Big Block SingSong Felt Pencil Pouch

Good Morning!

Happy Monday!  Here's to hoping everyone had a won-der-ful weekend!  Ours was pretty nice... Big A and I had a DATE NIGHT!!!  What?!  I know!  Super good sushi (yes, I had raw fish - it was a first... If I could get over the whole "food poisoning" thought, I would've enjoyed it more...) followed by a movie - Meet the Millers - now, I'm not a movie reporter, critic, advocate and I am not claiming to have good taste (umm - hello?  Old School is one of my favorites), but I laughed and laughed and laughed through this movie and even after, on the walk to the car, in the car, after we got home... well, you get the point.  There is some serious potty mouth going on, I don't think I'll ever get used to Rachel (Rachel Green aka Friends Rachel) dropping the F-Bomb like she's sneezing, but it was completely ridiculous and insane. 

Lil' A had his first Winter Tball game in which he did AWESOME!  He made some plays, got a few little people out (well, in theory, they don't actually do "outs") and was generally charming with his teammates.  It was a good weekend.

To make the weekend better, I got some NEW products done!  Yes!  And I'm having a pretty good reaction to them on FB!  Facebook - the true test of what is popular and what is not.  I'll share soon.

But this is all just chatter.  What I'm sure your all looking forward to is Big Block.

 

Big Block SingSong to be exact.  Anyone else familiar with these guys?  Lil' A and I first saw them on Disney Jr.  They're blocks, with faces, sometimes arms/legs/hair/etc, but mostly they're just blocks... and you guessed it - they sing songs.  Fun, catchy, playful songs that make Adam and I drop whatever we're doing (playing/cooking/baking/cleaning/working/showering) and run into the living room to dance while one of the awesome blocks sings.  Here, check it out for yourself - this one is one of my favorites...

 

So, when Lil' A was getting ready for school, he wanted a special pencil pouch.  He wanted a Big Block one.  Hmmm... I think Big Block is awesome, but I don't think they have a pencil pouch line.  But they should.

So, I asked Lil' A to draw his own Big Block.

Which he did.  And I made a felt Pencil Pouch to resemble it.

I used felt because it was easy and quick.  Double Score.  I used Lil' A's drawing as my pattern and set to work cutting out the features.  It didn't take much time... or accuracy - which was nice.  I made a very simple pouch from the yellow felt, I took a very long rectangle and folded it almost in half, leaving a few inches of over hang that I could then fold over to make my back flap.  I sewed up the sides and BAM!  Instant Pouch.

I thought about doing Velcro for the closure, but let's be honest, what 5 year old couldn't use a little more dexterity practice?  So, I sewed on a button and made a button hole.  BAM!!  Lil' A can now keep his pencils/erasers/army men safely ensconced in Big Block.

But let me backtrack for a moment, before I sewed the sides of Big Block to make him into a pouch, I pinned all of the facial features onto the front of the pouch and sewed them on.  You cannot sew them on by machine AFTER you assemble your pouch otherwise you won't have a pouch, you'll have a felt Big Block that just hangs out.  Which is okay, if that's your goal.  But it wasn't ours.  We wanted a Big Block Pencil Pouch.

There you have it, Lil' A's Big Block Pencil Pouch.  And don't worry, I didn't forget, Lil' A's Big Blocks smile... well, okay... I did forget to sew it on with thread so I used a black Sharpie marker and drew one on. 

Yay Big Block that is exactly what Lil' A wanted!

Yay for felt!

Yay for quick projects that bring your child's imagination to life while letting them know that you heard them. 

Okay, now play the Big Block SingSong video again... you know you want to.
Have a great day!
Andrea

ps - this was my first time including a video in my post.  I'm pretty impressed with myself right now - feeling like a big girl with big girl panties on!