Look What I Made!

Isn't it beautiful?? It is a 4x4 doiley coaster! It is actually not tatted but crocheted! I have had the pattern sitting around for months thinking it would be hard, but it was really easy!!! I only needed two of the most basic crochet stitches to make this particular pattern. I only made one mistake, and I was able to successfully hide it! Stay tuned to see what I will be doing with it!

Christmas on $20: Stocking Stuffers

I have been busy working on creating (and purchasing a few) items for the kids for Christmas! I am having a great time creating their Christmas, and I think they are really going to like it!! Looks like we are also still on track to spend about $20 on John and Jessica for Christmas.

Recently I purchased 3 Care Bear figures for Jessica on ebay for $6.50 (which is a great deal if you haven't been watching the price of Care Bear figures on ebay)! Jessica loves taking a bag of figures with her when we go places. We already have: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sesame Street, Cars, and Thomas the Tank Engine.


I also made John a "taggie blankie" out of some scrap fabric and ribbon! Most babies seem to love playing with tags!


I think these will be perfect stocking stuffers along with some food items!

Tutorial Coming Soon!

Front view

A few weeks ago I made John an adorable "chappy hat," otherwise known as a newsboy cap, for when he went to meet the family. My siblings and cousins (on my dad's side of the family) like to wear them to go get coffee and talk the entire time in a British accent.....in case you couldn't tell, that side of the family tree grows straight up! Once I perfect the design with a second cap, I will post a tutorial. I think he is going to rock the little old man look this winter with his bald head!!! Definitely a better look for a baby boy than the ever popular preppy or skater look!

Side view

Finally!!!!

Last night I was finally able to do some sewing while Jessica played in the office without getting into too much!!! Usually I have to wait until both children are sleeping (and I don't have anything else pressing) to do the mending. BUT last night, I repaired two diaper soakers, one pair of my pants, finished a baby doll diaper, got half way finished with another car seat swaddling blanket for John,

repaired a dress for Jessica that my mother made for me when I was 4 years old

and turned a pair of worn flannel pajamas into soft short sleeved and capri pajamas!

Aren't you impressed? Now I only have 2 dresses to alter for Jessica and the carseat swaddling blanket left in my mending basket. Perhaps it is time to go find some of those other projects that have been put on hold recently... :-) It was really nice to be able to get a little sewing done while enjoying having my little girl under foot!! I am truly enjoying the 2.5 year old stage!!

What I did with the rest...

of the helicopter fabric:


Pee-Pee Tepees!!!! Yeah, I know I could just use a rag or be prepared and change the diaper super quick.... But this tutorial was super easy and I had just the right amount of fabric leftover from the Car Seat Swaddle Blanket!

Socks!

During the last week I was waiting for John to arrive, I did something I have been meaning to learn how to do: make socks! I used this free, easy crochet pattern to crochet my daughter this adorable sock!

Not bad for a first attempt!

Now I just need to find time to make its mate!! At some point in the future I would like to try my hand at knitting socks....perhaps the next time I am confined to the couch!

Susie Home Maker: Floors

"Now take your hands, the tools you work with, you'll be thrilled when you build something nice." from the 1951 movie, Here Comes the Groom

Well, I was going to do the next post in our Susie Home Maker series (inspired by my cousin Susie who is moving into her first apartment this year!!!) about bathrooms, since they can be rather challenging to decorate in an apartment. However, I realized that I had neglected a few other essentials...one of which is floors! The floors of most apartments are not that great. They typically have stains, holes and frayed edges in the carpet, chips in linoleum (or tile if you are lucky enough to have it), etc. I have no earthly idea when the floors in our apartment had last been redone but they were pretty gross!! The best thing you can do to hide these eye sores outside of being careful how you place the furniture is to use lots of rugs! You may be able to find some cute rugs for a good deal that match the other things you already have, but in the event that you don't, here are a few different ideas I have seen for making some really cute rugs!! (I have been really wanting to try some of these! I just have not had the time! Maybe when I start working on our bedroom...)

When I think about homemade rugs, one of the first types that comes to mind is a country braided rug! My parents used to have some of these in their home, and I have seen them in several relatives home. You can make them in almost any shape or size! To make them you just braid long strips of fabric (usually from a durable fabric like old jeans) and then stitch them together into the shape you want.


However, if minimal handstitching sends you into panic attacks, I have also found a pattern that has absolutely no sewing involved!!!


Along that same vein, if you are looking for something that involves fairly minimal sewing/needlework skills, you might also find these ideas pretty neat!


This is a pom-pom rug. You make lots and lots of pom-poms (very easy), and then you sew them (or potentially knot them) onto a rug canvas (or you could use some type of durable fabric like denim or burlap). I personally really like this rug because you could use yarn scraps instead of buying specific types of yarn!


This is a hook and latch rug. While it is another no-sew option, I do NOT recommend it! I have had one of these since I was in elementary school and I still have only completed a couple inches of it! It just takes a really long time to knot each little piece of yarn onto the rug canvas!


While this rug will involve a minimal amount of crocheting, it would make up much quicker than a hook and latch rug!


This rug would require a minimal amount of knitting, but once again would make up much quicker than a hook and latch rug!

Another option that would require minimal sewing would be a Recycled Shag Rug. The only sewing involved is straight stitches on a machine. The instructions recommend bunching the material; however, if you wanted to leave out that step, I think you probably could. It just might be a little less shaggy!

The other kind of homemade rug I typically think of is a woven rag rug. My grandmother has one in her house that I have always loved! If you ever managed to use one of those potholder loom kits as a child, you can probably manage this!


There are several different sets of instructions you might try depending on what sounds easiest to you: 1 and 2!

Finally, there is what we refer to as "Floor Clothes." Basically, you sew anything you want on a durable piece of fabric and place it on the floor! You could attach it to a rug canvas or use some of that carpet tape they sell at Lowe's to keep it in place better.

If you want more ideas to get you started, then you might take The Rug Tour. The great thing about making rugs is that you can 1) Make exactly what you want or 2) Use scraps of what you have so that it doesn't cost you a thing!

Susie Home Maker: Walls

"You can hang the dreams you want as pictures on the wall." from the 1951 movie, Here Comes the Groom

The next installment of our Susie Home Maker series (inspired by my cousin Susie who is moving into her first apartment this year!!!) is "Walls." I mentioned in Susie Home Maker: Windows that our apartment had cracks on the walls (not to mention a lot of other blemishes). While some places will let you paint the walls, stencil, put up a boarder, etc., not all of them will. My advice: Get something up on the walls ASAP!!! It is amazing how such a simple thing can make your apartment feel so much more like home (especially when every single wall is the same, bland, neutral color)!! Getting something up on the walls does not have to be an expensive or time-consuming venture. The only wall hangings I have purposefully gone out and bought were posters for the kids' room. All of the rest were either gifts or created relatively quickly from something I already had. Below are just a few of the different ideas I have used over the years.

1) A nice poster, that is well hung, can add a splash of color with little cost or effort! I usually laminate my posters before hanging them to keep them looking nice and protect them from being damaged.

A set of creation posters I bought for the kids' room. I added the white numbers from a package of mailbox numbers as well as the ribbon to tie it all together!

Another colorful poster I bought for the kids' room (notice there is a definite theme).

A poster my mom gave me that I have always kept by the washer and dryer. It doesn't go with a lot of the decor in the rest of the house, but I have always liked it! It was looking pretty rough from years of use until we laminated it!

A poster I made to hang in my office (when I was working with junior high students) using a FarSide comic I had saved from a tear off calendar. I actually made several, and I have to say I like how it ended up looking with large black and white comics hanging around the room! It also had some sentimental value because I worked for my dad for several years, and he always taped FarSide comics from tear off calendars to the cabinets in his lab.

2) Shelves can add both a splash of color and solve some of those space issues so prevalent in apartments!

I got these shelves from a craft store, finished them, and hung them in our living room to hold my Noah's Ark collection until they came to their final resting place in the kids' room!

This mirror with hooks and a small shelf was a wedding present, and I have to say it has been a real lifesaver! I cannot remember where I put my phone, keys, jacket, purse, etc. to save my life, but since we hung this by the door, I haven't had to make extra sets of keys!!!

3) I grew up loving to play games and work puzzles. My husband does not really like playing games (I am hoping at least one of the kids will), but he does enjoy working puzzles with me from time to time! These are two puzzles that we worked together that went particularly nice with the decor of the house. My mother had them framed as a gift. Don't they look beautiful??? Using puzzles you could have the beauty of Thomas Kincaid (or someone similar) in your home without paying an outrageous amount or ending up with a cheap looking copy!

A puzzle we did together before we got married that has always hung in our den.

A puzzle we did before Jessica was born that hangs in our dining area (with all of the other French pictures).

You can hang/frame all kinds of items that mean something to you: t-shirts, artwork, awards, clothes from childhood, pressed flowers, doilies collected from antique stores perhaps on a dark background (I hear this is an up and coming trend....not that I usually know much about such things), etc.

4) You all know that I love homemade items! However, I have had to make very few items to hang on our walls because we already had several nice pictures, posters, etc. that we really liked! Here are a few of the homemade wall items we have in our home.

A scripture my kindergarten teacher cross-stitched for me when I was a senior in high school. She also cross-stitched us another framed item when we got married.

A painting a family friend did for us when we got married. She was truly gifted and has since lost her fight with cancer.

Name plaques I made for the kids' room using some nice looking paper, the computer, and some classy looking frames from Wal-mart.

A cute name plate my sister-in-law made when Jessica was born! Isn't it adorable? (I hear she is making one for John too!)

I am also working on another framed item at the moment, using the poem "Children Learn What They Live." Some day I would like to embroider it and frame it, but I think I will have to settle for a nice computer-printed version at the moment!

4) Something I have been doing since I was in junior high is picking out souvenirs when I travel that I would keep in my home when I grew up for a long time!

I bought these prints at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower when I was in high school. My mom later framed them as a gift!

I bought this print in Gatlinburg, Tennessee on a vacation in Junior High. Once again my mom had it framed as a gift!

Prints can be relatively cheap. What makes them look like something special is how they are framed!

5) There are all sorts of other types of wall hangings such as wreaths, quilts, shadow boxes, etc. Especially if you have a large space to fill and not a lot of money, I would try to find a quilt to hang! It will also help absorb sound!

This is a wall hanging a friend's mother (who is Ukrainian) made and gave to my mother, who gave it to me when I got married. Isn't it absolutely gorgeous?

My dad once studied English with a college student from Taiwan. This is a wall hanging he gave my parents while he was living in the United States. It says something about a happy marriage. My parents gave it to me when I got married. (If I am correct, I am not only the one who remembers him the best, but I am also the only one who remembers how to use chopsticks.)

6) Once people know that you have a collection of something, you will probably get lots of gifts to add to that collection! The decor in the kids' room came from my Noah's Ark collection, which started when I was teaching the infant Noah's Ark class at church for several years in a row, and people just started giving me Noah's Ark stuff. (And yes, I learned that story very, very well. My grandparents' favorite Bible trivia question to give me is "What are the dimensions of the ark?")

Actually, they did not all come two by two, but it looks cute over their door!

Two other pictures I was given as gifts for my collection.

Another popular time to give wall hangings as gifts is when you have a baby. These are some wall hangings my sister gave us for Jessica's room, but they ended up in her bathroom because they looked perfect there! The ribbon again was a nice touch!

7) Then there is always the old standby of hanging up photos. I do love to hang photos. In our apartment we had a staircase going upstairs that was very bare and echoed. I took large photo frames and filled them with pictures to look at as you went up the stairs. It really helped make the space less bare! I have set out frames in our house, but I have not hung very many photos yet mostly because I am going through and redoing each room one by one. I typically like to hang photos in hallways, but we don't really have any hallways at this house so I will probably hang several photos in the den, once I get around to finishing that room (The bedrooms needed the most work, so we started there.)

The real trick to wall hangings is not so much what you are hanging but how you choose to hang it!

1) Build/Buy (or ask for as a gift) a nice frame. The cheap frames will make whatever you are hanging look cheap, but if you use a nice frame, it can make something cheap look really nice!

2) Use the correct hardware. First, you do not want your wall hangings falling off the wall! Second, it looks a lot less temporary when you use the correct hardware as opposed to just tacking everything to the walls! This especially applies to quilts. See this website for more information on how to hang a quilt.

3) I also try to be careful where I choose to hang different items. For example, all of the Noah's Ark stuff goes in the kids' room. All of the pictures from France go in the dining area. FarSide and airplane posters usually go in the office. Most of the photos usually go in a hallway (if we have one). Start out by figuring out what you do have and how you could use those items. Then figure out how you will fill in the gaps.

Feel free to leave any suggestions of ways you might fill wall space in a classy way without spending an arm or a leg!

Bathrooms tend to be a more difficult space to work with in apartments. Their walls are usually much taller than they are wide! We'll look at what you can do in there from a frugal and self-sufficient perspective next!

Susie Home Maker: Windows

"Now take your eyes, why they're the windows. Showing you every view in the sun. Honey, you've got a house, your own little house, and it's better than anyones. So just keep outside shined up, and the inside free from gloom..." from the 1951 movie, Here Comes the Groom

The apartment we lived in when we first got married apparently was a pretty cool place to live....in the 70's......it had a pool, raquetball court, game room, etc. By the time we moved in 30 years later, the pool had been filled in, the raquetball court turned into a wall of mail boxes, the game room turned into an office, and we later learned that the apartment complexes across the road had all kinds of illegal activities going on... On the inside, one of the worst features was the windows. Perhaps it was the cracks in the walls around the windows, or perhaps it was the metal framework of the windows. However, the apartment was in our budget, and it did have a lot of closets! I learned very quickly that window dressings can do a lot for the windows in an apartment!

A gathered valance I made to go in our kitchen when we first got married now hangs in our office!

My favorite kind of curtains are valances. They require the least amount of material and are very easy to make even if you are brand new to sewing! The other great thing about valances is that you are only limited by your imagination! I always start by deciding what fabric I am going to use because that is where the real expense can be. I don't typically walk into a JoAnn's to find the right fabric. Usually I look in my stash of fabric I have collected for free or cheap over the years and see what will match. Then I figure out how to style it so it goes in my room. However, if you do not have a fabric stash, you could very easily find a full dress at a thrift store, an old quilt, or even smaller pieces of fabric that could be sewn together or something really different like men's ties or old t-shirts! If you are able to find a full skirt at a thrift store, then you may also have the added bonus of trim already attached to the bottom of your valance! I don't usually use trim just because it can be rather pricey, but it can be fun...especially if you get it for a great price!

A gathered valance I made for the kids' room with a little extra "flounce" to it!

Once you settle on your fabric, then it is time to decide on the style for your valance. There are many different ways to make a valance: gathered, ungathered with a decorative edge, ballooned, etc. If this is your first or one of your first sewing projects, you might appreciate using a pattern, but don't buy it at full price at a JoAnn's. Wait until they are on sale for $.99! (Or Susie, in your case you could always call me or Aunt Beth). For a very basic gathered valance, you simply: 1) Cut a rectangle at least 2 times as wide as your window and a couple inches taller than you want the finished project to be. 2) Hem all four edges. 3) Bend an inch or so at the top towards the back of the fabric and make one long seam across. This makes a loop that you string through your curtain rod.

Two valance patterns I have acquired over the years. They are great when you haven't a clue what you are doing, but once you've made a few, you should be able to figure it out yourself!

The great thing about gathered valances is that while they take a little extra fabric, they also hide more of the wall, hide any imperfections in your sewing, do not require a lining, and do not require any fancy curtain rods. Those cheap metal curtain rods will do just fine! Another plus is that unlike their floor-length counterparts, valances let it lots of light and really open up a small space....a definite necessity in a small apartment!!! Also, if at some point you move, oftentimes the curtains can be used again on different sized windows....or you can even cut up the curtains to make other things because it just a long rectangle of material!

Note: Long, thick curtains can help keep your home cooler; however, in my experience, no window treatment is going to make that big of a difference in an apartment. Usually the insulation is just not that fabulous. You are better off trying to get an apartment on the middle floor!

A cute bag for blocks made out of part of a valance I made for my college dorm room!

Once you have your window measurements and a color scheme (I always go with primary colors because you never have to worry about whether or not something with match!) for your apartment, you are now ready to start hunting up fabric treasures!! Don't forget to check antique stores as well....I have found several fabric stashes for cheap at antique stores!

Potty Training on the Go Without the Puddles

Well, Jessica's heat rash has come back with a vengeance this year...even with the use of our Bumgenius cloth diapers! She has been potty trained around the house for a while now, with only the occasional accident. However, since her verbal skills are still pretty minimal (although growing daily), I have avoided letting her wear training pants when out and about. This latest round of heat rash though has convinced me otherwise, and I have come up with a brilliant solution to "Potty Training on the Go Without the Puddles!" I found a free pattern for fleece shorties that I can put over the training pants to give us a few more minutes to find a bathroom without leaving a trail behind us!


Fleece is very breathable, but it will also keep any accidents from leaking through....at least for a little while! Although the pattern was intended to be worn over a cloth diaper, I have been very pleased with using it over training pants while out and about! The large size seems to work just perfectly with the size 2T training pants! We gave this a test run last night while we were out and about for 2 hours, and she managed to hold it until we got home! Now to make some more for backups when we have accidents...

Toddler Bed

We are still waiting to hear back from the dermatologist on the results of my biopsies. While we are hoping they come back normal, we are realistically planning for the possibility of another surgery in a week or two. As I could potentially not be able to move my back for 6 weeks, we realized we needed to do some thinking on our current nap time situation! Jessica has not started climbing out of her crib, and we had planned originally to let her stay in her crib as long as she was happy there (within reason). It is the safest place for her to be given her penchant for finding danger! However, I will not be able to lift her if I have surgery, and I definitely won't be able to lift her right after John is born. Therefore, we decided to set up the toddler bed.

The pieces for Jessica's toddler quilt all laid out!

I bought a used crib mattress for $15 on Craigslist a while back to use as a trundle under the bunk bed in her room. This way she will be close to the floor on a waterproof mattress until she is ready to move up to the bottom bunk. I also bought a waterproof mattress cover on sale for $7 at Target. I had an extra sheet for the bed from our crib set up. She has some blankets but is getting big enough that she probably needs a quilt. This weekend I cut up 5" squares from fabric scraps leftover from making her dresses and pajamas. I also cut 5" squares from the burp cloths and bibs that had her name embroidered on them (I don't plan to use them with future children). This is how her Toddler Quilt will look.

A close up of the squares

I plan to use a neutral backing so that when John is ready for a toddler bed, I can take Jessica's apart and use the backing for his quilt. I plan to enlarge Jessica's quilt at that point so that she will have a twin sized quilt with one side being made of scraps from things I have made her and the other side being a more neutral print so she can reverse it as she gets older, if the patchwork seems too childish to her at the time! There are plenty of uses for a twin sized quilt: your bed at college, curling up on the couch when it is cold or you don't feel good, and of course you will always have something practical that your mother made especially for you!

The burp cloth scraps awaiting serging!

And what did I decide to do with the leftover pieces of burp cloths? I decided to trim them, serge them, and use them as newborn pre-folds to go in John's diaper covers! Very practical and frugal if I do say so myself! How is the transition to the toddler bed going? Well, we tried one day of it, and it went really well. She was quiet, napped some, played with the socks in her sock drawer, etc. However, she did not get as good of a nap as usual. She would probably adjust over time; however, I do get nervous at the prospect of loosing any part of her 3 hours nap!! Therefore, we decided to use the same approach for transitioning her to the toddler bed as we did for potty training her: a practice day here, a practice day there, with plenty of "back to business as usual" days in between! We also realized that if she is not completely transitioned by the time I have surgery or have the baby (whichever comes first) we can move her crib close to the bunk bed so that when I let her rail down, she can climb out on her own.

Dilemma solved, a cute quilt in the works, and only out about $25! And did I mention I am already putting fabric scraps in a bag for John's toddler quilt? ;-)

Applying the Science of Cloth Diapering....in a new way!

Wow! It is going to take me all week to tell you about what has been going on around our house this past week!! We've gotten a lot done; unfortunately, that didn't really include dishes, laundry, etc... Recently, a friend of mine (who lives out of town) broke her foot, and she has been having trouble getting out and about because her toes get cold and she can't risk getting her cast wet! So....this weekend I took all I had learned from the cloth diapering industry and made her some "cast covers!" From what I have been able to tell, the only things available are little sock footies (which do not insulate well from the cold) and some plastic bag looking things that can be submerged a few times before wearing out. (There was also one that looked kind of like rubber gloves, but it didn't last very long either.) The ones I made are pink (She loves pink), washable, and adorable (in my opinion)!

The footies

First up we have the double lined fleece footies! As we know from cloth diapering, fleece is warm and repels moisture to an extent!! I made two of them so they don't have to be washed every day! I just cut out four semi-circles, sewed them together, turned them inside out so the seam was on the inside with two piece on each side, and sewed a casing for the elastic. I knotted the elastic very loosely and left it hanging out so that it could be adjusted since I didn't actually have her here to try them on!

See the water pooling on the cloth after being treated with waterproof spray?

Next up we have the waterproof cover. I had wanted to use PUL fabric like is used by many of the cloth diapering companies, but you have to mail order it. Instead, I bought cotton knit fabric, shrunk it in the wash and dryer, and had my husband spray it with Silicone Water-Guard. (The can didn't say whether or not it was safe during pregnancy.) He did on application on each side, hung it up to dry outside for the afternoon, and it worked great!!!! I poured water on top of the fabric and watched it roll around on top of the fabric as my hand moved! The fabric did not even get damp and still felt like regular cotton knit fabric! I think the fabric can still be put in the washer and dryer, but I haven't tested it.

The waterproof cover...adorable fabric if I do say so myself.....way better than the mauve that was also available!!!

I cut out a very loose "Christmas stocking" because I wanted to make sure it fit over the entire cast. I then "sewed" it together using Sewing In a Tube. It is basically fabric glue. It works really well, survives both washing and drying, and allowed me to avoid poking tiny needle holes in the fabric! After turning it right side out, I applied the soft side of velcro, again using Sewing In a Tube. There is a detachable piece of the rough side of velcro so the closure can be adjusted to as tight as necessary. This should keep water completely away from the cast no matter what the weather! However, as a back-up we have....

The wool stocking...formerly a dance legging!

The wool stocking! As we know from the cloth diapering industry, wool is also good about repelling moisture and can be quite warm. This outer layer will serve to reinforce both of the previous two layers. For this layer, I took an old dance legging, cut off one end, and sewed it closed. It will also help to hold everything together in the event that the waterproof cover is a little loose.

Not only are the covers pink and adorable, but they are also machine washable, light weight, breathable, adjustable, and flexible (meaning you don't have to wear all three layers at once).....all things I have come to love about the cloth diapering industry! I just hope they work as well as the cloth diapers do!

Re-usable Giftwrap

If there is one thing I hate buying above all other things, it is gift wrap! Invariably I don't have the right kind of wrapping supplies for the particular gift I am giving. I also see no point in spending money on something that will get ripped open a couple hours later and then thrown away. I have seen many different solutions to this: decorated butcher paper, Sunday comics, pre-wrapped boxes that are used year after year, cloth draw-string sacks, and something called a furoshiki (It is a piece of cloth used in Japan to wrap gifts in a variety of ways for different sized packages). However, this Eco Christmas Gift Wrap caught my eye, so I decided to make my own version!

Isn't it cute?? I made one for myself and one for a friend as a Christmas gift. This print is a Christmas/winter print; however, I bought some Christmas fabric 60% off that could easily be used year-round (It is a blue, red, green, and white stripe). I made a few changes to the original design. First, of all my bow snaps on and off, which should be great for travel and storage! Second, instead of using batting and a liner fabric, I just used pieces of quilted material! Third, I sewed the velcro on before putting it together so my seams would not show through the "wrapping paper" and so I could get the velcro as close to the edges as possible.

Before I tell you exactly what I did, I would like to add a couple suggestions in case you have a problem with "peekers" at your house! One person suggested doing a quick little whip stitch at the top of the velcro closure. Since each person's hand-stitch is about as unique to them as their handwriting, no one would be able to peek!! However, if you don't want to whip stitch them all closed, then you might consider usinga zipper instead of velcro and make tiny stitches right under the zipper to keep it closed. A master peeker can unwrap and rewrap packages; however, getting into this gift bag should prove a real challenge if not impossible!


Now, the first thing I did was cut out 2 pieces of pretty fabric. I chose to make mine 10"x10" so that it would easily accomodate dvds and standard sized books. Then I cut out two pieces of quilted fabric the same size. Being raised by a slightly OCD mother, I surged around every edge of every piece. (Mom always said the inside should look just as good as the outside...) Next I cut out ribbon and sewed them on the top and bottom pieces of the "wrapping paper." You don't have to do it on the bottom. I just thought it would make it look more like a paper wrapped gift.


Next I sewed a "wrapping paper" piece to a quilted piece with right sides together and did the same thing with the next two pieces. I went ahead and took the opportunity to sew the velcro into place at the top of the quilted piece on each of my two pieces. I also went ahead and sewed a snap on the top piece so I would not have any seams or threads inside my gift bag. (Another carry over from my mother teaching me how to sew...)


Then I put the two pieces together with right sides together with "wrapping paper" on "wrapping paper" and quilted fabric on quilted fabric. I also made an effort to match up the ribbons as close as possible. Next I sewed a seam all the way around, leaving an opening at the end of the quilted material.


At last it was time to turn the "pillowcase" of sorts right side out! Then I tucked the edges under at the opening and sewed a little seam to close it up. Finally, I could tuck the lining into the "gift bag."


And there you have it. An absolutely adorable re-usable gift bag that looks like a real paper wrapped present under the tree!! We will definitely be using these for years to come around our house, and I think these would also make a great gift with perhaps a little something inside them!


I am still thinking on how to do gift tags. I thought about tags that velcro on. I thought about paper tags with a hole in them that would fit on the snap for the bow. I also thought about sewing on a plastic material that you could slip a paper tag into, but I am still undecided. If you have a good idea on how to do the gift tag, let me know!