I found a pattern online to make baby booties. This is the first one I made using blue felt and buttonhole stitch to join the pieces.
Soon I had to enlarge the original pattern as baby’s feet have grown! I also found it was just quicker to glue the two pieces instead of stitching. I added some elastic to keep them from falling off.
I came up with these in literally ten minutes to match the headband I had made earlier. Baby is all ready for a birthday party!
I just finished this sensory book for my 3-month old daughter. Instead of putting random shapes and textures I included symbols for family, nature, travel, sport, music, food and fashion. The pages are of felt with cardboard inside and I’ve used thread embroidery, ribbon embroidery, spangles, foam, beads, pom poms and more to make the pictures. The porthole (symbol for travel) is soft and squishy (I used hair gel) and the African drum (symbol for music) makes a sound when tapped (I hollowed out the cardboard under it).
We recently celebrated Nadir’s 5th birthday which was dragon themed on his request. I really enjoyed putting his party together. Here are the results…
The party sign
The goodie bags
The goodie bags up close
The dragon cake
The decorations
The table
The dragon display
Nadir monkeying around while we set up the party
The little birthday dragon is all set up now
Feed the hungry dragon game
Help the dragon find his wing game
Cutting the cake
I had so much fun doing this that it got me thinking about why I only get to do this once a year? Why can’t I do customized birthday parties for other children and make a bit of money as well. Yes, I’m thinking of starting a business, wouldn’t it be great to do something that makes you happy, be your own boss and earn something while you’re at it? Everyone who has kids want to celebrate their birthdays and sometimes kids request something that just isn’t available in the market. That’s where I would come in with my customized banners, decorations, displays etc. I even have a friend who does the cakes (she did a wonderful job with the dragon cake).
So what do you think of my business idea? I would love to hear from you!
So it’s that time again when it’s the end of the academic year and there’s going to be an end of year party. The children can come in their party clothes or as their favorite character.
“So Nadir what do you want to be on your party?”
“A dragon! A big flying dragon! Breathing fire!”
Hmm. OK. Maybe I should not have asked that question. Well anyway it’s too late now. A dragon it will be.
I rushed to the store to pick up some materials and I got to work. By night the basic costume was ready to be tried on.
The next morning while Nadir was at school I made the adjustments and the final touches. And when he got back he could try it on and be a DRAGON. (I couldn’t get him to fly though).
Here’s the result:
The costume is made of felt and he’s wearing recycled 3D glasses.
This is something I enjoy doing in the house. Felt is a wonderful material and you can make lovely things out of it very easily. Here is one of them…
Hair clips decorated with felt flowers
Draw a circle on a piece of felt using a CD
Draw a spiral inside the circle.
Cut out the circle and then cut along the spiral leaving the end open.
Shape the petals by cutting in a V shape at intervals all along one of the edges.
Start rolling the piece from the tail end
Secure the end at the back of the flower using a glue gun. The finished flower will look like this.
Glue the flower to hair clips or head bands for fabulous homemade accessories!
Daily Prompt: Teach Your (Bloggers) Well
In my spare time I teach (for free) a group of ladies and young girls how to make handicrafts. This morning I taught a bunch of young girls aged 7 to 15 how to do embroidery.
Now this is not as easy as it seems, firstly because of the big age difference between youngest and oldest and secondly because it was rather a large group of girls. The younger girls did not even know how to thread a needle and so I had to start with the basics with them. The older girls did very well and managed to learn how to do the satin stitch and the stem stitch in half an hour’s time.
So the girls have been instructed to practice these two basic stitches at home and those who perfect them should learn one more stitch by watching tutorials on the internet. This will get them interested in learning more and more (hopefully). After they have learnt the basic embroidery stitches I will give them some projects to do. Dividing them into 3 groups according to age, I will give each group a project appropriate for their level. They will have till the end of the year to complete their projects.
I previously taught this same group how to make roses out of felt and I was amazed at how well they learnt it. They had been told to use the flowers to make different things which would be sold for charity. They came up with wonderful innovative ideas like making pictures, bags and hair accessories. Most of the things they made were sold as well.
When I was their age I learnt how to do embroidery in school. We had a separate subject in which we were taught handicrafts. This of course was in addition to our main subjects of Science, Maths, History and Geography. If nothing else I think learning sewing
Daily Prompt: The Luckiest People
Ever had cartons left over that you didn’t know what to do with? Here is a great idea and lots of fun for your little ones. Just turn it into a prop based on your child’s favorite character. Great for birthday parties! My son loves fairy tales so I made a “Jack and the Beanstalk” and a “Red Riding Hood” for him.
What you will need:
1 big carton
Oil pastels
Box cutter
Hot glue gun
Scissors
Some felt and accessories like buttons, ribbon
Cut along the edge of the carton so you can open it out. Lay it out flat. Now one side will be used to make the main drawing and the rest for the stand. Cut the one piece for the main drawing leaving the piece for the stand in tact. The main piece should be the height of your child. Make sure the cardboard is thick enough for the piece to remain upright.
Measure the size of your child’s face and draw the face towards the top of the cardboard. You don’t have to draw in the features as this piece will be cut away. Using a box cutter cut carefully the face you drew and then check that your child can fit his/her face easily.
Face cut away from main drawing
Draw the rest of the character and the scene.
Color in the drawing. Oil pastels work well on cardboard. Make sure you cover the entire cardboard. Use felt and other accessories like buttons and ribbon to add some details. Make the hair of the character using felt. It looks great. It should come over the piece you cut on the hair line to look natural.
Now for the stand. First reinforce the piece of cardboard you have colored by gluing with the hot glue gun some pieces of cardboard on any bends. This will keep it straight. Next check the height of your child and estimate at what height you will glue the cardboard to the stand.
Take the piece shown in white in the first drawing and fold the bottom flaps inward (like the carton was originally) gluing together the bottom flaps. Now glue the colored cardboard piece to the stand at the correct height. You can add extra pieces of cardboard at the back to reinforce.
Let the fun begin!
My son’s favorite character these days is the Big Bad Wolf. So for Dress up Day in school I decided to make him a wolf costume. His costumes are always homemade. It’s fun and inexpensive.
I looked this up on the internet and found some designs using felt and a hoodie. Since it’s still not cold enough for a hoodie I decided to improvise and used the same pattern on an old hat I had. Much more comfortable in this weather! I embroidered his shirt to read “LITTLE WOLF”.
Do have a look at the tail and the claws! (also made of felt)
I think he can just see under the Wolf’s nose!
And here he is just being a Big Bad Wolf!
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Being a full time mom of an energetic 3 yr old who is currently on his summer holidays, I am usually keeping him entertained and busy. But to keep the balance I need to make something with my own hands (other than Lego!). Here is what I recently completed:
It’s the 99 attributes of Allah hand embroidered in Arabic on a felt collage. Each piece of the collage is a 2.5 cm square. It took me a month to make and was difficult to do because each piece was so small and also because I don’t speak Arabic and had to rely on the translation to understand what I was doing. In the end it was really worth it. My favorite is Al-Rahman, The Gracious, One Who shows mercy gratuitously and extensively to all creation without regard to effort or work.
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