Hair Accessories Organizer

As years go by we realize more and more that presents at Christmas aren’t as much important as we thought before. At least not among the adults in our families. We are usually just happy to see each other after spending months in a different country. But with kids it is still the same regarding presents and that is all right, they should have that magical moment when they open their presents and their eyes sparkle. I love that moment.
Unfortunately I am not a very good gift giver even though I usually put a lot of effort into finding the right present, I do not succeed many times. But I hope I will do so this year!
My Brother had two girls (7 and 5) and his third baby girl was born just about two weeks ago! I am most excited to see her and her big sisters in a couple of days! But because we are flying to Hungary this time I had to think very carefully about their presents. But thank to Pinterest (again) I came across a great idea: hair accessories organizer! I know that they own thousands of hair accessories and I saw before that they are usually stored in a bowl beside the sink in the bathroom, so this could work for them.
I made two prototype for the “Nikolausmarkt” to see what girly mothers and their daughters think of this idea and it was a big hit! Many grandmothers stepped to me and said: “Oh, what a great idea! The hair accessories of my daughter always got lost or she couldn’t find it in the box when she was a little girl!” And I sold both of the organizers. Yeah!

So this week I made three more: one for a friend’s little girl and two for my big nieces.

On top there are animal appliques just for decoration. Under that there is a band for all the hair clips, then come some loops for the hair bands and at the bottom a pocket for the small elastic bands.

I also added a little piece of wire (pipe cleaners) to the top, so the organizers will hang nicely on the wall. I think the girls will like these, especially because they are animal lovers.
If you are searching for a last minute present idea for the little girl in your family, this could be it. It doesn’t take more than an hour to sew it. Even less if you make it without an applique.
With this project I would like to wish all of you a very blessed Christmas! Thank you for reading my posts this year, too, it means a lot to me! I hope some of you may even got inspired by my creations. I will take a little break now from blogging, recharge my batteries and enjoy the Holidays with my family! See you guys again next year! Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all of you!

Toys for boys…

Last year, just a few weeks before Christmas I had a booth at a local craft fair which was an amazing experience for me and I learned a lot about this business. Of course I took a look at the competition and I realized something: when crafters sew for kids they usually have more stuff for the girls. It is understandable because it’s much easier to make cute clothes and accessories for girls. But I decided to look at this as a challenge and try to come up with ideas for boys. Well, it’s not easy, let me tell you this but not impossible.

The first thing was for me to buy a great boat-themed printed fabric and then I made a few things using this very nice fabric. I already presented once before the playing mat but my collection has more members, such as a portable changing mat…

a toy storage…

… a car seat organizer with a cup/bottle holder…

and a notebook cover (for the book of medical records that every child has in Germany)

Which one is your favorite?

Besides this boat themed collection I also made two fort kit. No, it wasn’t my idea, I saw it somewhere and thought it would be a great present for a bigger boy!

The fort kit contains a blanket, a flashlight, clothes pins, carabiners, wooden rings, kitchen towel clips, and clothes line in a great bag.

The third idea came from this website and I had one of those typical moments: “Why did I not think of this before?” Pirate eye patch!

 

 

The next idea came when I was making head bands for girls: Why not make feather head bands for boys? For the feathers I used my scrap-felt fabrics. I am officially out of felt now… I hand stitched the feathers first, made the bands and then attached the feathers by hand-stitching.

Unfortunately my son didn’t like them, so I had to ask our teddy bear to be my model again.

The next idea is kind of old. Do you remember when I made car-garage that you can hang? In case if you don’t remember here is a picture from one of them:

So when I made these last year I thought I should make some kind of portable car-storage or bag for boys and here is what I finally came up with:

This car-bag has seven pockets: four smaller and three bigger. Also has a road and you can fold it and roll it up and it’s ready to go!

Finally I made a truck-themed drawing set, as well.

So far these are my “toys for boys” ideas. How do you like them?

Busy like a bee

This time a didn’t create anything special or new, I just played a little bit with old projects like the envelope clutch or the car seat organizer. I can’t make the same thing over and over. No, it’s simply impossible for me. I have to at least use a different fabric or if needed, make the project better and better.

I must admit that I still have difficulties with the envelope clutch but it is getting closer to perfection each time I make one.

Which one is your favorite?

 

 

I think my favorites are these two. I used some scarp-fabric for the outside, batting and a beautiful blue fabric for the inside. They are soft and very colorful for the summer days!

With two more car seat organizers behind me I think I found the best solution for the cup holder which you can check out on the picture below. It’s the one on the left side with the elephants.

Car Seat Organizer 2.0

As I mentioned in the previous post, I will work on more car seat organizer in the near future because I would like to sell them on the up-coming craft fair in Aachen. While working on the second piece, I realized that something important was missing from the first car-seat organizer: a cup-holder! I added one to the next organizer which wasn’t easy, so I will have to come up with an other design for the cup-holder. This one works perfectly but it took a bit longer time to make it and I can not afford this luxury. Check out the picture of the first and second car seat organizers!

Which one do you like better?

And here is one picture of the second organizer with more details:

I even added pencil-holders and made the upper hole better looking by hand-stitching it. I think it functions much better then the first one, but let the kids decide!

Car seat organizer for the kids

In two weeks we are heading to Hungary again: a two day long road trip with our kid. It’s a lot of work in terms of preparation. Not just getting the car ready (which seems to be also my responsibility since I use the car on a daily basis) but also to get creative again and collect lots of fun activities for our two-and-a-half-years old son. Not long ago I published a post on travel activities for toddlers and I will share my new ideas and how did they work out after our trip. Until then here is something else: a car seat organizer for bigger kids. Especially for those who can sit up a bit and reach for stuff around them.

I made this organizer for my son, but unfortunately his seat-belt does not allow him to reach so far ahead just yet. He must wait and grow a bit more before he can use this otherwise pretty cool organizer.

It is cool because the kids can bring along more toys, book etc; there is more storage in the car, it also keeps your seat cleaner. You can take off the organizer any time and throw it in the washing machine and it also looks very nice and beautiful.

I made a pattern for this organizer after measuring our seat in our Opel Astra. I guess more or less it would fit in any car and I promise to make more and upload them to the web-shop as soon as I can. Until then let me know what do you think of this project and how would you use it? Or would you change anything on it?

Organizing matchboxes

I read somewhere an article about being a boy’s mother. It listed twenty things that you did not expect when your son was born. For example that toy cars, trains, boats and plains will be everywhere! It is so true…
So here is my solution to this problem: a “parking lot” for all those toy cars.

“Parkhaus” in German means parking lot or garage. It can store 12 cars, you can hang it in the wardrobe, and if it gets dirty, you can take out the hanger and wash it. Well, what do you think?

This will be also soon available in my online shop.