Cupcake Box Tutorial

Who doesn't love a cupcake? I had a friend who liked cupcakes because she didn't have to share, they come individually packaged. Well, whatever your reason may be cupcakes rock!! If you are looking for a fun way to give them to a friend, here is a quick tutorial on the making of a cupcake box. This box will house four lovely cupcakes rather comfortably. Just make sure to use a reasonably heavy paper, something equivalent to the thickness of card stock should work great.

All of the instructions are in the document below, but I thought I would include a picture of attaching the bottom portion to the top as I thought it might be a little confusing. Let me know if you have any questions.
 

Cupcake Box Tutorial

raggy blanket, burp rags and taggy block tutorial

 

Well, vacations over so I guess it's time for that promised tutorial. None of these ideas are new, but I thought it may be helpful to have a all inclusive set of instructions to make this fun baby gift. Sometimes I think the hardest part is figuring out how much material to get, I much prefer the putting everything together part! For this project you will be making 1 Rag blanket, 3 burp rags and 1 taggy block. 

For this project I used:

1/3 yd of 5 coordinating fabrics (you should have 1 1/3 yds total)

1 1/3 yds fabric for backing

1 pkg. crib sized cotton quilt batting (enough to cut 49, 5" squares)

1/3 yd  terry cloth

Scraps of ribbon

Scrap of heat n' bond

stuffing for taggy block

You can use fewer than 5 fabrics for the front, but I wanted to be sure I didn't have any of the same fabrics adjacent to one another. Be sure to cut out fabric as I will show below to ensure you have enough fabrics for all of the projects.

Cutting your fabric: 

Five coordinating front fabrics: From four of the five 1/3 yd fabric pieces cut out a total of ten 6" squares. You will only need nine 6"inch squares from the fifth 1/3 yd fabric piece. From 3 fabrics cut a 7/12" piece for burp rags. From all five fabrics cut a 5" square piece for taggy block.

Fabric for backing: Cut 49, 6" squares from backing material. Also cut one 5" square for taggy block.

Cotton quilt batting: Cut 49, 5" squares for blanket. 

Terry Cloth: Cut 3, 12x7" pieces, for burp rag.

Whew, what a work out! When you are all done, your lovely stack of stuff should look like this:

 

Blanket 

Assemble quilt squares:

Next place one 6" backing square wrong-side up in front of you. Carefully place 5" batting piece centered on backing piece, you will have about a half inch of backing poking out of all sides. Next, place a 6" front fabric square right side up directly on top of batting piece. Continue until all of your 49 squares are assembled.

Sew your x's:

Next, sew a diagonal line starting about a half inch from the corner down to about a half inch away from the opposite corner. Sew a second line down opposite ends, leaving you with  hopefully a perfect x. You are welcome to measure for exactness, but my patience only let me go as far as to eyeball it and I was still happy with my results.

Sew your squares together:

This part trips me up every time I make one of these blankets. To make that cute little scraggly seam, you will need to sew each square wrong-sides together. Place first square wrong-side up before you, place second square right-side up directly on top. Pin in place, sew a 1/2" seam down side. Sew squares together until you have 7 strips with 7 squares in each strip. Be sure to sew squares in an order that won't have any of the same fabric fabrics touching. I laid out all of my squares on the floor and moved them around until I was happy with were I had placed each of them.

Sew strips together:

After you have conquered sewing your blocks into strips. Place one strip before you wrong-side up and lay the adjacent strip directly on top right-side up, pin in place. Sew 1/2" seam down entire side. Continue with remaining strips until you have a pretty blanket. 

Completing the deal:

To finish the outer edge on this blanket, I sewed a 1/2" seam around the perimeter. Next, using the point of your scissors, clip within 1/8" of the the seamline, continue along raw edges clipping about every 1/4"-1/2". Pop in a good movie for this part, it can take a while. I just clipped a few squares every time I got a minute throughout the day. Wash blanket to encourage raggedness.

Taggy Block

For the taggy block feel free to use your imagination for decorating each side. I only added something special to two sides and left the other sides to do their own magic. 

Heart square

For one side I appliqued a heart using the scrap of heat n' bond and a scrap of the backing fabric. I used a simple zig zag stitch to reinforce it.

Ruffle square:

For the other side, I added a small ruffle. To make ruffle take a 3"x12" strip of scrap fabric (it doesn't have to be that specific dimension, just kind of close).  Fold over long edge toward middle about 1/2", press. Repeat on opposite side. Next, bring raw edge toward fold, press. Repeat on opposite side. This should give you a 1/4" hem on both sides. Sew seam down edge.

Place strip down on desired 5" square. Ruffle as desired. Sew seam down center of ruffle to hold in place.

Assembling block: 

Getting started:

Once you have all your blocks ready for assembly. Start by placing one 5" square right-side up before you. pin on ribbon if desired. I folded my ribbon over creating a loop to avoid having raw edges that may ravel. Just place folded ribbon so raw edges of ribbon line up with the raw edge of your square. Your ribbon should be perpendicular to the squares raw edge. (If you would rather not loop your ribbon, you can always use heat to melt a raw ribbon edge, but I wasn't sure if it would hold if a baby sucked on it too much.) Place second square right-side down on top of first square and ribbon. Pin in place on one side. Sew a 1/2" seam down side, open and press flat. 

Make circle:

Continue sewing blocks together until you have a strip of 4 blocks. Sew first and last blocks together to form a circle of blocks, see photo for better description.

Top it off: 

Sew on top square. Finish by sewing bottom square on leaving about 3" open on one side to pull square right-sides out, and to stuff.

Finish it up:

Stuff block with desired stuffing. Hand stitch opening shut. Yeah! 

Burp Rags:

These are fairly self explanatory, but I took a picture just for kicks. 

Place 7x12" piece of fabric and matching piece of terry cloth right-sides together, pin in place. Sew a 1/4" seam around perimeter leaving about a 3" opening. Turn burp cloth right sides out. Press so opening edges are nicely tucked inside burp cloth. Sew a finishing seam around perimeter of burp cloth.These take about 5 minutes to make, yeah for quick projects.

This baby gift is so fun to put together! If you have any questions about anything, please leave a comment and I will try my best to describe it better.

dirty diaper baggy holder tutorial

Through experience, I have discovered that diaper changes don't always happen at the most convenient times or places. I have also discovered the usefulness of having a bag to stick that dirty little gem in until I get home. Lets face it, I just don't like having to smell it. When I was making diaper clutches for a few friends having babies, I thought it might be handy to have a matching pouch to put some of those helpful dirty diaper baggies.

I made pouches using the scraps I had left over from the diaper clutch, and it only took me about 15 minutes total to cut it out and sew it together. Yes folks, it's just that easy!! Anyway these little cuties hold about 20 of the bags I found at the dollar store, and I think they are kind of adorable. I actually feel kind of bad that they are being used to hold something like doggy poop bags, but hey what do you do?

To do this project you will need:
Main fabric:
-(1) 5 1/4 x 4 1/2" piece
-(2)  5 1/4 x 3" pieces
-(1) 5 x 2" piece
Light Interfacing:
-(1) 5 1/4 x 4 1/2" piece
-(2) 5 1/4 x 2 1/2" pieces
thread

If you are using a heavier fabric, such as an outdoor upholstery you probably won't need to use the light interfacing. You can use a heavier interfacing, but it will be a lot stiffer, and harder to turn right-side out in the end. I just wanted to use interfacing since my fabric was fairly light, and I wanted it to be able to withstand some wear n' tear.

Cut out fabric and interfacing:
Not much explaining here. 5x2" piece is not shown here, it is used to create the hanging loop.

Iron on interfacing:
The larger square of fabric should line up nicely with the larger square of interfacing. As for the two smaller pieces of fabric (what I will call the front pieces), line the interfacing up to one side of the fabric. To compensate for my lack of descriptive skills, please refer to the very boring picture above.

Create small hem:
On both front pieces, fold over remaining fabric edge and iron in place. Then bring edge to newly created fold and again iron in place, creating a small hem. Again I have included a more descriptive picture that hopefully worth its thousand words.

Create front side:
Place the two finished front pieces wrong-sides together, so that hems meet. Sew a 1/4" seam starting from each end, continue until you have reached 1 1/2" toward the center. This should leave you about a 2" opening. This is where you will be able to pull out those lovely bags. Yes, I know my seams are pretty crooked, but I am happy to say they can still serve their purpose.

Press open:
Press front piece open. I pressed each seam to the opposite direction at either end. That will prevent the seam from folding to one side. Set front piece aside.

Sew strap for loop:
The loop is optional, but honestly I think it looks nice. If you would like to make a strap, take your 5x2" piece of fabric and fold it in half length-wise, press. Open fabric up, and bring both edges to the newly created center fold, press. Sew a top-stitch down edge opposite of fold creating a 5" strap. Fold strap in half, and set aside.

Bring it all together:
Place 5 1/4" x 4 1/2" piece of fabric right-up in front of you. Choose one corner and place folded strap diagonally across large fabric piece. Your straps unfinished ends should slightly extend past the corner of the large fabric piece. Then, place front piece down so the wrong-side is facing you. Pin together. Stitch a 1/2" seam all the way around. Trim edges to about 1/4" and clip corners. Turn right side out.

Hooray, all done!! Now all you need are those dirty diapers:)

all-in-one diaper clutch/changing pad tutorial

I don't know about you, but I do not like carrying around a diaper bag. Especially when I have my huge mama purse with me too. So, when my baby was born, I made a diaper clutch just like this one, only now it isn't looking quite as fresh. With the clutch and a couple of toys crammed into my purse, I knew I was set to go. Whenever I decided I needed the whole diaper bag to make a trip, I would just put the clutch in there. That way I had all of my changing supplies in the same place. I also liked that I didn't have to put my sweet little baby's tush down on the public changing table that had previously had so many unknown hineys (spelling?) on it. And once again, this pattern is purely for home use only. Please do not take this and make or sell a pattern of it.

What you will need:
1/3 yd.                 outer fabric
1/3 yd.                 lining fabric
9"x12"square      med weight iron-on interfacing
1/3 yd.                clear vinyl (be sure to keep the tissue paper it comes with)
1/3 yd.                cotton batting (something comparable to this)
1                         magnetic snap (I used a 3/4" silver snap)
3 yds                   bias tape, about 7/8-1 inch wide

With the outer fabric and lining, I just used a standard 100% medium weight fabric. In the past I have used Home Decor Fabric, and it has worked great as well. Use whichever you would prefer, the Home Decor Fabric holds up to wear and tear a bit better, but the medium weight fabric seems to be a bit sleeker looking. For the vinyl, I just used a light-med weight. I didn't want to be too rough on my machine, and I think it folds better. As for the bias tape, I cheated and used Wrights, Wide Single Fold Bias Tape, but if you want to make your tape match perfectly you can make your own. I have found this tutorial useful for creating quick bias tape.

Cutting everything out:
I like to use my rotary cutter for this part, but good old fashioned scissors will work great too. You will need to cut a 33"x12" square from the following: inner fabric, outer fabric, batting, and vinyl. Cut a 9"x12" square of interfacing. Reserve any scraps of interfacing you may have for later.

Iron on interfacing:
Lay outer fabric right-side down in front of you. Measure 8" from one edge of fabric, place interfacing down on measured edge. (See picture for guidance.) The interfacing will help create a natural fold line, as well as allow for stability for your magnetized snap. Iron on interfacing using manufacturer's instruction.

If you have a scrap of interfacing remaining, lay out your lining fabric right side down. Place scrap of fabric at the center of one end of the fabric. As you can probably tell, I just eyeballed it. This will be for extra reinforcement for the complementary side of the magnetic closure. Iron on interfacing using manufacturer's instruction.

Attach magnets:
You will have two parts to your magnetic snap. You will place what I call the bottom part of the snap (The part that has the small whole for the other snap to fit into) onto the outer layer of fabric. Measure 13" from the same edge you had initially measure for placing the interfacing. Mark interfacing at 13". Then measure from the opposite edge down 6" to make sure you place the snap centered at the 13" mark. Attach magnet using package instructions. When you are finished it should look like this. (Sorry I didn't think about taking this picture until after I was finished with the project, whoops...)

For the top part of the magnet. Measure about 1 inch from the edge of the lining fabric (if you attached interfacing scrap, use that end). Again, measure down 6" from the other edge to make sure your 1" mark is also at the center of width of the fabric. After marking this, I like to pin the vinyl down to the right-side of the lining, taking care to put the pins at the edge. That way you won't have a bunch of pin marks all over your beautiful vinyl. Place vinyl tissue paper to the side at this time. Attach complementary magnet end going through both the vinyl and the lining fabric. Again, refer to the package instructions for installation. When you are finished it should look like this. (Again, this picture was taken at the end of the project, sorry...)

Sew together all the layers:
Place outer fabric down before you, right-side down. Next, place batting on top of outer fabric, followed by the lining fabric right-side up, and the vinyl, and finally the vinyl tissue paper (the lining and vinyl should already be connected due to the magnet snap.) The vinyl tissue paper will help keep the vinyl from sticking to your presser foot. If your vinyl didn't come with tissue paper the gift wrap kind works great too. Pin all layers together, and sew a 1/4" seam. This seam will help keep everything stable for the next few steps.

Create a nice curved edge:
On the edge that you have previously attached the top snap, place a glass at the corner. Trace around cup to create nice curved edge. Cut all layers at curved line. I don't bother sewing a 1/4" seam around the curve since we will be attaching the bias tape soon, which will finish the edge.

Attach bias tape to pocket end: 
Attach bias tape to end opposite of the curved edges end. This end will be used to make the pocket. If you are not sure how to sew on bias tape this website may be helpful. Use the directions for packaged bias strips.

Create pocket:
Fold over fabric about 8" so right-sides of lining meet (take care to remove tissue paper up to the top of your pocket so you don't have to fish it out later.) You should be able to feel where your interfacing starts on the outer fabric. Attach remaining binding closing pocket edges, as shown above. The bias tape should go around your curved edges nicely. I use my sewing machine to do the topstitching.

A finished clutch fits one travel wipe container (I buy either Huggies or Pampers since they are fairly flat) and about four diapers. Let me know if you make one, I would love to see what you make!! Please feel free to leave any questions or comments:)