Baby Doll Wipe Set Tutorial

When I was little, I had a Cabbage Patch Newborn that I have now passed onto my daughter.  It used to have little diapers but they are now hard to find.  So I made little "cloth diapers" out of white felt and small, round Velcro.  I didn't think about making a tutorial on that until now.  So that one will come later.

 

Evelyn loves to play Mommy.  She really, really does.  She tries to be sneaky and get some of her own wipes to "wipe baby's poo poo."  So, one day before heading to my parents, I decided to make her her own wipes.  Evelyn made a mess again by using too many wipes on her baby, so I said, "That's it!  I am making you your own!"  I thought this would be an easy tutorial and a good one so close to Christmas.

 

Supplies:

• 1-white fat quaters (mine was left over from a wipes travel container I covered)
• 1-8x11 felt sheet in your child's favorite color (you will see that I used material from a gutted pillow.  I know I had red felt but I couldn't find it, so I had so make do)
• white thread
• color cordinating thread to go with felt (try using opposites, if you use pink felt, use lime green thread for example)

First:

Cut white fabric into 4.5x4.5 inch squares. 

 

I made only six.  You don't want to be trying to find a dozen little baby doll wipes all over your house.  I thought six was a good number to make and remember.

 

Second:

Straight stitch all the way around to keep from fraying. 

(Not stitched)(Stitched)

 

You can make actual seams, I didn't because of time and with cloth wipes, you don't usually see that, they are usually Singered.

 

 

Next is the wipes holder!

 

Third:

Cut the felt to be 8x4 inches.  At about two inches from the short bottom, cut an oblong hole about 2.5 inches wide.

It's best to check and make sure you made the hole big enough.

 

 

Fourth:

Because you are working with felt, and that doesn't fray, you don't need to stich a seam around the hole. Yay!  If you are not using felt, but you are using a fabric that will fray (like I did), you will need to make a seam or you can use a short cut and just make a stitch all around the hole to keep from fray just like the wipes.

 

Fifth:

Fold over the felt, hamburger style, and stitch it closed. 

 (Remember, if your are using some thing other than felt (like me),

be sure to sew it closed with the inside out.) 

If you like that "inside out look," you are done with this step, it you don't like that look, then turn your wipes holder right side out.

 

 

Next is how to put in your wipes so that another will come out after pulling one out for use.

 

Sixth:

Fold all the wipes in half and press the folds.  Open them.  Take your first and lay it down flat, the next wipe will be place only half way on top of the first.  Fold the bottom wipe onto the top.

 

Get your third wipe, place that half way on top of the second, hanging off of the opposite side. 

 

 

Fold the second wipe on top of the third. 

Do that until you run out of wipes.

 

I hope that all made sense to you.  I was afraid of how that part would all come out.

 

Seventh:

Stuff your wipes into your wipes holder.

 Make sure to leave a little sticking out to make grabbing for little hands easier.

 

 

Tada!  You should now have a sweet little stocking stuffer, or a piece to your child's homemade Dolly Diaper Bag gift!

 

 

 

 

 

 



Orange You Sweet! Tutorial

I made this for a friend from church.  We had a meeting to go to and I car pooled with her so I wanted to make a little treat for her to say thank you.  I was going to make cookies, but we were out of eggs.  Which also meant I couldn't make brownies or cupcakes.  So I had to put something together that didn't need eggs and didn't need refridgeration.  Okay, so anything in the fridge was out, but I still looked.

Every now and again, we buy the really big bag of M&Ms.  For some reason, this past time we bought them, I felt the need to seperate them by color and put them in different baggies then put all those baggies into a large baggie.  Tom has eaten most of them.

"All but the red and orange," I said out loud. 

"Orange.  Orange?  Orange you gunna think of somethi--  ORANGE!  ORANGE YOU SWEET!"  It hit me with suprising force.

So that is how I came up with this!

 

ORANGE YOU SWEET!

 

This will be my first tutorial so be nice and bear (rawr) with.

 

Supplies:

 

• your choice of amount-orange colored candy (I used M&Ms)
• 1-clear goodie bag with twist tie
• hot glue gun
• stick glue
• 6-8 inches-orange ribbon (shown with 1.5 inch cut off already)
• hole punch
• sissors (not shown)
• matches or lighter (not shown)
• "Orange You Sweet" tag (I couldn't figure how to post a print out, email me if you would like the tag print out)

Step 1:

Fill clear googie bag with your orange candy and tie it closed.

 

Step 2:

Print out and cut "Orange You Sweet" tags.  Paste together.  Hole punch.  Cut off 1.5 inch of ribbon.  Make a loop through the tag's hole and hot glue it closed.

 Tada!

 

Step 3:

Burn ends of remaining ribbon to keep from fraying.

 

Step 4:

Thread ribbon through the loop on the tag.  Write "To" and "From" on the back or write a little note of thanks.

 

Step 5:

Tie the tag onto the bag of candy.

 I kind of looped around and thread it through the loop again to make sure it was secure.

 

 

You should now have a sweet little treat to give someone to remind them that they are appriciated by you.

Texas Snow

        Have you ever seen a cotton field after it has been harvested? We have a lot of cotton fields around this area. It looks like snow is on the ground. Christmas in July. That’s how I remember when it’s time to harvest the cotton, not that wedo the harvesting. And yes, I do know what snow looks like. We have visited family in Utah. Seeing the “snow” on the ground makes me think, “Summer is almost over and soon kids will be going to school, then I will be making costumes, then ‘gobble gobble’ Turkey Day, then tamales at Christmas with the scent of pine and the sparkle of lights and wrapping paper and then a new year is here and the live stock show is here before I can blink.” Well, kids are in school, I sort of made costumes, and it’s almost turkey time! I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to decorate for this Christmas. Every year I try to do a different theme than the previous year. Our first Christmas as a married couple was a toy land theme. Instead of a star we had an old teddy bear that my dad gave me that he had when he was a baby. The next year we didn’t really have a tree. Evelyn was almost 6 months and we were afraid of her getting into things. I think we only put lights on the tree that year. Last Christmas was the first Christmas that we spent in the house we are in now. We decorated the tree gold and red with a white cotton skirt made to look like glistening snow. This year I am so unsure. I’m considering making it a tradition to use the same ornaments every year. I just don’t want to spend money getting all new decorations when we just don’t have the money for it and money for the gifts we want to get for each other, Evelyn and other family. No point when I could probably put several things together and come up with a“new” theme. Maybe. We will see. Cross your fingers for me!

My day...

November 6, 2012

        Today was Election Day.  Many people went to the polls today.  I hope almost everyone did.  Didn’t turn out how I wanted, but at least I made the effort to have a different country.

        Today we also went and “cashed in” Evelyn’s HEBuddy points.  Those of you who don’t have an HEB near you (basically if you don’t live in Texas), HEB is a grocery store.  A few years ago they came up with HEBuddy, a life sized brown paper grocery bag with healthy foods in him.  He also as a pet beagle.  Cute!  They also came out with HEBuddy bucks and you put them into a machine that has a big spinning wheel, the kid pushes the big red button, get points and sticks them on this little paper booklet.  You add them all up and get prizes.  You used to be able to get groceries as well as kiddy prizes, now it’s just kiddy prizes.  Well, our HEB lost their key to the machine so they were unable to add more stickers so HEBuddy was “sleeping” for around a month and a half.  We ended up creating a nice little pile of Buddy Bucks while he slept.  They change prizes every three months so we started saving our points waiting for something “good.”  Good things come to those who wait.  For October-December, for 500 points, you could get a HEBuddy blanket.  With all our saved Bucks and Bucks we got when we shopped (they give a couple to each kid when their parents check out) we were able to save over 700 points.  It was not easy.  Points come out as 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50; you rarely get a 50, but we were able to do it!  There were two blankets to choose from both of which were in the packaging (as you can see below) and we only knew what one of them looked like; it was pictured in the booklet.  We asked Evelyn, “Do you want night time Buddy or big Buddy?”  She looked at them so unsure.  “This is the night time Buddy with Buddy in bed and this is big Buddy with Buddy by himself.”  She realized instantly then which one she wanted.  She grabbed the one that we assumed to be just HEBuddy and hugged it so tight, “My Buddy blankie!  Buddy blankie!  Blankie Buddy! Buddy, Buddy, Buddy….”  And then we left.  When we got home it was nap time, then wake up, Kai-lan, dinner, Tom returned The Lorax, then ¡Three Amigos!  Tom has been trying to get me to watch it since we bought it.  I didn’t have an interest in it so he watched it when I was asleep.  Tonight he sounded so excited about it that I felt like I wanted to see it to.  After the movie I took pictures of Evelyn opening her Buddy blanket with Daddy.  It’s HEBuddy in his winter attire!

This is really funny to me because the last time it snowed here it was in 2004 and it had been 100 years since the time before that. Evelyn was so happy about that blanket though.  She is sleeping with it now.  I’m glad that we were able to get it for her.

        My mom worked at HEB for 10 years and resigned when my younger brother was born.  When I graduated high school I got a job at HEB as well and worked there for 3 years while I went to university; so HEB has a little special place in my families’ hearts.  HEB has changed over time; they let you wear jeans to work, they sell wine, and they are opened on Sunday plus don’t pay time and a half to get people to be willing to work on a Sunday.  Sadly, my generation doesn’t know what that is like, a whole town shutting down to observe the Sabbath.  Imagine what the world would be like if we still did that?