Birkat Chaverim Blog

As school is approaching here are some related projects. Above is a desk organizer made out of plastic bags and clear tape. It was made by a student in my chug/class. Also useful for school are notebooks. Another participant made this notebook cover: Continue reading »

I made this one with my daughter (she chose to do a cat) but prior to that we made some of these in my chug/class (I havent found the pictures yet! When I do Ill post them.) Continue reading »

Here’s a project made by one of the girls (age 12) in my chug. It was made several months ago out of recycled fabric. I have no idea where the beige came from but the lining is a tshirt. She cut the zipper down to size and thought out how she wanted to sew it since she wanted a lining. It came out rather nicely. Useful for storing tissues and money and such. She wanted to make something like this and we looked at a few possible ideas before she chose to do it this way. There was no pattern involved.

If you are looking for a project for a Bat Mitzvah around Shavuot, you could try floral arrangements with old nylons. Nylons can be dyed using store bought dye or food coloring and vinegar. There are a variety of examples on the web for inspiration and tutorials, or you can get a copy of The Art of Handmade Flowers.

For online tutorials and examples of nylon floral arrangements see:

Ehow tutorial with picture
Get Crafty blog with several examples
Creation Blog with small purple flowers
Flowers that Last store which has a photo gallery of examples

Our own modest example with pipecleaners as seen in the post Tu Bishvat flower ideas.

Tu B’shvat is really about figuring out a date for terumot and maasrot-tithing (old fruits versus new fruits, which year they are from so the fruit could be given to the correct recipients.) In the Bnei Akiva bencher, we actually do include the blessing recited when taking terumot and maasrot, but I didn’t really want to do a post about that. Its not very crafty. I also wasn’t really interested in doing something about Tu B’shvat seders or dried fruit. Instead, I’m thinking about flowers. Before fruits become fruit they start as flowers, so there you go.

My daughter and I made pipe cleaner flowers with stockings as a very simple no sew project. We did some experimenting with coloring the stockings but mostly we used the stockings as-is.

In the chug we also seem to be focusing on flowers lately. Here is one flower barrette one of our participants made.

She chose to make this barrette after we looked at a bunch of different designs and styles online. I found a tutorial of how to make this one (and of course I’m having trouble finding it again to post a link to it now.) The idea behind this one is to make four flower shapes with six petals, fold them over and attach them in the middle. That provides the depth. This participant chose to use two colors for variety. Other floral barrettes that have been made recently include another flower made of felt, but using overlapping flowers of different sizes and a large fabric flower for a headband. I’ll post images of those soon.

Here are two other sources for flower ideas:

Do it yourself alternative flower arrangements

And this youtube video on how to make flowers from dryer sheets:

Tutorial for a really cool tree and swing card made of paper discovered via Whipup

See also: Dried fruit “trees” and “flowers”

These are not such original ideas but they can be a fun holiday toy for a young child in synagogue or wherever. The idea of using a matchbox as a house came from colouredbuttons.com, where she has many lovely ideas in general, but in particular really sweet things out of matchboxes.

I just modified her idea for the holidays and for use with a smaller child who is a bit rough on toys. I did not add many embellishments because they were liable to be chewed or pulled off and I didn’t make them into necklaces. I made a sukkah with a little girl doll (bead, pipe cleaner, part of an old shirt, yarn), and a shul with felt Torah, Torah cover, kiddush cup and synagogue backdrop. This is a really quick project. It could probably be used as an actual matchbox holder for lighting candles for Shabbat and holidays. It is a great project to do with children older than mine, although she had many ideas of what I should put in the box (“Ima make a shofar, make besamim.” “Ima can you make me a house too?”)

I had actually been saving the matchboxes to make into rolling ball games using historic Jewish sites, but I have not gotten around to that yet. Perhaps we’ll do that this year in the doll clothing classes (we do go off topic sometimes.) I will probably add a lulav and etrog to the sukkah and some other items to the synagogue.

I wanted to post pictures of some of the finished projects from the doll clothing classes. The girls are very creative and are always coming up with new ideas. I don’t have pictures of all the works made in the class, but I’d like to share what I can.

Finished shorts:
Build a bear sheep is sporting a happy birthday hat. The shorts are made from an old t-shirt (seen in other posts). I like how the tail part of the shorts came out-

Shoes:
Patterns is based on a Martha Stewart baby bootie pattern and modified for the doll. Ribbon was added to make ballet slipper type shoes.

Jacket:
This was completely designed by a participant based on a jean skirt in our scrap pile. It came out really well and did not require alot of sewing.

On a different topic- one participant designed a “Dress a boy” felt board.

An earlier project design by a participant who wanted to do something without any sewing whatsoever.

These are not all the projects, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to photograph everything. Some participants have also made foam visors in addition to other clothing items that didn’t make it into pictures.

For other examples of doll and bear clothing and accessory projects see some of the earlier posts:
A Doll Clothing Chug is Born
Doll Clothing Making Course Week One
Doll Clothing Chug Week Three
Barbie Gets a New Hat

Here are a few comments and suggestions for people who might be interested in running a doll clothing workshop using materials such as socks. These are based on things learnt in the course of our chug/class.
When cutting holes in socks or other materials, advise participants to make sure that the holes are smaller than the bear or doll arm or leg. If the holes are too large too much bear or doll will stick out  (think tails, sleeveless shirts or bathingsuits.)
Class participants tend to be enthusiastic but its important to stay on top of basic instruction such as how to sew.
When making a patterns, be sure to fold the paper first, and leave space for seam allowances. Be sure to explain seam allowances. Once the pattern is traced and pinned, make sure to reiterate about seam allowances and where to sew.
We havent been reenforcing the holes in the sock outfits, but it probably would be a good idea for long term use. I have been mentioning this to students.
Dont forget tail holes in build a bear outfits!

Try not to rush on the cutting. The pieces tend not to come out the same size that way. This is particularly true for cutting with t-shirts.
Crochet and knitting has a large learning curve. You have to know that your group is willing to learn that skill. I was going to do crochet flowers, but an experiment with a simple daisy leads me to think that the time is not ripe. I would like to do cable and finger crochet designs. I thought perhaps finger crocheted scarves might work as well as felt baseball caps.
Try a variety of things, some students who don’t thrive with sewing do amazing things with other media such as drawing.Have a basic structure but allow for student creativity. It leads to new ideas.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while. I had been eyeing the top of a sock that was a remnant from a sock made into a skirt and dress for Barbie. It looked a bit Peter Pan-ish. In the end I measured Barbie’s head, cut a piece of elastic, slightly smaller than her head, and sewed it in a circle inside the sock. This is the circumference of the Barbie head.

I tried to make sure that the elastic was stretched to the length of the sock material (if that makes sense,) so it would fit Barbie’s head afterwards. Once the elastic was sewn in, I trimmed the sock seam, did a bit of cutting here and there, added a feather, and voila! Barbie has a stylish hat. The (child) recipient of this hat was quite pleased. As I was writing this post she said, “That’s my baby!” For her all dolls and bears are babies.

Materials used:
Top of an old sock
Elastic
Feather
needle and thread

You may use whatever embellishments you wish. We may add a ribbon or flower at some point.

Week five we worked on accessories which we continued week six and seven. I found several baby bootie patterns for us to experiement with and also found a cute viking shoes tutorial from a blog called Earth and Living and its use with children here and thought i would give the girls ideas and a choice in what to make. I also offered the electrical tape shoes option for the young women “allergic” to sewing. Surprisingly, everyone chose to make the booties- we made booties based on a pattern from Martha Stewart.
I started them off by creating shoe bottoms based on the shape of the bear or doll foot (this week we had one new student who brought a doll). I showed them the pattern, cut pattern pieces and a finished shoe that i made for my daughter’s doll. We discussed adding seam allowance to their doll foot size and I showed them how the pattern piece would look.
No images this post but hopefully next time.