For The Guys

If you are like me - and I hope I'm not the only one - the guys in your life are impossible to buy for. Perusing Etsy lately I have found so many cool guy gifts. I would just like to say thank you to those people. You make my X-mas shopping so much easier. Here's a sample....

(click on the picture to be taken to their shop)

A Handmade Holiday for the Wee Ones...

Peanut the Wee Elephant

Go down any toy aisle in a big box store and you will find row after row of mass-manufactured plastic toys. Things that make noise, light up, and as we are finding out possibly made with toxic chemicals. My point is not to scare you, but to encourage parents and those buying for children to look for hand-made toys this holiday. There are so many books, patterns, and creative crafters out there who have patterns or have created great hand-made toys for children. Here's just a sampling of what you can find out there.


Joelle Hoverson's great book, Last Minute Patchwork+Quilted Gifts has a couple of sweet gifts including Peanut the Elephant and a sweet idea for a baby quilt.

No loud obnoxious noises here!

Heather Baily just came out with a slew of fabulous patterns including a pincushion set that will eventually need to go home with me. These stacking toys pulled at my heartstrings as I had the same type of toy - in plastic - at my grandmother's house.

These puppies are very cute!

Indygo Junction has many fun stuffed toy patterns out. Check out Repotdepot.com and PurlSoho.com to find these.



I'm so in love with these! I just saw these for the first time at Crafty Planet and love these patterns by WeeWonderfuls. These patterns are simple enough the older kids could make them themselves. Check out the awesome butterfly!



The Cute Book is a series of books that feature fun hand-made toys. The designer, Aranzi Aronzo, creates these Japanese inspired toys. Many many more Japanese craft books are now coming into the country. A few are being translated into English, otherwise you can find several in Japanese. That's a whole other blog post right there...


Here's a list of some wonderful online tutorials of toys and baby/children gifts that you can make!

Martha Stewart

• Baby Kimono shirt
• Applique Onesie
• Recycled Sweater Stuffed Animals
• Baby Bibs
• Potato Print Clothes
• Felt Slippers

Purl Bee

• Toys
• Babies
• Girls

Sew Mama Sew! Baby and Toddler Ideas

Craftzine Magazine

• Firefly Booties

Home-made playdough (everyone loves playdough!)

Yes, I'm a dork.....

When you have a chance stop by The Cotton Factory and check out there really fun T-Shirts. I absolutely had to have this shirt.......

and I love it!!! So that must make me a little bit dorky...

A thing for vintage

Perhaps this will be made into something?

I don't know what it is about vintage goods but I love them. Put me in an antique store and while I love looking at dishes, painting, and just about anything show me a little tucked away corner of vintage sewing notions and the rare pile of fabric and I'm a kid in a candy shop! Spools or ribbon, cards of rickrack still in their packaging (the designs on the package enough are worth looking at), loops of old lace.....I love it all.

I can't bear to part with these yet

I also like finding vintage patterns. Children's patterns are especially cute because the designs are so intricate and well thought out. The downer however is that they are usually much more complicated than modern ones. Adult patterns are easier to come by but to find a size that fits a woman a size 8, 10 or larger is hard to find. Most vintage patterns come in one size only unlike modern ones that are broken up into 2-8 and 10-14/16. Don't look for your dress size, but rather your individual measurements like bust and waist. If you can find something close but perhaps a little larger or maybe smaller, you can adjust the pattern and finished piece to fit you.

I'd like to think Sophia Loren
would have worn this

When looking at yardage it helps to remember that most fabric came about 33-36 inches wide, not 44". So generally you can get away with a little less than it requires, but check the directions for how they lay it out first. Also pre-wash your fabric! If it was made before the 1970's it has a very good chance it will bleed the colors. With trims you should try handwashing it, though lighter colors should be fine. Red's should be washed, don't mess with those..... You may be surprised - if you find a very old pattern - to come across one without any type on it what so ever! In that case look at the directions to see what each piece actually is and good luck!

Happy November 4th!

This is a friendly reminder to......

Get out and VOTE!!!!!

In the 2004 election only %60 of Americans voted, let's see if we can beat that this time!

Holiday Gift Tags

I've been having fun with Adobe Creative Suite and TA DA, gift tags! You can download these here.

Print tags on heavy card stock and cut out, use a small paper punch for a hole and add a ribbon!

The anatomy of a pincusion

I found a great use for all those fabrics scraps I accumulate... Pincushions! I love pincushions. So many different styles, colors, shapes. I like the patchwork style of these.

Cute!

Start by creating or using a pattern. I lay several pieces of fabric in a stack to make the process go a little faster....

I love these prints from Denyse Schmidt. You can go for a certain color scheme (think all blues and browns) or go for a kaleidoscope of color like here.


Buy this from Etsy!