfacing. No problem, I tell myself! Who needs interfacing? Well, apparently kidlet does.It's a cute little tote, (I added a second handle so it could be an out and about tote) but I was so disappointed with the limpness of it. Note to self- interfacing is necessary! And why can I not seem to get the inner and outer "bags" to be the same size, ever?! No matter how carefully I measure, and painstakingly I cut, I still end up trying to sew together the two pieces of the bag that are vastly different in size! (Now, when I say vastly I mean less than 1/4 inch... but it sure seems like a lot when I have worked so hard to make them the same size. Sigh.) So I inevitably end up with puckering and weird-o looking tucks. Maybe it is because the materials are of such different weights?? One is pretty heavy home decor type fabric (vintage from our local thrift store) and the other? oh, I don't even know. I am new to all this. Oh well. I am going to take Amy Karol's word for it... she said, "Mistakes are always much less noticeable in a week or so, and in a month, the project will look amazing." So I am waiting for amazing.

Ok, so let's try this kidlet thing again. I am having all sorts of visions of giving away a kidlet filled with books and toys and whatnot to all my little people friends for their upcoming birthdays. Still,I have no interfacing in the house... but I do have fusible web. Hmmm? Would that work? So I iron it to one side of my fabric...but now it is sticky-ish on the other side. No problem- I'll just fuse it to the same kind of fabric to make it extra durable, and not so see through (another problem I encountered). I am such a genius!

Or not!! The material is no so stiff that I nearly break my machine trying to sew it! I did manage (through gritted teeth and much swearing, and soooooo much broken thread it wasn't funny) to get the pocket sewn on, sides sewn up and the box bottom created...but that was as far as my machine would go. It was making weird, scary noises, and the bobbin thread kept breaking. Can you see the holes on the top wear I thought I was attaching the lining bag???? Oh, I was so mad. I really liked the pocket too. Pooh.

And I still had the inner bag carefully measured, cut and even sewn!! So, lets give it more more try!! (Am I channeling my inner cheerleader? or a masochist?) Ok, so still no interfacing, and not going to use fusible web sandwiched between layers again.. and I am running low on the nice tan material that I like for the body of the bag... what to do? What to do? So, here is what I did. I used a thin cotton in plain white as a backing to the tan. I had to piece together two pieces of tan to make the back of the bag. Created a similar, although not quite as sweet pocket from scraps. Use the inner bag from the previous (failed) project. Decide to go with a small handle/big handle combo like the simple tote in BTR, using a bias tape for the handle because by now I am too freakin' tired to care but determined to get something useful out of this night.....

And here it is. The big handle/small handle thing is bit weird. Not sure if I would do that again. (The small one is there, just flipped back so it is hard to see.) Overall I think it is ok. Not so bad. Maybe usable. And you know what??

Amy was right. Wait a night, throw in a Frederick book and a little stuffed mouse, and it's not so bad after all!

Spring Crafting

Happy Easter yesterday! I didn't get a chance before Easter to post this project I did with my niece, so bear with me as I talk about it now. We got the idea from Family Fun magazine. I had bought white fluffy yarn to do this craft, but Gabby wanted her bunny to look like her real bunny Cocoa, who is (can you guess by the name?) brown.To make this bunny you wrap yarn around a styrofoam ball that has been drizzled with glue. Gabby had a hard time wrapping the yarn, so I did that for her. Then she drew the ears, tail and face on brown felt (with white chalk) and I cut it out for her. She glued everything together, attached the google eyes, drew and cut out the carrot from paper and attached that to the bunny. The bunny was then nestled onto a piece of cardboard to which we glued a handful of paper grass. (We came up with a trick to help little fingers attach google eyes: have the little one lick her finger, then touch the eye-ball side of the google eye. It will stick to her finger. Have her flip her hand over. The google eye will be bottom-side up. She can then easily put glue on the backside to attach it to her project.) Look how proud she is!!

More spring time crafts:

"Summer pants" and a t-shirt for Cate. The t-shirt I boaught at Walmart for about $4, and I added the butterfly using fusible web. I am not very good yet at sewing around curves on my machine, so I hand-stitched around the butterfly.

She was very happy with them.

And another tote from Bend the Rules. I got the fabric from the remnant piles at Joann Fabric. (I love shopping from the remnants! No waiting in line to get things cut! Cute patterns that I might not ever see otherwise! And CHEAP! I got almost a yard of each material for a total of about $6!) This little bag has an inside pocket, and a fabric flower to dress it up. This bag was dropped of to a friend who just opened a new flower shop. (I made a second tote out of the same fabrics for my dear friend who gave me the BTR Sewing book for Christmas, and I still have some material left!!)

Finally....

I have finally finished the little gift set for my soon-to-be nephew. Actually, the pants are so big that I bought a 9-12 month size onsie to go with them instead of the little 3-6 month I was planning on getting... so I think that this will actually be for soon-to-be nephew's big brother instead. He can pass them down. I made the bib a while ago, back when I was on a Bend the Rules bib kick. I had the pants cut out and all sewed except for the waist for a while too. For some reason they just looked so weird to me...so big. So bell-bottomish. I was hesitant to finish them. But I forged ahead anyway and I think they are ok... still weird. Still big. Still bell-bottomish. But I can live with it. They look sort of like yoga pants. Or lounge pants... and babies lounge, right? So, good. (Sorry for the extremely crappy photos. Not sure what is going on there...)

New Tote

I whipped up this new tote for myself this morning, loosely following the Bend the Rules "Simple Tote" pattern. I find myself filling and emptying my current tote bag several times a week, so it will be nice to have another to put into rotation. This one will be my "Sunday School" tote bag. Currently I am teaching the 4th and 5th graders, and I have a big binder that holds my curriculum. I also drag pencils, paper, and whatever project we are working on back and forth to church each week. It will be nice to not have to take everything out and to pack it up again. I plan on making another to keep filled with things for Ethan to do in the waiting area while his siblings are at dance class.
The best thing about this tote is that it was basically free fro me to make!!! The striped fabric was given to me by my MIL. The blue polka dot I bought at the local thrift store for $.40!

Bibs

Just a few quick bibs for some little friends and nephews.... they all need to be ironed. The dark blue one still needs a snap....and hmm, it looks really boring in this picture. The green alien one will have a pair of pants to match, as soon as I get over my fear of making them! I love Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing!