This tutorial is just for a Twink costume.  I didn’t make the Rainbow Brite costume.  I borrowed it from my sister, and she and my mom made it years ago.  It is a royal blue dress with a full skirt.  It has a heavy interfacing petticoat underneath to make it stick out.  Add white trim around the bottom (this is fusible fleece) and a red belt.  The finishing touch is rainbow striped thigh high socks.  You’ll need two pair.  Cut the feet off of one pair and wear as rainbow sleeves.  Add some killer red shoes and you are good to go.  Now, onto Rainbow’s little Sprite named Twink.

For my twink costume I purchased rainbow striped tights (I found mine at a thrift store, but Rainbow Striped babylegs/legwarmers are pretty easy to find.  This pair on Amazon is only $4.  I also purchased a red long sleeved onesie for her to wear underneath her Twink costume.  Now, onto the sewing!

The Twink costume is basically a white fluffy pumpkin.  When I was talking to Scott about it he said “It’s a pumpkin in fun jeans!” (please  tell me someone else remembers this episode of TheOffice…) I used this basic Simplicity pattern and combined the pumpkin bodysuit with the hood from the lamb costume (sans ears).  Simplicity has renumbered their patterns and this is now labeled Simplicity 2788.  It is available at Joanns, Hancocks, Hobby Lobby, Amazon or any number of different places.  I bought mine at Joanns on one of their 99 cent sales I think.  Use the measurements on the back for yardage required.  I am not going to go into that here because it’s all right there in the pattern that I used.

The white fuzzy fabric I used is white  Silky Furry Fleece.  I got mine at Joanns (here it is).  It comes in Red and Brown and Cream and Black and White.  I lined the whole costume with regular white fleece.  You’ll need to line it because the stuffing goes in between the two layers.  Creamie was only 9 months old when she wore this, and I had to take about 10 inches out of the smallest size because it was so large.  The costume has velcro at the shoulders and elastic around the bottom and it goes together pretty easily.  I did modify the hood just a bit, besides leaving off the ears.  I added about 1.5 inches to the length in the back so that it would be long enough to cover all of her neck and meet up with the bodysuit and to make it look like one piece.

The belt was really easy.  1: I used royal blue nylon webbing and a bit of Velcro to hold it together.  After I had the bodysuit finished i measured around it while it was on Creamie and cut the nylon to length.  I used less than 1 yard. 2: For the little pouch to hold star sprinkles I used a scrap of red felt (about 2.5″ x 6″.)  Round the corners on the top flap a bit and then just stitch it together, no need to turn it inside out.  Sew on a button and make a tiny slit for the button hole. 3: The star is from a sheet of stiff yellow felt (you can buy pre stiffened felt at craft stores.)  It is 3.5″ across.  I hot glued a belt loop onto the back so that I could thread it onto the blue belt. 4: Thread the star and the pocket onto the belt and you are good to go.  I decided to make them all separate pieces so that I could wash the bodysuit separately if I needed to.

Her little star antennae are also separate pieces.  Because I was sure the hood would need to be washed after she wore it.

Cut four stars out of the stiff yellow felt and hot glue a big fat fuzzy pipecleaner in between them.  Then I attached the pipe cleaners to two alligator clips with a little hot glue and by wrapping the wire around the clips.  I clipped the antennae onto the hood by sliding the bottom side of the clip through the fuzzy fabric.  I could have made button holes or something but I just shove the clips through the fabric.

I tried to find cute little red shoes for weeks but in the end decided it would be cheaper to just have her wear socks over a pair of shoes she already had.  I bought a pair of red socks and cut off the tops.  I just zigzagged around the edge of them with my sewing machine and she wore them over her shoes.

Put all of that together and it is one of the cutest costumes I’ve ever made.  If you have any questions, ask them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them here as well.

A few nuts and bolts things: 1: If you are traveling, take off the bodysuit before you strap your kid into their carseat.  That one should be pretty obvious.  2: I am not affiliated with Amazon or Joanns or anyone else and I am providing links to products they sell as a convenience to you.  I am sure similar items can be found other places.  3: If you want to make these to sell in an online shop or at a craftsfair or whatever, go ahead.  But please provide a link back to this tutorial in your listing or on a tag attached to the costume.  That’s just being nice.  4: I’d love to see any costumes you make, please email them to me at pinksuedeshoe at gmail dot com or leave a link to your post/picture/whatever in the comments.  Happy Halloween!

Anyway, here are a few posts from last fall if you weren’t here a year ago.  Because they are still good ones.

Cinnamon Chips and Pumpkin Dip

Stuffed Fall Pumpkin with free pattern

Fall Leaf Accent Pillows

This last tutorial, the accent pillows are made from Walmart placemats.  Tonight I was at Walmart and saw that they have them again this year, in brown, a much more fallish green and orange.  I maybe bought a few more to add to my leafy collection.  I also bought a whole bunch of canned pumpkin.  And pumpkin dip is going on my list of treats to make this week.  See you soon.

You can download my Bunting Template and print it at home or you can make your own template with a paper plate or mixing bowl or whatever else you have hanging around.  My favorite mixing bowl (and therefor the template)is 8.5 inches across, but I also included a mini version at 5.25 inches across.  Trace your template onto cardstock or thin cardboard like the back of a cereal box. I choose the rounded shape over a triangular pennant shape because I think you can see more of the fabric that way.

Pick out some great fabric.  All of mine are either one color with white, or a tone on tone print, because that is mostly what I am drawn to.  If you are going to use my large template you’ll need a piece of fabric 7.5″ x 17″.  (The mini size uses a piece 4.5″ x 11″.)    Each  flag is about 8 inches across finished, so figure out how long you want your bunting to be and use however many flags you’ll need to achieve that length.  For my 6 foot window (where this is going to end up hanging) I used a 7 and a 9 flag bunting together.  OK, let’s get started.

 Fold your fabric right sides together and trace your template with a pencil (I used a pen so you can see it).  Then pin the pieces together with the pins well inside your traced line.

I pin them this way because it holds the pieces of fabric together while I cut, and then it is all ready to sew together without having to repin everything.  And I am not talented enough to sew around curves without pins.  When you are all pinned, cut out your pieces.

Now sew around those curves (leave the top straight side open)  with a 1/4″ to 3/8″ seam allowance.  I just lined them up on the edge of my presser foot, because that is the easiest way for me to keep a uniform seam.  Pull the pins with your left hand (which might feel really backwards) as you sew.  Or if you pin them far enough on the inside of your shape you can just sew the seam and then pull them out when you are done.

After your flags are sewn together, clip the seams every 1/2-3/4″ around the curves so it will lay flat when you turn it inside out.  Don’t snip your stitches.  If you do, go back and resew that part.

Turn your flags right sides out, push out the curves and press around the edges so they lay flat.  I found it was faster to do these assembly line style, so do all the sewing, then the clipping, then the pressing.

Lay out your flags on the floor to get them in the order you prefer.  Now that I am all done I wish I’d switched the top left light pink with the bottom right dark pink. (Why do I always see this in pictures after the fact?)  Oh well.  I choose to do two separate buntings, but I wanted to hang them up together, so I arranged my colors so they’d look good by themselves or hanging up together.  If you make one long bunting (like this pink one, or this red white and blue one) you can still get a dual look by doubling the bunting back on itself when you hang it.

Next choose a bias binding.  You can use a prepurchased double fold binding, or make your own.  (You’ll want a bias binding so that it will hang with a smooth curve.)  My first round I choose the wrong thing for my binding.  After I was finished sewing the whole thing together I realized it was too bright, and had too much white on it. So I unstitched it and found a new fabric which is a little more neutral. (This green is a Heather Bailey print from the Nicey Jane collection.)  I cut 3″ strips on the bias, folded it in half and pressed it and then folded the sides to the center and pressed it again, making my binding about 3/4″ finished.  Next time I’ll make it smaller at 1/2″ finished, I think.  I used 11 feet of binding on the 7 flag bunting and a little over 12 feet on the 9 flag bunting.

Start sewing your flags on!  I sewed my binding together for the first 30ish inches so I had a long tail to tie my bunting to curtain rods or nails in the wall or whatever.  This will also give you a little wiggle room when you hang it up so you can adjust the length easily to fit your space.  Then just tuck in your flags, making sure that the raw edge is all the way to the middle fold of your binding.  Sew along the edge, carefully, so you catch the top and bottom edges of your binding, and leave about a half inch of space between each flag.  When you are finished with the flags sew another 30ish inch long tail so you can hang your bunting up easily.

Tada!  Finished fabric bunting that you can reuse for years.  I hung it up on the wall in my craft room for a picture, because taking pictures of something hanging above a window is hard.  And I can never get the settings on my camera right, so it ends up totally dark or way too bright.  So wall photo it is.  I just used two long sewing pins stuck in the wall to hold it up.  But I think I’ll hang a curtain rod over my window so I can just make loops in the ties and hang them up that way.  And now that I’m looking at pictures, I really think I might switch those dark and light pinks on the edges.  Which means just a little more unpicking.

A few weeks ago I was out thrifting and I came across a whole pile of necklaces that were fifty cents each.  I think I bought a dozen of them.  At least.  And these two white plastic “pearl” necklaces were too long to just wear, and not long enough to loop twice.  Which I of course didn’t realize until I got them home.  So a little fixing was in order.  My favorite part about it is that if I get sick of it and want to use the parts in other projects it is easy to take apart and I could use the necklaces again.  Here’s what I did:

Gather some supplies.  I pulled out my ribbon scrap box and pulled out a bunch of scraps in all colors of pink, some white, and a little bit of pale pink lace.  I also had a few parts from silk flowers that were in my same color scheme.  (Pulling apart a flower is pretty easy, just pop off the little plastic part that holds the center on at the back, then you can use the individual layers for whatever you’d like.)  I also had a big pink gemstone floating around in my sewing box, and it got added to the pile.  I also needed a little scrap of felt for the flower pin and an alligator clip.

Start by folding your necklaces in half and then tying a piece of ribbon through the loops.  This adds some interest to an otherwise boring string of white palstic beads, and it also gave me the length I needed without having to cut my necklaces apart.  Cut a circle of pink felt, and make two slits in the middle.  Then thread your clip through and use a dab of hot glue to hold the two together.  Next stack up all your flower bits until you like them and hot glue them together as well.

Next lay out your ribbon tails s you can check length and composition.   I ended up using the bright pink ribbon as a backer or the lace so that it shows up better.

Working in layers, glue your ribbons all together.  Then glue your stack to the back of your flower and cover the ends with your felt circle and alligator clip.

Then it’s as easy as clipping the flower over the knot on the side of your necklace and tada!  You are done.  Because I had so many ribbon scraps this necklace cost me exactly $1.  And I can still take it apart to use the pieces again.  And because the flower clip is removeable you can use it  on another necklace or a bag or if you are feeling totally awesome, put it in your hair.

I love how with very little effort I can dress up my standard T-shirt.  We took this picture at our not quite midnight but still really late for a 2 year old summer solstice picnic.  Nothing like eating pizza at the park and watching the sun go down on the longest night of the year.  It was awesome.  But now this outfit looks awesomer because I have pink hair.  Yay!

I think it’s a success.  It is now by far one of my favorite things I’ve ever made.  Ever.  I wish I’d thought of it three years ago when I was making baby quilts for Creamie.  The ruffles have a great texture, and I bet a baby would LOVE to play with them.  (I’ve got a non-ruffled boy version whirling around in my head that I’ll post as an addendum sometime this summer.  Sewers for boys, never fear!)

What I love most about this quilt, besides rows of pink ruffles, is the large white space around the edge.  My friend Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting filled it in with beautiful flowers and swirls and I couldn’t have dreamed up something more beautiful!

Alright, let’s talk details.

• 1/8 yard x13 fabrics for ruffles
• 1 1/4 yards white
• 1 1/3 yards backing
• 1/3 yard binding fabric (This is for a straight cut, not bias binding)

You’ll need:thirteen 4″x42″ strips of fabric for the ruffles.  I was happy I had enough pink scraps to do this quilt almost completely from my stash.  I choose to do mine all different, but you could repeat a few fabrics if you’d like.  I thought of doing an ombre effect, but didn’t have enough of the dark pinks. (The ruffled quilt kits we have at the shop are blue/turquoise, greens, gray and yellow and are so so pretty!)  I would suggest choosing dense/small prints, or one’s with allover color.  I have one ruffle that was a large pink flower on white, middle of the bottom row below, and though I love the fabric I don’t love it as a ruffle because it mostly just looks white.  I should have switched that fabric for something else.

If you are buying fabric for this quilt 1/8 yard will do for each ruffle. (An 1/8 yard is 4.5 inches, and you’ll need to trim them down to 4″ wide.)  I pieced a few of my ruffles together in the middle because I didn’t have a long enough strip left.  And that’s OK too.  You’ll also need 1 1/4 yards of white.  I used Kona snow.  The white I had in my piles was too white, and the cream I had was too cream.  Kona snow is a great not bright white, not cream white option.  That’s it for the front!  You’ll need 1 1/3 yards for the backing fabric.  I pieced mine together from bits left over from this project and a big, but not big enough piece.

After you’ve cut your ruffles, let’s cut the white fabric to size.  You’ll  need one large 21″x21″ square, and two 11″x21″ strips.  Cut your remaining fabric into two 11″xwidth of fabric (42″ish) strips.

Sew one 11×21 inch piece to each side of your 21″ square and press the seams open on the back.  Then fold it in half and press a fold down the center in both directions.  This will help you get your ruffles sewn on straight later.  Let’s make ruffles!  They aren’t as hard as they look.  A long time ago a woman in my neighborhood who was teaching a sewing class for the young girls at church showed me an easy trick to turn long skinny things right side out.  I’m sure a few of you have heard of this before.  But at the time I thought “Wow.  Why is this not printed on billboards in front of every single sewing store!”

For this part you’ll need a roll of ribbon, or a long length of it.  I don’t cut mine off the roll, I just roll it back up when I am done.  So here’s my not so secret trick to make long skinny ruffles easy!

1. Take your 4″ strip of fabric and lay your ribbon across the top with about 1/2 inch hanging off one edge.
2. Fold your fabric right sides together and pin the ribbon in place.  Make sure the ribbon is laying down right next to the fold.  You don’t want to catch it in your seam.  Sew a 1/4 inch seam along the raw edges.
3. After you’ve sewn your ruffle, start pulling the ribbon tail.  It will start to scrunch up, and you’ll just need to use your fingers to help it flip inside out.
4. This is what it will look like when you are finished.  It only takes about 15 seconds to flip this whole long ruffle inside out.  Tada! Magic.
5. Carefully snip off the ribbon right at the seam on the outside (But don’t cut your fabric!) Then you can reach in and pull out the 1/2 inch tail from the inside.  Then you’ve only lost 1/2 inch of ribbon and 15 seconds of time for each ruffle.  Not bad at all!

Repeat for all thirteen ruffles, and then take your stack over to the ironing board.  press each ruffle with the seam down the center.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, but try to keep it in the middle to give yourself a guide for gathering them up later.  When they are all pressed take them back to the sewing machine and using mostly matching thread (I wish I’d changed thread for the darker pink ruffles) stitch a long gathering stitch down the middle of each ruffle.  (Set my stitch length to it’s longest setting, mine is a 5, and don’t back stitch at the beginning or end.)

Now it’s time to start pinning on the ruffles!  Find the center of each ruffle by folding it in half and marking it with a pin.  Then line up your first ruffle along the two center lines you pressed earlier.  Pin it in the center, and then very carefully pull your bobbin thread to make gathers.  Do one side at a time, the pin in the middle will help keep your gathers even from side to side.  I used about 8 pins on each side of the center to hold my ruffle in place, and as straight on that center line as possible.  Pull your thread gently, if it breaks you’ll need to pull it off and redo the gathering stitch.

Stitch that ruffle right down the center.  Make sure to leave the selvedge edges hanging off your white background square.  You don’t want those to show up in your quilt!  We’ll need to trim everything even when we are done with the ruffles anyway.  And tada!  You’re first ruffle is done.  Now add one to each side, using your first ruffle and your pressed center line as a guide to keep things straight and even.

You’ll want to butt those ruffles right up against each other.  Pack them in tight or they won’t all fit inside the square in the middle.  (And see, that darker pink ruffle at the top would have looked a lot better with dark pink thread instead of light pink.  Oops.)

Continue adding ruffles, one on each side  until you’ve gathered them all up and sewn them all down.

Every couple of row measure the distance between the side seam and your ruffle to make sure you are still straight.  My seam is under the blue line, and thankfully my rows were still straight.  If they aren’t, just adjust the way you pin on the next one to compensate for a little bit of slanting in one direction.

I just used my regular sewing foot to sew these down, but if you have a walking foot you could use that too.  I have a ruffler foot too, but since I needed these to be a very specific length I decided it was just as easy to gather them by hand.

And tada!  All those ruffles are sewn down.  Try to keep the edges of the last rows of ruffles inside the side seams.  This will keep your center square of ruffles a true square.  Now it’s time to trim down the edges and add our other white strips.

Measure the length of your center panel from edge to edge.  It should be somewhere around 42″.  Trim your remaining white strips to the exact length of your quilt x11 inches and pin them right sides together at both ends.  Lay everything out evenly across the ruffles and carefully trim off the selvedge ends.  Then carefully pin the raw ruffle edges into the seam allowance.  I used one pin on each side of each ruffle.  Which was more pinning than I usually do for anything, but I didn’t want any of those raw edges to escape the sewing machine.  You want them sewn in really well so they don’t pull out and fray.  Do the same thing on the other side and you are done with the top!

Tada!  Having those big wide borders makes for a really fast quilt. I didn’t have a piece I liked for the backing that was big enough, so I added a strip of scraps to add the length I needed.  I actually think I prefer scrappy backings better.  They are more interesting I think.  And maybe one day I’ll get around to putting a label on there somewhere…

Now do whatever it is you do to quilt the thing together.  Me?  Don’t enjoy that part at all.  And my friend Melissa is a LOT better at it than me!  So I took it to her.  And she did an amazing job.

After I got it home I realized that it needed some quilting in the middle of the quilt too.  A 21″ square is a lot of space to not be stitched together!  So I added a few straight lines between each ruffle to help hold all the layers together.  If you send it somewhere to get quilted, you can ask your quilter to do this part for you.  I didn’t think of it until after I started binding it, so I added these few rows of quilting after it was completely finished.  I should have used my walking foot, but I really hate putting it on my machine, and I figured if it puckered or wrinkled then the ruffles would hide it anyway.  Just make sure you don’t catch a ruffle in your stitching.  You can either hold them out of the way with your fingers (my lazy girl solution), or you can pin them down so they don’t get caught in these rows of stitching.  Don’t those rows of ruffles just make you want to touch it!

I bound my quilt with a solid pink, not cut on the bias.  Here is a really good tutorial from Amy at Diary of a Quilter on bindings.  I should have read it before I bound all those quilts a few weeks ago.  She has some good info there and shares the secrets to making square mitered corners.

If you make a ruffle quilt, please let me know!  I’d love to see your version, even if it’s not pink.  You can add any projects you make from my blabberings on to the pinksuedeshoe flickr group.  It’s still a little lonely.  And boring.  It’s only got my stuff in it.  So if you have any projects you’ve made from my tutorials please add them!  My pictures could use a little company.

Now, before I get a million comments and accusations telling me I ripped of Toni Coward’s Lego Sack let me just state my business here.  I actually made twelve bags.  And the first one I followed her great tutorial.  But because of the heavy canvas on one side and the denim on the other the drawstring was rendered utterly useless.  By the time I got it cinched the opening at the top of the sack was 16″ across.  Which is less than awesome for holding stuff inside.  So I scrapped that first bag and did some thinking and then made eleven using this tab top method.  (Tabs are WAY more economical than using grommets.  For my eleven sacks I would have needed almost 300 of them plus I would have had to set them all!)  If you want to use light weight cotton, you can use Toni’s drawstring method with no problem, but if you want to use denim and canvas for a sturdy bag?  Well, then try this.

For my sacks I used 60″ wide dark denim on one side and a fun printed canvas/heavy upholstery/outdoor fabric on the other.  These kinds of fabric are usually between 54 and 60 inches wide, which will give you a nice big sack without having to piece the fabric together.  I bought all my fabrics at The Home Fabric Store because they have rolls and rolls of heavy, wide fabrics for super cheap.  The denim was only $3 a yard and most of the others were between $4 and $6 per yard.  (As opposed to most other places, Joann, Hancocks, etc where it’s between $15 and $25 a yard.)

For each sack you’ll need the following supplies:

• 1.5 yards of 54-60″ wide denim or canvas for each side.  The stripe is actually a thrifted canvas like shower curtain.
• 5 yards of 1/4″ or 5/16″ twisted nylon rope.  I bought this spool of 100 feet at Walmart for $11, they have smaller packages or you can find it at any home improvement store. ( The nylon twisted rope is much slipperier and smoother than the braided variety.)
• measuring tape, scissors, marker, general sewing supplies

Start by washing and drying both pieces of fabric.  Since this is going to be something you might want to wash at some point, try and get all the shrinking/warping out before you sew your project.  Then you need to cut them both into a large circle.  In this one I only used a 10″ radius (which will give you a circle 20″ across) so it would fit in a picture.  But when you are making your sack you’ll want at least a 24″ radius.  More on that later.  To make a perfect circle fold your fabric into fourths and use a measuring tape to make a mark along one edge your desired radius from the center.  You could use a fabric pen, but I just used a Sharpie marker.  Continue around your fabric, making sure to keep the zero end right at the point of your fabric.  After you have a little mark every few inches connect the dots to make your cutting line, then cut it out.  Unfold your fabric and ta-da!  Perfect circle.  Use this as a pattern and trace it onto your second fabric and cut out.

I don’t have pics of this next step, but you’ll want to make evenly spaced marks around the outside edge of your circle to attach your tabs.  Fold it in quarters, and then quarters or thirds again to evenly space your marks.  You’ll want at least 5 or 6 in each quarter of your circle.  For this 24″ circle my marks were about 7 inches apart. (If you have questions on this ask them in the comments.)

Now lets make some tabs, without having to turn a bunch of long skinny strips inside out.  Use the corners you have leftover after cutting your circles out and cut 2.5″ strips.  This sack has a 24″ radius and I needed 24 tabs.  I made a few other sacks that were a little larger, with a 28″ radius and I needed about 32-36 tabs.  After you have cut your 2.5 inch strips iron one side down about 1/4″.  Then fold the opposite side up about 3/4″ and press again.  Fold the 1/4″ fold side down over the 3/4″ side so that all the raw edges are in the middle and press again.  Then stitch down the center of your tab.  For this part I moved my needle over to the very far left side of my machine because my presser foot has a handy guide to help me sew right on the edge over there.  Then cut your strips into 4″ lengths.

After your tabs are all made, pin them to your marks on your circle.  Fold each in half  but with offset ends and center on each mark and pin. The offset ends will mean you aren’t sewing through as many layers of fabric at a time.   Make sure you are pinning them on the RIGHT side of your fabric, with the raw edges lined up and the folded end of the tab pointing towards the center.  Continue pinning all your tabs in place and then sew around the entire perimeter of your circle about 1/4″ from the edge.  (True, you don’t need to sew between each tab, but sewing in one big long stretch is a lot faster and more thread efficient than just sewing each tab and cutting your thread and moving to the next one.)

Next pin together the right sides of each circle, so the tabs are sandwiched between them.  And don’t freak out if it seems your two circles are not the same size and you have a gap of fabric left over when you are done pinning.  Just keep going around your circle again, stretching the “small” side a little as you repin it until you’ve used up all that gapiness.  Only 1 of my 12 bags lined up close enough to skip this step.  After you’ve pinned your two circles together sew them together about 5/8″ from the edge.  You want to make sure you are inside your first line of stitching.  Leave at least a 10″ opening to turn it inside out.  A little too big is way better than a little too small.  Before you turn it inside out clip the curves all the way around, about an inch to an inch and a half apart.  When you get to a tab clip on each side of it, don’t try to clip through all that fabric at once.  Clip your 10″ opening as well.

Turn your sack right sides out and use those tabs to help you pull out all those edges.  Now you need to use a good hot iron and press that outer seam as flat as you can get it.  Carefully turn the opening under, press and then pin it closed.

Sew around the edge of your circle again, this time only about 1/8″ from the edge to finish things off and close up that opening.  You might need to sew slower as you go over the tabs.  There is a lot of layers of fabric in there.  For this project I didn’t use a denim needle, just a new sharp universal needle and didn’t have any problems.  If your standard needle is having trouble sewing through all those layers switch to a denim needle and go slower.  Finally, string your rope through the tabs and tie a knot in each end to keep it from pulling out easily.  It will still fit through the tabs, but it will take some working.  The ends of nylon rope frays easily, so you are going to want to either burn the ends, or wrap them tightly with clear tape.  I voted the tape route because I hate the smell of match smoke.  Also note: If you used a radius over 26″ you might need a little bit more than 5 yards of rope.

Because of the rope and tab closure this sack/play mat is completely reversible.  So Creamie has been using the striped side as a rainy day indoor picnic spot for all her best friends.

And the other side is for her trains.  She got some new tracks for Easter (this is an Ikea wooden train set) and she is all ready to lay down more tracks and go on more adventures.

And when you are done playing just cinch up the rope and tie it in a slipknot to hang over the doorknob, from a hook, or just leave it in the corner.  The mess is happily contained until it’s time to play again.

*Once again, this tutorial was inspired by the Lego Sack by Toni Coward, but was written specifically for heavier fabrics like denim, canvas, heavy upholstery and outdoor fabrics.

Here’s a quick how-to.  They only take about 10 minutes each to make and cost next to nothing.  Perfect.

Supplies Needed: green felt, a shamrock shape as a guide, alligator clip (or you could put it on a headband), glitter, Elmers glue, hot glue and scissors.  (I actually tried to do one with mixed dark and light green glitter… big mistake.  The light green looked really yellow and not very St. Patricksy.  So keep that in mind.)

Pictures are pretty self explanitory, right?  Cut out your shape and spread Elmers glue all over one side.  I tried three different kinds of glue and I liked Elmers the best for it’s ease of spreading, ease of cleanup and the glitter stuck on pretty well.  When it has dried completely it made the shamrocks rigid which I also liked.  Instead of trying to spoon glitter onto my shape I just turned it upside down in my little pile of sparkles.  Much more effective.

After you are all be-glittered your shape will lose a little definition as you can see in the shamrock on the right.  The shamrock on the left I trimmed with my scissors to get all those glittery stragglers off the edges and give it a clean edge.  (But don’t use your good fabric scissors.)

I like these kinds of alligator clips because I have fine hair and the teeth help them stay put a lot longer.  They were a little longer than my shamrocks were wide though.  Which means I didn’t want to put hot glue along the whole side.  Glue your sparkled shamrocks to the clips and wear with lucky pride.  Maybe I’ll get myself put together enough before Green Day to get a pic of these in my hair.  Maybe.

[ sweet crocheted heart garland at design*sponge ]

[ These cute smore's from Williams Sonoma, featured over at Be Different, Act Normal. ]

[ Cute gathered pillow how to at V & Co. ]

[ I love this ruffled Felt Wreath at The Idea Room ]

[ Decorate on the cheap with this paint swatch art.  So cute! ]

[ Cute love art and Valentines banner by Char at Crap I've Made. ]

[ Valentine Advent Calendar at Infarrantly Creative ]

[ Spell out love notes!  Cute!  source ]

[ I love these pretty flower balls at The Idea Room ]

I’ll be back soon with some handmade Valentine projects, and a few sneak peaks at Creamie’s upcoming birthday party!  Happy Monday.

Paper Christmas Tree Advent Calendar

Gingerbread Boys to eat or hang on the tree

Felt Reindeer Ornaments

Christmas Card Wreath

Felt Plushie Peppermint Ornaments

Cranberry Gingerdrop Cookies

Popcorn and Pompom  Garland

Needle Felted Mitten Tree Topper

Christmas Poppers or Crackers

Last Minute Gift Soap

Chocolate Peppermint Cake guest post at Bright Yellow World

How to Make a Gingerbread House

Felt Mistletoe Headband

Thanks for joining me for A Handmade Christmas.  May your days be Merry and Bright.

Roll up your sleeves, this is going to be fun.  Let’s start out by making your gingerbread dough.

Gingerbread House Recipe

NOTE: This is not the same as the recipe for gingerbread boys.  This dough is a lot stiffer and stronger when it cools, making it ideal for holding up a house loaded down with candy.  The gingerbread boys are a much softer cookie.

1/2 cup oil

2/3 cup molasses

1/3 up brown sugar

1 egg

2 3/4 flour

1/2 tea salt

1 tea ginger

1 tea cinnamon

1 TB baking powder

Combine dry ingredients in the sifter, set aside.  Measure out your oil first, and after you’ve dumped it into a mixing bowl, use that same cup to measure your molasses.  The oil will help the molasses slide right out of the cup without leaving a sticky mess.  Mix the oil, molasses, sugar and egg well, then add the dry ingredients from the sifter.  Mix well.  Cover and chill overnight in the fridge, or for 30 minutes in the freezer.

Spray a rimmed cookie sheet/jellyroll pan with nonstick spray.  When your dough is chilled, spread it out on the cookie sheet.  Cover the dough with a piece of plastic wrap and use your fingers, a small rolling pin or an offset spatula to help smooth it out, making sure to get to all the corners.  Try to get this as smooth as you can.  Bake at 300 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

You can click here to download a PDF of my Gingerbread House Pattern.  I’ve used this pattern to make my house every year for as long as I can remember.  Print it on heavy cardstock, or trace the pattern onto a manilla file folder, or the back of a cereal box.  Trust me, the thicker your pattern pieces are the less burned your fingers will be.  When your gingerbread is done baking, layout the pattern pieces on top and cut immediately.  A tip from the experienced: Curl your fingers under a bit and hold the pattern pieces with your fingernails, not your fingertips.  This will result in fingers that are much less burnt.  Trust me.

Your gingerbread will start to get stiff and hard as it cools off, so it’s important to cut your pieces out as soon as you can.  And the other important part is to eat the scraps before they cool off.  When they are warm they are super soft and delicious.  But as they cool off they lose that softness.  Good for building houses, bad for snacking.

Here is a layout for how your house pieces will fit on the cookie sheet.  While your gingerbread is cooling off, make your frosting.

Royal Icing Recipe

3 egg whites

1/4 tea cream of tarter (helps it dry hard and a little shiny, don’t leave it out.)

2 LB powdered sugar.

Beat together until the frosting is stiff.  You don’t want it too runny because it will take longer to dry.  But make it too stiff and your hand will be on fire by the time you are done squeezing all that frosting onto your house.  You can spoon your frosting into a pastry bag with a tip, or into a ziplock bag.  Cut off a teensy bit of one corner of the ziplock to squeeze the frosting through.  Keep extra icing covered in the bowl, covered with a damp towel so it doesn’t get dry.

This is where there should be a picture of decorating my house.  But, my hands were covered with frosting and sugar and candy, and I thought it wise to not pick up my camera.  I always decorate my house pieces before putting it together, it’s a lot easier (in my opinion).

I covered a pizza pan with tinfoil to use the base for my house. But you could use a piece of plywood, heavy cardboard, or a 10″ cardboard cake round.  Use lots of frosting to stick your pieces together.  I usually start with the back of the house, and then add the sides.  Then I’ll add the front piece.

Before you attach your roof pieces, fill in any gaps with frosting, and reinforce seams with frosting or more candy.  Candy sticks or candy canes work particularly well on those corners.

I always leave the door to my gingerbread house open a little.  Why?  No idea, it just makes it seem more inviting.  This year my door is “glass”.  It’s covered with coarse sanding sugar so it’s sparkly.  I made my windows the same way.

Then you are ready to put your roof pieces on top.  Use a thick line of frosting along each slope.  When both pieces are in place, run another thick line along the top seam, and fill it in with candy.  A candycane/candystick works particularly well here, but you could also use licorice, or a line of big pieces of candy, like these gumballs.  This will help keep the two pieces from sliding off before the frosting gets hard and dry.  Then I covered up the edges of the roof with more frosting.  I’m all about having the thing completely covered.

Full Disclosure: I thought I might run out of frosting before I finished the whole thing, so I left one side of my roof undecorated.  It was a wise move… I used the last little bits to finish the edges of my roof.  I only used 2 egg whites instead of three when I made the frosting.  Which was dumb.  If you aren’t going to cover every single little bit of gingerbread with candy then you would be fine with 2 whites for one house.   My original plan was for a gingerbread and red and white and green house.  But then I remembered the pink candysticks after I made the frosting and plans changed.

Except for the pink candy sticks, which I bought at a candy factory a few weeks ago, all the candy on this house came from the grocery store bulk bins or from walmart.  The shutters are laffy tafffy.  Those are pink bubble gum balls along the peak of the roof, and pink M&M’s for shingles.  I used pink heart shaped marshmallows, pink sweettarts, and pink sprinkles on the backside of my house.  And the pink “bricks” on the front were some awful tasting jelly something.  I had to cut these in half, so technically I’ve got a pink split face brick going on.

I was running out of naptime (not to mention frosting) so I didn’t finish the yard.  I’ve got some gumdrop and sucker trees that will make an appearance, as well as a white chocolate pretzel fence, and a pink starburst front walk, nestled into a bed of crushed peppermints.  Tomorrow, I’ll think about that tomorrow.

I make a completely different house every year.  Last year was a rock candy and black licorice tudor style house, with hershey bars for shutters and Cinnamon Toast crunch for shingles. I’ve made plenty of houses in Christmas colors, and some in all pastel candy, but this little pink house is my favorite.  So far.  I’m sure that will change next year.  I’ve got one more project left in my Handmade Christmas series which I’ll post tomorrow.  See you soon!