Handmade Gifts Received

Before I show you some of the gifts I made others this Christmas, I had to show you the amazing handmade things my family gave me. They know I love some handmade. 

Nana made Elsie this owl ornament for her first Christmas. Here it is with the one she made Hendrix two years ago. I love how cute and unique they are, and the kids love them too.

 My mom also made me a mini quilt! Couldn't you die from the adorableness? I love how she free-motion doodled around each bird. This one is going up in the sewing room for sure. It's a project from this book.

And Nick got me the entire Amy Butler Lark collection! Not exactly something made, but it will become something made. And he figured it out all by himself. It seems like people aren't too crazy about this collection, but it is by far my favorite Amy stuff yet. I've never been overly excited about her stuff before, but something about the colors in this one totally get me. I'm just loving navy lately and I love what she did with it here.

He also got me those earrings from Etsy. They came with the most amazing packaging I've ever seen, including that little cut out card.

Finally, I had to show this mini my prolific quilter grandmother gave me when I saw her at Thanksgiving. Cute and very true. Hi Nanny! 

Also, it's my 29th birthday! I don't remember the last time I had balloons on my birthday, but someone surprised me with these tied onto the front steps today. I love it! (I still think it was you Julie!)

So happy birthday to me! Too bad it's just a regular Wednesday for the rest of you suckers :)

Beanbags- a classic.

I remember loving the beanbags at preschool. I think anything you are allowed to throw is good by most kids. I made Hendrix a set of these for Christmas and they turned out really fun.

Of course, H doesn't know his numbers yet, (although he can count to "one, two, one, two, twooooo!") but we have fun tossing them into this elephant storage bin from Target. And when he's older it will be a fun way to practice numbers and simple math.

This is the last handmade Christmas gift I have to share. In fact, I haven't sewn a thing since the week before Christmas, but I'm itching to make some cute little baby girl things. Right now I have some sort of gorilla flu, so I doubt that will happen this weekend. Nick and I are both sick so my mom hopped in the car this morning and drove 5 hours to take care of us for a couple days. Nanas are the best.

Kid Cushions

For one of H's Christmas gifts, I made him one of these cushions so that he could have his own little seat in the living room. It's a really great tutorial, especially for trying piping for the first time. The piping seems like a pain when you are doing it, but it's totally worth it and makes things look so much more polished and store-bought.

I used a super-fun fabric from Ikea that I've had forever and didn't know what to do with. I think that guy on the mountain is actually THE lonely goatherd. 

Making the long side strip fit to both circles was a bit tricky, but nothing you can't handle. I ended up having to add a little extra strip of fabric to make it fit, but it looks fine. I think it was just because I didn't have a compass to make my circles with like the tutorial recommends.

The handle is good for toting around and beating your dad with the pillow. My last recommendation would be to add more stuffing than you think you need. I wish this one had just a skosh more. I also made a cute girly version for H's little girlfriend that was brown zebra print with pink piping, but I forgot to take a picture.

Here he is on Christmas day, enjoying Toy Story with his new elephant Mr. Tibs while we packed for Nana and Papa's house. 

 I'm pretty sure he would have asked Santa for one, but he was too busy planning an exit strategy.

A Couple of Completed Gifts

I have way too many unfinished projects going on right now, but these two were quick and easy to complete in one sitting. Hopefully they'll be headed to the post office today.

These quilted notecards are for my husband's grandmother, who is the only person I know who still sends a handwritten note for no special reason. I love it. I would say it's something I'm going to start doing, but who am I kidding? I'm just going to keep sending facebook messages to my friends. Gross but true.

Fantastic way to use up some of my mountain of scraps. And I always love a project that doesn't require careful measuring and cutting of fabric. That is my least favorite part of sewing.

Also made a couple of these for 2 little artists I love. These are so fun. I'm thinking I need to make a crayon roll version next to stick in H's diaper bag.

This is the third Christmas since I've started sewing, and gifts are definitely my favorite thing to make. It's nice to think that these kind of gifts won't be the ones going to Goodwill in a year or two... I would hope. I also love that I am hibernating up in my sewing room instead of navigating snowy, crowded mall parking lots. Ugh. But no matter how you are gifting this year, I hope it is fun and stress-free!

But Spiderman Doesn't Wear a Cape...

Our downstairs neighbor and good friend Elie turned 4 yesterday. Every time she comes over to play with Hendrix she pretends to be several different superheroes, so I knew I wanted to make her a reversible cape. Lately her favorite is "black spiderman," which I don't know if that is really his name, I didn't catch the second spiderman movie. And yeah, he doesn't have a cape, but I don't think I'm ready to tackle the full spandex leotard yet.

 Hendrix models, as he tries to tear into her other present. (BTW, does anyone else get unreasonably insecure sometimes about giving a handmade gift and feel the need to supplement with something store bought? I don't know why I do that, because people always really appreciate their handmade gifts. And I'm canceling out the benefit I have of not having to buy crap from the store. Dumb. Anyway, just wondered if I'm the only one...)

The pink side for "Super Elie."

I roughly followed these instructions, as I did when I made this cape about a year ago. But when I posted about that cape, I failed to write about the lessons I had learned in making it, which is a big reason I even blog about this stuff- so I can remember and learn from my mistakes.

Anyway, the thing I failed to mention to myself was to use interfacing when appliqueing a stretchy knit onto another stretchy knit. Luckily, I realized that after doing the E side, and added interfacing to the back of the spider side, which would have been a total disaster without it.



Today's crafting soundtrack: Well, Jonsi of course. But also, a little group called Mountain Man that we saw open for him. Look them up on itunes, they are mesmerizing.

Craft-Swappin

I made a couple of bags this week for good friends. I didn't want to charge these lovely ladies, and since they are both makers of things as well, I suggested we barter. How very Oregon Trail of us.

For Olivia, I made this bag (which I'm totally spoiling for her since she hasn't received it yet)

And I'm going to get this adorable print from her shop:

And for my newlywed friend Jessica, I made this bag

For which I've already received a large jar of her honey:

That's right, she keeps bees in her backyard, and harvests (is that the right word?) their yummy TN honey herself. How cool is that? It's delicious. (Although I'm not supposed to eat it right now, I sometimes have to sneak some.)

So this makes me think about the whole swapping thing. There are lots of us bloggers/etsy-ers who make things, and would also like the things that others make. Does anyone know of any sites set up for organizing swaps? It would be nice if you could put a handmade item out there, and also let people know what kind of thing you are looking to swap for, whether it be art, supplies, edibles, or other specific handmade items. Once you have a taker, you could organize the rest on your own terms. I'm sure there is something like that out there. If not, maybe we could just make our own? Suggestions? Thoughts?

Fox Costume!

So these pictures aren't the greatest, but the costume is done and I couldn't resist posting it. I don't know if he knows what he is, but he does love wearing it.

 And I love the way it turned out, which is really most important. Not really. But kind of. Seriously.

I was afraid the big tail would be a bit cumbersome, but he loves it. And it's just about the cutest thing ever swinging on his little booty when he walks.

Here's a nice tail shot- It even gets out of the way for foxes who need to sit down and do puzzles!

Some details on how I made it, for those who like that sort of thing...

Wasn't easy to find plain orange clothes without monsters or ghosts or pumpkins on them, so I bought a plain white toddler tee at Target for $6 I think. I died that with some orange RIT, along with a couple of old Hanes undershirts. I cut the sleeves off of one of those and made them into the hat. I had no idea what I was doing, but I went with it and it was super easy. I made the rest of the tshirt into the pants, using one of his pajama pairs as a pattern. I cut three tail shapes from the other tshirt, kind of like stretched out football shapes I guess, and put white felt on the ends. Then sewed those together and stuffed. I just have it safety pinned to the back of the waist band so we can take it off for the car. 

The black legs are just a pair of knee socks from Target I cut up and slipped on his legs and wrists. That's it! I also had a patch of white felt on the front of the shirt, which he promptly ripped off. So I need to actually attach it well, or just do without it. I can't decide if we really need it or not, we'll see. 

Halloween is the cutest ever.

A girly-girl birthday gift.

Our little friend Alivia turned 3 last week and I made her this little dress-up set. She is a very sweet, pink and girly girl, so sorry if you gag on these pinkalicious pictures a little. But she seemed to like them :)

I sprung for the sparkle tulle instead of plain with this tutu, but be forewarned- the stuff is stiffer and it takes a little longer to do the no-sew version. It did for me anyway. But what 3-yr old doesn't appreciate a little sparkle?

The wings I made with this pattern. I changed the shape though to make them a little softer. The shape the pattern has would probably be better to make dragon wings for a boy or something. I also had to make them quite a bit smaller. I found this project on Chez Beeper Bebe, which I love.

For the little wand, I broke a dowel in half, painted it pink, and sandwiched it and the round ruffled thing between two circles of sparklicious craft foam. To ruffle the fabric, just cut a long thin strip and make a gathering stitch on one long edge. Pull the top thread to gather and sew the ends into a circle. If that sounds confusing, it's just like this tutorial, just adjust the sizes to what you need.

corky-cork and the funky cork board

I made this for my friend's birthday last weekend. He is really into wine. (Sorry about the picture, someone is in a very tactile time in life.) So my first instinct was to buy him some nice wine, but I was a little intimidated by the prospect of picking out something he wouldn't poo-poo. Not that he is snobby enough to poo-poo, but he is someone who knows about tannins and can smell notes of nutty gooseberry and coconut sausage...

So, I turned to my beloved one pretty thing search box. I always start there when searching for gift ideas. There I found this inspiration from Apartment Therapy. I just happened to have a bazillion wine corks because my husband is a bartender and has been bringing them home from the restaurant for quite some time. I always complained about this and said I had no idea what we would do with them. So yeah,  I'm pretty much always right about things like that.

I did mine a little differently though. First I found the frame we already had in a closet and spray painted it red. Then, the apartment therapy version suggests getting a wood board cut to the size of your frame at the hardwood store, but I didn't have time for that. So I just cut a piece of cardboard to fit from a Pampers box. That, with the cardboard backing the frame already had, seemed like it would be sturdy enough.

Then I just started hot-gluing. This picture shows my first round, then I just worked my way in from there. I had to cut corks to make them fit sometimes, but they cut very easy with an exacto knife.

When I finished, I stuck some tacks on it, along with a couple blank list sheets I printed out entitled, "Wines to try." I really liked the way it turned out. I hope he did too. I know a cork board isn't the most exciting gift for a man, but I think he thought the wine part was cool. Anyway, making stuff for guys that they will actually like is hard! I still have never sewed anything for a man. Nick always asks when I'm going to make him something. Then I remind him of that one time I made him an omelet. Oh, and that small person I made in my uterus.

So has anyone come across any good tutorials or ideas for guy gifts? I'd love to hear in the comments!

tutus and pillows for a cause

The crafty/ mom blog , Samster Mommy is having a tutu drive. I'm kind of late to the game, because her goal is to get 100 sent in by the end of July, which happens to be Saturday. They will go to the Princess Alexa Foundation, which gives dress up clothes to terminally ill kids. But I wanted to let you know because there is still plenty of time if you make one in the next couple days. And the great part is, you don' even need to sew to make one. See all the info about the drive here, and how to make a no sew tutu here. (I'm sure you could even hot glue the elastic instead of stitching it.)  

  Here is the one I made with blue and pink tulle. Wish I had a cute little girl around to model it.  

  

  

 

   Just to give you an idea of their poofy adorableness, here is Lily in her garden fairy costume I made last Halloween. Hendrix was a garden  gnome.  

  

In other charitable making news, I came across this article yesterday on the etsy blog about another challenge to get one million pillow cases made for people in need. I love the ambition of that goal! Pillowcases are now next on my list. Find out more about it here.                                

 
Does anyone know of any other opportunities like this going on right now? Let me know in the comments!

Shorty come home.

I made shorts for Hendrix! I wish I had tried this much sooner because I would not have bought him any new pairs this summer. It was easy with this tutorial.  

  

I made them from an old men's button up I bought at a thrift store a while back. Ugly prints on men's shirts= very cute toddler shorts. 

The pocket from the front of the shirt conveniently becomes a back pocket. This shirt only had one pocket, but with a two pocket shirt, you could have them on both sides. 
  

I made a couple mistakes, but I couldn't believe how cute they turned out! I think I will be making his every pair of shorts until he decides he is too cool for elastic waist. That's still cool in high school right?  

No diaper bag in NOLA.

Ok, I said I was gone for the week, but I had to show you what I made for our vacation. I'm a little excited because I've never made something with a zipper before. (Which is embarrassing to admit.)

 Turns out, it was pretty easy thanks to this tutorial.  They even show you how to do it without a zipper foot, which is great, since I was too lazy to find mine. My only edit for next time would be to leave the little pull tab off. I find it pointless. I still love my new wristlet though!


(I may become addicted to wristlets and make this one and this one and this one.)