Apron and Bag

One of the first projects after I dug my sewing machine out and all that come with sewing (yards and yards of fabric that is) was an apron and a little shopping bag for O's classroom. Her teacher wanted more items for their classroom play kitchen. I thought this would be a great reason to get back to sewing, so I sewed this super easy apron using my classroomy fabric that I had purchased from Joanns last spring for end of the school year gifts that I never made.

The apron is reversible, and it is made using two fat quarters. SUPER easy! SUPER fast! SUPER fun! I found the tutorial for the apron on Pinterest....of course! You can access the tutorial here.

I made a little shopping bag to go into the play kitchen also. Now the kids can put all their "groceries" into the bag while playing during their free choice time.

O was happy with the apron and bag, and so was her teacher Miss M. Which then in return, made me happy, too. We were all around happy that day. Hehee!!

Happy apron sewing!

I'm here again with a new story to tell.

Here is what has been going on in my life...

The craziness really started on the last Tuesday of January 2014. It started like any other Tuesday. K went to work. I took O to her school, and I drove to Trader Joes to get out groceries for the week. What made this week extra special was our trip to Mexico which we were all waiting for eagerly. On my way home from the store, I decided to stop by a toy store to get a little surprise for O for the plane ride. I was 10 minutes early, but I decided to wait. I had no other plans for this ordinary Tuesday.

My phone rang. It was 9:52 am. It was K.

Me: Hmmm...that's odd. He never calls me this time in the morning. They always have a meeting on Tuesday mornings.

I pick up the phone.

Me: Hello.
K: Hi.
Me: What's up? Why are you calling me this time of the day?
K: Lay offs.
Me: WHAT? WHO? Please don't tell me it's you. You did not get laid off, did you?

(Panic is starting to rise in my voice as I wait for his answer. The answer I knew was coming but did not want to hear. I was 7 months pregnant with our second baby girl. I needed an insurance. This baby was coming out in May.)

K: Yep. I'm packing my stuff right now.
Me: What? You are coming home NOW? I'm not home!!
K: Well. There is nothing else to do here. We are done. The project is closed. We are all leaving.

Sigh! Turns out that K and all of his 80+ coworkers were all laid off that Tuesday morning. They all walked into work that morning thinking that it was going to be an ordinary Tuesday, but instead they were all individually called into offices and told that yesterday had been basically their last day. The project was shut down, and they were all looking for jobs.

We were shocked. We joked about it. We cried about it. We did not know what to do. We went to Mexico and had a great time.

After Mexico and a long cold snowy Jersey winter came spring. We spent all of the months together which was wonderful, frustrating, terrifying, odd, and fun. O loved having isi around the house. I liked having him home, so I could nap whenever I wanted during the last trimester. It was different. During all of that, K was looking for a new job, of course. And, after months of searching and trying and applying, we had to face the reality. We wouldn't be staying in Jersey very much longer. The move was coming, and so was the baby.

As we prepared to welcome a new member to our family, K interviewed for a job in California, got an offer, and accepted it. The plan was to move after the baby was born and a few months old. And, O would be able to finish her preschool. That is what we did.

On the first day of May, we welcomed our second beautiful baby girl. I will call her M. She is a mellow sweet baby, and she is perfect. Big sister O is over the moon in love with her baby sister. And, baby sister thinks O is the most incredible creature there is in this world. She saves her best giggles for her big sister. It is precious.

On the last day of June, we said good-bye to New Jersey with many tears, and flew back to the San Francisco Bay Area. After three years of living on the east coast, we had returned where we left. It was bittersweet.

I was not happy. I missed my Jersey friends. I missed the seasons. I missed everything that I had created during our three years there. I missed New York City. I missed the "short" flight to visit my family in Finland. I even missed pork roll. I missed everything. I was homesick.

Today, after three months, I am happier. I still miss all of the above, but mostly I really really miss my friends in New Jersey. I am very lucky that we moved back to the area where we left because all of our friends are still here, and we are making new friends. We are also lucky to have family near us. I am happy that my children will get to spend more time with their grandparents. It is very special. I like our new home. I like that I can easily walk to the library or Jamba Juice. I love having O's school next to us. I am not excited about the weather, but I guess I will again get used to the every day sunshine and blue skies. I find it boring.

M is 5 months old now. She is an easy baby. She is a great sleeper. O goes to school every morning. This means I have a few hours in the morning to myself. I decided it was time to start blogging again. So, I am back. It's good to be back. Enjoy!

Kitty cat ball

My daughter loves kitty cats. We don't have a cat. I am allergic to cats, so we will never have one. And, I am not really a cat person (but, she doesn't need to know that). However, she LOVES cats. She pretends to be a cat multiple times a day. She really knows how to purr and "lick" her paws. The last three Halloweens, she wore the same kitty cat costume. She plays with her stuffed kitty cats every day. I actually think she believes she is really a cat.

So, to celebrate her love for kitty cats and her new room, I decided to make a kitty cat inspired ball for her room. The idea came from the book called Surrur - Tee Oma Marimekkosi (in English Surrur - Make Your Own Marimekko). My sister (follow her blog here: http://terhintekema.blogspot.com/) bought it for me a few summers back, and we have made quite a few of these balls since then. Some together, some separate.

I found all the fabrics that have kitty cats in them...and, it turned out that I have a quite a selection, and I also found fabrics that were either pink or red. The color theme for the room is red and white which are her favorite colors right now.

It took a few weeks for me to be inspired to get the ball done, but the pending arrival of our newest member of the family pressured me to finally finish the ball. And, here it is. O loves it. It's a perfect size for her to sit on or roll around. Unfortunately, it is also the perfect size to be thrown around in the room kind of like a beach ball. Luckily, it is pretty heavy, so it has not been thrown too many times...and, partly, also, I hope, because I have been screaming, "EIIIIIIIIIIII SAA HEITTÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ!!!!" (Translation: NOOOOOOO throwing!!!)

If you are interested in making your own, check out the book Surrur - Make Your Own Marimekko. Here is some information about the book Surrur - Make Your Own Marimekko. Unfortunately, it is not available at Amazon any more which is a bummer. It is a great book. Hopefully, you will be able to find it somewhere else.

snack bags

If everything goes as planned, we have a new family member arriving in one week. I have been a bit frantically cleaning, washing, tidying, and sewing the last month or so because life as I know it will soon be over. My sewing machine is packed away. And, my desk is moved to make space for new arrangements. Sigh!

Before I put everything away, I was able to get a few things done. Here is one of the latest obsessions that I had. Reusable snack bags for little and big kids.

My friend had bought some snack bags for her kids which made me thinking that it shouldn't be too difficult to make my own. So, one day I was wandering around a baby store when I noticed bunch of reusable fabric snack bags. I inspected them carefully, may have snapped a few pictures, and left the store with an idea. I didn't buy anything at the baby store, but I did at the fabric store a few minutes later!

I decided to use cotton fabric outside, and inside of the snack bags I decided to line with the water resistant material that is used for reusable diapers. I made a bag lined with the water resistant fabric for my daughter for her swim class, and it is awesome. Most of the time the snack bags won't have anything wet inside anyway unless they are crackers dipped in milk and then put back into the bag. But, even then, I am certain that the bag would not get wet outside.

The wonderful thing about these snack bags is that you can just toss them in the washing machine and dryer with your laundry, and they are good to go again.

I made these two kitty baggies for O. And, I also made two trial ones for me friend's boys. I wanted to test them before I would make more. What we soon realized...after the first use and wash...was that my seam was too close to the edge of the bag, and it easily came undone and created a hole. Since then I have started sewing the seam farther away from the edge, and that seemed to have done the trick.

I tried to take pictures of my process as I made the first bag. They are SUPER easy to make, so no pictures are even necessary, but here you go anyway.

1. I first cut the outside and inside fabric. I made my bags 7 inches wide. That seems to be a good width. And, they are 15 inches long. Although, some of the bags I made are skinnier, there is still plenty of space for snacks for little hands. This is also a great way to get rid of some leftover fabric.

2. I pinned the right sides together. 

Make sure that the softer side of the water resistant material is facing the right side of the cotton material. The other side of the water resistant material is plasctic-y, and I think, probably, would not make it easy for a little hand to get snacks out of the bag.

3. Then you sew around the whole piece. I sewed 1/4 inch from the edge of the fabric. Remember to leave an opening on one of the long edges of the bag so that you can turn it around.

4. Once I was all done sewing around the piece, I cut the corners and trimmed the edges a little bit. It makes the turning easier and the whole piece lays flat better.

5. Here is the piece all turned around. One side is the cotton fabric which is the outside of the snack bag, and the inside is the water resistant material which will keep the bag clean. 

6. The next step is to top stitch the piece. I started from where the opening for the turning was. This way I closed the opening. I sewed as close to the edge as I could. You sew all the way around the piece again.

7. I then folded the piece to look like a snack bag. I don't have exact measurements here, but I just folded it so it looked like a good size bag and flap.

8. Next I cut a piece of Velcro that covered the width of the bag. I put the soft part of the Velcro on the bag, and the hard part of the Velcro on the flap. I pinned them both onto the bag, and sewed around both Velcro pieces.

 9.  I pinned the baggy sides together so they lined up nicely, and then I sewed the edges together to close the bag. I have been now using the top stitch as my guide to create another seam along the edge. The new seam is going to be inside of the top stitch. You will have two seams going side by side. No need to turn the bags inside out to do this.

10. I added my "This and That by Tintti" label while sewing the bags together. And, that's it. You are done. Super easy, huh???

Since the bags were so easy and fast to make, I have been making them for birthday presents for friends. I hope they will get used. And, even if they are not used for carrying yummy snacks, they could easily be used for other treasures - little cars, trains, Pets characters, rocks, marbles, hair accessories, or whatever the treasure of the month happens to be.

Here are some pictures of the other baggies that I have made.

Dr. Seuss's Birthday

This week, O's preschool class is celebrating Dr. Seuss. They are making Dr. Seuss inspired art projects and reading Dr. Seuss books. What a fun theme for the week!
To celebrate with them and recognize how awesome Dr. Seuss is, I wanted to make something special for the classroom. So, once again I was on Pinterest looking for ideas. I found these super cute fabric letters, and I knew I had to make them. What made the project even more fun was that I had leftover Dr. Seuss fabric from a baby blanket I had made for a friends' baby boy. Dr. Seuss printed alphabets. Awesome!

So, I cut 26 8x4 inch strips of fabric, and 52 4x4 squares of batting. I had never worked with batting before, and it made me a little nervous, but with my Finnish determination and my awesome new walking foot, this was a great success.

Chez Beeber Bebe has created a wonderful tutorial for these squares. It is super easy to follow. Check it out. Here are some pictures from my process of making the Dr. Seuss alphabets.

I probably should have traced the letters on the fabric BEFORE I put the batting between the fabric, but I didn't. It worked out fine; however, it may have been a bit easier to do. Next time!

Here are the finished letters. I was so thrilled how well they turned out, and I was excited about giving them to O's teacher. She loved them as well which made this even more rewarding project. I hope she'll find some good use for them in the classroom.

Just like the blog post that inspired me, I made a little bag for the letters. I used some of the Dr. Seuss fabrics to do that as well.

It was a lot of cutting to make these letters, but it was totally worth it. I may just need to make a set for O to have at home.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is my least favorite "holiday." However, I could not be the only mom who sends their kid to preschool on their Valentine's Party day without valentines for the whole class. So, I got this idea to make felt envelopes for everyone. I mean I can't just buy a lollipop from the store. No. I have to make felt envelopes for everyone. Of course!

This was the plan. I had bought all the materials about a month before Valentine's Day party. I had made some of the stamps already, too. I was going to make all the envelopes a week before we were going on our vacation (which was a week before the party at school), so when we got home a day before the school party, I would have everything ready for her to take to school. The envelopes would be stuffed with lollipops and a little sweet note from O. They would be neatly in a bag waiting for us when we left for school after our vacation. That WAS the plan.

This is what actually happened.

A week before our trip to Mexico, I came down with this crazy cold that just took all the energy out of me.  No sewing of felt envelopes even crossed my mind during that week. I just needed stay awake enough to focus on every day routines. I was annoyed that I couldn't breathe through my nose, and I was certain I would be sick the whole following week in Mexico too. "The vacation is ruined!!!" I convinced myself. (Turns out that I was wrong, and I now realize a bit too dramatic about it all.) Then we were off to Mexico for a week. It was fantastic. It was a well needed vacation for all of us.

On Sunday night, we flew back from 90 degree sunny weather from Mexico to snow and ice in New Jersey. What a welcome back! The next day, I unpacked, did laundry, tried to get used to being home again, thought about my English lesson that I was going to teach that night...and, then I remembered. "Tomorrow is the Valentine's Day party at preschool, and I haven't made the envelopes!!!" It was 2 pm. Any normal person would have driven to Target, bought a packet of cards and lollipops, and call it a day. But, not me. I had a plan, and I was going to stick to it. Time or no time. I was going to make those stinkin' felt envelopes for the class. I needed to make 11 of them.  And, 30 minutes before I was to get ready for my evening class, I had all the envelopes done. I left the task of writing the notes and envelope stuffing to K and O. And, we did it.

But, it was not enough that I had made the envelopes to her classmates. I could not forget the teachers. "Everyone else is bringing something for the teachers," I was thinking. I had learned my lesson from the previous year. (And, I should know better...after all, I am a teacher as well.) So, after I got back from teaching (at 9 pm), I sat down on the living room floor and made three felt heart pins for O's teachers and the director of the preschool. I got the idea from PurlSoho's blog (Valentine Pins), and I thought the pins were super cute, usable and quick to make. I was having fun making them while watching Downton Abbey and eating cereal for dinner. However, it wasn't until three hours later that I realized I was still sitting there...And, I should have been in bed a lot earlier.

Nevertheless, O went to school the next morning with cute Valentine's Day gifts for her class and teachers. And, I am happy I made them.

Here are the pins for the teachers.

Happy Valentine's Day! Hyvää Ystävänpäivää!

Super hero monsters

It seems like super heroes are now all the rage. All the little boys at O's preschool class are all about super heroes. They know everything about Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Captain America...and, many others that I didn't even know existed. :) I have a hard time keeping up with the names of My Little Ponies.

Since the little monsters that I have been making have been a great success among their new owners, I have been making them. They make great gifts and are fairly quick to make once you have the materials and idea. O carries her monster with her everywhere, and when it is not in sight, we look for it with cats and dogs.

This weekend, I decided to try to make two super hero inspired monsters. Most of O's friends are little boys. She loves "my boys" as she calls them. One of them LOVES Batman, so I decided to make a Batman monster for him. Since he is only two and a half, I did not want to make the monster too scary, so I decided to use Batman material and create Batman's logo for its belly.

I went to Google images and printed out the logo. I cut the Batman shape out, pinned it on the yellow fabric, and cut it out. I decided to put it on top of another fabric and then zigzagged it on its place. I hope it will last. I was happy how well it turned out even though the zigzags are a bit all over the place. :)

My plan was to make a cape for Batman, but I was so excited to finish the monster that I didn't think ahead and sew the cape on before I sewed the whole monster together. Once I had it all put together, I realized that I had forgotten the cape. Well, I tried to take the top part of the monster apart, but the fur started to rip, so I decided this Batman monster can be without a cape. Maybe the next one will have one.

The big brother of Batman fan is a fan of Spiderman. Well, I couldn't go to their house with one super hero monster, so I decided to make a Spiderman monster for the older brother.

I used Spiderman fabric again, but the "web" on his face, I sewed with black thread. It was not all even, but luckily, I was able to hide all the imperfections with the eyes. He looks a bit scary to me, but the new owner did not seem to mind it. Phew!

While I was making Spiderman monster, I was thinking, awesome now I will have a chance to make a cape for it since I have not sewn the monster together yet. I made the cape and everything, and when I was getting ready to sew it on, it dawned on me that Spiderman does NOT have a cape. What a tragic mistake that would have been! And, I am SURE I would have been corrected. ;)

This just shows how much I know about my super heroes. Sigh!

Here are the super hero monster brothers together. I'm happy their new owners seemed to like them.