This is a quick little post as we all finish getting ready for Christmas. I got my niece an IKEA MALA art set, and, while it is already very cute, I wanted it to be more customized/pretty. In an ideal world, I would have purchased some Totoro iron-on patches (she loves Totoro) to put on the drawing board/carrying case but I ran out of time! Instead, I pulled out the remainder of the Liberty of London jelly roll I used to make my End-of-Summer Napkins, and got to work making my own iron-on patches. I hope you enjoy this IKEA MALA hack. This project was completed in one night while watching old episodes of Murder She Wrote.
The Method
This was a fairly simple project. I attached iron-on adhesive to the wrong side of Liberty fabric, cut out the shapes I wanted, and then ironed it onto the back of the carrying case. That was it!
I started by cutting out individual flowers and rearranging them in opposite corners of case. I ironed them on but thought it could use some Ghibli flare 🙂
Next, I sketched out a basic Totoro and made some templates. I used a more geometric Liberty print to cut out the eyes, nose, and whiskers.
I placed my Totoro hiding among the flowers of the bottom corner, assembled all his details, and then ironed them all down. The finishing touch was to add pupils and a nose wrinkle with a black pen.
Final Thoughts
This IKEA Mala hack turned out pretty cute! I think next time I might focus more on the Totoro and less on the flowers, and do all of the details in the fabric (the pen bled on the fabric ever so slightly and the black wasn’t as saturated as I wanted). I also tried to replace Totoro’s white belly with a flower but don’t think it completely landed. However, he is supposed to blend in so it works just fine.
I don’t know how this will hold up over time but we shall see. In addition to the drawing board I got her safety scissors, lots of colored paper, colored pencils, crayons, and a smock. I hope she’ll get up to many creative adventures with her neighbor Totoro 🙂
