Bean Bag Tutorial

E came home with a somewhat unusual request for a teacher gift for one particular teacher at school.  Bean Bags.  She said this teacher likes to throw them around and use them for things and that the classroom was down to one or two.  I should point out that this is a teacher of History, 7-12th grade.  I don't know what she does with them!

 E went through my never ending stash to pick out fabrics.  Originally she was going to put letters on them to spell out the teacher's name.  Then decided that may not be her name forever (she's unmarried) so we went without.  The original number was 14, I suggested adding a 15th for a more complete collection.

And so, a quick tutorial should you ever be inclined to make your own bean bags.  They sew up very quickly.  I can make one in less time than writing this post.  E did all the sewing and bean filling, so they went very fast.

 Cut out a rectangle of fabric, 9.5" x 5".

 Apply fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric.  For a couple of them I did some franken-interfacing. A medium weight fusible interfacing works well.

 Don't forget the helper cat.

 After fusing, fold rectangle right sides together.  Sew three sides, leaving an opening to turn and fill with beans.  I've been marking my stops and starts with double pins for so long I don't remember if I learned it or made it up, but its a good way to remember to STOP SEWING.

 Leave an opening about 2".  This makes it easier to turn and fill.

 Clip the sewn corners.

 Turn right side out. Chopsticks are the best tool for turning.

 I used a combination of pinto beans and lentils to fill the bags.  About half way with the pinto beans and then added lentils until it felt full enough. Its really a judgement call on how full you want them to be.

 I stand the bags in something to fill them and keep them from spilling until the opening is ready to be closed.  Hand stitch the opening with a neat blind stitch or ladder stitch.

 And you've got a bean bag (or 15).

Coffee Cups Cozies and Mug Rugs

I finished up the Teacher Gifts Wed. night for delivery today!

 Four sets of coffee cozy, two mug rugs, plus an assortment and tea and coffee, and one reusable coffee cup.

 You can find the link for the cozy pattern here.  I only loosely followed the directions. 

 I did not use fusible fleece.  Instead I quilted the front of the cozy to just the batting, then sewed the backing and turned.

 I also just used plain elastic instead of hair elastics for the closure.

 The mug rugs are essentially mini quilts at 6" square.  Making and sewing the binding for these is probably what took the longest.

 Guess what?  The sleeves didn't fit the coffee cups I bought.  I almost cursed.  Thus, I will have to make a note in the gifts that they are for takeout cups.  Grrrr.

Teacher Gifts

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend.  We had some great dinners & discussions at some friend's houses, a couple of days with family, and some birthday celebrations.  And some very summer-like weather on Monday!

Here are the teacher gifts I made for this year.

Easy Peasey.

What you need:
A mug
A flower
Gardening Gloves
Flower/plant seeds
Paper
Stamps if desired

 I printed out my words on plain paper with a border.  Cut it out and glued it to some card stock.  Stamped 'Thank You' on one side and a flower on the other.  Punched a hole and tied it to the handle.

 Tied up the flower seeds with a ribbon.

Put the whole thing in a bag - and easy, pretty, teacher gift.  Hopefully something useful and fun, too.

Teacher Gifts - Check

You can read a bit more about them here.  I added some beads along the cuff and made up the cards last night.  We are ready for the Christmas Parties.

Felted Wool Mittens - Teacher Gifts

It's never too early to start thinking about Christmas.  Especially teacher gifts.  So with that in mind I put together these felted wool mitten pins.

They are super easy to do.  I felted a wool sweater from Goodwill.  (Hot water wash and high heat dry).  Cut out some mitten shapes, and stitched some snowflake shapes with embroidery floss.  I also added some beads for some sparkle.  The fur is some trim from the fabric store.  I backed them with some white flannel and sewed on a pin.

And now I am ready for Christmas Teacher Gifts