Martha Stewart Paper Bag Puppets

Cailin came to visit from Kauai over Memorial Day weekend!! Of course, she brought gifts with her. She always does. She brings Ivy and I clothes and usually some fun activities for Ivy too. This time it was Martha Stewart "Make-Your-Own" puppets she got at a garage sale! NEW IN PACKAGE! All for $1.00!

Her and Ivy had a blast doing them together. Cailin hates taking pictures, so being the good friend that I am, I didn't make the weekend all about photographing our activities. 

They came with super-easy instructions.

Aren't they cute?! We've also been making bears, lobsters, peacocks, elephants and frogs. Note: don't leave your 2.5 year-old alone with the puppet packets... she disassembled a few of them and we had to get creative.

These puppet kits are really expensive at the store. But now that I've done them, and know how much fun they are, I would maybe, just maybe, consider buying one!! Maybe...

And if you like the fabric bucket, you can see that post here. And I'm sure you recognize the table and chairs from here. Thanks for the fun gifts, Cailin!

Aloha, Rebecca

Read more ...

Tutorial: Kids Chair Cushion

Here's what I did on my day off: Kids chair cushions! 4 of them. 

Here's the adorable fabric up close:

Here's the chair I started with (see previous post here):

Those chairs (and the matching table) got a huge makeover. More on that in another post. 

Here's my template. Yes, that's Sonya Tayeh. No, I don't think she's a genius, (I know, disagree all you want), she was just on the back of my magazine which I used to make my "pattern." I just traced half of my chair seat, a little larger than the actual seat. The top edge is actually the "fold" of the fabric. You need two folded pieces to make the cushion. 

Here's what one cushion looks like (sideways) cut out. I used XL rick-rack (one of my favorite things right now) as the cushion holders. 

Place the two fabric pieces together (wrong side out).

Sew 3 of the four sides together. Don't sew the side where the cushion holders are going to go.

Because the rick rack was the huge kind, I needed 4 yards of it. Each cushion used two 18" pieces. 

I love these two colors. I couldn't choose just one... so I didn't.

I set the cushion on the chair and put the rick rack right where I wanted it on the chair. I put it inside, then sewed almost the whole side together, leaving a 4" section open so I could turn it inside out. 

Here's what it looked like:

Then I stitched a cross in the center to give it depth when I put the filling in. 

Filled it up...

I sewed the whole side together, not just the section that was open. Then I also sewed the rick rack together because I felt like it pulled the cushion to close to the back of the chair the way it was. 

Ivy's dressed it up with her Easter necklaces. :)

And those are the cushions. :) Details on the painting of the chairs will come later. 

Aloha, Rebecca

Read more ...