Super quick bunny ear hairband - tutorial

With Easter around the corner, there are a stack of bunny eared hairbands in the stores, I know.  Most of the ones I've seen though are lolly-like hues of pink and blue, and that eye-piercing shade of bright baby-chicken yellow, which are all, incidentally, the colours I like least.



For the cost of a cheap hairband, a couple of chenille sticks, along with a favourite piece of fabric from your stash, and about ten minutes, you can easily make one that co-ordinates with your little one's favourite outfit.  Even if you don't have a sewing machine, you can make these easily and quite quickly.

I've left mine plain, but you could have fun decorating with sparkly bows or (my beloved) colourful pompoms at the base of one ear, or both.  This would also be a great Easter project for older children who are learning to sew.

What you need:

Thin cardboard (piece of cereal box or similar) for making a template
A thin headband (I like one with grippers - it helps stop the ears sliding about :) )
2 chenille sticks (mine were each 30cm long).  Preferably the same colour as the hairband.
A piece of fabric 20cm x 40cm (or two pieces of co-ordinating fabric 20cm  x 20cm). I've used a plain cotton to make mine.

What you do:

Print the template below on to a sheet of paper, then glue to thin cardboard.  When dry, cut around the outline.

Fold your piece of fabric in half width-ways, right sides together, so that the folded fabric measures 20cm square.  (If you are using two co-ordinating fabrics so the front and rear of the ears are different, place them right sides together).  Press lightly if needed, to get out any creases.

Place the ear template on the folded fabric (leaving enough room to draw a second ear) and draw around it with pencil.  Draw a second ear in the same way.

Machine or hand-sew around the two long sides of each ear, leaving the bottom open for turning.

Cut around stitching. leaving about a half centimetre all around.

 
 Turn inside out, using the end of a pencil to poke out the top point.  Also run it along the long sides of each ear so that the curves are nicely shaped.  (Note:  I found that clipping the curves along the edges and into the top was unnecessary for the fabric I was using).  Lightly press the ears and set aside while you prepare the hairband.

Bend over each end of each chenille stick, just so that prickly wire isn't a problem (ends of chenille sticks can sometimes be sharp!)

Fold each chenille stick in half as pictured.

Attach the chenille sticks into the position you want the ears to sit, using the picture below as a guide (I've used a yellow chenille stick here, so it looks clearer, but will be using black chenille sticks to make my ears.)  I think this knot thing I've used is called a cow hitch.

If you're using a hairband with grippers, before pulling them too tightly, make sure they are in the right position, because they can be difficult to move.

Tape or twist the ends of the stick together.

Take your fabric ears and slide them over the sticks.

Turn in the bottom of each ear about a half centimetre or so, and run a gathering stitch by hand around the base of each ear.  Pull up the gathers and slightly so they sit around the base of the chenille stick.  Then, without breaking your thread, secure the ears to the headband by sewing through the base of each ear and around the headband, until they are firmly in place.  Repeat to secure other ear.

And they're all done!  Add a decorative bow or pompom or anything else you can think of to pretty up your new ears.

These are so quick and easy to make, they would make a great addition to a child's chocolate egg stash!  Or, make some for the whole family and take an awesome Easter family portrait.  My crew sadly won't do this for me.  Too embarassing, apparently.  If you're family is cooler than mine, and you do this - I would love to see it!

Luckily, I still have one poser.

Gingerbread houses

I remember a few years a go, I tried to put together one of those three dimensional gingerbread houses.  I didn't make the gingerbread myself, but instead bought a kit from Ikea (of all places).   I don't know why, but I stupidly picked the most hottest and clammiest day over the Christmas break to try and stick it all together.  I very quickly discovered that royal icing is rather like me in the humidity - overly temperamental and a hag to work with.  Needless to say, the two hours of effort I put into trying to recreate the magical image on the box resulted in a failure of colossal proportions, a Tupperware container full of gingerbread shards and me vowing never, ever to make another one, ever.

Fast forward five years and can you guess what I'm making?  Cameron likes to gift his classmates something every year and we were looking through my cutters and these were about as Christmas-ish as it got (besides stars, but they are ho-hum because I make them ALL the time, apparently).  So gingerbread houses were the go.  But this time, without those two extra pesky dimensions.



Anyway, check these over and spot the mistakes.  As you can see, my mad (sad) piping technique needs some work, and I'm quite sure some of Cameron's friends will be scratching their heads and thinking, what the heck are THESE supposed to be??  Cameron took great care and skill in placing on the coloured bobbles and pretty silver things, but that's where the care and skill ended, I'm afraid. 

 I think, as a cookie decorator, I make a pretty good dressmaker, or anything else for that matter. 

Child's necklace - tutorial

Do you often find you have to buy a bag of a hundred things when you really only need one or two?  I have beads, buttons and bells all over the place which have been leftover from other projects, and as I am in the midst of yet another sewing room clean-out, and I am highly averse to chucking perfectly good stuff out, all these bits were tossed in a box and thunk over.  Hmmmm, what to do?

While I was still scratching my head about this box of stuff, I was one day browsing about in a local gift shop and saw some very average looking, imported character pendants made of plastic beads and polyester ribbon.  Sophie told me that they were nice and she wanted one.  I replied that they were nasty and said we could do better.  So we went home and made our own.

This was actually an easy and over-with-very-quickly project, which is always great when you are crafting with three year olds.  Sophie's involvement actually was just pushing the ribbon ends through the big hole in the head bead (no needle for her!), which took her a good five minutes for both pendants, but as she will tell you, it was the most important part of the whole project. Of course it was!

We made a clown and a bumblebee and following, I've included the materials and methods we used for each of our pendants.  But, depending on what you have in your own box of stuff, all sorts of beads and bobbles and bits could be stringed together differently to make all sorts of characters.

Clown pendant

What you need

Small jingle bell (the one I've used is about 10mm across)
16mm coloured wooden bead
25mm plain unvarnished bead
Star button
Paper drinking straw
6mm wide craft ribbon -
A needle for stringing the beads (optional)
Craft glue (optional)
Pens for drawing face (I've used a black Artline ink pen and a random marker from my son's pencil case)

What you do

1.  Using the pens, draw a face on the larger, unvarnished bead.  Placing it onto the end of a thick pencil or marker to hold it steady while you draw is helpful.

2.  Cut a length of craft ribbon measuring around 80cm long.  Thread one end through the hole in the jingle bell, and move it to centre of the ribbon.  Even up the ends. (You can do your threading with  a needle, but if small children are helping you, it's probably best they just use their fingers.  Pushing ribbon through beads is a great activity for hand/eye co-ordination!)

3.  Thread both ends through the smaller, coloured bead.

 4.  Thread both ends through the head bead.

5.  Take your button and thread one end of ribbon through one hole and the other end through the second hole.  Slide down so that it sits against the head bead, and then tie with a half knot.

6.  Cut a 2cm of drinking straw.  Thread ends of the ribbon through the straw.  Check the length on  the potential wearer (if possible), adjust and tie ends together to form a necklace.  (Optional:  dab a little bit of glue between the straw and button and let dry.  It's not absolutely necessary, but will help keep the hat together.)

Bumble bee pendant

What you need

Small jingle bell (again, 10mm)
16mm coloured wooden bead
25mm plain unvarnished bead
Strip of tulle, about 5cm wide and 10cm long (or use stiff ribbon)
Black drinking straw
2 x 5mm black plastic beads
6mm wide craft ribbon -
A needle for stringing the beads (optional)
Craft glue (optional)
Pens for drawing face

What you do

1.  Follow steps 1 - 3 of instructions for clown pendant.

 2.  Tie the tulle strip around the ribbon to form wings.  Trim ends if needed.  Slide toward coloured bead.

3.  Thread both ends of ribbon through the head bead.

4.  Cut a 2.5cm length of drinking straw.  Thread both ends of the ribbon through the drinking straw and slide into head bead.  Then thread one of the small black beads onto one end of ribbon and the other black bead onto the second end of ribbon.

5.  Again,check the length and knot off into a necklace.  Again, some glue at where the tulle is knotted will keep it from unravelling and help stop the beads from swivelling about.

And, finished....

Time to hang out with a new friend.

These would make fun little trinkets to sell at school or church fetes, or cute little thank you or Christmas gifts for teachers (although adults may prefer them as a key ring or a bag charm).  Package them up nice in cellophane bags with some sparkly star bling (and be sure to add a label that gratuitously promotes your blog).

Butterfly wings - tutorial

More dress-ups!  Just because I love them.  I think love them much more than Sophie does.  If wings like this were socially acceptable for me to wear in public, I most probably would.  If they actually worked, that would be even better. It's been one of those weeks...

These butterfly wings are a cinch to make, and can be made out of small amounts of leftover fabrics.  They slip on the shoulders back-pack style with elastic loops, and can be decorated however you like.   A bunch of these can be made up fairly quickly to keep handy as gifts,  and if your little girl was having a party, these would make a great party favour that guests could wear during celebrations and then take home instead of lollies.  Or, as well as lollies.

What you need -

Fabric for the wings.  Each side (front and back) needs a piece of fabric that is 40cm (16inches) wide by 35cm (14inches) high. Matching, co-ordinating or clashing in colour. Pre-washed cotton fabric is easy to sew, but it could be something shiny or sparkly.  (The fabric I've used on the spotted one is from a very unfashionable skirt I picked up at a second hand store, which isn't cotton.  The back of it is from an old pillow case.)

Extra fabric, again 40cm (16 inches) wide by 35cm (14 inches) high.  This doesn't have to be anything fancy, it will end up on the inside of the wings and you won't see it.  You'll be tracing the pattern onto it, so the plainer the better.  Have a look through your stash for something your dying to get rid of.

Craft wadding (the cheap stuff is fine).  Once again, 40cm (16 inches) wide by 35cm (14 inches) high.

A sheet of craft foam  (to make an inner stabiliser)

About 1 metre of 6mm (1/4 inch) elastic.

Thin card (cereal box) for making template.

Anything  you's like  to decorate your wings with.  Pom poms, ribbons beads, jingle bells, etc.

The usual stuff.  Pins, needle, thread, sewing machine, etc.


What  you do -

Firstly, save the pattern sheet below to your computer, print out two copies of the pattern template onto paper and cut it out.  This pattern template is obviously only half the wings, and you need to make full wings template. 

Fold your cardboard in half and glue the centre line of the template along the fold of the cardboard, cut around the outer wings through both layers of card so that you have a full wing template.  You also need to cut out a template for the inner stabiliser.

Next up stack your fabrics and wadding on a table as follows

- underside of wing fabric (that is the fabric that will be facing the child's back), face up

- outer wing fabric, face down

- wadding,

- and the plain fabric on which you'll draw around your fabric, on top.

Place template on fabric and trace around it.  Don't forget to include the markings for the opening.

Pin as shown through all layers so that nothing shifts as you run it throught the sewing machine.

Stitch around the drawn outline, leaving the  the gap where marked.

Trim around the wing shape, about 1/4 inch from stitching.

Clip around curves, and into corners.

Turn your wings inside out so that the underside and outer wing fabrics are showing, and the batting and plain fabric are on the inside.  Give it a press with the iron.

Make the inner stabiliser.  Trace around pattern template onto craft foam sheet and cut out.

Slide the stabiliser into the wings through the opening, between the batting and the plain fabric.  Bend and twist the stabiliser as needed in order to get it in place.  It's a little bit tricky, this bit.

 Hooray! - nearly done.

Fold in edges of opening and close with hand-stitching.

Top stitch around the wings, about a half centimetre (1/4 inch) from the edge.  I also like to sew a couple of lines down through the centre as well.

For the straps, take the end of the elastic and place it in between the child's shoulder blades, bring it over their shoulder like a back pack strap and back toward the starting point.  Pull it a bit so it's firm but not too tight (you don't want the straps too floppy, nor a threat to the child's circulation), and mark with pencil. Double it over to give yourself twice the length, add about a half inch and cut.    (* Note - if your a bit unsure, err on the side of caution and make it looser rather than tighter.  If the wings sit too floppily when worn, you can always unpick the elastic from the wings, shorten it and re-sew it.)

Being careful not to twist it, and using a zig-zag stitch, sew it into a loop.  Place the elastic join at the top of the wing about a centimetre from the edge and machine stitch it through all layers.  Determine the opposite centre of the elastic (so that both shoulder loops are of the same size) and mark with pencil. 

Stitch at that point on top of the elastic already stitched on, to form the shoulder loops.

On the outer wings, you'll see the stitching you attached the elastic with.  It looks a bit ugly, so cover it up with any decorations you like.  Ribbons, a big bow, beads, a favorite brooch, etc.  If you are a regular visitor, you'll know pompoms are my personal favourite.

I've also added some fabric strips and a couple of jingle bells to Sophie's, to serve both as a handy way of keeping track of her movements while in the playground and also a warning to other children that she is nearby...

 ...because she's a sneaky ...bug.  I almost used another word then, which would probably have been more fitting, but not so G-rated.  I'm thinking of the children.