Children's Handmade Felt Toolbelt

When our son was two and one half he became completely and utterly fascinated by construction; the process, workers, tools, trucks and equipment. Every aspect of building compelled him. We took him to construction sites to watch, gave him a small arsenal of tools and dump trucks and were given a workbench for him to create his own building projects. The one thing that we couldn't find for him was a tool belt . No one seemed to make tool belts so small or made of  appropriate materials for young children. So we seized the opportunity for a project and created our own. My son was able to help me through the entire project from start to finish. He was completely thrilled when we were finished and was quite proud that he was able to help make, what became once of his favorite construction pieces.

Here's what you'll need:

brown paper grocery bag
1/2 yard felt
fat quarters or scraps of various colored felt (different from the 1/2 yard felt color)
velcro strips
thread
scissors


How to create your own felt tool belt:

1.) Take your child's waist measurement and take an additional measurement of approximately how long you want the tool belt to be (including pockets for the tools). You don't  want the pockets to hit their knees.

2.) Cut a brown paper grocery bag open so that it lies flat in a long rectangle. We'll use this to make a pattern. On the paper mark your dimensions then draw the shape of the tool belt including pockets. We placed two pockets in front and one in the center back. I cut the belt and back of the pockets in one piece. You can attach the front of the pockets later. It will be much easier to do it this way than to make the pocket separately and attach that to the belt.

This is the tool belt laid out flat

3.) Once you are happy with your design, cut it out and try it on your child for size and pocket placement.

The front of the tool belt with pockets on either side and "Button" closure. The velcro is underneath the buttons.

The back of the tool belt with the back (red) pocket. You can see the back of the front pockets too (blue).

The tool belt on my son. Still fits after four years! 

4.) When the pattern is perfect, use it to cut your fabric using the half yard of felt.

5.) Choose some felt, any color you like, for the front of the pocket, and sew it to the back of the pocket.

5.) Now it's time to decorate! We traced some of my son's wooden tools on various colored felt, making sure they fit before sewing them on. Add "buttons" and other embellishments.

6.) On the inside of the one side , and the outside of the opposite side, sew the velcro.

Viola ! You have your very own felt tool belt!

Making Hand Dipped Taper Candles with Children

Between the cold, wet winter days that have us cooped up in the house and the long week off from school for President's Week , I found myself  searching for a quick, easy and affordable project to keep us occupied for an afternoon. We decided to try making hand dipped parrafin candles, something I haven't done since I was a child. A quick trip to the local chain craft supply store and we were set. We bought a 1 1/2 pound block of paraffin wax, 8 feet of medium wick, and then for fun, a small package of solid candle scent  (a scented wax as opposed to an essential oil) and a solid wax coloring agent.  We chose paraffin mainly due to the cost, which was $7, though the store also carried beeswax , which would have been lovely, however, it cost almost $20 for the same amount. We then hit the local thrift store to purchase a used crockpot for melting the wax safely and were able to get one for $5.00. The total cost for the whole project was about $25.00 including the purchase of the crockpot and has given enough wax to make more candles than we'll dip any time soon! 

To get started, you will need:

Candle wax (1 1/12 - 2 lbs.) - paraffin or beeswax

Wick (8 or more feet) - medium 

Scent 

Coloring Agent 

Hanger

Paper towels

Crockpot

Candy or Candle thermometer

Cutting board

Knife

To Make the Candles:

1.) First find a safe place on your counter to place the crockpot. Make sure it is not under a cabinet (in case of fire - remember, wax is flammable), and in a place where the cord will not get pulled, thus pulling the pot of hot wax off the counter. Plug it in and turn it on to begin warming.

2.) Place the block of wax on a non-slip cutting board and chop it (carefully!) into smaller chunks. Place the chunks into the crockpot. Place a candy thermometer in the melting wax. Please check the manufacturers instructions about the appropriate temperature for  your wax. Ours had a melting point of 143 degrees. We let the temperature rise to 150 degrees then turned it off. Please be aware that if the wax gets too hot ( about 300 degrees) it can catch fire. The wax melted very quickly. 

3.) When the wax is melted, add your color and scent as per the manufacturers instructions.

4.) Cut a long length of wick and fold it in half (so that you can dip two candles at the same time). 

5.) Place a hanger on a cabinet pull that will hold your cooling candles then put some paper towels under it to catch drips of hot wax.

6.) Dip the wick into the wax covering about 3/4 of the wick. We found that when the temperature was higher at 150 degrees, you had to dip the wick quickly and let it really cool before dipping it again. However, as the wax cools, reaching the melting point and falling just below it, you will get much more wax sticking to your wick. We did turn the heat back on when the temperature reached 135 degrees, let it reach 150 degrees again, then turned it off and let it cool. 

7.) Let the candles cool between dips by hanging  them on the hanger. Cut a second length of wick and begin dipping that one so that you can rotate between the pairs. Dip your candles until you are satisfied with the size. Ours got a little lumpy on the ends. You could probably roll the lumpy ends into a nice uniform shape while the wax is hot.

This was a fun project for both the adults and the children and gave us immediate satisfaction. We dipped four pair of candles in about 15 minutes and had some ready to burn that night for dinner; a point of pride for our son. 

Our green honeysuckle scented hand-dipped candles cooling on a hanger

The finished product!