elsie marley

I never did say that I sold one of my diggers, but I did! And on my birthday to boot! My little floral digger was sent off to Jen at scissorspaperglue and I sent the polka dot digger off to New York yesterday morning. I knew I wanted to make the packaging for my toys and after a little brainstorming I came up with this simple drawstring bag. It’s made of muslin and I figured out how to do french seams just so I wouldn’t have to line it (they’re not really hard at all you just have to get over putting wrong sides together, but corners I had trouble with–anyone out there have any advice?). I also get to use my automatic button holer (holer, really? hole maker maybe?) which makes me feel like I know what I’m doing–always a treat. At first I wanted to embroider “my digger,” but found some passable stamps at Joann’s instead. It gives me a place to put the name of my shop as well. And I finally got my felt rocks up in the shop and made a small linen drawstring bag for them too.

The rocks turned out nice, I think, but they are less for the diggers and more for decoration really. I really like the moss covered ones and I may just do a couple set of those. But back to the drawstring bags. For a while now I’ve had the idea to make simple drawstring bags for toys. There are just so many damn toys and our toys are getting smaller and more complicated now–they need to be contained! The bags would be made of linen or a linen/cotton blend or even just muslin, and maybe lined or not lined, and with trains or blocks or dinosaurs or animals on the front either stitched or appliqued. And the reason they aren’t made yet is because I can’t decide on anything. Is linen too precious for a toy bag? Is muslin too cheap? Would embroidery get snagged or does applique look too slapped together? Would you even buy a toy bag? I need some feedback from the mamas (and papas) out there. I have a little craft fair coming up in march (!) and I think this would be something I could make a bunch of and that would go over well (the craft fair is also a children’s clothes and toys consignment sale–it’s called half pint resale and my very talented and energetic friend put it all together!). So leave a comment and help me decide, because I’ve been thinking about these silly little bags for too long now.

The mobile swap is “over,” but I am still working on mine and I know there are other procrastinators out there scrambling to finish. So I thought I’d post a few more lovely ones from the flickr mobile swap group this week. The four above stuck out because of their unique construction. The first is a promotional piece from Hatch Designs that was posted by Dave from grainedit.com. I don’t think it’s actually for the swap, but a bird mobile that pops out of egg carton material is too fantastic to not show you. The next is by Elizabeth from e p i t a. It’s not finished, but what a great idea–like sticking baseball cards in your dirt bikes, but in mobile form. The bottom left picture is from Terry at easebetweennotches.blogspot.com. Her idea was to make a mobile that looked like a bouquet of flowers turned upside down. It turned out great and the cone hides all the messy construction bits but still looks super stylish. Well done! The last is a simple felt garland hung from one end. Elizabeth from ohfransson.com used a pattern from a japanese craft book to make this sweet little mobile (that doubles as a garland). These and all the other fantastic mobiles are on the flickr mobile swap group. Mine will be done soon, I hope. I think it’s probably in bad taste for the swap organizer to be late for the swap, but it’s my party. I’ve had the pattern done for a week now, but keep changing my mind when it comes to what material to use. It’s time to just fish or cut bait.

I have been absent from this little blog for a bit. We’ve had guests and will have many more in the coming weeks, so you’ll only hear from me on and off for a while. If you actually know me, well, just call instead of stalking me on the internet, silly.

There hasn’t been much time for making, but I did manage to try my hand at wet felting. I bought a big bag of lovely colored roving at a garage sale this summer and have been meaning to try it ever since. I thought it would be nice to sell a little bag of felted rocks along side my diggers. Wet felting is ridiculously easy, but wet felting on details was not so easy. A good friend told me that white wool doesn’t felt as easily (because of the bleach?) which is probably why I was swearing up a storm trying to put the tiny stripes on the rocks. But I haven’t given up. I really like the rocks especially in bright colors and I think I’m going to try to embroider some rock like details on them. Maybe even some moss!

this was a lot harder than it looks.  And even though it only needs a few buttons (wheels, headlights, tail lights) I can’t bring myself to finish it.  I thought I’d move on from diggers and try my hand at dump trucks.  The body of the truck wasn’t so bad–a lot of confusing parts, but it worked out okay.  But the actually dumping part (I have to learn me some technical terms if I’m going to keep making these things) was pretty damn frustrating.  I used timtex (well something like timtex but fusable–it was all they had–and I just fused both sides to cotton batting) and holy crap is that stuff hard to deal with.  Granted I probably shouldn’t be using it on something so small, but I couldn’t figure out how to make all the sides of the dumper sturdy.  It comes together just like a bag with a lining would, except if your bag has an extra thick layer of stiff as hell interfacing then it turns out that the inside is smaller than the outside and the lining you made has to be remade smaller (but whoops not that small, make it again).  Turning that sucker out was such a pain that I had to take a break half way through.  But now that I’m looking at it a day later (and complaining all over the place about it) I’m starting to like it again.  So really I have to rethink the pattern–any suggestions?  But I am happy about on thing: it dumps.

There is only a week left to make your mobile–if you are in the mobile swap, that is! I’ve been meaning to put up some of my favorites from the mobile swap group and now it’s almost over.  The group is filling up fast, so go check it out. They are all amazing, but these are just a few that caught my eye.  The first one is by Julie from letter9.wordpress.com and I even though there are a lot of bird mobiles being made (and just a lot of bird motifs in the crafty underground in general) I think these are lovely.  They float right above their branches, which is just perfect.  The next one is by Sarah from 4 in the south + pets.  She used metal, felt, and a coat hanger to make a beautiful mobile with a great shape.  The third mobile (bottom left) is by Melinda from mypurplecrayon.  The wood is oak veneer (bought at the lumber supply shop!) and the balls are made of felt. I think it looks a little like an underwater scene and it’s stunning.  The last mobile is unfortunately not for the swap, but beautiful nonetheless.  Mithi from planetmithi.blogspot.com made it for the mailmeart exhibition (hence the airmail envelopes).  All the birds have stories behind them and the amazing packaging she made is part of the piece as well. Click here for the whole story.

My mobile is, umm, still in the planning process.  The plan was to work on it today, but my daughter woke up with a fever, so no school today.  After some tylenol she is as good as new and now it’s a plain old day here:  trying not to go crazy stuck inside (it’s 5 below zero here today and god only know what the wind chill is) with two babies.  I’m off to go build bunny’s house.

I’ve been thinking about this project for a while. All my hand sewing supplies are jammed into a crappy bag my husband got at some conference and it’s gotten so bad that I can’t even bear to look at it much less sort it out. I wanted something where everything I needed would be there when I had a minute to sew (and most of the time it is literally a minute). I just wanted to open it up and sew. Immediately a book came to mind and then I thought of these reader’s digest books. We have a couple (back to basics is my favorite) and you can get them at any thrift store. And low and behold next time I went there was this DIY one waiting for me. I was a little nervous at first because it looked like there might be a ridiculous amount of measuring involved, but there really wasn’t and it came together pretty quickly.

On the left there is one removable embroidery floss card, with spots for 4 more (it was getting late) and a big wonky pocket underneath.  In the middle there is a little ribbon to tie a small scissors.  On the right there are some pockets for pencils and a big scissors or glasses, a pincushion, and under the pincushion is a needle book. I think I may make a few more of these just so I can get it right and maybe even to sell (if you think there are people who would buy them).   I think the big pocket should be two pockets that snap close and the needle book needs a snap or some kind of closure too. I have to totally redo the embroidery floss cards because they were a pain the the butt, but I like that they are removable.  Is there something you would add?  It is too matchy matchy? Should I use different fabrics for everything?  I need some feedback over here.

This is a half assed craft.  But I’m not a knitter or crocheter, but I have seen a few pot cozies around the internets and I wanted some myself.  So I cut off the sleeve of a felted sweater and voila!  A little blanket stitch action on the top of one and damn if it doesn’t make those crappy plastic pots looks good.

that’s all I got. have a good day everyone!

I am very excited to announce that my shop is up and running!  The little diggers have been in bits and pieces all week, but I finally sat down with all the parts today.  And as my daughter built tower after tower after tower with her blocks, I sewed button joint after button joint right next to her.  Setting up an etsy shop was a little intimidating at first, not because of the site itself–it’s fantastic–but because I had to sit down and describe myself and what I make.  And make people want to buy it.  I have no idea how to do this, so I went with boring ol’ descriptions of the first three then when I got to the pink digger I laid it on thick.  I was only going to make three to start with anyway, but then I saw this little bit of hot! pink! vintage! linen in my scrap bag I cut into it without thinking twice.  Because how fantastic would it be if a cute indie rock boy out there gave his cute indie rock girlfriend my pink digger for valentine’s day.   I guess that’s an odd daydream to have, but I think that’s what mothers of small children do: daydream.  Most of what we say could be recorded and just played back over and over again all day, “Stop. stop. sit down. sit down. don’t play with your food. don’t rub your toast on your head. don’t put playdough in your brother’s ears.” I always wondered why I had to say, “MOM!” so many times before she heard me.  Now I don’t hear my daughter until the third or fourth mom.  So (to get out of this tangent) I’ve been day dreaming about this little shop all week and now here it is!  yay.