Soft Play Cube – Tutorial

I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided it was so cute I wanted to make one as well so here goes.

The starting size of your squares will determine how big the cube is I cut my squares out 6×6 inch which resulted in a large cube so would recommend \4 inches if want it smaller. You will need 6 squares of various fabrics-

I used cotton, baby cord, Sherpa fleece, polar fleece and sweatshirt fabric for mine. All soft and with a couple different textures.

First decide on your layout and any extras you wish to add on and where they may go. I added colourful ribbon and a teething ring. I chose to add the ring on 2 sides so he can be lifted away from the cube without dangling too much. You could attach with one for same effect or two either side so it sits tighter to your toy.

1. Start with your 3 middle squares (see 5 for final layout) and sew them together with 1 cm seam allowance
2. I wanted to add lace to a square so I pinned it on and joined bottom two squares
3. I then added them onto the middle square from step one. When joining be sure to have your seams open it creates better corners and less bulk
4. Sew up your ears if adding them and sandwich between the layout you’ve sewn up already and the final square which is sewn onto top.
5. Final layout. started with horse, mint and star squares, joined spotty and floral together then added to bottom of mint and finally ears with fluffy pink at very top
6. I decided to add a face to mine as it’s a bunny. I hand embroidered but you can draw on with fabric pens, iron vinyl on or maybe you’ve an embroidery machine.

7. You will slowly join all your squares up to form a cube with a lid. Do this by folding up the 3 starter squares and joining to the spotty square, then add the floral one to the mix and you form a box.

8. To complete the final square pin all the sides in place. Starting at green square you will sew down to purple but leave 1 cm. With needle down lift up machine foot and pivot. Sew to blue and repeat pivoting. Sew about an inch in and back stitch. Leaving a gap rejoin about another inch away and continue to red square.

Turn out and stuff well then close up with hand stitches.

9. When sewing your squares together be sure the rest of the cube is out of the way of the needle so you don’t sew bits together or create unnecessary bulk.

You have your own cube toy. It isn’t an easy project joining squares to be 3d but it is fun. I also make this teething toy using velour and towelling. Just click the picture for the link to the tutorial by Willow and Stitch

 

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt- story spoons and cave

I saw this idea on Pinterest but wanted to make it my own so here is my tutorial. You will need various bits of scrap felt or other non fraying fabric plus some wooden spoons. I got mine from a local pound shop.

GRASS

1. Cut long triangle pieces from green. You can use various shades if wish.
2. I cut some slightly wider and used these as my base to cover the spoon
3. Keep layering more around sides protruding slighting onto handle
4. Finish off with some longer ones in middle and cover base of grass with a piece of ribbon or fabric strip.

MUD

1. 1.Cut out 5 circles from brown approx. 6 cm across.
2. Sew a running stitch around the edge of the circle
3. Pull tight and stuff. Secure thread so doesn’t loosen
4. Flatten the ball you just made and stick all onto the spoon.

RIVER

1. Cut out wavy strips of blue felt and stick onto your spoon as a base layer
2. Cut out various bits of ribbon and stick on one end so they wave around. Seal ends with a lighter so they don’t unravel
3. Cut out some thinner felt pieces and stick on at 3 points so they are slightly raised and more wave like.

SNOW AND TREES

1. Stick blue or white ribbon at various angles onto your spoon leaving at least 6 inches. Leave to dry ensuring ends are sealed with a lighter.
2. Stick white polystyrene balls all over and leave to dry. You will need strong glue to do this.
3. For the twigs cut a rectangle out approx length of the spoon and 3 cm wide. Fold in 1 cm and fold other side in and glue down.
4. Make various colours and glue onto the spoon. Make small leaves and glue on.

CAVE

1. Cut out cardboard and 2 pieces of felt in desired cave floor shape. You will glue the cardboard onto both pieces
2. Lift up edges and glue down smoothing edges so cardboard is enclosed. Trim.
3. Cut out a bigger piece of felt that is same length as cave but wider. How wide you cut it depends on how tall you wish your cave to be, You will create folds at the back which will help shape it.
4. Put glue along back of cave floor and glue folded edge of cave down
5. Place glue up one side of the cave floor and stick down. Now do same for other side.
6. Trim the edges and round corners.

BEAR

Find a template you like either online or draw your own. You could even enlarge my picture and draw round it. Cut 2 shapes out of felt. Using blanket stitch start attaching them at the edge.

Keep going till nearly finished and stuff. This is the best time to sew any features on so can hide any stitching and knots inside, then finish sewing up. Glue on eyes, ears and a belly.

Mine is designed to fit in my cave but you can make yours bigger or smaller.

Now wave your swirly snowstorm about, prod your squelchy mud and flap your swishy grass to tell the story of when you found……

   ….. A BEAR!!!!

 

Cardboard and felt top hat – tutorial

It’s been so long since I posted!! Summer holidays hit me along with illness and my life hasn’t overly been back to normal since. I’ve mostly made bobbles, butterflies and clothes so had nothing exciting to post until today.

I had all kinds of plans to add some extra tutorials for hand sewing and crochet but those will have to wait I’m afraid however I will promise to do better so why not set me a challenge in the comment box and give me some inspiration.

You need to decide on width of the brim you want mine is about 12cm. From this you need a large circle (blue) with a hole cut out middle. The hole in middle is width of your top section and you’ll need another circle for that too (cream).

From there you work out the circumference by doing diameter of circle x pi (3.14).

In conclusion:

• 1 x 12 cm diameter circle with 6 cm diameter circle cut out middle
• 1 x 6cm diameter circle
• 1 x rectangle 19-20 cm long and 8 cm height

On the rectangle you will need to mark 1 cm from top and bottom then cut at regular intervals along. snip every other tab off to create alternate tabs on both top and bottom as shown. You will need to bend these one way initially.

Glue all sections onto black felt but fold the tabs up so they aren’t stuck down

On the rectangle you will need to over cut the felt so it can be overlapped. My circumference was around 18.6 cm so you will need that plus whatever amount you want to over lap so around 1cm then the excess felt after that. Fold that tab under and glue down. When cutting both the circles out ensure you leave around 1cm extra for gluing down.

The outer edge you can fold and glue but the inner you will need to cut at internals and stick each one down for it to stretch.

For your rectangle you will need one set of tabs to fold in and the other set to fold out. Put glue on the set that fold in and place your small circle on top making sure all tabs are pressed down

Next step is to place the tabs pointing out through the hole of large circle (blue) so the black felt is showing on top. Then glue the tabs underneath (sorry I’ve no pictures of these step). Once that is down glue all around the underneath nearly to the edge but leaving few mm gap and place on grey felt.

Once cry you cut around just inside.

I chose to decorate mine so I glued ribbon to the back of the hat and regular intervals along securing along base of tall section. I then added a small flower to fit my theme.

Here is the completed item! A funky Halloween wreath made with cheap skull and hands from eBay and felt flowers for the rest.

Free pattern round-up

I thought today I would share a round up of my free patterns I have available! Theres a few more than shown here so why not check my ravelry link out and explore

Bonnet with mitts

Road Blanket

Earrings

Water Bomb Balloon

Pink Dreamcatcher  includes a white one also

Storage bowls

Hot Water Bottle Cover

Fox Dreamcatcher

Triceratops head

UFO

Granny Square Hot Water Bottle

Theres also mug coseys, doll clothing and a baby capelet why not check them out

 

 

Water Bomb Balloons- crochet pattern

The new craze at moment seems to be these crocheted water balloons. The special baby/blanket yarn which is classes as super bulky yarn and has a soft chenille type feel to it holds water like no other yarn perfect for throwing at your victim or just splatting them around the place.

They are great to have at home in the garden, take to a pool party, take along to the beach and get someone unsuspecting with them or you could make them as a fun gift that will last! They are eco- friendly, latex free and reuseable for years and year. You can wash them in the machine when they get dirty too.

Best bit??? It’s a free pattern just check it out on Ravelry.

Check out my Facebook page for a video showing how much these hold and how fab they splat.

Alternatively you can buy them on my Etsy page

Decorative Candles

Funny story my partner bought these candles thinking they would smell nice and they smell of nothing but wax so rather than feel they’re wasted I decided to decorate them so they can be gifted instead.

I chose 3 methods but only ended up doing 2 types. Grab yourself a plain candle they can be any colour but white is best, napkins with a nice print on, dried flowers and a pen or two.

I started off with the napkin simple peel layers so you’ve only the top layer of the tissue. place it print side down. Place greaseproof paper on top and heat. This is same method you will use for the pen but you will draw your design onto the paper before placing on the candle and heating.

Youre aiming for the design to go darker, wetter. This means the wax has melted through it and you can take the paper off to reveal your design. I found the pen did work but my pen wasn’t very good and it ran.

The flowers work a little differently I did try with the greaseproof paper but it made the colour in the flower run. The best method is to heat the inside of a spoon over a candle or other method to heat it through. then place the back of the spoon over your design gently to melt the wax make it stick down and coat the flower a little. You need to heat one side because your spoon will go black and then be transferred over.

You have to be gentle you don’t pull any petals off or burn your petals. I found coloured flowers best as white ones would sink into the wax a little and the design gets lost.

Here’s the finished result:

Home Made Loo Fizzers

So I have the worse loo going 3 males using it plus its from the 70’s and we have hard water so gets limescale too which were still fighting to get rid of from last tenants 5 years ago…. yuck!!

So I had high hopes when saw these so decided to give them a go here’s what I did:

They are meant to harden overnight but I found after an hour they were solid.

I have found them underwhelming I can only think I need more bicarb although I was lead to believe it is same as baking soda. They haven’t fizzed in my loo at all and one didn’t create any sort of smell at all. I will be trying 2 next time.

There are many more combinations to try so I will report back when I’ve tried more. Let me know if you’ve tried them and what worked.

Fabric Fish – Pattern and Tutorial

So my youngest is obsessed with fish. It’s easy to say and the most common animal he will see in water which also fascinates him so I decided he needed a fish.

I took an image off google and adapted it into a pattern for sewing (original source is linked on the file) Start off by cutting 2 of every piece: fabric fish– REMEMBER to mirror them or cut on folded fabric so you have 2 opposites of each. I used cotton for most the fish and felt for piece 3 due to size.

1. Pin under the curved edge of fish head (piece 1) and pin into the main body of your fish (piece 7).
2. Top stitch fish head in place then position number 3 fin and stitch along straight edge.
3. Again remember to sew these on opposites. I’ve shown the fish pieces the same way but they don’t match due to being mirrored. Sew the rest of the pieces in pairs and turn out.
4. Using original image as a guide pin all your pieces on to one fish section as shown.
5. Place other piece 7 on top and sew round leaving a gap for turning ( I left my gap at the bottom) Turn out and stuff full. Using a ladder stitch close up your fish.
6. You’re done. You can add eyes at step 2 or leave it as it is to reduce small parts.

It’s always better to over stuff than under as it gives a better shape even when it’s flatten from being handled, sat on or thrown around. This was a simple make for my son with no small parts. He is 2 and I supervise his play however if you are giving as a gift or selling please consider looking into CE testing.

Granny Square Hot Water Bottle Cover

After the first hot water bottle cover I decided to make a traditional granny square one that seems to be all over place but I wanted to create my own easy peasy one with a nice cosy look to it .

I went with  a drawstring top to make it super user friendly, eliminates buttons and although requires joining up the squares requires no sewing so is perfect for any ability crocheters.

I used the giftees favourite colours which I think look a little Christmassy however this would look fab in any combination of colours or all one block colour.

Download now on Ravelry.

 

 

Tie Dye take 2

So after the first lot shrinking my eldest’s top we got some more and did it again. This time I got him age 12-13 top ( he wears 10-11) and prewashed it.

I also got more fabric and some wool to have a go at. I felt my folding from last lot wasn’t done great so this time instead of folding it over and over I concertina folded half of it and scrunched up the rest which is why it looks likes T-bone. The wool I curled up and put string around.

As you can see from the middle line of photos the swirl technique works really well. It’s a fool proof method with little error even when theres white bits. The baby vest I didn’t do the colours in any way I just chucked it on, the t-shirt was done like a pie chart and as can see it creates a more methodical swirl.

The scrunch method also works well these were done very much throw it on and be done so theres large white bits but I love the speckled, splashy look and if you’re not wanting a strong tie dye look this is a fab method to try.

The folding of the fabric didn’t work as well as I wanted theres large white bits when I had wanted it more like the very edge. My only tips are to ensure you really soak the fabric in dye not to point of saturation where the colour mix to a muddy mess but more than I have done. Also I think smaller fabrics work best a whole metre of fabric is hard to get consistently colour using this method. The scrunches section looks a bit like an ink blot test… what do you see?

The wool……. it isn’t as nice or vivid as the fabric. I personally don’t like the wool I got either it wasn’t a great choice but in the interest of an experiment and having fun we gave it a go I will update on my page how it dries and maybe even rewind it to see if the effect is a little nicer.

p.s happy birthday to me!