Two for Two

Remember the little strawberry blond cuties who turned one last year?  Well, time has a way of turning one-year-olds into two-year-olds.  

And two-year-olds have a way of carrying around purses.  

And I figure, as long as they're carrying around purses, they might as well be cute.  (The purses, I mean.  The girls are already cute, no question.)

And they (the purses) might as well match the dolls I gave them last year.  And they should be reversible (the purses, not the girls), because sometimes you're in the mood for flowers, and sometimes you like polka dots.

 

The recipients seemed to like them. (Caity especially.  Or was it Mady?  I used to be able to tell the difference.)  I was afraid they'd be outraged by the twill tape handles, a semi-homemade shortcut that helped me get them done quick.  But they hid their rage, and immediately started filling their new purses with random objects.  As two-year-olds have a way of doing.

Happy Birthday Mady and Caity! 

And because you asked so nicely, here's some completely gratuitous vintage fabric porn.  (Imagine the google hits I'll get from that one!)   The fabric, the ric rack and the buttons all came from the old lady stash.  Man, I love that old lady and her fabric hoarding ways.

Pimp My Pixar Character

When Porter's mom, Melissa, invited us to his Toy Story-themed-4th birthday party, I immediately thought of this fun vest, made by the cute and clever Jessica at Running with Scissors.   

I stalk lots of craft blogs, and frankly, most of them are kind of annoying.  I try to ignore the constant self-promotion.  I overlook spelling and syntax errors.  And though I'm puzzled by rAndOm capitalization, and saddened by apostrophe's that 'sneak in everywhere except where theyre 'supposed to, I can usually  get past all that to enjoy the pretty pictures and the clever ideas.   But the great thing about Jessica's blog is that I don't have to get past anything.  She inspires me without annoying me, and I like to think if we met in person we'd be friends.   That is, if I don't annoy her with all my hypercritical crafty and linguistic nitpicking.  

Now, where was I?  That's right.  Porter's birthday.  So, the kid likes Toy Story.  And I knew I could get my hands on a pattern for a Woody vest that promised to be easy.  And I knew I had this fuzzy spotted fabric that really looks more like dalmatian print than cow print but might work anyway.  So I set to work.

I printed out Jessica's pattern, and kind of eyeballed her general shape while I enlarged it out to fit my 6 1/2-year-old (who, because he won't eat his vegetables, is barely a smidge bigger than 4-year-old Porter).  Then I cut it out and sewed it together, and really was amazed that it was a 15 minute project just like Jessica said.  Except.  Except!  Except I didn't have any bias tape to finish the edges.  So I thought  "I'll just line it and make it reversible.  It can't take that long -- probably less time than making bias tape, right?" 

Wrong!

Turns out making a reversible vest is a titch more complicated than making a reversible purse.  You can't just sew one and then sew the other and then sew them together, or you won't be able to turn it right side out through the shoulders.  (Don't worry, I don't really get it either.)  So, I consulted with my spacial engineer (my husband), and unpicked a few seams, and added a western style fringe vest to the other side.  

Trouble was, adding the lining made the fuzzy material puff out, and suddenly, this whimsical kid's vest looked like Woody's vest after it spent a day on the set of Pimp My Pixar Character.  So I did some ironing and topstitching, and it all turned out OK in the end.

Still, maybe I should have just gone to the store for cow fabric and bias tape.*

Porter was a little afraid of it (me?) at first.    But he warmed up to it after his sister Addie showed him it was OK.

Look at her, showing off the fringe and the spots at the same time!  She's a natural!

Here's Porter, modeling the fuzzy side.

That's Sheriff Woody to you, Pal.

Anyway, despite its shortcomings, I think Porter liked his Woody (inspired) vest.   And next time, I know to just buy the bias tape.  (Or, as my spacial engineer suggested, a purple feathered cap, to go with the vest.)

________

* But I didn't, thereby earning me a million stash reduction points.  Since you asked (cause you did, right?), I've had the fuzzy dalmatian print for over a year.  I inherited it from a friend who cleaned out her stash when she moved.  The brown fabric is a velvety stretch knit I bought at Wal-Mart several years ago.  I bought 10 yards at $2 a yard, and hung it all up as curtains in my dining room.  After a year or two, I got sick of them there and hung them in my bedroom.  But they were too dark there, so I decided the next best thing to do with them would be to sew an Easter dress out of them.  Unlike some experiments in wearable window-treatments, this was a phenomenal craft fail.   On many levels.  But, on the bright side, that unshapely, unsightly, unworn Easter dress eventually became a Jedi robe for my husband.  And there were still many yards left to use on other projects, like Jedi cloaks.  I've also used it for more practical things, like concealing all the junk under my craft table, and covering cardboard boxes.  We're down to just 2.5 yards.  Do you think that's enough to give that Easter dress another try?

More than Meets the Eye

For Daniel, who likes Transformers.  Watch out kid.  Your pants are on fire.


PS:  If you think those pants are hideous here (and I do), you should see them on a child.  Both of my kids tried them, and in both cases I wanted to gouge out my eyes.  They're too  '80s post-Hammer pants for my liking.  But I guess they work with the shirt.  As pajamas.  For someone else's kid.    Sorry Margaret.

Birthday Princess 4.0

Now here's a girl who knows how to open birthday presents. I think in this shot she's unwrapping undershirts. And she could not have been more excited. It was adorable.

Anyway, as you can see she was quite pleased with the Sleeping Beauty style crown and necklace set I made from stash fabric. She and Grace love to play princess dress up, so I know they'll get a lot of use. (I'm thinking about writing up a tutorial for making these crowns. They're definitely a minimum-work-for-maximum-impact kind of project.)

I was excited when she got to the little purse set her mom hired me to make. (It was a bartered hire, just the kind I like. I got four big bottles of laundry soap, and countless hours of babysitting. Plus a couple weeks of dog sitting. And the kind of like-a-sister friend every girl needs. Yeah, I totally overcharge.) Abygail's take included a purse, a keychain, a makeup bag, and a wallet. And stickers! Inside the wallet! Abygail was beyond thrilled.

And I was too.

Happy Birthday Princess Abygail!

Super O!

I'm often annoyed with myself for forgetting to take photos of a project before giving it away. Usually, in the rush to get out the door to the party or shower, I don't take the time to snap a few shots, and then I regret it later.

This time, however, I almost regret taking the photos. This project looked better in my memory than it does here in the photos, which I just pulled off the camera and looked at for the first time this evening.

The model looks sharp, I'll admit (he always does), but the details are sloppy. The cape looks wrinkled and ill fitting, and close up especially, the appliques are a mess.

See?

And see?

But you know, this blog is more about recording my projects and the things I learned while making them than just showing the pretty pictures.

So, while I love this metallic gold fabric (also used for princess crowns here and here), I won't use it again for an applique project -- or anything else that leaves raw edges exposed. It just falls apart too easily. And I really need to work on my stitching technique. How do you backstitch a zig zag stitch without the overlap looking so sloppy? (See the (not so) super O above?) I stuffed the CTR letters to add dimension, which I like, but there are several sections of batting peeking out the edges, which I don't like. There's got to be a better way to do that. And I don't know if it's because they're polyester or what, but both the black and the blue background fabric were impossible to get (and keep) wrinkle free. I pressed and pressed and pressed that thing, and it still looks like it spend a month in the trunk of my car. (Not that anything would ever sit in the trunk of my car for a month, of course.)

It's frustrating to spend time on a project and not have it turn out as well as I'd wanted. And yet, I still count this one a success. I was happy with it when I wrapped it up (it's been a couple weeks now), and all reports say Super O loved it. It was made entirely from the stash, I completed it in just a couple hours, it's personalized, and it's not plastic. Plus it's righteous. What more could a six-year-old want? Perhaps most encouraging, Sam wants one for himself. (I think for him, though, CTR stands for "Choose the Rocketlauncher." He's really into munitions lately, but that's probably and entry for another blog.)

Princess Katie

Three

Grace turned three, so I made her three dollies.

I'll admit that some of the details were more for me than for her. Jaguar ruffles, rhinestone barrettes, vintage lace and buttons.

But I think she likes them anyway.

Busy Week

In the past 10 days I've been to baby showers for four women, and birthday parties for two little girls.

I need to write a post about everything I've learned while making "quick and easy projects" gone slow and complicated. But all's well that ends well, right? So for now, I'll just post the pictures.

For the babies:

For the three-year-olds:

If you're counting, you may notice that there are only three baby gifts pictured. I didn't bother taking a picture of the fourth, but I'll tell you about it because I think it's a pretty great idea and you might want to use it sometime. Get a package of disposable freezer containers and wrap them up with a list of your favorite meals that freeze well. Write a note telling your friend to pick five (or whatever) and return the list so that you can stock her freezer before the baby arrives. Bonus gift: stock your own freezer while you're at it, cause you might as well.

Black Apple Dolls

I may be the last crafter on the Internet to discover Emily Martin and her Etsy shop, The Black Apple. But I'm sure glad I finally did, because making these little dolls (as featured on Martha) just might be my new addiction.

This first set went to a couple of strawberry blond cuties who just turned one.

Turning those skinny arms and legs right-side-out is a bit of a pain, but other than that these dolls are a breeze to make. Unless of course you have a giant stash of fabric. Then it will take you hours to contemplate all the possible combinations. Everything here came from the stash -- most of it from the stockpile I swindled from little old ladies. These vintage prints are perfectly suited for this sort of thing, aren't they? I'm already planning more for an almost three-year-old I know. Shhh! Don't tell Grace.

Party all the time

I'm way behind with posting projects, and mostly it's because I've been doing too much partying. For example, a few weeks ago my friend Tiffany organized a fun and crafty group of ladies to make and exchange baby girl hair bows. I'll admit I'm not a make-a-million-of-the-same-thing kind of crafter, but I powered through and made these beaded flower clips.

They came together pretty quickly and I'm happy with how they turned out. But I'm even more happy with the stash I brought home.

One of each of these babies. (Picture stolen from Tiffany.) Pretty sweet haul!

Speaking of sweet, here's Grace modeling one of the pretty daisy clips made by my good friend Angela. Unfortunately, Grace is not as keen cranial ornamentation as I am, and most of our hairdressing sessions end like this:

But still, it's cute while it lasts.

In other party news, there's been a epidemic of little girls having birthdays. I tried out this pattern for adorable little girl purses and came up with this for my sweet three-year-old friend Arabella.

I wanted it to be reversible, and have a button closure, and be equally cute on both sides. And since I'm not very good at planning ahead when it comes to three-dimensional inside-out construction, there was some trial and error. I spent some time with the seam ripper. But in the end I loved how it turned out enough that I considered (very briefly) keeping it for myself, and then (more seriously) making a big-girl version of my very own.

Sharp-eyed observers will note that the ribboned ornamentation on the polka-dot side of the purse is one of the hairbows I brought home from the exchange a couple weeks ago (see photo above), made by none other than the hostess, Tiffany. I felt kind of weird including someone else's craft with my gift, but it matched so perfectly -- entirely by coincidence! -- that I had to include it. Besides, my chances of ever getting it to stay in Grace's hair were slim, so it might as well belong to another little girl who might actually wear it.

And then (I know I'm stretching my credibility here, but it's true!) it happened again! I made another little bag for another little three-year-old which happened to match another bow from the exchange.

See? Look!
This one went to Ella, who shared her birthday with four-year-old Alison (green purse) and five-year-old Caroline (black and pink).


Alison's purse is embelished with a wire-wrapped star. Her mother, Angela (of the pink daisy Grace is wearing above), made a necklace at one of my jewelry parties using one of these stars, and I knew that Alison loved it. I thought for her birthday she could have one of her own.

The embellishment on Caroline's is another hair clip, but this time it's one I made myself. The black and white disk was from a package of pre-made yo-yos I purchased at the infamous JoAnn Fabric Closeout Sale. The pink yo-yo I made myself -- my first ever! -- and then I sewed it all together with a button and glued on some fancy feathers. It's almost my favorite part of the bag. Except for the handles, maybe. I really like the double handle version, I've decided.

Here's the reverse on all three.

(In the background, right behind the garden hose, you'll see a little sneak peek of the backyard patio I coerced my sweet husband into building for me. More photos will be coming soon!) The only other thing I have to mention about these purses is that my almost five-year-old Sam is the one who assigned the purses to each birthday girl, and if you knew these birthday girls, you'd be amazed at how accurately he pegged their personalities. As always, this boy is frighteningly good with the ladies.

The last party in my circuit was this morning, a baby shower for my friend Briste. I used this pattern, created by the crafty host of Homespun Threads to make her a trio of baby shoes. The shoes turned out pretty cute, despite a several maddening blunders and way too much time with the seam ripper. But now that I've made three sets, I think I have the process down.

Only, I don't have all my processes down, obviously, because in my rush to make it to the shower on time (I was still late!) I forgot to take pictures. So until next week, when I make some more for my friend Rozannah, (shhh! Don't tell.) you'll just have to use your imagination.

Orion

It's one thing to declare a moratorium on gift buying when your gift list includes mostly trendy young moms and their soon-to-be born babies. Five-year-old boys are a little trickier, however, as they don't have quite the same appreciation for buttons, ruffles and beads. Which is why I almost took Sam to the store and let him pick out a toy to take to Orion's fifth birthday party. But I just couldn't do it. Moratorium or not, as a mom, I'm sick of toys toys toys everywhere, just lying around waiting to get stepped on and broken. And I didn't think Orion needed one more piece of flimsy plastic any more than Sam does.

So I enlarged the pattern for the tie applique I found here, sewed it to an inexpensive kids' undershirt, and added a pair of matching pj pants. This set will never make Amazon's "Ultimate Gift List for a Five-Year-Old Boy," and I'm sure a Shrek 2 Rotten Root Canal Play-Doh Play Set would have been more fun to open. But Orion's mom was happy. So I am too.

Abygail