A little friend of ours turned 3 last week. I had the damnest time coming up with something to make for him. He’s got a super crafty mama, so that lucky boy is kitted out with capes and bags and awesome appliqued shirts. And all the other things you would make for little boys.

I figured the dress up box could always use a few more things, so I sewed up these felt masks. I started with a mask template I made from a paper plate and then went crazy with a bag of felt scraps.  There was a lot of white, gray, and orange felt in the bag, so out came a cat, an elephant, and an owl.

I had the best time making the elephant. His ears are extra wonky and homemade, but I’m so in love with his pompom headpiece I don’t care. It was sort of a last minute addition too. If I had thought of it earlier I would have dressed him up more!

Mostly I made up the patterns as I went along except I did steal the owl mask idea from Martha (she’s got so many ideas, she won’t notice). These were so fun to make and halloween is coming up so fast, I might have to make some more.  I might even go crazy and write up a tutorial. But which one? Or should I make something else?

I fell in love with this little sleeper when I first saw it: it’s like those nightgowns for newborns, except stylish.  At 40 bucks, it was a little out of my price range, but looked simple enough to recreate. Well, mine doesn’t quite live up to the original, but I think I got close.

The pattern came from the book Growing Up Sew Liberated (which I reviewed here). The more I use this book the better it gets.  A rare thing among craft books! Normally they are all eye candy, but look a little deeper and it turns out they are mostly errata and confusing directions. To alter the pattern I just extended the bottom bit, so it looked like it would tie up nicely. The edge really needs a rolled finish, but I’m not that handy with the serger so I left it raw.  I might make this again and try to get the knot bit right.

Yesterday we were buried under almost a foot of snow, so we made meringue snowmen.  I had this little project stored somewhere in the back of my brain for a while and it was the perfect day for it. I whipped up some meringue, piped them onto a sheet pan, and the kids decorated them.  We didn’t have much (and there was no going to the store) so I cut raisins up for the eyes and we used the 10 red hots that were left. I didn’t want to use chocolate chips because I thought they would melt. But now I’m realizing I should have cut up some dried apricots for noses! oh well. I also forgot the peppermint extract, so they don’t really taste like much, but the kids don’t care at all. The meringue is sticky as all get out, so it’s a good idea to wet your fingers a little before you start decorating.

snowman meringues adapted from martha stewart

• 3 large egg whites
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract (or vanilla if you don’t have peppermint)
• raisins, currants, dried fruit, red hots, or whatever else you have on hand for decorating

directions

1. Put egg whites and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of simmering water, and stir until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch, 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Transfer bowl to an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.
3. Mix in peppermint extract (don’t forget)
4. Put the meringue into a piping bag with a large tip (or a ziploc bag with a clipped corner, or just use two spoons). If you have a silpat, use it. If not put some parchment paper on a cookie sheet and “glue” the corners down with a dab of meringue. Then pipe three adjoining circles–a snowman, silly.
5. Decorate and pop in a 175 degree (Fahrenheit) oven for two hours. They will look exactly the same when you take them as they did when you put them in.

This is turning into a tutorial week! Tomorrow I’ll have the directions for the string of lights advent calendar and who knows maybe I can rustle up another tutorial for Friday (but don’t hold your breath). Also, a couple people have emailed me asking whether or not the mobile swap is happening again this year. And yes! it is. Sign up will start in January. Last year it was a big success! And I’ve even got an idea for my mobile already.

I started this digger almost a year ago (it’s nice to have a record of the things you make, but it’s not so nice to see just how long you can procrastinate) and it should be in the shop later today.  It’s funny how my tastes have changed in a year. I wanted to rip up all the patchwork and start again, but then it would have sat around another year I’m sure.  A lot of the scraps came from my first big sewing project (and my first big post). I think it’s time I cleaned out my scrap box and made a quilt. Or an army of patchwork diggers.

*My site was a little messed up this past week–if you couldn’t leave a comment or find a post I’m sorry. My genius of a husband fixed it all, so comment away.

I have a few more presents to show that have been opened and (thankfully) well received.  This is a plastic bag made from many, many plastic bags.  The directions came from Esty Labs and a quick search on youtube will give you a video of the whole process.  You fuse three plastic bags together between sheets of parchment paper then zigzag them all together to make plastic fabric. I was originally going to make it in the shape of a plastic bag, but I kept melting holes in the plastic and the “fabric” was getting smaller and smaller.  There is a picture of a patchwork plastic bag in the link above, so with that in mind I cut a bunch of squares and using a paper bag for a template (how ironic) made a plastic patchwork bag.  Plastic bags are surprisingly easy to sew and this came together very quickly.  It’s incredibly light and though it doesn’t feel sturdy it can hold a bunch of stuff.  It’s hard to avoid ending up with a bunch of plastic bags these days, even if you make a special effort not to.  And this is a nice way to at least put those evil things to good use.