Sleeping Mask (a child sized tutorial)... and other handmade stuff

Olivia has decided that she needs to wear a sleeping mask at night. I'm not sure how this came about, but I think it's pretty funny. The poor girl has been wearing a fabric headband over her eyes the last few nights, so of course I knew what I had to do:

I found a template for an adult sized sleeping mask in Sew Pretty Homestyle, and reduced it to 70% of its original size.
I chose a fabric Olivia would approve of, and a soft patterned flannel for the reverse side. I laid out the pieces and drew the outline onto the wrong side of the outer fabric.
I made a little sandwich in this order: cotton batting, patterned flannel (right side up), and then my fabric (wrong side up). I cut a piece of elastic cording about 16 inches long (doesn't that seem really long? It's actually not.) and pinned them between the flannel and the cotton, poking out on side end about half an inch. To make sure the cord didn't get caught sewn up in the mask, I taped it down in the center with that blue painters tape stuff.

Then I sewed around the edges, leaving about 2.5 inches for turning out. I turned it out, ironed it and topstitched it. It was seriously like a ten minute project. I made four of them last night.


Here are a few more projects I've been working on lately:

This little dandy is for my grandma Ruth, whose 89th birthday party I will be attending in Minnesota this weekend. She had mentioned that she'd like something to put on her walker to differentiate it from all the other walkers lined up in the dining room in her senior living community. So I made this little fabric bag for her. It closes with snaps, so that she can loop it over the back rest on her walker seat. It's gussetted, so that she can actually put a few items in the bag, and has a couple of pockets on the front (I thought she could put pencils in there for her Sudoku and word find books that she likes so much - or if she needs to give out her phone number to any of the handsome young widowers in the building). Of course, no walker-cozy would be complete without a matching change purse and tissue cozy. And of course I embroidered it - that's just the kind of gal I am.



And this here is little Christmas present all set to be shipped out to a fine little horseback-riding lady I know. The rosettes have been another obsession of mine altogether (more on that next week). And yes, there's a matching tissue cozy in there, too.



And finally, these were the little gifts I gave out to my girlfriends at dinner last weekend. We don't do an official gift exchange, but I always like to bring just a little something. They are some of my favorite girls, after all!


Well, now I'm off to pack, and then I'm heading to the airport. Have a lovely weekend!

xoxo