Easy Felt Applique

So January is almost over, and I'm due to make a new batch of baby blankets. I always have grand ideas of making dozens and dozens of blankets to fill my Etsy shop, and The Craft Lounge both, but alas, there are only so many hours in a day. For this next batch I plan to use some felt applique, and I thought I'd share.

Felt applique looks like a lot of extra work, and it can be when I get carried away, but even just a little applique goes a long way. For the adults receiving my handmade items as gifts it adds a unique and personal touch that distinguishes them from more mainstream manufactured products, and for the babe who will ultimately peer at and handle the finished item it adds dimension and texture. Plus, it's just cute, right?

I use felt applique in a bunch of different ways. I make felt animals and felt initials to personalize blankets and bibs, and I have fun creating simple baby faces for blankets and rattles. If you want to check out just how easy felt applique really is, than go to my quick tutorial here. 

 

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Little Handwarmers

So after months of unseasonably warm weather (and NO snow), it finally turned cold here in the New York area. Cold enough, at least, for the school to send home a strongly worded 'reminder' to send our children with hats and gloves for recess. Groan. 

Now I love me a snuggly handknit hat, but I am not fond of gloves. Glove put bulky layers of fabric or yarn between my fingers and buttons, zipper pulls, and my phone. So two years ago I made myself a pair of multicolored handwarmers without a pattern. I fudged it, and they turned out well enough for me to wear them almost every day for 2 consecutive winters (see the multicolored cuties in the picture below). Well it's hard to resist cute handwarmers when you are 6 years old, so after many requests I promised S that I would make her a pair. And I did. I started some last September, and finished them...last week. Now I don't necessarily believe that just because I make one of my children something, that I must make all of my children something. However, given that handwarmers look and feel a lot like knight and superhero cuffs, I made a pair for my just about 4 year old boy as well.

This time around I didn't wing it. Instead, I followed the super simple pattern for wristwarmers found in Easy Knits for Little Kids by Catherine Tough. The yarn is all Blue Skye Cotton chosen by the kids at Purl Soho. 

Now once I had finished the handwarmers, I went through our front hall closet and made some of the donate and trash piles I discussed in my last post. When I was done I headed to my sewing room and used leftover fabric from these pillows to make more fabric buckets to hold hats and gloves. Now the kids' winter gear is all accessible in buckets on the floor for easy access as we head out the door for school. 

 

January Nesting

So it's January (obviously) and therefore, it's time to organize. This January I feel like I'm nesting. I'm cleaning and cooking and reorganizing all the time. Things are being tossed into bags for donation and garbage on every level of our house, and Mr. T is painting everything white. 

A huge percentage of our shake-it-up and clean-it-out new year mojo has been spent on our daughter's "new" room, and by "new" room I mean her baby brother's room with the largest of our tiny closets which she was clever enough to claim before he's old enough to realize it, poor boy. Mr. T and his paintbrush made so much white everywhere in this "new" room that I couldn't help myself, I had to add a little color in the form of....wait for it...fabric buckets. After reading of Maya Made's nesting buckets on SouleMamma last November, I knew I needed the pattern for someday. Then, this weekend someday turned in to Sunday, and our very own 'nesting' buckets were made.

First, I tried the pattern with some scrap fabric, and my mini sample turned into an instantly adored pencil holder.

Then I changed the dimensions called for and made a jumbo basket for the dolls and other friends that escaped the donate bag. 

Finally, my girl chose some fabric at IKEA (we were there for other "new" room essentials), and while she slept I made her these large baskets. Filling them with socks, tights (a whole buckets worth for my no-pant-no-way girl), and underwear (I didn't give you a close up of that one - that would be creepy), I decided that organizing has never been so fun. 

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Anna Maria Horner's Figure 8 scarf

So one of my resolutions for 2012 is to be nicer to ME, so I made myself a New Year's present this year. And why not? I like me, and I know what I want. 

My gift to myself is a Figure 8 scarf.  I wanted to make one of these ingeniuos scarves the moment I saw them on Anna Maria Horner's blog, so make one I did.  Though Anna Maria uses velveteen and cotton voile for this project (kits are available in her shop), I used one yard of Zap Zig Loulouthi flannel in eggplant, and one yard of Buoyancy Loulouthi cotton in deep. I love the way the flannel and cotton combine for a crushable, machine washable, yet warm and comfy scarf. 

What have you done for yourself lately?

Sticker Robot S.A.S.E. Shindig

So I was getting the mail yesterday, and there it was: our second envelope from Sticker Robot. I gingerly put it on the dining room table and sent a telepathic message to my husband (he was at work) letting him know it had arrived. You see, my husband has been waiting for envelopes of stickers the way a teenager waits for college admissions letters.

What the heck am I taking about? Why the S.A.S.E. Shindig Part II by Sticker Robot of course. The rules were simple: send a decorated self addressed stamped envelope to Sticker Robot by December 4 and receive some free stickers in exchange. 

I think the back of the large sticker on the left of the photo above says it all. These are not stickers people, these are ART by a group of artists including Obey and clever Zoltron (check out occupy Sesame Street). 

I must admit that I had absolutely nothing to do with this particular arty shindig. The kids (ages 6 and 3) decorated the envelopes together back in October.

We cannot wait to see their envelopes in the gallery of submisisons... Thanks Sticker Robot! 

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Last Minute Gift Idea

If you are at all like me then you have a couple of last minute gifts to finish up (or start) AFTER you finish cooking, baking, and feeding the various children that ended up in your home this morning, and BEFORE the official holiday festivities start tonight. If a child just wispered in your ear that he will be "furious" if you don't get off the computer and make more art with him, then our lives are amazingly parallel and I really want to hear from you.

So let's get going and sew, wrap, write, bake, clean and make some joy together. I'll be finishing a set of the cotton laminate coasters pictured above this afternoon, pairing it with the pink and red laminate apron for my mom. I just posted a tutorial for the reversible coasters here. Enjoy and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Oilcloth and Cotton Laminate Box Bags

So last month I ordered a variety of oilcloth and cotton laminate fabrics to play with. I was looking for some fresh materials to inspire quick and simple gifts for the holidays, and they did just that.

The first set of gifts that I'm (still!) working on are box bags in different dimensions. The web is full of great box bag tutorials. A few of my favorites are One Shabby Chick's Oilcloth Box Bag Tutorial, Make it Modern's Perfect Box Pouch Tutorial, and Three Bears Little Boxy Pouch Tutorial. If you know how to sew a zipper, then you can make these bags! It all comes down to figuring out your dimensions and choosing your material based on what you want to use them for.

My plan is to gift the larger bags with handmade soaps, natural makeup, and travel essentials to adult family and friends. For the children in my life, slimmer bags will be filled with either recycled colored pencils, or a little cloth napkin rolled around reusable silverware. I'm keeping a few for myself to carry some first aide essentials like bandaids, neosporin, and of course, wind-up walking feet and silly putty. 

 What's in your box bag?

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Another Reversible Criss Cross Dress in Echo

So I wasn't kidding when I told you that I saw more of Wink Handmade's Reversible Criss Cross Girls' Dress in my future. I try to give as many handmade gifts to the children in my life as I can muster, and I have a teeny girl on my holiday sewing list for whom I ached to gift something made from Lotta Jansdotter's georgeous new fabric line Echo from Windham. I am lucky enough to have snagged a fat quarter set from Hawthorne Threads (one of my favorite online fabric sellers) of the complete Echo collection, and once in the sunlight of my sewing room, I immediately purchased a couple of extra yards each of scattered blooms in agave (the greenish print), and standing stones in heather (the charcoal and violet print). I love the way they go together without matching at all.

This time around I substituted thick white cotton twill tape for the handmade matching ties called for in the pattern, and added one of my brand new twill labels. I know that ribbon and butcher's twine are all the rage right now, but there is something about crisp white organic twill tape makes me smile.  

All in all, I love the way this dress came out. What do you think?

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Fresh Batch of Blankets

So after a long break from sewing for sale, I headed back to the sewing room a few weeks ago to whip up a batch of baby blankets for for The Craft Lounge. In case you've never heard of it, The Craft Lounge is like an indie craft fair and DIY studio all rolled into one.  They offer classes and drop in workshops for everything from knitting to hula hoop making, and all of the items they sell are handmade, most of it locally here in the New Jersey/New York area. I spent a lot of "free" time chatting with the two sisters who own the shop, and am thrilled to be one of their vendors.

For this batch of Craft Lounge blankets I resolved to go though my fabric stash and use only what I had (but of course I cheated and added a couple of simple solid cotton to round things out). After covering my floor with options, I filled empty nooks and crannies of my attic sewing room with piles of fabric that I think  "work" together. 

Then I cut sqaures and made simple patchwork tops, backed with my most requested cream ultra plush "snuggle" material. This is what my first batch looked like while it waited for labels and hang tags at home.

 

And here they are hanging in The Craft Lounge ready for sale. Now if only I can find the time to restock my Etsy shop next...

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Pumpkin Pie Muffins (vegan)

So there are a good number of vegan pumpkin muffin recipes out there, but not many that I would feel good about feeding to my family on a regular basis. I prefer recipes made with whole grains, good fats, and unrefined sweeteners. My kids just want them to taste "really really good." To satisfy all of us, I came up with my own recipe late yesterday afternoon, and we think it's good enough to share.

If you want the recipe, click here.

If you want to see pictures of our 16 month old stealing hunks of muffin from a cooling batch and feeding them to his big sister, see bellow.

 

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Magical Handmade Knight Costume

So I believe that there is magic in dressing up.

My husband says that he is not ready for work until he has a suit on. My daughter only wears dresses because she says that pants make her feel like someone else. And despite initial protests from his preschool teachers, my boy goes to school most days with his pants on backwards and his socks purposely mismatched because he likes the way that they make him feel. For the same reason, I wear heels around the house with my pajamas sometimes, and on an off day I may toss on a  sequined crown for a trip to the grocery store (it makes people smile really wide - try it).

With the magic of dress up, and the way that just-right outfit or costume makes one feel in mind, my son Z and I concocted this knight costume last weekend despite having agreed as a family unit to dress up this Halloween as members of the Addams family. On short notice, this is what we came up with. 

 

The awesome knight's helmet and wrist cuffs were purchased from the super Etsy shop World of Whimm, for Z's birthday last year. The pants are plain old grey Hanes sweatpants, and I made the chain mail to match the helmet and cuffs with an old green t-shirt, an extra large men's hooded sweatshirt, some fancy iron decals, and scraps of natural lightweight twill tape.

Needless to say, Z loves his costume, and even though I wanted him to be the Pugsley to my Morticia this Halloween, there would have been no magic in that. 

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100 Quilts for Kids

So when I saw the 100 Quilts for Kids project mentioned over at Swim Bike Quilt two weeks ago I pushed everything on my sewing table to the floor and embarked on my first official quilt along.

The premise is simple: make a quilt and donate it to a child in need in your community by October 15.  Now really folks, why haven't I done this before? 

I have donated many a handmade item to raffles, school art auctions, and the like, but this was different.  This time I worked with the knowledge that there were many other quilters out there quilting at the same time with the same mission in mind. Neat, right?

So now to the quilt:

After finding a lot of pink in the first link up post on Swim Bike Quilt, I decided to construct this quilt with a UFO (unfinished object) that I made two years ago to practice a chevron pattern. Little did I know then that chevrons would be so popular today...

I finished the UFO off with a few yards of white organic cotton, blue kona cotton, handmade binding, and a high loft batting to add some snuggle. Then I packed it up and shipped it out to my local chapter of Project Linus, whose mission is "to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans.." This organization is pretty amazing, having donated more that three MILLION blanket and quilts to children in need since 1995. I am so glad to have added one more to that awesome number. 

Check out the 100 Quilts for Kids Flikr page to see what other folks have made and donated. It's pretty cool. 

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Reversible Criss Cross Girl's Dress

So last week a customer expressed a teeny tiny bit of interest in a dress for a baby girl and this is what happened...

I could have looked through patterns and come up with a price quote and item description like most sane crafters would have done, but my fingers were itchy, and I know four baby girls turning one within the next few months, so I just went for it and tried Wink Handmade's pattern for this reversible dress. I like this pattern for a few reasons: it can be worn first as a dress and later as a top over pants/shorts as the baby grows, it's crossover tie design will fit all baby body types, and it's reversible, so when it gets covered in lunch turn it inside out, put it back on your modern babe, and *wink* - noone will know. Also, I found the pattern easy to follow, and quick to sew, so I'll be using it again.

As for fabric, I thought that I chose these dot and chevron prints randomly, but the morning after I finished the dress I paused at our dining room table and realized that the roses that Mr. T had given me for my birthday matched the dress pretty well. Perhaps I had roses on the brain? Or, as Mr. T believes, perhaps nothing is random. What do you think?

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Sweet September

So September is a sweet month in our family. My mother, my sister, my daughter, my late grandmother, and myself were all born in September, so it's pretty much a marathon of cake, laughter, and presents. It's exhausting and wonderful all at the same time, like all of the good times in my life lately.

This year for my birthday I made myself a pile of cloth napkins because you know, who doesn't want to wake up to a pile of napkins on their birthday? They are eco-friendly, easy to sew, and they make me feel fancy every single time I use them. Plus, I do at least one load of laundry a day with three little people in the house, so what's a few napkins added to the mix?

For this project I used the simple intructions outlined in Malka Dubrawsky's new book, taking stacks of fat quarters and sewing them into reversible napkins while watching tv late at night. This is what my stack of fat quarters looked like BEFORE.

And here is my finished stack of napkins AFTER. 

You can see them lounging at birthday party number one next to the amazing brownie cake my husband brought home from Babycakes for me. This cake was so good that the very first thing my three year old said upon waking the day after my birthday was, "where's the cake?" He cried just a little bit when the last slice was eaten. 

And here are my awesome napkins again at birthday party number three bedding some forks.  

Ah, sweet September.

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The Absolute Best Granola (vegan)

So my sister has always loved granola in any form. Granola in a bowl, as a bar, on ice cream, in pancakes, in cookies...you get the point. I never understood her devotion to granola until I tasted the version served and sold in bags at the bakery counters of the Le Pain Quotidien restaurants sprinkled throughout New York City. Full of nuts, coconut, raisins, and maple syrup, it really is amazing stuff, and I have never come close to duplicating it until now.

Behold the absolute best homemade granola. Oh, and it's vegan.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coarsely chopped raw almonds
1/2 cup wide cut coconut (sometimes called coconut chips) 
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds
3 cups rolled oats 
4 T raw sugar 
1 t cinamon
1/2 t freshly grated nutmeg
3 T coconut oil (sometimes called coconut butter)
3 T blackstrap molasses
3 T maple syrup
3 T water
2/3 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

Mix all dry ingredients, except raisins, in a large mixing bowl.

Place the coconut oil, molasses, and maple syrup in a saucepan over medium heat until melted. You can whisk the coconut oil a bit to speed the melting process and prevent the sweeteners from boiling. 

Pour the warm liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and using a spoon or your hands, mix it all together until the dry ingredients are evenly coated with the liquid.

Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper and spread the granola evenly over the pans. 

Bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven, stir in raisins. Bake again for 5-10 minutes 

Yields about 5 cups. 

I store my granola in quart sized Ball jars on the top of the fridge. If I quadruple the recipe I get almost 6 full jars, and they last my family of 5 about 3-4 weeks.

This recipe is really flexible in terms of which nuts, seeds and fruit you use. Feel free to mess around with crazy combinations. I think that dried cherries and candied ginger would be great in place of the raisins, and I recently made a tropical version for my papaya loving kids by adding dried papaya and banana chips to the batch at the same time that I added the raisins. 

Yum. 

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Handmade Back to School Goodie Bag

So my kids are in love with goodie bags. I think that if I wrapped raw kale around a stick and it put it in a goodie bag, they would eat it and ask for more. Really. It's that kind of love.

I make goodie bags for the airplane (brown paper bags filled with Larabars, stickers and mini notepads), for doctor's appointments (lollipops and a little toy they have forgotten they had like a matchbox car), and for the first day of school. So far, this is what my kids will find in their backpacks on the morning of September 6.

 

My daughter S is receiving a resusable sandwich wrap, 2 fabric covered pocket notebooks, 5 super duper hero pencils, and 4 mini roles of washi tape. My son is getting the same thing, except he hates sandwiches, so I got him a reusable snack bag instead. The sandwich wrap and reusable snack bag pictured here are made my Planet Wise, but you can easily make some yourself. In the past I have used this pattern for sandwich wraps, and this one for snack bags. Just make sure when making your own that your materials are food safe. 

I feel a teeny bit guilty for buying snack bags this time around, but I made the fabric covered notebooks and pencils, so it's ok right? If you want to see how I made these simple no sew fabric covered notebooks, then check out my brand new tutorial here. Once I made the first notebook I was hooked, and only stopped when I had gone through all of the blank cardboard notebooks in my stash. I think these little notebooks will be perfect for stocking stuffers, mother's day, teacher gifts, graduates, as journals...I could go on and on. So make some!

And while your at it, gussy up some pencils to go with your notebooks. I made these super duper superhero pencils using this tutorial for washi paper covered pencils. Instead of washi paper I used comic book pages, and instead of matte Mod Podge I used sparkle Mod Podge, but the process was the same. To allow the pencils to dry I leaned them up against my wall like this:

Now my kids can scribble with pencils that say "WHAM" and "POW". That is if they don't tape their fingers together with washi tape first. 

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Small Changes

So I continue to make small changes in an effort to fall back into love with my home. I have a lot of faith in small changes making a big difference in my life, and this week I am making small changes in the living room.

For minimal effort and expense I just finished off this stack of simple knife edge pillows featuring a variety of IKEA fabrics. 

My hope was that the addition of these pillows would modernize the living room and contribute to the materials available for fort building. So far, they have done both jobs well, withstanding a first round of fort design, contruction, and destruction all the while looking mod and fresh.

In addition to the pillows I played with a new arrangement of the crocheted stones that happliy clutter our mantle. I made these stones last summer after becoming enthralled by Margaret Ooman's crochet covered sea stones over at Purl, and I still love to look at them. 

 

 So there you have it: fabric + yarn + rocks = house love. At least in my world it does.

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Handmade Milestones

So my babe B took his first real steps yesterday. 12 of them. Then he took some more today and I snapped this photo. You can tell from the skewed background that he is still in the very early phase of barely-walking-mostly-falling, but in this house we're calling him a toddler already.

When I looked at this photo after all the kids were in bed I realized that my little man was wearing pants that I made him when he took some of his first steps. Curious, I looked through other photos and found Mr. B climbing a park bench in mamma made pants here:

and crawling in these mamma mades here.

I have photos of my older son doing the very same things in the very same pants, and this makes me smile. Not only because wide legged pants are completely on trend (ha!), but because for me, making these pants was another way to love my boys. Like all people invested in handmade, I used my hands and my heart when sewing these tiny garments, and I know that part of me was with Mr. B when he reached the milestones documented above. I feel similarly when I tuck my children under handmade quilts at night. It's as if even after I leave the room I know that there is a piece of me left behind to dream along with them.

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The Kids' Wall

So this year I fell out of love with my house. I'm not sure when or how it happened exactly, but it did. Lately I find myself online looking at real estate, the whole time feeling disloyal and a little bit dirty. In those moments I force myself to recall the first dreamy months of living here. We had moved from a crowded apartment building in an urban area, and I was thrilled to have my own designated parking spot (driveway), my own laundromat (washer/dryer), and my own park (backyard). I felt so content just to be here, and I want that feeling back.

To that end, I decided to make over our home wall by wall, room by room and I plan to share our progress here as we go. This weekend we put together this wall in our newly painted entryway.

I'm calling this wall the kids' wall, and I'm liking it a whole lot. What do you think?

Are you doing any home improvements this summer that you want to share?

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Sewn Cake Bunting

So my baby B is #1. 

To celebrate his birthday we stayed home and celebrated quietly with family and a couple of cakes. I firmly believe that every babe should celebrate their first birthday with their very own cake. They should be able to mash it and knead it in their baby fists and rub it into their cheeks...you get the idea. To top our cakes I went with super fast, super handmade sewn cake buntings.

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