It is almost spring, at least the forsythia thinks so. The weather man seems to think there is a winter storm in the works.
Either way, it’s a new month with a new batch of sponsors! Wouldn’t you like to be one? Sponsorship on elsie marley is only $25/month. I keep it small and affordable, so indie shops and little blogs can easily do it. You don’t need to be a professonal blogger (whatever that is!) to have a sponsor spot. Maybe you just want to get your blog out there and grow your readership a bit. With 50,000 unique visitors a month there will be plenty of people headed your way. I would love to introduce your shop or blog to elsie marley readers. Drop me a quick line at
elsiemarleyblog@gmail.com
and we can talk about sponsorship and the weather!
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So the winner is Ginger from chazandginger! I’ll email you shortly, Ginger and soon you’ll have a towel for your kitchen and a book for your bookshelf. If you like, you can head on over to amazon (or your local bookstore) and pick up your very own copy of Zakka Style.
Thank you, everyone, for telling me how you get here and to other blogs. It seems it’s a pretty even spit between google reader and good ol’ bookmarks. If those of you in the bookmark camp have never tried google reader, I highly recommend it. My bookmarks were a hot mess until I signed up. In google reader you can organize the blogs you follow, mark them to read later, and search all read and unread posts. The next button is a nice browsing feature where you can go directly to the most recently updated blog. Pip introduced me to it a few years ago.
Now I might just go make myself a cup of coffee and do a bit of blog reading like so many of you said you do in the mornings. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
Rashida (of I heart Linen fame) contacted me a long while back to see if I would contribute to her new book, Zakka Style. Of course I said yes! I remade this project, so I could fix the pattern and change the colors a bit. I never did get around to making and selling these pocket pillowcases, but yay for my laziness because now you can make them!
The pattern really is quite easy and makes for a lovely gift. The diamonds are fiddly, I won’t lie, but you could skip them and sew any sort of patchwork your heart desires. The whole book is filled with simple and clever little things to make. And they are designed by some of my favorite people: Holly, Amanda, Leslie, and a good deal more.
I actually made two projects for the book, but the second one didn’t make the cut. Remember this towel I made? Well, I reworked that project as well: a little bigger, nicer patchwork, and in linen. This continuous towel doesn’t fit in my bathroom and though it does look kind of nice in my kitchen, I think it would look better in yours.
That’s right, a little giveaway for this Tuesday: Zakka Style and a zakka stylish linen towel. To enter yourselves in this giveaway, I would like it if you’d answer a question for me. How do you read blogs? Do you use google reader, links from facebook, twitter, flickr, pinterest, old fashioned bookmarks, something else entirely? I want elsie marley to be easily accessible to all of you, which is easier if I know how you are all accessing it :)
Ok so leave your answer before Thursday Feb. 23 at 9am and I’ll let the robots do the picking. This giveaway is open to all my lovely readers, no matter where you live. Good luck!
I wasn’t going to make my kids anything for christmas (what a horrible mother!) but then dammit, all my friends were making these beautiful robes for their kids. Basically I am 33 and was peer pressured into this sewing project.
Of course I’m glad I did sew them, because my kids look pretty adorable in their cozy flannel robes. The robe pattern came from Sewing For Boys, which I reviewed here. The pattern comes together very quickly. Leave off the pockets and you could have one finished in a few hours. Make your own fiddly pocket pattern with contrast piping and it will take you a lot longer.
There is one mistake in the book. You must connect the two front pattern pieces before you cut your fabric, but that important step is missing from the directions . I only realized this after I cut out all my pieces from the PLAID FABRIC! Oh, what’s that, you can’t tell? That is because I’m the master-plaid-matcher!
The fit of the robe is straight up old man robe. So sizes don’t matter all that much. I made the size 6/7 both for my 6 year old daughter and almost 5 year old son. The fit is great on both. For their 2 1/2 year old brother I made the 2/3 size, but I should have gone a size up. His robe did get a little shorter because of the plaid matching I had to do, but a bigger robe would have fit him better and for longer too.
A few other things I would do to the pattern if I make it again:
shorten the sleeves a bit. They are meant to roll up, which is why they are so long, but they roll up a little too much for my taste.
make the ties a least a foot longer. Makes it easier for little hands to tie (around those big bellies).
lengthen the pattern a bit–especially for the smaller sizes.
A couple things I did right the first time:
I made a hang-y up-y loop that I sewed inside each robe. It makes clean up time a tiny bit better.
I skipped the belt loops and just sewed the tie to the back of the robe in one spot. That way the belt cannot be used as a leash or a jump rope or weapon.
I read the fabric requirements. Each robe, each one, takes about 4 yards of fabric!
I was going to make super hero heart masks for all the kids in my daughter’s class (like this fantastic one), but they were fussy and each one was taking way too long. My daughter and I came up with the eye patch idea together. An hour later I had whipped up 17 of them. Super fast, super easy, good for girls and boys (and grown ups too), and not full of sugar. Eye patches arrrrgh the best!
materials:
felt, 2 3in squares per patch
1/8in wide elastic, 16-18in piece per patch
straight edge
1. Cut two 3in squares of felt for each eye patch you are making. Then cut a heart from one out of each two squares: if you are making 5 eye patches, you started with 10 squares and now will have 5 hearts and 5 squares.
2. Take a heart and place a straight edge (I used an envelope) across the middle. Then tilt the edge 1/4 inch up on one side and 1/4 inch down on the other. Make a tiny mark on each edge. This is where the elastic will be attached to the patch. Really you only need to mark 2 or 3hearts. After that you can just eyeball it (ha!). No really.
3. Place the marked heart on top of a felt square. Cut a piece of elastic so it’s 16-18 inches, smaller for smaller people bigger for bigger people. Sew 1/8 inch from the edge all around the heart, inserting the elastic where indicated.
4. Trim away excess felt, holding the elastic as you cut (so it doesn’t get cut, silly).
5. That’s it! No go make 20 more because Valentine’s day is tomorrow! Here are a few awful pirate puns you can use:
