Tooth Fairy Pillow Tutorial

Posted in Uncategorized by sewontheedge

It seems like it has been forever since I have posted on here, with summer in full swing we have been busy outside. I posted about a month ago about how my son was on the verge of losing his first tooth, so I made him this Tooth Fairy Pillow. I am happy to report that the Tooth Fairy did come to our house on May 30th and he now has another loose tooth and is excited because he can’t wait to see how much money the Tooth Fairy brings. I think he might be a little disappointed when he does not get as much for his second tooth as his first, the Tooth Fairy would go broke giving him the first tooth premium.

Before he lost his tooth I was looking for ideas for a tooth fairy pillow on Pinterest I ran across a pillow with a picture of the teeth where you could write the date down. I thought genius! I am one of those moms that has kids with half finished baby books, I need all the help I can get in keeping track of their milestones. So here is my take on that idea.

Supplies

Steam-A-Seam
Computer Printer Fabric
2 Coordinating Fabric, Fat Quarters or 1/4 yards each
Initial – I used Ariel Black 400 Pt for this pillow
Teeth Pattern- teeth
Poly Filling
Scrap fabric for initial
Sewing Machine
Iron
Fabric Marker/Pen for later to write dates down

Step 1:

Print off your Teeth pattern on your computer printer fabric and then print your Initial on regular paper

Step 2:

Cut your fabric

2 – 7″ x 9″ of your main fabric for body of pillow – I used Riley Blake Chevron in Orange

2 – 6.5″ x 7.5″ of your coordinating fabric for pocket – I used Riley Blake Chevron in Navy

1 – 3″ x 14″ of your coordinating fabric for strap

Step 3:

Applique letter to front main fabric.

Trace letter on Steam-A-Seam with permanent marker. Remember that you will have to do a reverse image to make sure your letter is not backwards when you go to applique.

Remove one side of the paper and apply it to the wrong side of the fabric you are using for your initial. Then press the Steam-A-Seam down. Then cut out the letter.

Step 4:

Find the middle of one of your main body. I just folded the fabric in half and then half again and finger pressed.

After you find the middle arrange your initial in the center, remember until you press the letter with the iron you can move it. After you are happy with the placement press the letter down.

Step: 5

Off the the sewing machine. Pick the stitch that you would like to applique your letter down with I used a satin stitch, but you could use a zig-zag or strait stitch. Stitch around the letter.

Step 6:

Cut teeth fabric 3/4 inch away from the picture on each side. Then take off backing paper. Press edges under 1/2 inch on all sides.

Step 7:

Pin teeth to the right side of the pocket fabric 1 1/2 inches from the top. Stitch around the edge of teeth fabric.

Step 8:

Take both pocket pieces and put them wrong sides together. Stitch around 3 sides with 3/8 seam allowance leaving bottom open. Trim corners off and turn right side out and press.

Top Stitch 1/2 inch down from top.

Step 9

Fold up bottom 1/2 ” of pocket fabric. Using back of main fabric pin the pocket on. Sew sides and bottom to attach pocket.

Step 10:

Using the piece you cut for the strap. Fold it in half length wise, right sides together.Press together then sew a 3/8″ seam down the length.

Then turn the fabric right side out. Using a fabric turner makes this job easy if you have one.

Press fabric. You can press the fabric two ways here you can press along the seam or you can put the seam in the middle and press the strap down. Then top stitch down each side.

Step 11:

With your back main fabric pin the strap down so that if you put your strap seam in the middle it will be facing the back of pillow. I used my pocket as my guide for attaching my straps, as you can see in the picture above.

Step 12:

With right sides together pin both main fabrics together. Sew around the pillow leaving a 3 inch opening at the bottom. Then trim your corners.

Step 13:

Turn your pillow right side out and press.

Step 14:

Stuff your pillow and hand stitch the opening close.

Step 15:

Your finished, so sit back and admire your work. Then watch the little ones excitement when you give them their new Tooth Fairy Pillow.

–Mandy

21May2014

It’s Finally Warm Here In Ohio!!

Posted in Garden by sewontheedge

Well, I had all intentions of posting a tutorial on my tooth fairy pillow from earlier this month. However, life gets busy and I have not been able to even think about sitting down at my sewing machine. With the turning of the month to May, it is finally getting warm here and after the winter we had, we want to be outside as much as possible. I might not have gotten much done at the sewing machine, but my garden is almost planted. I need to take pictures of it throughout the growing season and blog about it to keep myself in check. I sometimes wonder if I am the only one who has great intentions with my garden. In June it is great not a weed in it. July arrives and it becomes busy with work and fairs and the garden gets a little less attention and little more weedy. Then comes August, where I become a gardener of weeds. I am talking my weeds are out of control.. you can’t tell what is a plant and what is a weed. So I might just blog about my journey to a weed free garden this year. Wish me luck. Oh and then there is the intention to can or freeze all my harvest. Let’s not even talk about that:)

This month we also signed our two boys up for T-ball for the first time. I have to say it is one of the funniest things to watch. I love that they get to play on the same team this year.

Little Slugger

Batter Up

Hopefully, I will get that post on the tooth fairy pillow done in the next week.

Have a great Memorial Day, remember those who served and those who are currently serving

-Mandy

4May2014

Preparing for the Tooth Fairy

Posted in Fabric, Uncategorized by sewontheedge

My oldest just turned 6 last month and he is so excited because he finally has a loose tooth. I think that he thought he was never going to lose one, most of his friends have lost teeth and I think he was feeling left out.

I have to be real honest I am glad that it has taken this long, because think the whole process of loosing teeth is gross. I am not looking forward to that dangling dead tooth, they seem to want to wiggle every chance they get. Yuck!

So off to Pinterest I went looking for ideas for a Tooth Fairy Pillow. I loved the idea of taking the picture of all the teeth they will lose and putting it on the pillow, so you can write the date next to the tooth. I am hoping this is a fail proof method for me to keep track of when the boys lose their teeth. Because well…lets just say their baby books are not really up-to-date. I mean if you count shoving the doctors report of their height and weight at their yearly check -up updating their baby book, then I am rocking it!

So here is what I came up with, the back pocket has the picture of the teeth with lines for writing the dates down. I used Riley Blake Chevron fabric in navy and orange. And I love how it turned out.

I will post a tutorial on this tooth fairy pillow later on in the week with instructions on how to print the teeth on fabric!

– Mandy

12Apr2014

It’s Birthday Party Time At Our House

Posted in Uncategorized by sewontheedge

The past two weeks have been filled with Birthdays, both of my boys had birthdays at the end of March and we had their birthday party last weekend. I am one of those crazy people that have kids with birthdays back to back. Our first son was born on March 31st and our second son was born on March 30th. This does make remembering their birthdays very easy. The boys had their first friends party at a local bounce house place. With the winter we have had, they need to let off some energy and this is the perfect place. Plus, it means that I don’t have to clean my house for guest..bonus for mom!

Of course with birthday parties comes cakes. I do feel bad that they will always have to share a party, so I try to make that up by letting them each have their own cakes. This year the oldest wants a Minion cake and the youngest wants a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cake. I can remember my mom making our cakes and thinking how cool it was that she could create unique cakes year after year. So I have tried to keep up that tradition, I am just thankful that I have Pinterest for my inspiration/guidelines, mom usually just had to wing it.

The boys both had funfetti pancakes for breakfast

Fun Fetti Pancakes for Birthday breakfast

Funfetti Pancakes for the 4 year old Birthday breakfast

Fun Fetti pancakes for his 6th Birthday.

Funfetti pancakes for the 6th year old Birthday.

Boys and their cakes.

It was a great two weeks. I can’t believe that my babies are now 6 and 4. Time has flown.

-Mandy

28Mar2014

Less Mess & Waste – How To Make Quick Un-Paper Towels

Posted in Tutorials, Uncategorized by sewontheedge

There are projects all over Pintrest on how to make cute reusable paper towels with flannel and terry cloth. Which I think are really cute, but they just take to much time to make in my opinion, from sewing them together to putting on snaps or velcro . I don’t want to waste a lot of time on something that is going to be stained the first time I use it, or maybe your kids don’t spill stuff like mine do? Grape juice anyone. So here is a quick tutorial on how to make un-paper towels with birdseye cotton using both a regular sewing machine and a serger. We have been using these towels for about a year now and we love them. The best thing is that they are white so you can bleach them when they get to gross looking.

Materials Needed:

-Birdseye Cotton – can be found at Joann’s or online with cloth diaper supplies

-Scissors/Rotary Cutter

-Sewing Machine/Serger

– Fray Check

Step 1: Wash your fabric. Birdseye will shrink so it is important to pre-wash and dry your fabric before you start. For 6 towels you need to plan on 1 1/4 yards of fabric if you are serging and 1 1/3 yards if you are using a regular sewing machine.

Step 2: Cut your fabric, you can use whatever measurements you want, but for these I used a 12″x 18″ for serging if I was hemming them I would cut it 14″x18″ . If you are using a serger you can skip down to Step 5.

Step 3: If you are using a sewing machine you will want to fold and press your edges down 1/2 inch and then turn them over another 1/2 inch and press to make sure the raw edges are folded under. Pin if you need.

Step 4: Sew around the edges. Don’t forget to back stitch at the beginning and end. I used a 3/8 seam.

Step 5: If you are serging, you can cut curves on the corners to make it easier to serge. Lock your stitch in place. I like to use fray check at this point to lock my stitches.

Step 6: You are finished. Now take them into your kitchen and start using them.

I know some people keep water proof bags in their kitchens to throw their dirty towels in, my laundry room is right off my kitchen so they just get thrown into what ever load of laundry I am currently doing.

-Mandy

14Mar2014

Ripping Seams & Sipping Wine

Posted in Sewing With Friends, Uncategorized by sewontheedge

What do you get when you add wine to a sewing club? Lots of seam ripping and some unlady like words.

This past weekend some friends meet for what we like to call our Sew Winey Club, basically a couple hours away from the kids and husbands. You never know what is going to happen during the project, things get cut wrong, sewed wrong, and the seam ripper seems like it never gets a rest. But we always have fun and laugh a lot at all our mistakes.

This months project was Easter Baskets using my tutorial from my past blog post.

Check out how they turned out!

Finished Easter Baskets for our kids

Here’s to happy sewing and seam ripping.

-Mandy

9Mar2014

Hippity Hop Easter’s On It’s Way – Fabric Easter Basket Tutorial

Posted in Tutorials by sewontheedge

We have our fingers crossed winter is on its way out and spring is on its way. The kids have been asking me to get out our Easter decorations, so today seemed like a good day to do it and it just happened to be snowing again. We were thinking if we decorated for spring, it has to come soon! The boys needed new Easter baskets and I wanted them big enough that the Easter Bunny could leave lots of books and puzzles along with a little bit of candy. I thought I would share with you a tutorial on how to make these simple baskets

Supplies you will need for 1 basket

2 coordinating pieces of fabric 1/2 yard each or 3 fat quarters

1/2 yard stiff interfacing- I used Pellon 71 F

Coordinating thread

Scissors/Rotary Cutter

Marking Pen/Ruler

Iron

Use a 3/8th Seam

Step 1: Cut your Fabric and Interfacing

Cut each of your fabrics 17 x 20 inches

Cut your interfacing 17 x 19 inches and 1.5 x 16 inches

Cut the fabric that you want as your handle 4 x 16 inches

Step 2: Fold your outside fabric in half and pin the sides, then sew using a 3/8 inch seam.

Step 3: At the bottom take your corner and flatten out so it looks like above photo and then measure down 3.5 inches. Use your marking pen to draw a line across the bottom and pin. Repeat on the other side.

Step 4: Sew on the line that you made. Repeat on the other side.

Step 5: Cut both corners off about a 1/2 inch from the stitch you just created. Now you can turn it right side out it should resemble a box.

Step 6: Iron your interfacing to your lining piece of fabric leaving 1/2 inch from each of the tops. After you have the interfacing applied repeat Steps 2-5 for the lining.

Step 7: Take your handle piece and fold it in have with right sides together. Then apply your piece of interfacing to one side.

Step 8: Turn your handle.

Step 9: Top stitch your handle down both sides.

Step 10. Pin your handle to your basket. I pinned it on both the end seams, but you could also pin it from side to side.

Step 11: With right sides together pin around the top. Make sure that you mark 3 or 4 inches where you will not sew, so you can turn your basket right side out.

Step 12. Sew around the top. Remember to leave 3 to 4 inches open.

Step 13: Turn your basket right side out. Pin your opening closed. I usually iron the top to make the next step easier. You are almost done!

Step 14: Top stitch around your basket, making sure that you are closing the opening.

Step 15: The final step I do is take a iron and iron my corners to make them crisp.

Enjoy your basket! I am thinking of all the ways I could use this basket around the house, maybe put two small handles on each side. It would be great for holding all my kids toys.

-Mandy

10Feb2014

Power Rangers Hoodie Towel Tutorial

Posted in Tutorials by sewontheedge

What kid does not love to get out of the bath and get wrapped up in a hoodie towel. The problem is that at our house all the hoodie towels are made for toddlers. My boys are not ready to give them up, nothing is better than after drying off, pretending that they are their favorite action hero. Below is a tutorial on how to make a hoodie towel that will fit those big kids too. My boys are obsessed with Power Rangers right now so when I asked what kind of towel they would like of course it was the red Power Ranger.

Here’s what you will need to start

– 1 Bath towel

– 1 Hand towel

– Steam a Seam

– 9″x9″ White fabric

– 9″x9″ Black fabric

-White, Black and thread to match towel

-Sewing Machine, Scissors, pins

– One of the Power Ranger Emblems – I have a link to the Blue, Green, Red, Pink and Yellow Ranger Emblems ( Not perfect, I can sew not draw..)Power ranger emblem

Step 1: Trace your pattern twice on Steam A Seam

Step 2: Iron the Steam A Seam on the wrong side of both the white and black fabric

Step 3: Cut out the white and black fabric. I cut the black fabric about 1/8 to 1/4 inch smaller than the white. Usually I just eye it.

Step 4: Peel off Steam A Seam from the black fabric and align it on top of the white.

Step 1

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5 : Take your hand towel and on either of the long sides fold down 3 or 4 inches. I used 3 inches for this hoodie towel. Pin across.

Step 6: Stitch across what you just pinned.

Step 7: Take Power Ranger emblem and peal off the back paper of the white fabric. Center the emblem on the hand towel and once you have it where you want it iron it down. Once you iron it it is permanent.

Step 8: Set your machine on zig – zag or satin stitch which ever is your preference. I used a zig-zag stitch on this towel. Change your thread to white and stitch around the white, then stitch around the black with black thread.

Step 5

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

Step 9: With right sides together sew the back of the towel to make your hood. Make sure you change your thread color to match your towel again. I forgot to change my threads but I am going to say I did that on purpose to show you where to sew. That’s my story.

Step 10: Grab your large bath towel and find the middle on one of the long sides. I also like to make sure that I have the side with the tag folded in . On the long side where you found the middle you are going to line your hoods middle up, with right sides together. Pin down and you can either straight stitch or zig-zag. Also I sew to the left of the bulky towel edge, just makes it easier on you and your machine. I used zig-zag to give it a little more strength because I knew the wear and tear my boys will be putting them through.

Step 11: Grab your kids and throw them in the tub so they can use their new towel.

Step 9

Step 10

Step 10

Happy Kid

What evil can happen in your house with a Power Ranger

5Jan2014

Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014

Posted in Uncategorized by sewontheedge

Where did the year go, 2013 was a year of taking a leap of faith and starting my Sew On The Edge Etsy Store http://www.etsy.com/shop/SewOnTheEdge. I wanted to start slow and build my business with the hopes of in the future opening a brick and mortar store in Troy, OH where I could offer quaility modern fabrics and classes from the beginning to advanced sewer. So I am so looking forward to what 2014 will bring to my small business.
With all the hustle and bustle of the Holidays I have not been able to post in a while, I have been busy getting in a new shipment of fabric from Westminster Fabrics. Check out these gorgeous fabrics that are now in my shop. Oh the things that you could make with these.

French Wall Paper in Mustard, Corriander Seagreen, Corriander Pine and Gothic Rose in Burgandy from the Belle Collection by Amy Butler

Dahlia in Coral from the Bungalow Collection by Joel Dewberry

Twilight and Twill Bouquet from the Dowry Collection from Anna Marie Horner

Dovex from Lottie Da Collection by Heather Bailey and the Bird of Paradise in aqua from the Little Azalea collection by Dena Fishbein.

Hope your New Year is a good one. We are currently being hit with a winter storm right now that is expected to drop around 12 inches of snow and reach temperatures below -20 with the wind chill. Sounds like a good time to sew to me.

28Nov2013

First Boxes Of Fabric Have Arrived!

Posted in Uncategorized by sewontheedge

This past week my first two boxes of fabric arrived. It was like Christmas at my house opening the boxes and looking at the gorgeous fabric inside. The first box to arrive was from Birch Fabrics which sells the softest organic cotton and knit fabrics. I could not wait to try a yard or two. The second box was from Moda and it was so colorful, made me think of spring on a day that it was less than 30 degrees outside.

I have been busy taking pictures and posting the fabric on my new Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/SewOnTheEdge. My third box of fabric is due to arrive on December 2nd and it is full of the new Belle line from Amy Butler and fabric from Anna Marie Horner’s Dowry line. This fabrics would be great for making Christmas gifts.

Box of chevron and poppie sun fabric from Birch.

Box of sunshine! High Street fabrics from Moda.

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