Ahh, look at these smiling faces. Who doesn’t feel happy after crafting with friends? We took a week long camping vacation with some friends and family and these little ladies were excited to craft together. I got these cute little Pom-Pom Necklace Kits from eeBoo and they were excited to bust them open and get started.

You can find these fantastic little kits in the eeBoo shop by clicking here: Arts & Crafts eeBoo Shop

Here is what the kits look like opened up. They have everything included that you need to make the necklace.

The girls started by sorting out the pom pom balls and mixed them up with each other.

Then they started threading the pom pom balls on to the string. The kit includes easy to follow instructions.

Look how great they are turning out!

Such a fun and simple craft for the girls to make at the camp site picnic table.

(This is a sponsored post. See my disclosure policy here.)

The post Summer Day Camp | Pom Pom Necklace Kits appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

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.

I love the look of flower headbands and so do both of my daughters! We were so excited to receive a fun box of goodies in the mail from the Sunshine Shoppe. If you haven’t ever visited the Sunshine Shoppe and you are a crafter, you need to pop over there and see all the gorgeous flowers, beads, ribbons, trims, etc. they have available for you to purchase at EXCELLENT prices. If you have little girls you will really love all the things you can easily make for them using the supplies available at the Sunshine Shoppe. I am excited to have time today to share with you one of the things I made using their “Shabby Chic Flowers” which you can find here: Sunshine Shoppe – Shabby Chic Flowers. Keep reading to see the full DIY instructions and then come back later in the week for more inspiration using supplies from the Sunshine Shoppe.

Supplies:

• Sunshine Shoppe – Shabby Chic Flowers
• Felt
• Buttons or embellishments
• Sunshine Shoppe – Skinny Elastic
• Hot Glue Gun
• Fabric Scissors

How To:

1. Assemble all the items you will use to create your headband. Trim elastic bad to the needed size and knot the ends together.
2. Cut a long strip of craft felt.

3. 

   Glue felt to back of flowers using hot glue. Glue on buttons or other embellishments.

4. Trim corners of felt as needed.

5. 

   Place a line of hot glue on the back of the felt and glue on the elastic band.

6. Wear with your favorite outfit!

Make sure you visit the Sunshine Shoppe for purchasing all of your hair accessory craft supplies! Tell them Alanna George sent you

The post How To | Easy Shabby Flower Headband appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

It’s Foam for the Holidays Friday again! This project doesn’t actually use foam… but, do you love giving wine as a house warming gift or to the hostess of a holiday party? You can stitch up this burlap wine gift bag in no time and get that bottle of wine all decorated for gift giving!

You can also find more project ideas using FloraCraft® products at MakeItFunCrafts and at the CraftsandCoffee blog!

Supplies:

• Burlap Garland Design It:® Simple Style® By FloraCraft®
• Embroidery Floss
• Sewing Needle
• Ribbon
• Candy Cane or other decoration
• Scissors

How To:

1. Wrap the burlap garland up around the bag and cut off the needed length to cover  your bottle.

2. 

   Fold burlap piece in half. Tie a knot in the floss and start stitching down one side.

3. 

   Continue stitching down the first long side. Then stitch across the center of the bottom and the up the other long side. Knot thread and trim.

4. Slide wine bottle into bag and tie ribbon around top. Add a candy cane or other holiday decoration to the ribbon.

The post Handmade Holidays | Foam for the Holidays Burlap Wine Gift Bag appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

It’s that time of year again! I love to create and sew handmade gifts for the holidays. I mean I really LOVE it. I am the most happy when I am crafting and really happy when the gift gets to go to someone special. I have to come clean though, I actually made this beautiful Ruffled Tote for myself. I have carried this purse all over the place. I made an iPad pocket inside too, so my iPad has its only cozy home inside. I also put a phone pocket inside. You need to keep your technology handy so you don’t have to dig to the bottom of this big tote. It is big enough to fit folders or books. Or say you are shopping at a craft show, you don’t need a bag for your smaller purchases, just tuck them inside this awesome tote. You can purchase and download the pattern for this beautiful tote from my Shop. It is really easy to sew and the directions and pattern come in .pdf format. This is an awesome gift to sew for your sister or a teacher, or ahem, yourself!

When you purchase the pattern you get complete sewing instructions, detailed pictures and the patterns for all the needed pieces. You can purchase this pattern in my Store by clicking this link: Ruffled Tote Sewing Pattern or by visiting my Store. Please note that this pattern is for personal use only. You may not sell this pattern, variations of this pattern or clothes made from this pattern.

If you want to create the FABRIC FLOWER shown on this bag you can find the instructions here: How To | Fabric Flowers

The post Handmade Holidays | Ruffled Tote Sewing Pattern appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Earlier this year we went on a Disney cruise. It was a blast and I highly recommend it, but this post is about how to sew your own Jake and the Never Land Pirates costume. I will have to tell you all about the cruise later, but they had a pirate night and we all dressed as pirates. My older son didn’t fit into any of the store bought Jake costume sizes, which seemed to only go up to size 3T, so I decided to make him a costume. Same for my daughter who wanted to be Izzy. No costumes for girls her age. Keep reading for instructions on making your own Jake and the Never Land Pirates costume! (My son on the left is wearing a store bought Jake costume…)

Supplies:

• Blue T-shirt
• White T-Shirt
• Red Fabric Bandana (I bought mine from Michaels for $2)
• Black Fabric
• Black Ribbon
• 7/8″ Golden Yellow Bias Tape
• 4 Golden or Brass Buttons
• Scissors
• Velcro
• Sewing Machine
• Thread

How To: – click on pics to see them larger

1. 

   Lay your blue t-shirt out flat.

2. 

   Make a cut up the center front of the shirt. Cut the sleeves off by cutting along the bottom seam and up around the arm seam.

3. 

   Trim each cut sleeve piece so it is an even rectangle.

4. 

   Using the two rectangle sleeve pieces, place them right sides together and sew them together to create one long piece. This piece will be used to create the collar.

5. 

   Open up your t-shirt. Pin the sleeve pieces you sewed together along the top edge of the t-shirt. Pin the right side of the sleeve strip to the inside (wrong side) of the t-shirt. Pin along the top edge.

6. 

   Another view of the collar pinned to the t-shirt edge.

7. 

   Sew along the top edge where you pinned. Lay the collar open flat. Trim off any extra length by cutting it at an angle.

8. 

   Insert the t-shirt edge into the center of the bias tape. Pin it as you go. The bias tape will go around all the unfinished edges, except the arm holes. Sew on the bias tape. Use the picture above as a reference for the way the collar lays. Sew a couple stitches to hold the collar folded in the correct spot.

9. 

   Sew on four buttons. The vest is finished.

    

10. Using the white t-shirt, cut a short v-shaped cut in the center front of the t-shirt. Cut 4 holes and lace the black ribbon through in a criss-cross pattern. Knot both ends of the ribbon on the inside of the shirt. Cut v-shaped pieces out of the edges of the sleeve to create a ragged pirate look.

11. 

    Create Jake’s belt using a black strip of fabric. Measure your child’s waist for how long it needs to be to wrap around. Make sure to leave enough length for the Velcro to overlap. Fold over and sew the entire outside edge of the belt fabric. Cut Velcro strips and sew onto the ends of belt.

12. 

    Using a red square bandana from Michaels, cut the fabric square in half. With right sides together sew the shortest sides together to form a long strip. Fold over and sew all the outside edges of the fabric. Next, create shallow folds along the entire vertical length and sew them down so the bandana has a pleated look.

13. Wear your Jake costume for your own Pirate dress up day or for Halloween!

The post How To | Jake and the Never Land Pirates Costume appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Can you believe that November is passing so quickly? I can’t! Thanksgiving is already this week. For my Handmade Holiday Gift Idea this week I wanted to show you how to make a dinosaur or dragon tail for a standard 18″ doll or a Bamboletta. It is a super easy thing to sew and the best part is you can also make a matching tail for your son or daughter! This a free tutorial for you to use for personal use.

Doll Animal Dinosaur Hat:

To make the hat shown on the doll you can download my free Doll Fleece Animal Hat Pattern . Follow the instructions on the post, but also add these few extra steps.

1. For the hat above I used snuggle flannel instead of fleece.
2. To create the spikes, buy a piece of craft felt. Craft felt is 9″ x 12″. Cut out a strip of spikes that measure 12″ long x 2″ high.
3. Before sewing the two outer layers together, place the felt spike strip in between the two right sides of the fabric and sew the spikes in as you sew the outside of the hat.
4. Follow the rest of the instructions as posted.

Doll Dinosaur or Dragon Tail:

Isn’t this little dinosaur tail super cute? The tail is actually a mini-version of the dragon tail pattern designed by Jessica at Running With Scissors. Below you will find a list of the materials and sizes of the pieces you need to cut, then I will link you to Jessica’s detailed tutorial for creating the finished tail. Her pattern is for the full-size tail, but the sewing process for this miniature tail is the same.

Supplies:

• 3/4″ x 5″ Velcro
• Craft Felt 9″x12″
• Snuggle Flannel or Fleece 20″ x 10″
• Stuffing

How To:

1. Click on the pattern template below to view it larger. Cut out pieces as shown on my template.
2. I had two places where I varied from her pattern:

• When sewing the straps fold right sides together (instead of having two separate pieces) and sew along one bottom end and up along the long side. Turn straps right side out.
• I cut my spikes out of one piece of felt instead of regular fabric. That let me skip a couple steps since my spikes where ready to be sewn in and didn’t need finished edges.

* VISIT Jessica’s site at Running With Scissors to find the full instructions for completing the tail. You will probably want to make a matching tail for your child!

The post Handmade Holidays | Doll Dinosaur Tail appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

We are already on week 2 of my Handmade Holiday posts. You saw in an earlier post that my youngest daughter loves mermaids. Of course her doll needed a mermaid costume on Halloween too. Now I have this mermaid doll costume pattern available for you to purchase. My daughters have had so much pretend play fun with their dolls dressed up as mermaids and my boys pretending to be the pirates. I just know your daughter will love putting this costume on her doll.

This pattern also works, with a slight variation, for 15″ Bamboletta Dolls and for Bitty Babies. When you purchase the pattern you get complete sewing instructions, detailed pictures and the patterns for all the needed pieces.

You can purchase this pattern in my Store by clicking this link: Doll Mermaid Costume Pattern or by visiting my Store.

Please note that this pattern is for personal use only. You may not sell this pattern, variations of this pattern or clothes made from this pattern.

The post Handmade Holidays | Doll Mermaid Costume Pattern appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

Remember earlier in the week when I teased you with the hint of a free pattern? Here it is. A free pattern download to create a matching fleece animal hat for your daughter’s American Girl Doll or 18″ doll. This hat will also fit a 15″ Bamboletta or various styles of Waldorf dolls too.

This free doll hat download has the same animal ears to match the Fleece Animal Hat Pattern for children that you can read about and purchase here.

I hope you are getting inspired to make your holiday gifts handmade! And please share my website with your friends so they can be inspired to create handmade gifts this year too.

Please note that this pattern is for personal use only. You may not sell this pattern, variations of this pattern or hats made from this pattern.

15″ Bamboletta Doll

Supplies:

• 8″ x 22″ piece of fleece for outer layer
• 8″ x 22″ piece of fleece for inner layer
• 24″ of ribbon
• Straight Pins
• Needle and Thread
• Sewing Machine
• Scissors
• Printed Doll Fleece Animal Hat Pattern

How To:

1. Print out the pattern pieces and cut them out.
2. *note: all the sewing was done with the fabric on the outside edge of my sewing foot, unless otherwise noted.
3. Fold outer layer fabric with right sides together and pin pattern (main hat piece and ear) to fabric. Cut out main hat piece and ear. You should have two cut fabric pieces for each shape.
4. Repeat step 2 with inner layer fabric.

5. 

   With right sides together, sew along top outside edge of outer layer fabric. Repeat for inner layer fabric.

6. 

   Place the inner layer hat inside the outer layer hat. Make sure right sides are together. Cut 2 – 12″ pieces of ribbon. Sandwich the ribbon in between the layers (as shown above). Place one on each side of the hat near the bottom corner. Pin in place. Pin together layers all around edge of hat.

7. Sew around outside edge of hat. Leave at least a 2″ hole for turning the hat right side out.
8. Turn hat right side out and sew hole closed. You can use a machine or do it by hand.

9. 

   Hat turned right side out. If you don’t want to add ears, then your hat is finished!

10. 

    With right sides together, sew around outside edge of ears. You will want to sew quite close to the edge, but make sure you are catching both layers of fabric. Do not sew bottom closed.

11. 

    Turn ears right side out.

12. 

    Pin ears to hat. Hand sew ears in place.

13. 

    Your hat is done! Try hat on favorite doll to check the fit.

Free Download: Doll Fleece Animal Hat Pattern

*Please note that this pattern is for personal use only. You may not sell this pattern, variations of this pattern or hats made from this pattern.

The post Handmade Holidays | Doll Fleece Animal Hat Pattern appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.

It is the first full week of November and I am kicking off my Handmade Holiday series with this adorable fleece hat pattern that is available for purchase! Wouldn’t your son or daughter love to wear one of these warm hats outside on a chilly winter day? Animal style hats are already really popular this season. This hat is worn similar to a hood to help keep their head extra toasty. Front flaps tuck easily underneath their coat to keep their neck warm and covered while they play. As you can see there is a lot of animal ear variations that can be done to create different animal styles. Lucky for you, all the ears shown here are included as part of the hat pattern.

You can purchase this pattern in my Store by clicking this link: Fleece Animal Hat Pattern.

Please note that this pattern is for personal use only. You may not sell this pattern, variations of this pattern or hats made from this pattern.

Check back in soon, there just might be a free downloadable hat pattern for your daughter’s special doll! Follow me on Facebook to stay up on my blog posts.

The post Handmade Holidays | Fleece Animal Hat Pattern appeared first on Alanna George | The Craft Nest.