Old MacDonald Had Some Puppets

About a year ago I was posting photos of a felt puppet project I'd started. Old MacDonald and all of his farm animals transformed that felt into sweet hand puppets. I made three sets, one for us and two for gifts. They were such fun to watch come together and we all enjoy playing with them.

The patterns and instructions came from Just Another Day in Paradise. (They are hand drawn patterns, so obviously a lot of work went into them. Thanks so much to Larissa for sharing.) These were not difficult to make, but there were tons of little pieces to keep track of.

I started by cutting the mitts, one pair for each animal. Then I tried to sew by color of felt - all of the orange pieces, all of the grey, all of the pink, etc. Then I did as many eyes as I could at once, and the hooves were on several, so I tried to do all of those at the same time. It didn't always work out, so there was a lot of changing of thread colors, but it did go quickly when I was able to spend some time working at the table. When we began work on the new flooring, the puppet project was put away and ended up staying put away until the summer was over and we were into Fall. I had to finish them, though, since they were birthday gifts for nephew. My Alex and Kale had been waiting since May for their birthday gift, and Connor's second birthday was quickly approaching in October. I probably sewed on them for between 10 and 12 hours altogether, but I was making three sets, so if you just want to make one set, cut that time by 2/3. A full set of puppets in one afternoon is awesome. A full set of puppets in one day is awesome. A full set of puppets after four months? Well... nope, they're still awesome. A couple of hours on a Saturday morning was all it took to put the final stripes on the kitties and the curly-q tails on the pigs. Somehow I ended up with extra stray pieces like eyes and hooves. I did finally just say no to hooves. They didn't fit anyway, and what little one was going to care about it. None. So I cut myself some slack and called them good. And they are so good! They're so CUTE.

I did, of course, change a few things as I put them together. I gave the old farmer guy overalls instead of jeans and shirt - my nod to Grandpa Adams, I guess. None of my three farmers have a hat yet, and that needs to be rectified. I think some of one of the kitties' stripes are different, I left off the blue on the bottom of the ducks, and of course, those evil hooves.

The felt came from the marts of Wal for the most part, but some was from www.fabric.com. I've always had great service and fast shipping from them, and can get a variety of colors not offered at the local box store. If you have to go out and purchase all of the felt for these, it would be a little bit of investment, but you get nine puppets. I had most of what I needed already.

As for play value, well, besides being fun to look at, there is the song. Songs build vocabulary. Did you know that often times children will sing words that they don't say yet? Plus, you've got the bonus of the song teaching children all of the animal sounds. I don't know why knowing animal sounds is important, but don't we all test young children on this all the time? "What sound does a cow make?" "moo."  Yeah! and we clap wildly. Okay.

There is also the dramatic play value. Kids can create scenarios between animals and/or the Old Mac guy. They have the power to control the puppets, to lead and construct the story. Plus, these guys are just fun to look at.

If you decide to sew up a set, I'd love to see them.

Quick Quilt Top

Sewing. Love to do it. Not very good at it.

I find the actually sewing part fun, but the cutting and measuring and ironing and snipping are tedious to me. Still, I like to make things, so I try to do fast projects. A little over a year ago this link was posted to an email list I subscribe to. A quilt top in 40 minutes? I wouldn’t have to measure and cut? I was intrigued.

I purchased a couple packages of “slices” of fabric at the local Marts of Wal – two of them were close to equal yardage of a jelly roll and cost quite a bit less. (A note about the fabric – it is not the best quality fabric I’ve ever used. Not surprising considering the price. This quilt won’t get lots of handling after it’s finished, so I’m okay with it. If I were to do this for a child, I’d buy much better quality fabric in a jelly roll.)

It took me quite awhile longer than 40 minutes to get everything sewn together, but I’m counting the time spent sewing the strips one by one into a long chain of fabric. So it went from this:

To this:

over the course of an afternoon. The colors work perfectly in the master bedroom. I plan to keep it lightweight and use it as a throw on the bed for those few and far-between naps I get to indulge in. Now how long will it take to get it finished into a real blanket? Honestly I could have it done in another afternoon. Stay tuned…

 

 

 

 

 

Fun Christmas Pillows

Many times in the afternoon while 2 year-old Silas is napping, 4 year-old Bradley and I take on a "project". These projects often allow him to practice life skills or reinforce what he's learning in preschool, but mostly they're just fun.
Today's project was to make Christmas pillows using a Santa hat, a couple of empty Christmas stockings, and some fluffly stuffing. I showed Brad how to stuff it clear to the tippy-toes of the stockings, and fill it to the seam of the cuff of the stocking. Same with the hat - stuffed clear from the pointy tip to the cuff seam. Then we pinned the seam closed and sewed it up. He wanted to "needle" the pillows, meaning he wanted to put the pins in, so I let him try. I only got poked a little. LOL.

Once the seam is sewn closed, you just fold the cuff back over and ta da!, you have a fun holiday pillow.
We had enough stuffing for two stockings and one Santa hat. Brad has distributed them throughout the house - one in the bed where Silas naps, one in the playroom, and one on the living room couch.
The few days following Christmas, when all of the holiday decorations and supplies are at deep discount, is a good time to grab a few Santa hats and some stockings for next year. That is where these came from - all at 80% or 90% off. I plan to pick up a few more so we can have a pillow collection for the playroom next year. They're fast, easy, and lots of fun!

Post-Thanksgiving…

My husband, the Great DIY-Guy, ordered a little part for my laptop, then watched a few YouTube videos, disassembled, reassembled, and I’m back to computing with my own machine. Yea!

So, even though Thanksgiving has come and gone, there are a couple of things I want to show you over the next few days. The first of these being the fun turkey t-shirts I put together for the grandboys.

The t-shirts came from the local W Mart. I like to pick up a few different colors in the boys’ sizes each season, then I keep them at my house for those days a change of clothes is needed. (They’re just under $4 each, which I don’t think is too expensive, but if I found blank tees at a garage sale for less, I’d pick those up instead…)

The turkey body and feathers are fabric that I cut using my Cricut, after designing the shapes on the computer. To cut fabric using the machine, you need to use an iron-on adhesive like Wonder Under or Heat ‘N Bond. You adhere it to your fabric using a hot iron, then before peeling off the paper, run the fabric through the cutter. The beak and wattle were hand-cut out of the leftover scraps.

I arranged the pieces, then ironed them on the shirts. (Wash and dry the shirts first, but don’t use any kind of softener or dryer sheet.) After the fabric was secure, I sewed around each piece. That didn’t really have enough “weight” for the design, so I went back and zigzagged atop the stitching. I am not a prize-winning seamstress, so my appliqué looks homemade. I just tell myself that’s part of the charm of the shirts and what makes them a keepsake. :)

The boys looked so cute when they arrived here for lunch yesterday, dressed in khaki pants and their turkey tees. They wouldn’t pose for a photo (there were other kids here and they needed to go play!), but Jess managed to corral them for a second and got someone to snap a quick pic. Here are my two favorite turkeys and their mama:

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with both sides of the family. I love that we can all gather together and not worry about “his” side and “her” side. We feasted and watched football, the kids played indoors and outdoors, and my MIL even got some Christmas shopping done online. My two little turkeys went home exhausted, but that meant an early bedtime for them, something their mama and daddy were thankful for, I’m sure. LOL.