convenience crafting

Little Man attended a birthday party for one of his preschool friends tonight. The honoree was a girl turning five. Since I have absolutely no clue what the cool gift for girls at this age is, I asked my mother-of-three-girls-neighbor for some suggestions. A few days ago Little Man & I headed to the local Le Tar-jay and picked up some Polly Pockets based on my friend's comments and LM's ideas (he wanted something with animals in it so we got a set with dogs & cats...I think the doll is supposed to be a vet?).

I wanted to use one of my already purchased little totes for a gift bag, but it looked soooo boring as is. It needed some gussying up!

I sewed up a couple of "yo-yos" from scrap fabric pieces and added vintage buttons. Originally I was planning on embroider the little girl's initial on the bag, but after about six tries I gave up. I was attempting to put Monkey Boy down for his nap and did all the sewing in the rocking chair in his room (getting up every 10 minutes to tell him to close his eyes and go to sleep). You can probably tell how distracted I was by the somewhat wonky embroidered stems:

Whew, that's some mighty messy stitching! Oh well, I still think the bag came out pretty cute. And the project lasted long enough for Monkey Boy to finally fall asleep- how convenient!

love thursday & a crafty FO

this week I'm loving-

-the silence that befalls our house after 8pm when the small men are in bed and snoozing (can you tell that the Dearest is still out of town?)

-ice cream 'staches:

day 74 of 365

-linear thinking:

-my new foundation from Meow Cosmetics (try it, you'll like it! And samples are only $1!)

-being blessed with a funny, sweet and supportive extended family

-the local library's online catalog...I can put all my books on hold and pick them up at our local branch. No more searching thru the stacks for me!

-banana chocolate chip muffins....with the banana and some whole wheat flour, these might actually be a little healthy....right?

-my new traveling bag, made in a frantic haste the night before leaving for San Francisco (because you HAVE to have a new bag when traveling! And what possesses me to start crafting the night before I'm supposed to leave???):

the front


the back

I've been eyeing the tape measure fabric for weeks and finally purchased some not too long ago. Love the pattern, but I wasn't sure what to use it for...it turned out perfect for straps and a pocket on this little bag.

The beige twill material is some clearance linen-like stuff I had in my stash forever. It's quite thick and I think it's cotton. I tried to get a good shot of the interior of the bag, which is lined in a contrasting fabric, but the light wasn't cooperating with me. :( There are two large pockets inside- big enough for keys and a cellphone (or BART tickets and some extra change). The lining is lightly interfaced, but I probably could have done without that since the beige twill is quite heavy.

I didn't follow a pattern for the bag, just kinda threw it together. I wanted something quite deep and not too wide so things wouldn't fall out while I was walking around SF. The bag turned out perfect- my camera, wallet and phone fit perfectly with room to spare for a map and bottle of water. We even threw some sticky buns in there while walking through Chinatown.

The big button is vintage from the stash G'Ma O gave me last year. There was a funny pucker at the top when I finished topstitching the bag and I covered it up with the button...which also happens to close up the top perfectly.

I like this bag so much that I've been using is in lieu of my normal diaperbag/purse since getting back from San Francisco even tho it's a bit too small for that. I might just have to make another, bigger one for everyday use.

the party 'bot

Robot, that is:

I've been seeing lots of crafty bloggers making cool tshirts with double-sided fusible web (sold here under the name "Wonderunder") and wanted to try some myself. So I pulled out the scrap basket and made Little Man a 'new' tshirt with a robot appliqued on the front.

After ironing the pieces onto the tshirt, I embroidered around the edges. Since I'm still a total noob at embroidering, it's not the neatest job but Little Man thinks it's perfect. I like the how the shirt turned out too. As soon as LM saw it, he said "That robot is wearing a party hat! It's a party robot shirt!"

I see some more projects using applique and fusible web in the future.

monday musings

Bloggers are the nicest people around- I got some kind comments and emails after my whiney post yesterday. I almost feel like apologizing for whining- so many people out there have much worse problems than mine. That's why I rarely post 'bad stuff' here...not to say that my life doesn't have its ups and downs, but I try to keep looking at the upside even when I'm frustrated or out of sorts.

And just to be clear, I'm not going to get a nomination for SuperMom of the Year any time soon! There are plenty of days where I lose my temper and do my fair share of screeching at my small ones. There are days where I don't want to pull out more play-doh or paint and make another mess to clean up. There are days where I count the minutes till the afternoon naptime/quiet time, when I can have an hour of peace & no one is demanding anything of me. Days where I'm exhausted at 9am and wondering how the hell I'm going to make it to 6pm! Being a momma is hard hard hard work- 95% drudgery, 3% soul searing fear and 2% overwhelming joy.

I just try really hard to keep 'bad days' to a minimum & to make them few and far between. I try to remember how deep my blessings run and how lucky I really am. I live for that 2% of joy & hold onto it for dear life when it happens. And hopefully I'll raise some loving, confident and thoughtful human beings in the process.

Anyhew on to the crafting (which is why you're here, no?)-

Lots of good bloggy vibes were sent my way after my whine, which is probably why I was able to sit down and complete a sewing project yesterday afternoon:

It's a tote bag+pencil/sketchbook case for my newly-turned 3yr old niece, Little Red. The pencil case is based on the tute from One Red Robin. I had made the pencil case previously, but still had to complete the tote bag before the party.

Monkey Boy wasn't keen on taking a nap due to the time change so I slipped a DVD in and retreated to my room to do some super quick cutting and sewing. Here's the pencil case outside:

and inside:

I used Crayola Twisteables because they're easy for little ones to use without breaking. The sketchpad is 8x6.

The tote bag was just a simple patchwork- I only had about an hour to make it so it's not lined. Monkey Boy heard the sewing machine and came looking for me after about 20 minutes of watching the DVD. So I had a little helper- he 'pushed' the fabric through my sewing machine & pressed the button that raises the needle. Here he models the finished tote bag:

The straps were a little wonky due to Monkey Boy's 'help', but I think it still turned out ok. I put some cute little books into the bag along with the pencil case. Then we were off to the party, where we took lots of pictures, ate lots of sugary stuff and otherwise enjoyed ourselves.

I hope Little Red enjoys her tote bag and pencil case. Little Man saw the case and wanted one of his own made out of pirate fabric. So I guess I'll have to make another!

quickly crafted

The Dearest and I had tickets to the Ducks' game on Sunday night. I'm *always* freezing at hockey games, so I had a plan to make a patchwork scarf to help keep my neck warm. Remember this fabric? Saturday night was spent cutting, sewing and quilting while watching "Monster In Law". Here's the result:

I made the scarf 60 inches long so I could wrap it around my neck doubled if I wanted. It's five inches wide- just perfect to keep the back of my neck nice & warm.

All of the fabrics are from Amy Butler's line. The backing is yellow chenille...nice and cozy against the skin.

I didn't really follow a pattern for this- the original inspiration was the patchwork scarf in Denise Schmidt's book. But I made mine up as I went along. The only thing I should have done was pay more attention to how the fabrics were lining up at the ends. Not too happy with how they are a bit too matchy matchy.

The scarf worked really well to keep me warm during the game. We were sitting way up in the nosebleed seats, but it was still fun.

crafty FO

Monkey Boy's train-themed quilt is finished:

I ended up using 6 inch squares sewn together with green and yellow borders. Since Monkey Boy really likes to play with the tags on his 'lovey' blanket, I sewed a couple tags into this quilt as well.

These are placed at the top, near his head so he can find them easily. I also sewed one smaller tag into the foot of the quilt just for fun. I also wanted to personalize it, so I got daring and tried some embroidery for the first time:

It's not quite that wonky in real life- I promise! LOL Everything went together really well- the only problem I ran into was mis-measuring the green border fabric. I ended up not cutting enough and not having enough fabric to go all the way around the edges (I was barely 6 inches too short- ughhh). After thinking about how to salvage the border, I came up with adding small patchwork squares so they would be the right length.

day 51 of 365

I'm sure that the more experienced quilters out there are rolling their eyes at my noob mistake- but I was pretty happy that I was able to solve the short borders pieces without too much gnashing of teeth on my part. And the result turned out quite cute IMO.

Monkey Boy was really excited to get his train 'pinkie' and wanted to use it right away so I guess it is a hit!