Todays Random Projects

Today while scrounging through my pitifully small fabric stash to find inspiration for a quick sewing project I've been meaning to tackle I came across my Raggedy Ann Doll yardage.  I had totally forgotten about this fabric.  It is Raggedy Ann, hearts and flowers on an off white background.

I really love this fabric but really didn't want a couple of Raggedy Ann Dolls all over my sewing machine cover.  Oh, did I mention that I was determined to create a cover for my sewing machine today.  I took some of this material and cut out some flowers, hearts and one Raggedy Ann and proceeded to zigzag around them to secure them onto my red fabric, which I decided would make a better background as a dust cover. 

See, nothing fancy.  Just a quick zigzag around my cut out shapes.  I didn't have a pattern so I winged it.  Just created a giant rectangle that would adequately cover my machine with the extension table and knee lift on it and added some ties near the top to help keep it in place.  I love it.  It looks cute, covers, protects, is easy to put on/take off and was super easy to make.  Plus, I already had all of the materials in my bin.

Front of machine

Back of machine

As for my other project....well it is a work in progress with my four year old daughter.  We are beginning to create an alphabet card set that actually appeals to her.  So with her input (lots and lots of it) we created the first one of, well, many to come.  I am constantly trying new things and am always on the hunt for interesting ways to introduce educational concepts and ideas to my girls. 

A is for Art

She gets to pick out all of the elements, embellishments, papers, and do-dads she wants on each card and help put is together.  Each week is another letter.  This is now going to be a part of her weekly alphabet education. 

We just came back around to the Letter A again and thought this would add something more to her work, writings, identification and allow her to express herself and be creative while she is learning.  I figure it helps her remember the letters better since the entire time we talk about the letter while we are making her new alphabet card.  It is the size of a basic ATC. 

She is so excited about this and asks how we are going to display her work.  If anyone has a good creative suggestion please feel free to drop it in the comments.  Our office already has a clothes line style art line on two of the walls, so there is limited wall space.  I was thinking of making an open front frame a bit larger than the cards and having some kind of clip to keep the card on display in the frame on our work table and just rotate out each week.  Still need to figure out how to store them though.