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Mom…..I’m Bored!

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Coloring with Daddy.

I enjoy the peace and tranquility of my craft room. The hum of the sewing machine puts me into an almost zen-like state. I become so focused on what I am doing that nothing else seems to exist….until….”Mom, I’m bored!” I’m sure this has happened to all of us, but don’t fret, take this opportunity to tap into your child’s inner crafter. Teach them that they can create something beautiful with just a few things and alot of imagination.

Be prepared for these opportunities by creating a box of craft supplies just for your youngster. This is a great beginning craft for you to do with your child. Find a large cardboard box and decorate it with paints, fabric scraps, glitter, whatever you have on hand to make the box something they will know is theirs. Now the really fun part begins, searching for new and fun crafts to fill the box.

What would you fill your child’s box with? Please keep in mind that all items should be age appropriate. I wouldn’t put a hot glue gun in my four-year-old’s craft box, but I would toss in a couple of glue sticks, some safety scissors, different types of paper, crayons, pencils, the possibilities are endless. There are many websites that offer really cool arts and crafts supplies for children.

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Make Your Cross Stitch into an Iron On Patch

A while back I made a little rainbow cross stitch pattern and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it, so I turned it into a patch. My idea was that it could be used on a jacket or backpack, or you could add a pin to the back and wear it temporarily on a shirt or elsewhere. 

But what if you want to make your design more permanent? Is it possible to turn a piece of cross stitch into an iron-on design?

It turns out yes, it is, and Sirious Stitches has done it so I didn’t have to try to figure it out on my own. 

The way they did it was by using HeatnBond, an iron-on adhesive that attaches fabrics without sewing. There was still sewing involved to finish the edges of the cross stitch fabric and make it look like a purchased patch. The post shows how to do this by hand or with your sewing machine. (I just did blanket stitch edging on mine, which doesn’t look like a “real” patch but is also a lot faster.)

Once you have the patch prepared it’s a pretty easy matter of using the fusible adhesive to the back of the patch so you can then iron it onto whatever jacket, pair of jeans, bag or whatever else you might want to add it to. 

I guess I’m a little paranoid about the washability of cross stitch projects, though you could hand wash anything with an iron-on cross stitch patch as you might need to with a purchased iron-on patch, anyway. But this does look really cool and is a great option if you know you want to permanently add a cross stitch patch to a garment of bag. 

Get the full tutorial over at Sirious Stitches. Would you add an iron-on cross stitch patch to something? I’d love to hear what you would use this technique for!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]