Paintbrush Roll

One of the neighbor girls, who also babysits the kids from time to time, recently turned 18.  She's studying art in school, so I decided to make her a paintbrush roll to match the bag that I made her for Christmas.  (A tutorial for that coming soon!)  This is so simple, but makes a great gift for the artist in your life.

To get started, cut out your fabric.  I'll let you know what I used, but you can tweak these measurements to fit the brushes, pens, or colored pencils that you're wanting to tote around.  You'll need a piece of outer fabric (mine is the blue patterned fabric below), a piece of inner fabric, and three pieces of fabric for the three layers of pockets.  In addition, you'll need ribbon to tie it closed (or you can make a ribbon from your fabric).

My measurements were:

Outer Fabric:  20" x 13"
Inner Fabric:  20" x 13"
Long Pocket:  8" x 13"
Medium Pocket:  6" x 13"
Short Pocket:  4" x 13"
Ribbon: about 24" long

Fold down the top edge of each pocket piece about an inch and press.  Then fold the raw edge in, and press again.  Top-stitch in place.  If you have a fancy stitch option on your machine, you can spice up your top-stitch that way.

Note: You might be tempted, as I was, to cut your fabric twice as long and just fold it in half to make for a smoother look, but you end up with twice as many layers at the bottom of your project, which makes it hard to roll.

Now lay the pockets in place on the inner fabric piece and mark a line down the center with chalk.  Mark out from the center where you would like to sew pockets.  I made even-width pockets of 1.5 inches, but you can make wider and narrower pockets, depending on what you're planning to stow in them.

Now pin the sides and between some of the pockets to hold it in place while sewing.  Sew along each mark, reinforcing at the tops of each pocket.

Now it's time to layer your fabrics to sew them all together.

First comes your inner fabric with the pockets attached.

Next, place your ribbon, folded in half, with the fold hanging off the edge, and the open ends toward the inside of the project (you'll probably need to fold the ribbon over to assure that it doesn't get too close to the edge of the fabric, where you're about to sew 1/2 inch from the edge).

Now place the outer fabric on top, right side facing down.  Stitch, leaving a space at the top to turn the project inside-out.  Trim your corners before you turn it inside out.

Now press it well and top-stitch around the entire project.

Fill it up with your paintbrushes and whatnot... and roll 'er up...

Done!

Beni's Tool Belt

How cute is this little tool belt?!?

I couldn't resist making one for Beni and one for his little friend Kimi... complete with their respective pre-school symbols.

They were so psyched!!

 

My hero, Ashley, of the "Make It and Love It" blogspot posted a fabulous little tutorial for this baby:

makeitandloveit.blogspot.com

Make and Love!!

Nothing-to-it Tote

This matching tote and crayon roll make a great gift with crayons and a few coloring books.  I made this set for a benefit for the local kindergarten.  This one is just the right size for coloring books, but you can make it any size you want.  (Tutorial for the crayon roll is on my to-do list.)

 

First, let's figure out how large to cut your fabric... decide how high, wide and deep you want your finished bag to be.  I used two styles of fabric... I'll call them fabric A (orange) and fabric B (burgundy).

 

If you just want to make yours the same size as mine... perfect for standard coloring books or magazines, then just skip past all the math and see my fabric dimensions.  If you'd like to make yours custom-sized... here's the fun algebra:

Let's say:

x = desired height of bag  (mine is 12")
y = desired width of bag  (mine is 9")
z = desired depth of bag  (mine is 2")
µ = desired height of the bag base  (mine is 3")

Fabric A:
cut two:  { x - µ + 1 } by { y + z + 1 }
cut two:  5" by 22"  (for the strap... adjust as desired)

Fabric B:
cut one:  { z + 2 µ + 1 } by { y + z + 1 }
cut one:  { 2 x + z + 1 } by { y + z + 1 }

Interfacing (preferably fusible):

cut one:  { 2 x + z + 1 } by { y + z + 1 }

So since I want my bag to be 12" x 9" x 2" with a 3" base, I will cut the following:

Fabric A: cut two 10" x 12", and cut two 5" x 22"

Fabric B: cut one 9" x 12", and cut one 27" x 12"

Interfacing: cut one 27" x 12"

Leaving a 1/2" seam allowance, sew the three smaller pieces together, like so...

Grab your iron and fuse the interfacing to the back side of this piece.

 

Now fold in half, right sides together, being careful to match seams.  Sew along the sides, leaving a 1/2" seam allowance.  Repeat with the liner fabric, leaving a hole unsewn on one side to turn the tote right-side out later.

Flatten the bottom corner as shown, and mark about { z ÷ 2 } from the corner... for me it was about 1" from the corner, making the length of my mark (and therefore the depth of my bag) 2".

Now sew along that mark and trim.  Repeat for the other corner, as well as the two bottom corners of the lining.

 

Now set all that aside and let's prepare the straps.  Fold the strap pieces lengthwise in half and press.  

 

Then fold the raw ends into the center fold and press.

Now topstitch on both sides.  If you set your needle to the rightmost position, it is easy to stitch close to the edge.

 

On the wrong side of the tote, mark where you would like to have your straps (measure from the seam... I placed mine 3" from the side seam).  Then, with the bag still inside-out, pin the straps in place inside the bag.

Turn your lining fabric right-side out.

Now place it inside the bag and pin in place.  The right sides of the fabric will be facing each other with the straps in between.  Sew around the top of the bag, backstitching over each strap to reinforce.

Turn the bag right-side out through the hole you left, and stitch up the hole by hand.  Then stuff the lining into the bag and press.

Top stitch around the top edge of the bag and you're done!!

If you make a tote using this tutorial, please send me a picture!!  My e-mail is { angie at andrisangie dot com }.  Then go out and enjoy your new bag!!

Swirly Crayons

Pre-schooler fun on a rainy day!!

First of all... never throw away broken crayons... collect them in a little jar till you have a bunch.  Then wait for a rainy day when you need a little activity to entertain your kiddo.

Give your little squirt the fun task of pealing the paper off of the broken crayons. Then they can break the larger pieces into smaller pieces. Fun Fun!

Have that sweetie pie distribute the crayons into muffin tins. I suggest using mini-muffin tins, as the results of my first try using regular muffin tins were a bit large for my Beni's little fingers.  Better yet... heart shaped tins!

Now bake them until they melt (for 10-15 minutes) at 250°F or 120°C.  Let them cool down completely and pop them out.

Now let your kiddo draw away.

 

Easy-Peasy... and fun for your little one!!

Pinafore Dress

This is a really cute dress that will become a very cute top for Lia this summer.  Before I realized that there were so many free tutorials out there, I actually bought the pattern for this pinafore dress (McCalls 2213).

Since then I found several good tutorials online.  Although it is boxier in the back, this is a good one to follow: www.thestuffilivefor.com.

My friend Tabitha taught me to make a beautiful bow to match... and there's a great tutorial for that at www.rockinribbon.com.

 

 

 

Toddler Summertime Top... so cute!!

This is my all-time favorite summer top for a toddler.  The reason this design is so great is that most 12 to 24 month-olds have a little baby gut on them, and these little ruffles accommodate that belly beautifully.

Tutorial can be found at www.jcarolinecreative.com.

And here's my little Emilia in one of the many tops I made from this tutorial...