Crafts on Sea

sewing

35+ Cool Gifts to Sew for Kids

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I love to sew but I’m always a bit scared about giving handmade gifts. What if my friends or family don’t think they’re up to scratch? Thankfully I have two people in my life that have always loved the things that I’ve made for them and that’s my kids.

As a mum I also get a lot of pleasure in seeing my kids play with or wear stuff I’ve made for them and with that in mind I asked some of my fellow bloggers to share gifts to sew for kids that they’ve made and that have received a lot of love back! I hope it will inspire you to sew something as a present too!

Cool Gifts to Sew for Kids…

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Valentines Bunting

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The other day I was mentally berating myself a bit for not having made anything yet for Valentines day and I suddenly remembered, I have bunting! Go me! In fairness I made this a couple of years back, just before I started this blog and a very small, slightly dodgy picture of it made it’s way into one of my first ever posts about how to make super quick felt bunting, but I figure as that was nearly two years ago and basically only me and my mum saw the post, it might be ok to look at it again?! After all, it is nearly Valentines Day, who doesn’t want some quick Valentines bunting?!

Easy Valentines Bunting…

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Upcycled messenger bag tutorial

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Hello! I love upcycled stuff, mainly ummm, because I am a bit tight but also because I hate throwing stuff away (starts slight rant about landfill…) Vicky’s blog Vicky Myers Creations is one that I love because she is so passionate about using her sewing skills to create something new and gorgeous out of something that would otherwise be forgotten. I hope you love the tutorial she’s done for me today, do comment and let me know! And of course do check out her blog too and don’t forget to follow Vicky on twitter and on Pinterest too!

Hi, my name is Vicky – I am delighted to have this opportunity to guest blog for Kate. For the last 18 months I have been creating bags out of former clothes. I love the challenge of creating something new out of something old, responding to the fabric to see what I can create.

The ‘Valuing our clothes’ report from Wrap includes news that around 350,000 tonnes (31%) of used clothing out of a total of 1.13 million tonnes are sent to landfill. There are so many different uses for used clothing, reusing as clothing, recreating into new items – even actions as simple as your household cloths being used as, using as packaging.

Recently I was faced with the challenge of making a mans bag. My man is not a bag man, and my dad carries a Travel Men’s Leather Wrist Bag so no help there! The most popular mans bag seems to be a leather satchel/messenger bag, used in the work environment.

My customer liked my idea of creating a bag out of a man’s jacket, using the front collar for interest. I used his former messenger bag for measurements, utilised the strap, and raided my fabric stash (this included a great quality jacket and a work shirt).

DIY messenger bag…

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How to make a dribble bib

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After realising with my first child quite how long teething lasted, by the time I was pregnant with my second I thought it would be sensible to work out how to make dribble bibs! I like an easy craft project and as these simple dribble bibs are so useful to have on hand it seemed silly not to give it a try. Of course, there is nothing wrong at all with just buying everything, but this dribble bib was so stupidly quick and easy to make it seemed almost silly not to do it. Plus you get to use a hammer on a sewing project, which is always a good thing. And you get to look like one of those mums who is On Top Of Everything which is always a bonus!

How to make dribble bibs

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DIY Childrens Tea Towel Apron

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Upcycled tea towel DIYSo, after an epic amount of procrastination, last night was to be the night that I did some sewing. Child in bed. Husband out. Embellished cushion covers to be made so cushions measured, template created, even the iron was at the ready. And then of course once The Toddler was in bed I realised I’d left the fabric in his room. Or somewhere like that anyway. Hmm.

Not to be deterred (it having taken weeks to get the sewing machine out after all) I then had a quick panic about what I could make, especially due to the mild no fabric issue. Then I remembered two things; one, while baking that afternoon The Toddler had got his top totally covered in cake mixture, two, while trying to be a domestic goddess earlier last week by cooking a mid week roast dinner, I had set fire to the brand new Emma Bridgewater tea towel that Mumma Craftsonsea had sent me. Normal levels of domesticity resumed there then. So rather than throw away my lovely new towel I thought I would try and up cycle it into an tea towel apron for The Toddler. The whole thing was done in less than an hour and that includes me making up a pattern, so with a bit of foresight I think this could be done in 30 minutes easily. Here’s how I did it. …

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