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zoe’s quilt

The day before Christmas Eve, my friend Emily came over with coffee, a quilt top and some flannel. Her sister made this super cute quilt for her daughter Zoe. Emily wanted help with putting it all together. My husband and daughter were out Christmas shopping, so we had the whole house to ourselves. It was a perfect, crafty afternoon. We sipped lattes, pressed seams and pin basted.

zoe's quilt

The construction was pretty simple. We just squared everything up right sides together. Sewed around, turned right side out, clipped corners and top stitched around. Emily is going to tie the quilt with pink embroidery thread on her own.

zoe's quilt

I love the little details Emily’s sister added, especially zig zagging the ric rack onto the blocks. The polka dots and zebra print are both sweet and funky.

zoe's quilt

It’s amazing how fast this went. Just like at the craft retreat, I am reminded how nice it is to work without little feet running around on my work. I’m also inspired to make something similar on my own. Thanks for a fun afternoon and the inspiration, Emily!

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pajama twins

bella leith matching pajamas

photo by: refibered

Last night, my friend Kelly and I took our daughters to pajama party storytime at the library. Kelly made these amazing nightshirts for the girls to wear. They had a great time and loved being pajama twins. Don’t they look adorable?

As we were leaving, I thanked Kelly for the pajamas. She thanked me for allowing her to use up some of her yardage. When we got in the car, my daughter asked if I had any yardage I needed to use up. If so, could I make her some more nightshirts? What a cutie.

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trying to stay focused

Design-It-Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified

The time for holiday crafting is almost up and I’m almost finished. I didn’t have too much to make this year because I bought a lot of gifts off of etsy.com. Still, there are a few things that need to get done. Cal Patch’s book is making it hard to stay on track.

I got this as an early Christmas present and there are so many things I want to try! I haven’t even had a chance to sit down and read it, although I did look at the pictures. The day after Christmas I’ll be all over it!

How are you doing in the final days of gift preparation? Are you braving the malls for last minute gifts? Logging extra hours crafting in the wee hours? Share in the comments!

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fave crafts blog hop: reindeer puppet

reindeer puppet

Last week I got this great book out of the library called Crafts to Make in the Winter. The first one we tried was the Reindeer Puppet. The instructions were clear and it was really simple to make. We’ll definitely be making more projects out of this book and checking out the other seasons, too.

reindeer puppet

I didn’t anticipate how much love this little guy would get, though, and silk ties are kind of slippery. He kept losing his eyes and once is ears slipped out! I wound up tacking down everything with a few stitches so he would hold up. Now he can join in all the reindeer games at our house and not feel self-conscious.

reindeer puppet

thrifted: I bought two ties at the thrift store last week so my daughter could make one with her friend. All of the other supplies were from my stash.

Have you been working on any seasonal crafts? Share in the comments!

Don’t forget to check out other finished projects over at the Fave Crafts blog.

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finished: rollie pollie bean bag chair

rollie pollie bean bag chair

The Rollie Pollie bean bag chair that I started sewing at the craft retreat is finished! Here are all of the nitty gritty details:

I used the tutorial from Dana posted on the So You Think You’re Crafty site. Dana has a pattern available for sale on her website. You don’t need the pattern, but I saw a copy at the retreat and it’s very comprehensive.

I only enlarged and printed a quarter of the pattern to save paper and ink. I folded my lining fabric in quarters, traced and cut. Then I used the lining pieces as my pattern for the cover fabric.

rollie pollie bean bag chair

Dana recommends sewing the seam and then going back and adding a serged seam for durability. I couldn’t think of a reason to finish the raw edges, so I just sewed a double seam: one at 1/2 inch and one at 1/4 inch from the edge.

I was planning on adding the handle, but as I was sewing up the cover, my daughter lifted the bag up over her head and carried it to her bedroom, so I skipped it.

The fabric and zipper were thrifted. The outside is upholstery fabric and the lining is cotton muslin.

The stuffing is new. I had been looking for a thrifted bean bag on craigslist and they were all pretty grungy. Then I read that even Goodwill doesn’t accept beanbags, so I decided repurposed stuffing wasn’t going to happen. I wound up buying two bags of bean bag pellets from here. Shipping is almost as expensive as the pellets, but I bought a few other things on my gift list and got free shipping. (The have a nice selection of Melissa and Doug items.)

When I started this project, I didn’t realize it would be so expensive. I also had no idea that bean bags were so pricey! I’m glad I made the large size so my daughter can get lots of use out of it. It currently resides in her “reading corner” next to her basket of library books. It was a fun project and has brought my daughter a lot of joy. I definitely give it two thumbs up!

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ikea fabric

fabric from ikea

Until I started reading crafty blogs, I had no idea Ikea sold fabric. I grew up with an Ikea practically in my backyard. I got my college furniture there. I accessorized my first apartment from there. Fabric? Never knew it existed.

We went home for a few days over the Thanksgiving holiday and I found myself sitting in my parents’ livingroom less than two miles from the big blue and yellow store. I decided it was time to check out the textiles.

I loved the prints, although the pattern repeats are so large, I can’t imagine how I’d use some of them. I purchased three yards of the red and white fabric just because I loved it, there was only three yards left, and at $2.49 a yard (!) my husband insisted. (Seriously. He made me buy it all up!)

I also had fun remnant diving. The striped fabric is flannel. At first I thought blanket, but now I’m thinking jammies for my daughter. The orange will be sewn into pillow covers for our livingroom. I think they’ll look lovely with my thrifted afghan.

So there you have it. I’ve had the cinnamon rolls, put together furniture with an allen wrench and have bought fabric. My Ikea experience is now complete.

remnants: Did you know there are huge bins of fabric in the “as is” section down by the checkout? It was super fun digging through it all.

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home ec class: hemming jeans

home ec class how to hem a pair of jeans

I haven’t abandoned my home ec class. I keep looking at the projects hoping to steal a bit of time here and there to finish some more up. This one was a necessity. When my daughter tore a hole in her best-fitting pair, I had to face the pile of size six jeans that are too long. It’s a big pile.

I knew I was going to have to hem most of them, but since she’s growing so fast, I decided to only do a few at a time.

I picked an easy pair to start with: straight leg. I only broke one denim needle — my machine’s motor is definitely not a match for that side seam. I stopped and started on either side and hand stitched that part of the hem.

I’m pretty impressed with how they turned out. The real challenge will be tackling flare and boot cut styles.

refashion: I like how the original hem is retained with this technique. They don’t have that “my mom hemmed these” look to them. I have a feeling that I’ll be using this skill a lot in the coming years.

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finished: beach blanket to go no.2

wedding gift beach blanket to go soulemama

The second wedding blanket is finished! I decided on brown trim and spent a good part of my time at the craft retreat cutting, pressing and zig zagging everything together. The trim fabric was from my stash. I borrowed some brown thread from a fellow crafter because navy, which I had planned to use, didn’t look as nice as I thought it would.

I’ll be adding a tag like the first one and then it’s off to the happy couple.

pattern info: I finally got a copy of Amanda Soule’s Handmade Home. Thanks, Mom!

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bee’s knees denim knee patch

denim flower patch applique

A few weeks ago, my daughter fell and skinned her knee. Her knee healed fine, but her pants not so much. We love these jeans. They fit her really well, which is rare. She asked me to fix them, so I put them in the pile for the craft retreat. I was planning a boring patch, but the collection of creative minds turned it into something special and cute.

me: I’m just going to do a patch with some denim and heat-n-bond.
crafty friend #1: Why not cut some cute shapes with the BIGkick?
me: Hmm… that would be cool.
crafty friend #2: Are you going to stitch around the edges?
me: I don’t think so. How would I get it under the presser foot?
crafty friend #3: Open up the side seam and it will fit easily over your sewing arm. Then re-stitch and re-serge the seam.
me: Y’all are brilliant!

refashion: Mended clothes don’t have to look boring. This patch turned out most excellent! I’ll definitely be saving my denim scraps for future repairs.

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24 hours of craft

craft retreat

Some enjoy 24 Hours of Le Mans or 24 Hours of Daytona. I prefer 24 Hours of Craft. Last weekend I attended another local craft retreat. It was just as much fun as the first one. I brought my sewing machine this time and was very productive.

• finished a beach blanket wedding gift
• used the Big Kick for the first time to patch my daughter’s jeans
• sewed half of a rollie pollie (bean bag chair)
• hemmed a pair of my daughter’s jeans
• taught friends how to unravel a sweater for yarn

The one thing I kept thinking all weekend was sewing [insert any craft here] isn’t hard. Finding time and space to get a project finished is the challenge. No one played with the on/off switch on my machine or jumped up and down on the fabric I had laid out on the floor. I didn’t have to stop and make food or put anyone to bed. I worked from 1 pm to 1 am on Saturday and then after breakfast on Sunday until checkout.

Thank you Kaitlyn for organizing this event and for the super cool pin. The weekend was just what I needed to get my sewing mojo back.