You Could Win ALL of AMH's Sewing Patterns!

That's right. ALL OF THIRTEEN OF THEM. That's about $185 worth of patterns! Anna Maria Horner patterns are so beautiful and she was so generous to provide this awesome prize for the Holiday Craft Bash. 


 Here are just a few of my favorites:

(You can see my recent version of this bag here.)

So how do you get a chance to win this crazy good prize? Just make at least one project from our Holiday Craft bash tutorials and enter it into the flickr group. There have already been so many great entries, but the deadline is this Friday, the 21st, so hopefully this can light a fire under your last minute Christmas sewing!

You can find all my Christmas movie inspired tutorials linked on my right side bar. But you can also go to this post to find all 24 inspiring projects put together by me, Meredith, Jacey and Debbie. 

And there will be a second prize drawn- fabric from Sewn Studio! All entries into the Holiday Craft Bash Flickr group will also have a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of 11 prints from Kate Spain's beautiful Cuzco collection. 

If that is not enough motivation for last minute sewing and gifts, I don't know what is ;)

So in summary:

• Make any of these 24 projects. 
• Post your photos in the flickr group.
• Do it by December 21st.
• You could win big!!

Grinch Placemats with Free Pattern

Here it is, my last Christmas project for the Holiday Craft Bash event! I'm so thankful that Meredith invited me to do this with her, because I've made some things I really love, and even better, my kids really love. To be honest, I've always been a bit of a decorating grinch myself. We put up a tree and hang our stockings each year, but that's about it. I always figured I'd make some more nice things for Christmas when we owned our own home and I could spend some time making it just like I wanted it. Some day. 

But my kids don't care about any of that. They really like characters from TV and videos made up in brightly colored felt. No use trying to class it up. And surprisingly, I really REALLY love my new bright and kitschy feeling Christmas. My apartment looks like Santa's workshop this year. I'm gonna go with it. 

So onto our project. These are some pretty fun placemats, but if you don't really fancy your kids sliming them, they are just as cute hanging on the wall.

For each placemat you make, you'll need:

• A 13" x 18" piece for the top
• A piece a bit larger than that for the back (fat quarters are great for both.)
• Scrap of batting or fleece, at least 14"x19"
• about 65" of binding.
• The Grinch printable pattern- green, white, red, and yellow felt
• Cindy Lou Who printable pattern- peach, yellow, pink, white and blue felt. 
• Spray adhesive
• Water soluble marking pen
• Embroidery needle
• Black perle cotton or floss

Basic steps:

1. Use the pattern sheet to cut out your felt. I like to trace the shapes on freezer paper for this. 
2. Use spray adhesive to get all your pieces in place on the top of the placemat, the 13x18 piece. 
3. Stitch around every felt piece with your machine using a straight stitch. Using all white thread is ok too. 
4. Use your water soluble tool to add the facial features. Hand embroider in black using a basic backstitch. 
5. Baste your backing, batting and top all together using pins or spray and quilt as desired. 
6. Bind as you would a quilt. 

*Not a quilter? Once you get your top appliquéd and embroidered, just place it right sides together with the back, along with a piece of fleece or sew-in interfacing under the back. Sew around the edges, leave a space open, turn right side out and top stitch the placemats. 

I think my Cindy Lou came out looking suspiciously like someone I know well....

Be sure to check out my other Christmas tutorials in the sidebar, and visit Meredith, Debbie, and Jacey for some more inspiring yuletidiness. 

And if you make any one of our Holiday Craft Bash projects, you still have a couple more weeks to add it to the flickr group. We have a great prize package for the sew-along finale, I'll let you know more soon!

Frosty Advent Calendar Tutorial

Happy Monday! This is the fifth in a series of Christmas tutorials I've been making as part of the Holiday Craft Bash. Meredith, Jacey, Debbie and I are hitting you with a slew of fun Christmas tutorials, and you are making them for the chance at prizes. And for general crafting merriment, of course. 

I picked the theme of classic Christmas movies early on, and in turn I've kind of been tied down to using a lot of felt and embroidery to be able to pull off these beloved characters. Not that I'm complaining about that- I love the felty vintage Christmas look all of these projects have! I definitely remember having lots of felt ornaments and other Christmas decorations growing up. Felt can be your best friend this time of year- just don't cheap out on it! Get the good stuff, it's totally worth it. 

So this week is all about Frosty the Snowman. When I think about it now, this is definitely one of the weirder Christmas specials. I mean, that magician who was always hanging around the children was kind of a creeper right? Even so, my kids will definitely be enjoying some Frosty viewing this year. They went nuts for this advent calendar. 

Supplies: 

1/2 yard white felt

1/2 yard background solid. (I used Moda Bella Violet)

1/2 yard backing fabric

3 1/4 yards jumbo ric rac trim

12" ribbon

small pieces of felt in gray, black, red, blue and brown or gold

fusible web

25 2.5" squares of felt in the colors of your choice

black and white embroidery thread or perle cotton

water soluble marking tool

Pattern pages- Download and print Frosty 1 and Frosty2

As usual, I found all of my supplies at Sewn Studio. The best :) 

First cut out all of your smaller felt pieces: the hat, nose, pipe, etc. Trim your white felt down to 18" x 27" and your background fabric to 18" x 35".  Cut the shape of Frosty's head from the top of the felt (one of the shorter ends.) You will have to extend his shoulders out to the sides since the pattern is not quite wide enough.

Lay everything out where it will be and draw on the face with a water soluble marker. I kept his grin slightly crooked like in the picture of Frosty I found, and his eyes large and egg shaped. Hand stitch the mouth and eyes on the white felt before you appliqué anything down. All you need to use is a simple backstitch, and some satin stitching for the eyes. Go here for embroidery help.

 

Now you are ready to appliqué the felt to the background fabric. I did not use fusible web on the large white piece, just pin it down and straight stitch around all the edges. Then add the smaller pieces and use fusible web for those if you'd like. (If you are seasoned appliqué-ist, pins work fine here too!)

On the hat, first add the main gray piece, then the black band, then the flower and finally the brim.

An advent calendar needs numbers of course, so I also hand stitched those onto each of the 25 2.5" felt squares. It wasn't as bad as you might think, just a couple days of good naps. I just free-handed my numbers on, I like the rustic look of it.

Lay them out on Frosty in 5 rows of 5, centered with about 1.75-2" space on either side.

Pin and machine stitch each one down, going around the right, bottom, and left side. Leave the top open on each pocket. Remove markings. 

Trim your backing fabric to the exact size of the whole front panel. Lay them right sides together. Starting at one bottom corner, put the end of the ric rac in between the layers, hanging a little off the edge. You will be using a 1/2" seam allowance around the edge, so the trick is to pin the ric rac in place so that the center of it is about a 1/2" in, right where you will be sewing. 

Continue pinning around the perimeter with the ric rac in between.

At the top of the panel, add a length of ribbon about 6" folded into a loop. Place the raw edges along with the raw edges of the fabric, and place it in between the ric rac and backing fabric about 2" in from the corner. Pin in place and repeat on the other top corner.

When you get back to the bottom corner you started on, just extend the other end of the ric rac past that corner again and pin everything in place. Sew around the entire thing with a 1/2" seam, but leave about 8" open on one long side for turning.

Before turning, clip the corners really well, including all the bulky ric rac inside. Turn and press well. Press the opening you left under a 1/2" and pin with the ric arc in between the layers. 

Top stitch around the entire thing about 1/8" from the edge. Take your time since there are a lot of layers to sew through. 

Your Frosty advent calendar is now ready for December to arrive! We can't put nails in our walls, so I'm going to buy a couple 3M hooks to hang the loops on. As for the actual advent pockets, I think I'll go the route of writing a simple Christmas activity on a slip of paper for each day. You could also do small treats, or some kind of stick, candy cane, or felt piece that moves from pocket to pocket. 

Looking for other felt movie-inspired holiday projects? 

Charlie Brown ornaments

Leg lamp pillow

Buddy the Elf tree skirt

Bumble Stocking

Please add these or any of the other tutorials you make to the Holiday Craft Bash Flickr group. Check it out, someone (Rachel?) made the Bumble stocking AND added Yukon:

I LOVE IT!!!

Charlie Brown Christmas Ornaments Tutorial

!!! Update: You can now buy your own set of Charlie Brown ornaments from my Etsy shop, RIGHT HERE !!!

This week for the Holiday Craft Bash, I made ornaments just for the kids. My projects so far have mostly been tributes to my favorite Christmas movies- how selfish! Hendrix was obsessed with Charlie Brown Christmas last year. We watched it every day into February, when Hulu finally got rid of it (thank goodness.) But then it was replaced with Charlie Brown Valentine's Day... not quite an instant classic, believe it or not. 

I actually got the idea for this from a set of cookies made to look like ornaments. So naturally, I decided to try the innovative idea of making ornaments that look like the cookies that look like ornaments. Creative genius over here. I added the faces of Charlie, Linus and Lucy to the mix, but I liked her idea of making some to look like their shirts too. 

I'm learning that there is nothing you can't recreate with some felt and a little perle cotton. It's my new favorite combo, essential for holiday crafting especially. 

Here's what you'll need to make your own CB ornament set:

• Peach felt, white felt, and scraps in black, red, green, yellow, and blue.
• Black perle cotton
• Hand stitching needle
• Water soluble marking tool
• Pattern sheet- print here. 

Cut out the felt shapes- from the ornament shape, cut 6 peach, 5 white and one each red yellow and blue. Each ornament will have a front and back main piece, as shown. Cut 7 of the ornament toppers from black, as well as Charlie's shirt stripe, Snoopy's ears, and Lucy's hair. Cut out Linus' hat from green.

Machine stitch the little topper pieces on every front ornament piece, as well as Snoopy's ears, Lucy's hair, Charlie's shirt stripe, and Linus' hat. 

Draw the faces and details on with a water soluble marking tool. Remember if you aren't happy with your drawing the first time, you can blot it out and start over.

I added Linus' hair with machine stitching before starting the embroidery so that it would look extra scraggly. I also did his shirt stripes with a  zig zag stitch on my machine. 

Now embroider the faces and details on each piece using backstitches, french knots for eyes, and a satin stitch for Snoopy's nose and eyes. These are not hard stitches to learn, and you can find great instructions right here. 

Cut a piece of your perle cotton about 8" long for each ornament. Fold it so the ends are together and glue it to the inside of the back piece. 

After the glue dries, place the fronts and backs together so that the glued string is sandwiched inside. Machine stitch all the way around each one and your ornaments are complete!

Since we definitely don't have a tree up yet, I decided to let the kids have some fun with a little felt tree taped on the wall. Mine is about 25"by 20".

The kids love arranging the ornaments this way, and they will get to hang them on our real tree as well. The wonders of felt. 

If you missed my other Christmas movie-inspired felt projects, check them out:

Bumble Stocking

Elf Tree Skirt

Christmas Story Leg Lamp Pillow

Now that Halloween is over, I think we are going to start seeing even more great projects in the Holiday Craft Bash flickr pool. Don't forget to add yours!

Leg Lamp Pillow with Free Templates

It's a major award!

You had to expect a leg lamp would work it's way in to my Christmas movie projects, right?



So here is what you need to make your own 18" leg lamp pillow cover:

1 yard main fabric ( I used Mirror Ball Dots by Michael Miller. Great suggestion Rach!)
Small amounts of felt in peach, black, and another pale color.
Scrap of black netting (I found mine in the costume section of Joann.)
2.5 yards of black ball fringe
Fusible web

Print the templates: Lampshade and Leg/shoe. You can easily print the shapes smaller for a smaller pillow size or other project.

From main fabric, cut one piece 18.5" square, and 2 pieces 18.5" by 13"

The easiest way to cut the felt is to trace the shapes backwards onto the paper side of the fusible web. Fuse it on the back of the felt, then cut it out and it's ready to fuse onto the front of the pillow. 

Fuse the leg piece first and stitch it down with light thread. Then cut a piece of the netting out with the leg pattern piece, but end it lower than the top. pin down the netting (can't fuse it) and then fuse the shoe on top of that. Remember the shoe is meant to overlap the bottom of the leg piece some. Stitch around the shoe and netting with black thread. The netting I got is thicker at the selvedge, so that's what I used for the top of the stocking. But you could add some thicker decorative stitched there for the garter look. 

Now fuse the lampshade piece, overlapping the top of the leg a little bit. Remember to cut a piece of ball fringe as long as the bottom of the lampshade and stick that under before fusing and stitching. 

I added the seams on the shade with a decorative stitch on my machine. You could also do this with hand stitching, but I figured this was one of those rare times to use those machine stitches I never get to.  Draw the lines on first with a water soluble marker.

Now you are ready to put the pillow together. On both back pieces, hem one of the 18.5" sides by folding under 1/2" twice and stitching along the fold. 

Set the back pieces aside and pin the ball fringe all the way around the front of the pillow. Line up the edge of the fringe right on the raw edge of the front square, so the balls are facing the middle. Sew all the way around with a basting stitch close to the edge. (Don't skip this step, ball fringe can be wily!)

Now place the back pieces on top of the front, right sides together, lining up the raw edges all the way around, and overlapping the hemmed sides in the middle. The ball fringe should be sandwiched on the inside. Stitch around with a 3/8" seam allowance, getting close to the balls but not sewing over them. Clip corners, turn, and you are done!

Catch up on my other movie inspired Holiday Craft Bash Projects-

Bumble the Snowman Stocking

Buddy the Elf Tree Skirt

And here are the GORGEOUS three skirt projects from my partners in holiday cheer last week:

Jacey's Hexagon Tree Skirt 

Debbie's North Pole Tree Skirt

Meredith's Vintage Embroidered Tree Skirt

So much great inspiration to get you crafting early for Christmas. Be sure to add any projects you make inspired by ours to the Holiday Craft Bash flickr group. There's a good chance you could win some fabric prizes!

Buddy the Elf Tree Skirt Tutorial

Another Monday, another Christmas tutorial! This is part of the Holiday Craft Bash I'm participating in with Meredith, Jacey and Debbie. Each week, you get to see a new inspiring Christmas project done 4 different ways. And you can add your own projects to the Flickr group for a chance at great prizes. And the best part is, we'll all have some GREAT decorations done before the holiday rush starts!

 I've been working on this all week and have been SO excited to share it with you. Elf is like a new classic in the Christmas movie category. It's a must-watch in our house every year and we quote it all season long. My kids love this tree skirt and I can't wait to introduce them to Buddy the Elf again this December... or maybe even sooner.

This tutorial takes a few things for granted quilting wise. You should know how to do machine appliqué and how to baste, quilt and bind your project. However, if you aren't a quilter, you could easily simplify this project by making the base of your skirt out of a large big piece of felt rather than quilting cotton. Then you can do the appliqué part with my patterns and you won't have to quilt or finish the edges of the felt in any way. Or you could even use the patterns to make a set of Elf stockings for your family the same way I made my Bumble stocking from last week. Lots of possibilities. 

Supplies

1 1/4 yards white fabric

1 1/4 backing fabric

45" square of batting

Fabric scraps in red and white, blue, and gray

Small amounts of wool blend felt in light blue, gray, green, golden yellow, black, white, and orange. 

5 1/2 yards of single fold bias binding (buy pre-made or make your own)

Fusible web, such as Wonder Under or Steam a Seam

Fabric spray adhesive or quilt basting spray

White thread and gray thread

Marking tool

About 15" of velcro

Print the 5 pattern pages: Buddy 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

About Cutting and Appliqué 

I cut my felt pieces by tracing the pattern shapes on freezer paper. You could also trace them directly on to the wrong side of the felt and then cut. I sprayed my felt pieces in place before stitching them down, and used the fusible web only on my quilting cotton pieces. 

 Cut your tree skirt top by taking your 1 1/4 of white, folding it in half selvedge to selvedge, then in half again so that the cut edges meet. Now it should be folded into four layers. From the corner with both the folds, measure 2 inches from the corner on both sides and mark with a marking tool. Then mark again on each side at 21" out from that same corner. Tie your marker on some string and use it like a compass to connect both these markings to each other. So you will hold one end of the string at the folded corner, then start with your marker at the top marking and connect it in a curve to the corresponding mark on the other side. Your lines should look like mine above, with the folded corner at top left. (Ignore the chalk marks my kids decided to add, that side just became the back!) Cut along both of these curved lines and when you unfold the fabric, you will have a full circle with a hole in the middle.

Arrange your Buddy, Puffin, and Narwhal pieces. You want to leave a large space on one quarter of the circle where we will put the opening later on.

Under each section, add some fabric shapes for water and glaciers to give the characters some kind of base. After you are happy with the arrangement, adhere and appliqué each piece one section at a time. In other words, do all the puffin pieces first, then all the buddy pieces, etc. Since we are working on a fairly large base, it's easiest to break it into sections. I also found that using a medium gray thread on all the pieces looked neutral on every color. (I did not want to switch to a matching thread each time!)

Add the candy cane appliqués with fusible web last. I did 8 candy canes, randomly placed around the circle.

Now that all the pieces are in place, it's time to baste and quilt everything. Do not cut a circle out of your batting and backing fabric because it will be too hard to line up everything. Just baste the top circle to squares of the batting and backing that are big enough to cover it, then you can trim around the edge, leaving an inch or two for shifting.

I used this as a chance to practice a little free motion quilting. I made swirls all over the white space in white thread to look like blustery snow flurries. I didn't quilt at all over the felt pieces, but since this is a tree skirt and not a quilt, I think the un-quilted areas aren't a problem. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out... except for the fact that I forgot to turn up my tension until I was mostly done, so the back doesn't look great. Good thing no one sees the under side of a tree skirt.  

After quilting, cut away the excess on the outside of the circle. Draw a straight line in that open space from the outside to the inside and cut it open, then cut out the inside circle as well. Definitely looks like a tree skirt now, we just have to finish it off!

Sew your bias binding onto the back first. On one side of the opening, pin three 5" pieces of the soft side of velcro under the binding, lined up with the raw edges. Pin them so the fuzzy side is facing up when looking at the back of the tree skirt. 

After attaching the binding to the back all the way around, bring it the front and pin, making sure you fold the velcro pieces out so you don't sew over them again. Top stitch the binding all the way around on the top side.

 Turn it over to the back and line up the rough pieces of velcro so they are opposite the fuzzy sides on the opening. Pin in place and sew around all 4 sides of each piece, making sure you use white thread. You are done!

Here's what mine looks like from the back with the velcro closed. Instead of buying a new piece of fabric for the back, I pieced mine with things in my stash. I could easily turn the tree skirt over if I wanted something a little classier.

But then again, why would I? I may be buying a tree right after Halloween this year just so I can look at this tree skirt every day and smile. Smiling's my favorite.


If you use this tutorial or the templates in any way, be sure to add your projects to the Holiday Craft Bash Flickr pool. And keep an eye out this week for some more really beautiful tree skirt projects from my HCB friends.