June 2012

If any of you have kids then you definitely have toys all over the place! We have a 3 year old and 1 year old girls and the toys are out of control.

My oldest has recently started getting dress up dolls and she loves them. I'm glad she is getting into more 'story telling' types of toys, but the small pieces are such a mess. And they come in these cute wooden storage dishes, but they are not at all practical and the pieces are constantly spilling all over the place. Not to mention how potentially dangerous this is now that Baby-zilla is roaming around and loves to put everything in her mouth. So I had to come up with a way to store her dress up dolls that kept them away from the baby, but allowed my 3 year old to still play with them. My solution is:

Toy Storage Bags with Plastic Windows

I love this idea for her dress up dolls, but it could be adapted for any type of toy. And since you can make any size bag the options are endless!

Here the supply list:

Fabric

Plastic sheeting/fabric

(I got mine for $2.79/yd at Hobby Lobby in the home décor section)

elastic or cording

sewing supplies

First you'll have to decide what size bag you'll need. I just measured the doll in this play set and added about two inches to the height. It's not an exact science so just go with what works for your toys. Here is the drawing I made of the bag I wanted to make to make sure I cut the right sized pieces.

I choose to place my plastic window toward the bottom of the bag so you could clearly see all the dress up pieces that come with this toy. You can place it anywhere you'd like based on the toy you are working with.

Next, you'll need to cut the fabric and plastic. Based on your measurements you'll need one piece of plastic for the window, one large solid piece of fabric for the back, and 4 smaller pieces of fabric to 'frame' the plastic in the front.

Now for the sewing. I have never sewn with this plastic sheeting stuff and here are some tips I learned:

GO SLOW! I didn't have any problems with my needle going through the plastic while sewing slowly.

When pinning the plastic to the fabric place the pins PARALLEL to the seam, not perpendicular like you'd normally do. This makes sure that you don’t have a hole in the plastic that is visible outside the seam.

All my seams involving the plastic were sewn with the fabric on the bottom. Even so, I still had to use my hands to help feed them through the sewing machine. (You can see that my first attempt did bunch up a little bit as I got the feel for how much help was needed).

Now to make the windowed panel for the toy bag.

First, I sewed the two side panels onto the plastic window.

Next, I added the top and bottom panels to complete the front of the bag.

Then to help finish off the look of the 'window', and help to further secure the plastic into the bag, I did one finishing seam all the around the window. This will also hold down the seams that we sewed in the first two steps so they don’t show through the window.

Next, sew your two panels together on three sides to get a simple bag.

Now for the opening at the top of the bag. Since part of my goal with this project is to keep small toys away from our little one, I wasn't comfortable using a standard draw string closure. I just know that string would get pulled out by my oldest and we'd be back to dress up doll parts all over the floor. So, I decided to make a tight stretchy closure with a fully encased piece of elastic. My oldest can stretch it open to get out the dress up dolls, but it's almost fully closed the rest of the time.

To make an enclosed elastic top you need to fold down the top of the bag one inch and sew most of the way around. Leave a small opening so you can feed your elastic through.

Next, feed the elastic all the way around the bag.

(Tip: I always use a paper clip or safety pin like this to feed any elastic or cording through a narrow casing. Such a life saver!)

Find the right tightness for your bag and tie off the elastic into a complete circle.

Tuck in the elastic and sew the remaining part of the seam closed.

Turn the bag right side out and stuff with toys! That’s all there is to it! In less than an hour you can have a fun toy storage bag with a see through window!

You just have to find the time!

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So along the way I have started a tradition to give all the babies I know a growth chart for their first birthday. My kids get the sturdy and heavy wood ones (click here for the tutorial for a painted wooden Growth Chart I made for my oldest), and all the other kids I know get the easy to ship fabric growth charts. Well I've made 8 of the fabric ones in the past few months (was there a baby boom in spring of 2011 or what!?!?!) and I really loved all the fun fabrics I got to use. So when it came time to make a wooden Growth Chart for my baby girl I was dreading the not-so-impressive painting talents I possess. I wanted to figure out a way to use all the pretty fabrics I have on a wood Growth Chart. And here is my solution:

Wooden Growth Chart with Fabric 'Appliqués'

Now before you roll your eyes…I'm using the term 'appliqué' loosely. There will be zero sewing through wood! I know we love to sew anything and everything, but this is a no-sew project!

First, the supply list:

4' x 1' pine board ($7 from Lowe's)

lots of cute fabrics (free from "The Stash")

Heavy Duty iron-on Adhesive ($6 from Wal-Mart)

Cricut/Silhouette machine, or scissors and lots of patience

wooden letters (optional, mine were $2 each from Joann's)

iron

Xacto knife

First, I spray painted my board white to cover 90% of the wood grain.

{The goal was to get it all covered, but after about 8 coats I ran out of time and patience and we are going to pretend the plan was for a little bit of the grain showing through.}

Then drill two holes in the top for the ribbon to go through when you hang it up.

Next you need to get the fabric ready to cut. Since I was using a Cricut I cut my fabric into 12 x 12 squares before using the iron-on adhesive. Follow the instructions on the packaging and adhere the iron-on adhesive to all your fabric pieces.

{The secret to 'appliquéing' fabric onto wood is that you are using the Heavy Duty iron-on adhesive to secure your fabric directly to the wood. And you have to use the Heavy Duty adhesive, there will be no other bonding materials used to attach the fabric.}

Next you'll need to cut out lots and lots and lots of fun shapes for your Growth Chart. I use Sir Cuts-a-lot software with my Cricut so I prefer to stick to the wingding fonts I have on my computer.

The flowers used on Bethany's Growth Chart are all from the 'Saru's Flower Ding' font. You can download if for free here. And to get the nested flower effect using Sir Cuts-a-lot you have to use the shadow feature on the letters/flowers and stack them one on top of the other at 1.5" size increments.

{NOTE: if you are going to cut your shapes using a Cricut here is a great tutorial I used to get comfortable with cutting fabric}

Once you have lots and lots and lots of fabric cut outs WITH THE IRON-ON ADHESIVE ALREADY APPLIED you are ready to 'appliqué' your wooden Growth Chart.

Once it's all laid out the way you like follow your iron-on adhesive's packaging for applying the final product. The main thing I learned is that your iron should be on high heat with no steam.

I also learned that if you did pre-paint the board you should not slide the iron back and forth. This scuffed up my paint on the first section I ironed.

Just set the iron on the fabric in sections holding it down for about 2-3 seconds at a time. You'll need about 10 total seconds on the fabric to make sure the iron-on adhesive is securely bonded so just keep lifting and setting down the iron. Over and over and over…

Now for the letters!

I bought white letters and could have just left them as is. But with the white board it was hard to read baby girl's name. So I came up with another technique to cover only the tops of each letter with more fabric. I left the sides white for contrast and to show that they are raised off the board.

I mentioned that the wooden letters are optional for this project and you could just as easily cut out the letters from fabric and iron them right onto the board. That's what's so great about this type of project…you can choose how much to spend and how it's going to look. There are no wrong choices!

If you want to make the fabric front letters like I used, you get your fabric ready just like we mentioned above with the iron-on adhesive on one side. But you DO NOT CUT out the letters before ironing them on.

You iron the fabric onto the wooden letter as a big square with lots of overhanging fabric.

Then you use an Xacto knife and a steady hand to cut away the excess fabric. This way your fabric will fit perfectly to the shape of the letter and you don’t have to worry about lining it up after it's cut.

Once all the letters are covered I used my trusty hot glue gun to attach the letters to the Growth Chart.

Add a ribbon through the two holes at the top and there you go! A personalized Wooden Growth Chart with Fabric 'Appliqués'. So easy and so custom! You just have to find the time!