Little Blue Truck Journal

Last week I had a baby shower for a friend. The theme was Little Blue Truck, because I like a good book theme. While preparing for the baby shower, I realized I have something like mental illness. I came to this realization when I was half way through carving a Little Blue Truck stamp. To stamp the napkins. Because who does that? The ladies at the shower teased that I made the ink myself too, and when I was done made blue hair dye for a friend. And hey, that's not a bad idea. ;) Instead of a 'traditional' gift for the baby, I decided to make a journal. The mom likes to journal and so I made this for her to write for the baby. The front says 'Dear Grayson,' and the back says 'Love, Mom'. 

Dr. Seuss Hat

I made this hat for my son's Dr. Seuss party at school. I used my very limited math skills to determine the circumference of the hat, and I 'eyeballed' the rest. And it fit! I used white felt and sewed red felt stripes to that. The reason the hat stands up is because I did a welt seam up the back and it did the trick. 

The Latest Journal: This One's For You, Rach! :)

Felt Journal Cover

I finished another journal cover this week and this one is my favorite so far. I busted out my sketchbook and came up with the dandelion idea, which I loosely transferred to the felt using a dressmaker's marker. I finished it with the blanket stitch and wove red floss through the edge because I love the way it looks. I really must make myself a journal one of these days. But Rachel, yours is next! :)

Another Journal

Another Owl Cell Phone Case

I made another owl cell phone case for Mom for Christmas. Same deal...wool felt and fabric scraps. One of these days, perhaps I will make one for myself. 

Hypothetical Christmas Presents

Here are a few more needle books I made. I can neither confirm, nor deny that they may find their way under the tree this year. 

Felt Journal Cover

I made this journal as a Christmas gift. I used No Big Dill's book jacket tutorial and combined it with Anna Maria Horner's owl ornament tutorial . I used a running stitch in a swirly pattern to create the background texture. 

Close up: I totally should have straightened up the little flashy things before I took the picture!

And my favorite part! I have a vintage table scarf that has a really neat edging. It was done using a blanket stitch, with a contrasting thread woven through the edge. I used the same idea here, with thicker needlepoint thread to weave through the white edging. 

Felt Owl Cell Phone Case

Several months ago I was trolling Pinterest and saw some adorable owl cell phone cases. The link was for a blog written in Portugese. Woo! I pinned it thinking what all crafters seem to think: 'I could make that myself.' And I actually did. Mine is a bit more simple than the original. I used wool felt so that it will hopefully hold up longer.

Toadstool Needlebook

I recently made this for a friend who had a birthday. I found the tutorial here via Pinterest. I completed the whole thing in the time it took to watch one of those movies that make you feel like you lost 2 hours of your life and possibly a good percentage of your brain cells. I love how it turned out and I just might make one for myself!

Very Hungry Caterpillar Outfits

I recently had a two-for-one baby shower for two of my friends. Due to conflicting schedules, we waited til after the babies were born to have the shower. That meant there were two babies to snuggle! It was hard, but someone had to do it. The theme of the shower was the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. I love his illustrations. At some point, I decided to make outfits to match the theme. Since the shower was for a baby girl and a baby boy, I thought I could use the caterpillar and butterfly as my motifs. The pattern is Simplicity 5374, which I have gotten a TON of mileage out of. The Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric is from fabric.com 

I really tweaked this pattern to make it how I wanted. The original pattern has crisscross overall straps like the overalls, but I didn't like them for the dress. I redrafted the back piece to include the fold-over straps. The butterfly I cut out freehand and kept cutting bits and pieces to add to it. Can you spy the pickle, lollipop and ice cream cone? I used a narrow zigzag stitch around the edges and it should fray softly after it is washed. I covered buttons with tiny scraps of the fabric. It is hard to tell from the picture, but the top edge of the jumper is edged with tiny points of purple rick rack.

The only thing I did differently on the overalls was adding a cuff of caterpillar fabric on the legs. I discovered snap tape, and I wonder where it has been all my life! It is expensive ($10/yard) but worth it. It is basically snaps on twill tape, and all you do is sew in the twill tape. The applique is made of wool felt, which holds up a lot better than el cheapo plastic felt (which also has its uses). I sewed the appliques on with black thread to add a sketchy look, and the feet and caterpillar fuzz are hand embroidered.

Bacon and Egg Fascinator

I'm not even going to say this is the weirdest thing I've ever made. I keep saying that, but really? I have made a spiked dog collar, a librarian sweater for a Smeogal bobble-head doll, an embroidered dog portrait on an apron, and now...this! A bacon and egg fascinator! Here's the back story: recently my niece came to visit me. We made bacon roses, per her request. Then, we found bacon fabric to make her a bag. (Pictures coming soon) Then, my crazy mind decided that she needed this to go with it. She actually talked about giving her prom date a bacon corsage so if she does, this will be fabulous! And if she doesn't, I won't care if she never wears it. It was so fun to make! The egg and bacon are hand stitched from wool felt. I gathered the bacon with large running stitches to make it more...bacon like? And of course, any good fascinator needs feathers! These and the netting are courtesy of Rachel. Now my wheels and turning and I am determined to make myself an awesome (non-breakfast food) fascinator to wear to Jeff's Christmas party...because that is the only place I could ever get away with wearing one.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Felt Play Set

Twice a year one of my favorite blogs, No Big Dill, hosts a series called Once Upon a Thread. She sews projects that are literature-related in some way or another. Last year, there was a guest post where the woman made a set of felt food from the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. I loved the idea and I got the wild idea to make two sets, one for us and one for James' teacher. Guess who's set is sitting unfinished on my sewing table? That's right. Ours! I got a little crazy and decided to make a caterpillar book bag, complete with a zipper mouth so the Hungry Caterpillar could devour his food. It ended up being a lot more work that I had anticipated, mainly because I kept saying 'oh, I could just do this....' For the food, I just sketched the shapes onto scratch paper to make the patterns. The food is hand-stitched with embroidery thread. The bag applique is wool felt, and the bag itself is made of navy blue baby wale corduroy. The bag is lined with a heavy striped cotton, to give it a little body and to make it look nice inside. (yes, that means I had to make an opening for the zipper...a pain!) The cherries in the pie are red pompoms. As I was frantically finishing this the night before my son's last day of school before break, I kept wishing I could keep it. The teacher did seem to really like it though, so that made it a little better. Now maybe I'll get ours done by Easter? Next Christmas?! :)

Gifts Kids Can Make: Pretend Bakery Treats

This year, I am having the kids make Christmas gifts for each other. About once a week, someone gets to stay up 'late' from their nap and do a little stealthy crafting. I will be posting the projects as we do them. 

When I saw Frugal Family Fun blog's posts about sock donuts and sponge cake, I knew that would be perfect for my son to make my daughter. The donuts are made by cutting the toe off a dollar store men's dress sock. I flipped mine inside out so the 'nice side' would be out. Roll up the sock, smoothing as you go. When you roll the heel it will seem like it is too messy, but keep going. The top of the sock covers any lumpiness you may have. Hot glue the top of the sock down, cover with felt frosting and puff paint sprinkles. The sponge cake was made using a multipack of sponges from the dollar store. I couldn't find the ones with the colored scrubbing layer, so we used felt for the frosting instead. My son cut the sponges himself and decorated them using puff paint. We added pompom 'cherries' to the top of a few, just for fun. The total cost of this project was $3, and I think she is going to love it!

DIY Lowly Worm Doll

The Making of Lowly Worm

Ready to conquer the world, or at least Busytown!

My son loves Richard Scarry books, especially Lowly Worm and Huckle. I am going to make him Lowly and Huckle for Christmas. I've got one down, one to go. Lowly is made from felt (note to self: next time use wool felt) and various scrap materials. My husband contributed a length of electrical wiring (something pretty thick...it has three copper wires inside a plastic sheath) to make Lowly pose-able. Of course, letting a two year old run around with electrical wiring is not exactly advisable so I had to make it safe. (Well, the big cheeses somewhere would probably declare him unsafe for anyone under the age of 21, but I don't really care. I declare him kid-friendly!) I used duct tape to cover the ends of the wire and then sewed a little channel into a chunk of repurposed fleece blanket. After putting the cable in there, I rolled the fleece up very tightly and whip-stitched it closed. After scalping some stuffing from my son's dilapidated stick horse (shhh...don't tell him!!!) to stuff Lowly's foot, I carefully slid the fleece thingamajig into the felt body. I added some more stuffing for his head, embroidered his mouth and sewed on vintage buttons for his eyes. His hat is felt and complete with a feather from our very own chickens!