Pencil Cases

Another gift I made during Christmas this year was pencil cases for eight of our nieces and nephews.

The nieces got fabric that was brown with blue polka dots but I only took pictures of the nephew's star fabric.

I followed this simple tutorial but made mine a little bigger.

I took a piece of my fabric and measured 10" by 12".

And folded it in half.

I cut squares at the bottom on both ends 1.25" by 1.25".

I marked 1" in at the top on both sides and diagonally cut from that point to the bottom.

It looked like this when opened up.

Then I started adding the zipper.

I folded down about a quarter of an inch of fabric along the top and ironed it so it wouldn't move while I was sewing.

Then I pinned the zipper to one side and sewed.

And pinned the other side and sewed.

Next I added my own little piece of flare, the first initial of the niece or nephew.

I pinned that on the front in the middle and sewed it on.

After sewing the letter on I finished with the zipper by sewing up the ends.

Next I flipped the bag inside out and sewed straight down the side.

And pinched the bottom to sew it together.

I flipped it right side out and I was done!

I repeated this same process with all the rest of the cases.

It was a super easy gift and all the nieces and nephews loved them!

Baby Blanket

This year for Christmas I made my older sister a blanket out of all her kids' baby clothes.

She asked me to help her make it months ago and I stopped being lazy just in time for Christmas.

She helped me cut out all the different pieces.

We had three different sizes so we could be sure to fit all the cutesy designs on the clothes.

Then we laid everything out exactly how she liked it.

I took all those pieces home and spent the next couple days sewing everything together.

And then sewing more of them together when my sister told me she found more outfits she wanted to include in it.

After getting the clothes all sewn my sister and I went to Joann to pick out the fabric she wanted on the back but after picking it out and getting home I decided the fabric we chose would distract too much from all the cute baby clothes and that just can't happen!

I decided it would be better to go with a solid color so I picked navy blue, one of my sister's favorite colors.

It looked much better with the baby clothes!

I cut four squares of the navy blue fabric and sewed them together to give them the quilted look like the front and then laid that fabric, the padding and the baby clothes on top of each other so I could start tying the blanket together.

This was definitely the worst/hardest/most painful part.

I doubled up on the padding to make it extra comfy but that also made it extra hard to tie.

I threaded a needle with some navy blue yarn and then pushed that needle down through the top and back up through the bottom to meet up together and be tied.

It sounds so simple but when the blanket is so thick and the needle is killing your fingers and you have to do that 25 times it really becomes a pain in the butt!

I did finish that part though and the last thing I had to do was pin up the sides and sew them together.

And it was done!

It turned out better than I expected and my sister absolutely loved it!

She told me she has snuggled with it and it's super warm and comfy!

Before I made this I had no idea I had the ability to make a whole blanket and have it actually come out looking nice!

I mean, I made a blanket for my hubsy our first Christmas together but I made a thousand mistakes on that blanket that I didn't make on this one.

I'm very proud of myself!

And now my hubsy wants me to make him a blanket out of all his high school t-shirts he can't bear to throw away.

I have a feeling I'll be making lots of blankets for people from now on.