Deceptively difficult!

Whoever thought that sewing up a few slices of tomato would be so challenging! I can't tell you what I'm working on, since it's a gift for a small friend (whose mom just might read this!), but the rest of the project has been pretty simple. But ... nice, perfect slices of tomato with neatly-stitched segments? Not so simple! My straight stitching is far from pretty, so I'm struggling through, and to make it more challenging, I have a 3.75-year-old who keeps bouncing up on the loveseat to see what I'm doing. Or, she asks me to thread her needle, tie a knot, trace out circles and hearts on felt ... because, in and around *my* projects, she has her own. Yesterday, she took off with the felt food making (wonder why?) and produced five sandwich cookies, a tomato slice, two blueberries, and a big strawberry donut. I think she has done great for a small fry!

Now, back to stitching and no more bitching ...

Doll clothes

I've been meaning to make doll clothes for Miss E's Bitty Baby for ... uh ... ahem ... well, let's just say a long time. The patterns are going to decay soon. Okay, so not that long, but a long time. I finally did, and they actually came out near-perfect! I am so very lousy at following patterns that this is a major accomplishment. Just a few hours of work, no swearing at all, and doll clothes that are so cute. The dress is really supposed to be a nightgown, but why would you just sleep in something so ornate?! It's a Simplicity pattern, 3517, view B.

The hat was a loose rendition of this tutorial from the purl bee, but made it reversible. It's at 80 percent of the pattern size, but I think next time, I'd make the brim much wider. It seems really skinny to me, but Miss E thought it was just perfect.

Best of all, the dress and hat coordinate with the dress I made last fall for Miss E, from one of the Portabello Pixie patterns from Sandi Henderson. That pattern just rocks -- I've made two dresses (her princess dresses, she calls them), extending the skirt length a bit to make them floor length (which won't last long at her growth rate), and also made a cute Santa shirt from it. Again, a pattern that I don't swear at and can get through in about 3.5-4.0 hours. YAY!

Just letting you know I'm here. And still making things. If you're reading me.

Looking onward

Happy New Year's Eve to anyone still monitoring my long-ignored blog. See, here's what happened. At the end of August, I bought a serger. I had gotten some money from my grandma, about a year after her passing, so I used part of it to buy a serger. It has been wildly fun, and I've made an array of fairy dresses, skirts, some beautiful dresses and a shirt from a Sandi Henderson pattern, and countless other things. It's just that when I've had free time, like I said before, I have sewn, not blogged. I've had tons of fun making things, including more dolls (even one cute Christmas one) for both girls. As the end of this year approaches, I've decided I don't need to document absolutely everything I make, and I don't need to apologize for not blogging. We'll see how this next year goes, but I do know I'll be a-makin'!

Miss E has been quite the little maker, too, and I am constantly impressed with the ideas she comes up with. I've turned her loose with needles, thread, floss, scissors, glue and an array of sequins, pompoms, felt, buttons and fabric. I love watching her get so excited about the things she makes, and I hope it never ends. She made Christmas tree ornaments for my parents as a surprise gift, and even cut out some of the shapes on her own (particularly the pink snail). She decorated a few more of the animal shapes, so we made them into a small garland for Nana to hang at her house.

And she surprised the heck out of me one day just before Christmas when she took some beads, floss, and a thick needle and actually strung those beads on the floss, one at a time. She brought it to show me, and I was amazed that she had not only come up with the idea to make a bracelet, but that she could take her small hands and string those tiny beads like that. Last year, she was learning to poke a shoestring through some chunky wooden block beads! I took her to Michael's and we bought some proper stretchy string and she picked out new beads, and she strung a beautiful bracelet for Nana; one that Nana is actually proud to wear. (I'd like one, too, Miss E!)

So here's to a happy and healthy new year, full of fun crafts and sewing projects! Cheers, y'all!

Pretty burp cloths

My sister hand-dyed me some Gerber prefolds and they are absolutely beautiful. Miss E and I have been oogling them for well over a month now, but since Little Miss e has finally begun to have sloppy burps, I am now using all those burp cloths and am ready to make more. To my chagrin, she has been a non-messy burper for the first 8 weeks (doesn't even burp much!), and here I am with all these fancy burp cloths! Finally, messy messy spit-up. Can you believe I am excited about such a gross thing?

I started with the lovely grass green prefold and added some brown floral Heather Bailey fabric that I had left over from a scarf for my other sister. Very pretty, eh? Bring on the spit-up!

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! :)