More gift sewing....

Thing 2 was invited to another birthday party. As previously mentioned, there are 15 or so kids in his kindergarten class, so $$ for birthday party presents adds up! I decided to have him help me choose fabric to make an Art-on-the-Go kit for her, then add colored pencils, a notebook, and some foam door hangers and foam stickers for other art projects. The gift didn't get the same wild enthusiasm as the Barbies and such, but I think the mom appreciated it. :) And it's more the kind of gift that is appreciated later on, when the toys lose a bit of luster. The entire "art gift" probably cost me $10 in materials, but only $4 in actual money, since all of the fabric/notions came from my stash. (And I made 3 at once, so there are 2 more in my gift stash!)

I had previously made the green sheet in the top of the picture for my new niece's bassinette, which apparently is like a pack-n-play but an odd size. That one was my prototype, since I had no idea how long to make the elastic. Turned out I guessed a little short, and they had to cut the casing in 4 places to release it all so that they could verify the sheet itself was the right size. I then sent another one - same size, but 10 inches longer elastic - which fit just right. (That one isn't pictured, but it came from a jersey sheet that I repurposed.) But it took quite some time to get word that it fit - apparently checking the fit and getting back to me wasn't a priority until the baby arrived, and suddenly they wanted more sheets! ;) So I fixed the green sheet so that it was usable again, and I made 4 more sheets - 2 flannel, 2 cotton - all from stash. They have some Winnie the Pooh stuff in the nursery, I'm told, so I was pretty happy to have 2 Pooh prints to use. This brings the total up to 6 sheets that I've sewn, which should be pretty good for a bassinette.
A friend had a birthday earlier this month, and she loves the PJ pants I make her. She just got a snowflake pair at Christmas, but I saw this flannel on clearance last summer and just had to get it for her. I know that she loves the neon colors in the print, but I'm not sure how she'll feel about the skulls....hopefully she's okay with them. This is my TNT PJ pattern, M3006.
And I had made her a square corn bag last year at Christmas, but apparently she put it in the microwave too long earlier this year. Her mom relayed a deep desire for a new one, so I just had to oblige. ;) I squeaked the cover out of the leftovers from her PJ pants.

Heat therapy via corn bags

Corn bags have got to be one of my favorite "I sort of know you" gifts. Well, for women, anyway...For instance, I gave corn bags to everyone I worked with. We'd already had a Secret Santa gift exchange at the Christmas party, but especially since I was leaving, I wanted to give them all something to show that I appreciated them, but not anything that would make them feel bad about not reciprocating.

These are my standard corn bags - something like 7x20 inches - cut 2, serge them together on all sides (last short side after filling with dried corn). I make the bags themselves out of muslin (cheaper), then make nice print covers (just an overlap style). Flannel is nicest, but any woven works fine. In the above picture, the brown paw prints on the far right and the dog print on the bottom were both purchased for this purpose. I bought one yard of each on Black Friday and got four covers out of each. The rainbow paw prints in the middle was a stash remnant, the penguin and music notes flannels on the left were leftovers from other projects, and the Nutcracker woven was longtime stash. I'd bought it for an apron for myself, but let's face it - I just don't wear aprons. It had sat around long enough and was begging to be used. These were an experiment in a different design. I got the idea on the PR message boards. I forget what size exactly I made them - 10 or 10.5 inches square, I think - serged them on three sides, then sewed lines to divide them into four approximately equal channels. I filled each channel about as full as it could be and still be able to serge the top closed, then made overlap style covers for these as well. I thought they might be better for localized heat therapy than the bigger ones - we'll see...