All Wrapped Up

I hadn’t planned to blog about our Christmas present crafts this year, but when we were all finished I posted this picture on Facebook and people were impressed.

I could just let them be impressed, but keeping secrets has never been my thing, so instead I will tell you guys how easy blanket and scarf making can be for kids. There’s still plenty of time before the Holidays for you to make one and let your kids impress their grandparents or whoever. Blanket and scarf making is super easy, creative, and fun for the kids and the gift recipients, so what more could you want?

Briana, my five-year-old, is really into sewing right now. I took her on a trip to JoAnn’s Fabric Store for fun one afternoon. We were planning to look around and buy some fabric that she could play with on her sewing machine and her mini mannequins, and some to sew into scarves for her teachers for Christmas. When we got there, Briana, walking around intensely and carrying her portfolio of fashion drawings, drew the attention of the staff. She happily showed them her drawings and Abby told them all about Briana’s sewing machine and the staff was really nice. They asked me how long I’d been sewing and I told them – I don’t sew at all. Briana and I had to learn how to use her kiddie sewing machine together. Briana then told them about her plan to sew scarves for her teachers for Christmas. (We’d sewn a scarf before and it’s pretty easy – turn the fabric inside out, put one stitch down the outer side, flip it back to the right side and sew down the corners – done.)

Then while Bree looked at fabrics…

…they pulled me aside and whispered this awesome idea to me!

Apparently you can cut fleece and it won’t pill up or shred like other fabrics!  Hence, you can make no-sew scarves. Genius!

So we had Bree pick out some fleece fabric to make scarves.

  

They gave us lots of size options, and Briana picked a 12-inch wide scarf. Apparently the rolls of fabric are already the right length on their short end so the great staff let Briana measure her 12 inches over from the edge and cut her scarf out. They suggested that to make the project more fun we should go home and cut fringe, so we did.

Scarf Making Steps:

      1.     Cut off the edges of the fabric if needed. Our fabric said JoAnn’s on one side and was sewn down on the other side.

      2.    Take fabric markers and make a tiny tic mark on the back every 1 inch. This is a nice way to have some practice with rulers too!

      3.    Then measure 5 inches long or however long you want your fringe. Briana made every teacher’s fringe a different size and used different fabrics, thinking carefully about each teacher’s personality. Only Bree could take “Mrs. C. is always twirling around and translate that into needing longer, knotted fringe. We marked the end point of the cuts by putting the ruler there.

      4.    Cut from the tic mark up to the ruler all the way down the sides.

(Sorry, I wasn’t planning to blog this, so I didn’t take step-by-step pics.)

That’s it. Beautiful scarves done. We made 5, one for each of her teachers. Each scarf took about an hour, but only because Briana is detail oriented and we re-measured after each cut to make sure we were still one inch apart. After the first scarf we abandoned making tic marks and just measured one inch from the previous cut. You could probably make one in half that time or less.

I want one!

  

By the time we finished, two things happened. First, Bree got more ambitious. Second, Abby wanted in on the fun.

So we decided to try a blanket for the Grandpas (I can’t talk about the Grandmother’s presents yet because they read this blog). This time I knew to talk to the JoAnn’s folks first, while the kids picked out a couple of fabrics from the scrap bin (A GREAT way to play with learning to sew! The scrap bin fabrics are $1- about $3 each and the ones we got were big enough for Bree to make a simple dress for herself or Abby out of each piece, though she used multiple pieces for “design”. We’ve learned a ton about sewing different types of fabrics cheaply this way. FYI, the sewing machine hates silk!)

The JoAnn’s staff suggested that we pick two pieces of fleece and cut them to 72 in x 60 in. So we did. The girls picked football fabric for one side and a plain, coordinating fabric on the other side. Both Grandpas of course get different colors and football patterns.

Blanket Making Steps:

      

     1.     Stack- At home we stacked the two blankets on top of one another (so we could cut them together rather than be exact enough to have them match up) with the wrong sides together and the nice sides out.

     2.     Cut Corners - Then we cut 5-inch squares out of each of the corners.

     3.     Cut Strips just like with the scarf fringe- Then Briana and Abby started cutting a strip every one inch or so (especially with Abby’s developing sense of a straight line and ability to make one with scissors). The nice thing about having the 5-inch square cut out is that the kids cut up to how tall the square is.

     4.     Tie- When all the cuts are made, and the approx. 200 cuts took us about three hours spread across a couple of days, you knot the top and bottom pieces together.

The nice thing is that up close the cuts are really messy and uneven, but…

…when you look at it from far away, it’s a beautiful blanket made entirely by your kiddies!

I hope you guys are getting your Holiday shopping all wrapped up and that you have a fun, cozy, happy holiday!

<3 Pedigreed Housewife