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Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Fabric Tangrams

Fabric Tangram House - Free Template




















I know I promised this post on making fabric tangrams on Saturday but I ran into a little problem! I had it all set to go and was just uploading the photos when Blogger informed me that I'd run out of photo space!!! It seems that my plan of lazily uploading giant pictures without re-sizing them had finally caught up on me. Newbie bloggers take note - re-size!!

But after a bit of searching I've discovered a few work arounds. Firstly I connected my blog email address to the blog and set it as a contributor which means if I log in through it I can still upload photos. Basically that email address has its own photo storage allowance. But it's a bit of a pain so the other thing I discovered is that as long as you keep your pictures smaller than 1026 pixels you can upload to your hearts content. So for now I'm okay again! And I suppose I'll start re-sizing some old pictures and replacing them and stop uploading giant pictures! Well after today. :)

Fabric Tangrams

Now back to the task at hand. On Friday I gave you my Friday Freebie - a tangram booklet and template. I'm a huge fan of tangrams but I started thinking how I could make them even more fun. The answer - make them out of fabric instead of card! :) I originally saw this pin of a "tangram-esque fabric puzzle" on pinterest from Beauty All Around. It's amazing, she made 42 little coloured fabric squares! There's no way I'd have the patience for that but I figured I could give a normal 7 piece tangram set a go.



Click here to download the templates I used. I made mine yellow on one side and red on the other but you could do them all  in different colours or just use one. I cut out the bigger template and traced around each piece twice, once on red fabric and once on yellow. I used the smaller template to cut out the wadding to stuff them.

Then pin the pieces right sides together and sew around the sides. Make sure to leave a gap so you can turn and stuff them. The trickiest part for me was sewing the corners on the triangular ones. 


Then turn the pieces the right way out and stuff them with your little pieces of wadding. Use a ladder stitch to neatly sew up the gaps and then you're all done!

                    Fabric Tangram House                      Fabric Tangram Cat
                           Fabric Tangram Swan


Then have some fun and see what pictures you can make! There's loads of ideas for puzzles on the internet but start with trying to recreate the square. :)

And of course do download my little booklet. It has 12 shadow puzzles in it with the solutions at the end. And it's free! I made a little bag to keep the pieces in and the booklet fits in perfectly too if you print multiple pages on one piece of paper.

I found this cute book that would go well with the tangrams too. It's kinda a take on the three little pigs with some tangram puzzles thrown in. :)

                                                                 

Things I've learnt:
- This really should be a thing I have not learnt, I still left too tiny a gap and had zero fun turning and stuffing some of my tangrams. Will I ever learn?
- But I did learn lots about re-sizing pictures and avoiding paying Google any money. ha ha Love you really Google.
- And I learnt that fabric tangrams are so much more fun to play with than card ones. I made these as a gift but might have to keep them and make another set!

19 comments:

  1. Very neat! Thanks for sharing :) Have a great week.

    Blessings,
    Stephanie

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks for linking up at my Pin Me Linky Party. I hope you come visit & link again. The party starts tomorrow at 8am CST.

      Diana

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  3. Oh my goodness!!!!! What a FUN idea!! Gosh I would play around with that forever!

    Thanks so much for sharing this at The DIY Dreamer... From Dream To Reality!!

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  4. Newest follower from the link up,would love for you to come by and follow back?
    Erica
    www.ericastartwalking.com

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  5. Cool idea. Stopping by from Mom's Library Hop. Your newest follower.
    www.theempoweredmomma.com

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  6. nice idea and a great use for scraps. Just started to follow you and would love for you to follow back.

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  7. Amazing and so fun work Karen! Thanks so much for sharing!
    Have a beautiful day!
    Hugs from Portugal,

    Ana Love Craft
    www.lovecraft2012.blogspot.com

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  8. So cute! I love tangrams when I was a kid but I haven't introduced them to my kids yet. Thanks for sharing.

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  9. Those tangrams are so cute! I stopped by to thank you for becoming my 102nd follower. Even though I had already made it to 100, I appreciate the thought! I just brought you to 80 followers.

    Lori
    The Reinspired Teacher

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  10. So love these Tanagrams.
    I just nominated you for a Liebster Award. Come see what it is all about at Making The Basics Fun Angie K

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  11. Very creative - as are all of your other ideas on your blog! I just nominated your blog for the Liebster Award! Hop over to my blog to check out the post.
    http://middleschoolmattersblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/thankful-for-liebtser-award-and-friday.html#.ULjS4oNqSuI

    Stephanie @ Middle School Matters Blog

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  12. What a great idea (and another use for all my fabric scraps!). And thanks for the info about the photo sizes--I had no idea.

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  13. I am so thankful to have found your blog via Hippo Hooray's blog! I am your newest follower :)

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  14. Such a fun idea and totally new to me. Thanks for sharing on BeColorful.
    p

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  15. Great adaptation of such a common thing. Thanks for sharing!

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  16. Hi,
    loved this so much I featured it on this week's Mom's Library! Hop over and grab a 'I was featured on Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk" button!
    Also, we are having a great Christmas Give-Away to raise awareness for the Ornaments 4 Orphans organization!
    Can't wait to see what you have to link up this week!

    Julie @ Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk
    http://heymommychocolatemilk.blogspot.com/2012/12/moms-library-8-for-me-and-give-away.html

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  17. Love the Tangram booklet. Thanks for sharing!

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  18. Finally got a chance to use the booklet (printed it ages ago) with my kids as we studied China. Mentioned it on my blog and linked back to you. Thanks!

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Thanks for all your lovely comments! They make my day. :)

Feel free to email me at blog.beinginspired@gmail.com either!