I mentioned that I finally completed this homemade memory game on FB/IG earlier this week.
I started it last summer but never made the time to finish it until this last week during spring break. Lucky for me, Ellis is just now at the phase where she will sit still for long enough to play memory. We have another set, but there is like 50 cards and that makes for a LONG game with a newly three year old, if you know what I mean.
For this game, I made 24 "cards" - twelve matching sets. And time wise, it's just perfect for now. If at some time I need to make it longer, I can.
Disclaimer: I did not intend to make a tutorial out of this, so I didn't take any step by step photos, but the design is pretty simple. The hardest longest part, as I have found with a lot of sewing projects/crafts, is the cutting out of all the pieces. Once they are cut, the sewing part is quick and easy.
Also, as you can see in the photos, we are already missing one card (gah!)...though they are pretty durable for a toddler, keeping up with all of them is not easy. There's no telling where that missing card is at this point. Cool thing though, I could probably sew another one pretty quickly, if we absolutely couldn't play without it. Oh wait! - I was supposed to clean out that fabric stash, right?!!!
What you need:
12 different patterned fabrics - like I said, I used scraps that I could cut a 2 inch square from. New fabric was not necessary for this project!
Mid-Loft quilting batting. Mine actually came from Wal-Mart, and I used left over pieces from making quilts. I used it to give the pieces a bit of a quilted look with a little "fluff."
A solid color of fabric. I used an old white sheet.
I also have a few tools that are my fave to cut fabric/sew with:
Fiskars Self Healing Cutting Mat
Directions:
- Cut patterned fabric into 2 inch squares. You will need two - 2 inch squares from each fabric - equaling 24 pattern squares.
- Cut the solid (white) fabric into 48 - 3 inch squares. You will need 48 of these because you will need two per card.
- Cut batting into 24 - 3 inch squares. One piece of batting per card.
To make one card you layer it face up:
- pattern fabric (top layer)
- 1 square of solid fabric (under pattern)
- 1 square of batting (under solid)
- 1 square of solid fabric (for the bottom)
4. Once you have made your "card sandwich," pin it with a couple sewing pins and repeat until you have 24 "card sandwiches."
5. Using a zig zag stitch, sew directly on top of the patterned fabric all the way around the square to sew all the layers together. Cut excess threads.
6. I then took my pinking shears and cut the excess white fabric off - being sure to NOT cut the zig zag stitching.
And that's it. I started to try to make the edges of the cards a bit more "finished" and "clean" looking by having a clean sewn edge; but then I realized that "done is fun!" and Ellis will not care if the edges fray after a while. The pinking sheared edge will last for as long as we need it for.
Done IS fun (which BTW is worth the read, if you have time!)! We had a lot of fun playing on the rainy days during our spring break.
And now, a ridiculous amount of photos of Ellis "b-tending" to play the game so I could photograph it. These are not necessary to see, but she's my love-love so it's necessary that I post them ;)
By this point she was using the cards to cover up the kitty cat on her quilt. She said the kitty cat needed "cub-ers." Ahhh, toddler-life imagination - I love.
Let me know if you have any questions - or if you make any of these, I'd love to see them :) Shoot me a link!
