meet my 20 year old crafty (crafted) friends

My mother gave me a box a while ago that was full of odds and ends... old photographs, letters, yearbooks... and these little girlies. I remember so vividly spending all afternoon pouring over toothpicks and embroidery floss with my cousin. We would wrap the thread around a toothpick and wet it... when it dried, you had lovely curls. We designed their outfits and hair styles. Magic moments of being lost in childhood creativity. I know my cousin treasures those memories, because when I was visiting her the other day I found a few of her little toothpick girls mixed in with her sewing notions ;-)

Amazing that the curls have lasted at least 20 years!

I decided that it was time to give these girls a proper home (20 yrs old seems like a good age for getting your own place right ;-)

An Altoid box, scrapbook paper, glue, ribbon and a VERY quick, VERY tiny sewing project and these ladies are set!

and there you have it, TA DA!

** these are what we call restaurant toys. they are only played with while we are dining out or in particular places- like waiting rooms. small and lightweight for my purse...and something that I like to be supervising, so they don't get destroyed or lost (my daughter is only 3;-)

tiniest mary janes

It has been a WHILE since I made a pair of my favorite baby shoes... I had to sit and scratch my head for a minute to remember the steps in order. There was a time when I was making quite a few!

A friend of mine is having her third baby, but first girl... so of course I had to make her some absolutely, adorably girlie tiny shoes for her Sprinkle. In our group, you get a Baby Shower first go 'round and a Sprinkle for subsequent babies... I love a Sprinkle. We get together for dinner on a weeknight and eat yummy stuff (more often than not a baked brie is involved) while we share birth stories, and laugh over potty training disasters, and then settle down to finding out what is weighing most on the soon-to-birth mother's heart and then pray for her and her family. It is such a very sweet and treasured time.

But, back to these little mary janes... they are wonderful... they stay on, they are cute, and they are lined with the softest felted cashmere from a recycled goodwill sweater.

I took a few pictures (some very poor quality) of my process... I can write out a full tutorial (and maybe add a few more pics even?) on this if you want me to, but you are going to have to sweet talk me into it ... just kidding, really all it takes is just commenting that you are interested ;-) sometimes I feel like I'm sending this out into oblivion.  And if the pictures are enough to get you started on a pair of your own, I would LOVE to see a pic... tiny shoes just make my day!

too hot to handle

What do you get when you take an old worn out pot holder, some fabric scraps and few minutes of your time?

I have noticed that the main pot holder I grab most of the time is not lovely. at all. Something about the size, shape, and thickness must be just right, though, because I use it a lot. I'm not even sure where it came from (if you recognize it as your own, feel free to claim it ;-). The other night I was carrying stuff down to the basement while waiting for water to boil. I grabbed the pot holder on my way and decided to make it look a bit more presentable. The pieced front was stitched together before the water boiled. I LOVE and quick project like this... My most used potholder now makes me so much happier every time I use it and I didn't have to put more than 15 minutes towards giving it a makeover.

As my mama always said, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

got holes? ... a towel repair tutorial

Isn't it a shame that the towels that get holes are the well loved, worn in, favorite ones? I am pretty pleased to have my nice old towel back in the game... with a lovely addition. It will certainly be a favorite again! Do you want one?

Grab your holey towel...

And some Pellon Wonder Under iron on adhesive and fabric scraps big enough to cover the hole.

I cut my Wonder Under out into two birds(that would be big enough to cover my holes) while I had it folded... so I then had two of each bird, mirrored. Iron the Wonder Under to your fabric and cut the shapes out.

** I used birds, but be inspired by the size shape and placement of the hole/holes you have to cover... you can use design for this project. And, yes, I was laughing at myself and thinking of the "put a bird on it" clip from Portlandia... but what can I say- I like them.

These mirrored pairs are for covering the holes from both sides of the towel.

Peel the back paper off and iron the birds onto the towel covering the holes strategically. Then, stitch around the edges on your sewing machine.

Notice the back side of the towel... you can see the hole and the stitches. Use the stitches to help you line up the other pair of birds directly over the back side of the first pair. Iron the second pair down into place.

Stitch around the edge. I actually like to go around several times to get a flowy movement with my edge line. (I like how it masks any imperfections ;)

Ta Da! Now, if I could figure out how to give second life to my favorite pj pants that are disintegrating!

celebrating 5. castles in the sky.

We have been celebrating some more birthdays this week. We spent the weekend in Alabama celebrating with Andrew's grandfather (he and Elisha share a birthday... not too gracefully- they enjoy bantering back and forth about whose birthday it is ;-)... Andrew was celebrated on Sunday and then we came home to celebrate Elisha on Monday. We wanted to be home so that he could thoroughly enjoy his gift:

We decided that building a house with Daddy would be this little guy's dream come true. He is always asking us to do projects with him... a number of times he has piled the scarp wood he can scavenge around the yard and claimed to be building a house. Now it is official! In the morning he did a treasure hunt with drawn clues to find his instruction manual... He loves to follow directions (or at least study them with importance), so I sketched out some drawings of the process for him to decipher.

And, you can't get through birthday month around here with out a cream cheese pound cake! I made the bouquet to show Elisha all the flowers that bloom around his birthday. We have some irises that bloom on Anna's birthday and we call them her birthday flowers... As we watch them getting closer to blooming we talk about how her birthday is approaching. Elisha had been asking, "what are my birthday flowers?" ... Well, as you can see late May has many many birthday flower options!

building team making plans

front view

supply list and first steps

door and window detail. more process directions

last steps

I think my newly five year old is looking pretty pleased with our summer project ;)

birds of a feather...nestled

from sew sweetness blog

Have you seen this pieced feather? Well, it was made by Anna Maria Horner... I love it.

So, when I was trying to decide what to put on the front panel of the wrap I was making for my cousin's first baby (who was born friday night and I have been helping with the past few days... Oh- delightful!) what do you think came to mind? You must know me well ;-) Of course I had to copy Anna Maria! 

Here is tiny baby in her feathered pouch... if you are interested in a step by step of how I made the feather follow right along(I have no doubt that Anna Maria had it refined a bit more- you are getting my first copy cat attempt).

I paper pieced the colorful sides, so here is my paper. (The shape should be narrower at one end- I forgot and fixed that later).

I sewed strips of fabric together on top of the paper at an angle and ironed each strip open as I went along. When paper piecing set the stitch length tight; this will help the paper be very perforated and easy to tear away.

When this step is finished, the back should look about like this.

Then you trim off the excess fabric to get it into the shape of the template/base paper.

Now tear the paper off of the back.

One down, one to go....

When colored pieces are finished, you sew them to a piece of background fabric that looks about this shape.

Match up the edges the way you would pieces of bias stripes.

Next, sew your center strip to both side pieces.

Add little triangles to close in the top...

Then, add background fabric to the sides... Ta Da -- feather complete. Now, what to do with it?

I sewed more background fabric until I had a square that measured about 16"X16". I sewed a free form feather to finish the design. Then, I hemmed the top edge under.

I ironed all my edges under and pinned the two sides and the bottom to the center of my jersey. (to make a moby type wrap you use a ~20" X 5.5 yard piece (give or take depending on size of intended wearer) of jersey fabric. I like a medium weight that is mostly cotton with a little bit of lycra).

Sew the three sides down using a coordinating thread. (The white feather looks splotchy because I had just sprayed it to erase my marker sketch.)

See the handy pocket for keys and dipes? The panel is also nice for marking the center when putting on the wrap.

Peep eye ;-)