Tutorial for Sewing a Jogging Armband

I have been meaning to make one of these for while. I have been using a handkerchief, and I usually take about 5 minutes finagling it with my teeth and other hand.

Well, no more!

Materials:

Fabric - this is such a small project, you could probably just use scraps  

Fusible Interfacing

Velcro

Basic Sewing Supplies

Start by measuring the back piece. Make sure you leave a seam allowance. Leave as much as you are comfortable with. You will sew and turn this piece inside out, plus sew the pieces together. I tend to sew quite near the edge. 

Your piece needs to be doubled, so measure it on the fold to save yourself some sewing later. 

Once you have it measured, cut your fusible interfacing (same size as one half of your whole back piece if it was unfolded) and iron it to one side, on the wrong side of the fabric. 

Fold in half again, right sides together and sew around it, leaving a space for you to turn the piece inside out. Your interfacing will be on the outside. 

Turn the piece inside out through the hole, iron it flat, and sew around the edge, taking care to catch both sides of the unsewn part. 

To the sew the front pocket, measure your device across the front, including the thickness as well. Take that number and add your seam allowance, plus a little extra so it can be sewn together. Don't go overboard, the pocket needs to be snug. You need two again, so cut so the fold is on top of the pocket. Fold so the right sides are together, just like the back piece and sew around the edge, leaving a space. I added a small pleat (about 1/4 inch) to the bottom so it would line up better later. This is optional, though. 

Turn the pocket inside out and iron it. Sew across the fold (the top), but don't sew it onto the back piece yet. 

Now, measure your arm for the armband. Make sure you do about 4 extra inches, so the ends can velcro together. I also eyeballed the thickness. Mine is about 2 inches finished, so probably 2 1/4 cut. 

Again, cut so one of the long sides in the on the fold, and cut a matching piece of interfacing. Iron it to one of the sides, wrong side of the fabric. 

Fold in half, right sides together, and sew all around, leaving an unsewn part. Turn it inside out through the hole and sew around the edges. Make sure you catch both sides of the hole that you left unsewn. 

Now, to sew all the pieces together, put the pocket to the front of your back piece. The pocket is wider, so make sure you are sewing the edges together. Pin the pocket in place, and then pin the whole thing to the band. You should be able to sew the whole thing together at once. 

Finish with two pieces of velcro. Don't ask me why royal blue was the only color of velcro I had on hand!

All ready for my next jog!

Homemade Grahams

When I came across this recipe for home made graham crackers, I was super excited to try them! I am really trying to have snacks that are healthy for The Boy, and I hate giving him processed junk food.

Did you know that most graham crackers have high fructose corn syrup as well as hydrogenated oils? Those are bad news.

The only graham crackers that I have found that don't include those nasty ingredients are Annie's Bunny Grahams, which are made with organic whole grain flours, organic cane syrup and no preservatives. Plus, you can find them in most grocery stores, not just organic specialty stores. But they are kind of pricey. I never thought about making my own, and I am so grateful to Nancy for posting her recipe!

I had to tweak her recipe, though. I really hate using white flour. If you haven't looked into the differences between whole wheat flour, and bleached white flour, I encourage you to. It might scare you into not using it anymore, I know it did for me. I also switched out the sugar with stevia extract, and added a little molasses, since the original recipe calls for brown sugar, and cut the butter a bit.

So here is my "tweaked" recipe for Home Made Grahams:

1/4 cup wheat germ
2 1/2 c Whole wheat flour
12 packets of stevia in the raw (each packet contains 3/4 tsp stevia powder)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c + 3 T water
1/4 c honey
3 T molasses
6 T butter

Preheat your oven to 350 Degrees. Mix wheat germ, flour, stevia, baking soda and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. Soften your butter and cut it into your flour mixture with a fork or pastry cutter until it's has a coarse meal consistency. Add your water, honey and molasses and mix until your dough is moist. Roll out about 1/4 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters or into any desired shape.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. You can fill your pan up, these don't spread out too much.

I found these super cute mini cookie cutters at Joann's and knew they were perfect for these little grahams.

These are actually really good. The Boy loves them, so I guess it's our new go-to snack!

Slippers for Mom

I know I already posted about my mom's Mother's Day gift, but I remembered hearing her say that her feet have been bothering her, and she can't walk on the tile floor comfortably with bear feet anymore. I really wanted to make her a pair of cute, comfortable slippers.

This is my own pattern that you can find here.

Because this pattern has a two-layer sole, they are already pretty comfortable. I decided to add a little extra padding and cut a soft piece of felt, that I sandwiched between the two sole pieces.

I also gussied them up a bit and added a simple flower. 

It's simple and quick if you want to give it a try:

Ch 2. 

Sc 5 in the first ch. Join with sl st with the first sc. 

ch 1. sc 2 in same st. 2 sc in ach st around. join with sl st.

ch 1. (dc 2. ch 1. sl st into same st at last dc. ch 1) repeat 4 times. dc 2. ch 1. sl st into same stitch as last dc. 

I really hope these will be comfortable for my mom's feet, I know she works hard and does so much!

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful moms  <3

This post was featured!

Baby Boat Booties

I have actually been sitting on this pattern, half written, for a while. I started it before our Mac charging port went nuts, and only recently had access to my half-written pattern so that I could finish it.

Do you remember me talking about my friend's little girl, Brylee?
Well, her radiation has worked, and her tumor has shrunk! It's an amazing blessing for her friends and family to have more precious time with this sweet girl. Thank you for your prayers, they are working.

I wrote my pattern, Little Dot Mary Janes, in the hopes that I could help raise a little money to help out her family. I was floored by the generosity and love that was shown to them. THANK YOU everyone who donated money and left comments of love and encouragement. It really means so much.

In light of that, I hope you don't think me greedy, but I was hoping to help out a bit more. If you already donated, please don't feel obligated to give more money. If you haven't, I ask, in exchange for taking this pattern, that you donate, even $1, to the Brylee in 5 fund. 100% of the proceeds go to her and her family, and every tiny bit helps.

Thanks SO much for your love, generosity and support.

These boat shoes are actually for a baby boy or girl. I  love how the pink ones turned out. I originally wrote the pattern as a boy's shoe pattern, but the pink ones are girly and cute. 

You can download this pattern HERE from Google Drive

or you can copy and paste from HERE. 

And you can donate via Paypal HERE. 

Thank you, again. You all are amazing!!

I hope you enjoy this pattern, and let me know if you have any questions about it. I hope I didn't make any mistakes, but if you catch one, let me know! 

P.S. I seem to be having trouble finding a document host that works for everyone, so if you are having trouble getting this pattern, don't hesitate to just email me, and I can send it to you:

whistleandivy at gmail dot com. 

Keep in touch, follow me on Bloglovin! :) 


This post was featured!

Easy Mother's Day/Birthday Gift

Mother's Day and my dad's birthday are the same week, so this year, I decided to pretty much give them each the same thing. (I know, kind of creatively lazy, but I figured they would both love it anyway.)

I was able to capture a really good picture of my son a few weeks ago, and my mom absolutely loved it, so I decided to give her a print. 

I basically cut a piece of wood into a 5" x 7" block, and used a 4" x 6" photo. I glued the photo to some cute, yellow polka dot paper, painted the wood (yellow is my mom's favorite color) and then decoupaged the photo/paper onto the block. I covered it with a layer of glossy Modpodge. 

Needless to say, she loved it!

Like I mentioned, I gave my dad pretty much the same exact thing. But I thought they would both like to have them at their desks at work. 

I was glad to catch this cute photo! For this one, I omitted the cutesy scrapbook paper, and I am sure my dad will appreciate it. 

His birthday isn't for 8 days, so shhhh, don't tell him!

On a separate note, would anyone be interested in my posting GIMP photo editing tutorials, like the photo of my son and his Grandpa? GIMP is a free photo editing program that does most things that Photoshop can do. I would love the share what I have learned if anyone is interested!

This post was featured!