New Puppets in the Works

Well, my first month of puppets for adoption was quite a success in my eyes! A dozen may not seem very impressive, but for a first time shop, I'm gonna say it is. Especially since it was December which is typically my most chaotic month of the year mentally AND I watch a baby 5 days a week for 40+ hours ON TOP OF raising two of my own. All-in-all...a success!
Now that the New Year has been around for 15 days, I started some new puppet color combinations. Above we have blue fur with red head/arms and striped lining as wells as white fur with blue fur head BUT...satin arms! I'm gonna make her (yes a her) a little fancy cuz she's wearing satin gloves to match her fur. I think I'm gonna give her a pearl necklace to go with her Hawaiian print lining fab.
This orange fur with yellow head/arms turned into this fellow below...His name is Jukali short for jua kali or fierce sun.

In the next day or two I should have these socks turned into new sock puppets. They need felt in their mouth, eyes and hair. Then they will each need to go through their own personal photo shoot and interview before being listed in the Etsy shop for sale. And when I say interview, I only ask them what their name is.

I also created a new listing for custom Chura Puppets. My production is not exactly up to speed, you know, with two kids, babysitting a baby and maintaining a house, I'm not exactly sure what my "speed" should be. I'm still learning that part of this new business. Should my goal be six new Chura Puppets a week? Is that pushing it? Or should I aim for just one or two? Today I listed two making my average one a week for the year. (haha...there's only been two weeks in this year so far.) I don't see that as good. We shall see....

Next up...my creative story process and how I came up with "the other end of the rainbow."

What's happenin' 'round here!

Well, now that the summer is long gone and we're no longer focused on fixing up our camp trailer or camping or enjoying the warm outdoors, my focus has shifted to being creative once again. I never quite lost the "puppet itch" from creating all those upcycled fairy sock puppets back in June. This fall I spent quite a bit of time researching puppets, hand puppets, sock puppets and the likes until the opportunity arose when I could actually create one for myself. That little creative session finally came one weekend in November at my moms house and I just whipped out a cute little fellow...who still has no left arm and no name. Poor guy! But all his newly created friends are listed in the Etsy shop. Take a gander...see what I've been up to...see what finally has got me crafting again.

Marmor, Tulia and Nondo, two of which are available in my Etsy shop. And to let you in on a little info...I have red, blue and orange fur on it's way to me, so keep your eyes out for some new friends coming soon!

New Skirt Love

About a year ago I posted about some ModCloth skirts that I wanted to attempt to create for myself. (Still have yet to create those, but I did just find that fabric again today actually!) Well, this year I stumbled across another site in a skirt search for myself to possibly make and wear to Farm Chicks. I found both on Zappos.com, never been to that site before...

This first one would have worked for Farm Chicks, had I tried to make it, maybe with a denim waist band instead. This second one is a Lily Pulitzer skirt and just looked like a fun one to make for a fun summer day... ...AND it reminded me of a recent Grosgrain tutorial, so I thought, HEY! I could do that! I did find one on Modcloth today too, though, and I already have the fabric for it. I just need that satin looking bias trim, if that's what it is.

Thought I'd share some of that with you. Enjoy!

I'm kinda here...

I've finally found some motivation and may be back to crafting again. This past fall/winter proved to be a pretty challenging one for the first time in my life. I'm not one who is prone to seasonal depression, I honestly do not know much about it. I just know that the sun is such a huge motivating factor to my day. This winter was pretty dreary and overcast. Plus add the fact that I experienced a huge loss in February, the passing of my father. It just added to my lack of want to do anything.

With the coming of spring, our days have been sunnier and bright. This past week, almost every day was in the 70's! SO NICE! I have started crafting again and have a few things to share...

Back in February I participated in Yarni Gras ornament swap, a gnome home. I had a marvelous idea that proved to be time consuming and required patience with the final installation. This little gnome is sleeping in a "captured" home with a couple toadstoals and at the end of a rainbow. I pray that it makes it in one piece!

The rest of the package included a Welcome Gnome plaque, a dove bar, two magnets of layered vintage buttons (I first had this idea last June from a vendor at Farm Chicks, it onlly took me 11 months to finally create them!) and one of my owls from Moonstitches online tutowlrial. I hope Kerry enjoys it all and doesn't see this post before they arrive!

I also sewed a few blocks for the Block Lotto this month...they proved to be quite a challenge since I did not have an opportunity to trim them to size, they had to be perfectly sewn to achieve size. It was a good lesson for me and they were fun to create!

I also sewed a dress for a parade. Our MOPS group participated in the Jr. Lilac Day Parade and we dressed up in the 1950's era. It was a Simplicity Project Runway pattern....if I get to it....I will post it soon.

Have a great weekend!

New blocks

A few new blocks for Block Lotto . Requirements were a purple and white 8" center sampler block on point with at least three fabrics of our choice in each corner to make it 12.5" square total. I LOVE how the snails trail one turned out.

Did I tell you about these?

A few weekends ago I helped my parents with their yardsale. I found these...
An old pair of my dad's work pants. Pretty worn out and faded. I also had to go to my cousin's 12th birthday. I didn't have a gift so I thought I'll make her something. VOILA!! I had an instant Project Runway inspiration!! (I am HOOKED on Project Runway right now. I'm going through the past seasons via Netflix while watching the current one) I went shopping at Mood, which was really my moms room full of fabric (blogged here), and gave myself two hours to re-create these jeans into a skirt for my cousin. Well...it took 2-1/2 hours to create this...
...I couldn't get them small enough to fit my cousin, so I kept them and gave her scrapbooking stuff instead.
AND...the best part about this post is that I entered them into BurdaStyle's Project Runway Remake Challenge presented by Rowenta. You can go HERE to view my project page and you can go HERE to enter your own re-purposed garment, but hurray, it ends in two days!

Liberated House Quilt Blocks

This months submissions for Block Lotto. The block was 8.5" liberated house in which I HAD to put something in the door or window. :)

Chicken Coop

Lion's Den

Another Frock by Friday FAIL!!

So, you'd think that by now I would have learned to measure the patterns and test fitted them to myself to make sure I'm cutting out the right size. WRONG!! My first frock, the coffee date dress (this link is to Grosgrain's tutorial), fit perfect!

My second frock, the shirt waist dress, was WAY to big, but now fits perfect, I just still need to fix the sleeve caps.
My third frock shown above, the Tara dress (which was purchased on BurdaStyle here), is too small! I LOVE this fabric...because of it I didn't have to hem the bottom AND it was a clearance fabric for about $2 a yard. I bought 2 yards....I barely have enough to fix my error once, then after that, no more! Oh, and can you also spot what I sewed on wrong?? It's not hanging wrong, it's hanging the way I sewed it on. DOH!

I just bought some more clearance fabric...I hope to sew Grosgrain's Anda Frock by Friday next week. We'll see if that happens since toddler is now FOUR!! and starts PRESCHOOL!!! Oh where have the years gone!

WANT!!

Marfy pattern F-1961. I've been getting back issues of Tauntan's Threads magazine at the library to read sewing articles, techniques and stuff. My favorite part of the magazine is there pattern reviews. I don't' remember which issue it was, but they review this Marfy coat pattern. LOVE IT!! The thing that always gets me is when they show an actual pic of what the staff or pattern tester created. That's what sold me!! Someday soon....I'll have enough mad skills to create this for myself. :)

Second Frock by Friday.....FAIL!!

Looks decent for being a FAIL doesn't it? There are several reasons it's a fail, though it is fixable. After having a friend over for lunch (who's way more fashion savvy than I am) we came up with some good ideas. (Don't look at my hair, I just combed it out and it was still drying.)
First off, I'm wearing the belt too low, it needs to be higher up on my natural waist, but that's not why it's a fail. And after posting all about it here, I changed the skirt back to the original pattern with the elastic in the hem instead of widening it, the A-line skirt does not look good with the top part. The entire pattern would need to be altered to get it to look good as an A-line skirt. That FAIL part was fixed. After finishing the sleeve caps for a second time, the armhole is still too gaping for me to wear it comfortably. FAIL!!
This pic shows the gaping armhole the first time I finished it. It also shows how the sleeve cap did not line up with my shoulder, so I had to cut the top pieces to a smaller size. The third time around...not sure when that will be....I'm just going to remove the sleeve cap altogether and line the whole sleeve opening with single fold bias tape made from the polkadot fabric. Wish me luck!
This pic shows how large the largest size is on me. I mis-measured the whole thing. I'm not sure what size the finished dress ended up being. Below is the pic I took to compare the largest size to a more fitted size (possibly the smallest). The first FAILURE I did was to mis-cut the button placket way back in the beginning of June because I didn't read the placket tutorial's instructions closely and was off by just a 1/4"!!! AND I READ THEM NUMEROUS TIMES AS I WAS CONSTRUCTING IT!!! I was so mad at myself for that mistake. It's a very well written tutorial by Rachel Writes and it was very clear on how to create the placket. Just be warned that it's a placket which shows the accent fabric on the front of the dress, it does not hide it inside as the one on Grosgrain's does. I ended up patching the bottom of the placket with the polka dot fabric matching up the pattern so that it blends right in.
See my lazy cat on the bed?? And the boys wrestling?? Well, I'm off to sew a friends dress for her cousin's wedding. I've got to redo the back pieces since they were an inch too small. If I'm on top of it, I may blog about it soon too!! Happy sewing!

Long time no see...

Life has been a whirlwind in my neck of the woods. Even before my absence from blogland. Weekend after weekend of busy-ness, and not just two day weekends. Oh no...some as long as five days. But that's how summers are right?? I think we're making up for last summer of absolutely no traveling because I was pregnant. Well....here's what I've been up to...the 4th of July the boys were baptized. After a meeting with our pastor on how the ceremony will proceed and how to dress them, we decided on robing them after being baptized. A few days later I described over the phone what I designed after a little research and the pastor approved. SO...I set to work on my first ever muslin pattern....Here's toddler modeling his muslin while not being distracted from his movie. Believe it or not, this stripe fabric was cheaper than muslin. I had hit a 50% off red tag sale at JoAnn's. I was pretty stoked to work on my first muslin pattern to create a final product. After three days of stressing over both my toddlers and 10-mo-old muslin patterns, I finally got it figured out and got to work with the white linen. Here's the un-ironed finished product....
It's designed after the Alb. Why you ask?? I really don't know since that's the robe style of a pastor. (I do tend to create things on the costumey side...I'm not sure if this was truly okay or not though). They both turned out AWESOME and my craftsmanship on them are SUPERB!! (not to brag any) I used single fold bias tape on every seam and velcro to close on the top at the left shoulder. The finished pattern ended up being SO SIMPLE! Looking back I don't know why it took me three days to figure that out. Oh wait...because it was my first time and I've never pattern drafted before! haha!

Well, that's not all I've been up to...more to come this week...

Vacations over... :(

Last night I returned home after being away for six days. It was lovely. With my husband out of town, I went to my hometown and visited with family and stayed with my parents. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped. I took my Frock by Friday dress, only got the pleats sewn back together, I completed my toddlers pirate coat (the pic above, it's a Simplicity kids costume pattern, he picked out the fabric for the pirate pants, yeah, not my first choice but you can't tell a toddler no to dino fabric), I took my husbands knitted beanie cap, the Mr. Tom's Beanie by Woolly Wormhead, it's still on the needles after what??...5 months??...(did not even pull it out), I took my fairies I designed back in February, I started four more (did not even touch), I took three books to read (I maybe read one chapter in A Reliable Wife and two chapters in a pattern drafting book from the library) and I took a couple of pilates DVDs (and I didn't even complete one 30 minute workout). Where did the time go? I don't know...but it flew by...The time has been flying by too much these days...We need to slow down...ALL of us...even you dear reader...we need to just find that road with the wheat fields on both sides with the clear blue sky and slight breeze in the air, spread out our red and white check table cloth and have a nice relaxing pic-nic in the middle of no-where.Okay....back to reality....Here's what I did accomplish other than the pirate coat...geocaching with my dad (that excursion resulted in the above pic, fun eh?....there's something relaxing about driving through the middle of nowhere, especially when that nowhere results in a view of wheat fields growing right up next to the narrow country road.), a Mary Kay party at my grandma's house, grilling burgers and visiting with family at my aunts house, brunch with my other grandma, wine tasting in Prosser (we chose Gamache Vintners), found a new quilt store and bought even MORE fabric (it's Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear pictures, see below), digging/sifting in my moms stash of garnet gravel for Idaho Star Garnets and I finally saw Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, that was interesting.The nicest thing about coming home last night was the part where I first walked into the house and the air smelled cool, crisp and with a hint of my peach scented candles from Pier 1. SO NICE!!! No stinky cat litter smell, no drooling, wet dog smell, no dirty dishes in the sink smell, no dirty diaper smell, no toddler food left on the table smell, not even stale closed up house smell....just cool, crisp, peachy air. Aaahhhh.....to come home to that every day would just be peachy!

Frock Update

Well, I didn't quite get my frock made by last Friday. I don't think I even had it cut out yet. I had a lot of contemplating to do between the two yards of circle fabric and the four yards of floral fabric which would need to be lined. Lets keep it simple......no lining for me!!The yoke piece was my reason for contemplation...I had to cut the yoke into two just so that I could go forth with my two yards of the circle fabric. Here's how it laid out...

Instead of folding the selvages towards the center, I folded the cut ends towards the center plus overlapped them a few inches to get the complete angle out of the skirt that I made fuller, which was a large part of my problem. I managed to squeeze all the necessary pieces out of just two yards. I had to piece together the belt band, but I got it. I also only had 1/2 yard of the teal and had to squeeze all the pieces out of it, plus piece together the belt band again AND piece together single fold bias tape, but it all worked out. It's amazing what you can make to wear out of just two yards of fabric!!
You can see my scrap piles on the bottom, the left one of small pieces and the right one of trash. The left pile is even smaller now since I made the bias tape.
Here's what I got done last night. I would have been finished through Thursday's instructions, but I didn't sew the two side seams together and the buttons and button holes are not done. After putting it on the dress form, I thought it looked frumpy. After all that contemplating of choosing which fabric to use, then barely squeezing all the darn pattern pieces out of just two yards, I cut it a few sizes too big!! Yay for owning an adjustable dress form!! Tomorrow I might pin it all to fit properly and really see how many sizes too big it is. Oh, and I totally screwed up on the placket, but that's going to be a whole other post.

Happy June 1st!

HELP!

I've fallen of the Destash-Along 2010 bandwagon!! I need help back on!! AAHHH!!!
So....to explain why....here's a pic of my alternate dress fabric for the Frock by Friday going on NOW over at Grosgrain's blog. I LOVE this fabric! I made a nursing cover out of it (which I ended up giving away) and found it again this past weekend on my trip to the Seattle area. I bought 4 yards of the floral, 3 yards of a creamy solid to line it, and the 1/2 yard of the polka dot to contrast (which is really a chocolaty brown, not black). It was a large purchase....it was an unnecessary purchase....but I LOVE IT!! I also bought a couple yards each of the fabrics below...

yeah.......they were on clearance at another quilt store. I liked them and thought they were a good price. I was thinking I could use them as a skirt like these two Mod Cloth ones...

(Skirt pics via ModCloth)

I don't know...I'm open to suggestions. But yeah...I've fallen of the Destash-Along bandwagon. Having done that has given me the idea to go through my fabric stash and take photos of the pieces that are good for apparel. Those are soon to come....it may take a few weeks, but it's on my to-do list. :)

I Spy Friday...and a tutorial!

I spy with my little eye...Mount Adams in the distance...can you see it? Baaarreeelly?? Right in the middle where the hills meet the sky...a pale white bump. Well, I do.
As promised, here's my super quick and easy baby blankets that I make for many new moms now, they've become my staple shower gift, along with nursing cover. They were made for me for my first born and they ended up being my FAVORITE blanket out of all the ones I received. Maybe it's because they were made just for me, maybe it's because they are the perfect size for almost everything you do with a newborn to toddler...I don't know.
What you'll need:
1 yard cotton fabric (like quilting cotton)
1 yard cotton flannel fabric
thread (matching or contrasting)
scissors
sewing machine

What you'll do:
1. Because it's a baby blanket, I prewash all fabrics. Just regular machine wash and dry. If they're too wrinkly, use an iron on cotton setting.
2. Place fabrics right side together, if desired, pin together. Sew 1/4" to 1/2" around edge, because of the prewash and shrinkage, they might not line up perfectly, especially along the long edge, the quilt cottons tend to be 2" longer than the flannels. Leave about an 8" opening on one side, but not at a corner.
3. Cut edges down and clip corners. Turn right side out.
4. Iron. I like to iron the edges flat, it makes the next step easier.
5. Sew a straight stitch either an 1/8" or 1/4" in all the way around the edge. This is both decorative and stitches the opening shut. Sometimes I'll also do a narrow zigzag at just the opening.
6. Pick a decorative stitch and practice size and width on a scrap piece of fabric. My sewing machine has a "stretch" setting that does a few stitches that appear more decorative on non-stretch fabrics. You can see the vine/feather looking stitch just below the monkeys head in the pic above. Once settings are established, sew all the way around about 4-5" in from the edge.
7. Sometimes I do a second round of straight stitch either just above or just below the decorative stitch, depends on my mood and really how much thread I have left. I also will change the top thread color and the bobbin color to match each side. You can match the fabric closely or pick a contrasting color to stand out, that's the great thing about this blanket, you don't have to match thread colors.
8. Fold, gift wrap, throw in a pair of baby shoes made from StardustShoes tutorial with matching fabric, give them all away, and enjoy watching someone receive the perfect sized baby blanket and baby shoes made with love!!

Post 100...

Well, you'd think being my 100th post I'd have something fancy to say or to reminisce about or possibly a giveaway...perhaps if I had thought of that ahead of time...but I didn't. Now that I think about it, a few statistics...this is my 100th post, I've blogged for one year, six months and twenty-eight days, and I've managed to post only one pic of me and my son and another 1/2 pic of me, the rest have been crafty related pics. Interesting, eh? Okay, so having said all that, all I have for you today are a few crafty updates.First up...my latest purchase of fabric for my next Frock by Friday sew-along hosted by Kathleen at Grosgrain. (I know, I know...I joined the Destash-Along 2010...this purchase is a step back in my destash-recovery process...hahaha...I make it sound like I'm a recovering alcoholic or something...fabric is an addiction though...so I am working on THAT bit). We were going to start this past Monday, but now we're starting this coming Monday which works out perfect for me. And on a side note, I played with my camera settings and this pic was the most accurate for portraying the lime green and teal colors and yet they are STILL not accurate. The teal is a richer, darker teal and the lime green is...well, better that what's on screen. Anyways...Next up...a few baby blankets for a friends shower this weekend. And yes...the fabric combos are confused...she's not finding out what the baby will be, so I made them both with a boyish and girlish fabric so that no matter what she has, she can still use both. Here's a close up of one...hmmm...idea popped into my head. Want to know how I made them? I'll blog that tomorrow with the I spy Friday. See ya then!

Splurging...

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!! I don't recall the true reason behind the day, but it's been one that has been celebrated all around me since I was born...due to where I grew up. I grew up in an area that has a very large hispanic population. Now that I think about it, I find it funny that a few of my favorite drinks are actually margaritas and mojitos!! haha!

I FINALLY decided on an Amy Butler sewing pattern...it was a toss up between this one and her Sophia carry-all. I finally decided that I didn't want to deal with any piping around the edge, so I went with this:It even comes with a diaper changing pad pattern! Woohoo! Now...do I have enough of anything in my stash to make it?? The outside takes over a yard and the lining is over three yards!! YOWZA!! Hmmm...I guess I'll have to save that answer for another day...a day I can dig through my stash.I also bought some REALLY COOL laminated fabric to make more diaper covers!!! Yeeheee!!! However, it's already after sunset so I don't have good picture light....again, maybe another day.

Destash Along #9

(I've joined the Destash-Along 2010 over at Crafting With Cat Hair)

Baby shoes made from Stardustshoes free baby shoe pattern and tutorial. They were pretty easy to make, I just don't recommend a thick interfacing like I used. It made them stiff. Next attempt will be with a lighter weight iron-on interfacing. I think these will be my new baby shower gift. :) These two pairs are already for two special babies! I would say they fit between 6-12 months. My baby is now 8 months and they are a little big still. I used suede for the soles too, it's pretty soft. Suprisingly I didn't have 1/8" elastic, so they are only 95% destash stuff. But now that I have elastic, I'll be making many more pairs for many more babies I know.

Wednesday's Frock Update

Yesterday's A Frock by Friday progress was a piece of cake, today's was a pain in the rear!! I overlooked the part where you sew the ruffle on in steps, for some reason I thought we were just pinning it and gonna sew it today. Well, today I sewed the ruffle on, then misunderstood how to do the top part of the ruffle. The first photo shows my error, it looked pretty baaaaadd. The second shows my correction. The first pic is also really yellow...my bird swing tutorial pics were yellow too, but then I didn't wait for daylight and my table is yellowish wood. My photography skills sometime frustrate me. >:| And now that I'm looking at the pics compared to Grosgrains pics...I did the top part of the ruffle WRONG AGAIN!!! I just noticed that my ruffle finished on the left and her's finished on the right, so I took an even closer look...I totally skipped a swoop in the ruffle and took it to the top!!! AAAHHH!! Do I rip it all out or do I leave it?? WHY do I miss these things?? WHY???

Really wrong attached top ruffle.

Kinda wrong attached ruffle (in the seam).

I also did a zig-zag stitch along the skirt seams and trimmed close to it. I like a cleaner seam. I can't wait for tomorrow's tutorials!! I'd like to have this done before Friday for my husband's fire academy graduation ceremony...at my rate, with my errors and overlooks...I may not make it....plus the weather has been windy and rainy and not even in the 60's...it may just be too cold to wear it. :(