Princess Pavillion Tent

Woke the kids from their naps today to come see this:

This tent has been in my head for months. I'd wanted to

finish it during the winter so the kids could play with it

during the boring cold weeks indoors. That never happened,

of course. I am relieved to be done with it in time for the

summer, though, for two reasons. First, our deck gets really

hot in the mornings when the girls want to be outside playing.

Now they can hide in the shade of this tent and read or eat

a mid-morning snack, or hold tea parties. Second, it's in

time for garage sale season. If anyone wants to make

this, hit the garage sales for used quilts/duvet covers or

sheets- they are the cheapest way to procure

large pieces of fabric!

But more on the making later.

Back to the kids' newest toy first:

In case you haven't guessed yet, this is a table tent, or a

cubby house, or glorified fitted tablecloth. Essentially, there's

a table underneath all that holding it up. I'd wanted to go the

usual way of table tents and dress up our rectangular dining

table. Unfortunately, it had a post leg right in the middle

of it. This card table languishing in our storage closet,

though, had the requisite four corner (if a round table can

have corners, I mean) legs, so it got picked instead.

No complaints - I love anything round.

I waited till I found the right kind of thrifted bedlinen at a

recent garage sale- a two-toned pink twill comforter for $2.

I ripped the seams apart, threw away the batting, and put

it through the hottest laundry cycle. I already had the dark

blue and pale yellow bedsheets from last year's garage sales,

waiting to be turned into this but they're thin, and

would only be good in supporting roles.

Here's the front of the tent, with a curtain opening, courtesy

of the yellow sheet and some scrap gingham.

The curtains tie back with little straps that fasten

to the inner wall with velcro.

To let in light, there are three domed windows

with more of the same yellow curtains and velcro tie-backs.

Ah, but you all probably want to know about that there roof.

Here's the mass of dowel spines holding it up, teepee-style

with a little pointy jellyfish cap thingy to cover that all up

and some polka-dotted wooden beads knotted on

ribbon tentacle-streamers to give it a little weight.

So yes, to answer your question, the roof is a dud.

The interior of the tent is only as high as the table top.

That seemed to me an awful waste of space just for aesthetics.

So I added a couple of zippers to open the front panel so

the girls could invite their dollies to a party in the attic.

Attics can get dark so I added three flap- down vinyl

windows. We close the windows when there are no dollies

visiting. But today, the dollies were happy to attend

and play peekaboo (silly dollies!)

But here I will show you my favorite part of the princess tent:

Two hanging baskets flanking the door, with hidden slots

for budding gardeners to plant felt flowers in.

No tutorial for this particular tent - too many little details -

but here is a printable instruction sheet for a basic pavillion-

style tent. You could do a roof for a square table, too,

but a round table allows for equal-length dowel spines.

Sorry if it looks like a Math worksheet.

There's Physics in there, too (yay)!

Some notes:

1. I used 1/4" dowels from craft stores. They were about 60 cents a piece (regular price) and were a standard 36" long. I cut them down to 29" for this project.
   
2. I used craft-weight fusible interfacing for the frames and cross-bars of the windows.
   
3. Twill or drill is a good weight material to use. Typical bedsheets are too thin.
   
4. Embellish before you sew the main pieces together. Otherwise there is a lot of fabric to handle around the sewing machine.
   
5. This whole project cost about $20, I'm estimating.
6. While measuring the table for this, I noticed that the tabletop was screwed on to the circular metal frame. That made me wonder if it might also be unscrewed and removed, leaving only the empty frame and legs. This might allow a person access to the space under the roof. But I decided against it because I suspect (but did not test out) that the circular piece of fabric holding the two halves together provides some useful supporting tension. There's a good chance that I'm wrong so if anyone successfully makes this sans tabletop, tell me, tell me!
   

Here are some great ideas for rectangular table tents made by some very talented folks:

• Melissa at Day to Day.
  
• Jamie at Nothing Fancy, who also did a follow-up post on Tips for Making a Table Tent when she made a matching one for her little girls out of a piano bench!
  
• Ashley at Make It And Love It
  
• Angie at this and that
  
• Abby's fort for boys at Sew Much Ado and
• some lovely playhouses on etsy here.

Speaking of boys, here's a printable idea sheet for a

variation of this pavillion tent - a rocketship. I'd planned

to make this for the girls because too much Cinderella and

not enough NASA makes for a skewed childhood. But I also

want to make them a rectangular playhouse out of our

kitchen table for the winter, with all the fixings, so I'll pass

on the rocketship for now. Still, here on paper are the ideas

from my head for anyone who'd like to try them. If you do,

please let me know - I'd love to see how it turns out!

Thought of more variations on the round table shape.

For instance, Mushroom: make a padded puffy roof in
red fabric with white spots and have the kids dress
up as smurfs. Or Barn: use all-silver vinyl, omit doors
and windows and pretend it's full of grain.
Or Circus Tent: Make a gaudy paneled roof, add colorful
triangular bunting all round and paint the kids' noses
red. Or make a floor with a round hole, wedge it in a
sturdy tree, elect one child to be Moon-Face and
play Faraway Tree (sigh........) all day.

* Edited to add new insane idea: Dress tent up as a

birthday cake and use it as a birthday party prop!

Worse, make it out of flannel (cheaper than felt) and cut

giant felt fondant shapes and let the birthday guests

decorate their own oversize cake, then take pictures

beside it for thank-you notes!

Must stop now. Must stop now. Must stop now.

Must find chocolate. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Round tents = endless possibilities.
Round = happiness.

The kids rather liked their new princess tent. And I like

it because it is finished. But also because it can be folded

away into a small neat package when not in use (dowels

removed). After exploring it thoroughly and profusely

thanking me (she was extra-polite in her post-nap

disorientation) Emily asked, "where is the mailbox?" I let

her in on the secret that we'd be making a serious

playhouse for the winter for which we'd be sure to include

a mailbox-with-slot, along with interior embellishments.

Emily has been informed that she needs to contribute ideas

since it will be hers, Jenna's and Kate's, so she's very excited.

Yawn! Off to bed now. On to some quicker projects in the

coming days. No, no more bags for a while- there are so

many things more exciting than those to tackle! But I will

come back to the bags eventually, I promise!

*Edited AGAIN (sorry) to correct something in the Rocketship

printable instructions. A night or two after I'd posted this, my

brain said to me, "Hey you, I think you meant grommets."Now,

I seldom know what my brain is saying, so this was not

surprising. My brain continued, "You wrote "rivets". You meant

"grommets"." Now this I understood. Blast. I sat up in bed

(I was at that moment before I slipped into blissful

unconsciousness) and knew I had to change it.

My brain, though, has a wicked streak sometimes, and

that night it gleefully said, (Snigger) "You can't change it

now. You have to sleep now. Ha ha ha ha! It will have to

wait till the morning! And you'll be busy then too! It will

be months before it will get done! Ha ha ha!"

Vile thing.

Anyway it hasn't been months - but it's been a while. Those

of you familiar enough with those little metal things will

know a person can't thread a cord through rivets. I've

reuploaded the corrected instructions now, so all is well.

But apologies to those compliant fans who actually did

try to and had to drink heavily after.

It wasn't you - it was me.

Reversible Tote Bag Giveaway!

Jumping on the bandwagon- 

this reversible shoulder tote bag is going to a new home!

For the long version, see this earlier link  for more 

pictures, bag dimensions and a printable pattern if 

you want to make it yourself. See also this link for a 

short-handled variation.

Here is the brief version:

One side is natural canvas duck cloth with a pocket for 

artwork. The other side is blue-and-green-on-ivory squares. 

This is a roomy bag, and robust enough to cart around 

books and possibly even a small anvil. I personally have not 

tried the anvil, though, but it is heavy-duty and stiff enough 

to stand up all on its own.

Here's a close-up of the pocket detail.

And here's an example of how the pocket can be dressed 

up at the hands of a small family member. My daughter 

contributed the artwork for the bag on the right, which 

now lives with her grandmother.

For a chance to win this tote bag, leave a comment on 

this post by midnight Sunday 31 May and I'll do a random 

drawing on Monday to pick the winner. I'm happy to ship 

internationally so all non-USA dwelling friends are welcome 

to enter, too. However, you MUST leave an email address, 

either

• on your profile site (if you use blogger)
  
• somewhere in your public-access blog
  
• in the comments                                          or 
  
• in an email to me (my email is in the sidebar) 
  

so I can contact you when you win. 

Good luck, all!

Back to Baby

This has been a week of slightly frantic sewing. The funny thing
is that it's for no one in particular. It's to replenish my stash
of baby gifts that I've been dipping into for people having
spring and summer babies. So I whittled down my fabric
stash to make a gift stash. Good reorganizing, eh?
This way my closet looks just as overstuffed as before
so I don't feel like I need to go and buy new fabric. The
sewing table looks awful with all the production, but at
least I'm saving money. Right? Mwuahahahahaha!
Oh you've got to love desperate logic.

Finished 5 more nursing covers. Not very exciting,
but it was fun sewing straight lines on big
rectangles superfast, production-line style.


Speaking of mass producing, I've succumbed to the old
bibs obsession. Spent the past few evenings cutting out
105 bibs. That's not obsessive. What's obsessive is me
counting. Too ashamed to take photos. We're going to the
in-laws' for the weekend so I'll have some time to cut (and
trim the corners off and count) oh, 210 small squares of velcro.

So that was the making.

I've also been dabbling in a bit of creating. Not the same
as making. Making is comfort. Creating is hare-brained,
seat-of-my-pants thrilling. But very time-consuming.
And evocative of comments like "bonkers", "needs to see
a shrink", "how are the poor children coping?" or "my, my,
what might the state of her laundry be?". Would've liked
to have finished by now but that seldom happens.
So here's a WIP picture:


Yes, there's pink in it. Grrrr.
So you can tell it's not for me, eh?

Back after the weekend. Have a restful one, all!

Felt Alphabet

More felt board stuff yesterday. Felt suddenly guilty that I'd 

not done more conscious formal educating of the kids. 

I mean, I think my kids are educated: they know where 

all the fabric stores are, they manipulate cookie cutters 

without injury, they can name all the smurfs, they 

recognize Enid Blyton books as superior reading material 

and they can sing the theme songs of influential programs 

like Maisy, Sesame Street (jazz - check!) and 

Richard Scarry's Busy People.

But perhaps they should also know their ABCs, I thought. 

Emily recently cut her name out of paper, so at least we 

know she is familiar with 5 of the 26 letters anyway.  

But she inspired me to do some letter-cutting myself. 

It was good to finally finish this project, which has been 

on my to-do list for a number of months. What's shocking 

is that I actually have 26 different colors of felt. I like toys, 

and I like education, but sometimes I am not crazy about 

toys that try too hard to educate. Incidental learning is 

valuable, too, so for this alphabet set, I cut the upper- 

and lower-case of each letter out of the same color. 

This is what Jenna spelt when she first played with it - 

her first palindrome!

What amused me even more, though, was that 

our brown microfiber sofa turned out to be 

a rather good felt board too!

Cardboard Aquarium

This week we made a cardboard aquarium to replace 

the one that fell apart months ago. 

We used a big diaper box and cut windows out of the 

two biggest sides and stuck clear cellophane on the 

inside of the box. We used what we had in the house, 

but if I were making this again, I would make two changes. 

One, I would not use irridescent cellophane. Or any 

cellophane, which rips at the slightest touch by infants. 

But especially not irridescent, which gives one a headache 

just peering through the "glass". I'd use thin, clear vinyl, 

or at least the clear plastic used to wrap schoolbooks. 

Two, I'd open up the box and lay it flat to stick on 

the vinyl/plastic panes. Much easier.

At the top of the box, we attached a handle for carrying 

the aquarium around. For feeding access, we also cut a 

trapdoor with a little hole in it, so little fingers could 

easily open it and provide sustenance for fishy friends.

Some little fingers, however, preferred to 

share fish food with the outdoor rug

and spy on the fish through the trapdoor instead

while other little fingers (and their owners) thought 

any hole in the box qualified as feeding access.

Oh well, sometimes adult-initiated design fails.

For the fish, we consulted one of our 

scuba reference books: 

and drew up some two-sided creatures on 

construction paper, which the girls decorated

along with generic seaweed and shells. The bottom-

rooted living things were glued to the floor of 

the aquarium and the free-swimming fish were suspended 

from the roof with invisible thread/beading microfilament/

fishing line/regular white sewing thread and masking tape. 

We stuck starfish directly onto the "glass" panes with 

dabs of glue. The top of the box was then taped down 

with masking tape and scrap paper was cut up into 

small pieces to be fish food. We chose not to hot-glue 

the top shut to give us the option of reopening the box 

to add more fish when we felt up to drawing more. 

When the box gets too full of fish food, we tip the 

box on its side so the food comes out of the 

side handle-holes and reuse the food.

For a full-size aquarium idea, check out Filth Wizardry's 

coral reef post and her incredible line art aquatic 

creatures templates. My computer (Bad Computer! 

Bad Computer!) refused to size her templates properly, 

or I would have had my kids color those instead!

Origami Part 1

Yesterday morning, I found this wonderful post on 

origami on one of my favorite blogs, Filth Wizardry. 

At the end of the post was an invitation to share origami 

ideas, so this post is in response to that. While the kids 

were suitably occupied this afternoon, I sat in the sunshine 

on our deck and folded away. The result: two posts full 

of an excessive number of photos taken in glaring 

sunshine - my apologies. To make peace, at the end of 

Part 2, I promise you a link to a site that will take your 

breath away, not the least because the 

photos there will not be blinding.

Something very simple first:

1 Paper Cup

Which, if made very large (like with newspaper) and turned upside down, also is a soldier's hat.

Start with a square and fold once 

in half to form a triangle.

Fold one corner across to meet the other side of 

the triangle. Ensure the top edge of this fold is 

horizontal - it will form the rim of the cup.

Repeat with the other corner of the triangle.

Separate the layers of the top corner of the 

triangle and fold one layer down.

Fold the other layer back behind the cup 

and open up the cup.

It might hold water if you use wax paper but it won't 

stand by itself. These little cups are useful when 

sharing out snacks from a larger container (like popcorn 

bought at a fair), provided my kids are willing to hold 

them throughout the eating process and not set them down.

2 Classic sailing boat

Does this bring back memories from your childhood? I have children's story books (like Enid Blytons) whose illustrations feature this very same boat!

Start with a square and fold once to form a rectangle

and over a second time to form a smaller square, 

with the four corners of the original big square in a stack.

Separate one of these corners and fold it down to meet 

the opposite bottom corner. Take the other three corners

-in-a-stack and similarly fold them down towards 

the back of the structure.

Turn upside down and stick your fingers 

(thumb, for my picture) in the pocket

and pull it apart in the opposite direction to the 

seams to form a new square (note how the seams 

now have become the middle diagonal of the square)

Separate the two halves of the square, beginning 

at the top corner and open up

Pull sides outwards and downwards and pop open 

the middle pointy sail part from the bottom for stability.

3 Boat with Sun Shades

A spin-off from Filth Wizardry's paper boat - we made both versions as children, too. This one was popular because it is sweltering in Singapore - we have 95 -98% humidity all year round, so sunshades on anything was hip. 

Start with a rectangular piece of paper and fold the 

short sides in about a quarter to a fifth way in. The 

exact ratio is not important, but don't have 

the folds meet in the middle.

Turn over and fold the sides to meet at the midline.

From this point, the process is exactly like that for 

the boat at Filth Wizardry, which you should head to 

anyway because her photos are much better than 

these here. But I'll give my own pedestrian 

running commentary anyway.

So working with the lower half of the structure, 

fold the corners up to meet the midline.

Then fold the folded corners up to 

meet the midline one more time.

Then fold the pointy middle part up to meet the midline.

Repeat for the upper half of the structure.

Open up carefully from the midline, turn boat 

inside out and pop up the sun shades.

4 Box

Start with a rectangle. I used regular 8.5" x 11" paper. 

Fold in half

and half again.

Separate the first layer and open out, 

so the top forms a triangle as shown.

Turn over and repeat to form a triangle 

on the back side as well.

Turn over one layer (like a page of a book).

Fold in the sides of the triangle to meet the mid-line.

Turn over and repeat for the back side.

Fold up the inner corners as shown.

Separate the bottom layers and fold one layer up.

Behind this rectangular are the little folded corners, 

which you can tuck into the upper triangles to secure 

the rectangular flap.

Turn structure over and repeat for the other side.

Pull open the box and fill with stuff. Or make a second box 

of the same size and fit them together for a base and lid.

Part 2 continues here.

Origami Part 2

More origami! Couldn't fit it all in one post 

so here are the rest of the projects:

Oops, wait, no, not that one. That is a very 

cool Tshirt I want to buy from Threadless, a 

site I found through Make and Takes.

Back on track now:

1 Fox Puppet

Start with a square and fold in half to form 

a rectangle, folded edge above.

Fold in both sides towards the midline.

Press open the side folds to form a triangle, like a house.

Tuck the rightmost panel behind the entire structure.

Repeat for the left side fold.

Note the diagonal line at the bottom right corner. 

This will be your next fold.

Separate the upper layer and fold 

the bottom right corner up.

Fold the entire width of the same layer up 

to meet the horizontal midline.

Turn over and repeat with the bottom layer. 

These will form the ears.

Separate the two layers of ears and fold each 

ear up above the midlines of each side.

Put your fingers into the opening between the ears

and pull apart to form the mouth.

Draw on eyes, nose, tongue and teeth and go hunting.

2 Fortune Teller

This is a children's toy that is found in many, many cultures. 

Start with a square and fold across both 

diagonals to obtain the middle point.

Fold each corner up to the middle point.

Turn over and fold each corner to the middle point again.

Write numbers or other symbols on the sections 

(and other secret symbols or fortunes in 

the layer underneath the numbers).

Turn over and press on the lines as shown.

The four square corners should pop up. 

Insert fingers of both hands into the pockets underneath

Turn over, find a friend and play the open-close-

open-close fortune telling game.

3  Eight-Page Book

I learnt this while I was working as a school crisis counselor before the kids were born. We used this in counseling workshops for teachers but it is such an easy little book to make for small kids out of the coloring sheet/kid's menu in restaurants.

Start with a rectangular sheet of paper, like printer 

paper. Fold into eight equal sections and open up. 

Cut or carefully tear across two sections, 

along the middle line, as shown.

Fold lengthwise in half.

Hold the two ends of this long rectangle and 

push the two ends together, so the middle section 

separates to form a square hole.

Push till the square hole disappears 

and the paper forms a cross.

Fold over the arms of the cross to form pages of a book.

I numbered the pages of the book

and unfolded them to show where 

they are in the original sheet.

4  Japanese Offering Box

I remember folding this a lot as a child, because it was a neat container for the discarded pits of sour prunes that was one of our favorite snacks. There is another version with pointy legs but I can't remember how to fold that. 

Start with a square and fold the corners towards 

the centre like with the fortune teller toy.

Fold this now-smaller square in half, 

with the folds on the outside.

Fold this triangle in half again.

Open out the upper layer to form a square.

Push down the top corner of the square 

so that the folded sides separate

and form a flat rectangle

Turn over and repeat for the other side. 

You will get a house-shaped structure like so

Turn one layer over (like flipping a page of a book) 

Fold one side (also one layer) to the midline as shown.

Repeat for the other side

Then flip the entire structure over 

and repeat the last three steps.

Pull apart the pointy tops like wings of a bird

and open up the box.

Fold the "wings" down to form handles

and fill with candy, use as a mini trash-can, 

or put a little potted plant in it.

Here's the link I promised in Part 1. My very talented 

Uncle Ronald (son of that grandma I mentioned in 

earlier posts; dad is her other son) is an origami whiz. 

He has been folding and designing origami patterns 

forever. His toes are probably curling, reading this now 

and beholding my very shoddy technique - fuzzy edges 

of paper from hand-tearing, inexact shapes and (worst!) 

failing to use my fingernail to press clean, sharp folds. 

Want to see how the masters do it? Here is his site on 

which there is just a tiny sample of his stuff. Check out the 

King Cobra - made up of thousands of individual pieces 

of paper folded to form the links in the body 

a single piece of 24 cm x 720 cm paper (Uncle Ron 

just wrote to correct me on this - sorry and thank 

you, UR!). A single piece of paper, people!

Hooo, now that is art. 

Reversible Tote: Hands-Free Version

Here is that tote bag again, long-handled version.

Actually, I made two because it is never worth the 

time and effort to just cut one. Mass -producing, in 

a twisted sort of way, is more efficient. 

Riiiiiiiiiight.

But back to the bag. This was for Emily's grandma, 

so naturally it had to have a child's artwork on it. I 

had Emily draw directly onto the canvas pocket 

with fabric pens, then sewed the pocket on. With her 

teachers' bags, I used transfer paper because we needed 

three identical drawings for the three bags. The alternative

 would have been to have her draw three pictures, which 

is sort of like mass-producing (hurrah) but she 

hasn't developed that bad habit yet.

Here is the bag turned inside out so the pocket 

becomes an inner pocket.

And here's a close-up of her rendering of "Nana 

holding flowers and wearing yellow lipstick 

and makeup on her cheeks".

And here's an even closer-up of the pocket piping 

which actually is just a folded strip of the lining fabric, 

tucked between the edge of the pocket and the bag. 

And here is a random picture to demonstrate how 

the bag has so overdosed on interfacing that it could 

pass off as a bucket. Look- even the long straps 

stand up by themselves. Overkill? I thought so too, 

until I remembered sadder bags I'd previously made 

that were just right fresh off the sewing machine but 

turned to useless flaccid lumps after a couple months of use. 

Off my interfacing soap box now. 

Thank you for all your comments and requests in 

the previous post! I drew up the pattern here

but no tutorial, I'm afraid. Main reason: there are so 

many good tote bag tutorials in Blogland already! 

Everyone makes tote bags differently and you could pick 

up so many good habits by reading their instructions 

that you never would reading mine. Like ironing. I never 

iron, unless I am sewing garments. Because I am lazy. 

Also I never sew my bags with a little hole in the 

lining through which to turn everything right side out 

because it would need to be slip-stitched shut. It gets 

a bit hard to do this with heavy-weight canvas and 

silly-overkill interfacing but mostly it's because 

(did I share this already?) I am lazy. 

I will just add a few notes here that 

I couldn't fit in the printable sheet:

1. All the pattern pieces (not drawn to scale, obviously) have dimensions that include seam allowances. The strap pattern pieces have a 3/8" seam allowance but the other pieces have a 1/2" seam allowance.
   
2. Each strap is made from two canvas strips and one interfacing strip. If you want your straps to stand up like swords, you need to cut another strip of fusible/iron-on craft-weight interfacing and iron that onto one of the strips. If you are new to interfacing, I've included a useful link at the bottom of the post.
3. The strap pattern pieces are 2" longer than the finished exposed (i.e. sticking out of the bag) strap. This is to allow you to insert each end 1" into the bag before sewing the bag up.
   
4. The distance between the strap ends differs for the short and long straps. The long straps should be inserted farther apart than the short straps because they go over your shoulder. I measured this spacing from mid-line of one strap end to mid-line of the other, not between their inner edges. 
   
5. The main body of the bag is made by folding the 15.5" x 25.5" pieces in half, right sides facing, and sewing up the sides.

And here are some helpful places to go for

Tote Bag Tutorials

• Craftster - nice pictures of strap-making without sewing those inside-out tubes. Vital if you are using heavy-weight material for your bag.
  
• Colorfool Creates - quick way of making gusset (the bottom and sides that make a flat bag 3D) corners.
  
• Not So Fancy Nancy - another set of good gusset instructions and pictures.
  

Interfacing Information

• U-Handbag - also superior in general bag-making know-how.
  

Good luck, everyone! 

Bags for Teachers

Thursday is Emily's last day of school and we wanted to make 

some thank-you-we'll-miss-you gifts for her incredible and 

wonderful teachers. It occurred to me that with a blog name 

like ikat bag, one would expect that there'd be, well, bags on 

it. I haven't been sewing bags as much now as before, mostly 

because the kids are so inspiring to make toys and clothes for. 

But a reader commented that she'd like to see some totes, 

so I took some pictures while on this project.

Emily drew a picture of her three teachers and wrote her 

name backwards at the bottom. I scanned the picture into 

the computer, sized it, printed three copies on transfer paper 

and ironed them onto muslin. The muslin pieces were then 

sewn onto canvas, framed with the lining fabric 

and sewn onto the bags as pockets.

I realize I am partial to blues and greens - they remind me of 

the sea, which I used to live rather close to and now miss. 

I am also partial to a high solid-to-print ratio in my 

fabric projects, so the print got relegated to the lining. These 

are reversible totes to give the teachers the option of not 

displaying their likenesses to the general public. Reversible 

totes are not extra fancy, by the way, nor do they require 

special sewing skills. If you can make a fabric receptacle 

that has no exposed raw edges, it is, in theory, reversible, see?

Whenever I make totes, I like them to be sturdy and almost 

rigid. They shouldn't need to have stuff in them to make 

them keep their shape. The straps, especially, drive me 

bonkers if they are soft and floppy. I got a bit fanatical 

with these - used enough interfacing to make them 

as stiff as swords.

Today we are going to bake a batch of chocolate-and-pecan-

dipped shortbread to pack into these bags before delivering 

them to the teachers tomorrow. And when the kids are 

napping (fingers crossed!) this afternoon, I'm going to work 

on the long-handled hands-free versions of these bag (so they 

sling over the shoulder) for my mother-in-law and a future 

giveaway. If anyone is interested in the pattern - and I use 

the term loosely because bag patterns are really a bunch of 

rectangles! - leave a comment and I'll try and do one of those 

printable sketch thingybobs when I post pictures of 

the long-handled versions next. 

Not bag-related at all, but for Emily's classmates, we made 

some stickers. Which is really an excuse to show you all my

Xyron sticker maker* which I found many, many uses for in 

spite of not being a scrapbooker, like these stickers 

and these magnetic paper dolls.

* You can slash that price if you get it from craft stores with discount coupons.

Wallet Giveaway Winners!

Thank you everyone for your comments and interest in the wallet giveaway. I was thrilled to get more than 50 comments so that I could give both wallets away. We ran the numbers in the random number generator and drew numbers lucky numbers 25 and 56! 

Congratulations to #25 Eternal Helpmates and #56 Abi! Please check your email for a note from me. 

I enjoyed this giveaway so much that I think I shall do more in future. Whee!

Clowns, or Donut Holes Part 2

Welcome back to Repurposing Donut Holes,

or Crafts From The Past!

Lovely grandma (did I mention that I miss her? I miss her.)

made clowns very much like this one along with

the caterpillars for her fund-raisers.

Sadly, I don't have a specimen saved from those good

old days and had to try and remember what they

were like. There are some differences, of course. For

one, grandma used a ping-pong ball for the head

and drew on the face with markers. For another,

I am quite certain she used tiny beads for feet and

hands but I rather like these puffy balls.

When Emily saw the clown, she remarked that he

had caterpillar legs and arms. Gross. But she's right -

I mean, these are donut colors after all, and made in

the same way as the caterpillars were.

Here's what you need:

• Felt circles - mine were about 1 1/4" across.
  
• Small beads - mine were 1/8" in diameter.
  
• Felt for the hat.
  
• Felt or fleece for the ruff collar.
  
• White flannel for the head, hands and feet.
  
• Miscellaneous embroidery floss for the face and sewing on the hat.
  
• Thread and two needles.
  
• Stuffing.
  

Here is the printable pattern:

Step 1

• Fold the hat piece and sew along the straight edge. You can insert a ribbon loop at the top now if you like. I used embroidery floss right at the last step.
  
• Turn hat right side out and set aside.
  

Step 2

• Fold the collar piece, right sides facing and sew the short edges together, to form a little band.
  
• Turn right side out.
  

Step 3

• Thread a needle and sew running stitches all along one long edge. Pull to gather from both ends of the thread and tie a knot with both ends of the thread. Cut off excess thread.
• Set aside.
  

Step 4

• Sew on the face of the clown. Or draw with fabric markers. Notice that the face is not in the center of the circle - this has to do with where the gathers end up in the next step.
  

Step 5

• Sew running stitches all along the circumference, stuff, and pull the thread to gather into a ball.
  
• Sew the opening securely shut, knot the thread and cut off the excess. Set aside.
  

Step 6

• Repeat step 5 for two of the smaller flannel circles to make little balls for hands.
• Set aside. You will not need these until step 10.
  

Step 7

• Cut a length of thread, double it and make a knot. The thread should be long enough (when doubled) to make one leg, the body and one arm. Begin by making another ball from the third small flannel circle for foot. Knot when done but do NOT cut off the excess. Instead poke the needle through one felt circle, followed by a bead. Continue alternating felt circles and beads until you have made one leg. I used 14 circles for each leg.
  

• Thread a second needle and repeat the above instructions to make a second leg. You now have two legs, each made with one needle-and-thread.
  

Step 8

• Poke one of the needles through the center of another felt circle. Poke the second needle through the center of the same felt circle. The needles do not have to go through the same hole in the felt - close together is good enough.
• String on a bead on all four strands. This is the start of the body.
  
• From here, all four strands (i.e. both needles, but one after the other) will go through the felt circles and beads forming the body. I used 13 felt circles for the body.
  

Step 9

• When the body is completed, separate the 2 needles so that each needle will now continue to form one separate arm, as shown.
  

Step 10

• When you have finished threading felt circles and beads to form one arm, sew on one of the spherical hands from step 6. Tighten the thread through the arm -you should not be able to see any thread peeking out between felt circles and beads. Make a knot when you are done and cut off the excess.
  

• Repeat this for the other arm and hand to form this weird-looking headless thing.
  

Step 11

• Take one of the needles, thread it, knot the thread and poke it through one of the upper circles of the body. Poke the needle through the gap between the arms and then through the hole of the collar.
  

• Then poke the needle through the head so that the face is positioned where you want it to be.

• Pull to tighten the whole assembly and make a knot at the top of the head. Cut off the excess thread.
  

Step 12

• Place the hat on the head so that it covers the messy gathered opening of the head.
• Using embroidery floss, sew running stitches to attach the hat to the head. Knot and cut off, tucking all knots and thread ends under the hat. If you didn't attach a ribbon loop in step 1 and want a little loop from which to suspend the clown, you can make one now with the floss.
  

I wouldn't recommend giving this to a small child who

is at risk for choking because, should the stitching fail,

the little beads (not to mention the spherical hands and feet)

are hazardous. Clowns like these (and even animals) made

from yo-yos are all over the internet, so if you have

lots of yo-yos, these instructions would work too!

Caterpillars! or, Donut Holes Part 1

To begin, let me say that this picture is seriously freaking me out:

There is so much wrong with this project

that I don't know where to start.

First, caterpillars make me feel very ill.

Like Fear Factor ill.

Next, I made this caterpillar because I was feeling sentimental.

When I was about 8 or 9, Grandma made lots of crafty stuff

to sell at fund-raiser church bazaars/ fairs. I like to think I

helped. This caterpillar was one of the things Grandma

made. Then, I thought they were cute (ugh) and made quite

a few myself. I recently unearthed one of these caterpillars

in an old tub of childhood paraphernalia and was tickled

at the color scheme I'd picked - not the sort one might

normally find in nature (scroll down to last photo to see).

Possessed by some evil force (nostalgia, I think it is called

in some cultures), I thought I'd replicate this for the sake

of amusing readers of this blog. Grandma has since passed

on, but I think if she were able to see this, she might be

pleased, so I'm doing this for her.

Third, I remembered the circles I'd cut out from the

middles of the donuts from Christmas lying in a small

box somewhere and thought they would be perfect for

this. Caterpillars from donut holes is so vile, but I also

like using every last fabric scrap for something if I can.

Fourth, - and this is the weirdest - I thought that

using donut-colored felt would make a non-realistic-

looking caterpillar. But by the time I was almost done, 

it was giving me the creeps. Had to keep telling myself, 

"it is FELT. It is FELT. You made it yourself, 

for crying out loud."

Fifth, it feels even worse than it looks. If you hold this 

thing in your hands it wriggles in a double-jointed 

non-solid way that I imagine real caterpillars might feel, 

not that I have ever had nor ever want, the experience 

myself. I think, though, that children, bless their 

non-species-ist hearts, would think it was cool.

It also helped that this is a big caterpillar - the circles are

about 1 1/4" across. If you are making it, you could trace

around a US dollar coin, or a quarter if you want it a little

smaller. If I had used a dime, it would have been even

more realistic and I'd have died before I finished it.

Well, for those of you who are saying, "but it's cute!"

like 9-year-old me, and who want to make this, 

here's what you need:

• Some felt circles - I used about 34 but the number is unimportant.
  
• Small beads of any shape, although squat is better than long - mine were 1/8" in diameter.
  
• Other larger miscellaneous beads for the tail and head.
  
• Scrap felt for the eyes - I used black.
  
• Thread and a needle.
  
• Some craft glue.
  

Step 1

• Double a length of thread through the needle and knot the end. I made a humungous and untidy knot for visibility's sake, but you should make a small, neat one.
  
• Thread one bead and pass the needle between the two strands, and between the bead and the knot as shown above.

• Pull to tighten - you now have a securely-threaded first bead.
  

Step 2

• String on a couple of bigger beads, like these pony beads, to make a short tail.
  

Step 3

• Begin making the body - poke the needle through the center of one felt circle, followed by a small bead.
  
• Continue alternating felt circles and beads until you have used up all the felt circles.
  

Step 4

• To make the had, thread the needle through the hole of the large bead. I cut a tiny felt circle and stuck it over one of the holes of the bead because the hole was a bit large for the smaller beads that were going on next. This acted as a stopper of sorts.
  

Step 5

• String on as many smaller beads as you want to complete the head. I used a small pony bead and one of the little gold beads.
  
• Pass the needle back through the rest of the beads as shown
  

• and through a few of the felt circles.
  
• Pull to tighten. Knot the thread here and cut off the excess.
  

Step 6

• Cut eyes from felt and glue on.
  

Here's the caterpillar I made as a child. As I said,

rather unrealistic colors, and thus safe.

If you make these yourself, please don't send me links or

photos or anything, or invite me to your caterpillar

Flickr group. I fear I will have to politely decline.

Cardboard Shoes

I recently read on maya made about a project she did

with her daughter to practise tying knots. One of the

commenters mentioned a variation of this for lacing

shoes. My eldest is into tying knots, too, so I thought

she might like something to fiddle with along the same lines.

Anything the eldest has (pink shoe) must of course

be replicated for the middle child (blue shoe) so here

they are. When I proudly presented it to them, the

eldest said, "but I can tie knots, mom. Remember? I

alway tie my belt around my dressing gown by myself."

Drats.

Note to self: 

pay more attention to what the kids are actually doing when I'm not looking.

The youngest stared at it with interest, then politely put it

beside her on the bed and continued doing whatever she

was originally doing. Oh well. Not all handmade toys are

received with equal relish, I guess. I thought I would post

on it anyway because someone else's kids might get more

out of it than mine did. Besides, it gets a bit old to only

read, ".. and my child LOVED it and plays with it daily to

the point that she refuses to watch TV when invited to!"

I'm leaving the shoes lying around the house in the hope

that the girls might express interest in them later. I've

shown how it can be used to teach two skills - the blue

shoe has a knot or a bow between each pair of holes

and the pink shoe is laced the way a real shoe might be,

with a bow.

Incidentally, Emily is nowhere near being able to tie

a bow, so perhaps her pink shoe might serve

some function in the future after all!

Wallet Giveaway Email Reminder

Thank you all so much for the incredible response to the giveaway! I was all set to do a random drawing manual-style out of a hat, but it looks like I will have to use the random number generator now! I can hardly wait for Friday!

Please, please remember that I am planning to contact the winner by email, not by leaving a comment on their blog, simply because some blogs are not public-access.

So any of the following will work:

(i) type your email address within your comment. If you have already commented, please do (ii) rather than leave a second comment, to be fair to the other commenters, OK?

(ii) if you prefer that your email address not be seen by the entire online world (completely understandable), then email me directly with it, as one very smart commenter did. My email address is over at left on the sidebar. 

(iii) leave a link to your public-access blog where I can find your email address.

(iv) ensure that your blogger profile (which is where I end up if I click on your name) has your email address in it. 

(v) claim that because you are my childhood friend I already know your email address.

Thank you again, everyone!

The Amazing Neck Saver

Bear with me now - am practising my best sales pitch.........

Ahem. It is common knowledge that nothing lulls a

child to sleep like a nagging mother a moving vehicle.

And nothing makes a long road trip go more smoothly

than snoring children in back, while wild-eyed parents

sigh with relief as they switch off the 42nd round of

The Wheels On The Bus. Ah yes, sweet slumber. But

wait, when you glance in your rear-view mirror at the

sleeping beauties, does this horrific sight* meet your eyes?

Does your heart flip-flop when you imagine the

strain on your child's neck muscles with each pothole?

Despair no more, well-meaning parents!

With this amazing oversize Olivia Newton John/

John McEnroe headband Neck Saver

your child can savor sweet dreams and still keep

her/his head safely on her/his shoulders!

Why pay exorbitant store prices for something that

looks like an oversize Olivia Newton John/John McEnroe

headband you could make it at home, when you can -

er.. make it at home?! Customize it to fit your oddly-

shaped car seat and own bizarre color preferences!

Ready to try it?

The finished dimensions of mine: 45" x 4" but it's best

to measure around the head-rest portion of your car seat

and give about 8" extra for overlap (i.e. 4" on each end).

I used terry cloth for both sides, four pieces of 1" velcro

about 3.5" long and two layers of batting along

the entire length of the strip.

Step 1

Cut two strips of terry cloth 46" x 5" each.

Cut two strips of batting to the same dimensions or a little bigger.

Step 2

Arrange the layers as follows:

• 2 layers of batting (one layer of my superthin batting was not sufficiently puffy)
  
• 2 layers of terry cloth (if using fabric that has right/wrong sides, place the right sides facing each other and wrong sides facing out) on top of the batting.
  

Step 3

With 1/2" seam allowance, sew all around the perimeter of the strip, leaving a section of about 8" along one of the straight edges unsewn. You don't have to curve the ends like I did but this way I didn't have to fiddle with corners.

Step 4

Turn right side out through the unsewn opening.

Step 5

Top stitch all around the perimeter, including the opening.

Step 6

Sew velcro strips about an inch apart as shown in the picture. Remember to sew them on opposite sides of the strip, as well as on opposite ends! Also I found it more effective to attach one pair of velcro strips horizontally and the other vertically - it just allowed for better adjustment and more secure fastening when in use.

Step 7

Wait impatiently for next road trip to try out.

Notes and disclaimers:

1. I've used this on our road trips and found that it works for different kinds of car seats that have head-rest thingies on the side that create the hollow pocket for the child's head to nestle behind the neck saver thingy. I would strongly not recommend using this if it means strapping your child's head flat against a backrest that has no walls.
   
2. If you are concerned about suffocation, try a mesh fabric but don't bother with stretchy fabrics because they don't support a lolling head well.
   
3. Ultimately, use at your own risk - ikatbag or its author will not be held liable for injuries due to poor sewing skills or incorrect use on child. That said, I found that this strip is narrow enough to support Emily's forehead but not gag her. Whenever we use it, we also ensure her nose and mouth are unobstructed and reposition it as needed during the journey.
   
4. Oh, and of course you need an adult other than the driver to administer Neck Saving and closely and regularly monitor its effectiveness throughout - the driver should never get out of the driver's seat when the vehicle is moving, or stare in the rear-view mirror every 2 seconds. Obviously.
   

*Re-enactment. No necks were harmed
in the making of this advert.

A Bucketful of Wallets, A Little Orla and a Giveaway!

One of the wonderful things about being a mom of small

kids is the richness of ideas that come from just hanging

out with them. Kids, especially enthusiastic and idealistic

little ones, have the best suggestions, mainly because

they don't know what impossible is. I have so enjoyed

making stuff for kids! But my wallet died on me a

fortnight ago and I thought it was time to make

something for me. True, it was in response to a

wardrobe emergency, but I started having fun making

my new wallet, so I made a few more because - and I

know it's a bad habit - mass-producing is oddly satisfying.

Way before I had kids, I made-and-sold a bunch of stuff

during the summer holidays between years at college. It

was hard work but some of the most fun - and so I had

some old patterns and -gasp!- my archaic catalog

for reference.

Back then, though, velcro wallets were in, particularly

for my young market, but imagine me in church ripping

open a velcro wallet now at offering time! Not cool.

So enter snaps and zippers

and magnetic fasteners

- much better.

But back to my wallet. In spite of making wallets for

all my friends - girls and guys - back then, I strangely

felt drawn to the store-bought black nylon ones myself.

Looking back, almost all my wallets were black and

each time one died on me, I berated myself for not

having the foresight to have bought several identical

ones as backups. We each have our own wallet stories,

so I know some of you are nodding right now and I don't

need to go on. Suffice it to say that this time around I

decided to break away from noir and take some risks

with color. But maybe I could still keep the

identical-to-recently-deceased-wallet idea?

No old pattern in the old velcro archives, so this

was from scratch, with dead GAP wallet as guide. I must

say I was pleased with how it turned out, even if the

outside zipper compartment just about did me in,

just as it did the now-dead wallet. Very fiddly.

Here's the inside. The blue section is hinged at the

base - the other side is a vinyl window for photos, not

that I update mine regularly - I still have pictures of my

now-four-year-old daughter at 11 months, and

no pictures of the other two kids.

I am happy that I get to keep all the compartments and

pockets and hiding-places the same so I needn't figure out

reallocating stuff from the old wallet. Yes, it is sad

when a person becomes this lazy.

But you're wondering about Orla - this fabric was

from Target - the new hip place for fabric shopping,

provided you are into repurposing table linen. My wallet

was from a single placement but I liked her napkins, too,

so I cut those up for another wallet

(the open one in the picture below)

and two others.

In a long ago post, I flippantly referred to something

called 600 denier nylon. This is what I use for my wallets.

It makes them rigid - I don't use interfacing at all - and

you don't need lining unless you want some extra color.

Also you can toss the wallets in the washing machine if

you want to and they won't come out crinkly (not that I

plan to do anything but spot-clean this lovely Orla fabric

on my new wallet, though). Still, this he-man toss-and-

wear thing seemed important to the guys I sewed

billfolds for in the past, although by the time some of

them felt ready to wash their very concave wallets,

well....umm... let's just say why even bother?

Anyway, this is 600 denier polyester/

nylon-backed packcloth:

I bought it by the tens of yards back in Singapore

when I trawled the warehouse districts on foot (and

bus) bulk shopping for bag-making supplies. Couldn't

you just see people's faces when I got on the bus carrying

this bazooka thing on my shoulder? It was a huge roll then,

replenished several times, but this is all that is left.

Fortunately I found at least one other place here in the

US selling something similar so I know

where to go when I run out.

All the edges are bound with an extra thick grosgrain

trim but I don't know where to buy that here yet

when my supply runs out.

So ready for the giveaway?

Unbelievably, this is ikatbag's 100th post so I am

giving away one of these long card wallets! They are

7.5" long and 3.5" wide when closed. There are

six credit-card sized pockets, one long zipper compartment

for coins, and four long pockets for bills, receipts

and other stuff. Leave a comment and your email

address on this post by Friday May 8 bedtime

(that's how clocks work in our house, sorry), just to say

hello. Better still (but not necessary) tell me your ideas

for what you'd like to see on ikatbag in the next 100

posts, or what you think you might like to buy (even if

I haven't made it yet!) if I ever got round to setting up

shop. International readers are welcome, too, as long

as your mailing address can be written in the English

alphabet. I always appreciate a link on your own blog

if you have one, but don't feel obliged to. And if there

are more than 50 comments, I'll pick two winners

and give these both away!

Finally, here's something else - I enjoyed making

these wallets so much that I thought I'd do 2 other things:

One, I'm offering this fourth wallet for sale, if anyone

wants it. It is 5" x 4" when closed and has loads of

compartments. In addition to the visible pockets in

this picture, it also has two sections for bills (or one

for bills and the other for receipts)

and a hidden outside pocket that's useful for an

entry key-card or bus pass - that's the vertical

black line three flower columns from the left

- can you see it?

Two, and this was the way my wallet orders went

back then, I can customize a wallet for you with

your own fabric. So you pick a wallet style you like,

and send me your fabric in the post, and I will

sew it for you. If you have special requests for

variations, we could work those in, too, My brother

always had interesting things he wanted his wallets

to have - a special hidden-velcro pocket for his guitar

picks, some curved edges here, some special shade of

denim there, for instance. So email me if you are 

interested and we can talk about details like 

cost and designs. Don't forget to comment for a 

chance to win the long wallet(s) - I'll do a random 

drawing on Saturday May 9th. Good luck!

* edited to add the last bit about the random drawing - duh. 

Sorry about that. Can you tell I haven't done enough giveaways?