Thankful Table Runner

(image courtesy of PurlBee)

The reason I started this blog was for a place to store ideas, recipes, and inspiration all in one place. It's an online resource for me that I refer to all the time myself.


So when I saw a Thanksgiving idea this afternoon, I had to sit down to store it here so I can make it sometime before this next Thanksgiving. Basically you make any table runner that suits you, but make sure the center is a blank canvas. Each year ask your children to draw a picture of what they are most thankful for, and attach it to your runner along with the year. You could embroider them, have them draw with fabric pens right on the runner (if you're brave!), scan the pictures and print them onto iron-on transfer paper, etc.


I can't wait to get started on this way to make a lasting memory each year!

For Your Little Turkey

I made a Thanksgiving turkey onesie for my little turkey this afternoon and wanted to show you all how to make one too. I saw the idea at one of my all-time favorite websites, The Crafty Crow. I changed it up a bit for my liking, and took pictures along the way. As always, feel free to ask questions if you have any!

1) Trace your child's hand. I have a tip for babies' hands. They are next to impossible to trace well since they're so wiggly. (Mine tried to grab the pencil the whole time!) Get their hand wet, then place it on a sheet of colored construction paper. It will leave enough of a print to trace around that leaving you free from their wiggly, tangly fingers.
2) Eat the paper - this step is totally optional

3) Gather scraps of fabrics. I have another tip. Go to your local fabric store and collect free samples of the fabrics on the big bolts. They will come in handy all the time. I have a handful of them always.

4) You'll want the piece of fabric to be a tad bit larger than your child's handprint. Since I only had tiny pieces of fabric, I pieced them together into a mini quilt (see below).

5) Position the handprint in the center of the shirt you want to embellish, and trace with a disappearing-ink fabric pen.

6) Place the fabric piece directly under the handprint (in between the front and back side of the onsie) right side facing up, and pin in place. Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of this step. But in the end, it should be a sandwich in this order from top to bottom: shirt front with the traced hand, decorative fabric facing up, shirt back.
7) Sew along the tracing lines in a coordinating-colored thread. You will be sewing through the front of the shirt as well as through the background fabric. Be careful not to catch the shirt back in the stitching.

8) When you've sewn all the way around the outline, remove the pins. Using sharp scissors (I used my tiny Fiskars scissors, and they were perfect), remove the shirt fabric from the inside of the handprint to expose the background fabric as shown below.

9) Add embellishments like legs/feet, a gobble or waddle or whatever that hanging-down thing is called, a button eye, and a beak, and you're done! A custom-made Thanksgiving shirt for your little turkey.

Happy Crafting!