It's been so fun to read these wintry posts.  I like winter for many of the same reasons as my fellow guest bloggers but  I think mostly  I like it out of necessity...otherwise I'd be crabby straight through from October to May.  Getting outside even just for a bit is a high priority for our family but there are some days (like today) up here in Minnesota where it's just too cold to have much fun outside.  On these days crafts and art projects are in order, so here is a fun sewing project for grown-ups and young sewers alike:

A Stocking Cap for a Small Friend (my first tutorial!)

Cut off the cuff and a couple of inches of sleeve from an old sweater.  A sock would work very well too.

Turn the piece inside-out and do a running stitch about 1/4" from the cut edge with strong thread all the way around the top.  Pull tight and secure with a knot.

Turn it right side out and fold up the cuff a bit...hey look, it's already so hat-like!

Now make a little pom pom.  There are lots of places to lean how if you have never made one before...like here.

I like to felt my pom poms a bit by rubbing them between my hands in warm soapy water.  This step is not necessary but I think it looks super cute and helps scale down your pom pom.  The yarn must be wool in order to do this step.

Now stitch the pom pom to the top of the hat.

finis

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I'm Erika from Fox and Owl.  I make dolls and animals and drawings and have a little blog where I talk about art and craft and show lots of gratuitous pictures of my adorable children.  Come visit me there sometime!

Thank you Meg for letting me be a guest on your excellent blog!

I'm with Rae (see previous post).  I too get a little crazy this time of year when I am cooped up inside for too many days with my kid.  When I find my son is doing dismounts from the back of the sofa, the living room looks like  the aftermath of small cyclone, and I am contemplating a glass of scotch even though it is barely noon, well, I know it is time to put on our boots and find some distraction outside the house.

This is where living in a city comes in handy .  Aside from the library, one of our favorite places to visit is the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  My boy has been really, really into drawing lately and has been interested in the work of other artists, so on our most recent visit we took along a sketch book and some colored pencils.  I told him that when he saw something he really liked, we could grab a seat and he could do some drawings of that piece of art.  Now, I admit, I thought he might balk at the notion of slowing our pace through the gallery (because when you are 6 and a boy, it is all about moving at roughly the speed of sound--and maybe throwing a couple of karate kicks in there), but he was actually really excited by this idea.  So off we went and you can see some of the resulting sketches.

Which brings us to this little tutorial I have for you--it is a scenic patchwork sketch book.  And what the heck is that, you ask?  Well, just a Moleskine cahier notebook (I used the x-large plain version--they come 3 to a pack)  customized with a nice little patchwork of fabrics that together form a scenic sort of design.  So the world is your oyster in terms of what you work out for your design here--you can see I did woodland and city themed notebooks below--but it could be anything from outer space to the circus to school...or whatever.

Oh, and I also thought I would share the photos of these sketchbooks I made last Christmas as gifts for a few of the kiddies in my life--just because having some options is always nice.  They use the same essential technique but are monogrammed with the first letter of the child's name.  Simple.

Want to make some for yourself?  You can download the instructions for the scenic patchwork sketch books here:

DOWNLOAD SCENIC SKETCH BOOK INSTRUCTIONS

And just remember, if the sketchbook fails to provide enough distraction when you start to get cabin fever and your kids are bouncing off the furniture, there is always scotch (no further commentary necessary, Meg--or Rae).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Outfitted with sketchy knowledge of toy design at best and a hand-me-down sewing machine, I began designing plushies back in 2005, naming my little company Beeper Bébé.  Today, I design all manner of toys and other things, usually incorporating recycled stuff, and love to share tutorials on my blog.  I live in Minneapolis.  Future goals of mine include moving to France with my family, becoming a cowgirl, finishing that novel I started writing 15 years ago, learning to quilt, redesigning Little People for Fisher Price so that can be as cool again as they once were, and drinking scotch on my back step—not necessarily in that order though. You can find more of me at: http://chezbeeperbebe.blogspot.com/ and buy the stuff I make at http://www.etsy.com/shop/beeperbebe.  Hope to see you around some time.

a lovely geometric straw ornament

This is a traditional eastern european ornament and garland. The shape is simple, but a little tricky the first time you make it. After you get the hang of it many three dimensional geometric shapes are possible. I think it makes for a nice modern, but still natural christmas ornament. Like the other tutorial I used straw for, this one can of course can be made with plastic or paper straws, but if you would like to use natural straws, I found mine the at the imagination childhood online shop.

materials

• natural straw
• button thread (or other strong thread)
• yarn needle

directions

First you need to soak the straws and cut them into 2inch pieces. I explained this in detail in my tutorial for a straw and pompom garland.

1.Take a piece of thread about twice the length of your arm and thread the yarn needle--no need to knot it. String four straw pieces almost to the end of your thread. Pull the threads until the straws meet, but don't pull too hard or you will split the straws. Then tie a square knot (that's the plain old kind).  You can trim the end, but don't cut the working thread.

2. Now pull the thread through two straw pieces and

3. secure them at the opposite end.

4. Thread two more pieces and tie at the top (the opposite end you just strung them from)

5. Take your needle back through one of the straws, so it comes out in the middle.

6. String one straw at a time securing it where the next straws meet. Do this four times and tie a knot.

Trim all your threads and decide which way you would like it to hang. Loop your thread at the top point and tie it together. Now hang up that nice looking ornament you just made.

You can keep going and make a double ornament, or keep going and going and make a whole garland! If you do, I would suggest making them one at a time and then tying them all together. Making these with a long piece of thread doesn't really work: it gets tangled and it's bothersome.

a christmas present for my lovely readers: a week of handmade ornament tutorials!

• monday: straw and pompom garland
• tuesday: paper christmas tree ornaments
• wednesday: felt dove ornament
• thursday: geometric straw ornament

I will be accepting advertisers on Elsie Marley starting January 2011. If you would like to reserve a spot please email me and we can discuss the specifics! Thanks! elsiemarleyblog@gmail.com

a felt dove ornament

I mentioned it last week, but I realized some of you may have missed it: everyday this week I will have instructions for a new handmade ornament.  You probably caught on by now, seeing it's wednesday and look! another tutorial.  This is my christmas gift to you--all my readers! I've said it before, but I mean it: you are awesome. And you deserve a present, or five.

This little bird takes four strips of felt and five stitches to make. Really, that's it.

materials

• one 2in x 8in piece of wool felt
• needle and thread
• a little embroidery floss (that matches your felt)
• a disappearing ink pen
• a rotary cutter is nice, but scissors are fine too

directions

First cut your felt into four 8 x 1/4 inch long strips. Line them up nice and neat like I have below.

Make a mark on them with your disappearing pen at these measurements:

1. on the top strip at 1 1/2inches and 3 1/2 inches from the right
2. on the second strip at 1 1/4inches and 3 3/4 inches from the right
3. on the third strip at 1 inch and 4 inches from the right
4. and on the bottom strip 3/4inch and 4 1/2 inch from the right

Now stack up all the strips in the same order they are already in (bottom one on the bottom, then the third one on top, and so on). Flip the top one over when you stack it on top so the markings are hidden.

Take your needle and thread and on the right side where they are all lined up sew the strips together with a few stitches. This will make the beak of the bird. When you start hide your knot in between two of the strips and when you are done hide it again--do this for the next steps as well.

Next line up all the first dots you made and sew a few stitches to secure them together. You've just made the dove's head.

Now line up the next set of dots and sew. Look! A bird! You can trim the tail however you like. You can round the edges, or make them fringey, or roll the strips up at the end and iron them a bit so they curl, or whatever else you can think of.

To make the hanger, take your embroidery floss (about 8 inches or so) and insert your needle where you made the neck stitch. And then again by the tail stitch. Put the ends of the thread together--you should have made a triangle where the base is the same length as the back of the bird. This sounds very weird when I say it, but in the picture it's pretty obvious, right?

I used green embroidery floss so you could see it better, but you probably want it to match your felt. Tie the ends together and hang up that pretty christmas bird.

a christmas present for my lovely readers: a week of handmade ornament tutorials!

• monday: straw and pompom garland
• tuesday: paper christmas tree ornaments
• wednesday: christmas dove ornament

I will be accepting advertisers  on Elsie Marley starting January 2011. If you would like to reserve a spot please email me and we can discuss the specifics! Thanks! elsiemarleyblog@gmail.com

a paper christmas tree ornament

This as simple as it gets. A few scraps of paper, one seam and in minutes you've make a pretty, handmade ornament. I used paint chips (in lovely martha stewart colors) from the hardware store because I had them on hand, but cardstock or thin cardboard or old christmas cards would all work well.

Cut out one star and three to five strips of paper.  If you'd like to use the same measurements I used, you can download the pattern pictured below. If you would rather do it freehand, cut progressively longer strips for the tree, as wide as you like, and cut a good size trunk.

You are going to sew a seam down the middle of everything on your sewing machine. Sewing on paper is really not that much different than sewing on fabric, except that you use a slightly longer stitch and it's ok to use a dull needle. If you are anything like me, there is one in your machine right now! Make a bunch of paper tree ornaments with that perfectly dull specimen and then do yourself a favor: take it out! And get a nice, new sharp one in there for the rest of your christmas sewing.

First make sure you have about three inches of slack from the bobbin and past the needle before you begin sewing. Then place the star under the presser foot of your machine take one stitch forward and then one stitch back (a little sewing dance!) to secure the thread and then sew down the middle of the star. Before you get to the bottom nudge the shortest strip of paper under the presser foot and sew down the middle of it.  And so on, with the rest of the strips and the trunk.

When you get to the bottom of the trunk, sew back and forth a few times to secure the thread again. Tie the ends on top of the ornament together, so it makes a loop for hanging. Snip the thread ends on the bottom of the trunk and you're done!

variations

I included a pattern for a snowman in the PDF pattern as well, but a million other things are possible: candy canes, bells, santas, pretty much anything you can think of to cut out and sew together!

a christmas present for my lovely readers: a week of handmade ornament tutorials!

• monday: straw and pompom garland
• tuesday: paper christmas tree ornaments
• wednesday: felt dove ornament

I will be accepting advertisers  on Elsie Marley starting January 2011. If you would like to reserve a spot please email me and we can discuss the specifics! Thanks! elsiemarleyblog@gmail.com