fabric baby blocks

A dreary, warmish, rainy day. thus poor photos!
But I'm not in the mood to retake them, so here ya go!
All those pregnant friends I talked about in the fall are having their babies now. Some prezzies are in order.
The large one was cut at 4.5 square out of cotton fabric. I put a letter C on it for the baby's name, reinforcing it with some heavy iron on interfacing and a small zigzag stitch. I put 3 jingle bells in some mesh, much like an onion bag, sewed it shut and put it inside the stuffing.

The middle size is cut at 4 inches SQ out of fleece. I stitched some shapes on it to give a sort of relief. I like it. To keep the shape of the block when stuffing, I ironed heavy interfacing on the squares before I sewed the shapes and the places together. It works much better than leaving it plain. In this one, I put some beads in a small watchmaker's tin from Lee Valley and taped it shut. it makes a great sound.

The last cube is cut 3 inches SQ, I think. I made it last year when I ordered my first batch of felt from Feltorama. It's a bit of a joke, as when I was making it in the park, the mother of the baby asked what i was doing it for. Why was I making a block? She'll get a chuckle that I had her in mind. At least, i hope so. This one has a cat toy with a bell inside and is stuffed with wool roving.


A few little things to put with a welcome baby gift.

Ciao,
Amanda

Little Red Riding Hood

This little beauty is from the book, More Softies Only a Mother Could Love

I enlarged her only half of what it directed. She is about half the size of Max and Santa gnome here and Maisie here. Go figure.

I used to like little things. But since doing the above mentioned softies, I think I prefer my softies to be a bit bigger. more to love.
It was much more embellished in the book. I would have done that too, but my embellishment pile is limited to only stuff I had for paper crafting. I don't think a fancy jewel brad would work here! :}


Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Max Santa

so when I made Max the gnome the 1st time, I knew he was gonna come back as a Santa gnome.


Especially when Fabricland was having a buy 1 get 2 free sale on fake fur!


Fun to make and fun to love.


Original gnome pattern from More Softies Only a Mother Could Love Santa adaptation by me.

Oh, one other thing, I'm thinking of opening an etsy shop, but I'm scared! Anybody out there have the same feeling when they started? Advice appreciated.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

fleece coat

I finally got a picture of this coat I made last month. I bought the fabric about 8 years ago to make some ponchos! I bought the pattern for this coat last year. Glad I waited as she grew so much this summer. I also made it in size 6 instead of 5. i think she'll get a few years out of it.


Here's a close up. I love the fleece. there is embroidery in it. The "buttons" are because I was too lazy to make button holes. Actually, Neve and I went to look for buttons, but didn't see anything we liked. until we were out the door. I need to put pockets in the side. She HAs to have pockets in the sides. :}


Her tinkerbell costume is underneath. so it's puffed out. She's a social butterfly. Waving to her people.


HAve a good one!
Amanda

more creature purses

Howdy!
I've been busy in the sewing room, but just remakes of things you've seen already. Nothing new and exciting.
Here's another creature purse.. this time a car. beep beep


And a little hedgie! i love him.


On the 22-24, the Creative festival is happening here in TO. I'm so excited! I've arranged childcare for the whole day and don't have to get them till school is over at 3:30. Come to think of it, my uncle picks the kids up on Fridays and takes them to swimming after school WHOOT! I can stay out longer. Best go find my good walking shoes! I'll be sure to have a few good posts from that!

Have a good one,
Amanda

creature purses

Last night, I was a sewing machine.... whhhrrrrrr
He's my favorite.

This idea has been in my head for a few days. I wish I could have done it with beautiful wool felt, but the fleece will so for now.

This was my 1st one. I tweaked the others a little by using only my circle and oval die cut shapes with my cuttle bug. It makes a clean edge.

good luck purse.

happy happy


Have a good one,
Amanda

Marble travel a la Serving Pink Lemonade

Loved this idea when I saw it on Serving Pink Lemonade
So many great ideas there.. go take a look..



Make sure you sew the lines big enough for a marble to go through. And make sure you don't sew the marble into a corner. Ask me how I know?!!
I came up with a few of my own runs for the marble. It's kind of addictive, thinking them up and sewing them up.


And some letters for the kids names. Can you imagine doing a whole pile of them in letters to spell the birthday kid's name?!! How much more personal can you get?


i crudely machine sewed the slit on the side. too lazy to hand sew.

Next round that I make, I will put the turning right side out slit where the ribbon is and attach and sew seam all together with the machine. Just makes a little more sense there.


I brought one next door to the neighbour's daughter with her initial. She wasn't home, but her mother couldn't stop playing with it and exclaimed how addictive it was.

Try it for yourself and have a good look at Serving Pink Lemonade

thanks for looking,
Amanda

sheep fleece

What is it??

A dirty dirty sheep fleece. Word of warning, if you're going to buy a sheep fleece, open it up first. man oh man. But for 10 bucks, I couldn't resist. silly me.

Here's what 2 soaks in the washer did...


Not bad. I cut out a bunch of the matted tips. hopefully it is mud? Not sure what to do with this now. It's not really clean. I hardly had enough time at home to do this. I'm going to use it for stuffing, so I'm not worried about the length of it for spinning.

Is it just me or is the last month of school crazy? We haven't been home enough to clean up. Which leads me to another mystery, if you're never home, how can the house be so messy? And where are all those little cleaning fairies? Send one my way will ya? lol

I've been making some little things, nothing you haven't seen before. Got my order of wool blend felt from Felt-o-rama. Great service and I didn't get dinged at customs. My order was only about $30 with taxes and shipping, so I don't know if that made a difference. I'd recommend it if you are from canada. Still looking for a Canadian supplier though. Gnomes, I'm making gnomes. and the leaf pocket.

Oh, i made 2 gnomes from roving yesterday. Gave them away. Gonna make more to show you.

So, that's it from here. enjoying the sunshine and shade with the kids. Hopefully will have something crafty to share with you soon.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

Softee trees

And because it's not Christmas unless there is last minute making..... like up till 2am making.....





And I had a little help with this.... my body was a humming....


Happy christmas!
thanks for looking,
Amanda

fleece spotted bag

This bag was quite easy to whip up and fun to make. It started out as a vision for a scarf, but I figured the little girl who it was for probably had enough scarves. So I made a bag. you can never have too many bags! The purple fleece was a scarf from the dollar store. Pink from Fabricland.


I even lined it! A big deal for me as I don't usually like to take the time to do it, but I'm glad I did.


I got the idea for the reverse applique(?) from ....ah man, I can't remember where from. I thought it was "Sew Liberated", but now I'm not sure.... If you know, tell me. It was a brown or green skirt with leaf pattern sewn and cut.


And I'm done caroling for 2010. Yeah. I didn't get a sore throat or sick. Touch wood. Just have to get through 4 days of singing for Church. Ah, c'mon Boxing day!

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Cupcake pocket fleece scarf

I have a vision for fleece scarves and hats. I bought the fabric, just have to get to it. Anyhow, here is a beginning to my fleece making....


The cupcake is made from felt with a few stitches on the machine and a bold, red button.

I then blanket stitched it on with pink anchora crochet thread that I bought in Portugal. i LOVE it and I'm so glad I have so much of it as I'm using it constantly.

Now to make little bags for my order of 35 microscope ornament slides ....

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

boa scarf

here is my boa scarf. It is sooo warm. i love it.


I used 2 layers of pink and 2 layers of purple fleece.


I alternated the layers and sewed up the middle of them. The scarf is 60x 4 inches. I then laid the scarf on my cutting mat and cut at 1 inch intervals, stopping short of the centre sewline.

The purple fleece was from my stash years ago. Like before I had children. i was going to make my niece something. There is quite a bit of it. I just bought a pattern for an unlined coat for Neve, so maybe in the spring. It has a lovely machine embroidered flower on it. So for now, I'm enjoying the fabric myself.


There are many tutorials for boa scarves online. I just googled it and took what I wanted from many of the designs. I like the smaller cut, as in 4 inches instead of 6. makes it look fuller. There is one more kind of folding I want to try with this idea before I put it to rest. I'm seeing it in cream and brown. Another time.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda