Sunday, August 19, 2012

Sensory Blankie Tutorial - mirror, crinkly and more!

Here is a tutorial for how to make a sensory blanket using a number of products from our online store.. For anyone new to our shop and blog, you can purchase the featured items from our toy supplies store at www.tomnidesign.com.au

Today I'll write what I did to make this blankie, but it could be made with a range of items (like teether rings or flowers, and in different sizes..

** I added some Amendment comments to this tutorial in October... **



I forgot to take a 'here is what you'll need' pic, but here is the list of the items I used:
- crinkle material
- mirror material
- green teether ear
- bias binding (I used white one, that was 0.5cm wide when folded)
- grosgrain ribbon strips (approx 7cm long x 5 colours, from own stash)
- coloured fabric (from own stash)
- yellow minky (from own stash)
- sewing machine, thread, needle


Cut your two fabric pieces and crinkly material to size. Mine was a square measuring about 27x27cm. Sew the crinkly to the left side of the fabric, about 0.5cm from the edge. The crinkly can be a little slippery, so I found it easier to sew the pieces together with the crinkly placed on top of the fabric. I also used a double layer of crinkly, so I ended up with an extra loud blankie.

** October Amendment: I found it can be easier to manage the pieces when you sew in the Crinkly once your project pieces are sewn together - see for the next comment down a few steps **


Here's what the fabric with crinkly sewn all around it looked like.


Now to make your mirror - Trace a circle on the mirror material with a permanent marker. Cut it out.


Peel off the adhesive backing and adhere the mirror to fabric (we adhered it to the minky). Cut off the excess fabric.


Sew the bias binding all around the mirror, removing the edge of the protective film as you go along. I recommend leaving most of the protective film on the mirror while you're doing the sewing. Keep going with the bias binding until it covers about 1cm of the binding you sewed on first.


Gently pull the bias to the side and keep sewing the two bias sides to create a cord about 7cm long.


Your finished mirror should look something like this. I also made another bias cord by sewing the bias pieces together which I used to attach the rattle ring to the blankie.


Arrange your ribbons, ring, teether ear, mirror and any other parts on the right side of the fabric.


Sew the pieces to the top of the fabric, about 5mm from the edge. This will make sure that the pieces don't move around when you sew on the other fabric (in my case the minky). I sewed the green teether ear on the corner of the blankie. I placed it about 7mm from the edges. I sewed across the wider part, a few stitches across the thin part in the middle of the ear. You can see I also did a zig zag stitch across the thin part just to make sure it was sewn in well.


Place the fabric pieces (right sides towards each other) and sew them together about 7mm from the edge. Make sure you leave a big enough gap along one edge to be able to turn the blankie inside out.

** October Amendment: You can sew the Crinkly on top of the fabric at this step... Just make sure you don't sew over the gap you left for turning the blankie inside out **


Turn your blankie inside out.


Sew the gap by hand. I then sewed across the edge of the right side of the blankie for extra durability.


And here's the finished product! :)

Let us know what you think - we'd also love to see your versions of this blankie..

Mirror Stickers Project

The new flexible mirror material is a very versatile product and the other day together with my son we decided to make some mirror wall stickers.. This is a super easy project and here are the steps:


Draw your design on the back of the flexible mirror material using a permanent marker.


Cut our your design.


Peel off the backing and adhere your shape to a flat surface e.g. wall.


Peel off the protective green film.

All done!

You can purchase the flexible mirror material from our online store: www.tomnidesign.com.au

Flexible mirror material and Crinkle material

We now stock two new EXCITING products!

We now stock the long awaited CRINKLE MATERIAL and MIRROR FABRIC!



The crinkle material makes a lovely, crispy, loud sound when scrunched and is great for using in sensory blankets, or as a stuffing for toys.. A great idea is to stuff a part of a toy e.g. a leg, with the crinkly material, so that the child can discover the hidden sound...


The mirror material is 0.25mm thick. It has an adhesive back and a protective green layer on top to protect the surface while you work with it.

This flexible mirror has so much potential! It is easily cut with scissors and sewn through with a sewing machine.

It is made from a PETG material, which is commonly used in commercially made and sold mirror toys for children. Once again, we have sourced this material from a manufacturer who sells this product to well known toy manufacturing companies..

You can purchase it from www.tomnidesign.com.au

Monday, August 6, 2012

Pull string music boxes

We have received a shipment of pull string music boxes, which are currently being added to our online store..

We have these available in two tunes: 'A dream is a wish your heart makes' and 'Brahm's lullaby'.


Here's a recording of what the pull string music boxes sound like. This is the "A dream is a wish your heart makes" tune..

 listen to the tune on our youtube channel here..

These pull string music inserts play a tune which goes for about 1.5 minutes and is activated when the cord is pulled. As music plays, cord is slowly drawn back into unit. This inserts are ideal for placing inside softies, bears, dolls and all sort of toys, as well as for creating wall and door decorations.

When you put these inside a softie, the toy filling mellows out some of the 'sharper sounding' tones...

For further information, check out the items in our online store - www.tomnidesign.com.au/store, under the 'music boxes' category..

Or to see how these can be used in a softie, check out our previous post here