KCW Day 6- Monster Tee

I was crossing my fingers the whole time I was sewing this shirt, hoping and hoping that it would fit over the noggin’!

And it did! Not even a struggle! Woo Hoo!

I also have a huge problem finding cool knit fabric for the boy. So I finally resorted to online. I found a few great ones at Banberry Place. Including this monster fabric by Lillestoff, a European import. Please explain to me why cool knits are so hard to find in this country??? I love Lillestoff! Love! It’s so nice and soft and the design is COOL!

My original plan was to use the Flashback Tee again. I used it once before and it was a bit tight, so I wanted to try it again the next size up. But then I was like… Well, maybe I reuse the Winter PJ top cause it fits so well. But the head thing… The winter PJ’s top goes on easy, but it’s kinda hard to get off.

So I went with the original plan to use the 4T Flashback tee pattern. And it’s perfect. Easy on. Easy off. Cute. Fast. Not too tight. Love.

I even remembered the tag! The kiddo was pretty excited about that!

And he wanted to be sure we showed the back of the t-shirt. Since it’s so different from the front….

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Some Special Brown Fuzzies!

I’ve shown you my Ghosties before (here and here are two versions)… I used to make them A LOT. I sold them in quite a few stores around Seattle. Then the economy started falling apart and a few of my shops started closing and I honestly didn’t feel like finding new shops. Honestly, I had made a lot of these little guys!

But, I love them. As I make them, I turn them right side out and they each seem to have a little something different and a little something funny about them that makes me smile. So making them is always happy! I had a request to make another one and I never say no to a Ghostie!

A good friend is adopting a son (fingers crossed everything goes as planned) and she always gets Ghosties for baby gifts. Of course, her own needs one too! When she called I knew exactly what fabric I was going to use. I already had it in my head and when she mentioned brown, I was floored, because that’s exactly what I was hoping she’d say! This guys face seems a bit lop-sided to me, but the family thinks he’s just right, so he’s staying just like he is.

So this little guy is made of this brown blanket scraps I had received from my ’recycled’ source. (I have an upholsterer friend who gives me all the scraps my husband will let me bring home!) And then I had this pile that was shedding all over my work space, but I hated to throw it away. It’s soooo soft! But all the leftover pieces were skinny strips… Scarf?

So I called my son and asked him if he wanted another Stay Put Scarf and even though he barely wears the other one I made him, he got SUPER excited about this one.

He pulled out all his fabric scraps and wanted to make a patchwork one. I didn’t agree to do the WHOLE thing as patchwork, but we decided to do a little bit. And he picked the scraps and laid out where they were to go!

I used the edging of the blanket for the loop on the scarf.

And I just love this picture of him and how serious he looks. Maybe it’s me being his mom, but doesn’t he look like a real model in this picture? Not just a crazy kiddo??? hehehe…

And if you’re not wearing the scarf, it can always be a blanket for the Ghostie!

 

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Beaded Bookmarks!

We seem to be having a hard time keeping up with bookmarks. And we seem to be reading at least one chapter book at a time. Which means, I’m constantly trying to remember where we left off….

So when I saw these adorable bunny bookmarks by Small for Big, I was so excited to make them! Have you seen this? The project has been featured all over the blog world! It’s just so adorable!

I wanted to try making them out of pom poms, since I knew for sure we had different sized pom poms around this house somewhere… The key word in that sentence is somewhere… I couldn’t find them anywhere… So we used the beads that we have at the house. I loved the wood colored originals, but we had colored beads and I think they turned out nicely.

I showed my son the picture of what we were making and proceeded to pick every shape we had, except the circles, for the bunnies! Then he decided that, no, no bunny for him. He was making a little square-headed kid! OK! Well, I stuck to the directions and made a bunny!

I had grand expectations of this project. We were going to make a BUNCH of these for Easter gifts. Then the kiddo left me. Alone. Beading my bookmark. I didn’t have the needle the directions described and our yarn kept separating, so I had to keep adding tape to the end of the yarn in order to bead the beads. So, it was a little slow going and the kiddo lost interest.

He’s so excited to have his bookmark in our book tonight!

Now I have to find something to read to use mine in!

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Follow all the Super Hero’s to Go To Sew!

Today’s my day at Go To Sew!

Be sure to click on over to learn how I (finally, as my son would say) made him the super hero shirt and cape that ‘he’s always wanted.’

It’s pretty Super Duper! hehehe… get it? Super Hero… Super Duper… Ha! I crack myself up!

 

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Weekend Whims- Doll Clothes

I used to always do Weekend Whims posts, where I write about fun things I see online, but I haven’t in a long time! Since I’m obsessed with Doll Clothes at the moment, I thought I’d share some of the cute patterns I want to make.

1. I want to make a purse pattern myself, but until then, this is a really cute little one by Karatootie.

2. I’ve recently fallen in love with how simple and easy making t-shirts is and it’s as easy to do for dolls too! I loved this little outfit by Strictly Homemade because it also has the pattern for the hat!

3. Pants are pretty simple too! Loved these polka dot ones by Fleece Fun.

4. This is another shirt by Nap Time Crafters. Love the little pocket!

5. Now this Circle Wrap Skirt by Simple Simon & Co. isn’t really for dolls, but someone else on Pinterest pinned it for dolls. Easily translated to a doll pattern!

6. These shorts by akimbo are perfectly adorable!

7. The other thing about doll clothes… Easy to use your stash of scraps. This Scrap Saver Skirt by Daydream Doll Boutique is perfect for that!

8. And the other day I was thinking a straight skirt would be cool to make. And looky here! I don’t have to make a pattern because Daydream Doll Boutique already has!

 

OK, hopefully soon I’ll make a cape pattern and a purse pattern to share! I’m officially on the doll clothes making roll!

 

Dressing the Dolls!

As you all know, I have a son. No girls. I’ve made some fun toys, but we don’t have “dolls” at our house. Stuffies, now that’s a different story! But Dolls, not so much!

But we have a bunch of girlfriends and they all love the American Girl dolls. And the American Girl and 18″ dolls are, as I’ve found out, are extremely popular. And of course, what girlie doll doesn’t need new clothes?

Our friend K just had a birthday and she got tons of clothes for her doll, including some from us!

I decided to go with a dress up outfit and a casual look. (Can you tell I’ve been watching too much Project Runway episodes??)

I’ll show you the casual look first! We started with these upcycled Hello Kitty prints with coordinating solids. I know, it doesn’t look like it, but the actually Hello Kitty is orange and matches the orange solid perfectly. Not sure what happened in the pictures. I’m also not sure who the Hello Puppy is, but it’s cute and it looks like Hello Kitty! Or is it a kitty? I don’t even know! Anyone??

I used the free Liberty Jane Trendy T-shirt pattern for the shirt and I made the skirt up as I sent along! I was kinda loosing steam when I got to the skirt and I didn’t finish the hem. I don’t recommend it, I like the finished hem better. Next time!

And now the outfit that I’m in LOVE with! I even woke my husband up to show him how cute the little dress turned out!

This used the pattern for the Trendy Tank dress, but just made it longer and added the ruffle along the bottom. How cute is the ruffle???

I LOVE the pink silk dress! DO you remember when I made a similar cape??? Last year I made a cape for K, this year her doll got a coordinating one!

The cape pattern I made myself as well. Hopefully I can get a tutorial together here soon and I’ll share with you!

So what do you think about my first try at doll clothes??? It’s so much fun! We have more girl friends birthdays coming up so I might be making more… Do you have any favorite patterns?

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A Rainbow Christmas Flag

Yep, I’m still going on with the Christmas presents I made. Well, kinda. This is another one that ‘Santa’ made!

Most everything on my son’s Christmas list was super hero related. And he got tons of that. I just didn’t make it. I mean ‘Santa’ didn’t make much of the super hero toys. Mixed in with the super hero toy requests was a request for a Rainbow flag!

So a rainbow flag he got!

While I was discussing this project with Santa, I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to do the stick part. Then to my surprise, we found these flags for 19 cents at an office supply store! My son was excited, he has a thing for flags. obviously. And so was I, but I was trying to play it cool, while inside I was jumping up and down with my score!

I didn’t want to make the flag just a typical rainbow flag, so I knew I needed to come up with a little something different. That’s where the slanted vertical lines come in with the polka dots on each end.

I sewed the strips together and the folded the seam under and sewed it down.

A simple project. A loved project!

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Another Christmas Quilt

Now this one wasn’t actually made by me, but by Santa and his elves. (OK, I might be considered an elf in this situation, but please, shhhhhhhhhh…..)

If you saw our Letter to Santa, there was a fill in the blank that asks Santa to bring a little something special to a friend. When we got to that line, The kiddo asked Santa to bring a blanket for Bow Wow! So not only did Bow Wow get a blanket, but so did The kiddo!

One day at the fabric store we, I mean The kiddo, found the center fabric in the remnant pile and he HAD to have it. So we got it. And he used the remnant as a blanket for I don’t know how long. It covered him, mostly. Until he rolled over…. So I’ve been meaning to make him a blanket for a while now.

And if you remember the puppy dog face fabric, The kiddo picked out for a nice pair of comfy pants!

The rest of the fabrics ‘Santa’ picked out to go with the ones we had.

And now, for Bow Wow’s blanket!

A while back I saw this tutorial for a Disappearing 9 Patch quilt at The Cottage Home and have wanted to try it ever since. And here’s where I tried it! On both the little quilt and the border for The kiddo’s quilt.

I typically don’t do patterns, but this one struck my eye for some reason. I actually really liked it. Basically, you sew together a nine patch, then cut it in quarters and lay out it in a different order.

And not only is The kiddo super excited that ‘Santa’ made him TWO quilts, so is Bow Wow.

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A New Mini Quilt!

OK, so the story behind this one is one of those ‘No Way! Everything is just falling into place!’ kinda story!

First a little background…. Way back when I first started sewing things to sell, I sold pillows, purses and my ghostie dolls. Then I added little baby blankets. Everything except the ghostie dolls were embellished with freehand machine stitching of my own designs. In hind sight the baby blankets were technically my first ‘quilting’ projects! I ‘drew’ bunnies and giraffes and funny little birds on them.

Note the horrible photography! No wonder they never sold on etsy! Wow! They were cute, but bad pictures!

OK, quick look away at the next picture!

And back to my story…. I was recently contacted by a lady who bought a couple of the blankets for friends and is now due (any day now) to have her own baby and they wanted one of my blankets! How flattering is that??? I loved it! But I did ask her if she would mind if I did something a little different than just the two blocks of fabric and she was on board! Her only requests were the particular dotty fabric (which I had JUST enough left over from back in the day when I was using it on other baby blankets), a light blue and giraffes!

So I designed a few options and decided to go with this one, which happens to be a Square in a Square in a Square… Which also happens to be the first quilting challenge in this season of Project Quilting! I was debating doing Project Quilting this year. Last year I had a great time with my Row Row Row Your Boat quilt and the Where I’m From Quilt and all the others…. But this year I think I want to try my hand at playing along with Project Run and Play… But of course I was leaving my options open for both… Then when I read what the first Project Quilting challenge was, I literally almost jumped up and down!

See everything keeps falling together PERFECTLY!

So I’m calling this one 1 Square, 2 Square, Dot Square, Blue Square!

I actually love how the back turned out. Just fleece. But I love the simplicity of the blue fleece and the blue squares!

So what about you? Working on any new projects yet this year? Participating in Project Quilting or Project Run and Play?? Let me know!

 

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Dear Santa, I Have a Printable Letter for You!

Have you been to see Santa yet? Have you written your letter to Santa? We did both today!

This year I made a fill in the blank letter to Santa. My son was able to fill out some parts, but others, like the gift list, I filled out for him. He was quick to mark the Nice and not the Naughty box!

If you haven’t already written your letters, click Here to download the PDF of this one!

I’ve been on the fence about fill in the blank thank you letters lately. So I’m not sure why I decided to make one for his Christmas letter, but I did and it worked out perfectly! He’s loving learning to write his letters so it was not only a cute looking letter, but a learning experience as well!

And then he got to read it to Santa. they really had a good chat about everything on his list. One thing he’s obsessed about is Spider-man and most of his list is Spider-man related toys. Santa had a good question… If he gets the web thrower, is he ready to pick up the webs it throws? He told Santa yes, but he told me that Spider-man doesn’t pick up his own webs… hmmmm… I’ll have to talk a little further with Santa on this one!

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