Pillow Case Knotted Headband and Bracelet

Want to make a knotted headband or bracelet from some extra material you have? Well, now you can!

Note: This can be done with t-shirts or other materials. I just happened to have a pillow case.



Cut two strips of fabric. These are fairly thin strips. If you want a thicker headband (like the one I am wearing pictured below), you'll need to cut wider strips. These thin strips were for a baby headband.

Take your strips and stretch them. With this jersey  fabric, the edges rolled under. I, personally, like this look.

Lay your first strip as shown, like fish, with the right side of the strip coming over the TOP of the left side.

 Take your second strip of fabric and make it into a fish, too, but in the other direction. Be sure to put the part where my finger is UNDER the other strip of fabric.

PLEASE NOTE: In this picture, the second piece of fabric is on TOP of the right, lower piece. This is INCORRECT. I moved it for the next picture.

Finish making your second "fish," taking care to overlap them in the right places.

Grab all four straight strips and pull them tight.












Now, you could leave it like this, and simply tie the headband around your head. I did not like the way the excess looked hanging off after it was tied, so I sewed up the ends.

Take all four strips and line them up. Start sewing where you want the pieces to be together. You should measure this around the head of whoever will be wearing it for the best accuracy. You will want it to seem a little tight, as the fabric will stretch.










Finish sewing it up. I wrapped the thread around and then sewed it tight to keep the strips together.

Cut all the strips but one. If they are different sizes, keep the longest one.

Wrap the last piece around where you have sewn the strips together. When you get to the end, sew it down.









And ta-da! You're finished!

You can use the same method to make bracelets! I made one with thick strips and one with thin strips.

Happy Crafting!  -Kristen

Fleece Baby Gate Cover

So we have this problem at our house. My son, Elijah, likes to chew on everything. I've been told this is normal for 11 month olds. Well, it became a problem when he started chewing on his wooden baby gate. And pulling up pieces of wood with his teeth! We don't need babies eating wood! Or getting splinters in their mouths! So, I decided to fix this problem. I once saw something on Pinterest about covering a crib rail with fleece to protect the crib from teething babies. Well, I'm more interested in protecting my baby than our $10 baby gate, but the idea is still valid.

You can do this, too!
Start by cutting a piece of fleece to fit the gate. Doesn't need to be perfect, because the edges won't be lined up in the end anyway.

 Cut the fleece down the middle and close to the end at both ends of the fabric. Hopefully you can tell what I mean from this picture, because I don't know exactly how to explain it. But you need the ends tied down around the side of the gate, so that the top doesn't show at all.

See, the end tied down to the side? Do that on both ends.

Then you will want to cut the fleece into "strips" along both sides. I did this in sections, to make sure they were all cut in the right place. Again, this doesn't have to be exact. It won't matter once the knots are tied.

Then tie your strips from the front to the matching one in the back. I double knotted all of mine.

Then tuck the extra fabric up under the knots.

This is what it looks like all finished!










I feel much better about E chewing on his gate now. I just hope he doesn't chew a hole in the fabric! He has some awesome chewing skills. You can use this same idea to cover crib railings if you need to. And anything else, I guess.

Have a great day!  -Kristen

Fabric Coasters

Hi all. I have been working on a few things, but finishing them eludes me. I did manage to finish some fabric coasters. I found the idea (and tutorial) at this lovely blog. I figured I'd do my own little tutorial, too.

The first thing you need to do is select some coordinating fabrics (or you could just use one fabric if you really wanted to) and cut five, 5 inch squares (one of these will be the back of your coaster). As you can see, I did not take the time to cut my fabric evenly. This definitely does affect the outcome of your coaster. If you want your coasters to look precise, you should cut your fabric exactly.






Then you will fold four of the squares in half, and assemble them as shown (like you're closing a cardboard box, where each one overlaps the next). Be sure to have the folded edge facing inward.










Assemble them on top of the fifth square. Be sure to have your fabric's "good side" facing up when doing this, as you will fold the coaster inside-out later and will want the pretty side facing the back at that point. I made that mistake with one of my coasters, so learn from me!

Press them with your iron to get everything flat and pretty. Then pin it all together. (I didn't get a picture of this step.)
















Sew around the edges (this is much easier if you put the coaster "top-down." Sew all the way around. You do not need to leave a hole for flipping it, as you would for a pillow or other item.














Find the center of your coaster and flip it inside out from there. Push out the corners.










And you have a finished coaster!


 And it is machine washable if needed!




Please note, I photographed two different coasters during this process. My fabric does not have magical color-changing powers. = )


I'd imagine you could make pot holders out of these with bigger fabric pieces. Or stuff it and have a pin cushion or you could stuff it with candy or something else and use it as gift packaging and then tell the person that they also have a coaster! Fun, fun!

I actually have not had a chance to use one of my coasters yet, but I will soon! Need some coasters? Or a cute gift for a friend? Get sewing! -Kristen

Baby Food Jar Turkeys

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Need a cute, easy gift for a little one in your life? Make them a Baby Food Jar Turkey!

Clean out a baby food jar, fill it with a treat and decorate! I used Cheerios because they are brown, yummy, and easy for little ones to eat. I think they would look great with some fall edition M&M's or Reese's Piece's.

I used felt for the head and paper for the face, feathers, and feet. I just cut it all out and used Tacky glue to glue everything on.

Then I wrote Happy and Thanksgiving on paper, punched holes and put the papers on string and wrapped the string around the jar. Then I was done! Easy peasy and a cute gift for kids!


Last night we had our family Thanksgiving dinner and I had everyone write on our Thankful Sign. I love it. And I hope that Elijah treasures it when he is older.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! -Kristen

Decorated Baby Food Containers and Thankful Sign

Tonight I worked on some Christmas presents. I can't divulge the whole project, but I will share part of it. I decorated baby food containers that I then put something into. The something in them is a Christmas surprise. But I will show you the decorations. It was pretty simple, but there is a tutorial picture for some super easy paper flowers. 

First I cut paper to fit on both sides and the top of the containers. These pieces of paper did get written on with the name of the something that goes in them and directions for it. 

Then I set out making my flowers and glued them on.

To make the flowers you cut out a rough circle shape (or you can make it perfect if you have the time and desire). Then you cut that circle into a spiral. Then you start in the middle of your spiral and wrap the paper around tightly. Let it loosen up a bit and then glue the end to the side of the flower. Then you're done. See, super simple!

The rest of the project will be shared later, along with my tips for how to not mess it up like I did. = )

I also made a Thankful Sign for E's first Thanksgiving. Everyone will be asked to sign their name and write something they are thankful for. 

I traced E's chubby, perfect little hand and made a turkey from it. 

 I can't wait for everyone to sign it!

Sorry the posts haven't been too exciting (and I didn't even post yesterday). I have been quite busy with family being in town and our big dinner coming up. Plus most of what I am making is gifts that can't be posted until after Christmas! I hope you are creating wonderful things of your own!  -Kristen

Stuffed Monster

For Christmas, I decided I wanted to make Elijah a stuffed monster. So I drew it out, cut it, sewed it, stuffed it, finished sewing it, and took pictures along the way to share with you!

First, I drew out the shape I wanted and cut it out. I have 3 pieces of felt because the green was a bit thin, so I wanted to have another layer of felt under it. If your pieces of fabric aren't thin, you won't need the third piece. I cut out eyes and a mouth for my monster.

I then sewed on the eyes and mouth to the front piece of my monster.

I added an E for Elijah on the back.

Then I sewed him up, all but a spot to stuff him. I sewed him right side out because I wanted the edges to show. I hand-sewed the whole thing. It would be much faster to use a sewing machine, but I like to hand-sew. I find it relaxing. If you like to use your sewing machine, go for it! You will save a lot of time!

I stuffed him with plastic bags. Kind of a fun way to recycle, I think. I cut the bags into smaller pieces so I could maneuver the bags into the spots I wanted. I think I ended up using 6 bags. Using the plastic bags makes him firm, so if you want a squishier stuffed monster, you'll want to use batting or some other soft material for stuffing.









Then I sewed him up the rest of the way. All done!

Here you can see how thick he is.















Such a cute little guy!




Do you have someone in your life who would like a stuffed monster? Get sewing!   -Kristen

Hair Accessory Frame

I'm finding it is hard around this time of year to have a blog. I am making things for family and friends, but of course, if they see my blog, they will see their gifts. And we can't have that, now can we? So, I'm trying to make some things that aren't gifts so that I have some things to post. But who has time for that when I'm busy making gifts?!? I'm trying here, people. I am.





Today, I'm going to give you a tutorial for a frame that holds the felt flower barrettes I posted before.

I took a frame from Dollar Tree (so many things you can get for $1 that you can work with). I added a piece of blue paper to the cardboard part of the frame with scrapbooking squares.








Then I hot glued three pieces of ribbon to the frame. I overlapped the ribbon, and did the gluing on the back of the glass. This made it a bit bulky, ad therefore hard to put on the back once I was finished, but I did manage to get it on there. You may want to try just gluing your ribbon to the front, but I'm not sure how that would look. I made sure to leave the ribbon a bit slack, you don't want it too tight, or you won't be able to get your hair clips on as easily. (This picture was taken later, when I took it apart to take pictures for this blog post.)


I put the whole thing together, added my clips and TADA! A frame for displaying my barrettes. I am using this frame to help save space on a table at craft fairs, but you could use it to display hair accessories in your home. You could even use it to clip important notes to if you use clothespins! Oh, the possibilities.

Okay - Get crafting! -Kristen

Snowflake Wreath and Popsicle Stick Snowflakes

For Elijah's first birthday, we are having a Winter ONEderland themed party. I am trying to do as much of it DIY as I can. I have made a couple things already.

One is a snowflake wreath (which I plan to also use for our front door for the rest of winter after his party). I bought Dollar Tree snowflake ornaments and hot glued them together and hung it with ribbon. Not hard at all. And SUPER cheap! Could it have looked better? Sure. But I rushed through it, so it is a bit sloppy. You could make yours look much more round.

The other thing I already made is popsicle stick snowflakes. You can see how big they are by comparing them to my foot in the picture. I plan to hang these behind his high chair at the party. I made them by hot gluing popsicle sticks together and painting them white. This project actually turned out to be more tedious than I originally thought. Getting the sticks to lay where you want them as you are gluing, so that they all line up, was more work than I planned for. But I am very glad I spent the time on them. I love them and think they will look great at Elijah's party!

I have plans to make a few more DIY decorations and I'm also making his invites, so there will be more posts about his Winter ONEderland in the next two months.


Go and get crafting! -Kristen