Beach Bag from a Beach Towel

One of my daycare kids is celebrating their birthday this month. She loves dogs and the show "Paw Patrol", so I headed out the other night to get her a present ... hopefully dog related. I was in luck! There was a huge shipment of beach towels just arrived at the store I visited, all with cartoon themed pictures. Of course, they had Paw Patrol, so I scooped one up. This girl's family has a pool, so I figured it would be a nice little gift. But I wanted to add something to it.

I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided to do something similar.

 I only needed to look at the photo to decide how I was going to work mine. I didn't see the need to use two towels as this person did, and I didn't want to go to the fuss and bother of the border. I also changed the bulky towel handles for some cotton fabric. For a three-year old, I was going for simplicity.

I have some very heavy printed cotton, more like a canvas. I used this cotton to make pockets on one end quarter of the towel, and a pillow casing on the opposite end quarter. I made a lightly stuffed pillow out of muslin and inserted it into the case. This way the pillow can be removed when the towel needs washing. I left an opening in the case for this purpose. The handles are sandwiched in between the towel and the pockets. 

pillow insert

The towel can be laid down on the ground to lie on, and when you're finished with it, you just fold it over three times, bring the handles together and you have a small bag with pockets on the outside to carry a few essentials with you.

Fold over once, twice, three times and then sideways!

As I worked on this, I thought of all sorts of details that could be added to this idea.  Apart from embellishments of ribbons and trims, a zippered pouch might be handy for the beach and different sized pockets to hold a magazine and sunscreen. For this gift I left it fairly simple. 

Because I restrict myself to gifts for the kids between $10 - $15, I didn't put anything in the pockets. But I would have loved to add some little flip flops (also in the stores now), a sun hat and a colouring book and crayons. This cost me just the beach towel ($15) as I already had the fabric and the stuffing. It took me about three hours to make this from start to finish, so a fairly quick and easy project.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy

Five on Friday

Good Morning! Two more sleeps ... are you ready?! I'm not, but it's not for lack of trying. I still have two more things to finish up. One is a painting project for my husband and the other is stuff for my brother. Wish me luck in finishing them in time!

I'm joining Amy of Love Made My Home for her final installment of Five on Friday for this year.

This is just a sort of wrap up of all the Christmassy things the I've been working on for and with the daycare kids.

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I bought the book "The Mitten" by Jan Brett for one of my charges. I really like this book and bought it myself a few years before I had kids of my own. I bought the board book for this little girl, although the story is much condensed from the large hard cover book. Basically, the story is of a little boy who begs his grandma to knit him mittens as white as snow. Grandma tells him if he drops it in the snow, he'll never find it. Of course, that's exactly what happens, but all sorts of woodland creatures come and find the mitten and crawl inside it stretching it out of shape. 

I made eight felt animals to go with the book, and also knitted up one snow white mitten. I was in a frenzy of stitching these darned animals up all this week, and even when the girl's mother came to collect her yesterday, I was still stitching the last animal closed (I embroidered details on the front and stuffed them). Unfortunately, I did not get time for even one photo before I shoved the entire project into a gift bag and raced downstairs to hand it over. All I have to show you are the paper pieces I used to cut the animals out of felt. I use freezer paper for this, and highly recommend it for making felt pieces. You just draw your image on the paper, iron it onto the felt and cut out the shapes. It was a fun project even though I was crazy rushed.

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The kids have been happily working on some little Christmas decorations all through the month of December. I think this little guy was my favourite ;)  I had these tiny baskets on hand, and the kids painted them up. Then I made some very dense pom poms for the cardinal bird baby, and they glued in the paper beak, the googly eyes and the feather tale and added details to the basket. It's stuffed with Spanish moss inside.

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Other decorations we made were paper mache balls that the kids painted and decorated with glitter and beads.  Rudolph made with handprint hands and the face is their footprint.  Christmas trees made from jumbo popsicle sticks and other decorations. And jingle bell bracelets that we made up and then spent some crazy time dancing and singing Jingle Bells accompanied by Michael Buble!

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I finished up the two scarves for the older kids. I know the girl will love her scarf as she seems to wear a different scarf every day. The boy ... not so sure. I was about three-quarters of the way through making his when he told me he "hates scarves that you have to wind around your neck". sigh..... He's getting it anyway, but I wouldn't be surprised if I never see it wound around his neck. They turned out so nicely I thought, and they are very squishy! I knit the orange/grey scarf with a basket weave stitch, which looks really nice. It isn't reversible, but the pattern isn't too awful from the back (you can see it in the photo).

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Yesterday was my last day with the kids until the New Year. I'd had enough of crafting and knitting and sewing, so I took them for a very enjoyable, very quiet, magical walk in the snowy woods. We were the only ones there. I would very happily have laid down in the snow and watched the snowflakes come down through the branches ... something I did often as a kid when out tobogganing with my brother on our own hill. Simple pleasures :)

Instead I enjoyed watching the kids running and falling into the snow and giggling the entire time. The big white pines in this forest are my favourites, and I took a couple of panoramic photos to share. Apparently there is a great horned owl now living in these woods. I'll be keeping my eye out for him when I visit again.

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And that's my "five" for this year! It's been a real pleasure joining in with you Amy, although I haven't always had something to share. This is a nice meme to join in to share something simple that's happening in your week. Thank you for hosting.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

God bless you all and enjoy the time with family and friends.

Wendy

PS Just wanted to share a couple of pottery decorations I purchased at the Pottery Guild Show in Dundas back in November ...

Cushion Cover Complete!

Well I tackled the cushion cover again yesterday after my trek out to Mississauaga to see Dear O'l Dad. The stitching for the braid was unpicked and the new front piece cut out and everything sewn back together again! It's now finished, filled with a down cushion (20" x 20") and sits on my daughter's bed looking quite nice. I just think the aqua braid could have been thicker as it's sort of hidden when the cushion is plumped up. I like it though, and I think she was right with the darker fabric choice afterall 😉

The envelope backing turned out well. I thought I might have to add some buttons, but it seems to stay closed and not split open. The overlap there is 3-inches deep in case anyone is interested. I think I would add another half inch to an inch on the overlap if I made this style of closure again (or maybe add three buttons across the folded under section).

Glad to have finished this simple and quick project. As is normal for me, just getting started on something is half the battle. Once I get going on it I really enjoy myself and want to continue sewing!

The coral looks really nice with the aqua and teal embroidery in her duvet cover and the aqua on the walls.

Now that this is finished, I can once again concentrate on sewing & knitting for Christmas. I received some yarn in the mail this week for review! This is a new venture for me, but I'm really looking forward to making something with that. The colours are gorgeous in this pure wool by Noro. As lame as it may sound, I think I'm going to knit a scarf so that a simple 1x1 rib pattern will not have to compete with the gorgeous colours. There will be more on this soon. I first have to see if I can pick up just one more ball of this same yarn in a local shop to knit the scarf I have in mind. Three balls of yarn are not going to work.

Enjoy your Sunday folks! 

Snow flurries here today with a wicked wind from the north 

... and it was 17C just two days ago!!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Wendy

"Bye Bye Autumn"

Friday Night Sew-In

Sew I worked away in my kitchen at my sewing project ... a cushion cover for my daughter that I had promised, oh, sometime back in the summer. She had been getting her bedroom in order again when she finished university and moved back home. She is using the colours aqua and coral, which are nice together, but coral is difficult to find. When she couldn't find any coral cushions, I volunteered to make one for her. 

This is the fabric I used for the front ...

I got all pieces cut out and the back opening sewn, I'm making an envelope backing. 

I got the aqua braid stitched all around the edge of the front piece ...

... and had the back pieces pinned in place ... 

At this point I had to pick up my daughter from work at 10:00 p.m. Rather than working any further on it so late at night, I decided to leave it until today. Good thing. When I showed my daughter my progress, she informed me I was using the wrong fabric for the front piece.

This is the fabric I was supposed to be making it from ...

I'm writing this quickly this morning since I'm heading out in a minute to visit dear ol' Dad. When I get home, I'll have to rip out all the lovely stitches securing the braid and start on the front piece again. grrrr... 

This was me, joining up for Friday Night Sew-In with Sugarlane Designs. Enjoy your weekend!

Wendy

Friday Night Sew-In and Five on Friday

Well, tonight I will be joining in the Friday Night Sew-In party with some fellow sewing gals from down under. I have my project all set to work on, and will share what I worked on on Saturday morning.

For now I am joining Amy for Five on Friday* and sharing some photos of my walks in the woods with the kids. 

I did finally find more photos that I took at the beginning of November, and I also went on a walk again yesterday to a conservation area. Just some fall colours in the north end and the south end of my town.

Along the marsh boardwalk on November 1 ...

The bright colours of the maples had passed by this point, and we were left with the golden birch trees and the russet colours of beech and oaks along the marsh. The oaks look magnificent, and there are quite a few good sized trees here that are boasting their colours to perfection!

Further into the trail ...

More golden birch trees. I couldn't seem to get great shots of the birches as the sky was overcast, but bright.

Back towards the parking lot ...

There were more giant oaks along this path, and although it may not show up great on the computer, the colours were pure autumn! Love those oaks and the leaves just shake and rattle in the breeze.

Yesterday was the walk in the conservation area north of town. 

Along the laneway ...

We followed a graveled laneway which was either someone's private lane a long time ago, or a disused roadway. There is no information about it on the signs in the area.

The last burst of colour on a few young tamarack trees.

End of the line ...

This is where our walk ended :( None of us had waterproof boots on, so it was a quick about-face and trudging back the same route we came.

We walk under hydro towers that stretch all the way to Niagara Falls to the west ...

... and all the way to who knows where in the east ...

The map of trails (below), which weren't very helpful to us. We ended up at the bottom of the black dashed line, although there clearly were a couple of paths that worked toward the east part of the park, there was no marked trail on the map for this area. The "You are Here" dot is the beginning of the trail where I parked the van. I want to go back without the daycare kids and explore this area on my own. I will enjoy it better ... my little guys just didn't have the stamina for this walk today and it was painful dragging them back to the van....ugh...

Heber Down Conservation Area

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy

*At the time of posting this there was no link-up for Five on Friday ...

what's a walk at the marsh without having the beloved chickadees
come for a handout ;)