There's something so therapeutic about the weaving process: creating and then repeating a pattern to make a larger, stronger piece - it's just plain fun! Kids love it too, so today's tutorial includes an invitation to the kids to join us. I used Kraft-tex to make Easter baskets and since it's a non-fraying, double sided, strong material, it's the perfect "fabric" for these baskets. 

Here's what you'll need:
roll of Kraft-tex - grab a couple different colours to mix it up, or you can colour on it to add variety to your basket
scissors/rotary blade
sewing machine
optional: rivets and setting tools  

You may be able to find Kraft-tex at your local sewing shop, or you can find it online at C&T Publishing. In Canada, Flare Fabrics has a great selection of beautiful colours.

Begin by cutting the main panel, you'll need a piece 9" x 24" 
Once your main panel is cut, mark a 1" border all the way around, you can use a pencil and erase it later (remember this is paper we're working with) or you can use any other removable fabric marker.

Now mark long lines every inch as cutting guides.

Now cut along those lines, making sure to stop 1" from the short edge previously marked out. For this step, I used the rotary blade for the middle of my cuts, and then used scissors close to the end for more precision.

Remove your marking lines, your panel should now look like this

Prepare the strips to weave in: you'll need about 20  9" x 1" strips. I added a few pieces of glitter vinyl because it reminded me of sparkly Easter eggs. Note: Math says we need 22 strips, but unless your weaving is extremely tight, you won't be able to fit 22 strips in there.

Here's where the kids come in! We just did a simple weaving pattern of "over one, under one" but feel free to experiment with other patterns.

All done!

Once the weaving is done, sew a basting stitch at each end of the panel to secure the strips in place. Then trim off any excess to bring the panel back to 9" x 24" 

Bring the short panel ends together and overlap one end 1" over the other, clip in place and sew together, forming a tube. This is the trickiest part. You may need to stop half way, and start again from the other end.

​Now cut a circle of Kraft-tex matching the size of the tube (I just traced around the tube).

Clip the circle to one end of the tube and sew in place with a 1/2" seam allowance.

(If you've only used Kraft-tex, then your tube doesn't have a right way or wrong way yet; if you've used one-sided materials - like glitter canvas - then you'll want to turn the tube inside out before attaching the circle)

Once the circle is sewn on, the basket will be inside out, so turn it right side out - this is easily done by folding the tops down and then pushing the bottom out. Once the basket is right side out, the bottom seam won't be visible from the outside.

We're almost done! To finish the top, fold over the top inch toward the inside and sew in place with a 1/4" - 1/2" seam allowance.

For the handle, cut a strip of Kraft-tex 1" x 17" and sew or attach with rivets from one side of the basket across to the other. I placed the rivet 1/2" from the top of the basket.

Now you're ready to go on your Easter Egg hunt! 

If you're looking for some new ideas to fill the Easter basket, how about a custom Easter Egg for the wall? Remove it and reuse it each year. Use code REECE to save 10%

I was ordering some fabric from Fabric Spark the other day and had a quick look around the site while I was there, and came across these adorable pirates from Makower. I had no idea what I would use them for, but as a typical fabric addict, I quickly talked myself into the purchase, figuring I may as well throw in a half yard because I'm paying for shipping anyway.  

They arrived pretty quickly and as I was gazing at the fabric, an idea popped into my head. Don't you just love it when that happens?! I decided to make them into bean bags and create a tic tac toe game with them. The x's would be the skull and cross bones, and the o's would be the pirate faces, or "aarrgh's" if you channel your inner pirate.

This was such a quick project. The white border is 1/2" wide, so it left a 1/4" seam allowance for each bag. I made sure to pair up one skull and cross-bones with one pirate face for each bag, and made 10 bags, enough for either team to win.

Originally, I was going to use actual dried beans, as I've done with previous bean bags, but I had visions of my outdoor loving boys sneaking the pirates outside and ending up with stinky bags, so I decided to opt for the poly pellets. I used my 50% off coupon at Michael's for a 2lb bag, and it was well under $10, with lots left over.

For the board, I used a foam core board (again, from Michael's with a coupon), and washi tape.

The game was such a hit! My boys refuse to call out "Aaaarrgh!" when they win, but that doesn't stop me. Of course, you can make your own set with any 2 different ideas, but the pirates came in the perfect size, already measured, making it extra easy. Once they were done with tic tac toe, they set up some buckets for a bean bag toss and I was so pleased that they found a double duty for the project.

My son went to a summer day camp earlier this month and each day he needed to bring a towel and change of clothes, plus a few extras. It was a tight squeeze in his Not-So-Tiny Explorer, so I decided to quickly make him a Dallas. I asked around the internet and determined that the medium would be the right size for him (he's 7). Since I decided fairly last minute, I skipped the exterior and interior zippered pockets to save some time. I chose Libs Elliott's True Love fabric from Sitka Fabrics, and love that it turned out to be gender neutral and fun. If you are looking for a quick sew for an overnight or weekend bag, Dallas is a great choice!

Every year I want to make fun Valentine's crafts, but sometimes the nice ones take too long to make lots of, and I don't like leaving anyone out. So I decided to make up some key fobs: they're quick, and pretty, and useful too. I made this cute free printable to turn this quick sew into a gift for your Valentine!

It's super cheesy, I know, but hey, isn't Valentine's Day the perfect time to be cheesy? You'll find download links toward the bottom of this post.

For this project, you'll need

• Key fob hardware (I get mine from Emmaline Bags)
• scrap piece of fabric at least 5" x 11"
• scrap of fleece or foam
  

My key fob hardware is 1.25" wide, if your hardware is a different size, just adjust the measurements accordingly (cotton will be 4 times the width of the hardware).

Now insert the foam or fleece into one of the folds, and bring folded edges together; press in place

Insert into key fob hardware and clamp closed with pliers or a vice. If you're using metal pliers, make sure to cover the key fob hardware with something like a tea towel or  scrap fleece, to prevent scratching from the pliers. You may also choose to add a small amount of glue before squeezing the hardware shut.

Once your key fob is done, print and cut out your Valentine, punch a hole and take a pretty ribbon to attach it. Voila! A unique and useful Valentine!

I'm including 3 downloads: 1 with pink text, 1 with black text and 1 blank, so you can fill in your own sentiment. The ones with text are PDFs and include 2 keys, side by side. The blank is a jpg, so you can plop it into a Word doc and add your own text or print as is. The PDFs should be printed in landscape.

I'm happy for you to use these files! Please do not distribute or claim as your own; a link back to my site instead would be awesome, thank you!

As I mentioned above, I get my hardware from Emmaline Bags. If you're in the UK, you can find them at Bobbin Girl.

It's Family Day this weekend in BC, so I took the opportunity to do a Valentine's Day craft with the kids. I've seen these heart shaped crayons on Pinterest, and figured I'd give it a try. I also saw these make-your-own wax paper bags and thought I could combine the ideas. It was such a hit with the kids (I had lots of fun too). The great part is I didn't have to buy anything at all for it. I had an old inexpensive silicone mold that I'd never gotten around to using, so finally put it to use. 

The first step is gathering all the broken crayons and peeling all the paper off. Of course, they don't have to be broken to start with, but it's a good way to use up the bits and pieces that are getting too small to colour with.

Then the kids had fun filling in all the hearts with the crayons. You don't need to treat the mold at all, the crayons will just pop out after they've cooled. We had to break them up a little to fill in some gaps. I've seen some tutorials suggest cutting with a knife or smashing them up with a hammer, but we didn't find that necessary; the crayons broke pretty easily with our hands. This really is the creative step, where you can decide what colour combination the hearts will have.

Once you've filled your tray, pop it in the oven, preheated to about 225 for about 15-20 minutes. After they come out of the oven, let them cool for about 45 minutes- 1 hour, then just push the mold from the bottom to pop them out. Repeat all those steps until you have as many hearts as you need. 

I cut out some hearts, this part would have been so much better with a Silhouette, but that's on my wishlist :) 
Then I cut a 4-5" wide strip of wax paper, folded it (I used wonder clips to hold the sides in place) and sewed the 3 open sides, with the crayon hearts inside and the paper heart on top. For the final touch, I found a cute saying on Pinterest, mostly so people would know that they were crayons. We received some Christmas Tree shaped crayons in December and thought they were soap, so I wanted to make sure the recipients knew what they were. I used my Brother labelmaker, which is pretty easy and the kids liked pushing the print and cut buttons. I found a couple phrases, but my kids liked 

Happy Valentine's Day, for "crayon" out loud!

Once everything was sewn up, we put the labels over top of the finished bags. 

The best part of this whole craft was that the kids really enjoyed doing it. I'm pretty pleased with the end result!

I love Swoon Sewing Patterns! Most of my bags are Swoon patterns. Today it was announced the original subscription is no longer available, but that a Swoon Favorites Collection and a Swoon Vintage Collection (Subscription) are now available, both at really great prices. Go get yours today, you won't be disappointed, and you'll be hard pressed to find a better value for such quality patterns. You'll still be able to buy patterns individually in the pattern shop, but I really recommend one (or both) of the bundles.
Also, have you checked these awesome sewing tees?! I have a couple and I just love them, they're super soft and comfortable and let everyone know I love to sew.