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When I was pregnant with Little J, I decided I wanted to make my own burp rag and bib sets. So I made a bunch of sets with all these cute boy fabrics I found and I LOVED them. The burp rags I made were incredibly easy, I packed them in his hospital bag when he was born, and I used them the entire time I nursed (eight months).

The best part was that they lasted that long, and I’m sure they would last even longer if I wanted to keep using them, but I definitely wanted to make new girl burp rags. Hence, this tutorial!

Note: I used the first set of burp rags I made with my second son four years later, and they still held up great!

Now when I say these are the easiest and best burp rags you will ever sew, I really mean it. Two rectangles of fabric sewn together, flipped right-side out, and then topstitched. I am not kidding, they are that easy.

So now that you’re not scared of this sewing, let’s dive right in!

Yield: 2 burp rags per 1/3 yard

The Best (and Easiest) Burp Rags You Will Ever Sew

Active Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Difficulty: easy

This is the easiest tutorial for a burp rag you could make! Only three steps, and they are the best DIY burp rags!! Great for easy baby gifts, and they last through multiple babies!

Print

Materials

• 1/3 yard minky fabric, prewashed
• 1/3 yard patterned fabric, prewashed
• thread to match

Tools

• Cutting Mat
• Rotary Cutter
• Ruler
• Sewing Machine

Instructions

1. Cut a rectangle 10×18″ out of both the minky fabric and the patterned fabric. I used my cutting mat and rotary cutter and it made it so easy.
2. Sew the two rectangles together, right-sides together, with a 1/2″ seam, leaving a 1″ opening in the middle of one of the edges.
3. Flip the burp rag right-side out, and topstitch all the way around, including on the opening to close it.
4. Just kidding, there isn’t a step four. You are done! I told you that was insanely easy! And they work so well.

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• 
  Cutting Mat Ruler
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  Cutting Mat

The minky is super soft on baby’s face, and the cotton is breathable and you can pick any cute fabric you want!

I love the set I made for baby girl and I can’t wait to use them!! These also make for great gifts!!

Good luck and happy sewing! And if you want to try out sewing something else for baby, you can use my tutorial for a standard car seat cover or a quilted car seat cover! Or check out my best and easiest bib tutorial!

This post was originally published on September 4th, 2014.

The post The Best (and Easiest) Burp Rags You Will Ever Sew appeared first on Life With My Littles.

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If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll have seen sneak peeks of our family’s Moana Halloween costumes. Little A is Moana (of course), Little J is Maui, and Little R is Pua. I love Halloween, and I frequently spend a lot of time working on Halloween costumes (like this Lightning McQueen costume I made last year). I put a lot of time and effort into these costumes, and I am SO HAPPY with how they turned out. I know Halloween is less than two weeks away, but I couldn’t not share these!

Let’s start with Moana.

Little A’s costume is the only one I didn’t completely make.

She was gifted the Moana costume from one of her grandmas for her birthday, and Little J got her the singing Moana necklace for her birthday.

I decided to make her a little flower crown that she could wear like Moana wears in the movie.

I used flowers from Michael’s and a tutorial I found similar to this one.

It was super easy and while it’s not a total DIY, I still love it!

Now we’ll go to sweet baby Pua.

We call Little R Pua almost more than his actual name, so it was easy to decide what character he would be from the movie! I searched for a baby Pua costume tutorial, and couldn’t find one, so I improvised!

And the best part is that if you don’t want to do any sewing, you don’t have to!

All you need are white baby pajamas (I used this one from Amazon), a white baby hat, gray felt, white felt, pink felt, and hot glue. First cut out some gray spots and hot glue them all over the pajamas.

Then cut out some pink triangles and some slightly bigger white triangles (for the ears) and glue them together, then glue them to the hat.

I recommend putting your hat on your baby to make sure you put them in the right place. Of course take the hat off before gluing them so you don’t burn your baby. Then glue a few more smaller gray spots onto the hat, and voila!

You have a super easy no-sew baby Pua costume! If you’re wondering why I said you don’t have to sew it, I actually made the baby hat because I didn’t want one with a little fold on it. You can find the tutorial I used for that here. I love how Pua’s costume turned out, and it was so easy!

Maui’s costume took me the longest, and it’s definitely the most detailed.

I got the skin-colored shirt and pants from Amazon (shirt here, pants here), and drew the tattoos on (yes, I know) with Tulip black fabric markers.

It took several hours, I only did the front of the shirt and the ankles, and if you decide not to draw them on, your costume will still look awesome.

For Maui’s fishhook, I mostly followed this pin. It’s made from several layers of cardboard, masking tape, white felt, a rope, and hot glue.

I’ve seen a few different tutorials on Pinterest, and you can also just buy a fishhook if making one intimidates you. I used white felt instead of cardboard (because it was what I had and seemed easier) and just stitched it on using embroidery thread.

Then I hot glued some rope around the bottom of it.

For Maui’s necklace, I cut teeth out of a white foam sheet from Michael’s (like this), hot glued some thin hemp rope around the tops, and then hot glued them in between some white and brown beads on a thin hemp rope. It was super easy, and I just tie it on my son using a bow when he wears it.

The skirt was also super easy, even if it took a while. I used different colors of green felt, purple felt, and red felt, and cut leaves out of it.

Some of them were simple leaves, and then some of them I cut into to make them look more like palm leaves. To attach them to the rope, I used thread and sewed them on in a big long line along the rope. I also drilled some holes through some seashells and tied them onto the rope. To put it on, I just use safety pins on each end and pin them so it doesn’t fall off. There’s probably a better way to do it, but that’s how I did it!

So there you have it! DIY Moana Halloween costumes. They are great family Halloween costumes, great sibling Halloween costumes, or they are even great on their own! My kids ask me to wear them every day, and I can hardly wait to show them off and wear my Te Fiti costume with them! Happy Halloween!

The post DIY Moana Family Halloween Costumes appeared first on Life With My Littles.

When my first was born, I made one of those nursing covers that has a strap you put over your head and it only covers the front of you. I hated it. I felt so exposed and never wanted to feed him in public. Then the nice full-coverage poncho nursing covers came out, but they were so dang expensive. When I was pregnant with my daughter and my best friend told me that you could easily make a full-coverage nursing cover for just a few dollars, I was sold. I made one before she was born and it really was the best (and easiest) nursing cover.

That nursing cover lasted me the whole time I nursed her, and I’ve been using it to nurse Little R in public, too. I feel so much more comfortable, there’s no chance of exposure, and it fits easily in my diaper bag. Today I want to share the super easy tutorial with you guys! It takes less than 5 minutes and costs a lot less than the overpriced full-coverage nursing covers you can buy online!

All you need is 1 yard of stretchy knit fabric and all-purpose thread. Use a coupon and get it from Jo-Ann or Hobby Lobby and you’ll only pay a few dollars!

Now I usually recommend pre-washing all fabric you are going to sew with, but you don’t have to with this because you are sewing such a small amount of the fabric. I mean you can, but don’t worry about it if you don’t.

Now fold the fabric in half hamburger-style so you get more of a square shape.

Pin the edge.

Get out your sewing machine and sew 15″ from the open side in towards the fold, with a 1/2″ seam. You basically want to sew halfway so that you have a big poncho-like thing with a hole for your head on the inside. Watch the video if that’s confusing.

Flip it right-side-out and you’re all done! SO EASY! And look at that coverage! Nobody’s getting a peek today! Not even of my back!

So there you have it. The best (and easiest) nursing cover you will ever sew. Sew easy (see what I did there?) and it is so much cheaper than buying an expensive $40 one online. Plus you can pick your own fabric! Hooray! Happy (covered) nursing, mamas!

And if you need some more easy tutorials, check out my easy burp rags and easy bibs!

The post The Best (and Easiest) Nursing Cover You Will Ever Sew appeared first on Life With My Littles.

For my son’s first Christmas, I really wanted to find a way to make it more fun for him. Christmas is such a magical time for kids, and even though he was only 9-months-old, I wanted to make it special.

My friends and I got together and made some DIY felt Christmas trees with ornaments that just stuck on so our kids could decorate their own little trees over and over again. (I highly recommend making your trees the way I mention in that post. It was a lifesaver!)

Now that my son is older and his tree is falling apart a bit, I thought I would make him a new tree, and make one for Little A, too! They are super easy and definitely worth taking the time to make. And the best part is, you don’t need any patterns! You can freehand everything, and it doesn’t even matter!

Seriously, this is super easy and super fun. And you’ll love watching your kids decorate their trees over and over again!

How to Make DIY Felt Christmas Trees

First, you’ll need a bunch of coordinating colors of felt for ornaments, some ric rac, and 1 yard of green felt. For the green felt, you can just go to any fabric store and find bolts of felt. I didn’t know this until I made my tree, so I thought I would pass that along!

Next, decide how many ornaments to make, and cut them out. Mine are all circles, but I did different patterns on them. Polka-dots, stripes, zigzags, pretty much whatever you want you can do. And if you want to make some square ones or star ones or oval ones, be my guest. My original tree had a snowflake, a snowman, a penguin, and a candy cane, too. But since I was making two trees I decided just to stick with circles. And seriously, just freehand those bad boys. No need for patterns!

Now you want to either hot glue or sew on your ornament patterns. Honestly, if you just want to do solid-colored ornaments, that’s no problem. You’re toddler won’t care either way, I promise. I chose to sew on my polka-dots, stripes, and zigzags, because my daughter puts everything in her mouth (still, at 15-months, ugh).

Also, if you want to make some presents for under your tree, you can do that, too! Here’s how mine turned out. I did use a template for the bow on top, but the rest was freehand.

Now it’s time for the tree! Fold your felt in half hot-dog style. It’s going to be incredibly long, but you really only need half of it so if you want to cut it in half, be my guest. I did because I am making two trees.

Now cut your tree! Now I’m not super crafty or artistic (ha!), but I did this freehand. You can use a white crayon or something to draw it before to make sure you like it, but it’s up to you. Here’s what my tree looked like folded after I cut it if you want an idea of how to make the edges. And don’t forget the stump!

Open up your tree and admire your work.

If you want to sew some ricrac on like a garland, now is the time. I think it looks super cute, but if you’re going with the simplest form of this tree, just ignore it. Pin the ric rac on and then just set a line in the middle of it.

Now you have your tree, you have your ornaments, how do you make them stick!? This little bottle is the answer.

The instructions tell you how to do a temporary hold, so that’s what you want to do. Lay your ornaments on some newspaper or something and then lightly spray. Let them sit for a bit and then they will easily attach to your tree.

Note: To be honest, this step isn’t completely necessary. I actually hadn’t sprayed my ornaments when I took these pictures and they stuck fine! The spray just makes it easier for younger toddlers to be able to get their ornaments back up on the tree.

Now hang up your tree and let your kiddos get to work! To hang them up, I have used tiny pushpins in the past, but now that we have a house and I don’t want to poke holes in the walls, the poky part of velcro stuck to a command sticky pad has worked great!

I told you that was simple! And it’s a fun way to keep your toddlers away from your nice Christmas tree, too! My kids love having their own little trees, and the best part is that you can use them over and over again because they just fold up for storage!

Now go get some felt and get to work! These DIY felt Christmas trees don’t make themselves!

The post DIY Felt Christmas Trees appeared first on Life With My Littles.

When I was pregnant with my son, I made a set of matching burp rags and bibs so I would have a bunch of cute ones to use when he was born. They worked AMAZING.

The tutorial that I posted for “The Easiest (and Best) Burp Rags You Will Ever Sew” currently has over 170,000 pageviews, and has been featured on several other websites as an easy baby shower gift. In that post, I mentioned that I also made some bibs for my son, and there were a ton of people who asked me to do a tutorial for the bibs.

Now, almost a year later, I am finally putting together this tutorial for the easiest (and best) bibs you will ever sew. I made one change to the bibs I made my son to make them even better, but they are still easy and the best bibs.

In fact, I actually got out my son’s old bibs and have been using them on my daughter for months, and they still work great. So rest assured, these bibs are fantastic and can withstand multiple babies!

If you could master my tutorial for the burp rags (aka, sew straight lines), then you should easily be able to move onto this tutorial for bibs. I promise it is an easy bib tutorial. Obviously you will have to sew some curved lines, but don’t be scared because they are super easy and if you go slow, you will have no problem making yourself some cute little bibs.

To make one bib, you will need my fabulous free bib pattern, 1/3 yd cotton fabric, 1/3 yd minky fabric (also called Soft n’ Cuddly or Soft n’ Fluffy), matching thread, and a size 16 snap and fastener (like this one I got from JoAnn).

Now onto the tutorial! Don’t be scared. It may seem like several steps, but some of the steps are super easy and could’ve been combined (like pin your pieces).

First, assemble your pattern. Tape piece A over piece B and then cut around the edges.

Next, pin your pattern piece to your cotton fabric, like in the picture. You can pin it up-and-down too, but you won’t make as many bibs from your strip of fabric.

Cut it out, and repeat with the minky fabric. You should have two matching bib pieces.

Pin your pieces together, right-sides together.

Now the only tricky part of the bib. The snaps. You will want to grab one top snap and one bottom snap, plus your fastener.

Now attach one side of your snap so the snap part is on the inside of the top of the cotton. Make sure you center it, but don’t put it too close to the top. You may have to fold down part of your fabric to get it.

Next, attach the other side of your snap so the snap part is on the opposite bib top, but on the minky. It should look like this:

Now pin the top of your pieces again and sew all the way around, leaving a 2″ hole on the bottom side of the bib.

Flip your bib inside out, and then press with an iron. It will make topstitching your bib a lot easier if you press it with an iron first.

Now topstitch your bib all the way around! Aka, just sew about 1/8″ away from the edge, all the way around. Now you have a bib!

The first bibs I made for my son had velcro, but he learned to pull those off pretty fast. The snap fasteners have been so much better because I can keep the bibs on my daughter (she drools SO MUCH) and she can’t get them off!

You can make 4 or 5 bibs from each 1/3 yd. of fabric. So you could make several of the same fabric, or if you wanted you could make a bunch of different ones in matching fabrics. Either way, your baby will be super stylish and people will compliment you on how cute your bibs are!

See, I told you that was a super easy tutorial! Now good luck, and happy sewing!

The post The Best (And Easiest) Bibs You Will Ever Sew appeared first on Life With My Littles.

With Little J helping me in the kitchen so much recently, I decided that he needed a cute little apron. The only problem was that I couldn’t find any inexpensive cute toddler aprons, especially for boys, and especially one that my son likes enough to actually wear every time.

So what does the crafty mom do in a crisis like this? She makes her own, of course! And I had to share it so other moms with this problem could make aprons for their toddlers, too. The best part is that you can pick fabric that your little guy (or girl) will love and want to wear every time they help you in the kitchen!

This tutorial has 17 steps, but it’s super simple and not hard to understand. You shouldn’t have a problem if you look at the pictures, and if you have a question, just leave me a comment and I will reply with an answer!

All you need for this cute toddler apron are:
12″ of 3/4″ elastic
3/4 yd. of 2 coordinating fabrics
Coordinating thread
Pattern

Now here’s how you make it!

1. Prewash and iron your fabric. PLEASE don’t skip this. If you don’t prewash your fabric, the first time you wash it it’s going to shrink in weird places and your apron won’t look quite as good. So wash it, iron it, and then sew it.

2. Cut 2 pockets 9×5″ from the edge of each fabric. So you will have one of each.

3. Cut 1 21×3″ rectangle and 2 3×14″ rectangles from the back fabric.

4. Put the pattern together, and use the pattern and cut the apron piece, both front and back, along the fold.

5. Iron the three rectangles you just cut in half hotdog style (elementary school!), and then iron the two pockets by folding the two shorter sides 1/4″, then the two longer sides 1/4″. Then fold down the top another 1/4″ and iron it again.

6. Sew the sides and bottom of the pocket with 1/4″ seam.

7. Sew the top of the pocket with a zig-zag stitch.

8. Sew the pocket onto the apron on the sides and bottom using a zig-zag stitch. Don’t stitch the top!

9. Sew a line down the middle of your pocket to make it a double pocket.

10. Repeat with the other pocket and the other side of the apron.

11. Sew 21×3″ strip in half hotdog style, and flip right-side out.

12. Feed elastic through and sew at each end to hold in place.

13. Sew the 14×3″ strips in half hotdog style, and close ONE of the ends on each. Then flip right-side out and iron so it lays flat.

14. Lay down one layer of your apron on the floor, and lay your straps so that the open ends hang off the edge of the apron 1/2″. Lay down your elastic at the top of the apron, and stick the edges out far enough that where you stitched them won’t show once you sew it (the picture makes this a little clearer).

15. Lay down the top aligned with your bottom. Pin all the way around, especially making sure to pin your straps in place.

16. Sew all the way around, leaving 2″ opening at the bottom.

17. Flip and topstitch close to the edge, making sure to close the hole that you left open.

Little J LOVES his new apron, and every time I get mine on to cook or bake he immediately goes to grab his. It’s the cutest thing, and I know that just this simple little project will help him enjoy cooking with me more. I hope it helps you and your toddler have more fun in the kitchen, too! And for tips on cooking with a toddler, you can check out last week’s post here.

The post Easy Toddler Apron Pattern and Tutorial appeared first on Life With My Littles.

When Little J was born, my wonderful friend Shalie sewed the cutest and handiest changing pad for me. I have been using it for almost two years now, and it still is in great shape and works perfectly! A few months ago, she asked if I wanted the pattern and I immediately said yes! It has places to keep both diapers and wipes inside so you only have to grab one thing when you go change your baby, and it is soft inside so it’s comfy for baby, too. It’s not a hard pattern and I am excited that I get to share it with you today!

Here’s what you will need:

Pattern (download here)
1 1/2 yards cotton fabric (45″)
1 1/2 yards terry cloth fabric
1/4 yard coordinating cotton fabric for closure
3″ 3/4″ wide velcro
6″ 3/4″ wide elastic
Coordinating thread
Thin wipes case (mine is Huggies)

First, print, cut, and assemble your pattern.

When you are cutting it, don’t cut the extra overlaps on the right sides! Those are so you can easily match up your pattern!

Match A to A, B to B, etc. Make sure you are using those overlaps! Here’s what the general shape should look like (except this picture doesn’t use the overlaps).

Second, cut out your fabric! Using the pattern with the edge on the fold, pin and cut it out. You will need to cut the big pattern piece on both the cotton fabric and the terry fabric. And don’t forget to cut your little rectangle for the closure (not pictured).

Pin right-sides together and sew all the way around, except for the very top. Sew with a 1/2″ seam for the whole thing, unless otherwise noted.

Pin your closure fabric piece, right sides together, and sew the two edges. You want to sew as close to the edges as possible on this one.

Flip both the changing pad and the closure piece inside out and press.

Insert the open end of the closure fabric into the open end of the main piece. Fold down the opening and sew right along the edge. Then continue sewing all the way around the edge (topstitch).

Okay this is where it gets sort of difficult to explain, so make sure you look at the pictures when you are doing this part.

Get a ruler or straight edge, and line it up with the changing pad where it starts to slant back in (see picture). Fold over your flaps so they are 5″ away from the straight edge. Then, fold them under so they are 5 1/2″ away. Pin the folded-under part (see picture). Then sew.

Now you have the part where your wipes case will fit!

For the elastic, put one edge 4 1/2″ away from the straight edge in the center of the pad. Pin it. Now fold the elastic over itself and pin it so the ends are 3 1/2″ away from each other. Sew the folded-under parts.

Now you have the part for your diapers to slip in!

Now it’s velcro time. Sew 3″ of your velcro to the inside of the closure tab.

Then, roll your changing pad up with wipes case and diapers inside, and see where the other half of your velcro needs to be. Make sure you have your diapers and wipes case inside! Pin it and sew.

Now you are all done!

I love my changing pad so much! It’s so nice to be able to just grab one thing out of my diaper bag when I have to go change my littles.

This is a great baby shower gift, or even a great sewing project for yourself! It doesn’t take very long to make, and my materials only cost about $12, so it’s way cheaper (and more personal) than store-bought changing pad combos.

I also love that my changing pad is machine washable! And it can fit at least four diapers without stretching the elastic, so you can carry several backups!

Even Little A loves it!

Are you going to make this for yourself or a friend? Let me know in the comments below!!

The post Changing Pad Tutorial appeared first on Life With My Littles.

I have gotten so many compliments on this car seat cover I made for Little A!! I have been using it the last four months and I still love everything about it! So today I want to share how I made it with you!

Before Little J was born, I made a tutorial and sewed him a car seat cover. It was perfect and beautiful and lasted really well the whole time he was in his little carrier car seat. So with Little A, I knew I was going to have to make her a car seat cover, too. The only problem was I couldn’t find just one fabric that I loved for the top. I kept finding collections that I was falling in love with. I decided the only solution was to sew a quilted car seat cover with six different patterns on top and another one on the bottom. And it turned out PERFECT!

Let me first say that my favorite place to buy fabric is Etsy. There are a lot of different sellers willing to work with you and get all the designer fabrics you want. Plus, I can spend hours looking at different patterns. For this car seat cover, I used the Bramble palette in Joel Dewberry’s Bungalow collection. All 100% cotton and all 100% beautiful. I purchased my fabric from LiMa Sews (they have so many gorgeous patterns and are really great to work with) and it arrived looking fantastic.

Okay so now that you are also in love with my fabric, we can begin!

Materials:

• 6 fat quarters for top and straps
• 1 yard for bottom (you may need more if you have a directional fabric)
• 3 yards fusible interfacing (optional, but it makes the quilting so much easier)
• 6″ of 2″ wide sew-on velcro

Step One: Pre-wash your fabric and interfacing. You want to pre-wash both because if you only pre-wash your fabric, you might find that your fabric and interfacing shrink differently after you wash your completed project. Bad. So pre-wash both your fabric and interfacing. And duh, don’t put your fusible interfacing in the dryer because it is heat-activated. Let it dry over the shower curtain rod or something. And why is pre-washing necessary in the first place? Well, if you are using cotton fabrics, cotton shrinks. So you want to make sure that your final project doesn’t shrink once you wash it. That’s why you make it a certain size to begin with, right? So seriously. Just pre-wash.

Step Two: Iron your fabrics to get out creases and wrinkles. You want to cut flat fabric so that when you line it all up, it matches.

Step Three: Cut five of the fat quarters into 9×10″ squares. You will have a little left over so don’t just cut down the middle both ways. After you cut, you should have 20 squares.

Step Four: Iron your interfacing onto the back of your 20 squares. The easiest way to do this is to spread out your interfacing and then put all your squares on it to make sure they fit. Then cut them up so that you have little interfacing and fabric squares. Then you can just iron them on and you won’t have to worry about running out of interfacing or doing the whole 3 yards at once.

Step Five: Trim your squares so that the interfacing is the same size. I had only a little bit to trim around the edges, but you want them to match up so sewing is easier.

Step Six: Decide what pattern you want your squares to be in. I lined all of my squares up on the ground and then took a picture to make sure I wouldn’t forget if they got out of order a little between sewing. You will want to make sure that you have the 9″ edges along the top and bottom and the 10″ edges along the left and right. Otherwise, when you sew them together you will end up with a big square that is the wrong dimensions and it won’t match up with your bottom fabric. So be aware of that. Also, you will have 4 squares by 5 squares in order to get it the right size.

Step Seven: When you start sewing, you will want to sew your squares together in rows, and then sew those rows together. So for this step, you will want to start on either the top or bottom row, and sew two of the squares together. You want to line them up, then pin them right sides together. Then sew along that side. Make sure you have a 1/2″ seam.

Step Eight: Keep adding squares on, lining them up and pinning them each time. Sew them together until you have five rows.

Step Nine: Press open your seams. Use an iron to flatten the seams open.

Step Ten: Start sewing the rows together. Start with the two bottom (or two top) rows. Line them up, right sides together, pin them, and sew with a 1/2″ seam.

Step Eleven (not pictured): Press open the seams again so the quilted top lies flat.

Step Twelve: Line up the quilted top and the bottom fabric, right sides together.

Step Thirteen: Using a large bowl as an edge, trim the corners so they are curved.

Step Fourteen: Pin the top and bottom together all the way around.

Step Fifteen: Starting at the top/back (the top of the fabric if it is directional, or whichever side will be covering the back of the carseat), sew all the way around the car seat cover, except for a small six inch opening at the top/back, using a 1/4 inch seam.

The post Quilted Car Seat Cover Tutorial appeared first on Life With My Littles.

In college I took a “Religion in the Home” class where we learned about how different religions practice their beliefs in their homes. It was really a great class, and I loved seeing the similarities between Latter-day Saints and other religions. One of my favorite things that I learned about were advent calendars. I had never done an advent calendar (unless you count little chocolate ones) growing up, and I thought it would be a really fun way to celebrate the season and count down the days until Christmas. I wanted to make an advent calendar last year, but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I finally got around to making one. And I am excited to share it with you!

This is a simple advent calendar that I made using fabric pockets, iron-on transfers, and my printer. I love the way it turned out!

It didn’t take very long to make, and I love that the pockets are big enough to put an object, a note, or a treat inside. I can really do whatever I want with the activities and little gifts for each day!

To make this advent calendar, here is what you need:

• 1 2/3 yd 38″ muslin
• 1/3 yd of four different Christmas fabrics
• Matching thread
• Iron-on Transfer Paper
• Printer
• Mini clothespins
• Twine

First, cut 24 rectangles of muslin 11″x 6 1/2″, and 24 rectangles (6 each) of your Christmas fabrics 11″x 3″.

Second, fold your cotton Christmas rectangles hot-dog ways (yes, I just said that), wrong sides together, press, and sew the long edge with a 1/4″ seam.

Third, sew them to the muslin with a 1/2″ seam. You will want to line up the sewn side with the raw edge of the muslin (see picture).

Fourth, fold the pocket together, right sides together, and sew along the bottom and side with a 1/2″ seam.

Fifth, turn right-side out and press.

Sixth, open up a word document and type 1-24. Use the grid on your document and make sure that your numbers are smaller than 5×5.5″. Then print on light iron-on transfer paper and transfer your numbers to your pockets. Make sure you mirror-image print, or you will waste a lot of transfer paper. You can try doing one of those fancy tutorials people have posted on Pinterest using wax paper, but I could never get it to work for me (crappy printer?). Transfer paper is the easiest way to go.

Seventh, hang up your adorable advent calendar garland and you are done!

What kinds of things do you put in your advent calendar?

The post DIY Pocket Advent Calendar appeared first on Life With My Littles.

When I decided to make my son’s quiet book I knew that I was going to have to incorporate Harry Potter somehow. As big of a fan as I am, I knew that I had to teach my little boy the magic of Harry Potter (haha, get it?). Anyway, I came up with the idea of making a textured Snitch page where he could feel the wings of the Snitch and also the smooth, shiny body of the Snitch. It was not hard at all to make, and I even did some embroidery on it so the page reads “Feel the Snitch.” Basically, it turned out beautifully and I love it. So I wanted to share the pattern with everyone!

Honestly, it’s not hard at all to make. You probably don’t really need a pattern, but I know for some people it’s just easier and they feel better with a pattern, so I made one.

It is the right size to be printed on 8.5″x11″ printer paper. Also, it won’t have the big website across the page, so don’t worry about that.

I used some shiny gold fabric for the body and some fluffy white fabric for the wings. You could also use a few layers of shimmery white fabric for the wings, but I liked the texture of the fluffy fabric for my quiet book.

If you are going to do the embroidery, do that first.

Then sew on the two wings (I used a zig-zag stitch all the way around with white thread) and then the gold circle on top (again, a zig-zag stich with gold thread). Then ta-dah! You have a Snitch page for your quiet book and now you can teach your kids about Harry Potter

Enjoy! And if you need any other quiet book inspiration, check out my whole post about my 100 hour quiet book I made for my son!

The post “Feel the Snitch” Harry Potter Quiet Book Page appeared first on Life With My Littles.