Thursday, March 28, 2013

A Tool Belt for Levi


I really should be making my youngest her Easter dress right now.  Seeing as Easter is only 2 1/2 days away, it seems pretty important to get going on that.  But here I am, sitting at the computer and blogging instead.  I've been meaning to write something for 2 weeks now.  In fact, I'm a little behind.  I have at least 2 more crafts that I meant to talk about - never mind those Easter dresses. Sigh...they will have to be a post-Easter subject. :)

For now, I'm going to talk a little about this nifty tool belt for a cool 3 year old.

Last week, my friend's son had his birthday.  I had asked her what to get him and the response was "tools and a tool belt" (I'm paraphrasing here :) ).  There were a few other ideas but I liked the sound of this one.  I figured I could just waltz into the local toy department and pick up some toy tools and matching tool belt.  Not so.

The tools were easy...the toolbelt?  Not so much.  I'm pretty sure the reason I couldn't find one was two hungry, cranky kids and laziness.  I didn't feel like running around looking in stores when I had an idea in mind and knew I could whip one up in an afternoon.  Because that's easier (she said sarcastically).  You all probably know by now that I have a bit of a sewing addiction.  I was getting all excited at the prospect of a project.

Besides, I had this awesome tool fabric sitting at home that I had bought a while back and was just waiting for the right project to come along.  Hello tool belt!

I spent a good 15-20 minutes mapping it out and figuring out how I wanted to make it.  It's pretty simple.  There are 3 pockets on the front for storing tools.  This was made out of one long rectangle of fabric which I divided by sewing 2 straight lines up the middle of it.  I also wanted some loops to hang a hammer or screw driver or something.  So I added one loop on each side of the "apron" part (don't mind the scissors in this pic - we don't have toy tools at our house ;) ).


I also decided last minute to personalize it with an "L".  It was a little tricky because most of the belt was sewn together, but I think it turned out alright. :)


For some reason I always think little toddlers are WAY bigger than they are.  My waist straps are almost always too long the first time around.  The belt fit ME when I first made it.  Oops.  I ended up ripping off the straps and re-making them. And I STILL made them too big.  Ah well.  I provided Erin with some extra stick-on velcro to place at just the right spot for Levi.  It seems to fit ok, now.  I think...

Well, that was one of last week's projects.  I have more to share, but it probably won't happen until next week.



Thanks to my friend, Erin Mitchell, for the cute pics of her boy modeling the tool belt with actual tools in it. :) She also has an Etsy shop - check it out!



Until next week - Happy Easter everyone!

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