Handmade Christmas: Pin Cushion

I made this awhile back without knowing who it would go to. I gave away pincushions to almost everybody I know who sews, so this one has been waiting for a new sewer to emerge. Since my friend Anja took up sewing this year I thought, Aha!

The base is a twig nest (from a craft store). The cushion is fabric and fiberfill (attached with glue to the base), with two stacked buttons sewn in the center. The foam/feather bird is leftover from my wedding decorations (also available at craft stores), and the six straight pins are made from polymer clay, with a little bit of felt for the nests.

Handmade Christmas: Freya's Kimono

It was my niece Freya's first Christmas, and even though she was only a month old, I couldn't leave her out of the homemade present line-up.

Since she's a little young to "enjoy" a present, I thought I'd make something that would be useful. That resulted in the decision to make a clothing item - my first attempt at clothes in over 10 years. I selected the Lucy's Kimono pattern out of Weekend Sewing*, which was a bust. The author left out instructions, and must have assumed that the inside seams would be serged because they looked horrible when left raw. After my first attempt I threw it aside (it'll now be doll clothing) and made it again, but this time I lined it with some nice soft gray flannel. It's a little large yet (Freya's still too small for newborn clothes!), but she should fit it sometime this late winter/early spring. And in the Pacific Northwest one can always use an extra jacket!

* Here is my Amazon review of this book - not recommended:
I've sewn two of the patterns from this book, and tomorrow it goes to Goodwill. Both of the patterns I used were missing information; crucial instructions were left out and the finished photos contained items that the pattern didn't call for. I was able to finish both pieces because I have enough sewing experience to make it work, but after finishing them it seems like the author made things more difficult than needed. I give this book three stars because it has some good ideas. Sadly, the instructions just weren't executed well. 

Handmade Christmas: Shower Pocket

 

When Susanna visited at Thanksgiving she came up with a idea: she wanted a place to store her travel shampoo & conditioner bottles while in the shower, without having to leave them on the side of the tub. We brainstormed the Shower Pocket and when she left I set to work. It's basically two layers, and each layer is lined/double-sided using the same laminated cotton. I sewed the two layers together, and then divided the smaller layer in two by sewing down the middle. I added a little dimension to the first layer by cutting in the corners. I added two loops at the top to hang on suction cup hooks (stored in the pockets). Susanna can hang this in the shower and keep her travel-sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner handy.

 

When not hanging in the shower, the top portion (with the loops) folds over the bottles (which are kept in the pockets) and the entire thing folds in half vertically and is secured with a magnetic closure. This can be thrown in the suitcase or larger toiletry case and packed away. If the bottles leak, no problem, just rinse that laminated cotton off!

 

Update: It works!

Christmas to New Years, and everything in between

 

After scrambling to finish making all our Christmas presents (more posts to come), Mike and I escaped for 10 days to Bow, WA, to my mother's house on the mouth of the Samish River. Though not a winter wonderland, the land is truly wonderful.

 

Our vacation was bracketed by Christmas and New Years, with Aidan's 9th Birthday Party in the middle (future posts). During that time ...

 

... we walked to the bakery,

 

we cuddled with Freya,

we ate copious amounts of food (including, but not limited to: fresh bread from BreadFarm, raclette, soup, soup, and more soup, an Umbrian grape & sausage dish, lasagna, pulled pork, cookies, pie, caramels and chocolate corn chips),

 

 we played Mexican train dominoes and our new favorite word-guessing game,

we visited Clayton's new boat, still in fabrication,

we went skiing at Mount Baker,

 

we celebrated Aidan's 9th birthday with a Carnival Party,

we rang in the New Year at Susanna's,

 

and we just plain wore ourselves out.

Handmade Christmas: Bulk Food Bags

Staying away from zippers, but sticking to the bag theme, the last bags I made were 2 sets of bulk food bags for Sara & Bobby and Remi & Andrew.

I made the bags from unbleached cotton muslin and cotton drawstring in various colors. The drawstring bags are quite simple to make, but a little on the tedious side. Since I don't have a serger I used a zigzag stitch on all the inside seams after sewing the bags together with a regular straight stitch. I'm hoping this will prevent lots of little strings from intermingling with the oats.

The graphics were applied using freezer paper stencils and fabric paint/pens. I had varying degrees of success with the stencils (paint bled under the stencil in some areas) and as a result all of the graphics are outlined with fabric pens.

I bought the fabric paint from Michael's, and at the time they only had these very florescent colors. I would have preferred red, but the "berry pink" was the closest they had. I noticed that the paints I bought are no longer at Michael's, so maybe their new colors are better. I also know that our local shop Collage has a lot of fabric paint and pens.

I made a few extra bags, but I didn't have the energy to decorate them. I kept them for myself, and since they're smaller I'll use them when I purchase herbs, spices, nuts and seeds.


A little less plastic out there in the landfill!

Handmade Christmas: Corduroy Clutch

At this point I started to get a little tired of those zippers, but I still wanted to make a bag for my sister Sara. I found this really cool, thin corduroy fabric at Bolt for the outside, and dug through my stash to find the medium wale rust corduroy for the interior. I also purchased some magnetic closures to play with, which worked pretty well. I made two previous iterations of this bag, and for those I just used neodymium magnets for closures. These were much easier to work with, and third time was the charm for this bag!

Handmade Christmas: Pleated Clutch

After sewing all those zipper bags I thought I'd mix it up - not yet tired of zippers, I found a pattern for a gathered clutch at Noodlehead. I used wool suiting for the outside and yellow cotton for the liner, and zippy red zipper (plastic). It was generally pretty easy to pull together on the sewing machine, though if I make it again I think I'll add a hand loop.

It's just the right size for a chocolate bar.

Handmade Christmas: Zipper Pouches

Back from a wonderful holiday with family in NW Washington, and kicking off the new year a little bit sleepy!


Before I left I posted a few of my Handmade Christmas project posts (soap and hedgehog). Because I have been on 32-hour work weeks this fall I decided to use my extra time to make most of my Christmas presents. What I didn't count on was that such a task would require more than 8 hours a week, which means that our house has been a mess for the last month, I hardly cooked dinner, we didn't have a Christmas tree or lights, and I'm exhausted. That said - I loved every minute of it.
Many of the projects I found online or in books, some I made up and others came to me by way of friends or family. Some I had to make 2 or 3 times before I found success, and amazingly, some came together the first try! I hope that all of the recipients enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them, and if not, I hope that they can fake it.

Zipper bags were my first project this year. I thought they would be great for many people on my list, and everybody can use an extra bag. This was also my first time sewing zippers, so that was an experience.

Once I got the hang of it though, I went a little crazy. As a result, everybody got a bag. The two above bags are adapted from a pattern at Prudent Baby. I used this pattern for three bags in three different sizes. For the outside fabric I used coated/laminated cotton (raindrop pattern) or oil cloth (apple pattern). The inside liner is PUL. The zippers shown above are plastic sport zippers, but I used a metal zipper on a third bag (not shown). It might rust if the bag was used to hold wet objects, but the metal zipper does look really cool.




I used a second pattern from Prudent Baby, this Boxy Pouch, which can also be adapted to a myriad of sizes. I made it in two sizes, using both oilcloth and cotton (dot pattern). The larger bag (at left) seems to be the perfect size for some very small diapers and ointment, though the recipient assured me that he could find many ways to fill it up!

Handmade Christmas: A Hedgehog Mugshot

This little hedgehog, cousin to this one, is holding a big stuffed felt heart. He recently flew to California to send a whole lot of love to my cousin Christine.

He's handsewn from wool felt, and his "needles" are needlefelted wool roving yarn. I used it as hair for this doll, and it's very fun to work with. I'd like to find another skein of it, perhaps in yellow, orange and black too. The heart is simply sewn out of felt as well. I originally made it as an ornament for our holiday party, but I don't have a lot of use for heart ornaments. So a few quick snips, and it's been repurposed!

Handmade Christmas: "Making" Soap

Mike and I spend a lot of money every month buying handmade soap from New Seasons, so I've been wanting to make my own for a long time in the hopes of cutting down costs. Last year Rebecca gifted us two handmade bars of soap that we just loved. While I thought the bars were a great success, she quickly declared that she would not be doing it again. She had made her soap from scratch and had a very difficult time getting all the ingredients to balance out and come together.

At our sewing get-together in October Danielle mentioned that we could buy premade soap blocks from craft stores and add our own scents and additives; altogether eliminating the need to "make" the soap. Last weekend we made this idea into a project!

   

 I purchased two blocks of shea butter soap from Michaels, and Mom gave me a block of clear glycerin soap. Rebecca bought the Olive Oil and Goats Milk soap blocks, as well as some clear.

 

Danielle set us up with scents and colors. My favorite scents were lemongrass, rosemary and teatree. She also had all sorts of additives for us to use, including, lavendar, herbs, oatmeal, spices and tea.

The process is pretty simple. Cut the large soap blocks into smaller pieces (they are already portioned into ice cube sized pieces). Melt the cubes four at a time for 1 minute in the microwave. Next, add "goodies" and mix it up! We used plastic soap molds (also available at craft stores), and before adding the soap we sprayed each mold with rubbing alcohol.

 The above soap has a little blue coloring and glitter! Soap that Barbie would like!

Next we poured the soap into the mold, sprayed the tops with alcohol again (to eliminate bubbles) and let the molds set up. We put some of them in the fridge to get them to set faster. If you do this, the soap will start to "sweat" when you bring it back into room temperature, so be prepared to wrap them up quickly.

I made a wide variety of soaps - above is Chai Spice, and below are Chai Oatmeal, Chamomile Lemongrass, Oatmeal with Almond Oil and Lavender Vanilla. I also made a Kitchen Herb, TeaTree and Cinnamon Oatmeal.

Rebecca was making gifts for her nieces and nephews, so she brought small rubber toys to suspend in each soap bar. The tricky part was getting them to stay directly in the middle of each soap bar.

This project was a great success (at least the making part was - I haven't actually tried to use any of the soaps yet). All of the materials are easily available at Michaels Craft Stores and online (Hobby Lobby for one). Price wise, it's cheaper to make the soap this way than to buy it. The large soap blocks are $10 at Michaels, and you get about 12 bars per block (varies depending on the size of your molds). The scents range from $3-$5, and the additives can be super cheap (oatmeal) or a little pricier (lavender and lemongrass). All in all, I think I made each bar for around $2. That doesn't include the cost of labor, but since this was so fun and easy, I think it's safe to call it a wash (a clean one).

Two Lovely Ladies

When my friend Patty commissioned me to make her grandson a mobile she also ordered two dolls for her granddaughters. Recently completed and mailed off, here they are!

 

These are much like the other dolls I've made, with a few unique features. I found a new yarn for the brown hair; it's very suede-like, though Aidan thought it was shoelaces. Their eyes are black beads instead of the safety eyes, and I tried out a new style for their mouths.  I also had too much fun making all their clothes - providing a few extra outfits for mix and match.

Guest Pillow Covers

With our new guestroom/office recently completed (sans wood trim), I've been finding ways to gussy it up a little, while still keeping it functional as both a guestroom and an office.

I wanted some accent pillows on the couch/sofabed, but I knew I wouldn't have any place to store them when the sofabed was in use. I also had guest pillows that needed a place to live when the sofabed was not in use.

As a result, the accent pillows became guest pillows, and the guest pillows became the accent pillows.

I fell in love with the front fabric at Bolt and waited until their big sale before buying it. I didn't want to spend the money to get enough to make full two pillows however, so I got just enough to make pillow fronts. For the back I used far less expensive cotton fabric (flannel for one, just plain quilting cotton for another). The backs are quite simple, no fasteners, and are easy to remove and clean.

Then, after Thanksgiving we went to Fabric Depot and Susanna found a sample piece of fabric in their "Yard Sale" for $1.25. Perfect for a third pillow!

I now have a ridiculous number of throw pillows for one small couch.