Fleece Loopy Scarf for St. Patty's Day

I made a St. Patrick's Day Loopy Scarf as per the direction on Jo-Ann's site - see here.  

Let me tell you that was hard on my sewing machine in that there were 6 layers of fleece it had to stitch through.  Ouch! I felt so bad for my machine.  Anyway, after cutting up the loops, even at 1/2", the loops were still too big for me (see picture above), so I went back and cut each loop in half again.

I love the skinnier loops.  Now they are more frilly and fun.  The fatter loops just was too "blah" for me.  What do you think?

Can you see the difference?

Have fun trying this out.  Personally, although it is cute, I don't think I will make this again.  It was just too hard on my machine.

~Peechee

Juice Carton Coin Pouches

My lil' man had a school event requiring him to bring lots of coins to play the games.  I didn't want to use a ziploc to hold his coins... so tacky!  So I made him a milk/juice carton coin pouch. 

Well, his coin pouch was a big hit with his classmates that they started asking if they can have one.  My lil' man, being the lil' entrepreneur, told them he'll sell it for $1.00 each.  When I picked him up from school, he told me he had 6 orders for the coin pouch and that the kids already paid him.  I had no clue what he was talking about and then he explained it to me. So now I'm drinking cartons of juice so I can fulfill his product supply.  LOL!  Thankfully, I have grown teen boys that gladly chug those juices.

I found the tutorial a long time ago on Family Fun Magazine and I saved it because I thought it was too cute ... and it still is! I didn't make a tutorial on this because I thought Family Fun would still have their instructions and template on their site but things have changed for them.  So I found someone who made one using their instructions. I hope that helps.  Here's their picture tutorial on how to make the coin pouches.

There are different versions and I never tried the others as I was content on this version.  But give the others a try and share it with me.  I'd love to see what you did and which you prefer.

~ Peechee

Dr Seuss Truffula Trees No-Sew Blanket

Back to fleece again.  LOL!

In honor of Dr. Seuss Week at my lil' man's school, I made a quick lap throw for his teacher which she could use while sitting at her desk correcting papers.  I totally love the fleece print on this as they look like truffula trees to me.  I'm also so happy that I picked the bright blue/turquoise solid print as it just gives it the right "pop" for this blanket.  What do you think?

~ Peechee

Easy St. Patrick's Day Wreath Tutorial

Yes, I took a small detour from fleece today because I wanted to make a St Patty's Day wreath.  I probably could have used fleece to make this but I saw glitter and a cute ribbon and had to go that way.

Isn't it cute?  I just love it! I did have a little problem with not having enough ribbon but you'll see how I fixed that later.

Here's what you need:

Felt in greens
wreath form
foam clovers
green glitter ribbon
glue gun
scissors

Wrap the ribbon around the wreath form. I glued the down the beginning part so it won't unravel as I wrap.

Keep wrapping all the way around.  And as you can see, this is where my problem started.  I didn't have enough ribbon.  Well, I wasn't about to run out and drive 20 minutes out to get the same ribbon when all I needed was a small amount.  So I improvised.

I took one of my dark green felts and cut a strip the same size as the ribbon.

Glued it to the end of the ribbon.

Started wrapping again but it still wasn't long enough, so cut another strip.

Much better.  It wrapped all the way around.  Doesn't look too fancy but it will do. 

So I just covered it up with the foam clovers.

Here's the back.

Time to make the flowers.  Cut another strip of green felt.

Fold in half at one end and glue together.

Fold the glued end again, making a triangle shape (matching the top end to the bottom) and glue.

Now you are going to start rolling that glued end piece into the felt.

The beginning is a little tricky as it wants to unroll, so hold on to it tight.  Now start twisting the loose edge and roll it around the part you are holding.

Keep twisting and rolling.  Apply glue as between the rolls to hold it in place.  The tighter the twist the tighter the flower.  Loosen up a little on the twist and see how it has a fuller look to the flower. 

 

 

Finish off the edge by gluing the end to the back and now glue the flower onto the middle of one of the clovers.

Repeat the flowers using other green felt colors and glue onto the other 2 clovers.

 Ta-dah! What do you think?

But the back was still kind of ugly with that felt so I took some left over glitter foam and glued that over the exposed felt in the back. And hooray!  Prettier!

Better, right?

 Although it was already cute, I wanted to give it a little more "oomph" so I added some feathers randomly.  I totally love it even more!

 Hope you enjoyed it!  If you make one, please share it with me!  I'd gladly post it up here with a link back to you!

Peechee

Fleece Fringe Scarf with NFL Dallas Cowboy print

And heeeere's another fleece project.  Are you starting to believe me when I say I'm so into fleece now?  LOL!

This is one of those frilly fringe scarves that a lot of football women fans are wearing. I made this for another adorable niece of mine who loves the Dallas Cowboys.  Totally not my team ... I bleed purple!  Go Ravens!!!  My scissors jammed up a little while cutting the fringe on this scarf probably because it knew this wasn't a Raven's fabric.  LOL!

This is so simple to make and there's lots of tutorials out there on the web, so I didn't bother making a tutorial.  Just wanted to show what I made.  

Here's the scarf when all the fringes were all lined up.

I used 3 layers of fleece in complimentary colors to the Cowboys print.

Here it is all wiggled out.

Thought you might get a better look when it is hanging rather than laying on the ground.

If you have any questions or would like for me to make a tutorial, just leave a comment below.  I'll get back to you!

Hope you like it.

Peechee

Fleece No-Sew Blanket Tutorial

As promised, here's the fleece no-sew blanket tutorial!  It's a bit picture heavy so hang on if your computer takes a bit to load.

This blanket, as I said before, was for my little niece's birthday. *Isn't she adorable?* I wanted something cutesy for a little girl and Hello Kitty was perfect! I was lucky to find both fleeces in the remnant section because Hello Kitty prints are pretty pricey.  So yay!
 Here's what I used:

1 yard Hello Kitty Fleece
1 yard Blizzard Fleece -  I used a dark pink color
Ruler
Scissors
Low Tac Painter's Tape

Take your 2 fabrics and and line them up wrong sides together. Spread them out on the floor and make sure everything lays flat.  At this point, if your fabric is not even, cut the edges so they are fairly straight and the 2 fleeces are the same size.

With your ruler, measure 3" in from the edge and mark it using your painter's tape.  Do this on all 4 sides.

Once you have marked off 3" all around, at each corner where the tape meets and makes a square, you will want to cut off the fleece squares.

 

Starting at the edge of one of the cut of corner squares, line up your ruler at the edge of the painter's tape and start cutting strips that are 1.5" wide.  So cut at 1.5", 3", 4.5", 6" and so on.  Cut up only to the painter's tape.  Don't go past it.  You are trying to make even strips to tie.

Keep cutting the strips across but pay attention when you get near the other end that your last strip cut will be 1.5" wide.  You'll know by your ruler if the edge lines up to one of the numbers that would be a 1.5" calculation.  In my picture below, you'll see my edge ends at 12, so it's perfect.  IF yours doesn't end at a correct number making your strip either too big or too small, you can "fudge" your ruler a little each time you cut your strip by SLIGHTLY moving it either inward or outward at each cut so the ruler moves each time until you get to a correct measurement.  Understand?

Once you have cut all your strips, now it's time to go back to each one and cut a vertical slit in the middle of each strip.  The next couple of steps is the time consuming part.  Most people just tie a knot on each strip but I think it looks so much more cleaner and professional the way I "tie" my strips together.

So take the top fleece strip and slightly fold it up towards the painter's tape (as shown below) and then cut a small vertical cut in the middle of the strip.

Flip that strip up so it is out of your way.  See the slit?

Now gently put a small fold on the bottom fleece strip (as shown below) and cut a small vertical slit into it.  Try to make it so that the vertical cuts are in about the same location in the middle of the the strip.

Mine looks about right.  If it's not, that's ok but if you can keep them close to the same proximity.

Place the top fleece over the bottom fleece again.

Now take a hold of both fleece and take a corner and insert it into the slits.

Pull the edge of both fleece through that slit, pulling it all the way through.

Don't worry!  The fleece won't rip regardless of how small your hole is.  You don't want a big hole/slit because the "knots" could slip out easily.  Better it is a smaller slit to really hold it.  So pull that fabric through.

Pull it all the way out and look how it "knots" itself!  Isn't it pretty?  The color just pops and will give it a nice border.

Continue the slit cutting and knotting all the way on the one edge.  Then repeat the strip cutting, slit cutting, and knotting around the other edges until you have done all 4 edges.

Once you have "knotted" all the strips, remove the painter's tape and tah-dah!  Your blanket is done!  And remember those big square empty corners?  Where are they now?  All tied-up and evened out.  You can't event tell there were 3" squares cut off from each corner.  Cool, huh?

Here's the complimentary back side.  See the nice dark pink border?  Awesome! I totally love this project!

Hope this helped you.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below.  Feel free to share and spread the love.

Peechee