My kids and I had so much fun creating these sock animals to slip over their water bottles. We had lots of laughs as our creations morphed into what we were hoping they would become. What little boy doesn’t want a Ninja Turtle to hold onto while taking a sip of water during T-ball. Can you believe how the blue dog turned out?

This is also a great sewing craft for kids who can handle a needle and thread. Look at how my daughter’s bunny turned out. So cute.

Instead of buying new socks, you might have a few mismatched socks you can use!

Supplies:

• Socks (ours are from Dollar Tree)
• Stuffing or Cotton Balls
• Embroidery Floss
• Sewing Needle
• Buttons
• Felt
• Ribbon
• Scissors

How To:

1. 

   Select your socks, floss and buttons.

2. 

   To create the nose or muzzle area, turn the sock inside out and place stuffing in the heel of the sock. If you want the nose area to be oblong, pinch the top of the heel to the bottom of the heel and sew together (i.e. turtle). For round nose area see below.

3. 

   If you want the nose area to be round, cut a circle of felt and sew it over the heel full of stuffing.

4. 

   After the nose area is complete, slide the sock onto your water bottle. Use embroidery floss to sew on the nose, eyes and other details you want on the face.

5. 

   To create the ears, cut a slit in the top of the sock. Ears can then flop down or you can tie a piece of embroidery floss around the bottom of each ear to make them stand up as we did with blue dog. For the bunny we used a second sock and cut it in half and sewed it onto the polka dot sock to make long floppy ears.

6. 

   Finish up your animal sock cozy by adding any extra details. Then slide it over your favorite water bottle and fill with an icy cold drink!

    

    

My Summer Day Camp series will be starting soon! Don’t forget to come back to visit and see what fun summer crafts your kids can do!

This post originally appeared on Skip To My Lou.

The post How To | Water Bottle Sock Animal Cozy appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

If your daughter is anything like mine, then Disney’s “Frozen” and Elsa the Snow Queen may be an all day topic in your home. My three year old is in love with all things Elsa; Elsa’s songs, Elsa’s braid, Elsa’s gloves and Elsa’s ice castle, just to name a few. The now-famous Snow Queen inspired me to make this icy looking snow cape so my daughter can pretend to be Elsa to her hearts desire! This post first appeared for Darice on their blog – Live.Craft.Love

Supplies:

• Darice Sheer Decor aqua organza fabric
• Blue and clear rhinestone stickers
• Jolee’s Boutique Dimensional Snowflakes
• Turquoise organza ribbon
• Scissors
• Safety pin
• Sewing machine
• Straight pins

How To:

Using your Sheer Organza, measure your child for the cape length and cut the fabric to desired length. The long outside edges of the cape are already finished for you.

Fold the unfinished edge over twice and pin. This will create a tube for you to thread the ribbon through to create the tie for the cape.

Sew along pinned edge of the cape.

Cut a 20″ piece of ribbon. Attach the safety pin to one end of ribbon. Insert safety pin with ribbon into one end of the sewn tube. Continue to push the safety pin with ribbon through the tube and out the other end.

Once the ribbon is all the way through, center it across the top of the cape. Use your sewing machine to stitch the ribbon in place in the center of the cape. This will prevent the ribbon from pulling out.

Stick self-adhesive rhinestones and snowflakes all over your cape.

Wear your Frozen cape and pretend to be Elsa the Snow Queen!

The post How To | Frozen Elsa Snow Queen Cape appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

It’s the second week of Handmade Holidays on The Craft Nest. Today I have a free pattern for you! You can create this lovely hand-sewn bird ornament to give as a gift or to keep for your own tree. This is also a very easy craft for a beginning sewer or child sewer to sew by themselves.  A free pattern is included in this tutorial.

There is quite a variety of colors and decorations you can use to create and decorate this lovely bird and make it your own. I am picturing Baltimore Orioles, Cardinals and Finches. All would be so pretty dangling from a Christmas or Spring tree! Let’s get started.

Supplies:

• Craft Felt or Felted Wool
• Thread
• Needle
• Stuffing
• Bit and Baubles
• Glue
• Scissors
• Pattern – Felt Bird Ornament Pattern Download

How To:

1. Use pattern to cut out pieces from felt. You need two bird bodies and one belly. Download FREE pattern here: Felt Bird Ornament Pattern Download

2. 

   Thread needle with matching thread. Using a whip stitch, start sewing right under the birds tail. Sew all the way around the bird until you reach just under the chin.

3. 

   Lay the belly piece on the outside top of the bird body. Use a whip stitch to continue sewing one edge of the belly to the bottom edge of the bird body.

4. 

   After one side of the belly piece is sewn to the body piece, FLIP the belly piece over and sew the remaining belly edge to the remaining body edge. If there are any gaps where all three pieces come together use a whip stitch and close them up. Leave a small opening to add stuffing.

5. 

   Add stuffing into your bird ornament. I often use a chopstick or pencil to help me push stuffing into all the small areas. Sew closed using whip stitch.

6. Decorate your bird by gluing on bits and baubles. On the dove pictured at top I used false eyelashes and trimmed them to glue on for the eyes. I ordered tiny crown charms that already had a loop and stitched them onto the bird’s head.
7. Sew on an ornament hanger on the back of the neck so your bird can beautifully decorate your tree.

The post Handmade Holidays | Felt Bird Ornament Pattern appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

I had to share a picture of what my daughter made for me for Mother’s Day. You might already know that I really like Bluebirds. She sewed me a stuffed Bluebird softie for me to keep. Isn’t that so sweet. I love it!

How To | Sew a Softie

Supplies:

• Muslin
• Felt
• Pencil
• Sewing Straight Pins
• Fabric Markers
• Fabric Scissors
• Needle
• Embroidery Thread
• Poly-fil Stuffing

How To:

1. Carefully draw your design in pencil on your piece of muslin.
2. Use fabric markers to color in your design.
3. Pin your piece of muslin to a coordinating piece of felt.
4. Cut out around your drawing, cutting through the muslin and felt at the same time.
5. Keep your pieces pinned together.
6. Thread your needle with embroidery floss and sew a whip stitch around your softie. Leave an opening so you can fill it with stuffing. Remove pins as you go.
7. When you are almost done sewing, stuff it with stuffing. Continue sewing the rest of the softie closed. Trim thread.
8. Wrap in pretty paper and give to a friend or your mom!

The post How To | Sewing A Softie appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

You can recycle old scraps of felted sweaters and fleece to create your own unique felt heart pin for Valentine’s Day. (Do you recognize the Lava Girl hot pink felt on the back?) Over the weekend I started sewing the pin on the left, once my daughter saw what I was making she wanted to make one too. I tried to insist that she had to sew her heart using a different stitch because the blanket stitch would be too hard for her. She begged until I gave in and taught her the stitch, then she stitched her heart on pretty much perfect all by herself. Guess mom isn’t so smart. Tomorrow we will be wearing these all day to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Make one of these for your daughter, teacher or babysitter. They will look lovely on your shirt tomorrow!

How To | Felt Heart Pin

Supplies:

• Felt Scraps
• Fleece Scraps
• Embroidery Thread
• Sewing Needle
• Straight Pin
• Poly-fil or Wool Stuffing
• Bar Pin
• Fabric Scissors
• Stick-on Gems

How To:

1. Cut out a square shape from your felt.  (I have some Fiskars scalloped edge fabric scissors I used to cut the edges of my squares.)
2. Cut out a heart shape from felt or fleece. Pin in place onto the felt square.
3. Using a blanket stitch (click here for a how to) sew almost all the way around the heart. Leave a small opening for stuffing.
4. Stuff the heart with a small amount of stuffing, then continue sewing the heart onto the felt square.
5. Stitch words or a design in the center of your heart or add gemstones.
6. Sew the pin bar to the back of the felt square.

Back side of felt pin.

The post How To | Valentine Felt Heart Pin appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

My daughter always wants to make presents for everyone come holiday time. She came up with this Felt Heart Ornament project all on her own. I think she did an excellent job. I’m still waiting to receive mine! She gave everyone else their ornament yesterday. She had tucked them in their stockings for St. Nicholas day, so sweet that she is always thinking about others.

Handmade Holidays | How To | Felt Heart Ornament

Supplies:

• Pink Craft Felt
• Embroidery Floss
• Needle
• Scissors
• Poly-fil Stuffing
• Black Stamping Ink (We used Staz-on)
• Letter Stamps
• Assorted Picture Stamps
• Ribbon or Beads

How To:

1. Cut two identical heart shapes from felt.
2. Use your stamps and ink to personalize each side of the heart with an image.
3. Sew your hearts together using a needle and embroidery floss.
4. Add any embellishments such as beads and ribbon as you sew.
5. Before sewing the entire heart closed add some stuffing, then finish sewing the heart closed.
6. Use the embroidery floss to sew a loop at the top of the heart so it can hang.
7. Tuck in a stocking for a Christmas morning surprise!

The post Handmade Holidays | Felt Heart Ornaments appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

My daughter (age 6) is just learning to sew. Together we made this felt baby dinosaur and egg for her brother for his birthday. We worked together to draw the egg and then the baby dinosaur, we had to be careful to make sure he would fit nicely inside. She was able to do the sewing pretty much herself, I just started and ended it for her. She was thrilled with the result and loved being able to give a gift that she had made herself!

Learn To Sew | How To | Felt Baby Dinosaur and Egg

Supplies:

• Green 9×12 Felt Sheet
• Cream 9×12 Felt Sheet
• Cream Embroidery Floss
• Green Embroidery Floss
• Black Bead for Eye
• Sewing Needle
• Sewing Pins
• Scissors
• Polyfil Stuffing

How To:

1. Work with child to draw egg and baby dinosaur shape on paper to create a template. Trace shapes onto felt using fabric pencil.
2. Double felt over and cut out shapes. You should have two identical pieces for each shape.
3. To create your egg, pin identical egg pieces together. Next, thread your needle and tie a knot at the end of the thread. Start sewing on the top corner of the egg. Remember to keep the top (cracked) part of the egg open so your baby dinosaur can fit inside. Tie a knot to finish. Repeat this step for other half of the egg.
4. To create your baby dinosaur, pin pieces together. Next, thread your needle and tie a knot at the end of the thread. Start sewing at the dinosaur’s nose and sew along the bottom of the dinosaur. When you get up to the top of the tail add stuffing to the legs and tip of the tail. Continue sewing and adding stuffing as you go. Tie a knot to finish.
5. Play with your new baby dinosaur and egg or give it as a gift to your brother!

The post How To | Felt Dinosaur and Egg appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

My daughter recently lost her first tooth. We created this felt fairy doll with tooth pocket to hang on her doorknob so the tooth fairy would have easy access to her lost tooth. We worked together to choose the color of the fairy’s hair and dress. After I was finished sewing it all together she decorated the doll with glitter glue, stick-on gems, ric-rac and buttons. I am glad to report that the tooth fairy had no problem locating her tooth in the pocket and leaving my daughter a surprise. (p.s. this what a 6 yr. olds room looks like on the average day!)

How To | Felt Tooth Fairy Doll

Supplies:

• Felt Fairy Doll Pattern Download
• 2 – 8.5×11 Skin Tone Felt Sheets (we used off-white)
• 1 – 8.5×11 Hair Color Felt Sheet (we used brown)
• 1- 8.5×11 Gold/Yellow Felt Sheet
• 1 – 8.5×11 Dress Color Felt Sheet
• Scrap of White Felt (for tooth)
• Matching Embroidery Thread for Each Felt Sheet
• Poly-fil Stuffing
• Sewing Needle
• 2 Round Black Bead for Eyes
• White Tulle (for wings)
• 10″ Grosgrain ribbon
• Sticky Velcro
• Craft Glue

How To:

1. How To | Felt Tooth Fairy Doll Pattern.
2. Match up the front and back doll shapes and pin them together.
3. Sew along the outside edge of your doll using a running stitch. Start sewing on the right side of the doll’s head. Knot one end of the thread and hide the knot between the two layers of felt. When you are almost all the way around leave an open spot the size of a couple fingers to put the stuffing through.
4. Add the stuffing by pushing it in with your fingers. Make sure it gets in all the way into the legs and arms. Finish sewing the doll closed. Knot your thread and hide it between the two layers of felt. The doll’s hair will also cover your knots.
5. Match up the front and back of the doll’s hair. Start on the right edge and sew using a running stitch along the top of the hair to the other side. (See picture 1)
6. Then open the hair like a pocket and insert the doll’s head into the pocket. Arrange the hair to fit her head. Next, sew along the bottom of the front hair piece to attach the hair to her head. Make sure you sew through both the hair layer and the face layer of felt to attach the hair securely to the doll. (See picture 2)
7. Sew the piece of ribbon in center of head. Sewn ends will be covered by crown.
8. Position the crown on the doll’s head. Sew along the bottom edge of the crown through both the crown layer and hair layer of felt.
9. Sew the dress by aligning the dress front side edges with the two back dress pieces. Sew along each side leaving the armholes open. (See pictures 3 and 4)
10. Sew pocket onto dress and then glue on tooth shape.
11. Put the dress on your doll. Add a piece of Velcro between the overlapping edges on the back of the dress.
12. Make the doll into a fairy by adding tulle wings. Pinch the piece of tulle in the middle and place it on the doll’s back under the hair and in the open notch of the dress. Sew the tulle onto the doll’s body.
13. Sew beads on to create eyes. Use thread to create a mouth and nose.
14. Use the other items to decorate your fairy doll and make her magical.

Free Download: How To | Felt Tooth Fairy Doll Pattern

The post How To | Felt Tooth Fairy Doll appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.