Teachers of Good Things Fabric Pumpkins

So clearly I'm making up for lost time with the posting tonight, but it's about to get CA-RAZY up in here, so I'm doing it while I can. I mentioned a couple posts ago that we did another Walridge Baptist Church Teachers of Good Things Quarterly Craft Meeting. You know, the WBCToGTQCM for short. This month was so fun! We made fabric pumpkins, and they turned out SO CUTE!

We took our inspiration and general game plan from this post at Coastal Farmhouse, and if I can ever get my hands on some of that gorgeous snowy vintage chenille I'm going to make some just like hers!

Rachael and I hit Joann's for supplies and went a little nuts (within the budget of course). I'm so pleased with the fabrics we ended up with! Rachael graciously took on the task of cutting all the circles out because, hello, have you met my scissor skills? She cut 2 sizes, 18 inches and 9 inches, which made roughly 12 and 6 inch pumpkins. The tutorial linked very helpfully gives you measurements for a lot more sizes. We also cut freehand leaves out of all the fabric.

This is more of a list tutorial than a photo tutorial, because I was so busy making pumpkins that I mostly got photos of finished items. But here are the basics:

Supplies:
Fabric circles in various sizes
Polyfil
Needles and thread
Deer corn
Stems/short sticks
Various embellishments like buttons and twine
Hot glue guns

Start by threading your needle, tying a large knot in the end, and sewing a loose running stitch all the away around your circle, about a half inch from the edge. Loosely gather the circle into a pouch, right side out.

Add between 1/2-1 cup of deer corn in the pouch, then fill the rest with Polyfil. Carefully pull the thread tight to close the circle at the top. Tie the thread off, then choose a stem.

Squirt a good glob of hot glue down into the top of the pumpkin, then push the stem in all the way to the bottom and twist. Hold it there for a second to let the glue set.

Add embellishments of your choice like fabric leaves, buttons, and twine.

About our supplies:

The deer corn came in a 40 pound bag from Walmart for something like $6. We had plenty left of course, but we also play cornhole at church camp every year, and the bags have to be repaired about once a year, so any excess will be used for that. Funny detail - the first bag we bought was actually half deer kibble, which we didn't realize until we opened it up right before the event. Fortunately Walmart is about 5 minutes from the church. :)

You will need lots of Polyfil for this project. If you're doing this for a group, you will probably need more than a 3lb bag.

While we did have a few real pumpkin stems, most of our stems were just short sticks Rachael gathered from around her home, and I liked them even better than the real stems. Before using, you will want to bake any natural items like this in your oven for a couple of hours at 175 degrees or so, checking every 15 minutes to make sure they don't catch fire. This will kill any little creepy crawlies that may be hiding in the bark. Another awesome (but more expensive) option is to use a small bundle of cinnamon sticks as a stem.

The twine was just basic $1.97 a spool stuff from Walmart. We bought a 1/2 inch wooden dowel at Hobby Lobby, and I wrapped it tightly with the twine, then coated it with fabric stiffener and let it dry for 24 hours. The dowel was 36" long, and we cut it in small sections when it was dry, but we still ran out, so I would recommend making more than you think you'll need.

We got our buttons in big bags at Hobby Lobby for $5.99 minus the coupon savings, and I couldn't get enough of them! (Not an affiliate link)

This craft was a huge hit, and most ladies made more than one. My mom and my sister-in-law Leah, who is the pastor's wife, were on vacation with my dad and my brother and nephew, so I made some for them too.

These were my Mom's.

And these were Leah's. When she got back from vacation, she made a couple as a thank you gift for the neighbor who got their mail while they were gone.

I made these for the sweet lady who did the cooking for the event and for a dear church sister who unfortunately lost her husband the morning of the event and of course was not able to attend.

I also made some for Lily's teachers at school for Teacher Appreciation Week, and when I went for a parent teacher meeting this week with her main teacher she had them proudly displayed on her desk and told me how much she loved them!

This was a craft that was doable for everyone, and even Lily made a couple.

We all had a great time, and they were all so different, yet all so adorable! I just couldn't quit with them. I think I made 15 in all. The five at the top were the ones I took home, and they make me smile every time I see them. 

A few tips:

More corn means a heavier pumpkin that is going to stay put, but if your fabric is light and thin (like the muslin one above), it may show through if you add too much. Also, if your pumpkin is heavy, you will need to leave it sitting on the table while you're pulling the thread closed at the top so you don't break the thread. If you are making your pumpkin from burlap, it helps to tie the end of the thread to the burlap before running your stitch so that it doesn't just pull through. Also, burlap will tend to poke out around the stem if you stitch too close to the edge, so it's best to make your stitching line about an inch from the edge and tuck the raw edges into the top of the pumpkin before inserting your stem.

This was such a great craft, easy and inexpensive, especially if you are doing it for a group. Of course if you are just making a few for yourself and don't want to buy a 40 pound bag of corn, you can weight them with rice, dried beans, dried pasta, or poly pellets. Or you can leave them unweighted and just stuff them with Polyfil or scrap fabric. Rachael made a few from old sweaters as a test run that were unweighted and they turned out amazing!

Hopefully we will be in a new house next Thanksgiving, and I just want to make these and put them everywhere! And I love that they can be made to match or complement any color scheme. Make up a few for your holiday decor or to take as a thank you gift for your host on Thanksgiving - there's still plenty of time!

Vintage Tart Tin Pincushions

Guys, we're getting ready to put our house on the market. This little home has been oh so good to us, but we're bursting at the seams, so we're working on saying goodbye. We've (well mostly I've, since Nick's been working) been packing up a good 45ish% of our stuff, and we've been stacking it all up in the garage in anticipation of renting a storage unit here in a few weeks. People, we've got boxes for days. And the number of boxes that are labeled Craft Room (faith, guys, it's called faith) is kind of embarrassing, in no small part because I've kept back the stuff I feel like I can't live without for potentially the next few months, and there's still enough stuff out there to build a pretty respectable igloo. You know, assuming igloos were made of boxes of fabric and happiness.

Once all this stuff is safely in storage, the carpet people are going to come and lay new carpet and we will be putting new flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms and basically making it seem like 13 years of kids and mechanic's boots never happened. And after the floors and the painting and the cleaning and the threatening the kids with doom if they spill anything, we plan on listing this bad boy and continuing to pray that God will send just the right family (come quickly, Lord).

In the meantime, my crafting is going to have to be, of necessity, a bit more streamlined. So while I still have my sewing machine and enough fabric to take care of any Etsy orders I may get, all my friends and family are forbidden to have any babies until I'm reunited with my box(es) of minky and flannel. And it may be a bit before I get to show you some of the cool crafting tools I got for Christmas.

But if (when please, Lord) I get my craft room, I'm going to not only have access to all my stuff, but I've got all kinds of decorating plans to share! For right now though, I wanted to show you the darling little pincushions I made for Christmas.

Any time I come across little vintage tin/aluminum tart/cupcake tins I snatch them right up. I've got several different styles collected, but these just begged me to turn them into pincushions.

This is another not-really-a-tutorial tutorials for you. It's really so simple that anyone at all can make them, but here are the steps.

• Gather your glue gun (high temp is better, but be safe), tin, scrap of fabric, bit of Polyfil or other stuffing material, scissors, needle, thread, and something to trace a circle with. I used a salad plate that was about 7 1/4 inches in diameter. I would keep the circle between say 6.5 to 8 inches across.
• Trace a circle right onto your fabric with ball point pen. It doesn't have to be flawless, but recognizably round is preferable.
• Cut out the circle. It doesn't even matter if the pen marks show, because the edges of the circle will be hidden when the pincushion is done.
• Thread your needle and run a loose basting stitch around the circle by hand.
• Pull the ends of the thread to gather your circle into a pouch-like shape, with the wrong side of the fabric on the inside. 
• Stuff your pouch with Polyfil/other filling material.
• Pull the threads tight to close off the stuffed circle into a ball shape. It needs to be stuffed firmly, but not so full that you break your thread trying to close it up. I didn't do that or anything. Ahem.
• Carefully squirt hot glue onto the underside of your ball (where the gather is) and quickly press it into your tart tin. Keep in mind that you're pressing hot glue onto a metal object that you're holding, so you may want to hold the tin with a towel/hot pad to keep from getting burned.
• Now fill your new pincushion with pretty pins and admire! 

Aren't they lovely? I just love the pairing of the fresh new fabric with the worn patina of the metal! And aren't those gold pins fun? These were so quick and easy, and the ladies who got them all loved them!

Leather Cord Keepers

I love giving handmade gifts. And I've got oh, 47,000 ideas pinned and planned for gifts for the moms, daughters, sisters, and girlfriends in my life. But it's become pretty dang hard to come up with handmade gifts for the guys in my life. That's why I was so excited to come up with the idea for these handsome and useful cord keepers!

Nick listens to audio books all the time, and he spends all day with a set of headphones in his ears. But when he does take them off, they tend to get tangled up or caught on one thing or another, so this was the perfect gift for him. I also wanted something to round out the gift we sent my brother-in-law Scott, who does a lot of traveling, and I though these would work well for corralling various phone and Ipad chargers. These are the ones I sent him.

These are crazy simple to make, and you just need a scrap of leather, a ball hitch fastener (or a snap), and a 1/8 and 1/4 hole punch (or a snap setter).

I've had this gorgeous, worn leather for ages, and I loved it, but it was too small for most projects. So I was thrilled to be able to turn it into something both lovely and functional.

First cut your leather to 1 by 4 inches. You can round your corners if you like. Then add your fastener. If you use a ball hitch fastener, you can find instructions on my Embossed Leather Cuff tutorial here. If you use a snap, follow the instructions on your snap package.

And you're done! Easiest tutorial ever! I love them, and I hope the guys loved them too. I have a shameful assortment of leather remnants, and I can't wait to make up some more. I think I will be adding a few to my shop as soon as I have the chance.

I-Spy Bags

Some of the simple gifts I made this year were I-Spy Bags for some of the littles in my family and church. A few years ago I made some of these for Lily and her cousins Mason and Max, and they were a huge hit among the recipients.

A few weeks ago I happened across one at the thrift store made of fleece. Rather badly made, actually. The window was reeeeeaaaallly crooked, and the seams were super wonky. Not judging - my first sewing efforts weren't any better, and it was functional at least. Functional, but not very pretty. But it was only a dollar, and I knew I could use the filling, so I snatched it up. The last ones I made were from corduroy, and I finished off all the seams and made them look really nice. But I really liked the idea of using a non-fraying fabric to make these a quick project, and I knew that they would look great in felt too.

I chose patterns that were a bit I-Spyish themselves, which stretches the entertainment value of these.

Since I did these as gifts rather than as an actual blog project, I didn't take step by step photos. So this isn't really a tutorial per se, but it's a very simple project. Here are the basic steps:

• Cut two pieces of felt to the same dimensions. I just cut mine into squares the size of the width of the piece of felt, but you can really do any shape/size you want. 
• Fold one piece in half and cut out the inside of the shape, leaving at least an inch border all around. This is your front piece.

• Cut a piece of clear vinyl the same shape as your opening, but about an inch bigger on all sides. I got my vinyl at Walmart, but you can also reuse a piece from the sorts of bags that sheet sets come in. The thicker the vinyl the better, but really any thickness is fine just so long as it's actually vinyl/plastic and not say, a Ziploc bag. 

• Sew the vinyl over the opening of the front piece with the vinyl against the wrong side of the felt. It's okay to pin the vinyl to the felt to keep it in place, but ONLY if you keep your pins at the edge of the vinyl. If you put pin holes in your window, you will be able to see them, and it could eventually cause a tear in the window. Plus if you're anything like me, it will bug you forever and you'll never be quite happy with the finished project. Ahem. 

• If you don't want to risk getting the pin holes too close, you can hold the felt and vinyl together with wonder clips while you sew them. I actually just bought these (not an affiliate link) with an Amazon gift card I got for Christmas, and I love them! Way cheaper than Clover Wonder Clips, and they worked awesome holding slippery chiffon in place on some curtains I recently hemmed for a lady at church. 

•  Also, vinyl tends to stick to your presser foot, so you can either switch to a Teflon foot or walking foot for this step, or you can stick a piece of scotch tape to the bottom of your presser foot to help it slide.

• Clip the edges of your vinyl 1/4 inch from your seam.

• Place your front and back pieces wrong sides together and sew with a 1/4 inch seam all the way around, leaving 2-3 inches open for filling.

• Fill your bag about 2/3 full with the filling of your choice. I always use poly pellets just because they won't mold or decay if they happen to get wet. When I gave Max his, he was Sawyer's age, and he promptly chucked it into the lobster tank at Red Lobster. We pulled it out and rinsed it out very well, then laid it out to dry and it was good as new by the next day. But if you don't want to use poly pellets, you can use rice, beans, lentils, corn, or even pony beads. 

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• Add your treasures. These can be anything tiny like buttons, Barbie shoes, dollhouse miniatures, coins, mini seashells, toy soldiers, etc. I made one for Lily, and hers included mostly girly/princessy stuff, like Barbie high heels, tiny dishes, mini baby blocks, etc. I made one each for Sawyer, my nephews Lawrence and Levi, and my friend Melissa's little boy Jackson. Theirs had things like buttons, miniature animals, a tiny pirate sword, small wood cuts shaped like mustaches and cameras, toy coins, and skull beads to name a few. If you're making several, you might want to hit up the baby shower section at Dollar Tree or Hobby Lobby for cupcake toppers like mini teddy bears, baby figurines, and pacifiers. Or you can find an assortment of trinkets on Etsy. 

• Sew your opening shut. Either go slowly to make sure your filling is not getting under your needle or move it all to the opposite side of the bag from the opening and pin the bag shut to keep it out of the way. All done!

Jackson was a fan of his. :)

These are a super quick sew, and they're great for keeping little ones quiet in church. 

Pinwheel Punch Board

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A couple months ago I heard that We R Memory Keepers was coming out with a new punch board: The Pinwheel Punch Board! I was so excited that I immediately emailed them to ask if they might be willing to send me one to review here on the blog. The very sweet lady who responded to me told me that they didn't currently have a budget for reviews on that product, but she would be happy to send me one to try anyway! I was so excited!

I got busy playing with it right away, but I wanted to wait until I could get a hold of a set of the pinwheel attachments before I told you all about it here. Unfortunately, once the punch boards hit the craft stores, the attachment sets were sold out everywhere I went. I finally found some in stock last time I went to Hobby Lobby, so I'm ready to show you how it works!

First of all, you can make pinwheels in many different sizes, using paper from 3 to 12 inches square. Today I'm going to show you one using 6x6 paper, which makes a pinwheel the same size you would normally find at the store. Of course you might ask, why not just go get one at the store for $1? Well, because those shiny numbers at the store can't complete with the gorgeous papers combinations you can come up with on your own! I chose these two sheets in fun fall colors. Here they are front and back.

First of all, raise the arm on the punch board.

Now slide the corner of your paper under the red button, square it up and punch.

Now punch the other four corners. Repeat for the other paper. The side of the papers that is facing up when you punch it will be the side that shows in the center of your pinwheel.

Back side of bird paper.

Now line your first paper up with the corresponding mark on the left side of the punch board.

Bring the arm down so that it pokes a hole through the center of your paper and anchors it in place.

Insert the included blade tool in the track, with the blade to the left of the track like so.

Slide it down the track, cutting the paper until the track ends.

Without lifting the arm, turn the paper 90 degrees and repeat. On half of the turns the corner will not line up exactly with the measurement mark - that's okay. Just make sure that the notch in the paper sits over the blade track. Repeat on the other two corners.

Back view so you can see the cuts better.

Now raise the arm and remove your first piece of paper. Repeat with the other paper, but this time you will be working on the right side of the punch board.

Now, lay your papers face down, one on top of the other at a 90° angle, like this. The paper you slit using the right side of the punch board (here the floral/purple sheet) will go on the bottom.

Make sure the holes in the centers line up.

Now, take one of the skinny sections of the bottom sheet and weave it up through the slit in the top paper just above it. Continue the maneuver, working clockwise, all the way around the pinwheel.

Now you want to add the whole thing to your attachment assembly. The attachments come with enough sets to make 10 pinwheels. At $4.99 a pack (Hobby Lobby), that puts your pinwheels at 49¢ each, if you have your paper on hand. That's already cheaper than the store, but if you use a lovely 40% off coupon like I did, then you get 10 pinwheels for $2.99, an even better deal! It's hard to beat a 29¢ toy!

The attachments have three parts, and they assemble like this:

Once you have the head seated on the straw and the spindle attached to that, slide your papers onto the spindle, still face down.

Now, take one of your hole-punched sections from the top sheet (here the yellow paper), pull it forward, and thread it onto the spindle.

Now take the skinny section from the bottom paper directly to the right of the section you just pulled forward and do the same thing. Repeat all the way around, moving clockwise and alternating between the front paper and the back.

Once all the hole punched sections are threaded onto the spindle, press on the end cap.

You're all done!

Look at it spin!

Here's what it looks like on the back. If you'd like your pattern to show on the blades instead of the center, just make sure the pattern is face down when you punch your paper.

Of course you can also just do this with one paper, which will make a 4 blade pinwheel, also adorable. If you do so, you need to work on the left side of the punch board when using the blade.

This punch board has been so much fun! Best of all, the attachments are reusable, so if say, your two year old crumples up beyond repair the pinwheel you made him, you can pull the assembly apart and make a new one! You can also use just about any paper straw out there, which really opens up your color/design options - although those 15 inch gray and white striped ones in the kit are super awesome!

Of course you can certainly make pinwheels without the attachments - they just won't spin. But they do make gorgeous decorations! You can anchor the center with a fun decorative brad. I can see some little stationary ones attached to paper flags to make up an awesome baby shower banner, and what fun props they would make for a photo shoot! Or you could even attach them right to a memo board with a colorful push pin! Oh, and what about gift toppers? And cards? The possibilities are endless!

We R Memory Keepers provided me with a Pinwheel Punch Board to try, but they did not compensate me for my review (or even ask for it), and all opinions are my own.