Shelf trimming

I added the pink pom pom trim I had leftover from this pillow to this shelf. I think it's cute right now, but I applied it with Scotch tape rather than hot glue because I'm not sure I'll like it long term. Maybe a different color though...

fabric on display

I found a bunch of abandoned embroidery hoops, put fabric in them, them hung them up on the wall. I like how it brightens things up and gives me an opportunity to see some of my favorite fabrics even if I won't have time to do any playing that day.

To keep the edges from showing, you could glue the fabric to the inside frame. I used masking tape because I anticipate wanting to change out the fabric. I think it'll be easy to have a new festive display for each season just by changing out the fabrics.

I will probably add more hoops. I'm thinking a large quilting hoop would look good.

Here is the other wall in my apartment covered in fabric.

a pin cushion for Ellen

One of my coworkers mentioned that she needed a pin cushion so I made this for her. It's just a stuffed yo-yo with a little flower to hide the center. The wrist band is made of the good part of a worn out sock.

I heart neckties.

I mentioned that I was making my boyfriend a valentine with material that he is familiar with. Here it is. I arranged the bottom of two neckties to make a heart then stitched on some rick rack to tie it all together. I got this idea (and tons of others) from Diane Gilleland. Here's her tutorial.

Homemade Valentines

Last year I made my valentine a Fabric Window Valentine after seeing them on the Purl Bee's blog. It was quick and easy and turned out really cute. I recommend you check out the tutorial and make up a few before Valentines Day.

Today I will be making a different sort of valentine for my boyfriend using a fabric that is familiar to him. I'll post it later.

The valentines above are from the Purl Bee.

Refurbishing Bangle Bracelets

I just put Japanese breakfast food stickers on this pretty blue bracelet. The stickers are rice, pickles, miso soup, chopsticks, natto, and umeboshi.

I bought sets of these breakfast stickers, along with sets of sushi and dessert stickers in Japan at one of the Maruzen chain book stores. I would love to find more of them one day.

I found the blue bracelet with this eighties survivor bangle in a thrift store . I have plans for it that I'll be posting soon.

Paper Doll Chains

We made these folded paper dolls today with two of the older elementary students this afternoon after writing letters to the new president. They made fat dolls, thin dolls and even a

row of smiley faces.

To make:

Fold paper like a fan (or an accordion) then draw the shape of a doll on the top layer. The trick is to make the drawing touch both edges and not to cut vertically on the fold. If you only want a pair of dolls like the ones to the right, fold a scrap of paper in half and make sure that the drawing only touches one side.

Embroidered Necktie

Today is my boyfriend's birthday. He's a necktie-wearing musician so I embroidered a gramophone on a vintage tie. I used thread that blended in to control the flash aspect, but you could certainly make a bolder tie for a bolder dresser.
I used this tutorial from Craft Stylist as a guide.

Felt Fortune Cookies

I'm getting really into felt food. I am planning to make a nice set for the kids at my school to play with, but these fortune cookies are for an adult.

I learned to make them from a good video lesson by Hilary Seabolt. Seabolt is one of many designing and selling felt food. She owns Lily Bean Market, a small business that sells felt food and kits, patterns and material to make felt food. Lily Bean employs a few Amish seamstresses to do hand sewing.

All Natural Handmade Heating Pads and Hand-Warmers

For Christmas gifts for co-workers, family and friends I made hand-warmers and heating pads. They were so simple - just a cotton cloth bag filled with rice and sewn shut.

For hand-warmers cut two 4 1/2" squares of 100% cotton. Fold them in half with the pretty sides touching each other and sew the long edge and one of the short edges. Then turn the pouch inside out so that the pretty sides show and fill half full with rice. To close the pouch tuck in the edges of the open end and sew along the edge. Then microwave until warm (about 45 seconds in a new microwave) and put inside your pockets or gloves.

To make a heating pad start with one 14" x 14" piece of cotton and follow the directions above. Microwave for about two minutes then put on any aching body part or use to keep a covered dish warm.

Readers: Please share what gifts you made in the comment section.

Evolution of the birdie

It took me three solid tries but I finally figured out how to make this bird. I got the pattern from spoolsewing.com for free. It is a simple project, but my sewing pattern naivete shown as I didn't interpret the fold instruction to mean that the fabric was folded in half at that place. If anyone wants to make a duck-headed penguin seahorse, just ignore that fold instruction and cut the body half the size of the bird's.

Handmade Envelopes

Today was a rainy day. The children had to stay inside. We showed them how to make envelopes from old magazine pages. I used this template available on etsy. http://team.etsy.com/downloads/envelope.pdf

I just printed it out on card stock, then reduced the image to 85% on the copy machine so that it would fit National Geographic size pages. The children flipped through the magazines until they found a picture they wanted to make an envelope from. Then they outlined the template, cut it out, folded and glued their own envelopes.

Rainy days are good for crafting.