Category: sew

You know what I’m talking about. The Inner Elmo. The la, la, la, la that runs through your head all day. You just want to make it stop. I can imagine that parents with a talking Elmo doll are probably on the brink of insanity. I think that’s maybe what happened to Christy.

We were at knitting one Saturday afternoon and I was talking about how much Bella LOVED Elmo. Christy said she had an Elmo to give me if I wanted one. It was in her closet. I told her thanks, but I don’t need an Elmo that continues to sing la, la, la, la after I turn Sesame Street off. She said no worries. This Elmo doesn’t work anymore. Oh. Well, in that case, cool! We’d love to have an Elmo!

When I brought him home a few weeks later and showed T he had two things to say: “Oh my god, Bella is going to LOVE that!” and “Oh my god, does it talk?” I told him that Elmo was broken and he said, “Cool!”

I showed him the doll and he commented on how heavy Elmo was. All that mechanical stuff inside made him kind of clunky. T suggested that I take it out. Huh? He reminded me that I can sew and that I could do anything I wanted with Elmo. Yes, knowing how to sew can sometimes be dangerous. It makes you fearless with regards to Opening. Up. Elmo.

5 Easy Steps for Silencing your Inner Elmo

1. With a seam ripper, carefully open up the fabric around the battery box.
2. The battery box is part of a bigger box, which is held in place by a heavy duty plastic tie. Cut the tie.
3. The box is also connected to the mouth and hand by small wires. Cut the wires as close to the hand and mouth as possible.
4. At this point, you might want to throw Elmo in the washer on the gentle cycle. I didn’t put him in the dryer, but rather let him air dry. (I’m not sure why I was so cavalier about ripping him apart and throwing him in the washer, but timid about putting him in the dryer.)
5. When dry, stuff him with some FiberFil and sew him up!

I did all of this in the evening after Bella was in bed. I was afraid she’d get upset if she saw me cutting Elmo’s insides out. A few days after he was finished, Bella was freaking out about getting dressed because OH MY GOD PLEASE DON’T MAKE ME TAKE OFF MY ELMO PAJAMAS. I was in a hurry get out of the house, so I made a deal with her: take off the Elmo PJs and I’ll let you play with a real Elmo.

They have been best friends ever since.

 

Thank you, Christy! 

T has been riding his bike to work the past few weeks. He needed something to keep his pants from getting caught in the chain. I offered to make him something out my scrap fabric.

We measured twice, with his pants on. Somehow the first one turned out too small and the second one too big. Hopefully, this one will be just right. Once I get the measurements down, I’m going to make a second one for him. I might also write up a tutorial, although it’s pretty straight forward. I used a cotton fabric that looks like denim, but is lighter in weight (and hopefully cooler, too!). I also used some fusible interfacing and velcro.

Did you make something yourself this week? Post it here.

Remember the bibs I made for Bella? I took my pattern and sized it down for infants. I backed them with terry cloth to make them super absorbent for little droolers. I really like how they turned out and plan to make a bunch more. Details over at etsy, of course.

The problem with sewing cute tote bags is that I want to keep them all! We’ve been going on a lot of picnics lately, and this would be so much fun to take along. Alas, I can’t keep everyone I make. Details over at kundhicreative.etsy.com.

When I was in college, I had an oversized barn jacket that I just loved. When T and I moved in together, he decided that he loved it, too. When the weather turned cold, I’d reach into the closet for my jacket only to find T was already wearing it. I figured the only way to get my jacket back was to get him one of his own. It worked. I gave it to him for his birthday and he started wearing it immediately. I got my jacket back!

One day, we noticed a hole in his pocket. It was pretty big and right in the middle. He couldn’t remember snagging it on anything. A few days later he had another hole. It was bizarre. He backtracked through his day, remembering when he was wearing it and what he was doing. Nothing special had happened all the way up to when he came home and put it on the back of the dining room chair. We went over and took a look at it. I examined the pocket, found a roll of mints inside and figured it out!

Chloe LOVES mint. She will do anything for it. Catnip pretty much does nothing for her, but mint? It makes her go crazy. Crazy enough to chew a hole through a brand new barn jacket pocket to get her fix.

T continued to wear the jacket, but the hole started to fray. Once it started looking ragged, he saved the jacket for weekends and outside chores. He was back to wearing my barn jacket the rest of the time. That was before we were even married. A lot of time has passed and he still only wears his jacket for things like shoveling snow, cutting down Christmas trees, etc. I decided to fix it for Father’s Day.

It wasn’t too hard, but it was time consuming. I had to rip all the double stitched pockets carefully, cut them up, rearrange to hide the holes, and then restitch them together. Then I had to do the same thing to the other side so it didn’t look weird. I tried to find complimentary or contrasting fabric, but had no luck. I am kind of bummed that the underneath fabric was so much darker. The jacket has seen a lot of sun and is really faded. Overall, though, I like the end result. He did, too, by the way. And he plans to keep it in the closet from now on.

T’s Dad already got his Father’s Day gift. Man, Priority Mail is fast! I just sent it Tuesday afternoon!

Last week I was cruising through my RSS feeds, found this cute tutorial for handmade hankies, and thought these would be perfect for my father-in-law. I used some brown and white cotton fabric from my stash. The rolled hem was easier than I thought it would be and didn’t take long at all. I hope it holds, though. This was my first try and I’ll be so embarrassed if they unravel!

I’m busy working on my other handmade Father’s Day gifts. Time is running out. I hope I don’t have to gift any works in progress!

When I was little, we used to go to a snowball stand on Joppa Road called My T Fine Snowballs. I remember the tutti frutti flavor was this brilliant, saturated blue color—kind of like my latest tote bag. Details over at kundhicreative.etsy.com.

Remember the daisy tote bag? I’ve been working on this pattern a bit. I wanted to give it a little more structure and eliminate the hand stitching on the straps. I’m also messing around with the gusset size. Here’s a look at number two:

I’m making my third one right now. The second one was 75% reclaimed fabric (I bought a fat quarter of the floral fabric. I couldn’t resist!) The third one will be 100% reclaimed fabric. Stay tuned for pics!

p.s. The floral tote isn’t for sale. It was a birthday gift for Lauren.

I’ve been really busy. I sewed a t-shirt dress for M, finished one tote and working on another, made some bibs, started a new knitting project and almost finished a pair of socks. I’ve really got to get some more pics up on the blog! For now, though, I’ve got a felted pin cushion. Details at kundhicreative.etsy.com. Isn’t it cute?