Toothless Dragon

It has been awhile since I posted anything. I recently made a white elephant Christmas gift for my son to take to his teen group Christmas party. We got the material at Joanne Fabric’s for less that $4.00. It took me 1 and 1/2 days to make it. I used the a pattern I found here: http://katy-a.deviantart.com/art/How-to-Plush-your-Dragon-161986356 I printed out this pattern twice as suggested and then just cut out one copy, which helped tremendously in understanding how to piece this together. Also having my son read the directions to me step by step helped. I had quite a time with the tension on my sewing machine until I realized that I needed to increase the tension. It really was a mess, Ha! It’s funny now, but wasn’t so funny then. Then after I completed this one, I decided that I had enough left over material to make another for a very special little boy for Christmas, so I did. I haven’t given it to him yet, but I think he will like it. I did have a better go around with the tension on the second one, but I had an awful time sewing the head on the second one. So, I absolutely will not be making anymore of these! However, I do think they are cute, and if you want to save some money on making gifts it will really only cost you a little cash and your time. Here is the toothless I made for my son’s party:

 

Yo-Yo Doll Size Quilt for Christmas Gift

Yo-Yo Doll Size Quilt

 

I’ve been making this yo yo quilt for a little girl I know who loves dolls.  I had scraps left over from last Christmas, so I used those to make about 190+ yo-yo’s.  This process was time consuming.  I started at Christmas break and just finished the yo-yo’s a few days ago.  However, I wanted to give her something nice and not spend an arm and a leg on it.

I laid out the pattern and started to sew them together by hand.  Then, I saw a blog showing how I could use the sewing machine to tack them together.  This made the assembly a lot easier.

Once the yo-yo’s were all sewn together in my pattern (it used 189 yo-yo’s), I made a backing with material I had.   The final size is approx. 22″ x 15″.

I did buy bias tape and quilt batting which only cost around $4 together.  Since everything else was made from scraps that I already had, this quilt really only cost me the $4.

Now I am in the process of “tying” the yo-yo’s to the quilt backing.  It turns out that this quilt is not perfect, but the little girl that will receive this will love it anyway.  The white yo-yo’s do not show up here very well, but here is a picture of the quilt: