Got felt?

Over the past few weeks, a common thread seems to be felt ...

For two back-to-back 3-year-old girls' birthdays, I made pink crowns to compliment the tutus I had my sister make. The tutus were so gorgeous, and the crowns were fun to make. Fav color for all girls this age appears to be PINK. I've heard that the crowns were a hit with the little princesses. (As were the tutus, of course!)


Miss E collected a few acorns after preschool the other day, so we borrowed an idea I'd seen and made a Waldorf-inspired acorn doll. I never found a tutorial, so I just winged it, but she turned out okay. I was a bit too sloppy on the floss around the legs and arms, but Miss E doesn't seem to mind at all. I followed that immediately with the tiny felt house from the "Toys to Sew" book -- adorable, and a quick and easy project.


... and I've been wanting to do a larger Black Apple Doll, so in between making fairy/mermaid/princess* dresses, tops and skirts, I took another break and made a doll. I enlarged the pattern to 200% and it's the perfect size, according to Miss E, who has been carrying her around most days ever since she was created. Miss E reports that she is the right size to be a big sister to most of the other dolls she has, and that, as we all know, is an important duty! She's got bright orange felt for hair, this time with cutesy "bunny ears" as they are called in our house, and I loved the hair paired with the Erin McMorris fabric I had left.


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* They are somewhat interchangeable, aren't they? I need to get some photos of the clothes I've sewn ... a different direction, indeed. Since costume fabric is on sale this time of year, we've bought quite a bit and made use of it. I also bought a serger and have been having a blast playing with that. More to come, one of these days. More sewing and more blogging!

Boy stuff

I'm lousy at coming up with boy ideas, but I think I'm finally getting better. Let's just say it's a good thing I have two girls, or they would probably be sick of robots, monsters and aliens! That said, robots, monsters and aliens ARE cute, and yes, I've made two more. These were special thank you gifts for the two midwives who delivered little miss e (not to be confused with Big Miss E!), and since today was my final six-week checkup, we delivered the fun stuff to Anabel and Lauren for their little boys.

Anabel has an 18-month-old son, and he received a wacky robot, this one with some crazy ribbon hair. Lauren has a 6-month-old son, and he received a fun and crazy-haired alien. The idea for the alien came from one of the funniest books that Miss E has been given as a gift (thanks to my sister) ... "Aliens Love Underpants". We were reading the book a week or two ago and decided that the little blue alien on a particular page was too cute, and that he should be made into a plushie. Hopefully both boys will like the gifts as well as their mamas did!

A month or so ago, while still pregnant and waiting, I also finished the baby stuff for my sister, who is due at the end of this month with ... a baby boy. She selected the fabric, and it is truly cute. It's a brand-new David Walker print from the line Oh Boy!, with lots of little dinosaurs all over. I bought four fat quarters (stripes and pattern included) and squeezed out a bib, two burp cloths, and a small baby quilt. I have just enough left for a special surprise gift, but she won't get that until the little dude is born.

Slippers for Cinderella

Miss E needs slippers for preschool; it's what they wear inside the classroom. I was about to spend $28 on a new pair of Robeez when I realized I could probably make her a pair. I found a fabulous tutorial from Stardust Shoes, got some pretty fat quarters and non-skid fabric at JoAnn last week, and put some cute slippers together. Honestly, they are so very simple, and the tutorial is fantastic. In and around a sleeping/crying baby, I got the pieces cut out, the interfacing ironed on, and finally assembled them.

I used the flickr group's input to size them appropriately, and at 140%, they mimic a size 7 toddler/preschooler. They are a bit wide, but that just gives her breathing and stretching room and she hasn't complained a bit. I used brown fleece for the inside sole, which she says is super comfy. We'll probably be making more at some point since they are so simple to do ... and cost a teensy fraction of the cost of Robeez!

And using the same two fabrics, I finally squeezed in the time for another doll. I had found the Black Apple Doll pattern and really wanted to try that out to compare it to what I have made up. All in all, it's very similar -- just a basic cloth doll. However, it's adorable and Miss E is in love with her. We named her Leilani (Hawaiian for "heavenly child" or "heavenly flower"). She just gives off that aloha feel! Again, a very simple thing to make in and around a sleeping/crying baby (working in spurts of anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour and a half), and the payoff is amazing. I just love the fact that some of the dolls Miss E uses the most are the ones I've made ... and now I've got a new baby girl to make MORE dolls for -- yippee! :)

Princess crown

Today, I was asked to make a princess crown, so I did. Not like I had anything else to do! I didn't have any fancy wool felt; all I have in my stash is the 9x12 stuff made from recycled plastic bottles. Thus, it's not as thick as the wool felt, but it ended up working. The fusible interfacing I have is light/medium weight. Regardless, the crown sits up straight on the princess's head, so all is good.

I found the pattern and tutorial from a blog that many others seemed to be referencing, and it was very straightforward and simple. I was not in the most creative mood for decorating it, but felt kind of Amy Butler-ish, so I used a couple of the smidgens of AB fabric left in the bottom drawer. A couple of felt flowers and sequins, a strip of flower ribbon, plus a cute flower button from my mom's stash (got that at Christmas -- thanks, Mom!). The only thing I'd check closer next time would be the head measurement. It seems a bit tight, and my 3-year-old has a smallish sized head. She says it fits, though ... And who's to argue with a princess?


(oops: updated 7/22/09. I realized later on that the reason it's tight is b/c I only had 9x12 felt, so each side was probably 1/2 an inch shorter than the actual pattern. My fault! I should have added the extra inch to the elastic and fabric, and we would have had the right size! But ... she still doesn't care!)

Crazy sewing

This is getting a bit ridiculous. Two nights ago, I couldn't sleep and what finally was occupying my head was how to create a backpack for Miss E. There just are very few preschooler-sized simple backpacks out there. How hard can it be to make one, I thought. That is always a dangerous thought for me. I get this challenge in my head, and I have to figure out how to make it. I don't buy many patterns, and the more I sew, the more I do from scratch. It's just how I get my kicks! Anyhow, at some point, after laying there too long, I got up and sketched it out and the next morning (yesterday), since the baby had not made an appearance yet, started on the pattern. I used my purse as a model for size and shape (Judy makes absolutely gorgeous purses!) It is a tad big for Miss E's back, but I wanted to make something that she wouldn't outgrow right away. I didn't want to mess with adjustable straps because 1) that is a bigger learning curve, and 2) I wanted to do it with existing supplies, not have to make a trip to JoAnn first. The only instructions I followed were from the Simple Tote in the Amy Karol book, just so I could figure out the assembly at the end.

I cut the pattern pieces from freezer paper and held them up to her time after time, finally getting it to the point at which I was happy. By lunch, I had all of the fabric cut out and ready to go. I had a half yard of Sugar Snap from Melissa Averinos that I had not used for my friend's tote bag, plus scraps left from that project, and it was just enough to do a backpack. I love the colors -- rich and vibrant, with the lavender zigzag for the inside to contrast. Miss E loved the fabrics when they came in the mail, and I'd promised that I would make her something with the leftovers, so this was perfect.

After a brief nap, I was back at it, almost fanatical, really. I had decided it HAD to be completed before I went into labor, so it was a high-adrenaline afternoon of sewing. What a trip! The toughest part for me was figuring out how to assemble it with the straps attached only to the outer layer (I think that was the ONLY way!), and then the whole matter of putting the lining and outside layers together always leaves me temporarily stymied and babbling out loud to myself. However, I am very excited to say that this is the first project in a long time that had NO seams ripped out. I did it! Sure, it's a bit big and I suppose it's not absolutely perfect, but for something with no pattern, no instructions and only one day to complete it, hey, this looks pretty darn cool! Miss E, of course, loves it.

Now, we didn't make it out the door for dinner until 9:30pm. Oops. But we closed down Chuy's and we had an excellent Tex-Mex meal, complete with jalapeno ranch dressing and some delicious green chile chicken rellenos. YUM!

Which came first?

Well, looks like the quilt came before the baby. The race was on, but nothing yet from baby girl, so Miss E finally got her quilt. The fabrics are Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom collection, in cotton and flannel, and a bit of minky added for texture and color. The back is her choice of kona cotton from JoAnn in hot pink.

The quilt instructions are from the Amy Karol book (see Easy Lap Quilt), except I decided to speed things up and skip the hand-sewn binding. Instead, I just sewed a double topstitch on the right side before doing the basic machine stitch up the rows and a few extra lines in between the rows.

It has been good practice for a lot of things, straight stitching in particular, and I learned a lot from making it. After all, it's my first. Nothing is perfect, but it's pretty! I was planning to wash and dry it after it was fully sewn, following Amy's suggestion in the book (to hide imperfections), but I realized as I was pinning it together today that -- oops! -- the Eco-Craft corn-fiber batting I am using cannot go in the dryer. Darn. So we'll see how it looks after it's washed and hung to dry. At the moment, I've been told I can't wash it. I even got some tears when I mentioned I was going to wash it. I guess that means she likes it! She's been wrapped up in it since it was completed and wouldn't even let me take a photo without her in it!

If this baby is still waiting tomorrow, I may try making a much smaller baby-sized blanket with a quilted top and chenille back. See, I keep making plans, and she hasn't interrupted yet ...

Pimpin' my sister's Etsy site

My sister just launched her Etsy site, winning the game of who is first. She beat me to it by a long shot, and she launched before I had my baby (still waiting). She's got some adorable baby stuff and excellent kid stuff, so check her out:
Wild Asparagus on Etsy

I'm so excited for her!