Halloween!

I finished my daughter's Halloween costume two weeks early!

She wanted to be a cowgirl, but I discouraged her because that would not be very DIY and I didn't want to buy her cowboy boots she would never wear again. Boots like that are not easily found up here in the upper midwest..

So here she is as an ice cream cone:

The pattern was in the Halloween 2010 Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications magazine. LINK. The pattern was provided in the print version, and I guess they were the correct shapes, but you have to enlarge them at a copier to use them. The instructions were AWFUL. I mean really really awful. I did one basic version based on their recommended pattern enlargements and it would maybe fit a 3 year old child. I fiddled with it and just made really large pieces and got it to fit my 10-year old.

Other BHG publications are really good with instructions. I especially like the seasonal Quilts and More, but this was really bad. Basically it says, "Sew up the parts, attach the cherry to a headband... " and that is pretty much it. I am sort of experienced with these things, so as you can see, I figured it out. She loves it and it may be one of my most favorite of all the Halloween costumes I've made.

Here her cherry is a bit askew:

Felt is really inexpensive and easy to work with. I had polyfil, sweatshirt, and pom poms already, so the cost of this costume was about $12. Happy Halloween!

Felt Pinwheels

I saw this adorable pinwheel brooch project by Betz White last month in several crafty places on the internet. If you browse crafty blogland, I imagine you saw it too. I had to make them especially since I have that cherry fabric in my collection.

This is the one that my daughter made:

She's a bit crafted out since she got a nice variety of craft kits for her birthday recently, so I let her be the designer and I would simply be the craftsman for the rest of our lot.

This one is my favorite. I love that dotted fabric:

They all have safety pin backs. We each wore one to our holiday picnic, but the rest we attached to little sticks and stuck them in the flower pots as decorations.

We had a relaxing 4th of July holiday! Hope you are enjoying the season!

Still making things, but slowly

I like winter, but I do get kinda lazy during these darkest days. It is clear that I have been neglecting my blog. My son, husband and I have been retreating into our XBox. We do play together and talk about all the gaming strategies and game plots, so it is sort of a family "activity" for us. I did make some cute things for Christmas, but I never photographed them! They were a cute apron and two sets of very cool potholders for my Mom. I'll try to get a photo sometime later when I'm at her house..

Yesterday my kids were home for MLK Day and fighting over control of the television. (They are deeply divided over the watchability of Supernanny.) I decided we had to turn off all media and do something else. My son is not crafty so he found other stuff to do, but daughter and I decided to do the Craft of the Day that came as an email from Martha Stewart. It's called a Heart Felt Bag and it was easy to make, although it is more decorative than anything because that cute little handle isn't very sturdy.



See? Cute! We need to reglue with hot glue because the hearts are slipping off. The handle and top of bag also form these cute hearts:



In other news, I am super excited to finally get to attend the Craft and Hobby Association trade show in Anaheim, California! CHA is a big deal in the crafting industry. I'm going as a reporter with my friends from Craft Critique. Prior to the show, on Friday and Saturday, January 22-23 is a big Craft Supershow for anyone and everyone who is crafty. Read about what Craft Critique is planning for the Supershow HERE. We even have a discount coupon if you are planning to attend!

Come and find me at the Supershow! We are in booth 1101. If you can't attend, be sure to follow Craft Critique for the latest news about products and trends in crafting. I will make it my mission to find the cool fabric and fiber craft products!

Gift Mascots

It was my birthday over the weekend. My daughter found a project in my felt mascot books and made this for me:

Cute! I love her running stitch in a contrasting thread! I'm wearing it on my jacket for fall. My mascot books are all in Japanese, but we aren't intimidated!

A few weeks ago I helped her make this elephant as a gift for a little sister of her close friend:

The little girl reports that she sleeps with her little blue elephant every night.

Here is the creator with her creation:

My husband and son got me some Gingher embroidery scissors and water soluble transfer pens. Husband has learned to go into JoAnns and just ask the ladies for help. He says he is totally unable to navigate the fabric, which I completely understand.

Gingher scissors are expensive, but they do seem like they are touched by a heavenly enchantment to cut fabric beautifully. I also have a nice spring green LeCrueset enamel stock pot! Yay for soup and stew!

Felt S'more Needlebook

These are some needlebooks I made for a beginning Brownie Troop. Their leader contacted me and since it happens that she is from my hometown and these Brownies go to my very own elementary school, I took on the project.



I used that Ecofelt which is made from recycled soda bottles. I also machine stitched the components because it went a lot faster and I had only a few days to finish them.



They each have a chocolate colored monogram. The closed needlebook can also be used as a pincushion.



These were fun to make! I have a couple left that just need to be handstitched together.

Craft Social

Last Friday I went to Craft Social in Chicago. (Actually, it was in Evanston, but nevermind...) There were many crafts to choose from including Embellished Dinner Napkins, Advanced Paper Airplanes, Fabric Coil Bowls, Paper Greeting Cards, and many more. The cost was only $5 and it was really fun!



Since I haven't been stitching, I chose a craft that was familiar to me: Felt and Button Flowers. These are really funky and our teacher had a box of lovely vintage glittery things to use as embellishments.



We noted that the felt was sort of floppy and flimsey, so I stitched together two layers for stability.

I don't like to make a big thing about men crafting because I think that men are just as creative as women, but here is a man spotted next to me learning to stitch. His creation has a superhero medallion look to it.

The stitcher next to me used velvet ribbon as one of her layers. It looked very sophisticated, but I didn't get a picture!

It was fun! I hope they have another Craft Social really soon! I could teach embroidered felt mascots!

Computers and Robots

I don't know what happened, but our desktop computer failed the other day and is completely unsalvageable. Be sure that you have your files backed up somewhere! We did backup. Unfortunately the last time was in 2007, so we have a year's worth of photos and all our music files lost on that faulty motherboard. Alas.. We now have to purchase a new computer when we've been saving up for other important large purchases.

We have this horrible little laptop which is something, I suppose...

In any case, I like to post big colorful pictures, so I went back into my Flickr archive and found this felt robot project I made.


That old camera I used back then was so unreliable! It bugs me that these pics are not quite focused.

I actually made several of these and gave a few out as gifts and shared them in a swap:


The pattern was from THIS book. I was able to assemble some of the parts with the sewing machine, but the details are handstitched.

Wish us luck on our thrifty-but-powerful computer quest. We are not particularly excited about it.

Getting Stitchy Again

A little action at the Etsy shop is very motivating!

I made some custom patches for an Etsy seller, Chat Noir Designs, who will use them on some children's things she knits.



These are smaller than I usually do. The disks are just 1.5 inches. She wanted two sheep, two elephants, and two turtles. It is hard to believe, but these are the very first turtles I've ever stitched. Not because they are so fantastically original or anything, but hasn't everyone crafty made owls and turtles?


Just because they are smaller doesn't really make them easier. You have to be really precise with small shapes like these.



Their wee cuteness brightens my mood so I also made an amigurumi valentine. It's dark here now, so I'll have to photograph it later. I used this pattern by Owlishly HERE.

Finally, back in the fall I had a HUGE order to craft a variety of my pouches for all the moderators at Craftster. Yesterday, my pouches were on the front page of Craftster. See it HERE. Craftster has really updated their look and I love it. It is really easy to see projects people post because there are thumbnails for each photo post. They also have a long overdue blog.

I listed and relisted a bunch of stuff over at Etsy. Our slightly brighter days are good for my photographs!

Felt Hairclips for Craft Show

I've been stitching like crazy for a craft show I'm doing locally on Friday. I have no idea how busy the show will be, but I know we have some talented sellers! I've decided that I can't control whether or not people decide to buy, but I can make a cute pile of stuff, so that is what I've focused on.

Above is a detail of a mushroom hairclip.


I made some cupcake versions:


Gnomes:


I did some little embroidered snowflakes on these:


Here are some elephants:


Little Red Riding Hood:


and some more boy and girl doggies:


I also wanted to do monkeys, flowers, and a little kitty, but I am exhausted and I think this is enough for now. I also have a pile of fabric pouches, a few felted sweater totes with felt applique, and a stack of lovely crochet flower pins including some festive pointsettias.

A few of my hairclip designs are available at my Etsy shop. I also accept some special orders of things I have photographed but not actually gotten around to listing in the shop. Just email me or send me an Etsy convo and I'll see if I can send you that item.

If you are in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, come to our Grayslake Holiday Boutique.We'll have 2 sessions on Friday, December 5: 11-2 and 5-9. I'll be set up at both sessions. Free refreshments! I'm baking a variety of brownies too!

Doggie hair clips

Someone suggested that I should make a doggie version of my hairclips so this is the result. They are pretty cute! I adapted a design from one of my Japanese felt craft books. The felt disc is about 2 inches across and the snap hairclip is sewn inside.



I've stitched up about 50 disc hairclips like this in various colors and styles. The thing that often happens when I show them to people is they say, "Oh you should make these into pins!" Or if I have a pin design, I hear, "This would be a great girl's barrette!"

This is so nice to hear, so I really have to think of a quick way to make these into either thing based on the preference of my customer.

That stack of 50 took me days and days to make, so I doubt I'll be able to get a similar stack of pins done for the craft show I'm doing at the end of next week. In fact I'm getting pretty nervous about that craft show. I've made a nice stack of these clips and I have a good pile of cute embroidered fabric pouches. I plan to crochet up some wool flowers over the weekend too. My offerings are so small! I hope I have a good enough selection of stuff.

I wanted to sew up some luggage tags and maybe some tissue paper holders too, but someone else in the show is a good sewer and I don't want to step on her game.

More Pouches

Giraffe Pouches:


Gnomes and Mushrooms:



Alien Invasion:


Do you need me to tell you to vote today? I didn't think so. Husband and I are all set to cancel each other out at the polls!

Edited to add: There were no lines at our polling place although they were processing a steady stream of people. Husband and I did agree on several local election questions and candidates. It took us less than 5 minutes to vote. I'm going to see if I can get that promised free coffee at Starbucks and the free ice cream at Ben and Jerry's although I'm also informed that this can be considered "buying votes" and may be a violation of federal law...

Pouches!

I haven't been very good lately about sharing my projects. I've been in pouch production for awhile now. I have a show coming up in December and another big custom order that came in so I'm sort of swimming in these things.


American Road Trip. Now that gas prices are down again, we might allstart taking the road trips we put off. This one brings back memories of our stuffed car trips up to Minnesota for the holidays. We don't have to do that anymore, but it was fun in the days before we had the kids!



Here are some holiday and non-holiday treats:


Here are the treats I like to stitch. The cupcake is the easiest to cut out. Gingerbread man is really hard to cut because he needs to be symmetric. Hershey's Kiss cookies are a holiday tradition for us.


Finally, for today, I have these sock monkey pouches. The applique is from some great novelty fabric.


Put fray check on the outside of the fabric cut out to keep it from unraveling.


I've got more, but I'll share them tomorrow. All the pouches are interfaced for fabric stability. They have a velcro closure and measure about 7 inches by 5 1/2 inches. A few are listed in my Etsy Shop, including a Red Riding Hood and a Big Bad Wolf. I plan to list more, but most of the inventory will go into the show.