elsie marley

I’m having a hard time getting back into the swing of things after vacation.  It doesn’t help that my basement studio, which I thought (as I froze my fingers off sewing in december) would be heaven in the summertime, is stuffy and airless. Not pleasant one bit.  So most evenings I’ve been reading in the air conditioned bliss of my bedroom.  I did manage to sew up these two cuffed pants for two brothers. When my good friend had her second baby I started making a baby quilt just because that’s what you do when a baby is born, right? Well, after cutting and piecing some and loosing faith in my design, I realized this mama doesn’t need another baby blanket. Because once a baby is born everybody makes one, so you end up with 10 and then you go and have another baby and another 10 blankets show up on your doorstep.  So I thought I would make some pants for her boys instead. She gave me some sweet japanese prints for the cuffs (you can see them better here and here). I’ve never really been drawn to cutey cute fabrics, but the japanese somehow make cute things a little sophisticated–well with fabric anyway. The fit on both is way off, but we’ll just say they’re for growing in to.  The little ones are big but fine. I used a shorts pattern for the bigger size and just lengthened it and now they are super wide leg and a little girly.  I’ll see how they fit and maybe take them in (wow this is thrilling. are you still reading? congratulations).

I’m a little low on inspiration these days, but you my dear readers are full of it (ha!). So leave me a link to a blog, a photo, an article that has made you turn off the computer and work (or play).

thanks!

I asked my good friend to make these wooden dolls for my daughter this christmas. After seeing the amazing ones she made for her son, I commissioned (!) her to make some that looked like my family. I thought it would be a nice surprise on christmas morning not only for my daughter, but for everyone to see themselves in little wooden doll form. And they were the best present under the tree. From left to right: my husband, me, my daughter, my son, an uncle, grandma, pop pop, and an aunt. Another uncle was left at grandma’s house, but I couldn’t wait for him to get here to show these little works of art. I was going to spend the rest of this post badgering my friend into open her own esty shop, but this morning she told me she is planning on it. You too might have the chance to have some of your very own! So instead I’ll show you the other fantastic present she made for my daughter.

A little felt book that my daughter calls her special book (or my special for short). I had a similar idea after we played with the felt board at the library and had to have a discussion about how we couldn’t take it home. My idea wasn’t as elaborate as this though. There are pockets for all the accessories and the toilet lid even flips open! It’s given me lots of ideas and I’m lucky to have such a generous and talented friend who not only makes beautiful things, but will let me steal her idea and run with it. But best of all is that it kept my daughter busy (and quiet) for most of the christmas traveling.

Thank you everyone who is visiting from Sew Mama Sew. And thank you to Sew Mama Sew for featuring me a few times (!) this week. It’s an honor to have my things on such a fantastic blog. If you’d like to know who’s writing this blog you can click on the about link on the right. Thank you for all your kind comments. I try to reply to most, but I’m a little behind because of the holidays. Starting a blog was on my to do list for most of this (2007) year and I’m so glad to have finally crossed it off. I never would have believed that a few kind words from strangers could inspire me so much. Many of you are no longer strangers, but people I look to often for advice.  Thank you for sharing your ideas and thoughts with me. It’s a pleasure to be a part of such a creative and supportive community. I’ll need even more of that support next year because one of my resolutions is to start an etsy shop.  And sew myself some clothes that don’t suck.  Do you have any crafty resolutions for the new year?

The picture is a present I made for another sister.  I showed you the needlebook and pincushion already, but I made the sewing machine cover to match after seeing the sorry looking toaster cozy she was using to cover up her sewing machine. Just a simple lined piece of patchwork with ribbon ties on each end.  And an embroidered sewing machine so she knows where it goes (not on the toaster).

Hope you all have a happy new year!

This little bag was my present to my daughter even though I didn’t wrap it or even call it a present. Because December was so full of presents my daughter started expecting them everyday–well before christmas–and when there weren’t any she demanded More! Presents! But I still wanted to give her something. We did a lot of traveling for christmas, which if you have kids means schlepping an amazing amount of stuff around. I though it would be nice if my daughter could carry some of her own things. I followed one of the millions of tutorials on craftster (does anyone else remember when it was in it’s infancy?) for a simple bag. I’m new to making bags, not being a bag person myself, but it wasn’t all that hard really. I used a sew in interfacing, which made for a lot more cutting and sewing but I didn’t think to put it in the flap or the strap and I should have. Two year olds get frustrated easily (and all the time, ugh) so I think it’s important that the bag has some structure. I used a magnet closure thinking that it would be easy for her to use, but damn those are some strong magnets! It was filled with almost all handmade toys, which made me incredibly happy and very proud. And it meant that I didn’t have to shove even more crap in the diaper bag. She carried it the whole way.

The fabric (because a couple people have asked) is Alexander Henry and I’m not much for little kids prints, but I really like this one. And the inspiration for making the bag in the first place came from Beth at writemamawrite. She has a great list of things to pack for toddlers in that post as well, but let’s hope you have no more traveling to do–this year at least! We have one more plane ride home (home!) tomorrow and we’ll see if the excitement of “my new purse!” can last until then. Hell, I hope I last until then.

I have a few more presents to show that have been opened and (thankfully) well received.  This is a plastic bag made from many, many plastic bags.  The directions came from Esty Labs and a quick search on youtube will give you a video of the whole process.  You fuse three plastic bags together between sheets of parchment paper then zigzag them all together to make plastic fabric. I was originally going to make it in the shape of a plastic bag, but I kept melting holes in the plastic and the “fabric” was getting smaller and smaller.  There is a picture of a patchwork plastic bag in the link above, so with that in mind I cut a bunch of squares and using a paper bag for a template (how ironic) made a plastic patchwork bag.  Plastic bags are surprisingly easy to sew and this came together very quickly.  It’s incredibly light and though it doesn’t feel sturdy it can hold a bunch of stuff.  It’s hard to avoid ending up with a bunch of plastic bags these days, even if you make a special effort not to.  And this is a nice way to at least put those evil things to good use.

This was the very last gift I made and just barely done in time. It was for my brother in law and it’s the name of his band. And a large band it is. So I drew all the instruments in the band and embroidered them, then did the name in cross stitch free hand.  I got a little nervous that I wouldn’t finish in time toward the end of “flatpickers” and I think  it shows.  I’ve learned that cross stitch requires actual planning (this was my first attempt) so maybe next time I won’t just wing it.  On the whole I like how homemade it looks.  Folksy and modern–just like the band it’s for.  I wanted the hoop to be the frame, but a quick look around the internets didn’t turn up much, so I put another piece of fabric behind the embroidered bit and just cut them both to fit.  It’s pretty slippy, does anyone know how to do this properly? The gift is still within my grasp and I could fix it if need be.

Hope everyone had a very merry christmas and got at least something you wanted.

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.

I thought I’d show off some of the gifts I’ve received, because all the gifts I’m making are still in pieces (or shipped! yay!).   The tea cozy isn’t really a gift, unless you count the ones you give to yourself.   I never thought I would be a tea person, much less a tea cozy person, but after my second child I just stopped drinking coffee.  “COFFEE!” used to be the very first thought I had when I woke up in the morning, but my son was very sensitive to caffeine and with two kids I had to be able to nap at a moments notice, so I started drinking tea (fascinating stuff, Meg, do go on).  It is custom made (a couture cozy!) from this shop and it fits my funny tea pot perfectly.  The little knit thing next to it is a dishcloth.  Knit up by my mother, just because I said I liked hers. Thanks, Mom.  I can barely knit my way out of a paper bag, so it’s nice to finally have some beautiful knit goods around the house.

My oldest friend sent me an amazing christmas package yesterday full of fabric scraps, vintage buttons and trim, and the feminine encyclopedia!  Actually, l’encyclopedie feminine des ouvrages! I took a couple years of French in college, but translating Baudelaire and translating crochet patterns don’t have much in common.  Luckily the diagrams are explanation enough and the ideas are pretty fantastic.  I do love me a good 70s craft book.

Did you open any of your christmas presents yet?

seahorseThis is a little seahorse ornament I made for a friend of mine. We watched a couple DVDs from the BBC production Planet Earth, which if you haven’t seen you better pretty soon. There are five discs and all of them are amazing–especially the caves, go rent the one about caves right now. This pygmy seahorse is from the shallow sea episode. There were two of these unbelievably small, red, polka dotted sea horses battling it out for a woman or territory (it’s always one of the two). It might have been the greatest battle of their lives, but to us it looked like they were bouncing off each other. Doink! Doink! Their polka dots didn’t make it any easier to take them seriously. I embroidered some random french knots all over and then did a sad blanket stitch around the whole thing. And there you have the smallest seahorse in the world ready to duke it out.

I am halfway through this handmade holiday thing–making everyone’s gift is a lot of work.  Thankfully I have a fantastic husband who lets me hide in my studio and sew for hours.  I even got myself to the post office Monday morning before it opened (there was already a line!) and a bunch of presents are on their way! The apron above is from Denyse Schmidt’s book and has an oven mitt to match. I made a few of these set for a few sets of people–aprons for the girls and oven mitts for the boys.  I think an oven mitt makes a fine man gift. I only have a few boys on my christmas list, but I have some crafty man gifts up my sleeve, which really I should be making now that I think about it…