I think in this post I'll include the three gifts I made for the toddlers in my life. I have a niece (5) and two step-nephews (4, 1...almost 2). Let's start with the boys. I began subscribing to a newsletter called The Happy Housewife (with accompanying blog) back in October. Everyday I got an email with a homemade Christmas gift idea. The two ideas I latched onto for the boys were a memory game and beanbags. I tagged them on my Pinterest account and came back to them in late November/early December.
Homemade memory game
Here's the link to the tutorial I followed.
I decided to make Kris, the four-year-old, a memory game with a dinosaur theme. I found scrapbook paper at Michael's, printed dinosaur pics from a free clipart site and had one of my teacher friends laminate the cards for me at school.
These are the supplies I needed besides paper and pictures: glue, pen/pencil, ruler and scissors. I used the bottle cap to trace around the four edges of each card, then cut a rounded corner to make them look more finished. There are scrapbook tools that do this with a punch, but they cost about $10. My way took longer but was free!
I glued my dinosaur pictures to the paper on the left. I should note here that I used two-sided paper. I put the picture on the busier side of the paper and used the other side for the backs of the cards. This way each card looks more uniform when the game begins.
The finished product! I picked 12 different dinosaurs, two cards each, making this a 24-card memory game. Like the tutorial says, you can punch a hole in the corner and keep the cards on a binder ring for easy travel. I didn't have a ring, so I just laminated the 24 cards plus one more with directions and put them in a box. My step-sister-in-law can carry them in her purse to appointments or other places where Kris might need to entertain himself. The entire project cost me about $3.
Beanbags
I decided to make Landon eight bean bags, using four different fabrics. I have some great fabrics that an international student brought me from Nigeria so I chose those. My friend Kristin that I mention frequently also made some of these, and she used an old plaid shirt for some of hers.
Here's the link to the tutorial I used. I think I cut out 5x5 squares for this, and I bought dry lentil beans at Wal-Mart for the filling. I think Kristin used beans and rice for hers.
My fabrics
Place two of your squares together--WRONG sides facing. Sew around three sides of the bag.
This is sort of blurry, but it helps to cut the excess fabric at the corners whenever you make a bag of any kind, or basically anything you plan to turn inside out.
The tricky part came next for me. I filled the bag with beans--I can't give you an exact amount, but I put fewer beans in my second bag after I had a small accident with the first one! You could do one of two (or probably more if you're a better seamstress than me) things now. One is to just sew straight across and not mind that there's an unfinished edge. Your toddler surely won't. Or you can turn the two sides in and sew across. You'll still see the seam, but you won't have the unfinished edge. I tried the second idea, but I couldn't hold it all together and lost some beans. I also fought with my machine over the Nigerian fabric. So I then went to the first idea.
Tada! Beanbags for small children to throw at each other or put in their mouths! The project cost me maybe $5 for bags of beans. I could've gotten them cheaper if I'd bought in bulk at Whole Foods or the local co-op, but I wasn't sure what I'd need, and I was at Wal-Mart when I remembered I needed them.
Homemade Tutu
Andrew's sister has a five-year-old daughter, and we usually give her books for Christmas and her birthday. I wanted to give her one book in a series that Julie Andrews helped write called A Very Fairy Princess, but I also found a book called Talulah's Tutu about a girl who takes ballet and desperately wants a tutu. My idea was born. We would give her the tutu book for Christmas with a tutu to wear! We gave her the other book for her birthday.
The initial tutorial I found for this can be found here, but I looked at several blogs and videos to see what each one did.
For this project you need tulle, elastic and ribbon (optional). You also need scissors. I initially bought a yard of pink sparkly tulle and another yard of purple. I didn't have enough, so I went back for more purple and a regular pink. The tutorial said two yards of each color, but I thought since Ava was small she wouldn't need that much. I was wrong. You need more to make it fuller.
If you can see in the top of the picture above, I laid out the tulle, then folded it up into a long strip. I made my cuts, then unrolled them. I saw this in a video, and it made it so much easier to cut. You don't have to be exact, but what you want to do is cut similar-width strips to tie onto the elastic. I had my mother-in-law measure my niece's waist, then went about an inch smaller so it would sit snugly on her. The only sewing I did was to sew the elastic together into a circle.
Once you have your fabric strips, you just tie them on the elastic. Fold the strip in half, loop it around the elastic, put one end in the other and pull tight. (This is the same way you put a luggage tag on a suitcase.) I found it somewhat easy to put the elastic around my knees and work my way around. However, here is my advice to not do what I did and not buy sparkly fabric...I was covered!!!
Once I got all of my strips tied on, I took some ribbon and wound it in and out between the tulle knots. I also added some long strips of ribbon to hang down. Once we got to Alabama and our niece had opened her gift, I took scissors and cut the ends to the length she wanted. She already had a shorter tutu, so we made this one knee-length for dress-up games.
I bought all of the tulle on sale and used a coupon at Joann's for the elastic. The project was less than $10.
I think I'll put the rest of my crafty gifts in a second post, so stay tuned!
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