Disney Car's Birthday Party

Hello All!
This morning, there was a challenge to do a scrapbook layout about celebrations and I immediately thought about the fun party that I threw for my 3 year old.  He was in love with Disney Cars (and so were we!).  I worked to transform my house into Cars Land! I scoured the internet for inspiration. Check out my Pinterest Board for more: http://pinterest.com/meagan43/disney-cars-party/

To start - you need a starting line!  I made my own with fabric in red and black/white racing checked.  I cut out the letters of black felt and sewed them onto a rectangle of more of the black and white checked.

Then, I designated areas like in Cars Land.  You fuel up at Flo's (lunch), you get surplus at Sarge's (presents), you stop in at the Cozy Cone for treats (desserts), and play at Luigi's & Mater's.  I think everything came together!  Without further ado, here is the photos

We enlarged (a lot) a photo that we took of the real Flo's sign in Disneyland's Cars Land, backed with foam core and cut it out.  It still hangs in my kitchen 4 months later ;)

Easy decor - found the image for Dinoco online, added it to a blue background (digitally) and then added to empty cans.  Just a fun little element.  Although, they would also make a good bowling game.

I took great pains, to make all the food "theme" related.  I served: Luigi's Pizza Tires, Mack's Cheesy Wheels, Lizzie's Nuts & Bolts (snack mix - I had to search to find one that seemed most like nuts and bolts), Ramone's Fruit Cars (apples & grapes - easy & fun), and Lightning McQueen & Francesco Bernoiulli's Chocolate Dipsticks (I took the basic Wilton race car pretzel rod candy and added eyes and the right coloring to look like the iconic cars characters).  Another fun thing that we did was to make a road table cloth.  I enlisted the help of my mom who sews faster and better than I to sew a black felt strip in the center to the black & white check and then to sew yellow ribbon road lines down the middle.  Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of just it.  We made 2 roads, one for the main Flo's Table and then just a road strip for the Cozy Cone table on top of an orange base.  They turned out so great!

BTW - the kit that I used to make the Flo's food labels is a retro kit called retrO from Oscraps.

I loved this idea that I found to have Fillmore's Organic Fuel.  I emptied 2 water jugs and filled one with "Anti-Freeze" (aka lemon-lime Kool-aid) and the other with "Motor Oil" (aka iced tea).  Then I found racing checked duct tape and covered the labels of water bottles.  Fun and easy!

I had plans to make these things more 'fleshed' out.  I was actually going to make specific game areas for Luigi's & Tow Maters.  I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how the Mater sign turned out.  It was really easy to cut out a tan foam core board, age it with brown, and then add the white paint outline.  The tires are just black foam.  Luigi's Leaning Tower of Tires was a last minute addition and a HUGE hit to the party itself.  I found these blow-up tires are Dollar Tree and bought 12.  The kids had such a blast just stacking, rolling, jumping on and every other way of playing with blow-up tires.  WAY worth the $12!  I sent each of the kids home with one, too ;)

For the treat table, I had a blast.  My kiddos helped me to transform out Cone drink holders into Cozy Cone hotel rooms.  I found instructions on the Disney site to do it to regular cones and adjusted to what I already had on hand.  They were the perfect decorations to set the mood for this table.  

I saw this cute idea to take terra cotta pots painted orange to serve treats on and just knew that I needed to do it.  This took 3 coats of orange spray paint.  I tried gluing the tiers together, but they did not stay glued. Obviously, I used the wrong adhesive, but I didn't have any problems with the server.  For the cupcakes, I found this scrumptious recipe for Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes and wanted to serve them (keeping the orange cone theme) .  I made the little cones for the top easily with orange marshmallow fondant.

Every time, we are in Disneyland, my husband eats his weight in popcorn and of course, they added a special Cone location for "Popcone", so I wanted to include it.  I found this antique Pepsi crate and wanted to use it to hold my cones.  I made the cones from orange construction paper and filled with popcorn.  I sort of mis-judged the size of the cones and the are a little too wide - oh well.  

I also wanted to include a more traditional flavor, so I made my Bavarian Bliss cupcakes (Bavarian Cream-filled white Cupcake with Buttercream Icing).  I made Route 66 fondant toppers and some Speed Limit 3 paper signs to top them.  I added an extra couple of flags on my white cupcake stand that looks retro, so it fits perfectly for the theme. 

It all looked great.  I had wanted to make the Cozy Cone sign for over it, but ran out of time.

Last, but not least, the favors were pretty simple.  I collected inexpensive cars, stickers, and small logo items.  Included an extra chocolate dipped pretzel rod and they got to take home an inflatable tire.

Finally, I want to share the layout that I did today of all the Flo's details

It is a simple layout using Britt-ish Design's Nothing But Pictures 3 template and her Cars Rule kit

All the kids had a great time and I just loved all the little details, I wanted to leave it all up forever ;)

I hope I have given you some inspiration to pull off your own Cars party!

Meagan

How to Make a Cute Purse (part 3)

Hello Again,

Welcome to day 3 on making a purse.  I wanted to let you know that although I am posting the instructions in multiple days, the purses themselves didn't take that long.

So, now onto to adding the lining

Step 20 - Adding Darts to the Lining
Just like in step 3, you will need sew the darts into the lining of both the front and back sections.

Step 21 - Upper Inside Edges
Stitch upper edges of front and back lining sections together in a 1/4" seam, pivoting at small circles as shown like in step 4.  Now the lining will be held together at only these sections.

Step 22 - Press Edge for Zipper
Turn in 1/4" on upper edge of front and back lining and press

Step 23 – Stitch Lining

For this step, they have you sew closed the lining, however, then you will need to hand sew the zipper to the lining – YUCK!  I tried.  It was messy, ugly, time consuming and not as strong.  Instead, skip this step until after the zipper is in.

Step 24 -  Stitch Lining to Zipper

They would have you slip-stitch the lining to the zipper.  This is how bad I did on that!

 

For the next purses, I sewed the zipper to the lining first, trying to stay as close to the pressed edge of the lining and the zipper without getting too close.  If you are too close to the zipper, the lining will get caught in the zipper you open and close it.  I pinned the lining in place and then machine stitched it in place.  I should warn you that I did have to go back on some sections since my lining slipped a little and my stitch missed, but it was easy to correct.  I tried to follow the same line as my outer bags seam.

 

Step 24b – Sew Lining

With right sides together, sew the lining MOSTLY CLOSED, leaving a 2-3” section un-sewn in the bottom (not near the part that you would see).  You can now turn the purse right side out through this hole.  Once it is the right way, you can slip-stitch the 2-3” hole that you left in the bottom.

 

Step 25 – Tabs – This was done already

This is the step that again, they would have you hand sew a part that was done much easy by machine.  In step 14, I sewed close the entire bag, including these tabs.  I actually sewed over them twice to give them double strength.   I can’t imagine slip-stitching these.  They would not have been very strong and my ugly stitches would have been right out there where everyone could see them.

 

Step 26 -28 – Strap (this could have been done at any point earlier)

Turn in your seam allowance on long edges of strap and press.  It also makes things a little easier if you clip the corners a little to allow the fold.

With wrong sides together (right sides out), fold strap along foldline, press (I think I did not press).  Stitch close to pressed edges. 

Turn in seam allowance on each end of strap and press.

Step 29 – Attach Strap

Insert each end of strap through D-Ring on tabs, turning back 1” on ends.  Stitch close to inner pressed edge, through thickness.  Again, I double stitched this.  This was one where they show machine sewing and I could not fit this much fabric through my machine, so I hand sewed this part.

Step 30 – Zipper Pull

If you wanted to add a zipper pull, you would sew on your beaded tassel onto your finished zipper

You are done!  Congratulations. 

How to Make a Cute Purse (part 2)

I am sorry that I did not get this posted before.  Life took over for a few days.  I have had sick kids in the family and so took some time to get them better.

I hope you enjoyed the first part of my blog on making these little purses.  Now that I have ironed out the kinks of the pattern and instructions and can share it with you.

Before, we finished the interfacing, darts and adding the facing.
Step 7:  Starting the Zipper
You need to whipstitch the zipper tape together on the upper end.

Step 8:  Prickstitch?
Say what?  I did this step as suggested the first time and it sucked.  It took a lot of time, made a mess of the zipper and the benefit was minimal.  It is supposed to keep the zipper in place until you sew it.  I skipped this step for the next 2 purses and was much happier.

You have to whipstitch it by hand and knot each stitch, which left strings everywhere for the sewing machine to catch on.

Step 9-11:  Creating The Tabs
These steps can be done at any time, but I found it odd to work on the zipper in 8, put it down to do these steps and then finish it in 14.  Their steps are also a little strange for the tabs.  I did it differently.
First, cut out your 2 tab squares.  No need to transfer the lines that were put on the pattern.

I did it the first time (again, I like to follow instructions), however, I found that it was pointless.  This was a waste of time.  They wanted you to turn in at these lines, press, and glue or baste in place.  Then fold, press and sew again.  Silly!

 Instead, I did this:

Sooo much easier and such a time saver. 

Fold the square in half and sew right sides together (inside out) about 1/2" in.  This change saved about 20 minutes or more per purse!  Then, turn right sides out.  I ended up doing a double stitch since this is what the strap holds onto.

Another thing that I did was to do the strap at the same time as the tabs, but they do not do them until step 26, so I will leave it until later.   Just know that you can do these early

Step 12 - D-Ring
Insert the newly created tab through the D-Ring. They have you baste, but you don't need to.

Step 13 - Attach Tab
Again, they made this step so much harder than it needed to be, not to mention weaker.  They wanted you to stitch it here and then later hand stitch the opening.  Yuck!  Way too much hand stitching listed for this project.  Hand stitching should be avoided at all costs, so instead I stitched it to the outside and then sewed in place.  I should look like this:

Use the machine to sew into place on one side of purse.  When you sew purse closed later, you will sew right over this and hence machine sew in place.

Step 14 - Sew Zipper
For this you need a zipper foot for your machine.  This allows you to sew right up to the edge of the zipper.  Change the foot on your machine.
Open Zipper.  Stitch front and back sections together at sides and lower edge.  Instead of the whole whipstitch thing, I merely pinned the zipper in place and sewed! In this step, they merely want you to sew the outer purse closed.  I sewed it all the way closed, including the upper portion with the tabs.

Steps 15-17 - The Pocket


Start by pressing the upper edge of your pocket IN 1/4", then take that same edge and turn it OUT along fold line.

You will then need to stitch ends and trim.  After you have turned the upper edge to inside, it will look like this:

You will need to press in all the edges in, folding in the fullness at the corners

The last part is to sew close to inner pressed edge.

Steps 18 & 19 - Adding Pocket to Lining
Pin the pocket to the front of the lining sections, matching large circles on the pattern.  Stitch close to sides and lower edge.  Stitch along stitching line to create a divider within the pocket (like for a phone or ipod).  Reinforce inner corners of upper edge.

For tomorrow, I will show how to put in the lining and then finish the bag (10 more steps to go).
Later for now,
Meagan

How to Make a Cute Purse (part 1 How to Start)

This Christmas, I decided to try to hand-make as many gifts as possible.  I have always preferred something that someone put their heart into and to give something unusual and unique.  In our family, we have a set of triplets that are in their early teens and I wanted to make something that they would like.  Something that would be unique to each of them, while still being similar.  A little purse is the perfect answer.  I could make the same style purse, while making the fabric each different.  I took detailed pictures of each step to share with you.  Because there are so many steps, I am going to break up this into more than 1 day's worth.
I would like to start by saying that as I have mentioned before, I am by no means an expert, especially in the sewing arena.  If you are a total beginner, maybe this will give you some confidence to try it out.  In fact, I had to bring in my mother for advice on my sewing projects.

Her first tip:  Don't read the directions.  "What?" I say, "Why did I get a pattern if I am not supposed to read it?" (I am a big direction reader - it goes against reason to NOT read them).  I guess with sewing, you are just supposed to know and use the pattern and not the directions
To Purchase
Here is the pattern that you are NOT supposed to read :)  See & Sew B5124

I chose the bottom purse - purse A.
I purchased 1 yard each corduroy fabric in 3 coordinating colors:  Coffee Brown, Teal blue, and aqua with flowers.  Then I purchased 2 yards of a lining fabric in regular flat cotton that coordinating perfectly with all three (dots of brown, teal and mustard).  I purchased a little extra of each than was called for.  It also called for sew-in interfacing of "heavyweight hair canvas".  After purchase the wrong thing, I asked my mother who said that you could use anything for interfacing that was heavy weight.  I had already a ton of this pink cord, so I used it.  For notions, you need 2 D-Rings each and a 14" zipper.  It also has a beaded tassel listed that I skipped.  Fabric cost $23 (after coupons and tax) and the notions were $13, making each purse roughly $13/each.  This project would have been too expensive to do full price!

Step 1 - Cut it out
Completely cut out your pattern and locate all the parts that are needed.  In this case, there are 5 pattern pieces.  You will end up with 13 pieces of fabric total:  front & back of purse in cord, interfacing and lining, strap in cord and interfacing, facing in cord, tab in cord, and pocket in lining.

Step 2 - Pin Interfacing& Baste

I pin the pink "interfacing" to the back of my cord fabric and basted in place with the baste stitch on my sewing machine.  (Basting is just a really big stitch that holds everything together, but you can pull it out later.)  You do this for for the purse front, back and strap.  

I used the 20 basting stitch setting (I think it means it skips 20 stitches, but I don't know, just that it works)

You will want to transfer the markings from the pattern for the triangle dart to be done in the next step.  I used pins on the points of the triangle and a highlighter on the interfacing to mark for sewing.  Since no one was going to see the interfacing, I just drew the triangle right on there.


Step 3 - Darts
Stitch the darts in each front and back so that the triangle is on the pink interfacing.

This is the triangle on the inside

This is the outside, which is not a cute dart to make the bottom flat.

Make sure that your darts line up, before you sew it together.

Step 4 - Upper Inside Edges
Sew the upper edges together just to the circles on the pattern.  Right sides should be sewn together and attached by these 2" section.

Do this for both sides and for facing

Step 5 - Facing
Open the facing and bag and pin the right side together.

make sure to match seams

stitch all the way around making square ends

you need to clip diagonally to stitched corners.

Step 6 - Press & Baste (optional)
After this, you turn facing to inside and can press, although honestly, I didn't. They also wanted you to baste the raw edges together

There are more steps, so stated tuned for more
Meagan