What I've Been Up To - Sewing!

I have never been a sewer.  I am almost 30 years old and I am never quite sure if I actually know how to sew on a button correctly.  However, my new-found love of trying new things in the past year has started to change that.  I think I can now add "sewer" to my list of new self-descriptors, along with "runner", "swimmer", and "artist", even  if they all come with "amateur" in front of them :)

I took a couple of great classes at The Urban Craft Center in Santa Monica last year, where I learned to make a pillow and a clutch purse.  I don't own a sewing machine, so hadn't done much since then, until in a sudden rush of blood to the head, my mother decided to buy one.  My sewing skills are inherited, if that explains anything...

In my unemployment (and with the ridiculous price of books in New Zealand, I can't understand why they cost so much!), I also have a great appreciation for the library, which is where I got my hands on Wee Wonderfuls by Hillary Lang.

This is a really good instructional book, especially for new sewers like myself.  There are clear explanations of all the kinds of machine and hand stitches and embroidery techniques.  I am in love with ladder stitch!

Here is my first project from the book.  In the book, she is called "Patchwork Penny", as she has a patchwork strip on the front of her dress that matches a little quilt.  I wasn't feeling that ambitious (or keen to buy multiple pieces of fabric to make the patchwork and quilt), so I just gave her a plain dress.

I learned a lot making this doll.  She could use a little more stuffing in the neck to make her head sit up a bit better, and her hair is a little thin (because I used 8-ply wool instead of worsted weight which I think is 10-ply, and didn't think to increase the number of strands).  But still, she is cute and I'm very proud of her!

It's been pretty hot here at night, so I was in need of some more summer-weight pajamas.  So I bought a pattern (after first trying to construct my own pattern from a pair I own, total disaster), and first made these 3/4-length pajama pants:

Recognize this material?  

The same material as the doll's dress!  I just love the pattern and the color.  I think that gentle teal color is probably my most favorite color in the world.

And then I found this very lightweight cotton in quite a loud print, but it has birds on it (love!) and the shapes remind me of the work of Flora Bowley, my favorite artist (who I just found out is holding a painting workshop in Sydney, Australia in March!  I HAVE to go).

LOUD colors and pattern, suitable only for pajamas.  Or maybe a shower curtain.

Flora Bowley-esque bird shapes.

MUCH fun.  I hope to tackle more adventurous projects over time too.  Three more weeks of unemployment to go!

Share

Rolled Fabric Flower Bib Necklace

Here's another flower bib necklace I made, using strips of fabric rolled into rosettes and glued onto a felt backing.  I already had all the materials for this one in my stash, it's so satisfying not having to buy anything!

I googled "rolled fabric rosettes tutorial" and found a variety of instructions.  Most tutorials produce rosettes that show the raw fabric edge, like this from mama monster:

Very cute too but I prefer them without frayed edges, so I was just extra careful when folding my fabric stripes to keep them tucked under.

I love how it turned out!

Another bathroom mirror/iPhone photo

If you'd like to make one, here's a tutorial from Tortoise and the Hare.  Enjoy!

Share

New Zealand Handmade Holiday Ornament Swap

I am a terrible swapper, I just realised I forgot to post about the ornament I received in the swap organised by New Zealand Handmade!

My swap partner was Debbie, a nurse in Surrey in the UK.  How cool to swap with someone overseas, kind of reminds me of having a pen-pal as a child.  Debbie has a blog that she first started when she was still studying to be a nurse, called Student Nurses Allotment.

For some unknown reason, I did not take pictures of the ornament and card I made for Debbie!  Good grief.  But hopefully she will take some :)

Here are the darling little ornaments she made me (two!  how lucky).  They are about 5cm (just over 2") across.  They are cross-stitched, which I am super impressed by as I have absolutely zero cross-stitch experience.

I really enjoyed the swap experience, it's the first one I've ever participated in.  I'll be looking for more!

Share

Lace Flower Bib Necklace

Since attending the Auckland Art and Craft Fair, I've been itching to get my craft on...  I spotted this guest post tutorial for a lace flower bib necklace by Little Miss Momma over on Tater Tots & Jello.

It's super cute and very easy.  The first couple of flowers I made didn't turn out well though.  My lace had a raw edge instead of a nice tidy binding like the kind she used in the tutorial, so I think that's why the "petals" kind of stuck straight up like a cup instead of a flower shape.  Also, the blue pearl beads I used looked small and kind of lost.  Then I tried pleating the lace as I glued it down, and it turned out much better! 

Bathroom mirror/iPhone photo

You know you must enjoy something when you burn the crap out of your fingers every ten minutes with hot glue, but keep doing it anyway...

Share

DIY Holiday Gift Tutorials

This holiday season I find myself on quite a tight budget! I spent some time yesterday scouring the internet for DIY holiday gift tutorials that wouldn't break the bank. Here's what I found:

 

Book Purse Tutorial from Country Living

Map Coasters Tutorial from Martha Stewart

Teacup Candles Tutorial from Design*Sponge

Vintage Card Wallets Tutorial from Country Living

Marble Magnets Tutorial from notmartha

Cocoa Mix In A Jar (and several others) from Sunset

And a gazillion other project tutorials from Design*Sponge, that would all make lovely gifts.

Do you do DIY for the holidays?  What's your favourite DIY gift to give?

Share

How I decorated my Planner Pad

Inspired as usual by Kimberly Wilson, and prompted by my increasing pile of goal lists and to-do lists and post-it notes, I ordered myself a Planner Pad.

Planner Pads generally arrive looking like this:

Not so exciting...

But there is plenty of inspiration to pretty them up a bit, which is what I spent this evening doing, resulting in this (in the background are fabric circles cut out for hair flowers to be made this weekend):

You might recognize the images along the top and bottom -- those are the ones I use in my necklaces!

Do you use a planner?  How have you prettied it up?

Share

Monkey cake!

Exploring other avenues of crafty goodness:

For a wonderful friend's monkey-themed baby shower, another friend and I made this super-cute, super-easy, and super-delicious chocolate peanut-butter cake.

Comes pretty close to last year's Where The Wild Things Are cake (this was MUCH more difficult! We had no idea what we were getting into with fondant icing...)  Note the same cake plate, I have only one...

Not sure where we got the recipe/directions for that one.  Tell me -- what gamut do your crafty urges run?

Share

Crafty Weekend Recap (and Giveaway Winner Announced!)

Here in the U.S. it was a long weekend, so I took a vacation day on Friday and turned it into a four-day-craft-extravaganza! It was bliss.  I felt like I was bursting with creative energy, I was totally excited to get up each day.

There was raspberry-blueberry-almond-cake-baking:

Much circle-cutting for fabric-flower-making:

A new adventure in card-making (swoon, new obsession), and the aforementioned flower-sewing:

Painting for the Spill It! Workshop I am taking online with Carmen Torbus (a post about this is coming soon):

A couple of other little (unfinished) friends I am working on:

Two Etsy sales!  Yay!!  Here they are packaged up for mailing:

And a winner of the necklace giveaway!  Congratulations Jenny :)

Share

Fabric Flower Tutorials

I had fun today!  After my original plans went out the window, I devoted the majority of my Saturday (after a trip to the dog park) to making fabric flowers.  I picked up a cute fabric flower headband at a Shecky's Girl's Night Out this week and it gave me inspiration.  Finally a way I can indulge my fabric arts craving without a sewing machine!

Google supplied me with a range of tutorials to choose from.  I ended up meshing this one from Pink Paper Peppermints and this one from Sew Ritzy Titzy to make the tan and cream flower and the black flower, and meshing this one from Design*Sponge with tips from this one on Still Dottie to make the red one.

I've put pin backs on all of them so I can attach them my tops and cardigans, elastic headbands, purses, etc.  I'm thinking about adding accessories to my Etsy store.  Whether this eventuates or not, it was a lot of fun and there will be many more to come!

Share