Easy to Make Simple Bear

I am the adoptive mother of three special needs boys. All three of my boys have needed extensive therapy throughout their lives–and will continue to need it. One day, I was talking with my youngest son’s attachment therapist and she mentioned how much teddy bears can help her with some of her patients and how she wished she had a simple pattern to make teddy bears. She was not big on sewing, but wanted a way to make something personal for some of the children she dealt with.

I’m sure there are patterns out there like mine, but this was specifically developed for her. I wanted something that wouldn’t take cutting out more than two pieces and that needed little instruction.

Here is the pattern for this bear simple bear pattern (161 KB)  Here are the instructions simple bear directions (903 KB)

I also created an outfit pattern for added fun. Here is the pattern simple bear outfit pattern (83 KB) and here are the instructions simple bear outfit directions

Paper Mini Boxes

This is a fun little pattern for a paper trinket box. These are small (about 2″ square by 1 and 5/8″ high. Great for jewelry and little items like that. You can print it off on to pretty paper and then spray mount it to a thicker paper stock, or pick up some light card stock made for desktop printers and print directly on to it.

I like to add personalization–but you have to have access to some good graphics software to do that so I’ve made a PDF pattern that you can simply print out ( Mini gift box  308KB) AND, I’ve made a Word Doc file (  Mini Gift Box 70 KB)  that allows you to make some changes and customize. Create your own custom trinket boxes with this pattern.

Easy to Make Gift Bags

A couple of years ago I decided to “go green” and wrap ALL of my holiday gifts in re-usable gift bags. I took advantage of after-holiday fabric sales and “Christmas in July” sales to amass a bunch of holiday fabric.

It was a lot of work, but not as much as I thought it would be. For me, sewing is fun and I can do some things pretty quickly so it really wasn’t much more time consuming than traditional paper wrapping (especially since I like to decorate every package).

Friends and extended family members got a kick out of opening their beautifully decorated bags and my Christmas tree looked particularly festive with all the beautiful fabric covered gifts and decorative ribbons. So, even though my kids thought it a bit odd at first, it turned out to be a real success (and I have all the bags I used for the family to use again this year). So, if you want to download a PDF of how I made my bags, just click here gift bag1

Fort Fun

When my boys were young, I came up with a kit idea using cpvc pipe for making forts. Using specific pipe lengths and a variety of connectors, I created a kit they could use to configure a frame to put blankets on. This allowed them to make their own fort-including multi-room construction.

Then, during the summer, I added a water connector and drilled small holes in a couple of the pipe lengths so that they could create their own water runs and outdoor shower.

The PDF link I'm sharing includes a supply list and the directions for creating your own kit for hours of creative, outdoor family fun.

Click Here for Fort Fun Instructions