Native American Medicine Pouch Craft

My daughter's kindergarten teacher mentioned she was preparing for their new Native American unit. She was playing around with patterns and ideas. I told her that sewing is something I love to do and I could look around too. One craft idea I saw was for a medicine pouch. Then I had a vague memory of making something similar with my kids many years ago. But I didn't know much about the history of medicine pouches then and we weren't sure what to put inside our tiny pouches.

After reading about pouches and looking at patterns and pouches for sale, I decided to just try to make one. I looked for some vinyl at home, but wasn't having any luck. I ended up with a scrap of felt cut into a rectangle, rounded the bottom corners and quickly sewed around the edges.  Then I made slits to lace boondoggle through in order to cinch it up. I sent my example into school and the teacher loved it!

After doing more research and purchasing a few supplies, I made a classroom set of medicine pouches and one out of leather to show a slightly more authentic pouch.

The pouches are very simply to cut and sew. Then I made slits and used 32" of hemp cording with tape on the ends. Glue could probably be used as well to stiffen the ends and keep them from fraying. I started the lacing in the center, but it could be started at one side seam instead. After going around the top edge, I added beads to each side before knotting the pieces together. The beads are painted wooden beads that were very inexpensive.

In addition to the pouches, I wanted to make a cradle board with a doll.  I used more of the leather scrap and some wood we had. I even learned about bending a Popsicle stick for the top part of the cradle board. 

Sawtoothed Star and Colonial Days

The fourth graders have a Colonial Day at school and parents volunteer to help kids experience what life might have been like.  There were many different sessions for kids to chose from. They could make butter, create and play colonial games, do stenciling, tin punching, doll making, and my session on quilting.

A star block was not something I had made before. I had a mini quilt with wonky star blocks to show, but I also wanted to show a traditional saw toothed star block. I found a tutorial with a trick to make four flying geese at once.  

I had offered a quilting session when my first child had been a fourth grader and learned some interesting things along the way. First of all, quilting was not really done very much initially. Life was too hard to have time to quilt. When quilting was being done, it was more of whole cloth quilts, applique quilting, and then Medallion quilts. I shared information about each of these styles and provided 6" square quilt sandwiches for each student. 

In doing my research I also learned about some typical sewing projects from that time.  Most girls did an alphabet sampler.  Another interesting thing I came across was the pocket.  Pockets were not sewn into women's garments.  A pocket was made and tied around the waist.  It was accessible through an opening in the woman's skirts side seams.

Both times I did this, I provided examples and the kids seemed to enjoy coming up with something to applique to their quilt sandwich.









 It was interesting that many kids this year appliqued their initials.  Maybe they were thinking about the alphabet samplers.

Doll quilts

My girls received doll beds for Christmas and they came with boring light blue bedding. I offered to make doll sized quilts for the new beds. 

My younger daughter chose pink and purple and blue, but not green. She didn't have any other ideas, so I just tried things out. I started with a pink wonky star with 4" squares. Then I made a purple one. The two stars seemed to be enough.  I decided to add stripes in between and also on the sides. For the in between stripes, I sliced them into two pieces and inserted a white strip for something different. I like the pretty colors and the bright white. 

She also chose ladybug fabrics. I have two ladybug prints.  I suggested these would work well for the second bed in her bunk bed. We added red hearts and white. I snuck in a little blue and black also. I wanted to try wonky "flying geese."  I just started with a color and added a white strip on side and then another to form a triangle. I also made wonky log cabins (beginning with a 3" square) on the other side finishing with a strip of white. 

For my older daughter, I thought we might use leftover fabrics from her house quilt. But she requested that I match her bed quilt. Fortunately I was able to find all the fabric scraps and figured out the pattern again. I used a 4" square and 1.5" strips and a 1.5" mini square. I started with six blocks, then added another set, then added some more until I was up to twelve blocks. 

These small quilts were possibly even more fun to make than mug rugs. I also enjoyed planning out the quilting.  Beginning with the ladybug quilt, I tried triangles and lines around the flying geese. For the blocks, I did different things like zig zags, wavy lines, hearts, pebbles, and even drew a ladybug on the black.

The pink and purple star quilt was next. Starting in the center white strip, I made swirls and a few pebbles. Looking at each section and trying different patterns was neat. Knowing whatever I chose I wouldn't have to duplicate on a big quilt was liberating and allowed me to do more dense quilting. 

After getting my older daughter's input for her doll's quilt, I incorporated swirls, zig zags, and wavy lines as well as some details for the mini squares. It was really cool working on this mini quilt replicating her bed quilt as hers was really my first real quilt. It was so easy putting this one together and knowing the many steps instead of figuring it out as I went.  I had also just learned free motion quilting and only quilted some of the parts of her quilt with squiggles and butterfly outlines while others I just outlined the rectangles. 

Preschooler Sewing

My youngest is three and she likes to be involved in everything we do.  She has done some hand sewing before, but likes to have me hold the fabric for her. When I was at the store recently, I remembered to look for an embroidery hoop for her.

We tried out the new hoop today with a scrap of muslin. She still wanted me to hold the hoop, but we both were much less likely to get poked. 

It was a perfect little project. We used fairly short strands of thread and changed colors frequently. 

She enjoyed making some x's and making different length stitches. The hoop is 4" diameter. 

Teacher Handprint Quilt preparations

Yesterday I read a note that my daughter's third grade teacher is retiring.  With 9 days of school left  I had not heard about a class gift.  Knowing that she is retiring too, something special would be appropriate.  A hand print quilt started to form in my mind.  Google images gave me even more inspiration.  One quilt by Carin really stood out to me.  I'm not sure I have enough time to make something similar or not.  I love her colors too!

I emailed all the families and asked about a class gift and offered to make a quilt if the majority liked the idea.  Email after email was a resounding yes, great idea, let's do this.

To begin, I would need to get the handprints of the students.  And white fabric.  The same morning I had inquired about the teacher's favorite colors and got a reply back just before my trip to the store.  

A trip to JoAnns proved quite successful.  I found three coupons to use and I loved the school themed fabric available.

I got 2 yards of Kona white, 2 yards of the school themed fabric for the back which will have to be pieced, and between 1/4 and 1 yard of blues, greens, orange, and pink solids.  The solids are to frame the handprint blocks.

Today I'm off to get the kids handprints.  I ironed creases in the white Kona to help with hand placement.  Initially I thought I would bring blocks, but then I had no idea how I'd get them home with wet paint.

The kids were great taking breaks from their lunch to come and get painted.  After drying on my multipurpose hoop rack, the next step will be to cut the prints into blocks and add borders.

A Girl Scout Quilt Story

Our Brownie Girl Scout Troop was doing the journey A World of Girls.  In it we talk about how stories are a big part of our world and how they can be told in different ways.  One way is through a quilt.  It was suggested that each girl think of her strength and depict it on a quilt square.  Then together the squares tell the story of the girls in our troop.

Of course this was a project that resonated with me.  I gave each girl a 7" square of muslin, showed some examples and gave them felt and fabric markers to use.  I loved their ideas and how they brought the ideas to fabric.  I told the girls that I would put the squares together for our end of year ceremony and then they could take them home afterwards.

I added a second 7" square of muslin to the backs with serging, then basted the squares on a bigger piece of fabric.  I intend to separate the squares after showing them off at our ceremony.

Zippered Pouch

While planning a sewing day for the third grade Girl Scout Brownies, I wanted to make sure we had enough to do in the time allotted.  Also, while it is nice to make donations, I know the girls really like sewing for themselves and being able to take something home.  We didn't get to this project yet, but hope to make them in March.

I looked around for easy patterns and decided to do a less easy pattern, but that I would prepare it for them.  A zippered pouch would be a nice finished project.  This tutorial and this other one had nice instructions.  After testing out the pattern, I decided to only have the girls sew around the outside edge and make a flat bag.

Before the meeting, I emailed each parent to ask their girls' favorite color. Fat quarters were on sale and even though the material isn't very thick, the lining should add some thickness and be ok.

Zippers were ordered in bulk.  I ended up with 8" zippers.  The outside fabric and lining were cut to 10" x 4".  To save a step, I ironed down one long edge of the outside fabric and lining to be sewn to the zipper.  I did this all in one step.  I completed the bag and created instructions for the girls to finish the zippered pouch.

After sewing the zippers in, I trimmed the pouch down so that the zipper was closer to the length of the fabric.

The next step was to open the zipper halfway and then sew around the outside of the fabric right sides together and the lining right sides together, leaving a small opening in the lining bottom.  Then clip corners and flip.  Finally hand sew the small opening closed.

Update 3/2013: We were able to sew these pouches together at our March meeting. I thought it would be a very quick project because we are essentially just sewing one seam. But it took longer and was just right for them. I had instructions with photos of the steps which was helpful. Pinning took time, taking turns on the machines, then turning and finding the corners. Finally we just sewed the opening in the lining by machine. We only had three machines for this project and less than an hour allotted. There were eleven girls present. When the girls weren't working on their pouches, they either looked on, hula hooped, or worked on some coloring pages.

Quilting with Girl Scouts

It was my turn to lead the group of third grade Girl Scout Brownies.  I enjoy sewing with the girls, but like to be sure to have additional sewing machines and adult helpers.  The stars all aligned and there would be five machines and five helpers for thirteen girls!

I cut out 6.5" squares and planned out two simple quilts with diagonal squares quilt design.  I also started planning another quilt for a friend. 

Some of the girls really enjoyed sewing and spent most of the one hour and thirty minute meeting sewing.  I had brought graph paper for the girls to learn about quilt planning and many of them enjoyed coloring too.

In the time allotted, we were able to sew the squares into rows for both quilts and started putting the rows together for one of the quilts.


I was impressed that the girls were able to sew quite straight.  There were a couple squares that were attached backwards and needed to be ripped out, but otherwise the quilts went together smoothly.

My job will be to finish up the quilts and then we will be donating them.

Quilted Album for the Sister

I had a feeling that my younger daughter would be excited about her sister's photo album and enjoy looking at the pictures.

Another nice promotion came through and I ordered more prints.

We had an extra boring blue album. Together with my 2.5 year old, we chose fabrics and put them together. Then I quilted again with the spiral free motion quilting. For the other album, I had intended to add ribbon embellishments, but got too far before I remembered. Because I only made straight strips of fabric, it was easy to add some ribbon after the quilting.


The prints should arrive in a couple days. I'm sure the little sister will be thrilled with her very own album.

One of a Kind Quilted Bag

After spending some time out shopping yesterday, I was in no hurry to return. Even though it's before Thanksgiving, the stores and traffic around them seems to be already in the pre-holiday frenzy.

My daughter is attending a birthday party tomorrow and we still needed a gift. She wanted to head out into the shopping frenzy, I suggested making something at home. After some encouraging, she was game.

My daughter is 8 and has some great ideas and a very good sense of color. She drew a purse/bag design and also picked out coordinating colors. The bag would have stripes, a flap with a snap, and a single strap. I suggested making the stripes wonky

It's always fun for me to see how others relate to color. My daughter had a great vision, I simply helped make it happen.

First we made the front and back stripes. Then came the flap. I did some free motion quilting on each piece with loops like the flying ladybugs.

I got out my snap press and added a snap to the flap. After stitching the front to the back and adding the flap, I installed the other side if the snap.

Next came the strap. I just cut a long piece and folded in onto itself.

Putting it all together was pretty easy after double checking the direction of things a few times. I sewed the lining and left a small opening for turning.

Now we have a cute one of a kind bag for a birthday gift. I hope the birthday girl likes it too!

Gabby the Giraffe

My young, sensitive preschooler was watching an episode of her favorite show, Doc McSutffins when she stopped it mid-show.  It was the episode called "Arcade Escape" and my daughter was upset that the giraffe was ripped.  She said it over and over.  I suggested we could make a little giraffe and stitch it up.

Together we found a template for a giraffe and then went back to the show to decide on the details for the felt giraffe.  We finished the show and saw that Gabby the Giraffe does indeed have a rip or an open seam and Doc McStuffins and Lambie are able to fix her right up.

It was neat creating felt details for the giraffe to match the tv character.  My daughter helped decide which colors to use for the body and spots.  We also agreed on orange stripes on the giraffe's legs.

Gabby has a lot of details, so we started sewing them on first.  For younger children, sewing the details on makes more sense than using glue.  Once we starting sewing around the edges and adding filling, I could demonstrate what had happened to Gabby in the show.

It was disappointing that it could not be completed in one sitting.  We went off to bed with a few safety pins holding Gabby together because done or not, she is already loved very much.  Then in the morning, I was able to complete Gabby the Giraffe.

Quilting with my daughter

When I made my then five year old daughter a bed sized quilt, I understandably spent some extra time in my sewing room. In addition, I spent time choosing fabrics and planning the quilt.

Sydney's very first quilt

While in the fabric store she would often want to pick out fat quarters to buy. Finally I let her and it was with her purchase that she quilted for the first time.

Since then she has made a couple more. They were all made between the ages of five and six.

The method we used was that I cut four inch squares and she laid them out in a pattern. I pinned squares together and set up the machine for her. She sewed very slowly and carefully. I then pressed the seams and got the next row ready for her. She got to do what she wanted which was sew on the machine.

Later we wanted to make a bigger quilt for a doll and chose fat quarters with the purpose of make a quilt. She seemed to have a great sense of color and what would go well together. Because there were more squares, it could be bigger. I really like how she planned it out too.

After making her bigger quilt, she made a couple others as gifts for her friends' birthdays.

For each of these quilts we sewed the back to the front, right sides together and then turned and topstitched. Some my daughter used decorative stitching on top, others we just stitched in the ditch. For the big quilt I did free motion quilting for her.

For the most part we used fleece as the backing with no batting. The bigger quilt was the exception. I did use thin batting and a cotton print on the back.

Quilt for a boy doll, pieced fleece backing

Finding all the little quilts again was fun and I was happy to see I did make a label for her first quilt with her name and the year for the back.

After completing the little mug rugs, I could see making them with my almost eight year old. It would also provide a good lesson in bindings too.

Quilting with a young child is really neat and I look forward to doing it again with my next little girl.