toddler thoughts

it has been such an amazing experience being a parent and seeing wren develop.  once she started walking it has been one thing after the other.
recently she has started to smile for the camera!
she now falls asleep in your arms or on the sofa.
she climbs in the rocking chair and rocks.  (which sometimes is very bad because she also stands in it)
she does patty cake.
she knows the following body parts: eyes, nose, teeth, ears, whiskers, hair, fingers, belly, and toes.
she knows the noises of the following animals:  owl, dog, cat, chicken, lion, bunny, and elephant.
she is learning more and more objects everyday....
one of them is a butterfly, so this weekend we made her wings.
(Read on for a DIY Tutorial)

DIY Children's Pretend Butterfly Wings

Step #1
-Make a stencil
-I used a hard felt and free handed the shape, then I cut it out with scissors.





 Step #2
-Trace the stencil onto your fabric.
-I chose two types of fabric, one for the front of the wings, and one for the back.

-Be sure to flip the stencil over once for each type of fabric so you have both sides of the wing.  You will want to trace on the back side of your fabric.

Step #3
-Cut out your wings.

Step #4
-Iron your wings flat

Step #5
-Line up you wings for pinning.  Face the wrong side of the fabric out, so the right sides are touching.  Pin about an inch inside so you have room to sew.

Step #6

-I am definitely not the best seamstress in the world so I do not have photos of me sewing the wings.

-Basically you just sew all the way around and leave about a 3 inch opening for stuffing the wings.

Step #7

-Stuff your wings with poly fil

Step #8

-Hand sew the 3 inch opening shut.

Step #9

-Hand sew elastic straps.

-To make sure they were the right length I simply held the wings up to Wren and wrapped the elastic around her shoulders to determine length and placement.  Then I hand sewed them to the wings.