2 in 1: Drawstring bag and play mat–An easy tutorial

Our little neighbor turned 4 last week. He is a huge fan of cars. I think he owns several dozen toy cars. Last year I made this quilt (reversible play mat) for him:



I had plenty of the backing left and made a portable playmat for him this year. When visiting his grandparents he loves taking some tons of toy cars with him. I thought that an unfoldable drawstring bag would be a great idea and came up with this:



A giant drawstring bag that doubles up as a playmat when unfolded:



As it was really easy to do, I took some photos along the way so you can make your own – for little neighbors, sons, grandsons, nephews, etc. You get my point (o;

1. You will need two squares of fabrics: with a length equal to the width of fabric (approx. 42”). Draw a circle by pinning a strip of fabric (or a selvage) to the middle of the square and attaching a fabric marker at the other end of that strip.



2. Cut out these giant circles.



3. Sew a 1/2 – 3/8” buttonhole onto the outer fabric. Around 3-4” away from the edge. Open the buttonhole with your seam ripper.



4. Lay out the fabric circles right sides together and sew all around them – leaving a small opening through which you turn it inside out.

5. Sew close to the edge all around the circle and shut the opening at the same time.

6. Make the tunnel for the drawstring and sew twice around the circle. Starting at the right and afterwards at the left side of that buttonhole.



If you look closely you can see my seams in the picture below.



7. Put in your drawsting and sew those ends of the drawstring together so that the drawstring completely sinks into the tunnel. That way the child won’t stumble over it when playing.



And that’s it. You’re done.

I made a matching little drawstring bag for him to take some toy cars to a restaurant – he can’t always drag around dozens, can he?!



Happy Weekend everyone!
Christine

birthday preps (2) and a review

It is over.
And he was/ is happy.
And his friends were happy.
And I’m exhausted.
And happy.

Yesterday: More preparations
We made “Pirate’s Blood” (red and green jelly/jello):





And today it was gone within 2 minutes - before I even thought about taking some photos.
We made cupcakes with chocolate and m&m’s:





It took him so long to sort the m&m’s by colour and make up a new design for each cupcake (his choice, not mine!) that the chocolate was dry before he finished the second one (o;

Today: The pirates party in honour of a 5th birthday (o:
It was a nice day and we had so much fun. Almost no tears, no fights and no accidents. Quite exraordinary with 8 little ones between 3 and 5!
The kids had fun with soap bubbles…





… and our special scavenger hunt for “Pirates of the Woods”. They were to collect ordinary items from the woods nearby. I used copied an idea that I found online some months ago (but when I searched for it I couldn’t find it just now). I chose 10 different items from the woods, took a photo, printed it and glued it to egg boxes.



We set out for a walk in the woods and it started raining before we reached the outskirts. Aaaah! But the kids were well prepared and eager to get their boxes stuffed. It was a great success and everyone was rewarded with some shots of “Pirate’s Blood” and a “Pirate’s Drawstring Bag” with toys and sweets.



However, when they were all gone, we discovered there HAD been a little accident along the way (o: Our youngest thought it the worst thing that he had to take a shower immediately because we didn’t want to cut off his hair…



It was a day that was by far better than I had feared and anticipated but I’m glad it’s over nontheless. A huge thank you to our dear neighbor who helped with the kids and to my husband who did all the cleaning and was preparing dinner while we were off for the scavenger hunt.

Any suggestions for next year? Do you have some great-success examples to share?
Finally back to sewing tomorrow!
Christine

Miscellaneous gifts

I recently made some gifts that I can now share with you. There are different occasions that required some handmade gifts.

For the wedding of our friends I made a tablecloth. The bride asked for an outdoor tablecloth so I decided to use oilcloth and to add a little extra finish I added a giant ric rag all around the edges.




Next I started to prepare the 3rd birthday of our youngest son. He asked for a dragon for his birthday. I did some online research and found out that there was a Lego Duplo series of Knights and Dragons in 2004-2005. That series is out of production now (and new parts can only be found at unreasonably high prices) so I bought some small used kits.
This is the dragon (pretty big in comparison to the regular block, isn’t he – or she?!)



And as the used kits came in an ordinary box, I made this giant drawstring bag where he can store his new duplo blocks. I know, these are dinosaurs on the fabric but I did not have any dragon-y fabrics in my stash. I guess he won’t mind.



And then there were some baby gifts to do. There are three babies due any time now. I started cutting these baby hats already 3 weeks ago but only started to sew them together yesterday evening. These cute baby beanies are my go-to newborn baby gift. I used this great tutorial of Tie Dye Diva.



It was good to get them finally done because this morning I was informed that my youngest cousin, a sweet little girl named Emma, was born yesterday – nearly 4 weeks early. I started making her quilt right away and am happy to inform you that the top is already finished (my boys were visiting their grandma and I was sewing like a mad woman for 6 hours). I hope to do the basting and quilting tomorrow (if the boys behave) so maybe I can show you another finish in the next couple of days.

Do you have a go-to baby gift? I’d love to know, maybe I can change my habit and mix in some other great gifts?!

Happy Sewing!
Christine