Sewing into Spring ~ Pocket Sneaker Chicks

Spring is here!!  ... And so is what seems like ALL the craziness happening at once.  Busy busy busy busy busy!  But I'm sure I want to still write a post per week, but forgive me - I didn't actually make these this week - but actually a few weeks ago for Easter.  BUT I didn't post them for Easter, so here they are!  Spring chicks :-)
 

 

Some of you reading might have seen what surprise they were used for over Easter, but well - it's not Easter anymore so I'll leave them as just my Spring Chicks!

 

 

I'm totally in love with the newest in my pocket sneaker series - these little chicks, and whilst they weren't used as my hearts and lucky charm pocket sneakers were for my husband - they were hand delivered at Easter and were very similar in the way I made them, and in their size, so I think I can go with the same pocket sneaker series!

 

 

Even making these on a time crunch I actually remembered to take a few photos as I went along so I can share with you how I made them!  They were nice and easy, and if you don't have a machine could be all hand sewn, although the machine did speed things up - and I like that.

 

 

 

When shopping for the felt I would use in this project I couldn't decide which yellow/orange/other chick colour would look best once they were all made... so ... well ... I got a variety and made them all!  In the end my particular favourite was the cream coloured chick, but after making them all and distributing them to family we shared the colours, and I think I liked them all, and especially liked that there were different colours to choose for different people so I'm glad I couldn't decide in Michael's that day!

 

 

Using a picmonkey egg I had seen on my travels through creating cover photos for my blog, I made the image in various sizes and printed it from a word document.  I had an idea of what size I wanted to make the chicks, but did trial and error on the actual egg size I printed to find the perfect one.  Oh yes, and I chose an egg shape for a chick?!  Coincidence it was all Easter themed but in my head the perfect "cute" chick shape would be an egg!



 

 



I cut out the egg in the size of my choice, and then backed it onto some sturdier card so I would be able to keep the template and use it again.

 

This little egg ready and waiting to be cut out to be the start of the chick making adventure!

 

 

I divided the felt sheet into 6 first of all and then traced the outline of the egg shape into each box.  Error here on my part was using a regular pencil and not a better pencil/pen that would fade away, but luckily most of my stitches covered the pencil markings in the end.

 

I then cut out each square of felt (but not the egg shape - this would be my sewing guide later on) in each of the three chick colours, eventually having 12 squares for each colour, 36 in total... which would make 18 chicks as each chick needed a front and back.

 

Whilst our youth group played a soccer tournament all day, I entertained myself by sewing the details on each front piece of the chick!
 

 

I'm most pleased with my chick eyes!! I advanced from my usual back stitching and actually tried a real embroidery knot!  Admittedly some eyes were bigger than others, but by the end of 18 chicks the eyes were nice and small, and tight - just what I wanted! 

 

I used a black embroidery thread for all of the eyes, and either a bright orange or pale orange for the beak and wing details, whichever matched the felt colour best.

Back home with all of the embroidery done it was time to stuff them and sew!  I pinned the fronts to the backs to secure each part together and then with the machine went around most of the egg shape with a coordinating thread (NOT the red that is in the picture for some reason... perhaps that was what was on the machine before I started with the yellows!). 

Leaving a small centimetre gap somewhere along the egg shape would allow me to pause on the sewing, and stuff the chicks before going back to the machine and finishing it off. 

The stuffing part is my favourite element of the 'pocket sneakers' I've made over the past year or so.  Giving them a chubby look and a soft padded feel, it was just what I envisioned for these little chicks.

 

So with all 18 chicks sewn around the edge of the egg shape, I cut out around the edge of the egg shape with pinking shears to give the pocket sneaker look of the jagged edge that I wanted!

 

And voila - here they all are, my little chicks in a basket!  I love how they turned out, and was a little sad to be giving these cute little guys away - although all for a good reason!  ... And I did get to keep a few for next Easter - I'll use them as decorations somewhere.

 

 

The chicks are super cute, and if you're happy doing some sewing are nice and easy to make!  If you try them out, do send me a picture :-)



♧ A Crafty St. Patrick's Day ♧

Happy March Break and pre-St. Patrick's Day everyone!!

I got a little crafty this week preparing for the new season of home decor and had a lot of fun making everything.

May I present, the second in my 'Pocket Sneaker' series - Lucky Pocket Sneakers (...I just made that name up, what do you all think!?)  Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, these shamrocks can be slipped somewhere special to wish somebody a little extra luck.  Maybe your little one has a test at school - send a little luck their way with a Lucky Pocket Sneaker in their lunchbox!! Or perhaps somebody is nervous to present a speech, or give a talk - how good would it feel if they found a little lucky charm in their pocket, or briefcase :-)

Similar to my Valentine's Day Heart Pocket Sneakers, they are felt, machine sewn and stuffed with polyester fill.  For the hearts I used a cookie cutter to make the shape, this time I used a foam shamrock I had bought for my other St. Patrick's Day project (...see below) and made it a little larger, just using the shamrock as a template and marking around it on the felt.  I used pinking shears to cut them out (just 6 this time as there was no game of hide and seek to play... not yet anyway!), sewed them together, stuffed and sewed shut.  And there you go, all done with lots of time for some St. Patrick's Day baking later this week.

My second crafty project for this season (and really, where would all of us crafty lovers be without holidays and seasons to make for?!) was some bunting to hang.  My 'Happy Birthday' banner I had made last year for Jonathan (see his 2012 birthday post here) had finally come down, only a month later so it was time to replace it!

I am super excited for how this turned out, and also how inexpensive it was to make!  A recent Walmart trip meant an excuse to pick up some green paint chips, pretending that our next wall would be coloured Emerald Green hehe... Last year I had seen this idea on Pinterest (where else of course!) and tried it for Spring bunting at Easter time (check it out here) so used the same scalloped punch to cut out all different shades.  A single hole punch cut out two holes at the top of each circle ready for the string.

Bunting displayed with original watercolours - painted by my
Granny who lives in Dublin, Ireland... how appropriate :-P

I decided against ribbon this time and thought I would try something different and got some Mason's twine, obviously because it was green and found some great foam shamrocks, both from the local Dollarama.  So, a total of $2.50 with countless metres of twine leftover - this was a very very cheap bunting project!!

For 10 feet of space I wanted to decorate, I used about 11 feet of twine, 28 circles of paint chip colours (so only around 15 paint chips, depending on the size of your punch of course) and 14 foam shamrocks.

Have a fantastic week getting crafty for St. Patrick's Day, especially if it's a week off work/school for you too.  I'm excited to get going on some crafty projects I've been saving up... oh and some tidying/sorting too... Less exciting.

Anyhow, enjoy!!  I'm looking forward to seeing all of your March projects too - leave me a comment and send me a link to your blog :-)