Another Christmas Gift Done!

Spoiler Alert: If you are my sister, stop reading now. Avert your eyes! If you are her kids, why in the world are you on the internet!?

I took a whole bunch of liberties with the One Yard Wonders pattern for a bunting. Okay, essentially I was just inspired by the photo but really made the whole thing up. This bunting is going to be a gift for my nieces for their new camping land -- I thought it could use a little "sprucing up" around the tents!

This is a fairly simple project to make. If you can find some big, bold typefaces that you can print out and cut around, that's the hardest part. Rather than fabric glue these letters on, I just appliqued them. It takes longer, but I like how it looks. And for a short word or phrase, one package of double fold bias tape should work. In retrospect, I think my fabric choice is too busy and the letters aren't bold enough, but I think the kids will like it anyway. The fabric does have a "woodland" theme, so it really was too perfect to pass up. Thank you, Crafty Planet!

On Christmas Eve we're packing up a 26 foot moving truck and chasing our fortune back in our home state of Wisconsin. So...I have been trying to get the house packed up in between my crafting projects, but it's been tough to really feel like I'm accomplishing much of anything. It may be the end of my holiday crafting...unless I get really inspired in the next week or two!!

What surprises have you been making? Do share!

Choo Choo Applique

I have been having so much fun using clip art to make craft projects lately. A month or so ago I printed out a horse and embroidered it on a shirt for my niece. Now, I printed out a train and used it to create an applique for a cute little red hooded sweatshirt for my Wee Pumpkin. I'm really not that great at applique, so this one looks a little "fuzzy" around the edges, but hopefully with some more practice, I'll perfect the technique. I think my big fault with this one was that the pieces are a bit too small to applique with a machine. I really should have done it by hand.

I can't wait to try this on the Wee One and see how it looks. I was happy that when I showed him the work in progress, he at least knew it was supposed to be a train.

Camper Kid

Well, I wish I could say I was inspired to make this shirt by all the camping we do as a family. But, my husband is a city mouse (okay, so am I) and therefore we're not planning anything of the like. But, I can sure pose my kid as a cute camper in this new shirt I made last night. It's organic cotton and the car and trailer made of vintage thrifted fabric. Next time I'll have to try my hand at making one that looks more like a B & B!

Are you heading out on any camping trips this weekend?

De-Stash...and I Don't Mean "Dustache"

I don't have nearly as much of a stash as some folks, but I have collected my fair share of fabrics over the years. Most of them are great, but they do seem to take up a lot of space. And I guess what really bothers me is that they are great, and they do deserve a great purpose in life. So tonight I decided to start setting them free by making this onesie.

This is a really easy project to pull off.

1. Take an embroidery hoop and use a fabric pencil to trace it's shape around something cool on a piece of fabric (I used the strawberry)
2. Then, trace the same hoop on a piece of fusible interfacing
3. Cut out the shapes (cut the interfacing a little smaller so that it doesn't hang outside the edges of the fabric at all
4. Iron the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric
5. Peel the backing off the interfacing
6. Iron your fabric onto your tee shirt/onesie/whatever you want
7. Use a zigzag stitch to sew right around the outside of your circle
8. You could even add an embellishment over the top of this, like a button or some rick rack if it needed "sprucing" (Just don't use buttons if you're making this for a baby because they can get pulled off, choked on, etc.)

Have fun!

Stash to Treasure

After I cleaned up my craft room, I discovered many little treasures I had been keeping around for years, waiting for a purpose. What better purpose than to make them into something to sell on Etsy.com, eh? Of course some of the stash will be made into gifts, maybe some for my family, but ideally I'd like to get it out of my house and in the hands of a new owner.

This tote bag I put together over the last two nights. It was fun, and I hope someone likes it.

Tomorrow night I'm hoping to make one of those cute bird ornaments from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. I'll let you know if it turns out.

My crafting in the kitchen last week turned up an amazing recipe. It's the Oven Crespella from Gourmet. It's a new favorite, it's SUPER easy, and it features copious amounts of Nutella. How can you go wrong!? Sunday I'm going to dinner at a friends, and I'm hoping to try Giada's Nutella Ravioli's. Any reviews?

Meep Meep! Robot Vest for Baby!

I had so much fun making my very first felted project ever. It's the "boy's robot vest" out of the lovely and talented Betz White's new book Warm Fuzzies. I had a stash of wool sweaters of my own that were overly hot or ill-fitting, so I sent them through the washer and dryer a few times and voila! felted sweaters! At first it felt a little weird "ruining" something that was "perfectly good" but the end result is worth it, I think.

In her book, Betz says she thinks that the top-loader washing machines work better than the front loaders for felting purposes. I have a front loader (my luck, of course) and it definitely took more than one washing and drying on hot. The applique part of this was really satisfying, although it probably took me a good 3 - 6 hours to get it all cut out and sewn on.

The next project I want to tackle is the Elmer Fudd style earflap hat out of this book. I have the perfect pastel sweater waiting to become a hat!