Car play mat

A is big into cars and trucks these days, he will play with matchbox cars for hours.  I made this blanket for him for Christmas so he has somewhere to drive his cars.
I spent a lot of time brainstorming how to make this play mat so it would be washable.  I ended up doing raw edge applique for all the buildings then piecing the roads in like a quilt.

I had fun designing all the buildings and putting them together.  There are two houses, the green one on the right is ours.

A construction lot where Andrew can play with all his bulldozers.

A school house and generic shop/restaurant.

A hospital (mommy's work) and a mail box.  

A police station (daddy's work) and a fire station.

A gas station with car wash and the only 4 parking spaces in town.

The grocery store and of course our favorite store, Target.

A barber shop and church.  (Those stained glass windows on the church are one of my favorite parts, they are from a fabric with hot air ballons.)

I also was really excited about the little flower buttons for the window boxes.

I backed it with fleece, since the fleece is thick I didn't even bother with batting.  Then I quilted in the ditch along the roads.  I probably should have used black thread to quilt it but I was too lazy to change my thread, oh well.

I added a little handle to it could be rolled up with his cars inside and toted along. 

I just sewed the straps right into the binding and added some snaps.  You can also see where I melted my fleece a bit, oops.  I was ironing in the dark while the baby was asleep in our room this morning :)

Quiet Book: What's for Lunch?

I didn't finish my quiet book in time for our trip in September.  Then it kind of got pushed aside while I worked on all of our Halloween stuff.  But it is back out again!  At this rate, it might be done for Christmas (um...maybe next Christmas)!

I finished this page this morning.  It is a little lunch box with some sandwich fixin's: 2 slices of bread, a piece of turkey, peanut butter, grape jelly, lettuce, tomato, bacon, and a slice of cheese.

I had so much fun making this felt food.  I kept thinking up more things I needed to make.  Unfortunately there was only so much room in the little lunch box so the banana, ham, egg, pickles, onion, mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise and juice box all got nixed.

There are still tons of sandwich possibilities though.

I figured it could be a fun learning game, he can take orders and make sandwiches to practice listening and memory, work on sequencing, or just some fun pretend play.  And when he is all done everything fits neatly into the lunch box.

See all my quiet book pages HERE

Tutorial: Shark bag with free pattern

It is so rewarding to see the things your dream up come together while you are sewing.  It is 1000 times more rewarding when your kids really love the things you sew.  This is one of the things.

I wanted to make my son a trick-or-treat bag for his first year trick-or-treating.   I decided on a shark to go with his pirate costume.  I sewed this bag one morning last week before he got up.  When I showed it to him after breakfast, his eyes got huge and he yelled "woah!"  He is totally in love with this shark bag!  And he filled it to the brim on Halloween night.

This bag hasn't just been a hit with my son, while we were out trick-or-treating I heard a lot of "I love that shark bag" and "what a cool trick-or-treat bag".  So I decided I needed to come up with a tutorial to share it.

This bag was great for trick-or-treating, but it would be awesome for anytime of year really, A is still having a blast with his.  It is such a fun little bag!

If you want to make your own you will need:
1/2 yard of gray fleece
1/2 yard of iron on interfacing
1/4 yard of fabric for lining
1 sheet of felt for the teeth
2 black buttons for eyes
sewing machine
Shark bag pattern you can find HERE

First print out the pattern.  Tape the body and tail pieces together where they are labeled on the pattern.  Then cut out your fabric pieces and interfacing pieces.

Iron your interfacing to the back of your shark pieces.  Put your fin pieces right sides together and sew them together along the sides.

Clip the corner close to the seam.  Turn the fins right side out and press them.

Line one of the side fins up where you want it along the right side of one of your shark part 1 pieces.  

Place the shark part 2 on top (right sides together) so the fin is sandwiched in between.  Pin along the flat side and sew them together. Repeat with your other side (make sure your fin is in the same spot on this side). Press the seams open.

Trace around the the shark on your lining fabric.  Don't trace around his tail.  Cut out two lining pieces cutting straight across where the shark tail is.

Line up your top fin where you want it on your shark (shark part 2 is the top of the shark).

Sandwich the top fin between the 2 shark sides, pin the sides together, sew around the shark leaving his mouth open.

Clip the points on the tail close to the seam and clip the angle where the tail meets the body.

Cut 2 pieces of felt that are 11" x 2".  Cut 1" teeth along one side of the strip.

Sew the teeth to the right side of the sharks mouth with the teeth pointing down.  

Cut a strip of fleece for the handle that is 3" x 14".  Fold it in half and sew along the edge.  Turn it right side out and sew down the middle.

Line the edge of the handle up with the edge of the sharks mouth on both sides and baste it in place.

Sew along the sides of your lining pieces, leave the top and bottom open.

Place your shark right side out inside of your inside out lining.  Pin the lining to the sharks mouth then sew it in place.

Turn the bag right side out through the hole in the bottom of the lining.

Sew the lining closed.

Tuck the lining inside the bag and top stitch around the sharks mouth.

Add the button eyes.  I use hot glue for mine, way faster and easier than sewing!

That's it! I hope your little one likes this bag as much as mine!