Day 21 - Felt Piggy Banks

Okay so I may have missed a few days here, busy week! But I'm just gonna carry on regardless (and lets all pretend this never happened!). And so I give you - felt piggy banks!!

 I got the idea from While Wearing Heels (which I found on a felt food roundup @ One Creative Mommy - so many great ideas!!) and for once this was a project that really was as quick and easy to make as it looked.

First, find a cute piggy template in Google images. 

Then fold a piece of felt in half and pin your template in place.

You should have two identical little piggies now. Cut a slit in one of them. Make sure it's big enough to fit your biggest coins through.  

Sew around your coin slit to reinforce it. Then pin the two piggies together.

Sew all the way around the outside and you're done! :) Now go make your little piggy a friend. 

Things I've learnt:
- Apparently how to be a bad blogger and not update my blog for a few days. Sorry!
- These little piggies can be used as piggy banks that have to be cut open when they're full or you can push the coins back out through the slot.

Linked up to The Creative Itch, It's a Blog Party, Mad in Crafts, Someday Crafts, Michelle's Tasty Creations, The Craft Blog Stalker

Day 15 - Hedgehog Pin Cushion

What's the deal with hedgehogs anyway? Why can't they just share? :) 

That might possibly be my favourite joke ever. My new little pal thinks it's pretty funny too. He deserves a bit  of laughter though, poor little guy gets stabbed with pins all day.

With all my new found creativity I've been doing a good bit of sewing and using a scrap of felt as my pin cushion. So I figured a good project would be a cute little pin cushion. How hard could that be, right?

Turns out pretty hard. :( But only because my sewing machine appears to still hate me. But after a bit of oil and TLC we starting getting along a bit better.

So I found a cute tutorial over at Maker Land, printed out the pattern and cut out my pieces of fabric and felt. Then I felt pretty sorry for myself that I didn't have any furry material to make one half as cute as the one at Maker Land. :( 

Sew the two little ears, turn them the right way out, pinch a pleat and secure it with a few stitches. Then sew the face onto both bodies, making sure to secure the ears in place as you do.

Then you'll have two little bodies that are mirrors of each other like this! Press the seams.

Pin them right faces together and sew all the way around the outside. Pin the bottom piece on and sew it leaving a gap at the back.

Fill your little hedgehog with stuffing. Use some embroidery thread to give him eyes and a nose.

Use a ladder stitch to close up the gap at the back. And give him his spikes! :)

Things I've learnt:
- Sewing machines need to be oiled...
- How to use the ladder stitch to neatly close up gaps after stuffing.
- Tiny little projects take a lot longer than you expect!

Linked up to these parties:
Whipper Berry, It's a HodgePodge Life, Thirty Handmade Days, The Creative Itch, Funky Polkadot Giraffe, 504 Main, One Creative Mommy

Day 8 - Princess Finger Puppets

I decided I should be nice and make something for my two little cousins. The younger one is obsessed with all things princess so when I came across these cute princess finger puppets  I knew I had to make them for her! And then I saw the castle bag (which I love even more than the puppets!) and decided her sister needed some too because I'd never find an equally cute present for her! 

Pinterest led me to Made it on Monday where I found not only great ideas and pictures but patterns too! Then a bit more searching led me to A "Little" Journey and The Ulep Family and I had all the inspiration I needed! :)

I love love love these little bags. I was going to put a drawbridge type door on them to make then even more castle like but I think the letters look cuter. Super easy to make - two pieces of pink felt, cut out castle shape, sew together, turn the right way around and add a ribbon handle! 

I've only made Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Aurora, Snow White and two princes so far but seeing as I've got an odd number I'll definitely have to make at least one more! I'm torn between Jasmine and Rapunzel. Realistically I'll probably make both so I'd better just find a third! 

Pretty happy with them. Although Ariel does look like an egg... and their eyes and mouth make them all look a little sad... and I really need to re-sew on the R... but... well I like them anyway! Oh and best part for me (apart from making the awesome bags, have I told you I like the bags??) was using fusible webbing to save on all the sewing! I just sewed the main finger part and used webbing for the rest. I'm not 100% convinced it'll hold up but its so much easier and quicker than sewing and feels more professional than glue! 

Things I've learnt:

- Its amazing how ingrained Disney is in our minds, just a change of dress colour and there's no doubt which princess it is. Scary really. Who says Cinderella didn't like pink? 

- Little armless finger puppet dolls are kinda creepy, cute as they are...

- Fusible webbing is amazing!! I wanna go make loads more felt projects now just to use it!

Oh and I have a super cute idea for how to post the girls their gifts, watch this space... :)

Linked up to these blog party - Creative Itch, Today's Creative, Threading My Way

*Update* Finally got around to making Rapunzel and sending the puppets to their new home - have a look here and see how I did it!

Day 3 - Barnyard Animal Hand Puppets

Day Three -

Barnyard Animal Hand Puppets!

Well it's a good thing I have this little blog, otherwise I would have quit and gone to bed hours ago! But I've finally finished battling with the sewing machine and am proud to present my barnyard animal hand puppets!! They took way longer than I'd expected and there were a few touch and go moments where I feared I'd sewn the pigs ears on backwards and forgot to add the spots to the puppy's back but we got there in the end. :)

So first step was to cut out all the pieces I needed:

                        

Next I sewed the pieces to the front and back of each puppet. Which took f-o-r-e-v-e-r!! Those little paws? Ugh!!

Then I pinned the front and back together and sewed them up!

                                  

Moment of truth - turn them the right way out and hope those ears are on right!!

 Here's the whole crew from the front and back:

They're from a set of Old MacDonald puppets that I found patterns and a tutorial for here but I haven't made them all. Maybe I'll add to my collection another day!

Love these two the most!!

Things I have learnt:

- Sewing machines are the devil!
- Bad sewing can be fixed by trimming off all the excess felt from where your straight line has gone diagonal!
- Sewing takes forever!! Maybe doing one project a day was a bit ambitious!
- I kinda love puppets!
- Oh and some stuff about adjusting tension, replacing sewing machine needles, how to sew a bit more neatly and I made a pretty delicious strawberry, raspberry and blueberry smoothie today. mmmm... :)

Small project tomorrow I think!

Linked up to Threading My Way