elsie marley

I making bags like crazy over here.  All, of course, for the sale that you are sick of hearing about.  It’s this weekend and I’m actually getting a little nervous.  I’m sure all the self doubt will all go away when someone buys something–if someone buys something!  I’m used to selling pastries and breads and chocolates that I’ve made, where if you make a mistake it gets eaten anyway.  But someone will own these bags and use them, and if they fall apart their mother will be cursing me.  Or maybe they will be used and loved and come out of the washing machine in one piece.

You can see I finally made the toy bags I was talking about and though I wasn’t excited about them while I was making them, or even after I was done, but they are growing on me now.  Simple muslin drawstring bags with some applique (and stamped labels? yes? no? still can’t decide anything over here). The other bags in the picture are kiddy messenger bags.  I made one for my daughter just like it for christmas.  She got so many compliments on it, I thought they would go over well at the sale.  There are pictures of more bags over at my flickr site, if you are interested.  Have a good day.

I finished sewing a few things for the sale and I thought I’d pop in and show you. The bears are made from felted sweaters and printed cotton. I drew a simple bear then stitched, stuffed, and sewed on the features. Easy peasy. The denim and cashmere one is my favorite. I think it would be perfect for a little baby boy, but I have no idea if people will even buy these. I’m not much of a shopper (except for thrift stores and target) so I don’t really know what people buy or how much they pay for things. So how much would you pay for a bear like this ? They are a little under a foot tall (1 foot = 30 cm), machine washable, and super soft.

These are all the pillowcase dresses I’ve finished so far, but there are a few more cut and ready to go in my studio. I wasn’t going to make so many, but a showed a few to my friends and they were quite taken with them, so I whipped up some more. It doesn’t hurt that they are dead easy to make. And you can make them to fit girls from 6 months to 5 or 6 years old. For these I’m thinking 16 dollars a pop, what do you think? I haven’t sold stuff from a booth since my lemonade days, so I’m a little nervous about all of this. Tagging, pricing, talking up the things I’ve made. And this sale is the first of it’s kind so there could be a couple people there or hundreds. Nobody knows.

My whole family was struck with the flu this past weekend.  It was pretty crappy and we are finally crawling out of the dark flu hole.  Luckily there was one 40 degree day where we could open all the windows and get some fresh air, but now it’s back down to 10 where I now believe it will stay forever.  The flu was just another thing that got in between me and my mobile–february was just packed with those thing, dammit.  It’s now officially half done and as soon as I get my hands on a glue gun, I’ll finish it up and pack it off.   It’s four tiny houses: a cottage, an ice house, a barn, and a plain ol’ house.  I knew I wanted to do houses and I was first inspired by a sardine box .  I was planning to make them all out of packaging, but after an hour wandering through the grocery store I discovered there is a lot of ugly packaging.  Then I thought I could use the fusible timtex I had and the houses would have looked really nice in all natural linen, but they had no windows which was a little weird.  I could have embroidered all the details on, but I was late with the mobile already.  Then I found this amazing site and was back to thinking about paper.  So after another hour spent in the foreign territory of decorative paper, I thought I have books coming out my ears at home why don’t I just use one of them.   I found a great old Dr. Spock baby book which is perfect because my partner just had a baby (hint! hint!).  I mod podged the pages to either side of poster board, then cut out the details and folded it up.

I feel bad that I’m late on my own swap, but my creative process is particularly slow and I’m happy with how all the houses turned out.  There are more pictures on my flickr account and be sure to stop by the mobile swap group to see all the procrastinator’s mobiles (they are my people) and just the amazing variety of work that’s there.  I’m for sure going to host another mobile swap next January, so if you missed this one don’t worry.  I should probably start working on that one now just so I finish in time.

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!

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!

if you’d like to join the swap my email is

elsiemarleyblog AT gmail DOT com

there was a typo in the swap post and I want to make sure I get everyone’s email!

Only six days until christmas and amazingly there is no furious sewing in this house. Just one more gift to make and then we’re off to Grandma’s house. There are always a couple people I forget and they are always the ones ready with a gift for me. So I thought I’d make a few ornaments to keep in my bag for those awful, awkward moments. I’m sure there are people like that in your life too: the weird cousin, the super smiley coworker. I thought I’d pass on a pattern for a gingerbread man ornament that can be whipped up quickly just in case you forgot someone. Click here to download the gingerbread man pattern and instructions. I included some pictures with the instructions below as well. If you make one let me know!

materials

brown or tan wool felt

a tiny bit of white felt too

some stuffing (polyfil, etc.)

red, white, and black embroidery thread

white mini rickrack

fray check

two red buttons

glue stick

directions

1. cut out template and pin to felt. Cut out one gingerbread man out of felt.

2. for the eyes cut two small circles out of the white felt and attach them to the gingerbread man with one black french knot each. With a backstitch, sew a small circle for the mouth. Sew buttons on with white embroidery thread–to make them look like candies, sew from the button holes to the outside edge of the button. Cut pieces of mini rickrack for trim on two arms and the leg, dab all the ends with fray check, and use the glue stick to tack them down.

3. cut a rectangle as big as your gingerbread man out of felt. Pin your decorated man to this rectangle. Make a loop of rickrack and tuck it in between the layers on your gingerbread man’s head (to hang him from later). Stitch by machine or by hand from A to B (the long way) 1/8inch from the edge. Be sure to catch all the rickrack as you stitch.

4. cut off the extra felt.

5. stuff the little man lightly and sew up the opening.

6. hang him up or give him away!

It’s a cozy cozy christmas.  I didn’t mean for it to happen, but it turns out my christmas gifts have a theme this year. I guess we all have too much stuff, so now we need stuff to put our stuff in.

Crayon cozies:

A knitting needle cozy:

and a tissue cozy  (that is going to my nana who is 104!)

All the patterns were from online tutorials (this christmas season I am thankful for the internet). They can be found here, here, and here respectively.  I can see the end of my christmas list now and I am very excited.  I really didn’t know what I was getting into with the whole handmade pledge thing.  Now that I think about it I haven’t bought anything–except for some thread and notions and a couple “just in case I forgot someone gift.”  But somehow the money still gets spent: pounds and pounds of butter for cookies, wrapping paper, tape, more tape, shipping.  It was a lot of time spent sewing, which I couldn’t have done without a very supportive husband to watch the babies (and vacuum!), but I am pretty satisfied with myself.  Let’s just hope the recipients like them too.