How To Buy Fabric

This is a brilliant post from A Dress A Day that made me laugh out loud when I first read it (and still does with each re-reading). Not that any of us needs help in this particular area of our lives, I mean. Now I need a similarly liberating writeup on how to work with cardboard so it takes over all the space in the house. Mmmmm.

ikatbag elsewhere

This has been an odd week. For one, I'm finally catching up on backlogged email and commenting on other people's posts, which feels cathartic in a spring-cleaning sort of way. There has been sewing going on but not manic like when I did my previous silly horticultural projects. That's also felt strangely relaxing. And then I've been overwhelmed at seeing ikatbag appear in other places - oh, such fun! But here's the weird thing - immediately after, I felt a great urge to hug my children and cook food for them. I'm weird that way. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the lovely people who shouted out about ikatbag - look where it's landed up - here, here and here! 

Very thrilling and humbling and very exciting and weird and I want to do a little jig and also crawl under my sofa and hide all at once.... say! That sounds manic! Hurrah, I'm back!

Passing on the Kindness

Many, many days ago, two very nice people put these 

nice pictures on their blog and listed me among some 

other, very cool blogs. What a lovely surprise, one, and 

two, what a lovely surprise first thing in the morning 

when, rudely awakened by needy child, I flip open the 

laptop in the nursery and see these. I'm almost certain 

the two nice people have probably forgotten about 

the awards they sent my way, so long have I sat on 

them. But I haven't - and here I am at last to pay tribute!

Thank you, MaryAnne, for this award!

I 'm going to be naughty and not pick 15 blogs to pass 

this on to. Instead I am going to pick 3 of MaryAnne's 

posts to tell everyone about. They aren't all about 

crafting, which she does incredibly well, but about 

other important things that are close to my heart 

and about which she wrote so compellingly:

1  Beginning to sew.

2 Creativity.

3 Being Thankful.

Thank you also, MaryAnne for opening so many doors 

to other fascinating and clever people, whose creativity 

and general zaniness have been so inspiring.

This next one came from The Adventures of Bear, which 

is full of wonderful things to do with small kids, whom 

I seem to have lots of (small kids, that is). 

Thank you, Girl Who Painted Trees!

 

The naughtiness continues - 

here are 3 of my favorite Bear posts: 

1 This wonderful alphabet Alphabet book which I want to 

make soon for my youngest.

2 Lovely color collages with fun ideas on how to use them. 

I love the color names in other languages. 

3 100 books to read, and a sensible, balanced view on 

reading to kids. I don't recognize a lot of those books 

and I want to check them out!

A bit of luck

Giveaways are such fun! Pity I never win anything, though. 

Usually.

Last month, the long thread hosted a giveaway by etsy 

sellers and I won this gorgeous organic wooden hippo 

teething toy! It is from Little Alouette who makes beautiful, 

beautiful wooden toys. Our little Kate got to keep it because 

she is the only one of us at home who still has bare gums, 

but it was also a wonderfully timely gift for her birthday. 

Am going to wrest it from her soon and put it by my 

sewing window for the trophy it is.

Thank you, Little Alouette and the long thread!

Then a couple of days ago, I won a giveaway on 

my measuring tape! A child's clothes pattern! 

So now I have one less to draft myself! A bit of shameless 

plugging here because Jen, whose blog it is, is one of my 

oldest friends - we were in school together since we 

were 9. She custom-makes clothes for people, and 

among these, corsets. Corsets, people! Stunning 

handiwork. Go visit her blog - she's newly put up 

a free pattern and tutorial for a little girl's dress. 

Then as of today, the wallet is coming together with 

hardly any unpicking or head-banging. 

Suspiciously unusual. 

Also today all three children took naps simultaneously. 

And were not grumpy when they woke up!

Eh? 

So am all in a dither now from this sudden lucky streak. 

In fact, I feel so lucky that I might even consider trying 

baking yeast bread again. Whenever I think I'm being 

Mother and Homemaker Extraordinaire, I bake yeast 

bread and my head very quickly and effectively deflates. 

No more, though - this lucky streak will end the 

humiliation of flat starters and expired dough! 

Tra la la! 

But back to earth now - I am grateful. For the 

generosity of crafty people out there, for the courage 

it takes to share one's stuff with other eyes, 

for the kindness of readers who raise their eyebrows 

and say nice things anyway. And for my husband whose 

work lets me be unemployed so I can keep doing what I 

rather like! Can't guarantee anything, given the state of 

things around here, but I'm hoping to get my own 

giveaway ready to go by the end of next week and I 

promise it will not be yeast bread.

Foam - looking back, looking forward

Thank you all for following along with the Foam Saga, 

now ended, and for the wonderful comments! 

For those just joining us, welcome - 

here is a pictorial recap of the projects

(clockwise from top left: Blocks, Cushion, Cake, Dirt, Sofa)

Foam is at half-price at JoAnn this week, incidentally.

Strangely, I no longer feel the urge to procure any. 

Some updates on how the kids and foam toys are getting on:

Emily loves the cake and upon getting it, immediately

prepared it as a birthday cake for Kate. She surprised me

with her restraint in picking felt pieces to decorate with.

Her restraint is all the more evident when you

consider the enthusiasm of the neighbor kids,

who came to play cake with her.

Here is Jenna with her bit of overzealous gardening.

It was so much fun to watch her painstakingly pick all

the strawberries off the plant, count them, lovingly

apportion them to various family members, then put

them all back on the stems, all the while yelling,

"Kate can't have the strawberries! She's too little!"

Now I feel a bit restless for some quicker projects.

But first, a bit of a pesky emergency

- my wallet's days are numbered:

The sad, sad coin-pouch zipper split last week and

the bit of masking tape is all that protects its modesty.

Aesthetics aside, I am also growing tired of ripping off

and replacing the masking tape each time I need change.

So new wallet in the works.

Or two.

One to keep and one to give away.

Check back here again if you'd like to win it!

Earth Day Cardboard Revolution

Maybe not really a revolution yet, but a person can dream..........

Anyway, I thought I'd commemorate Earth Day by shouting out about some of the recent cardboard creations I've seen at some of my newly-favorite blogs.

Kitten Muffin at Filth Wizardry made, among other spectacular cardboard things, a very clever pizza, beautiful  flowers and vases, ingenious carwash, and giant rocketship that I covet but have been banned from making by husband because I reached the space limit in our house several cardboard projects ago. Sad. 

MaryAnne at Thrifty Craft Mama made some marvelous cardboard furnishings for kids and dolls, including a washer/dryer, a fridge, doll beds and a classic and simple birds-eye-view dollhouse for peg dolls.

My current cardboard favorite by Karin at made by k is this unbelievable cardboard model of her nursery. 

maya*made's cardboard easel is one I've used over and over and over with the kids.

See this ingenious cardboard weaving loom that I want to make someday, at CraftStylish.

This issue of Parenting Magazine started it all for me, with ideas for cardboard race car, oven, lemonade stand, puppet theater, dollhouse and pet basket.

And here's my bit to start a cardboard revolution - some links back to old cardboard posts - boomerang,  TV, doll bunk bed, traffic signal lights, cake, box of dirt, car, mailbox, doll wardrobe and some other things to make with a box.

What can you find in a box?

Dirt- Foam Part 5

The final foam project - dirt!

Specifically, a rectangular patch of dirt

to plant flowers in.

and herald in the warm, happy, growing seasons

that are spring and summer.

These are the old unicorn food flowers. 

The fuzzy-looking purple flowers were from the 

dollar section of Michaels -

a very affordable way to fill a flower bed.

But dirt is also good for vegetables! These plastic carrots

were another dollar-store gem - 8 in a pack. They had

powdered candy in them, which I emptied out.

I first saw a similar dirt bed at our local children's

museum and it turned out to be Emily's favorite exhibit.

Each time we were there, we had to play hunt-

the-flowers because the other kids liked them too. It

made me wonder how many little kids would enjoy

planting and picking flowers and vegetables in

their very own dirt patch, so I thought I would do a

tutorial in case their parents wanted to indulge them.

Sadly, it had to be abandoned halfway for two reasons:

First, the photos all looked like this:

Bad. Very bad.

I mean, what is that, for goodness' sake?

Goaty-looking, is all.

Even in focus, they were absolutely unhelpful.

Second, assuming I could even explain how to sew

the brown flannel case, the foam was very

uncooperative to insert into it.

I couldn't possibly, with a clear conscience, subject you

poor folks out there to something like that, could I?

Therefore, here is a modified version of the dirt bed -

this needs a box to contain it so the ends do not have

to be sewn together. If you buy one of those rectangular

planters from a garden store, it might even look a bit

authentic! But any old cardboard box is great. The pattern

below is for a single-furrow dirt bed but you can modify

it for two furrows like the one I made.

Note: The box also provides a nice pressure on the

long sides of the foam to keep the furrows narrow.

But don't make the foam fit too snugly in the other

direction because the end-to-end pressure would

only make the furrows gape open instead.

Now this dirt is so versatile that I'm betting it can also be

made of cardboard! Anything can be made of cardboard,

really, but I'm not going to get started on that here.

Either way, the right fabric will make it work so much 

better - so stick to something that has a brushed 

surface - flannel, fleece, velvet, velour and the likes 

are all good. Avoid silk, satin, quilting cotton, 

chiffon - you get the idea.

Another alternative idea came to me as I was in 

my neighbor's garage* the other day. She had some 

of those foam pool noodles sticking out of a box, 

and I'm almost sure that if you cut two or three 

equal pieces out of one, wrapped each snugly in fabric, 

and stuffed them side by side into a tightly-fitting 

box, you'd get some decent dirt, too.

So, now that we've discussed some of the exciting 

ways to make dirt, I'll confess why this project took 

such a long time to get posted (apart from me

generally being slow, I mean). The dirt itself was 

finished in just a few days. But I wanted to go 

overboard as usual and make some plants

with pick-able strawberries

and pea pods-

you know, to sort of compensate for my

 very ungreen thumb with real plants.

Supposed to have been a winter project but look 

when it finally got done! Maybe the girls can practise 

for the late-summer harvest of the real stuff in our 

backyard garden (planted by husband, luckily, 

so likely to thrive).

The bendy stems of the plants are fabric-covered 

piping with a wire insert. The strawberries and pea 

pods have velcro stems that allow them to attach to 

little velcro squares on the stems. 

When the girls started playing with this

today, even little one-year-old Kate was able to

plant and pick flowers and harvest fruit and vegetables.

She also tried to plant whole strawberries in the dirt,

but at least she got the whole gardening thing right

anyway. More ideas to further complicate this came to

me as I lay in bed but I drew the line at making small

caterpillars to hide among the leaves for the kids to

find. I, who have serious caterpillarphobia!

Lunacy, that's what it was. So I didn't. Phew.

Go to the next posts for tutorials and patterns for

the plants, strawberries and peapods!

*No, I don't usually lurk in neighbor's garages looking for craft inspiration. 

Edited to add the flower patterns - forgot yesterday.

How To Make Strawberries for Picking

I must give credit to this tutorial by mr. monkeysuit, 

which was my starting point.

What you need:

• 1" of green loop velcro (3/4" or 1" wide)
  
• Circle of red felt, 4-5" diameter. Cut this into 2 halves.
  
• Green felt, cut into shape of a calyx
  
• Straw-colored embroidery floss

in addition to polyfill, red sewing thread and green

sewing thread. Here is the printable pattern for this 

strawberry and the apple from this earlier post.

Step 1

Cut the velcro into half lengthwise.

Step 2

• Fold each half lengthwise and sew, backstitching to secure. This is the stem, although it looks more like a caterpillar in rigor mortis.
  

Step 3

• Using three strands of embroidery floss, sew tiny stitches all over each red felt semicircle.
  
• Each semicircle will make one strawberry.
  

Step 4

• Sew the velcro stem anywhere along the curved edge of the semicircle, as shown.
  

Step 5

• Fold the semicircle in half, with straight edges meeting and right sides facing.
  
• Sew along the straight edge with a narrow seam allowance (I used 3mm or an eighth of an inch).
  

Step 6

• Turn right side out.
  

Step 7

• Thread a needle with red thread, knot the thread, and sew running stitches all along the curved edge.
  

Step 8

• When you come to the bit with the velcro sewn on, sew behind the velcro so the thread makes a big stitch behind the stem as shown.
  
• When you return to the knot where you began, pull the thread tight to gather the opening closed.
  
• Stuff with polyfill.
  

• The stitch behind the velcro stem will cause the stem to stand up but as you stitch across the opening to tighten it, loop the thread around the stem to further secure its upright position.
  

• When the opening is tightly sewn closed, knot the thread and cut off the excess.
  

Step 9

• Cut a small slit or "x" in the center of the green calyx shape to make a small hole.
  

Step 10

• Push the calyx down over the stem so that the stem goes through the hole.

Step 11

• Using green thread, sew a small stitch on each petal of the calyx, securing it to the strawberry. Knot the thread underneath the calyx when done, and cut off the excess.
  

Step 12

• Make more strawberries
  

• and hang them on the strawberry plant.
  

How To Make Pea Pods

What you need:

• Green flannel or felt for the pod
  
• Green felt for the calyx
  
• Green velcro for the stem - see the strawberry post for how to make this.
  
• Some beads (completely optional)
  

in addition to sewing thread and polyfill.

Here's the printable pattern for the pea pods,

as well as the carrot found in this earlier post.

Step 1

• Cut out two pod pieces.
  
• Place the velcro stem between the top part of the pod pieces so that most of the stem is hidden in the pod as shown.
  
• Stitch around the outline, leaving a gap of about an inch, backstitching on either sides of the gap.

Step 2

• Turn right side out. The velcro stem will be pointing outwards.
  

Step 3

• Stuff the pod with polyfill. If you want to insert beads for the added tactile experience of peas-in-the-pod, do so now. I did this for one pod, then got lazy and decided not to for the others.
  
• Stitch the opening shut.
  

Step 4

• Cut the calyx out of green felt and lay it over the top of the pod.

Step 5

• Stitch the calyx around the top of the pod.

Step 6

• Make a whole bunch of pea pods.

Step 7

• Stick them on the pea plant.

How To Make Plants

What you need:

• Green felt for leaves
  
• Green flannel for stem - 1/4 yard, cut into long strips 1 5/8" wide
  
• 1/2" piping - about 1 yard for strawberry plant and 1.5 yards for bean plant
  
• Florists' wire - I found the 12 gauge was easy to push into the piping.
  
• Green velcro (3/4" or 1" wide)
  

in addition to green sewing thread and a wire cutter/ pair of pliers

The following instructions are for the strawberry plant.

Step 1

• Cut three 12" pieces of piping. 
  
• Wrap each cut end with a narrow strip of sticky tape to prevent fraying. This is important because it will prevent cursing later.
  

Step 2

• Straighten a length of wire and poke it into one end of a piece of piping, using a twisting motion to begin, and then just push straight in.
  

Step 3

• When the wire has been inserted all through the length of piping and has emerged at the other end, straighten the piping (which usually has become bunched up in the pushing), and
  
• cut off the excess wire, so that only half an inch of wire is poking out of each end of the piping. 
  
• Make a loop in each end of the wire with pliers and push the loops into the piping so that the wire is completely enclosed in the piping.
  

• Set aside (yay).
  

Step 4

• Cut leaf shapes out of the green felt -as many as you like. I used about 30. Printable leaf patterns can be found in the Vegetable template in the Pea Pod post.
  

Step 5

• Fold the stem of the leaf in half lengthwise and sew along the stem, backstitching at the ends to secure. 
  
• Repeat for all the leaves. 
  
• Set aside.
  

We are now going to attach the leaves to the green flannel.

Step 6

• Cut a strip of flannel 14" long.
  

• Mentally mark out a section 1/2" wide along one long edge of this strip and 1/4" wide along the other long edge of the strip - see the shaded portions in the picture above. These are the sections for overlapping when wrapping the stem. Do not sew anything in these sections - sew only in the unshaded section between them.
• This plant will eventually be "planted" in the foam dirt base which is about 4" deep, so this "underground" portion will not have any leaves on it. Beginning about 4" from one end (let's call this the bottom end), position the leaves at various angles along the flannel strip and machine-stitch the stems on. 
  

Step 7

• At the top end, fold the flannel lengthwise 1/2", tuck a leaf or two upside down in the fold and sew as shown in the left picture below. The right picture shows what the top end looks like turned right side out.
  

Step 8

• Cut small pieces of the hook velcro (I cut mine in half lengthwise and then cut those further into 1/2" pieces) and sew them onto the flannel strip among the leaf stems. 
  

The rest of the stem will be completed by hand (sorry).

Step 9

• Stitch up the end of the piping to prevent the wire from poking out. I sewed through the wire loop and the sticky tape too!

Step 10

• Insert the piping into the top end of the flannel strip and wrap the flannel tightly around it. Stitch to secure. 
  

I found that the ladder stitch produced very neat results.

• Continue stitching to the bottom end of the flannel, ending where the piping ends. Knot to secure. The bottom end of the flannel is still open - don't panic - it will get stitched down in the last step. 
  

Step 11

• Repeat steps 6-10 to complete the other two stems.
  

Step 12

• To join stems together, fold over the excess fabric at the bottom end of one and stitch it to the other stem. 
• Stitch around and through the stems to secure them and use whatever stitches you are comfortable with to do this - there are no rules!
  

• Join the third stem to the first two in the same way.
  

The bean plant, was made in a similar way but, not being a creeping vine, with these differences:

• One stem was much, much longer than the other two.
  
• The leaves were a different shape (and color).
  
• The leaves started much farther up from the bottom end.
  

Step 13

• Insert plant into dirt, bend stems to desired shape,

hang strawberries 

or pea pods

and let the harvest begin!

Some questions I anticipate:

Q: Why not use felt to wrap the stem?

A: Felt was too thick to fold, overlap and stitch down.

Q: What's with all the crazy different shades of green for the velcro, leaves, stem etc?

A: Those were the only shades I could find in the fabric store! I wish the velcro came in a more lime-y shade.

Q: Couldn't I sew a tube of flannel, turn right side out and push the piping in?

A: And attach the leaves and velcro by hand, you mean? Yes. (I tried).

Q: Can I use thinner wire?

A: By all means.

Q: Instead of using piping, could I use polyfill, since the wire will keep the stem rigid anyway?

A: Yes. I was lazy and the piping sped the whole process up. Also, at 29c (regular price) a yard, this piping was hardly expensive.

Q: Just curious - are you insane?

A: Probably.

Cardboard Lemonade Stand

We made a cardboard lemonade stand yesterday and put 

it out on our deck today for business. I use the term 

"business" loosely because the small vendor was really 

only interested in pouring liquid from cup to cup and 

back into the jug. Good thing it was water, not lemonade. 

Good thing also that we added one important feature to 

the original pattern: strips of transparent mail tape over 

the table surface to waterproof it. Here she is posing 

innocently before she started to play.

The original pattern came from an old issue of Parents 

magazine, which I posted about here. Emily found the 

magazine last week and was desperate to make it. She 

painstakingly wrapped the four posts with tissue paper 

strips to show her commitment to 

collaborating on its construction.

We threw out the play water and refilled the jug for Emily to 

have a turn. There was no actual lemonade involved today 

afterall but we had some of the neighborhood kids stop by 

to play, so it was nice to be able to offer them a calorie-less 

drink, along with some snacks. And we didn't charge 

them a cent - the aforementioned small vendor 

was very generous!

Fabric Labels

Finally, finally got down to making some fabric labels. 

These will no doubt come in very useful for advertising 

and marketing when the day eventually comes to sell the 

stuff I make. But you'll laugh when I tell you the real 

motivation for getting them done! It's those shorts I sew 

for the girls - they can't tell the front from the back and 

are forever asking me if they've worn them right. I guess 

they've been trained to recognize the backs of lower 

garments by the store labels usually sewn in the seam or 

tucked under the waistband, but mum's shorts.... well, 

talk about taking independent dressing several steps back.

So this summer's shorts will leave no room for doubt - 

they should bring the same level of developmental 

security as those from Target!

But back to the labels themselves - there are several 

tutorials out there for making them and I used this one. 

Very easy. As a related project, I also finally made some 

handwriting fonts here for the labels. Which means I can 

now also type letters to friends and pretend I wrote them! 

Which I actually did..... actually..... Hmm.  

Cardboard TV

We are taking a break from the regular Foam Program to 

bring you another Cardboard Is Supreme advert. Emily 

thought it would be a good idea to make a cardboard TV 

this week. Her original idea was fascinating - it included 

a built-in VCR and DVD player with slots for inserting 

cardboard DVDs and videocassettes. It intrigued me, 

but we made the simple TV first (we may never get 

round to doing the slots for cartridges)

with a remote control. The remote control was very important. 

Emily put on foam sticker buttons, drew more buttons and 

correctly positioned the infra-red thingy in the front.

The TV is essentially a box with a big window cut out 

in front, and a little walled-space about 1/2" deep

behind it, to slot TV programs in.

I like this project for many reasons, one of which is its 

simplicity. But my favorite part is how it is secretly a way 

to display the kids' art and have them talk about it 

to unsuspecting captive guests. 

The girls got white paper and markers and drew their own 

TV show. Jenna had some help with outlines to color in. 

Then these were mounted on cardboard slabs to make 

them easy to slot in and take out. We put pictures on 

both sides of the cardboard.

Emily's story was all about a princess fairy with blue wings

but later she decided she wanted to be the star of 

her own TV show so here's a self-portrait.

I love how Jenna proudly put in her Maisy TV show 

and told a story, then sang the Maisy theme song 

(with the little yelp at the end of phrases) while 

swinging her leg in time.  

Oh I love being a mom of small children!

Blocks - Foam Part 4

Cutting cake circles out of rectangular pieces of foam leaves

little wasted corners. So here's project #4 - what to do with

the odd-shaped leftover bits..... well, what I did with mine,

at any rate. I cut cubes from them

and made baby blocks.

Bonus: I got to use up all the sweet, plain, mild-

colored ginghams and terrycloth scraps

and some of the funkier pieces in the remnant box

plus the precious, for-special-occasions-only Very Good

Wool Felt (except the purple dress applique is fleece

because I didn't have purple felt).

I've always felt that if I ever made a quilt, I'd use a lot of

white in it and maybe only one or two other colors. Since

these blocks are a bit like a 3D quilt, I used a lot of

white and gave each block a color scheme.

Several years ago when I made the sofa, I made the leftover

bits into blocks, too. I was into ribbon-tag baby toys then,

and with just the one child and all the time in the world,

the prototype blocks had ribbon tags

applique

and some ric-rac craziness.

Some notes about making these blocks:

1. The bigger they are, the more stable they tend to be when stacking. The 3" ones are the best.
   
2. Like with the cake, I did not consider stuffing them with polyfill because I wanted them to be able to stack well (and not frustrate the poor children trying to practice this developmental skill).
   
3. I've put bells in the middle of some of them, but the density of the foam does muffle the jingle. The bells work better in blocks stuffed with airy polyfill.
   
4. To sew the fabric cases, I cut the foam cube first, then measured one face and added quarter-inch seam allowances all round. So the 3" cube would need fabric squares of 3.5".
   
5. There are many ways of putting the fabric squares together but the method that was least stressful for me was
   

• to sew four squares in a row, then join the short edges of the first and last square, to make a sort of cylinder
  
• then attach the top square, sewing around all four sides
  
• then attach the bottom square, sewing around 3 sides and leaving the fourth open.
  
• Snip the corners, turn right side out and insert foam cube
  
• and ladder-stitch the opening closed.
  

I found that this method allowed the corners to meet nicely.

Bit of risky self-disclosure: for a brief and dangerously 

silly moment, I also thought of sewing circles onto 

them and turning them into giant dice. 

Fortunately, the moment passed.

Cake - Foam Part 3

Something frivolous now for project #3.

We start with this

cover it with felt

add ribbon

cover with more felt

sew on some velcro circles

stack

and start decorating -

layer

by layer;

or throw on some candles

and go the whole hog

then change the theme

and celebrate love,

spring

and the pursuit of happiness.

And when we've had our cake, we eat it too -

What fun I had with this project!

I first became obsessed with it when I saw this (and fell in 

love with the entire shop, really), but I've been a mom of little 

kids just long enough to know they want to serve cake to 

every guest at their tea parties, and blow out the candles, too.

So they got a three-dimensional felt board-cum-hospitality prop.

I am relieved to say I did use the good wool blend 

stuff this time for the main cake, although some of the 

colored fondant is acrylic.

Not hard to make at all, although it does take time. Here's 

the pattern for the big (10" diameter) and medium (8") cake 

slices. The top layer (6")is a solid disc so that the candles 

have a nice stable platform.The foam is 3" thick and in 

addition to the pieces in the pattern, you will need 

(quarter-inch seam allowance included)

For each large cake slice:

1 piece felt 10.5" x 3.5"

1 piece felt 4.5" x 3.5"

11" of 1/2" ribbon

For each medium cake slice:
1 piece felt 8.5" x 3.5"
1 piece felt 4.75" x 3.5"
9" of 1/2" ribbon

to make the walls of the slice.

Top-stitch the ribbon lengthwise along 

the longer felt rectangle.

Some notes and tips:

• An electric knife is really nice for cutting foam, provided you don't also use the same knife to carve the Thanksgiving turkey.
  
• If you don't have an electric knife, a box cutter/X-acto knife works well if you position the blade vertically, not slanted, and saw up and down.
  
• It doesn't matter if the edges of the foam are slightly uneven or bumpy because the felt case smooths these out.
  
• I used a little over a yard of the white wool-blend felt for the entire project.
• Resist the temptation to make the felt case either too snug (the final product will be bulgy) or give too much allowance to make it roomy. The cake slices will fit together best if the felt cases fit the foam inserts just so.
  
• I did not consider stuffing the felt cases with polyfill rather than a foam insert because I wanted the flat sides to facilitate smooth and tight packing and stacking.
  
• When making the circular cover for the whole cake (see 4th picture), I found it helpful to complete all the slices, then pack them together and measure the final diameter of the circle they made. Mine measured 10.5" and 8.5" in the end.
  
• The small cake with the velcro was made simply with two 6.5" circles and a rectangular piece 3.5" x 19.5" (quarter inch seam allowance included in all dimensions).
  
• The felt strawberries and the felt peg doll actually belong to another incomplete project, so you'll see them again in a later post. The felt daisy and tulip cake toppers were unicorn food from this post.

Now for the candles:

Here are patterns and instructions:

I don't think I've done a blanket stitch since I was about 10!

If you don't feel like sewing, scroll down to 

the next post for the cardboard version!

Edited to add: One commentor told me that PBK 

has a felt cake too! I went online to look and oh, 

it is gorgeous. Go here to see.

Another commentor left this wonderful link where 

you can buy 8" foam rounds as well as precut foam 

wedges. I cannot vouch for this being high-density 

foam but it is very, very helpful if you don't 

want to splurge on the other kind!

Cardboard Cake

This is the cardboard variation of the Cake - 

it is much, much faster to make!

If you cut a little "X" in the top of each slice, candles can be 

inserted.The candles themselves are so much fun for the 

kids to put together. We did two types: twisted chenille stems 

(aka pipe cleaners) and a popsicle stick, with sticky craft foam 

for the flame. Other candle ideas: short pencil, straws, short 

dowels, old marker, uncooked spaghetti/fettucine, and 

even a candle cut out of cardboard.

The kids got to frost their cake pieces with markers and top 

them with foam sticky 'fondant' shapes. If I'd had the courage 

to let them loose with their glitter glue tubes, 

those would have been rather nice, too.

Now for the patterns. Here is a printable one-piece one for 

cardstock. For these, make 8 pieces to make up a whole cake. 

The cake slices we made today were extra-thick corrugated 

cardboard (we had that lying around), which was far too 

thick to fold, so I cut the sides as individual pieces 

and glued them together.

For a smaller cake with 12 pieces, try this pattern 

from Better Homes and Gardens.

And if you aren't in the mood for the whole print-trace-cut 

thing, you could buy them as cake- slice favor boxes from 

cake decorating stores and online. Or gatecrash a wedding 

and collect the leftovers (not that I recommend it).

Enjoy!

Sofa - Foam Part 2

Continuing with the foam-for-furniture theme, this is project

#2 - a child's fold-out sofa. They're everywhere in the stores,

but they are always upholstered in a thin cotton slipcover with

a TV or movie character on it. When we first moved here,

Emily was one and desperate for "just my size" furniture. I

rather liked the idea of these fold-out sofas but I wasn't

crazy about the upholstery options.

Would you believe it - I couldn't find a single solid or even

a print (I would've embraced even florals) specimen. None!

Therefore it had to be made. Was it cheaper than the $30

store-bought ones? Yes, but not by a whole lot, because,

being naive, I paid full-price for the foam then. Was it a lot

of work? Not really, since it was just joining rectangular

pieces of fabric together. Was it worth the time and effort?

To not have cartoony characters permanently sitting

in my living room? Yes, yes, yes.

I used home decor-weight fabric, along with 3" high density

foam. I am pleased to report that that combination was

rugged enough to have withstood 3 years of constant abuse

by the smalls. Here are some pictures I took last week,

showing, in its sun-bleached, autographed, lopsided glory,

the sofa

that folds out into a little bed for napping

and an in-between configuration that's been used as

a plane, bus, car, shop, ship, bathtub and anything

else the kids could think up.

It has been dragged everywhere by every side and corner,

decorated, jumped on, forced to be a slide, and used as a

barricade to keep siblings out of other siblings' territories.

But its most useful role to date is photography prop -

Emily was already a sitter by the time we moved here, but

the two younger girls were plonked in this sofa as bobble-

headed newborns, posed and mercilessly photographed.

Well-used, in other words, and much-loved.

Still, I thought it would be nice to see it in its heyday when

it was crisp and clean (and to see Emily when she would

sit, all ladylike, and read board books):

No tutorial for this, because I don't plan on making a new

one when this one just refuses to keel over and die. But if

anyone is interested in making this someday, here is a

printable sheet of the sofa - deconstructed, with dimensions:

Incidentally, I am going to be posting quite a few of these

printable instruction sheets in the future - it's so much

faster to sketch a tutorial than photograph the process!

I was surprised to find out recently that some readers have

been printing out some of my tutorials, poor things. If I'd

known, I might have tried to limit myself to only one million

photos. So from now on, if I think a sketch might be more

efficient than several useless photos, I'll do a printable

sheet- save trees, save ink, save time.

Well, we are done with foam-for-practical-household-uses.

Next up: something whimsical, colorful and a bit impractical!

Chair Cushion - Foam Part 1

The first project is a cushion - perhaps the most conventional

use for foam that I know of. Not earth-shatteringly creative,

I know, but very practical because it allows for long hours of

comfortable sitting while making other more exciting stuff at

the sewing table. I made this chair cushion when I got my

sewing room chair more than two years ago, using ancient

Ikea fabric (from the 90's!) and a 2" chair cushion insert

from JoAnn. The foam insert was already roughly the size

I needed, so I just trimmed some corners off to fit my chair.

The cushion cover itself has a gusset, piping and a zipper

hidden along the piping. I also added skinny straps at the

corners for chair-ties. I laughed when I took this picture -

two years under my weight have taken their toll on the foam!

Since I made this during the pre-blog-era, I don't have a

tutorial for it. But while writing this post, I found a great

tutorial at Sew Mama Sew for putting a cushion like this

together, including the piping and zipper.

Some minor differences in how I did mine:

1. Fabric case for the piping - I did not cut mine on the bias because it was going to be sewn along only straight edges all round the cushion shape. I usually only use bias-cut binding when it needs to go around curves like necklines.
2. Zipper - I like hiding my zippers so I made mine flush against the piping of one of the edges, rather than be in the center of the gusset. To do this, I sewed one side of the zipper along one edge of the gusset, and used the other side of the zipper as the seam allowance of the gusset itself and sewed the piping case directly onto the zipper. Also I didn't use the iron, because I am lazy and don't iron anything if I can help it.
   
3. Handles - didn't need them for this chair.
   

But really, ignore all these fussy little differences and enjoy

the tutorial, if for just how to add piping and to make single

long strip of bias tape! And imagine all the customized

shapes of cushions you can make- alphabet letter cushions

for kids' rooms, guitar-shaped throw-cushions for music

fans, flower-shaped kneelers in outdoor fabric for gardening

enthusiasts..... I am desperate to make cushions for

window-seats and entryway benches except I have neither

pieces of furniture, nor the space at home to install them.

If you aren't excited about zippers and don't plan on letting

the children near your cushions with their happy weapons

of mass decoration (markers, crayons, sippy cups of red

Kool-Aid), then stitch the opening shut after inserting the

foam. Or leave out the piping. Or sew buttons underneath

instead of the zipper. Or velcro. If you have an old cushion

to repurpose, that's even better than going shopping for

new foam! Or strip an old foam mattress and go crazy

reupholstering all the sit-able surfaces in your house!!

OK, I'll stop now.