make your own shoulder bag

I made this messenger bag a while back out of Jade Somerset by Braemore. I found the pattern free from the good folks at Sew Young, Sew Fun. Sadly, their site no longer exists.

However, there are plenty of other options out there for a free bag pattern, including:

this tutorial by Tiny Happy,
this hobo bag at JCarolineCreative
this one on the Robert Kaufman fabric site
this free yoga bag pattern from Amy Butler (navigate down to free patterns, then scroll)
and this one from Craftbits

(Late note, I eventually posted my own version of a free messenger bag pattern since I can't point you to the Sew Young Sew Fun version. Here it is.)

kitty cat applique

I was feeling the need to appliqué something cute, so I came up with this kitty cat for a simple little tunic dress for my girls. The older one can wear it as a tunic, and it works nicely for a dress on the younger one. I love it when things pull double duty.
Here's the appliqué pattern for you. Just right click on the picture of the cat above and save it to your computer. You can download and print this out at whatever size you like. I did mine pretty big. Print it out once for the overall outline, then once again to cut out the nose, eyes and collar. Then one more time to cut out the irises, if you don't want to freehand those.

I applied Heat N Bond to the back of the overall cat outline fabric (follow their instructions). Then the rest of the features are in wool felt, with a button on the collar.

Lay the main cat body down on the fabric, and iron it down according to the Heat N Bond instructions. Use a satin stitch on your machine to sew it down all around. Then secure the collar, nose, and eyes on with dots of glue, and satin stitch around those too. I glued both parts of the eyes down at the same time, and just switched thread when I was stitching them down. I used a button for the collar tag, but you could also use a bead or an oversized sequin.

Molly Monkey pattern tester?

Hey, everybody. This post brought to you by the magic of scheduling, because I'm not even at home on my computer. I am in the technology desert that is my mom's house until Saturday.

I have not forgotten my promise to publish the pattern for Molly Monkey. I've been working on it off and on, and it is mostly finished, but I am loathe to post it for fear of mistakes or problems with the instructions.

Thing is, I am also loathe to make another Molly Monkey doll myself just to test things, and I'm not sure I'd be the best tester anyway. It's like proofreading your own copy, you tend to look over mistakes because your brain knew what you intended to write.

I know it is a long shot, but is there anyone out there who would like to take a crack at making a Molly Monkey doll from my new pattern and letting me know what questions or problems you have? Leave me a comment or send me an email. thanks!

molly monkey doll

So here is Molly the Monkey, the doll I whipped out in a few days for my youngest daughter's birthday. I designed the doll and pattern on my computer, so I can share it at a future date once I make the adjustments to it that I made on the fly while I was sewing it together. She's made out of brown corduroy, yellow wool felt, and a mishmash of cotton quilting fabrics and ticking. I didn't stuff her really tightly for two reasons:

1) I wanted her to be squashy and lovable
2) I didn't see how the tarnation I was supposed to sew it all right sides together with the legs, arms and tail tucked inside if they were all stuffed to the max. Is there another method for this?

I used a modified Wee Wonderfuls shoe pattern which worked great for her little mary janes. I really like my Put Together Book I ordered of hers. I'd love to use her patterns for a whole doll one of these days. I have a hand sewing set of hers also that I'd love to break open! Too much to do.


 Overall, and even with sleep deprivation, I'm really pleased with how she turned out! She was girly enough for me, and monkey enough for my four year old. Also, I got to use my Flutterby charm pack from a previous post for her clothes! So, yet another great use for charm packs -- doll clothes!

And now I can use this pattern as a base for Katy Kitty, my next doll creation for my other daughter's birthday in August.

make a birthday present card

Whew! Today is over. My daughter is now officially four, her party was grand, and her monkey doll was finished in good time. And, more importantly, she loves it. She is currently sleeping with Molly Monkey, and I'll post pictures of her later. Her older sister made sure to remind me that her kitty cat doll (future Katy Kitty) would be made in time for her birthday in August, and she even generously offered for me to make it before her birthday, if that would help me not forget. So thoughtful. I'll be very glad to have 3 months to design and make a doll, instead of 3 days.

For now, here is how to make a card with a cute little birthday present on the front. This has become my signature card to send to my friends and family. Here is one I just made for my wonderful Mom-in-Law. It is so quick to make, the possibilities with paper and ribbon combos are endless, and everyone appreciates a handmade card. Unless they work for Hallmark.

You'll need:

• 8.5 x 11 sheet cardstock

• small sheet of decorative paper (You could go green here. I have recycled wrapping paper, cards, shopping bags, packaging, anything with a nice pattern, which I squirrel away in a drawer for future card making). Thicker works better, but if you adore a really thin piece you could always reinforce it by gluing it to card stock. The decorative paper I show here is actually from a recycled Talbots shopping bag.

• small amt of ribbon, enough to span about 3.5 inches and then another piece to tie a little bow. Thinner ribbon works best, like 1/4 or 3/8 inch wide.

• tiny paper price tag with string, I found mine in the office/school supply section at Wal-Mart.

• bone folder (optional)

• paper cutter or scissors

• glue (I love and recommend Fabritac - it has an instant bond and won't wrinkle your paper.)

1) Ok, first cut the card stock in half on the long side, so that you have two 5.5 x 8.5 inch pieces. Set one aside (use it for a second card later). Fold the other one in half so that you have a card that is 4.25 x 5.5 inches.

2) Cut a tall rectangle out of your decorative paper, about 2-ish x 3-ish inches.

3) Cut a piece of ribbon that is about 1/2 inch longer than your rectangle. Put a dab of glue on the back of the ribbon on either end, align it in the center of the rectangle and fold the sticky ends around the edges to the back, as shown. Make sure the ribbon is not too loose on the front. You want it to lay tight 'n smooth.

4) Put a dab of glue in each of the four corners of the back of the rectangle and adhere it to the front of the card. I like to leave more room at the top for the bow and the tag.

5) Write the birthday person's name on the tag and adhere the string to the top of the present and the tag to the card with little dabs of glue.

6) Fashion a little bow out of the remaining ribbon and glue it to the top of the present, covering the end of the tag. Trim the tag string ends if needed.

Done.

If you used Fabritac glue, you won't even have to wait for it to dry before mailing. This card will fit in a standard invitation envelope, which I also buy at Wally World (as my husband affectionately refers to Wal-Mart).

mmmstrawberries

One of the joys of May -- picking your own strawberries. Extra fun when you are with good friends, and your very excited 4 and 5 yr old daughters. (OOOH mama! look at this one. OOOOH, look at THIS one!). Then of course, the joy of eating them.
I am run off my feet this weekend. I have mother's day prep, a singing to attend this evening, a birthday party for precious little boy tomorrow at lunch, then my own little sweetie is turning four tomorrow, so her party that evening at our house. Then, of course, Mother's Day is on Sunday, and the celebrating that goes on there.
Blessed but busy!
One of the things keeping me busy is the monkey doll I decided must be finished for my birthday girl's party. Tomorrow. Here's what it looked like on Wednesday evening. Late.

I'm much further along now, just need to give her a face and some shoes and hopefully some clothes. Clothes are optional at this point.
For the monkey, that is.

make a teacup pincushion

I've had these tiny vintage teacups for a couple of years, thinking I'd make candles out of them. Today, I decided to make one into a pincushion for my lovely mom.

If you'd like to make one, here's what you'll need.

a small teacup (mine is not the usual sized teacup -- of course, if your teacup is regular sized, you can size up your pincushion to match)

poly stuffing

a 6 inch circle of coordinating cotton midweight fabric

needle

thread

hot glue gun

rubber gloves, if you are hot glue challenged and thrice burned, like me

Thread your needle, no knot, and sew a big running stitch all around the wrong side perimeter of the circle of fabric. Leave a long tail so you don't pull your thread through. I sewed about a quarter inch from the edge. If you know how to make yo yos, this is just like that, without the extra fold.

Gather your circle of fabric into a little pouch, leaving a small hole to stuff through, and tie off the ends securely.

Stuff, and stuff, and stuff until it's nice and compact and smooth. Using small pieces of stuffing rather than large blobs will make this look nicer. Squash it around to make it look even. (you could embellish the pincushion more at this stage than I did -- add a fabric button on the top, for instance, or some ribbon criss crossing)

Apply liberal amounts of hot glue in the bottom and sides of your cup, taking care not to come too close to the top. Squash your pincushion down firmly into the glue. This is where you might need gloves -- the glue makes the cup HOT.

Done. Put some coordinating pins in it and wrap it up for your sewing friend. Or keep it for yourself!

whoa...freezer paper, where ya been all my life?

I feel like such an idiot to have overlooked such a valuable crafting tool all these years. If you buy an ordinary roll of freezer paper, you can all of a sudden use your color printer to print on fabric! And other cool stuff. This stuff is genius! Freezer paper has just enough plastic coating on the shiny side to stick to fabric when you iron it down. But (and this is the genius part) it doesn't make any marks on the fabric and it peels off as easy as pie! And the other side is non-shiny. 

So now you can use your printer to print a design on the non-shiny side of freezer paper (like the letters for my totes, noted in torturous pre-freezer paper era in a previous post), iron that down on fabric, then cut out around the freezer paper, then peel it off. So simple! No trying to trace stuff on fabric. 

Trace a clothing pattern on to freezer paper and iron it down on the fabric to cut it out. No more pinning.

Iron an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of freezer paper on fabric of the same size, then run the fabric like paper through your color printer! Then the freezer paper just peels right off. 

I'm just reeling with the possibilities over here. I might be the last person on the planet to know about freezer paper properties. I just ran into Angry Chicken's freezer paper stencil tutorial, so apparently this is another huge thing to do with freezer paper and I totally missed the buzz.