elsie marley

I suppose I should have posted this yesterday, seeing as 2008 is now over, but I’ve been busy doing absolutely nothing.  This week has been post holiday recovery. I finished everything I had to do by the time we left to go to Grandma’s house for Christmas and then I promptly got the flu Christmas eve, so I could barely enjoy it. Poo. I’ve actually heard of a few other people getting sick on Christmas this year–maybe we’re stressing out a bit much about Christmas these days? maybe next year everyone will get a kiss and a pat on the back. Anyway, things are slowly getting back to normal: the tree is on the way to the curb and the kids have stopped asking about the advent calendar everyday. And though we did whoop it up with hors d’oeuvres and chocolate milk at 5:30pm last night, the new year came in pretty quietly. This is the time of year when I am very happy to have a blog, because I can look back and actually see some of what I accomplished this year. I was never the sort of person who could keep a journal past January or remember what happened last week, much less last year, so it’s nice to be reminded that sometimes I can get shit done and sometimes it’s not half bad. Most, if not all, of this stuff would have never come to be if it wasn’t for you, dear readers. It still seems silly to me that someone I’ve never met can say something nice about my work and it pushes me to make more and better things. Before I started this blog, I thought my creative vein had dried up, but somehow you keep inspiring me to push through those crappy creative dry spells and keep making. Thank you, thank you. I wish you boundless creative energy and piles of amazing vintage fabric (for cheap!) in the new year.

Happy New Year!

this is just to show off the amazing cake plate I got from a friend for christmas. It’s a cup and a plate epoxied together, but it’s so much more than the sum of it’s parts. I’ve always wanted a fancy fancy cake plate.  Those are chocolate caramels on it, made for little christmas gifts. I made the gingerbread version too (which were surprisingly good) and they’ve all gone to our neighbors on this snowy, snowy day.

This is a Martha idea from a few years back. Super simple and it makes the whole room smell like gingerbread. My reindeer are pretty wonky (one somehow became a boy reindeer in the oven and one gained some christmas weight) Martha would not approve. If you make this, the gingerbread dough’s best quality should be sturdiness, not deliciousness.  There was an obscene amount of butter in these, so we will be eating, not decorating, with the rest. Though I’m sure the reindeer will have their feet nibbled off in no time.

Here it is, the string of lights advent calendar tutorial (and pattern!). I made the pdf pattern file all by myself for the first time, so if you have problems with it just email me and I’ll try to fix it. Otherwise, hurry up! because advent is almost over!

materials

green wool felt
multi-color felt scraps
60 yards green yarn
green embroidery thread
lightweight treats (gum balls, dum dums, love notes, tiny ornaments)

pattern

download here

directions

Cut the yarn into six equal pieces (10 yards each or 120 inches each or about 3 meters each). Take three pieces and braid them together. This is more difficult then it sounds, but if you roll up the slack and just work with a little yarn at a time it’s much easier. Braid the other three together the same way. Then twist the two braids together and knot the ends.  It will stay twisted when you sew the lights to it.

Cut out 25 (or 24 or however many lights you want) circles and rectangles. Create the socket by sewing a blanket stitch to the edge of rectangle and the circle attaching them to each other.  If the rectangle is slightly longer than the circumference of the circle clip it to fit and continue sewing the ends of the rectangle together. Sew the sockets onto the cord–one every three inches.

Cut out the light bulb pattern piece. To sew the lights up faster you can fold your colored felt over and simply trace the pattern onto it with a marker (permanent or not it doesn’t matter) then sew the two pieces together staying inside the lines.  To be safe test the first light to see if it fits: sew and turn out, put a treat or two inside, then fit it inside the socket and see if it stays when it’s hanging upside down. If it slips out, just make the lights slightly bigger.  If you’d rather use the lights for decoration and not for treats you can stuff the light bulbs lightly and sew them onto the socket.

I didn’t really finish the ends of the cord (I just tied a knot on both ends).  But it would be sweet to make a little plug out of felt to hide the knot. To do this cut out four extra “socket bottom” circles and two extra rectangles.  Cut a slit in the middle of one of the circles and insert your knot, then attach the rectangle, just like you did for all the sockets, and attach the other circle to the other side–making a  round (European style) plug. You can even make some prongs out of felt to complete the look.

download the pattern here.

It’s giveaway day (thanks to sewmamasew) and I’m giving away this little people bag. It’s a drawstring bag made of muslin with vintage inspired little people appliqued on the front.  Tell a joke, tell me what you ate for breakfast, ramble on and on, whatever, just leave a comment if you’d like to win the bag. There are a ton of blogs giving away all kinds of stuff today, so go forth into the internet and win all your christmas presents.

*edited to add: the drawing will end at 8am central time tomorrow december 4th.

THE CONTEST HAS ENDED, BUT STICK AROUND THERE’S LOTS TO SEE HERE.

Ta da! The advent calendar is done, well pretty much done. It’s a string of chirstmas lights.   One of you guessed correctly! But there were some good ideas out there: an advent abacus, a ferris wheel.  Next year.  There are only twenty lights, but I figure I’ll save some making for next christmas or add them if I have time this month (ha!). There are treats in the bulbs and the lights fit in their little sockets, but they aren’t held in by anything–just the power of felt.  This calendar is for lightweight treats only or bits of paper with sugarless activities on them. I went with candy because my kids are still young enough to think it’s the best thing in the universe.

I’d be happy to write up a quick tutorial (with patterns) if there are a lot of you that would like to make one. It’s not difficult at all.  The hand sewing is a little time consuming, but it’s nothing a few movies won’t fix. If you sewed the bulbs on it would make a nice Christmas decoration for this year (or next).  If you’d like to see more pictures of it you can click here and here.  And there are lots more fantastic calendars here and here.

I have zero thanksgiving decorations, so I came up with this little project. It doesn’t really need any explanation, just push some cloves into some clementines and spell a word.  You could get all fancy with fonts and it might be good to sketch the letters on first. I just did it freehand (and I’m sure you can tell). Clementines have a thinner skin than oranges so it makes pushing the cloves in much easier. This is a great project for kids and a good spelling lesson to boot. My daughter is really into letters right now and  it went over big. I didn’t dry them so they won’t keep, but they still smell pretty. Now we just have to make some hand turkeys and we’re set!

It’s Handmade Holidays all month long at Sew Mama Sew (if you didn’t know already).  They, so kindly, asked me to be on their board and come up with a few ideas for their amazing blog.  After crossing out many bad ideas, I came up with these little plush ornaments. They are simple to make and you can find all the tutorials here: woodland ornament tutorials.  If you make one, be sure to show it off on the Handmade Holidays flickr pool! Only 33 days until Christmas.

My Nana is 105 years old.  There is no way to sum up someone who is 105 years old, even if you have only been in their life for 30.  Nana was already really old when I was growing up, but still took care of me often.  She wasn’t one to complain about being old–it probably wasn’t until last year she even thought of herself as old and because of that attitude she takes no medications, isn’t wheelchair bound, has no arthritis, and just last month moved into assisted living.  But that is only the medical side of things.  She also writes a poem everyday, likes to stay up late, plays a mean hand of gin (she always beat me, but I was 9), believes you can heal yourself by the force of your will power and six vegetable on your dinner plate every night, gave her grandkids iceberg lettuce sprinkled with sugar for dessert, never learned how to drive (from the front seat), climbed trees when she was 80, calls a cell phone a “little phone,” and many other strange and wonderful things.  In the 1920’s she worked for the Real Silk hosiery company selling stockings (and other unmentionables I’m sure).  She worked her way up in the company until she was the secretary to the bossman, then, I think because of an ultimatum from my grandfather, came back to the midwest and got married.  This hosiery mending kit was a little treasure I found in her sewing tin my mom gave me.  You keep it in your purse and those little match-like things magically stop the run in your delicate silk stockings until you can get back home and mend them.  I think it is absolutely fantastic. I’m so excited to get to use this pretty tin and pass it on when I turn 100.

After a week (a week!) of nursing sick children I thought I would have a couple hours to sew on Saturday morning, but of course then I got it.  crap.  I had grand plans of conquering an actual pattern: simplicity 3835 (any advice welcome–has anyone lined this? can anyone tell me how to line this?).  There were some angry and rushed attempts at garment making in high school with very homemade results, but now I’m ready to learn for real.  These pj pants are from Amy Butler’s book “In Stitches” and were dead easy.  Like sewing drawstring bags for your legs and about that flattering–when she says wide leg, she means wiiiiide leg.  I have been meaning to make them ever since I found this fantastic sheet at a thrift store long ago. I think the idea of making pajamas from sheets came from soulemama.  And when you are wearing them it really is like you never got out of bed!  My sick self stayed in these pants all weekend long. I did manage one little project (from soulemama, the book).

another pair of pants! though much, much smaller and from a shirt.  There are many more of these planned for the summer months.  They are easy and comfy and just right for the playground.  I have grand plans for making my kids’ clothes too.  It doesn’t help seeing this and this and this.  But I don’t have a clue as to how to sew clothes (unless it resembles a drawstring bag) so mostly I’m just dreaming.