Saturday, July 10, 2010

Make a Child's Tool Belt-Sew

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Check out my other blog http://teacupmilliner.blogspot.com/

This project is a great gift for a boy or a girl.

Don't think of this as something a boy would like, because little girls love tools as well.
When my daughter kim was a small child, my husband and I literally built our first home together.  Kim was four years old at the time and she was with us on our new home site as much as possible, weather permitting.  My husband Hugh and I did all the work ourselves to save money and to keep Kim safe, we built a garage first with a playroom for Kim to watch TV when it was too warm or raining, and a bathroom in it too.  It worked out perfectly for us to be together as a family and when Kim watched us using tools, she wanted to be just like us.  When we roofed the house, both my husband and I wore nail bags around our waist and carried our hammers, so Kim wanted her own.  I stopped work long enough to make her a child size bag and bought her a child size hammer.  When we went up on the roof she wanted to go up on it too and because it wasn't a very steep roof we took her up under our supervision.  I never thought much about it then, but she grew up to build her own house.

How to make the pattern.
Use two, bright color 100% cotton fabrics.

For the tool belt back, out of tracing fabric or paper, cut a piece 13" wide by 12" tall.  Draw a line across the center as shown.

For the front pockets, cut a second piece 12" wide by 10" tall.  Draw a line across the center as shown.

Fold each piece in half and cut a piece of craft bond for both front pockets and back main panel.

A.  Heat set the craft bond on the wrong side of the main panel and then do the same on the pocket panel.

B.  Right sides together fold the panel in half like the above photo.  Pin all around except leave a space open ready to turn.  I placed two pins the opposite direction to show you what I mean.  Sew around leaving this part open.

C.  Before turning, clip corners like this.

D.  Turn and top stitch all around as shown above.  Press.

E.  Cut 2 pieces 20" long double fold bias tape for ties.  On the wrong side, pin one close to the top on each side and sew down.  Turn over on the right side as shown above and stitch again.

Repeat the instructions A through D for the pocket panel.  Now you have both panels made.  One with and one without ties.

Lay the pocket panel on top of the main panel as shown above, pin and sew around the two sides and bottom.  Then decide how many tool pockets you want and sew them in place without sewing across the top.

If you have a die cut machine and an alphabet set, you can spell something like this, or perhaps the child's name.

Load the belt up with tools.  You don't have to spend a lot of money.  I found this set at a dollar store for of course $1.

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