Padded iPad case tutorial

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I broke down and got an iPad2 for me.. I wasn't sure I wanted one until I saw all of the great magazines you can get on it now.  I have a bit of a "paper clutter" problem and I thought this might cut it down a bit. I also wanted to check out the new apps for sketching to see if it would be a good "idea notebook" and so far so good... (if you are curious I'm using the penultimate app and griffin stylus to sketch).

I got the new swanky cover from apple (thats fold up) but soon realized that I could not be trusted with JUST this cover.. I'm way to clumsy. I needed something padded.  Plus I wanted a cover that I could store my stylus, headphones and a few other things in.

Too small

If you follow me on facebook- you know that this is not the first case I made! I measured my iPad the first time, made the cover then realized that the iPad would NOT FIT!! So now I am the proud owner of a oversized kindle case or a padded jewelry pouch- whichever you want to think of it as.

So back to the drawing board and I came up with this one.

I added a zipper to the back- so I can stash my stuff in it- It actually works out quite well, as I have been putting my phone in the zip pouch too-

And just a note:

The pattern provided in this tutorial is NOT for commercial use or production. It is for personal use only by home sewers. It is protected under a creative commons copyright 2011.


Sorry to add that- I keep hearing about peoples stuff getting copied online a lot- It starting to worry me- but that's a whole 'nother post! If you are a home sewer and wish to make these for sale, just email me to purchase a license to do so.

This will be my last post for Journey month- We'll take a break for a few days then I'll announce the theme for April next week!


To start you will need fabric cut in the following sizes: (I used fabric from Tula Pink's Parisville line)

Vacation scrapbooking ... on the go

***This is a repost of a guest spot I wrote for Thirty Handmade Days Blog.... It fits in perfectly with the "journey" theme this month!  ****

I am sharing something with you today that I have found works for me. It's not a sewing tutorial, but something that I've been doing for the last 3-4 years that I thought you might like to hear about it.

I've been an avid scrapbooker for over 15 years now! Over the years I have had to adjust some of my scrapbook habits based on my time, and demands on me at home. I still scrapbook quite a bit but have changed how I handle a couple of things.

Vacations were always one of the hardest things for me to scrapbook. It seemed that I always came home with over 1000 photos, lots of memorabilia (ticket stubs, hotel keys etc), and a short term memory of what happened while I was gone. 

Making that drive a lot more pleasant...

My husband has struggled with the learning disorder, dyslexia since he was a kid. One of the things that he found has helped him the most was listening to books on tape. (I guess they aren't on "tape" anymore are they? but we still call them that *wink*)...

He has always loved listening to books this way, and has been doing this for years, and has now introduced it to our family.  He usually listens to books to and from his way to work each day. His favorite genres are historical books, both fiction and non-fiction. The list of books he has read this way is a mile long-  Including the entire Bible and LDS Standard works.

When the kids were little and we would go on a road trip, we'd always make sure to bring a book for us to listen to along the way.  The kids, who were too young at the time to follow a book, would usually just watch a movie or sleep (or as was the case when they were babies, scream *wink*).

Recently though- we have reached the point where the whole family LOVES to listen to books when we drive. Many times it's on long drives, but sometimes we will put them on as we drive around town running errands.  It makes a nice break from music/dvd's.  Plus, I can not tell you how much MORE QUICKLY a long drive goes by when you've got a great book to listen too!

In the past couple of years we have read:

Shabby Apple Giveaway

Okay,

I've got a great giveaway for you guys!!

You know it's Journey month here... and when you go on vacation, your gonna need something cute to wear! How about an AdorABle dress from Shabby Apple?

It's brand new from the "Romin Holiday" line they just released!

Click here to enter the contest and to get a great discount code just for Polkadot Chair readers!

Soft 'n Snugly Baby Quilt

Recently I needed to make a baby quilt for a gift, but didn't have much time and not quite enough material to make what I had in mind.

Then I remembered my friend Traci makes these really cute rag quilts with fabric scraps and I thought maybe I could try to do something similar.

As I was sorting through my scraps I got the idea to make a quilt of all of my different "soft and textured" fabrics.  Since babies like lots of different textures I thought it might be kind of fun to make a quilt with lots of different fabrics. I ended up using corduroy, minke, flannel, chenille and satin all on the same quilt.

This is how I made it:

Water cooler talk...

When I first started blogging a few years ago some friends and I were talking and I mentioned that I thought blogging was like a virtual water cooler... You  "gather around" once a day and you get to "catch up" on what's going on with everyone..

So today I thought we could have a little "water cooler talk".

First:

I'm so glad you guys like the luggage tag printables!! I had a lot of fun making them. A couple of you said you didn't like scribd for downloading them, so I've also added them to box.net. We'll see how that site works out..

Second:

Free Luggage Tag Printable

Everytime I go to the airport I think "I should have made a luggage tag"... I always forget and use the freebie ones at the luggage counter.

Since it's Journey month here on the blog, I thought it would be a good reason to finally get the luggage tags done!

I think they are kinda fun... and you'll be able to spot your bag on the luggage carousel!!

and....


I've uploaded the file to share with you!

Baby Travel tips with guest Lindsay Sews!

Please welcome Linsday as a guest poster for our monthly theme "Journey". Make sure you go visit her blog and show her some love!!

I'm Lindsay, and I blog over at Lindsay Sews and Craft Buds. I'm so excited that Melissa has asked me to share this tutorial for readers of The Polkadot Chair. I hope it gets you all in the mood for a little travel and exploring (even if you have little ones in tow)!

Psssst. Craft Buds is a brand-new collaboration with my friend and fellow craft devotee, Mary, where we hope to bridge the gap between crafting for pleasure and the business of handmade. (To celebrate the launch, we're offering a little fabric giveaway. More details on that in a minute!)

Over MLK weekend, I flew to Minneapolis to visit Katie, my BFF from college. Katie is basically a rockstar of a mom. Not only does she have two kids in diapers, but she was getting ready to take them on a 9-hour flight across the Pacific. How does she do it?


Baby Travel Tip: Katie says she packages separate Ziploc bags with everything she will need to feed her little ones, including food, a spoon and a wet wipe. That way, she can reach down with one hand and just get everything she needs, instead of digging in the carry-on. Dirty spoons and wipes just go back in the baggie, to be cleaned up later. Or better yet, use a plastic spoon!

Snack time supplies in individual bags makes traveling with tots more manageable. Reach down and grab with your free hand, and you've got everything you need

Tutorial: Double-sided Vinyl Changing Mat

Katie wanted a vinyl changing mat that wasn't so bulky in her purse. A frequent traveler, she also wanted something that she could pull out in a public restroom and not worry about getting the fabric dirty on the back side, like most cute changing pads are prone to.

This is what we came up with!

Want to make your own?

Win a $100 Visa Gift card from Tropicana

Guess what? I'm writing about mornings again! Someone must be bound and determined to turn me into a morning person *wink*.... but, great news for you guys! I've got you another great giveaway! You can enter to win a $100 Visa Gift Card from Tropicana...

Just click here for all of the information & to enter..

A pouch to contain those blocks I'm always stepping on...

I'm so very excited for the theme this month!!  I love to travel! My "bucket list" of places to visit in the world is a mile long and I'm grateful to have been able to visit some fun places the last few years.  I thought it would be fun to share some ideas that had to do with traveling this month.  Even if you are not one that travels often, hopefully you can find some ideas that you'd like to use!

In January we went to Utah for a fun but quick visit. My son was packing his own carry on bag (soo nice they can all do this themsevles now) and I noticed that he had thrown a bunch of legos in the bottom of the bag.

I gave him a ziploc bag to keep his legos in, then thought about how many ziplocs we've gone though in the past year for the sole purpose of toting legos.  I thought I'd try to make him a more permanent solution.

So I gathered a zipper, a clear shower curtain & some fun foam and made him a little pouch to carry his legos.

I will say, that sewing on the fun foam was NOT as easy as it seemed in my mind.  But I did find a little trick that made it a bit easier.

To make the pouch you will need:

My Secret Identity...

Just a few quick things to share here... I thought I'd answer some FAQ that I've received the last few weeks here...

But first..

me in disguise, note the hat and dark glasses :)

My friend and I were talking today and were joking that we had "secret identities" because of our blogs.... I thought it was so funny..

It got me thinking... anyone else feel that way? I'm a much more "open" person on my blog than in real life (I'm pretty shy til you get to know me)... and I love to blog because it gives me a great way to communicate and connect with people.... Now once you get to know me, I'll talk you ear -off but I'll admit that sometimes it takes me a while to warm up to people.

It always throws me off when someone I know in "real life" mentions my blog, I get all embarrassed and self conscious all of the sudden... like I'm Clark Kent and someone just discovered that I'm Superman or something... Which, since were talking Superman,  those glasses Clark wears are not that great of a disguise,  Lois Lane is obviously super observant *wink*.. (oh, I am not comparing myself to superman in that analogy...)

but I digress..

A few random things as of late:

-You will notice that some posts now will have a READ MORE link at the bottom. I did NOT do this to increase page views. I did it because I greatly dislike having a short feed of my blog in google reader. It really does bug me. I've had it that way NOT to get more "hits" or views but because my super techy PROFESSIONAL web princess sister would have my head if I had a full feed.  And my equally techy, know's everything brother agrees with her.  They may be over reacting a bit, but there is a strong possibility that your blog can get "cloned" by a random bot that crawls the web... Then if you blog gets cloned, they use it for all kinds of stuff. I just had a friend who's blog was cloned and then DELETED by blogger!! She was in a major panic and got it fixed, but it was a "close call"... I know it's a slim possibility but I'd like to avoid potential close calls.

So the "compromise" is to allow a feed until a Page Break... So that way you can see the photos, and see what the post is all about in your reader. Which I think in the case of a tutorial would be a great thing, because if you're not interested in making it right away you don't have to scroll through the whole long post...

So here comes a page break.. click the link to keep reading about the size adjustments for the zig zag skirt, a potential smocking tutorial and the fabric I used on the July Bag..

Introducing the July Bag! Plus...Fabric Flower tutorial

Whew!!
How was your all's weekend? Ours was crazy busy.... We had a family wedding to attend,  sick kids needing to get better,  and a million errands to run.

In the midst of it all, I spent lots of time last weekend doing this...

Writing, editing, and writing again, and fighting with the computer to get  my newest pattern ready to for you! Let's just say that Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator were all my best friends last week.

So now...

I am happy to announce that the July Bag Pattern is now ready!!

I'm so excited because I really LOVE this bag!! I'm KEEPING this one for me!! 

It will be perfect to take on Spring Break with me next month, and is a great way to kick off the "Journey" theme this month on my blog!

It's constructed from reinforced burlap and is lined with fabric to add a fun bright touch.

There are lots of pockets both inside and out...

and features a braided handle to add little something "different"(Plus it's softer to carry on your arm when loaded up with stuff!).

The pattern is in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format and is 18 pages. It features FULL color photos and step by step instructions.  I tried to make it as easy to follow as possible.  

Also included are instructions to make the fabric flower pin on the outside of the bag.

When you purchase the pattern in my shop you will be emailed a link automatically to download the pattern yourself. 

And 

Since I love you guys so much... I decided to put a little "freebie" on my blog and include the PDF pattern and instructions for the fabric flower for you!

Please respect the copyright on this free pattern, as I drew it myself and it took me many,  many hours in Illustrator to get the shape just right...

To make Fabric Flower:
Download the PDF of the flower pattern.
Fabric Flower Pattern

Zig Zag Skirt at Moda Bake Shop!

My latest tutorial is up at Moda Bake Shop!

It's a zig zag skirt made with charm squares! It features the new Sherbet Pips line!! I think it might be a new favorite of mine!

Go check it out!

New bag pattern... here's a hint, are you ready for summer???

The weather here in Kentucky has started to turn towards Spring and I could not be happier.  My soul loves the warm weather.

On our first day where the thermostat hit above 60 degrees I started thinking summer...

Lazy days by the pool...

Outings with friends....

Maybe a fun Vacation?....

The smell of Sunscreen...

Do you need a tote to take to the Pool with you this summer?  I designed the July Bag just for that.

Last year I got many requests for a Summer bag... but never could settle on a good idea... Then after some conversations with friends and spending way too much time looking for bags online,  this idea came to me. I wanted to make a straw bag, but didn't know how.  The I realized... burlap! 

Burlap is not the easiest to sew with but I did manage to figure out a trick to sewing with it (which I will share in the pattern). The burlap used in this bag is standard burlap from a big box sewing store, but you could make it out of upholstery grade burlap if you like... but I thought it looked great with the less expensive stuff. I love the contrast of the bright fabric with the neutral textural burlap.

Vintage Postcard Pillow

This year for Valentine's day I wanted to play around with some vintage postcard images. I got the idea to put an image on a pillow and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

This pillow is for Valentine's day but there are lots of great vintage images out there that can be adapted for any time of the year! I thought it might be fun to find a old Barbie image and put it on a pillow for a girls room.

To create this pillow you will need:

12x16 Pillow form

Fusible Printable Fabric sheet (I used June Tailor brand)

Jumbo Ric Rac

1 12x16 piece of fabric

2 12 x 10" pieces of fabric

To begin print out your chosen vintage image onto your fabric paper (just run it through your printer on it's regular settings).