Material &Sewing Crafts
for Kids and Adults

Kangaroo iPod Pouch

This simple sewing project is great for children eight and older. The pouch can be used for iPods, business cards, or Bible verse cards. Instead of using felt, you can use fun foam and just glue the pieces together, and instead of using a button for the nose you can use foam and use velcro for the clasp.

What you will need: Brown or tan and pink felt squares, embroidery floss, large sharp needle, googly eyes, black shank buttons, straight pins, and scissors.

How to make:

1. Print out the patterns and use them to cut the pieces from tan or brown felt squares. Cut inner ears from pink felt and glue them to the top of the ear pieces.

2. Sew a straight stitch at the top of the pouch piece (Curved edge)

3. Stack the piece one on top of the other starting with the back piece, the front pocket and then the pouch on top. They should match up at the bottom as shown in the picture to the left.

4. Stick the arms and feet pieces between the back and front pocket pieces and use straight pins to hold them in place. Sew all the pieces together using a small straight stitch as shown in the picture by the red dotted lines.

5. Fold the top of the back piece forward to form the flap and decide where you want the button nose. Mark the place with a marker on the front pocket piece. Sew the button on by reaching your hand inside the pocket and using embroidery floss. Stick the needle through the felt and the buttonhole and then back through the felt to the inside of the pocket. Bring one end of the floss all the way through and tie the two ends together to secure it in place.

6. Fold the flap down again and mark where the button should come through. Cut a small slit the same length as the button through the material for a buttonhole.

7. To finish glue on googly eyes and ears. You can also use embroidery floss to sew on a mouth. You may also want to add a rope to the pouch to carry it on your shoulder.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

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Sock Doll Clothes and Sock Dolls

Use old socks to make clothes for your dolls and stuffed animals. These are cheap and easy and take very little time to make. Most of them where made without any sewing. Go to Sock Doll Craft Page for directions.

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Horned Owl Decoration or Change Purse

These charming little owls can be used for many different purposes. Stuff them and make them plump for a children's toy, hang them on your Christmas tree, string them together to make Christmas garland. Add a zipper and use them as change purses or gift holders.

Go to the Owl Crafts and Learning Activities Page for Directions and Patterns

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"Jesus Loves You" Beanbag Craft

What you will need: Felt, Cold peel T-shirt transfers such as Wyndstone Jet-Pro (Do not use the hot peel transfers on felt because the felt stretches when the transfers stick to the felt. If you can't find cold peel transfer that will work on your printer, use a poly/cotton material instead of the felt), pinking shears, iron, embroidery floss, embroidery needle, small dried beans or rice.

How to make: 

1. Print out the pattern onto T-shirt transfer material

2. Cut around the edges of the smiley faces.

3. Cut 2 - 4 1/2" circles from felt or material for each beanbag.

4. Iron one of the smiley faces onto one of the circles.

5. Put the circle together and use a straight stitch to sew the two circles together leaving an opening to insert the beans.

6. Fill the beanbag with the beans and close up the bag.

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Angel Kisses Bag Craft

These little bags are great to use as treat or gift bags for special occasions.

What you will need: Material, T-shirt transfers, string, red heart pony beads, iron, sewing machine.

How to make:

1. Print angles onto T-shirt transfer material.

2. Cut out the angels with the words attached close to the pattern.

3. Cut a piece of material 11" x 4 1/2".  Fold the material, right side out, in half to form a rectangle 4 1/2" x 5 1/2". Position one of the angel transfers on the folded material 3/4" from the folded edge.  The folded edge is the bottom of the bag. Iron the transfer on.

4. Fold the material wrong side out and sew one side 1/4" from the edge of the material.  Sew the other side the same way except start 1 1/2" down from the top.

5. Cut a piece of string 20" long.  Fold (iron) the top edge of the bag over 1/4" to the wrong side.  Fold it over again 1/2" to make a casing for the string. Sew the casing closed with the string inside.  Put a red heart on each end of the string and tie a double knot to finish.

Patterns for this craft are available to Members of Danielle's Place.

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Stuffed Fish (Yellow Tang) Craft

Children of all ages will love painting or coloring these adorable fish. 

What you will need: White polyester stretch material, wiggly eyes (optional - do not use if you have very small children), pinking shears, thread, and polyester stuffing, glue gun, sewing machine.

How to make:

1. Print out the fish pattern.

2. Fold the material in half with right sides together. Pin the body, pectoral fin, and pelvic fin patterns onto the material and cut out the patterns on the solid lines. Pin the dorsal fin and anal fin patterns onto a single layer of material and cut out the patterns on the solid lines.

3. Pin the dorsal, anal, and pelvic fins onto the body patterns with rights sides together matching up the points. The fish pieces will be laying on top of each other.

4. You can sew the pectoral fins on at point G now if you would like. Or you can just use hot melt glue and glue them in place when you are finished stuffing the fish.

5. Place the other body piece on top of the body piece with the fins sewed on (right sides together). The fins should be laying flat against the body material so that they are inside the fish.  You will be sewing over the same stitches you used to sew the fins on.

6. Sew the fish together starting at one end of the caudal fin and ending at the other. Leave the back of the caudal fin open.

7. Turn the fish inside out and stuff with fiber fill.  Sew the end of the caudal fin closed and use pinking shears to clip close to the seam.

8. If you haven't sewed on the pectoral fins you can glue them on now.  Glue the wiggly eyes in place to finish. Do not use wiggly eyes with small children.  They could come off.

9. These fish can be colored with water paints, magic markers or fabric markers or a combination of all three.  I like the Crayola washable markers because even young children can safely complete this project.   When the children are done coloring their fish they can paint over the fish with water to make the colors blend together. If the child goofs or doesn't like his work, you can wash off the markers and start again.

10. A string can be added to hang the fish.  A fish mobile can be made by hanging a collection of fish from a plastic hanger.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

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Stuffed Star Fish Toy Craft 

What you will need: White polyester stretch material, wiggly eyes (optional - do not use if you have very small children), pinking shears, thread, and polyester stuffing, glue gun, sewing machine.

How to make:

1. Make a copy of the pattern and cut it out.

2. Fold the material in half with right sides together. Pin the pattern onto the material and cut on the solid line. 

3. With right sides together sew the pieces together at the long dashed lines.

4. Turn the starfish right side out.  Push some fiber fill into each arm and then into the center of the fish.

5. Sew the starfish closed with a needle and thread.  Glue on wiggly eyes.  Do not use wiggly eyes if you have young children. They can be pulled off.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

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Stuffed Sea horse Toy Craft

What you will need: White polyester stretch material, wiggly eyes (optional - do not use if you have very small children), pinking shears, thread, and polyester stuffing, glue gun, sewing machine.

How to make:

1. Make a copy of the pattern and cut it out.

2. Fold the material in half with right sides together. Pin the pattern onto the material and cut on the solid line.  Use pinking shears to cut the outside edges of the fins if you would like.

3. Mark the darts where the fins should be attached at point A and B on the wrong side of the cut out pieces. 

4. Sew the darts where you marked them on the fabric. You can sew the pectoral fins on at point B now if you would like. Or you can just use hot melt glue and glue them in place when you are finished stuffing the sea horse.

5. With right sides together sew the pieces together at the long dashed lines (the front part of the sea horse).

6. Turn the sea horse right side out. Stuff the tip of the tail, the nose, and the coronet with some fiber fill.

7. Stuff the rest of the sea horse. Pin the dorsal fin in place and finish sewing the sea horse closed.

8. If you haven't sewed on the pectoral fins you can glue them on now.  Glue the wiggly eyes in place to finish. Do not use wiggly eyes with small children.  They could come off.

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Jonah Beanbag Doll Craft

For ideas on how to use this with your lesson go to the Jonah and the Whale Lesson Ideas.

What you will need: White material, hot melt glue gun, pinking shears (optional), black sharpie or fabric pen, and beans or rice.

How to make:

1. Print out the pattern and trace it using a black fabric pen or black permanent marker onto the white material using a light box or window. You can also use carbon paper.

2. Fold the material over so that you have a double thickness.  Cut out the pattern around the outside lines using pinking shears.  Glue the two pieces together around the edges using hot melt glue or fabric glue.  Remember to leave a place open to put the rice or beans in.

3. Fill the bag with rice or beans and then glue the rest closed.

4. Have the children color Jonah with crayons or child safe markers.

5. If you have a safe place to use a hot melt glue gun in your class, wait until the children have finished coloring their beanbag and then fill it with rice then glue closed.  This will make it a little easier to color.

6. If you don't feel like tracing the pattern onto the fabric, you can print the pattern onto T-shirt transfer material and iron on the pattern to the material.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

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No-sew Bible Costumes

Play acting seems to be one of the best  ways our children learn their bible lessons so we try to do it as much as possible. The children always seem to remember the lessons that we act out better than any of the other lessons. These are cheap to make and take very little time.

What you will need: Buy cheap fabric that won't fray too much (cotton polyester blends work well). These sizes are for 3 year old children. You will want to make them a little bigger for older children. Just make sure you don't make them too long so that the children won't trip on them.

How to make:   To make the tunic cut out a piece of material 28" x 56" and cut a hole in the center just big enough for the child's head to fit through. To make a belt cut out a piece of  material 5" x 36" or a little longer. To make a head cover  cut out a piece of material 20" x 46.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

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Rice Bag Bed Buddies

Do you  complain about cold feet or hands, or get really bad headaches?  Do you use a  heating pad a lot, but are worried about its safety?  Well here is something that just might help.  Just  pop them in the microwave for a few minutes until they get hot enough.  Depending on the size you make, they will stay hot up  to 3 or 4 hours.

What you need: Heavy material such as canvas or denim, Two pieces at least 10" x 11" for the back or  5" x 12" for your neck.  Some light weight material like cotton or a poly/cotton blend for the cover (cut slightly larger than the canvas).  You will need at least 3 cups of rice to fill the bag  (don't use the minute rice) and potpourri, spices or herbs for a  nice smelling bag (optional).

How to make:

1. Cut the heavy material to the size  and shape you want (you will probably have to  experiment a little).  Then cut the light- weight material a little bigger to match (this will be the cover since you can't wash the rice bag).

2. Sew up all the sides with right sides together until you have just enough space left to pour in the rice. 

3. Pour in the rice and sew the ends. If you don't like the smell of rice, you can add some herbs or potpourri. The smell of cooked rice goes away after you use the bag several times. These are great  for children when they have an ear ache. Use cute material or make it in an animal shape.  Or take the inside out of a stuffed animal and sew the rice bag in. Just make  sure the animal doesn't have any parts that will melt in the microwave and be sure you don't  get them too hot.

4. Make the rice bag cover.

Here's a quick and easy way to make a rice bag sent in by Bethany Davis of Birmingham, Alabama.  I took one of my husband's old athletic socks that was too stretched out to use anymore. (clean, of course!) Fill the sock with rice and tie a knot at the top. Instant rice sock, we call it. It's the perfect size for wrapping around your neck or shoulders, or for the small of your back in the car on a cold day. And even those of us who are sewing machine impaired can make this one!

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No-Sew Sock Sheep Puppet

What you will need:  Sock, plastic lid from the top of a cottage  cheese or sour cream container, pink , black, and white felt, wiggly eyes, sheep wool for hair, glue gun, piece of 1/4" foam

How to make:

1. Bend the plastic lid in half and push it into the sock all the way to the toes to see that it will fit.  Remove.

2. Put some low-temp glue on the inside fold of the plastic lid and carefully inset it again.   Position it so that it looks right.  Carefully press in the toe of the sock to meet the inside fold of the lid where the glue is.  Hold in that position until the glue dries.

3. Cut a piece of 1/4" foam in the shape of half of the lid and insert it into the face area of the puppet to give it a more rounded look.

4. Cut a nose from a piece of black felt.  Cut a tongue from a piece of pink felt and two ears from white felt.  Glue them into place.

5. Glue the wiggly eyes in place.

6. Glue on some wool hair  and draw a mouth to finish.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

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Peek-a-boo!"  T-shirt

This is a great T-shirt for very young children.  The photo transfer is sewed to the inside of the T-shirt and a slit is made so that the T-shirt can be pulled apart so that  the child looks like she is peeking through the T-shirt.

What you will need: T-shirt or sweat shirt (any  color), photo transfer of child's face (blow up the face to measure  4" to 5", sewing machine, white felt, buttons or bows.

How to make:

1. Scan the child's photograph into your computer. Blow it up to about 4" x 5". Copy and paste the hand drawing onto the same page. Type in the word "Peek-a-boo!" onto the same page. Use an eyedropper tool to get a sample of the face color and use the paint bucket tool to fill in the hand pattern so that the hand will match the face. Print them out onto photo transfer paper.  Iron the face and "Peek-a-boo" saying onto separate pieces of white material that will not shrink leaving several inches around the outside of the image. It is best to pre-wash the material before you iron on the transfers.  Iron the hands transfer onto white felt and cut out around the hands.

2. Fold under the edges of the material with the face and saying on them twice so that there are no raw edges and sew.

3. Position the face transfer inside the front center of the T-shirt so that the face will be facing out when you cut and open up the slit. Pin the transfer in place. With the T-shirt inside out sew the face transfer in place. Turn the shirt right side out. Carefully cut a slit  from the top line of the stitches to the bottom line of stitches. Pull open the T-shirt and tack  down with thread. Position the hands that you cut out over the tacked area and sew down the hands by hand.

4. To finish, position the peek-a-boo words across the T-shirt so that they cover up the stitches you made to put the face in.  Sew a bow or button on the top part of the slit. You can also sew buttons or bows on the top of the shoulders.

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Spray Tie-Dye

This method is so easy and versatile. We had great results our first try and it only took us about half an hour.  Make bandannas, pillows,  hats, T-shirts, etc.

What you will need:

Spray dye kit (I bought a kit from Michael's Craft Store for about $15.00 that says you can make from 3 - 14 shirts depending on the intensity of the colors.  Cotton shirt, bandanna, or  material. Lots of paper towels, newspaper,  plastic, and things like leaves or different shaped items. Dharma Trading Co. sells  textile crafts supplies like T-shirts, bandannas, hats, canvas bags, socks, tie dye kits and just about  anything you can think of. They also sell books on tie-dying, batik and other textile crafts.  They will send you a complete catalog within days of ordering it.

How to make:

Complete directions come with your kit. I  particularly liked this method because you don't have to worry about pouring dye into bowls and you use very little of it.  It  all stays in a neat little spray bottle. You get great results the first time. You can also get the tie-dye effect by winding up your material. Basically, you just put the leaves or what you want to use onto the wet material, starting with your lightest color spray on the dyes changing the location of some of the leaves between each application. It's that easy.

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Child's Artwork Keepsake Quilt

Here's a great way to  display your child's artwork and still save the originals. © Carolyn Warvel

What you will need:

Child's artwork to copy and print on to transfer paper, material, buttons, bows, Rick Rack,  ribbon, felt,  embroidery floss, or anything you want to put on  the quilt.

How to make:

1. Reduce and copy your child's pictures onto transfer paper.   Iron the transfers onto light colored cotton material. I used  slightly different colors for a variety.

2. For the backing material I just used material that was already  quilted. (I'm not a quilter so I did it the easiest way possible.  If you are a quilter, you probably won't want to do it this way.  Place the images on the material and pin them down. Leave room  for buttons, bows and rick rack. It is best to lay everything  on the quilt before you start sewing to see  how it will look.  When you have everything in place, sew everything down. Sew on  a matching border.

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"Cute  as a Button!" T-shirt

These make great gifts.

What you will need: T-shirt, t-shirt transfer, and  buttons.

How to make:

1. Pick out a cute picture you want to use on the T-shirt. Transfer  the picture onto transfer paper using a scanner and computer   printer.  Iron the picture onto the t-shirt.

2. Sew buttons all over the t-shirt. (I used all round buttons, so I made the picture round.) If you are using different shaped  buttons, you wouldn't need to make the picture round.)

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Scrunchie Snakes and Lizards

What you will need: material, 12" pipe cleaner, hot melt glue  gun, eyes, foamie sheet, felt for legs (optional), 30" string

How to make:

1. Cut a piece of material 27" x 3" for the snake  or 27" x 4" for the lizard.

2. Cut out the mouth from a sheet of foamie and 4 legs from a  piece of felt if you are making the lizard, using the patterns.

3. Put a knot at the end of one end of the string and attach it to one of the long ends of the material either by sewing it on or pinning it on. The string will help you turn the material right side out once you have finished sewing it.

4. Fold the material long ways right sides together. Place the string so it runs down the inside of the material. It should  be long enough to stick out the other end.

5. Sew up the long end of the material leaving the ends open.

6. To turn the material inside out pull on the string while gently pulling down on the material at the other end. When you have the material completely turn inside out, you can cut off the string.

7. Fold down one end of the pipe cleaner about 1/4' (this will  help it slide better into the material) and insert it into the  material until it is all the way in. Now glue that end of the  pipe  cleaner to that end of the material. Fold over the material and glue again. This will be the tail end.

8. Push the rest of the material down over the pipe cleaner by scrunching up the material at the tail end. Continue this until  the pipe cleaner comes out the other end. Fold in the rough  edges  of the material.

9. Now you are ready to insert the mouth. Poke a small hole in the center of the mouth just so the pipe cleaner will fit  through. Fold the mouth in half and insert into the mouth end of the snake fold first making sure the pipe cleaner goes through  the tiny hole. Pull the pipe cleaner through and fold the end over twice and glue together so that it cannot pull back  through the hole (This is the snakes tongue). Glue the mouth  in place by putting some glue between the mouth and the material.  Glue on the eyes.

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Fuzzy Felt Board Sheep

The children in our Sunday school love to play with these fuzzy sheep on the flannel board. We also use flowers, trees, sun, moon, etc. so they have a lot of fun rearranging them. This gives us  an opportunity to tell them about David and his sheep or any  other story that has sheep in it. You can make your own flannel  board characters by cutting out pictures from your Sunday school  lessons and gluing them on to felt. You can also scan and print  pictures you or the children make onto t-shirt transfer paper and then iron them on to felt. This works great! They will love illustrating and telling their own story.  See the Bible Lessons Page for scripture  references and suggested books.

What you will need: felt (black or white, or any color  you want your sheep), fuzzy fake fur material (black or white),  glue, tiny eyes.

How to make: Print and cut out the patterns.  (You can enlarge the pictures to make larger  sheep) Cut out the  patterns from the type of material indicated on the pattern.  Glue the felt pattern to the back of the fuzzy material. Glue on eyes and ears.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

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