Zippered Pouch Tutorials

Since I have discovered sewing is really not that hard, I have loved making zipper pouches! They are so easy and they make a fun last minute gift you can whip up in no time.  Any of these lovely zipper pouches would make a lovely gift or stocking stuffer!

I am sharing with you 12 awesome zipper pouch tutorials from 12 great bloggers. I hope you find something that sparks your interest. 

DIY Tablet Case Tutorial

Hi there! Today I am really excited to share with you a new tutorial.  This would be a great idea for Christmas! You probably know more than a few people who own tablets that would enjoy a quilted case!  The tutorial is long, but don't be intimidated, it's not that hard! I promise!

My husband recently bought a new tablet and asked me to make a protective case for him.  I was kind of stumped at first on how to make him a case that was quilted yet manly at the same time.  My husband is an Engineer and I thought using triangles to make his case would make a cool design that he would like.  I got my inspiration from here.

DIY Monogrammed Stocking

I posted this tutorial over at Quilt Story, but I wanted to share it here too in case anyone missed it.  

DIY Monogrammed Stocking:

This is super easy to make and is like two gifts in one!  You can fill this stocking with goodies or a small gift, plus the stocking in itself is a cute little Christmas decoration that can be used each year! So it's like a two for one deal! :)  How great is that?

Quilted Halloween Owl Table Runner

I am not even sure if anyone knows this blog exists anymore! 

I haven't posted a real craft for years. 

I haven't really created anything for the last few years.

Life happens, and we get caught up in all sorts of things and things like crafting gets put on hold.  

In my case it was put on hold for a couple of years.  But I just fell in love with a new type of "craft"

I just discovered quilting.

I'm hooked.

I have always claimed that I am not a sewer! I can barely sew a straight line!  But a few months ago, my mom and her friend got me hooked.  I learned everything about quilting from the most amazing lady.  If you haven't heard of The Missouri Star Quilt Company you are living under a rock! They are the absolute best! I love their tutorials and I have basically learned to quilt by watching their videos.  Jenny teaches them so well, anyone could follow them! 

My first project was a little owl wall hanging, which I did a total hack job on the binding. 

This was my second project and I am happy to report that the binding turned out beautifully because I followed this tutorial. 

I am pretty darn proud of the fact that I did this entire thing by myself.  I designed it, quilted it, and I did the binding myself. 

I love Halloween.  It's my favorite holiday to decorate for. I love the bright oranges, purples, greens, and yellows.  So I gathered a bunch of fabric scraps and bought a few fat quarters of fabric and put this together for Halloween. 

It's a fun table runner, that will brighten my table during October! I can't wait to have it out and enjoy it all October long! :)

Dress to Child's Skirt {mini Tutorial}

I love making things for my kids!  It's not often that I sew things for Hannah, but I was feeling a little crafty and decided to try my hand at making her a skirt out of an old dress I had. 

She loved it. 

  It only took me about 20 minutes to complete! Which is my kind of sewing! :)

This is a "mini" tutorial because I honestly am horrible at explaining how to sew things!

Disclamier: I am not a sewer. 

I don't use technical terms at all.  

I just hope you can understand it. :)

This is the dress I started out with.  I loved this dress, but it was a little too short for me and I was just going to get rid of it, but I decided that I could make it into a skirt for Hannah! 

Step 1: Cut the top off and measure the the length and width to fit your child.  I made sure I left the bottom alone so that I didn't have to hem it.  I only cut down the middle to make it the size that I needed it. 

Step 2:  After you have cut it to the size you need, sew the sides together and also hem the top to fit, but leave a little opening so that you can string your drawstring through.

Step 4:  I used the straps and some elastic to make the band in the skirt.  

After you have your drawstring sewn together, string it through the skirt and sew it shut. 

Doesn't she have the cutest little backside! 

Now, we can't forget about my little man.  With some of the leftover dress I made him a tie onesie to match his sister. 

Love the face Charlie is pulling in this picture! 

So easy, and it didn't cost me a dime! 

Ruffled Shamrock Shirt

I decided to pull out my sewing machine the other day. Whenever I do this I almost always regret it. Sewing just doesn't come naturally to me. You might laugh at this, but I had no idea how to make a ruffle until a week ago! It wasn't until this video tutorial that I finally found enough courage to try it out! To tell you the truth--it wasn't hard at all. I was actually pretty surprised that a ruffle could be that easy.

So I have been hard at work making ruffles. I made Hannah a ruffled heart shirt for Valentine's Day. It was so easy I decided to try my hand at a Shamrock ruffled shirt. It took a lot longer than I had expected, but I eventually got through it. I am having a hard time making my ruffles all look the same. Some of them are really tight, and others are not as tight.

Anyways, since I made Hannah this shirt, I had to make Charlie a little onsie to match. Don't worry his is NOT ruffled! :) His is just appliqued.

I am afraid to say that I may be addicted to ruffles!

I am participating in

SYS at Somewhat Simple

Weekend Wrap Up Party

Show and Tell Saturday

Get Your Craft On!

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Link up Party at Sister's Stuff

Sew Cute Tuesday

Charlie's Blanket

It is finally done.

I feel like this project has been going on for as long as I've been pregnant. (which by the way..is almost 33 weeks!)

The front is cozy baby flannel and the back is really soft minky-like fabric.

We made it WAY bigger than crib size because we wanted him to be able to use it for a while.

I got the elephant pattern from one of my most favorite blogs---little birdie secrets

The colors match perfectly with everything else in his nursery.

Thanks to my mom for her sewing skills and helping me get this project done!

One more project checked off the list! :)

Halloween Tiered Skirt with Applique Shirt

I decided to bite the bullet and actually SEW an article of clothing for Hannah!

Scary, I know.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when making this decision. I blame it on being pregnant. :)

I had a bunch of fat quarters that reminded me of Halloween and I decided to make her a tiered skirt with them. I used this AWESOME tutorial. I would not have known what I was doing without it!

I did make the shirt all by myself. Well I didn't actually SEW the shirt...I appliqued it with a pumpkin. I would share the pattern, but I have no idea how to transfer that onto a computer document. If anyone knows how to do this, I would love to figure out how.

I am actually quite proud how well the skirt turned out! I mean, for never sewing anything like this in my life...I think I did pretty good. (just don't look too close)

I also never knew how useful youtube was until I searched on youtube "what is a gathering stitch" and "how to baste." Yep, YouTube has basically taught me all I know about sewing :) Which now consists of sewing a gathering stitch. I still don't understand what basting is all about... :)

I will be shocked if this thing doesn't fall apart in the washer! I'm sure you will hear about it if it does! :)

I am participating in the following parties:
Get Your Craft On!!

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Show and Tell Wednesday

Sew Cute Tuesday

Ric Rac Burp Rag Tutorial

I think making your own burp rags are a must when you have a baby. The ones you can buy at the store are just not soft enough or big enough in my opinion. My mom just made her own pattern and so that's what I used for my burp rags.

Supplies:

2 Coordinating fabrics

Thread

1 package of ric rac (one package will do two burp rags)

Step 1: Make your pattern (you can find them everywhere)

Step 2: Trace your pattern on your fabric. We folded our pattern in half and our fabric in half then traced it.

Step 3: Cut out your burp rag

Step 4: On the right side of the top fabric, pin your ric rac along the edge of your fabric.

Step 5: Sew your ric rac on your fabric. You want to do it pretty close to the edge so that you are catching the top of the ric rac.

Step 6: Place your two pieces of fabric right sides together and then sew just inside of where you sewed your ric rac on. Be sure to not sew it completely shut, leave a couple of inches so you can turn it the right way.

Step 7: Turn it the right way and iron your burp rag.

Step 8: Top stitch all around the burp rag to close your opening and then iron.

These are so easy to make and they don't take long at all! I hope the instructions made sense! I am a beginner sewer and so I don't know all the terms that experienced sewers use! :) If you have any questions let me know! :)

Ric Rac Receiving Blanket

We found out we are having a BOY a couple of weeks ago and I have started on all of his blankets and all that fun stuff. You all know I am not a sewer, and so this is taking me way out of my comfort zone!!!

I have been searching for a while for cute boy blankets that aren't too feminine and this is the one I found that I fell in love with and decided to make.

She has made a great tutorial on it and you can check it out here.

I was going to try to do a tutorial, but hers is so much better so be sure to check it out.

These are so easy to make and that's saying something if you aren't a sewer! I didn't do an applique on mine because I thought it would be too busy so I just stuck with making the blanket. It didn't take me too long. Probably longer than most because I'm not a sewer, but still I was able to do it!

One thing that I have found so far is that there is not nearly the selection of cute boy fabric compared to girl fabric! Where do you get your fabric for your little boy projects?

Christmas table runner and a yummy dessert!

I love decorating for Christmas, but this year I haven't gone all out like I usually do. I only decorated a couple areas of the house and one of them was the top of my bookshelf. A while back my mom made me this Christmas table runner out of Christmas fabric and I love using it to decorate my house. These table runners are really simple to make. They are perfect for the beginner sewer. I have a couple of them all for different times of the year. They would also make a really great gift.

I don't have a tutorial on this but I found one that is really good you can check it out here. Instead of making a blanket you would just make it long enough to fit your table and the width that you want.

Okay, so when I was on the cruise they had the most AMAZING dessert ever! And luckily for me it was on the menu every single night! So I got it every night and it was sooo good! So the last night I just had to take a picture so I could remember it! :) I'm such a dork, but I love dessert! I would rather eat dessert than dinner! :)

as you can see....i really enjoyed it!

So when we left the cruise we stayed at my sister's house in Vegas for a night and we told her about this delicious recipe. She told us about a recipe she makes that is very similar and made it for us! It was just like the dessert we had on the cruise! It was soo good I had to share it with all of you!

Brownies that make their own hot fudge

Cake:
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Flour
3 T. Cocoa
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup melted butter
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Beat until smooth pour into 8x8 pan

Topping:
Stir together
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 T cocoa
Sprinkle evenly over top of cake batter. Then pour 1 1/4 cup of boiling hot water over the top.
Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 mins. Let stand 15 mins.
To see if done poke the edge of the cake if it comes out clean done. If you do it in the center it will come out gooey because of the fudge. So I try to poke an ege that doesn't look gooey.

This was so yummy...You have to serve it hot so it will have the gooey hot fudge in the middle. It is so good served with vanilla ice cream! We loved it so much that we are going to make it for Christmas!

Rag Pumpkin Tutorial

Today I spent some time with my mom and we made a fabric rag pumpkin! It was really easy and turned out so cute! I am going to have to make another one!

Here's how to make it:

Step 1: Make your pattern. We had a fabric pumpkin that we kind of went off of and made a pattern out of that.

Step 2: Pin your pattern on your fabric and cut out.

Step 3: Use 6 coordinating fabrics and cut the same pattern out for each fabric.

Step 4: Pin 2 of the pieces together. (WRONG sides together, this is so we can make it rag like)

Step 5: Sew about a 1/2" seam and then add your next piece and sew that on until you've sewed all six together.

Step 6: Sew the first piece to the sixth piece so that you've sewed the whole thing together.

Step 7: To make it rag like, you will need to snip the fabric where you sewed your pieces together. Snip it about every 1/4" careful not to snip your seams!!

Step 8: Get your fabric wet and then put in the dryer. This helps the fabric fray better and make it more rag like.

Step 9: Stuff your pumpkin with batting after you've dried it and then tie some string around the top of the pumpkin to gather all of the pieces together.

Step 10: Hot glue a stem in the center of your pumpkin where you made your gather and that's it! You could add some leaves or other embellishments to your pumpkin to make it even cuter!