We all scream for ice cream

Another 3 Suffolk Puffs get put to good use atop an ice cream cone....

Basic Tutorial:

• Draw a cone shaped triangle on your 'heat-and-bond' or similar iron on adhesive product & cut out.  Iron this triangle onto the fabric you've chosen as the cone.  I had some stripy orange-ish fabric that worked well for my waffle cone. Then cut out the 'heat-and-bond' backed fabric triangle.
• Using a water soluble fabric pen, rule lines parallel to the long edge of each side of the triangle.  These will form the guiding 'waffle' lines to sew along on the cone.
• Next sew 3 Suffolk puffs out of plain coloured fabrics - these will become the scoops of ice cream.

• Iron the cone in place onto the garment you've chosen to use (I've used a baby grow).
• Using a short length (2.0) straight stitch sew around the edge of the ironed on cone & then along each of the ruled lines to create a waffle pattern ( I later ended up using a close zigzag stitch around the border of the cone to help it stand out once the Suffolk puffs were stitched in place- you can see this in the finished ice cream cone at the top of this entry).

• Pin the Suffolk puffs in place overlapping each other and the cone & then hand stitch each one using matching thread.
• Almost good enough to devour!

An even easier crinkly crunchy tag toy

Not necessarily the most difficult part of making a tag toy, but adding a bit more time & fiddliness, is having to turn it right side out after sewing the tags in place (see my blog entry of May 24, 2011).  How could I make this toy even easier to make?  By using a fabric that doesn't fray of course - maybe felt or fleece.

Fleece feels a bit softer to touch and I had some perfect sized scraps of a multicoloured polka dot fleece left over from a blanket mum & I made for Little Imp last year that I thought might just do the trick.

Basic Tutorial:

• cut 2x approx 7inch squares of a fleece fabric
• cut a 4 inch cello square

• place cello in the centre on the wrong side of one fleece square and pin in place (insert pin from  right side of fabric so that you can remove it later) 
• If you want to add a label then sew that in place now onto one of the fleece squares
• match fleece squares wrong sides together (so the cello ends up sandwiched in between) and insert a few pins about 1-2 inches from the edges (this helps to keep the pieces matched while you insert the ribbons)

• cut out your various pieces of ribbon, some long (to double over twice) and others shorter.  Use different widths, textures & colours to add to the sensory input the toy provides.  I decided to also use some matching scraps of fleece to make tags 

• Then double or double over twice each piece of ribbon, tuck it between the fleece squares and pin in place.  Be generous with the pins and even more importantly, make sure you are generous with the amount of ribbon caught between the fleece so that it is well stitched in place when you sew the squares together

• Using a straight stitch, machine stitch the fabric squares together about 0.5 cm from the edge,  removing pins as you go & ensuring you catch all the ribbons

• Then sew a second time around about 1cm from the edge, parallel to the first stitched border to really make sure the ribbons don't come loose

• Sew a small '+' in the centre of the toy to secure the cello (approx 3cmx3cm).  You could use a decorative stitch if you like.  
• Trim the threads, remove the pins (of course), and you are done.

No decent shots of the finished product I'm afraid, just a snap of them as part of the gift bundles for some girls at work.