little jack horner sat in a corner,

eating his christmas pie:

he put in his thumb, and pulled out a plum

and said, “what a good boy am I!”

Here he is pulling out the plum! I was really nervous about tackling the pie and the plum, but surprisingly I didn’t have problems with either (problems with my sewing machine that resulted in very loud swearing, yes). The pie plate has pintucks all around and is stuffed with foam and cotton batting. The pie is a natural linen lined with a purple and red print that I have ridiculous amounts of. I don’t normal like purple, but I thought that it almost looked like the inside of a plum pie: all red and purple and oozy. The pie is just gathered and hand sewn to the plate. I have no idea where this idea came from, but I think it actually looks like the crimped edge of a pie. And as I used to be a baker, I am especially proud of it. The pie also has a little pocket on top to hold the plum. I sewed the pocket in and then made a little bias tape and finished it with that. It looks okay, but I think there are neater ways of doing something like this (putting an invisible pocket not on a seam) that I don’t know of yet. I made the plum from this beautiful deep purple (really, I never liked purple before this) cotton that feels very fine and soft. A half yard of it cost me a whole quarter at my local thrift. It has a little elastic at the bottom to fit over Jack’s thumb and to make it more plum shaped. The plum is stuffed a little and lined with the purple and red print as well. Except for the pie, I stuffed everything with the new eco- friendly fiberfil which is made from corn. It worked pretty well, though I’m not the world’s best stuffer so I don’t trust me. The package doesn’t have any washing directions on it, so I have no idea if you can wash it or not, but you must be able to right?

All in all, I’m really happy with how everything turned out. When I started to make toys from nursery rhyme characters I had this idea that they should be slightly interactive–not really the right word, but you know what I mean. So, Jack, the pie, and the plum are all separate and you can act out the rhyme (if you are so inclined) or just put them in different poses on display. See the whole rhyme in pictures on my flickr page. As I mentioned before, this is my entry for the Softies Central Holiday awards (holiday smorgasbord category). So go look at all the fabulous entries right now!

I’m working on my entry for the Holiday Softie Awards.  Well really I’m sitting on the couch whining to no one imparticular about being sick and trying to motivate myself to actually work on my entry for the Holiday Softie Awards.   So far it’s working pretty well, but there are a few more components and I’m a little nervous about tackling those.  I don’t want to give it away before it’s done, but you could probably figure it out.  Any guesses?

My daughter and I did a little craft project, but seeing as we are all sick it really wasn’t much of a project.  I taped a a big sheet of paper to a table (it would probably have worked better on the floor, but I didn’t want her little brother messing with it) and we colored little scenes for her toys:  a table she could draw food on, a road for all the cars, she drew a lake and I put in a diving board and some sea creatures, and a playground.  We color all the time, but I don’t usually think of getting her other toys “involved.”  She could add new things when she thought of them and her little people ate and swam and drove all around.  It made for a nice morning of rainy day play.

jack sprat could eat no fat

his wife could eat no lean

and so, betwixt them both

they licked the platter clean

Here they are staring at the clean platter.  The platter was kind of an afterthought actually (and I think it’ll probably end up as a rug in the dollhouse, because it looks more like a rug anyway) but it has given me a couple ideas for the dish who ran away with the spoon.   Jack and his wife turned out well–not quite as I imagined, but good enough.  I have this silly notion that if I can come up with the idea and draw it, then I can sew it.  When really I’m not a very experience sewer and even less experienced when it comes to soft toys.   These two, I think, are closer to dolls than to soft toys (if there is such a distinction).  And dolls are hard:  little limbs are hard, heads are hard, and hair is pretty much impossible.  I wanted Jack’s wife to have a little, neat bun, but instead she has a mass of wool dreadlocks rolled into a ball at the back of her head.  And the bonnet I made (pre hair) is a bit too small, but it matches her outfit–and it’s reversible–so it stays.

On the other hand, I’m very pleased with how Jack’s hair turned out.  Granted there isn’t much of it, but it turned out just as I pictured, so I’m happy.  He is a little lacking in the accessories department, so I think I might whip him up a little vest to wear to dinner.Just one more picture, so you can see his wife’s apron.  I based it on one of Amy Karol’s aprons in Bend the Rules Sewing and I’m happy to say her patterns are just as fabulous in teeny tiny sizes.If you’d like to see more pictures of these two you can jump over to my flickr page.  Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

Yet another stellar picture.  And another good excuse:  I sew in the basement.  As I sew down there, I like to think there are others like me toiling away in the crappy light, with the washing machine going, on cold cement floors, in the damp, musty air,  with ducts.  Sometimes I do a little patchwork piece and think the prints I’ve chosen to combine are inspired and avant-garde and oh so right and then I go upstairs into the light of day and it’s crap.  The bookshelf that holds my fabric used to hold old paint and old car oil and god knows what else.  It’s been there so long it’s painted to the floor many times over.   But it’s my space and I love it.   So I say stand up for your low light and drop ceilings.  Studios, craft rooms, whatever you call them, they don’t have to be beautifully painted and artfully decorated (though god willing, someday we will all have one that is).  Beautiful things can come out of strange places.

The picture above was taken from above for Ms. Hyenia-in-Petticoats call for a bird’s eye view of worktables.  Jack Sprat and his round wife that I mentioned before are there waiting to be finished. As is a little clutch from this tutorial (if you were my best friend in high school do not click on that link).  And one of the many acorns I made (using these clever instructions) for a baby shower this past weekend.  The centerpiece was a vase of long branches hung with a dozen acorns.  It turned out so nicely I think I have to make more for my mantle.

hickety pickety my black hen

she lays eggs for gentlemen

gentlemen come everyday

to see what my black hen doth lay.

This is the first of a series I hope to do. Obviously it’s based on the nursery rhyme “Hickety Pickety.” Though I recently discovered that there are two more lines: Sometimes nine, Sometimes ten; Hickety Pickety my black hen. So I guess some eggs are in order. I’ve always liked nursery rhymes, but now that I say it, it sounds strange. My mother would read to me all the time when I was little–from the big, black and white checked Mother Goose book. And because my sisters are much older they had babies when I was the perfect babysitting age and so I read to my nieces and nephews from the same book. And then came high school and college and cigarettes and boys and I forgot completely. But having kids made me remember how lovely those short, little verses can be. They aren’t as intricately constructed as Lewis Carroll’s books and poems, though he did have his way with some (queen of hearts, tweedledum & dee), but the language is still silly and bizarre. And they haven’t been boobified by disney like the fairy tales and really they couldn’t be–some are strangely violent. They are an odd mix of drinking songs and counting rhymes passed down orally. Which I think is fantastic.Jack Sprat and his wife are in the works, but as of this moment are headless.