Do you want to build a snowman felt game

Had fun make this for my kids today, it was an instant hit!

I use this game to get close to the proportions. I enlarged the photo and moved it around to fit each part of Olaf on one sheet of paper.

I purchased a yard of blue felt on sale and cut it on the fold to make two.

I had some white felt left over but I estimate needing about 1/3 of a yard.

About half a sheet of brown, black, and gray

A quarter or less of orange

I stitched the sides and bottom of the "snow" to the blue to create a pocket for the storing the parts.

Next I just eyeballed cutting some drifts in the top to make it look more snow like.

I decided to attach Olaf's body parts -legs, mid sections, and head. However you could skip that step.

I used a little spray adhesive to hold him in place while I stitched close to the edge of each part. It has also him lay nice and flat.

Out of the brown cut 2 arms, 2 eyebrows, and his hair. You can either use the picture above to trace out his hair and arms or just draw your own. My  husband traced the arms and I just drew the hair and both I think look good.

Out of black cut 3 roundish buttons, 2 circles for the back of the eye, and 2 small circles or the front of the eyes

Cut 2 circles slightly smaller then the black circles for the eyes out of white

Gray for the mouth, I would recommend tracing this as it is hard to get the curves right. Also I tried adding teeth on top of the gray and felt that it looked much better to cut out the teeth rather then adding them.  

Cut your nose out of orange

Layer the black and white circles for the eyes and tack in the center

It is simple fun and durable. It also made a great party game :)

UPDATE: After a few uses the pins that I used to hold it to the wall where starting to rip the felt so I cut strips. Put button holes in both ends of the strips. Attached buttons to the big piece of felt and put the push pins through the top button holes and it is holding up much better now.

Elsa dress, glitter spray, fast pleat, and a pattern trick

So this year my girls want to be Anna and Elsa for Halloween.  My oldest saw a pattern at the store asked for it and I thought it would be easier then making it up, but I found lots of things I didn't like about it. I decided that I wasn't going to use the pattern for the Anna dress and make some changes to the Elsa dress.

So first thing I don't like about this pattern is the large difference between sizes, I normally don't use patterns for kid clothing so this might be normal...

Also a great trick for cutting out patterns is to lay the patterns on the back of a chair to keep little hands and paws away from the pattern.

On to the the dress, it was pointed out to me that Elsa's cap does NOT come around to the front. So for my observant child I  made a few changes.

So I laid out the pattern over the fabric with the straight edge parallel to the fold.

I cut a curve along the bottom to add to the flowyness of the cape.

Then because I wanted it to be fuller I did a fast pleat. I pinned down the corner far enough away to leave room for a hem. Keeping the fabric layered.

Take both layers of fabric and fold them under in approximately even sections. 

Pin down.

Keep going until you get close to the arm hole, then cut out cape.  Now cut about half way down along the fold to allow access to the zipper.

Then unfold and refold  pleats so they both face out

 and sew down to keep in place.

Add narrow hem to outside of cape and in the middle. 

Next I added some of this spray glitter to make it shimmer and shine. You want to do this outside it goes everywhere. Also it will cause fabric to stick to what ever it is on or itself.

This was how I sprayed it.

And my little helper kept the fabric from sticking to itself and helped it dry faster. 

I sprayed it at different distances, it got some splatters and clumps on it but it added to the snow covered look I was going for.

Finished flowing the pattern and ....

Front

Back

One last note I added a "snowflake" stitch to the sleeves and collar. Not sure exactly what it is called but it is the one that looks like ****It really added to the dress and my little one loves that her dress is covered in snowflakes.   

Anna Dress Tutoria

Like most parents these days my kids are sing Frozen songs all day long and I am sure they can quote the whole movie word for word, from memory.

So not surprisingly my little one want to be Anna this year Halloween.

I had some left over black fabric from the lining of a dress, maybe 1/4 yard. 

For the vest I folded one of her t-shirts in half as well as the black fabric. Then I about an inch from the bottom of the t-shirt and about 3/8" from the side. I stopped right below the arm hole.

Then I unfolded the shirt and tucked the sleeve under and cut as close to it as I could. Then I cut 3/8"from the shoulder seem and along the collar.

Then I eyeballed a square cutting down from the edge of the shoulder seem.

For the back rather then lining the middle of the shirt up with the fabric fold move it in about an inch to accommodate the zipper. 

Then sew the side and shoulder together, with right sides facing each other.

For the under shirt you will follow most of the same step as the vest the only changes being you cut 3/8"away from the seem on the sleeve and you don't need to add any length to the bottom, as a matter of fact you can cut higher up if you want to conserve fabric. For the neck you will want to use the collar on the back of the shirt as your cutting guide to give Anna's dress the high collar.

Once you have the top cut out sew the sides and shoulder together with the right sides facing each other.

To add sleeves I drew a bell curve on parchment paper, measured her wrist added a little so it could get over her hand, and measured her under arm length (armpit to wrist). Folded the paper in half so I would have a line going through the center of the bell curve.

Centered her wrist measurement on my fold her under arm distance from the bottom of the bell curve. Used my ruler to get a straight line from the bell curve to her wrist. on each side and cut out my pattern.

Trace and cut out two sleeves out of your light blue. Add a basting stitch on the bell curve portion of the sleeve so you can gather later. Fold hot dog style with right sides facing each other and sew sleeve together along arm length. Now hem the wrist. I used a fun stitch to add some charter but a  straight stitch would work as well.  Now gather top of sleeve to fit the arm hole of your undershirt put right sides together and sew.

Now it is time to add the collar.

I cut two 2 inch strip that were 9 inches long 

Folded in half  cut end at an 45 degree angle then press.

 When you open it should look like this.

refold the cut portion so the right sides are facing and sew along the angle. Turn over and press again.

Overlap folded portions in center of under shirt and attach. Photo is of finished project I didn't have a close up of the collar.

Back to the Vest I purchased some Metallic Gold Bias tape. Folded it over the neck and  shoulders. I used a leaf stitch to add to the fun and I loved how it turned out. I forgot to take a picture of this step but here is a photo from further along.

Now place vest on your kiddo and pin bias tape along the vest to create what will become the waist line.This has a lot to do with your child's size and build so it is hard to give measurements. Sew bias tape down using a leaf stitch only in the upper half of the tape.

Now place under shirt under vest and baste stitch them together. The zipper with be attached to both and hold them together but for right now I found a baste stitch to be helpful while attaching the skirt.

Layered Handkerchief Skirt Tutorial

I have made quite a few of these and every time I have I think it would be so cute to use handkerchiefs and make one for my littlest girl ..... so I finally did.

So so simple and so so cute. I had two moms ask where I got it at school today and a few other compliments about it.  The only down side, my little model didn't want her picture taken.

So I let her jump on my bed so I could snag a picture.

To start measure your little one or if you are making it as a gift you can look up and size or ask the kiddos parents, 12 months should be about 18 inches. Then find a circular item a few inches longer then the waist measurement. Now place the bowl in the center of one of  your handkerchiefs.

 

Keep in mind that from your circle to the corner of the handkerchief will be the longest part of the skirt. Check that measurement so the little one wont be tripping.  All so the bigger the circle is the more the skirt will be gathered once sewn.

Once you check your measurements you can either take a fabric marker and trace around the bowl or just use a rotary cutter, hold the bowl in place and cut.

Using the same bowl cut the circle out of your other  handkerchief. Then stack your handkerchiefs by matching up the circles and off setting the points. With this skirt I just pinned the handkerchiefs together but in the past I have used a basting stitch to hold the layers together just go with your comfort level.  

Then fold your handkerchiefs in half to make a triangle

Then put a pin in each side. I have found that leaving them sticking out makes them easier to work with later.

Fold the skirt into a triangle again so that the pins meet in the middle and pin the corners again.

For this size of skirt I found 4 pins to be enough however in the past, with larger skirts I have done 8 pins again go with your comfort level.

Set the handkerchief aside for now and beak out some elastic. I decided to use black because I had a very cute black onesie that I wanted her to wear her skirt with . Remember your waist measurement and cut your elastic one inch longer. Then fold it into a circle overlapping about 3/4 of an inch 

Now sew a zig-zag stitch over each end of the elastic to hold it down. I go over each side twice you don't have to but my little one is hard on clothing so I like to make sure it will last

Fold your elastic in half, put a pin in the corners match the pins..

pin the corners (sound familiar?)

Now go grab those handkerchiefs, we have more pin matching to do. Match the outside of the skirt to the inside of the elastic by lining up the pins

I line up the pins put a new one into the elastic and fabric and take the pin that is just in the fabric out. I leave the one in the elastic because I find it easier to see when sewing them together

All matched up

Now comes the tricky part sewing.  You have to stretch out the elastic so that the fabric and the elastic are the same length.  You will use a zig-zag stich.   This was not easy to take pictures of but I tried.

You need one hand stretching on each side of the sewing machine 

Front

Back

 Also if your machine has the option for the needle to stop in the down position it is helpful to use it, the fabric really likes to move.

See how puckered it is, you really have to stretch it.  I go around twice because well little girl is so hard on clothing and she doesn't grow very fast so she is in clothing for a LONG time.

All done

She is tooo cute!

and just in case you wanted to know what it would look like in other colors, I got bored with photo shop 

and it is cute in any color.

So i said it was simple but did I mention it is also fast???

It took me about an hour with stopping to take pictures and checking big sisters workbook. So if you can sit down and just work on it it should only take about 30 minutes or so.

I am also working on a headband from the circles you cut out so keep them handy and a handkerchief skirt for bigger kids so stay tuned :)