Christmas Craft Fever

I have been very busy lately making things for the Christmas Craft shows that are coming up.. The first show I'm doing is tomorrow. Here are some of the things that I am going to be selling

I made a candy cane snuggle pod. I think it would look so cute on a little one for Christmas.

I've been making tons of Crayon Rolls

My new favorite creation is these Tic Tac Toe games for kids....or for adults if they are bored too.

The games are enclosed in a plastic pocket, so everything is contained neatly, and you can take it along where ever you want.

All the pieces are hand stitched felt. The game board itself is felt as well so they stay where you put them. So fun, if I do say so myself. I will be selling the games for $15, so if you are interested in one for a Christmas gift or something just let me know. They are a little time consuming to make with all the hand stitching so the sooner the better :)

I have a good reason for not posting for more than a month now. *wink, wink* I am 17 weeks pregnant. Due the end of April. So that has put a little wrench in my energy and creativity levels. First trimester is out of the way and I'm feeling much better now, so hopefully I will be back to my regular crafty self.

Le Grand Crayon Roll

A friend of mine has a little boy in Parent Pre-school. They had been asked to bring 24 crayons to class to work with. The standard crayon rolls I make have 16 crayons in them, so she asked me if I could make her one that held 24. With a few measurements and altering of the pattern, I made up these cute crayon rolls for her and a couple other ladies in the class.
I really like the material I used on the top one. It's actually material that I bought for my older daughter's layered skirt. Which I have yet to do lol. Add it to the list eh!

I found some fun boy themed material and made up this one for her son. I didn't want to use ribbon for the closure, because i think it's a little too girly, so I used some elastic and a button. I think it turned out really well, don't you?

I will be adding these to my shop and they can be purchased for $15, that includes crayons.

Sew Happy and More!!

One of my cousins asked me to make her some crayon rolls for her nieces. So I pulled out my stuff and whipped these ones up. They are so fun, and have princess crayons too :)

This same cousin also happens to be pregnant, but not for much longer ;) So I made her one of my snuggle pods to swaddle her new little one in. Nothing could be better, they are so soft and totally washable.

I made two of the blue patterned crayon roll so I have an extra one that is for sale if anyone is interested. They are $10 ea. Send me an email if you are interested.

Ruffle Skirt

Yesterday was a holiday and my hubby didn't have to work, yay! Normally we would do something as a family outdoors, however, it was rainy :( So I decided to work on a project that I have been thinking about for a while now. I pulled out my fabric and made a cute ruffle skirt for my 4 year old using this tutorial It worked out quite well allthough I think I will make a few changes to the sizes of material when I make one for my older daughter.

I wanted the under ruffle to show a little more so I think I will make those pieces a little longer.

I added some decorative stitching and some cute ricrac to the ends to give it a little something extra. :)

I hope you like it and if you try this skirt I would love to see your version.

Spring has Sprung

And with spring comes new babies. I have so many friends who are pregnant right now or have just had a beautiful little baby. I made this set as a gift for one of my good friends, who just had an adorable little girl last week.

The butterfly is one of the patterns out of the Amy Butler sewing book I reviewed in this post. It came out ok I thought. I'm pretty sure subsequent butterflies will be a little more polished though. I added bells in each of the wings so it makes some fun noise too. It's fun trying out new patterns, I really enjoyed it. I'm trying to get up the courage to try one of the bags. :)

Pajamas Take Two

I made a set of pajamas for my son for Christmas. It was pretty much the first time working with children's clothes. I'm not sure if you remember the lesson I learned with pattern matching. It was funny to me when it happened. I'm so used to trying to get the most use out of a sheet of paper with as little waste as possible. Well when I was cutting out the material I adopted the same theory. Little did I know that you needed to watch the pattern of the images on the material and keep them going the same way.



I give you Exhibit A - Note how some of the penguins are upside down and others are upright. Hahahaha. I know what you are thinking. I totally should have known better. Ah Well. That's what I have to say. It's not like my son will care one bit, right?

I made another pair for him and this is how they turned out. I will have you note that I did everything right this time. :) The stripes are going the same way. I must be getting the hang of sewing clothing Eh! Isn't he just a little cutie. He points to each ball saying "see ball?" over and over.

Birthday gift for a Princess

My niece had a birthday a little while back, and I made her a crayon roll to go with a coloring book. I've been really trying hard to make handmade gifts for birthday parties this year. I guess that the coloring book isn't handmade, but we will just look the other way on that one, because there is no way any child would want to color in my drawings lol. I found some really cute princess crayons that I thought would be very fitting for a little princess to color with as well.
I saw a crayon roll made by someone else on the web, forgive me I can't remember who :( But she hid the seam lines and I just love the way it looks. So shamelessly I copied, I admit it. Genius whoever she is cuz it makes it look so finished and beautiful.

I love making these, they are so fun, and easy too. Perfect to take with you anywhere to keep little hands busy.

Baby Legs Tutorial

I know there are lots of tutorials out there on the web for these, but I thought I would just add mine to the mix lol. I am one who is all about simplicity, so mine is a little different from the one you find on flickr. So here goes...Find a sock that is for an adult and comes to just below the knee. I got these at AE on clearance for $2.50 nice eh! Cut off the toe portion and the heel like in the picture.

You should then have two pieces that look like this.

Turn the smaller piece wrong sides together to form the cuff.

Insert that piece into the larger tube with right sides together. (see picture)
Pin in a few places around to hold things together properly.

Sew around those edges using an edge finishing stitch.

Pull the sock right side out and you are done. Voila! Easy Peasy, just what I like.

Here's a shot of Ellie wearing them, don't they look cute. My girls wear them when they are playing dress up, but want to keep their legs warm as well. They also wear them under their nightgowns for the same purpose.

I made another pair that I stuck on Vanden, he thought they were great, Dad however, didn't think they were that awesome :)

I however think they accentuate his chubby little thighs quite perfectly. ;)

Long time comin'

I should be packing.....but I deemed it necessary to take a break :) I'm sorry that I've been neglecting to post anything as of late. Life has been way too busy. I promise to be much better after we've moved and settled in to the new house. Here are some of the items that I have completed in the last month or so. This is my nephew, isn't he just adorable. He loves to be snuggled in at night but always ends up kicking his blankets off. My sister asked if I could make him a snuggle pod so that he would stay warm and snuggled in at night. I thought it would be so fun to make one for him as he just turned 1. Seeing him in it made me giggle, i'm used to little babies being snuggled up in them. He thinks it's pretty cool and she says that he now stays snug and warm at night. I had fun playing with the stripes too.

I finally got around to making myself a pair of slippers. I decided to make them a mary-jane style with a strap. They turned out great I think and they keep my feet nice and warm. I may work on some kids sizes too, now to find cute buttons to go on the straps. :)

I've had these cute little buttons stashed away for so long now. I think they fit quite nicely with my new slippers, don't you think?

I had a gift certificate to amazon and I scored some very cool books. I Can't wait to plunge in and make some of the beautiful projects in them. Here's my take on the books, just so you know what to expect if you get them. We'll call it a book review.....lol.

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Bend the Rules Sewing (Amy Karol) - you can find her blog at http://angrychicken.typepad.com
If you are anything like me and you don't always follow all the instructions to the letter then this may be a good book for you. She gives you a brief rundown of sewing instuctions and tips which I thought was great. I learned a thing or two, who am I kidding I learned tons. The projects are fun, whimsical, and not too in depth. The patterns needed for the 30 projects are templates in the back of the book that you photocopy increasing the size of some. Generally though most projects are based on squares or rectangles that can just be measured and cut from the fabric.

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Seams to Me (Anna Maria Horner) - you can find Anna at http://annamariahorner.blogspot.com I love her fabrics and her playful nature. You will see this in her book. She gives you an in depth run through of all things sewing in the beginning. Which I thought was great, since I still consider myself a newborn to sewing. Her projects are fun, eye-catching, and stylish. I can't wait to make the Bo-Peep skirt for my girls, so cute, and the bags, Ohhhhh the bags (It's a fettish of mine, bags, purses and pouches, oh my) I'm just looking for the right fabric to make some of these. 24 patterns are all in an envelope pouch at the back, no copying and up-sizing, which is awesome.

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Amy Butler's Little Stiches for Little ones - You can find her at http://amybutlerdesign.com Who doesn't love Amy Butler's fabrics, I mean come one they are all the rage these days. So calming, beautiful, and elegant. Her book gets right in to the projects with a few tips here and there. The projects are perfect for those expecting a little one or if you have little ones underfoot. It gives you projects for everything you may want to have for your baby, yet stylishly done. She also rates the projects based on skill level. These handmade beauties will be cherished and passed down from generation to generation, i'm sure of it. 20 patterns are in a pocket on the front cover of the book, once again no re-sizing needed here.

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My dear husband surprised me one day and told me that I could finally purchase the camera I've been wanting for so long, pretty much since we got married 7.5 years ago. I now have the Nikon D90 in my possesion. It's awesome, I love it. I kinda felt guilty buying that much camera, but the thing that sealed the deal is that it will shoot HD quality video. The salesman said that they didn't have camcorders in stock that could compare to the quality this thing will do. I was beaming. We've been debating getting a new camcorder for a while now. We have the type that uses tapes, but I wanted to be able to put them on my computer. I still have some reading to do in the manual yet. I just discovered today however that the pictures it takes are of such a high quality it will take blogger forever to upload them :( Anyone have this problem and know how to solve it? I wanted to post a picture of our new house, but can't. I'm sure I can "dumb down" the quality a bit if I know that i'm not going to enlarge the picture or anything. Hmmmm just thinking outloud here. Anyone have any ideas?

Pretty Up your Purse

My old checkbook cover was starting to get some tears at the fold. I had seen some of these on the web and figured they really couldn't be that hard to make. So I measured out my old checkbook cover and figured out how I needed to put it together. This is what I ended up with, cute eh!

Then I decided that I needed to make a matching tissue cover using this tutorial. So easy let me tell you, and how much prettier does this look compared to a regular package of tissues.

Now my purse will look way nicer sporting these pretty little additions.

I also wanted to post a picture of the little boys ensemble that I made for the newborn kits. I love how these turned out.

V-Day is coming

I don't always decorate my house for every little holiday that comes up. Now the reasoning behind this is that first I have little kids and keeping their little fingers off my decorations is a tough thing to do. There is a part of me deep down that has "Martha" screaming to be let out. I had to figure out a way to allow my creativity to come out in a fashion that didn't cause me a lot of stress if little fingers were to get ahold of my creations. So today I have a simple decoration to share with you that won't have you leaping off your chair when your toddler crawls up on the table with that mischievous grin on his face, eyes aglow as he reaches for your centerpiece.

Felt stuffed hearts, not really that spectacular I know.......BUT if I were to make something spectacular, i'm sure I wouldn't want the kids to touch it. These are so easy to make, anyone could do it. I cut out two pieces of felt using a cardboard template. Then using embroidery floss I stitched the edges together, pausing when there is an inch opening left to stitch. Stuff them with some fiberfill and finish stitching it closed. These are cute, and fun and could be used many ways to decorate with. You could string them up together like a banner, hang them from some ribbon in random places in your home, the possibilities are endless. There's still time for you to make some......I would love to see what you come up with and how you choose to decorate with them.

Newborn Baby Kits

I've been working on making some newborn baby kits, that are being sent down to Peru (I think) They are going to be given to the women when they have a baby so they have the basic necessities that they will need for their newborns. My mother in law got the sleepers, socks and soap. I put together the cloth diapers, onesies, diaper pins, and made some of the items. This brings me to what I want to share with you. I made this flannel blanket, burp cloth, and bib. I just used a burp cloth and bib I had to make my pattern. They were really easy to do. I have a boy themed one to make for the second kit, it has little animals on it.

I got to play around with cool stitch functions on my sewing machine and chose this one to topstitch with. It's like a wavy vine with leaves, so cute.

And.....I can't help but share....check out the new flooring in my craft room. My hubby and I put it down on Saturday. Took about 5 hours to do, that includes clearing out the room and putting on the baseboard. I love it. Now I just need to stay perfectly organized so it doesn't get cluttered again. Notice I didn't include the desktop in the picture!!!!! Yea, that's cuz it's covered with stuff. I am on a mission to organize, because I feel way more inspired when things are nice and neat.