I’m still working on the animals I was talking about a while back.  There has been more unnecessary law & order watching than sewing, but there is some progress. I’ve never actually drafted a pattern for one of my toys before and it’s pretty time consuming–especially when you have an anal retentive side.  I wanted the elephant to have a big head gusset that would extend down to his trunk and I couldn’t just whip this up.  This is my first attempt and though it looked the way I imagined, his trunk stuck out straight–Pinocchio style–when I stuffed him.  I made a few more and could have kept on making a little muslin menagerie, but I’m trying to make my toys less straight and narrow and more folky and improvised (strangely it’s the latter that needs a pattern).

So I cut into this amazing sparkley striped linen I got from namolio’s shop. I was going to make all the animals from thrifted outfits, and some still will be, but I was trying to cram too many ideas into one toy: stripes or patterned faces, moustached, thrifted outfit transformed into plush toy.  Besides this grey linen was a little wrinkly just like a naked elephant.

Here he is almost done.  He (ah! no name! any suggestions?) is sporting this fantastic fake moustache sent to my by Melinda (thank you again!).  And after seeing little elephante sporting this polka dot moustache, I don’t know if I should use a completely different print for the moustache or make it out of the denim I used for his pants or the grey linen again, or embroider a big fluffy one. I need feed back from all of you who have made it to the end of this post.

I making bags like crazy over here.  All, of course, for the sale that you are sick of hearing about.  It’s this weekend and I’m actually getting a little nervous.  I’m sure all the self doubt will all go away when someone buys something–if someone buys something!  I’m used to selling pastries and breads and chocolates that I’ve made, where if you make a mistake it gets eaten anyway.  But someone will own these bags and use them, and if they fall apart their mother will be cursing me.  Or maybe they will be used and loved and come out of the washing machine in one piece.

You can see I finally made the toy bags I was talking about and though I wasn’t excited about them while I was making them, or even after I was done, but they are growing on me now.  Simple muslin drawstring bags with some applique (and stamped labels? yes? no? still can’t decide anything over here). The other bags in the picture are kiddy messenger bags.  I made one for my daughter just like it for christmas.  She got so many compliments on it, I thought they would go over well at the sale.  There are pictures of more bags over at my flickr site, if you are interested.  Have a good day.

I finished sewing a few things for the sale and I thought I’d pop in and show you. The bears are made from felted sweaters and printed cotton. I drew a simple bear then stitched, stuffed, and sewed on the features. Easy peasy. The denim and cashmere one is my favorite. I think it would be perfect for a little baby boy, but I have no idea if people will even buy these. I’m not much of a shopper (except for thrift stores and target) so I don’t really know what people buy or how much they pay for things. So how much would you pay for a bear like this ? They are a little under a foot tall (1 foot = 30 cm), machine washable, and super soft.

These are all the pillowcase dresses I’ve finished so far, but there are a few more cut and ready to go in my studio. I wasn’t going to make so many, but a showed a few to my friends and they were quite taken with them, so I whipped up some more. It doesn’t hurt that they are dead easy to make. And you can make them to fit girls from 6 months to 5 or 6 years old. For these I’m thinking 16 dollars a pop, what do you think? I haven’t sold stuff from a booth since my lemonade days, so I’m a little nervous about all of this. Tagging, pricing, talking up the things I’ve made. And this sale is the first of it’s kind so there could be a couple people there or hundreds. Nobody knows.

The mobile swap is “over,” but I am still working on mine and I know there are other procrastinators out there scrambling to finish. So I thought I’d post a few more lovely ones from the flickr mobile swap group this week. The four above stuck out because of their unique construction. The first is a promotional piece from Hatch Designs that was posted by Dave from grainedit.com. I don’t think it’s actually for the swap, but a bird mobile that pops out of egg carton material is too fantastic to not show you. The next is by Elizabeth from e p i t a. It’s not finished, but what a great idea–like sticking baseball cards in your dirt bikes, but in mobile form. The bottom left picture is from Terry at easebetweennotches.blogspot.com. Her idea was to make a mobile that looked like a bouquet of flowers turned upside down. It turned out great and the cone hides all the messy construction bits but still looks super stylish. Well done! The last is a simple felt garland hung from one end. Elizabeth from ohfransson.com used a pattern from a japanese craft book to make this sweet little mobile (that doubles as a garland). These and all the other fantastic mobiles are on the flickr mobile swap group. Mine will be done soon, I hope. I think it’s probably in bad taste for the swap organizer to be late for the swap, but it’s my party. I’ve had the pattern done for a week now, but keep changing my mind when it comes to what material to use. It’s time to just fish or cut bait.

I’ve been thinking about this project for a while. All my hand sewing supplies are jammed into a crappy bag my husband got at some conference and it’s gotten so bad that I can’t even bear to look at it much less sort it out. I wanted something where everything I needed would be there when I had a minute to sew (and most of the time it is literally a minute). I just wanted to open it up and sew. Immediately a book came to mind and then I thought of these reader’s digest books. We have a couple (back to basics is my favorite) and you can get them at any thrift store. And low and behold next time I went there was this DIY one waiting for me. I was a little nervous at first because it looked like there might be a ridiculous amount of measuring involved, but there really wasn’t and it came together pretty quickly.

On the left there is one removable embroidery floss card, with spots for 4 more (it was getting late) and a big wonky pocket underneath.  In the middle there is a little ribbon to tie a small scissors.  On the right there are some pockets for pencils and a big scissors or glasses, a pincushion, and under the pincushion is a needle book. I think I may make a few more of these just so I can get it right and maybe even to sell (if you think there are people who would buy them).   I think the big pocket should be two pockets that snap close and the needle book needs a snap or some kind of closure too. I have to totally redo the embroidery floss cards because they were a pain the the butt, but I like that they are removable.  Is there something you would add?  It is too matchy matchy? Should I use different fabrics for everything?  I need some feedback over here.