Space-Themed Growth Chart Ruler

When we were building our house three years ago, I nabbed a board that I thought would make a great portable growth chart. I was inspired by all the amazing DIY growth chart rulers on the newly-launched Pinterest, and I loved the idea of having something that could move with us (or our son) if we ever have to move. (This is not something we are planning to do, but living with a brain injury means not taking life for granted). Anyway, I set aside the board with a mental note to complete the project once we were settled into our new house.

A few weeks ago, I was in Amish country with my son and we saw this arrow-shaped growth chart ruler.

The arrow reminded me of a rocket...and the project I had planned. When we got home, I found the the board and saw that it had a big crack in it. Bummer. So much for sentimentality. 

 I headed off to Lowe's where I found a 1x8x72" board for under $10.

I'm not much for woodworking, but I did my best to sand the wood before applying primer. 

For the main color, I used Rust-Oleum Metallic spray paint in Cobalt Blue. It really does look like the sparkling deep space. 

I added a few spritzes of some other spray paints I had on hand to give the appearance of galaxies. I used silver glitter, a light blue glitter, and purple paint. 

Both my son and I were very happy with how the color turned out. 

The next day, after the paint dried, I used my sewing ruler and a glow-in-the-dark pen. I started at 6" at the bottom, up to 6'6" at the top.

For the numbers, I used the NASA font for the numbers. I finally tried cutting vinyl with my Silhouette Cameo. (This makes me laugh because cutting vinyl was the reason I bought my Cameo three years ago!). The silver vinyl was part of my starter kit!

The vinyl was very easy to place on the wood, and easy to adjust when the placement wasn't quite right. I see myself doing more with vinyl in the future!

At this point, my ruler looked more or less like all the other rulers out there. Since I was using a space theme, I had to include a rocket somehow. I found a lightweight painted wood rocket at Hobby Lobby.

I placed magnet tape along the center of the ruler to provide a path for the rocket as it measures our son's height. (I should mention that while I love the idea of this magnet tape, it's not super strong. Also, I did have to reinforce the magnet's adhesive on both ends with Weldbond, which has never failed me.

I attached 3 round magnets I had on hand to the back of the rocket to keep it flat as it moves up and down the magnet strip. 

For the sides, I used the same trick as I did on my craft table: duct tape! My son picked out a glittery blue tape, or as he called it, "galaxy tape." (Here you can see the rocket with one magnet. It was a little wobbly when little hands played with it. With three magnets, that is no longer a problem).

I added a few glow-in-the dark stars.

The inch marks don't glow as I had hoped, but the stars do.

Then I had to take a break for a few days to dig through all my son's medical papers to find his measurements each year. That was a good excuse to get everything organized. It had been about four years since I had actually put his papers in his binder!

I used a fine-tipped silver Sharpie to write his height as recorded at his annual well child exams. I was thinking that I would also add his height at the start and end of school, but I think that would have been too crowded, especially as he gets older and doesn't grow as quickly.

We used our stash of Command Strips to hang up the ruler. 

We placed 8 sets of strips to the back to make sure they were strong enough. Our baseboards are 5-1/2" high, so we measured the 6" mark for the bottom and carefully attached it. 

I love that the ruler is across the hall from his growing up gallery. It will be fun to see how he grows and changes his looks over the years. I just hope it doesn't pass too quickly!

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DIY Fidget Bracelet with Built in Marble Maze

Please note! This tutorial is for personal use only!

I've started seeing these sold on other sites. If you are seller, feel free to draw inspiration, but please make your own variation. Thank you!

Like many 6-year-olds, our son has a hard time staying still at times. His kindergarten teacher suggested that we look for a fidget for him. A fidget is a small object that keeps little fingers busy while the child pays attention and looks at their teacher (or adult). Fidgets can also be used by kids and adults with ADHD, sensory processing disorders or anxiety. 

D is about to start first grade so I've wanted to see if I could make a fidget for him. We've talked about the  rules for fidgets. 

1. A fidget cannot distract you from paying attention. This means that while your hands may be on the fidget, your eyes need to be on your teacher.

2. A fidget cannot distract others from paying attention. This means that while a fidget may be seen (because our son's class does not use desks), he should not draw attention to it. His teacher may ask him to put it away at any time without complaint.

As I thought about what kind of fidget might work for our son's needs and personality, I knew I wanted something he wouldn't easily lose, didn't make any noise, was soft, and gave his busy brain something to do. My solution: a fidget bracelet with built-in marble maze.

This is a really easy sewing project, and a good way to use up scraps. Plus, it only took about 20 minutes to make. 

You'll need:

• Two pieces of fabric. They can be two of the same or two different fabrics. In this example I used one piece of glow-in-the-dark cotton fabric and one piece of minky.
• Velcro. I love the adhesive velcro but I found that it gummed up my needle when making my first fidget. Since the bracelet is small, I used regular velcro instead. 
• Small bead or marble. Anything small and round will work. My bead is about 1/4" long. 
• Standard sewing supplies. 

First, measure your child's wrist and add 3.5 inches to account for the seam allowance and overlap for the velcro. My six-year-old's wrist is 5", so I cut my two strips of fabric 8.5" long and 2.25" wide. The width is totally arbitrary, but you'll want it wide enough for the marble to have room to navigate. 

Next, place fabric right sides together and sew a 1/4" seam around the edge, leaving about an inch open for turning the fabric right sides out. Be careful with the minky because it will stretch. If you don't have a good walking foot, you'll want to pin your pieces so the minky doesn't slide. 

Clip each corner to avoid bulk when you turn the fidget right side out. Be careful not to cut too close to the seam as this will create a hole in the corner. 

Carefully pull the fabric through the hole so that both right sides are showing. I use a chopstick to make the corners sharp. 

Iron the edges so the fidget lays flat. Then use your ruler and marking pencil to draw lines starting 1" from the left edge and every .75" moving to the right. Be sure to leave an inch on the right side. The lines should only go about 3/4" through the widget, alternating from the top and bottom, to create the simple maze.

Use the marks to sew lines. I suggest starting in the middle and sewing downward, then flipping the fidget around and sewing down on the other side. That way the seams will be reinforced when you sew the fidget closed.

When you clip the threads you'll be able to see the maze. I used a contrasting thread color on this one, but on another fidget, I used a matching thread color. 

Now insert the bead or marble through the hole and slide it away from the edge. 

Sew 1/8" seam around the edge, taking special care to make sure that your seam closes up the open part. 

Finally, cut velcro the width of your fidget. Sew one piece on one side and the other piece on the flip side, opposite side. I highly suggest testing placement before sewing the pieces on!

And you are done!

You can play around with fabric. The one below has minky on one side and flannel on the other. I filled it with rice for a weighted fidget rather that a more tactile maze fidget. 

Here is my son testing out his favorite fidget while my husband read to him. 

Please note! This tutorial is for personal use only!

I've started seeing these sold on other sites. If you are seller, feel free to draw inspiration, but please make your own variation. Thank you!

Update:

I came up with another design. This version has two lines of number beads. They can be moved back and forth, or used to work out math problems. 

Update 2: I've had a lot of requests from my non-sewing friends that I offer these fidgets for sale. So...I'm dipping my toe into the waters of online selling. You can see what I have available on our Facebook page.

Update 3: Our son wants to tell you about fidgets.

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Make Your Own Stretch Strap

After four months of PT and nearly two years of constant pain, I have finally been cleared to exercise again. Well, running is still off the table, but at least I can swim, and walk, and hike, and move around without unbearable pain or the fear of my kneecap popping out of its socket! I am doing a very careful happy dance!

On my second to last day of PT, I was taking a close look at my stretch strap, and realized I could probably make one. The straps don't photograph particularly well, but you can see how they are used with these pictures of people much prettier than me!

Source: OPTP

Source: OPTP

I played around on PowerPoint to sketch out the plan. 

The only thing I needed to buy was the 1" webbing, which I picked up at Joann thanks to a 50% off coupon. I'm pretty short, so I knew I wanted my strap to be slightly shorter than the one I use for PT. I bought 3 yards of webbing. If you are taller, you may want to go with 3.5 yards. 

The first thing I did was fold the webbing so that the two ends met in the center above the middle point, and clip them in place with Clover Wonder Clips. If I had to make a top ten list of sewing supplies, these clips would definitely make the cut. They make binding a quilt so much easier. 

It was a good thing I really examined the strap at PT because I wouldn't have guessed that the loops are not the same size on each side. This is a really the only step that takes a little concentration. I made my loops 6.5" on one side and 6" on the other. So first I measured 6.5" from the middle, where the two ends met, and put a pin in the webbing at the 6.5" mark (or in this case, 6-3/8". I guess I bumped my ruler before taking the photo!).

Then, slide the top part of the webbing over until the pin lined up with the 6" mark. I used a wonder clip to mark the spot. 

Continue making loops until you get to the end of the webbing. Then repeat on the other side. I ended up with eight loops. If you use 4  yards of webbing, you'll end up with more. 

Now the easy part. Simply sew straight lines in the marked sections. I used a double stitch and repeated three times. These seams are secure.

It isn't fancy, but stretch straps are a very inexpensive tool to increase flexibility. Plus, they travel well, which is nice for trips when you may not being moving around as much as your body needs.

On my last day of PT, I compared my strap to the straps at the gym. As I mentioned above, my strap was about a bit smaller. As were my loops. The ones at the gym were probably 7" apart instead of 6". The other thing I noticed is that there was a label over the place where the two ends met. 

Since my meet-up point was a little messy due to me learning that a zig zag stitch didn't work particularly well, I like the idea of covering it up. Plus, it gives me an opportunity to show off a little trick I learned for using up the little pieces of iron on printable fabric.

First, I design a little label, 1" by 2" and printed it.

Now that I knew where on the paper my image would print, I taped my printable fabric to the paper, centering it on the printed image. 

Then print the image again. This time it will print on the fabric. 

You'll definitely want to place a piece of fabric over the label because apparently hot irons and webbing don't play well together, so we'll pretend that my stretch strap still looks this pretty!

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