LoLo Craft

Countdown Blocks

2011-11-10T00:45:00.000-05:00

You guys...I made something! If anybody is still here....well, it's autumn. And that means it is time to craft again. This was from a kit that I ordered through our congregation's annual crafty night. All things considered, it is not a bad price - $13 for the wood, the vinyl and all of the paper, pre-cut. I picked out my own paint, used my own ModPodge, and some shellac I had in the garage.

So. Anybody still out there? What are you working on for Christmas??

Ice pops- strawberry guava, with surprise cherries!

2011-07-06T19:13:00.001-04:00

A very twirly birthday!

2011-06-24T15:53:00.001-04:00

Today is my niece's birthday so, of course, I am spending my day making the birthday present my daughter asked me to make MONTHS ago. I am nothing if not punctual! *sigh*

Still, I think she will love it. Just, please, don't anyone tell her that one should not START a homemade gift ON the recipients birthday. Thanks.

~Aunt LoLo

My Memories scrapbooking software Winner! (And a discount!!)

2011-06-03T10:59:00.001-04:00

Today I will announce the winner of the giveaway, but FIRST, I wanted to give you ALL a treat. My Memories has provided me with a limited-time discount code for $10 off of their My Memories Suite, v2 (usually $39.97). That means you can get the software set for only $29.97! (See how good I am with math?)

If you would like to take advantage of this limited time offer, go to www.MyMemories.com, add My Memories Suite v2 to your cart, and use this promo code when you check out:

STMMMS82844

I suggest you copy and paste it, to make sure it all gets in there correctly.

Now, on to the giveaway winner!

Thank you to all (9) of you who entered this giveaway! After entering the few of you into www.Random.org, I came up with 3, which brings us to…..Julie!

Julie said...

I'm also a scrapbooking novice. I like the Lined Journal Cards by Sahlin Studil. For me, it's the stories that go along with the photos that mean the most.

May 31, 2011 12:51 PM

Julie, congratulations. Look for an e-mail from me with the details.

PS – Tonggu Momma? Happy birthday!!

PPS – A big thank you to My Memories for sponsoring this giveaway!

My Memories scrapbooking software (Review and Giveaway!)

2011-05-31T01:30:00.001-04:00

In the past few weeks, a few people have asked me what kinds of crafts I like. And it’s easy to answer – anything that isn’t knitting, crocheting or scrapbooking. Those are fine crafts, just not ones that I’ve picked up yet.

See that? There might just be scrapbooking in my future after all…

Recently, I was contacted and asked if I would like to review (and give away!) the My Memories Suite software. It is digital scrapbooking software, and is billed as “easy to use!”. Fortunately for them, they were right.

I went to the website, added the software to my virtual cart, gave them my promotional code, and “bought” it (for the low, low price of FREE.) From there, I went to the My Downloads page and found the software in my queue. I downloaded the software to my computer, and I was good to go! There are a few pre-decorated albums already loaded into the software, which is perfect for a complete NOOB (that’s pronounced Newbie) like me. The page above took me all of three minutes to put together. (I spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out how to share the image with all of YOU. Heh. Some blogger I am, right??!)

Oh, and the process to make the album? Super simple: open a new project. Choose a template. Click on the camera icon on the right to add new pictures. Drag those pictures over the blank “holes” and wait for them to light up blue. Let go, and use the icons to edit the picture as necessary (crop, rotate, etc.) That’s it! Save your project, and you’re done for the day. Later, you can print them out, or share them…and if I figure out how to do that, I’ll let you know. *grin* (Oh, and also? Don’t think this is just for scrapbooking…when you view your album, you have the option to make it into a calendar or a card, too! And wouldn’t the grandparents just love that for the holidays…)

So – the verdict? I like it. LIKE it, like it. As in, I might start scrapbooking. (Please don’t hold me to that…)

(I’ve also learned that iPhone pictures, while quick and convenient, always pale in comparison with shots taken with a real camera. Hence the pixel-y images that you would see on my “page” up there…if you could actually see all the details. Heh.)

Now, who would like to try out this software…for FREE??! You would? Listen up:

1) Go to www.MyMemories.com and have a look around. Poke around their papers section, and tell me which set you love most. Or check out their embellishments! Or free downloads! Just come on back here and leave a comment to let me know what you loved.

That’s it! We’ve all had a nice relaxing, LONG weekend, and I want to keep this short and sweet.

If you love My Memories, and would like to keep up to date on their shenanigans, you can also find them here:

Twitter

Facebook

Their blog

Good luck! The winner will be announced on Friday, June 3.

Some chores

2011-05-25T18:02:00.001-04:00

Wow! A month has gone by since I've been in my craft room. I stole a few minutes today to catch up. A certain little princess needs her favorite skirt patched, and a skirt to go with her swim suit. (Rather than try to sew it on her suit, like the favorite suit from last year, I will just make a skirt Witt an elastic waist. Any advice would be appreciated!)

~Aunt LoLo

A Frock for the New Girl

2011-05-07T17:27:00.000-04:00

A new girl just moved into our congregation a few weeks ago. She is a sweetheart, and (bonus!) speaks the same Chinese my family does. That made her an instant bestie. Just to make sure her move was as non-eventful as possible, she happened to time it within weeks of her due date. As in…she is expecting her sixth! child! any! day!

Never a group to miss a party, a few ladies sprang into action and put together a baby shower. (Even though this is her sixth child, it is a girl….and her last girl was born 9 years, and three boys, ago. She gave up hope somewhere along the way, along with all of her daughter’s baby clothes.) Friends in her previous congregation had already gathered stuff for her, and given her lots of hand-me-down baby clothes, so she requested that if we were inclined to bring gifts…..could they please be things for a slightly older girl?

Originally, I intended to make one of Made by Rae’s Itty Bitty dresses, but I couldn’t find my pattern. (The pattern, by the way, is a free download on Rae’s blog, and is SUPER adorable. It is a dress that will fit right at birth, hence the itty bitty part. A few readers enlarged the pattern and sent it back to her, so now it goes all the way up to 3T, I believe. Anyhow, it’s an adorable, and simple dress!)

My train of thought went something like this. I’ll make Rae’s itty bitty dress! Oh, I can’t find the pattern. I could probably make another pattern from memory…I can find a small t-shirt and make the pattern from that. Hrm…making patterns. That reminds me…I DID make a dress pattern a few years ago!

And thus, I made one of my Pretty Frocks for the new wee one.

This was made from one of my husband’s cast-off dress shirts. I experimented this time, trying to keep the shoulders a little wider. In past versions, after making a rolled hem on both the neck and the arm hole, the resulting shoulder bit was only about an inch and a half wide. This time, I used some binding that I had leftover from a small quilt to bind off the neck. The arms were still a rolled hem.

You can see here, on the back of the dress, the original button placket from the shirt.

I lined some of the more ticklish seams with binding.

The dress, honestly, came out quite a bit BIGGER than what I imagined it would. The pattern was drawn up to be 2T, but…it still managed to button around my 4 year old. Oh well – the new little one can wear it for YEARS. Heh. (Kim, if you are reading this, bring the dress to me when your daughter wants to start wearing it, and I’ll hem it to the right length!)

Meet: The Three Month Aprons

2011-04-08T18:12:00.001-04:00

I’ve been going on and on and on about these aprons…and wouldn’t you like to see the finished product?

Of course you would.

Ages ago (back when the year was new), one of my husband’s friends contacted me. She wanted to work together to come up with some aprons for her son and his best friends. The aprons, she was sure, would be a hit with the kids. The matching hats, she was sure, would be a hit with their mothers for as long as the kidlets would keep them on. Heh.

I don’t remember what exactly took so long, but picking out fabrics was definitely a big part of it. There was the shopping around, waiting for things to be back in stock, finding another seller for a print that was not negotiable and then the process of picking out coordinating fabrics for the details. (Each apron is double sided, with the backside matching the pocket from the front side and the band on the hat.) The actual production of the aprons was pretty quick, and took about two weeks (including cutting, pressing, aprons and hats). There was one tense moment when I realized that I had cut a directional print…the wrong way. Do you think a little girl would notice if all of her Winnie the Pooh’s were laying on their sides? Yes? Luckily, there was a remnant of the fabric left that was just big enough to cut another apron front, the right way.

Unfortunately, that remnant was a mis-laid hat piece. Which meant I had to cut another hat piece out of the REAL remnant piece that I had already put away on my shelf. Whoops.

Ready to meet the babies?

Fabric purchased here and here. Both shops were a delight, and I will be going back!

PS – If you are interested in getting a set, I will work with you to pick out fabrics. The sets are $30 each, plus shipping.

Ready to mail!

2011-04-06T12:56:00.002-04:00

The apron sets are ready to go out!! I think it took three months to get to this point....but I guess that comes with the territory if being a mommy crafter. You tackle projects 10 minutes at a time!!

Ps- if anyone else is interested in purchasing an apron and chef hat set, they are $30 and I will work with you to pick out fabric ( which is included in the price). ~Aunt LoLo

Some bad news.....and some goods

2011-04-03T13:39:00.001-04:00

First, the bad news. I have apparently lost my cake mojo. This is the second weekend in a row that I have made a tasty, and very ugly cake. (Last weekend it was a set of carrot cake cupcakes that drew giggles from every single adult who ate them. All 8 of us. They were that ugly. They puffed way up in the oven, and then just sort if deflated and overflowed and blew up. ) I have no idea what is going on, but that particularly mangled cake back there baked for an extra 15 minutes and is still just barely on the correct side of done. Tastes awesome, though. And now the good news.....I think I need to keep making cakes -lots and often - until I get my mojo back. Heh

~Aunt LoLo

Hats, etc.

2011-03-31T16:52:00.001-04:00

I finally was able to get out to the fabric store and pick up the interfacing I needed to finish my hats. But they WILL be done soon. One is finished, and the other three just need their poufs and Velcro. Can I get a whoohoo??! Everything is coming together SO cute.

~Aunt LoLo

Turning straps

2011-03-23T17:03:00.001-04:00

So, after (literally) years of making aprons and wasting hours turning straps....,I've found a way to do it that DOESN't make me want to tear my hair out and strangle someone with it. Yes, I have wasted THAT much of my time turning straps. I'll be back later to tell you my new secret. Before I do that, please tell me...do you have a favorite way to turn straps??

~Aunt LoLo

Every little step

2011-03-21T18:08:00.001-04:00

When I have a big project, every little step feels like a victory. (This, I think, is because all projects around here must be accomplished by dozens of little steps!) Anyhow, today I got four apron/hat sets cut out. And even fixed a few small emergencies. (thank goodness for extra fabric!!)

Directional print, you mocked me once. Never do it again!! (name that butchered movie...)

~Aunt LoLo

Mom and Me Yoga-band skirts

2011-03-14T20:27:00.001-04:00

This was the result of one nap time, and three un-needed t-shirts. My skirt is an XL men's Hanes shirt (I bought it months ago because it was cheap, high quality jersey) and my band is the bottom 8" of a jersey shirt that was quite tight on me, and just too short.

Ming Wai's skirt is a size small men's t-shirt - one of Dad's cast-off's. (It has a mysterious schmear of gum or putty on the front that we couldn't wash out.)

I have to admit, mine was a little frustrating to make...and reminded me why I so RARELY sew clothes for myself. See, four year old girls don't have any CURVES. It's quite easy to make skirts and dresses for a cereal-box shaped mannequin...it's quite another thing to try and find flattering seams for all a mama's curvy bits. Oh well - if nothing else, I think I just made myself a marvelously comfortable, and spring-y maternity skirt. Which would be great, if I were pregnant. Which I'm not.

Pregnant, I mean. I'm not pregnant. (Do you hear me, Mom?)

~Aunt LoLo

Trial run of a hat!

2011-03-09T16:48:00.001-05:00

A friend has ordered four apron and hat sets for four adorable littles. The only hitch is that...I've never made a hat. Until now!

I'll call this a success.

The fabric she chose is on it's way from etsy and fabric.com. I forgot to order Velcro or interfacing, so I'll need to head off to the store for those things. Can't wait to get started!

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 28- chicken curry soup...with rice!

2011-02-28T21:37:00.001-05:00

That's it for Thing a Day. See y'all next year!

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 24- carrot cake!

2011-02-26T17:53:00.001-05:00

Today we are headed to a tea party. Just a handful 20-somethings, plus our little girls, because we were feeling generous! I am in charge of dessert...and nothing screams TEA PARTY! like piles of carrots and cream cheese, right?!

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 25- runner, completed!!

2011-02-25T19:12:00.001-05:00

Finally. *phew* Just in time!

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 24- caramel corn!

2011-02-24T13:58:00.001-05:00

We are snowed in, and caramel corn felt like the perfect way to celebrate. This was my first time making it...and it won't be my last. Yum!

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 23- runner, quilted

2011-02-23T19:43:00.001-05:00

I got the runner quilted, and am super close to finishing the binding. I love how it's coming together. The tiny lime green binding makes me so happy!

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 22- runner, sandwiched

2011-02-22T17:52:00.001-05:00

The runner is now sashed, sandwiched and pinned. Woot!

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 21- sashing

2011-02-21T19:50:00.001-05:00

Continuing the table runner- I added the inside sashing today.

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 19- bread

2011-02-20T00:39:00.001-05:00

Real creative, right?? Saturdays don't usually leave a lot of free time for crafting...but baking bread can't wait. Mmm.

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 18- quilt blocks

2011-02-18T18:36:00.001-05:00

Got started today on the blocks for a table runner. A mix of thrifted linens and leftover calico from another project.

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 17- tong yuen!

2011-02-18T00:23:00.001-05:00

To celebrate the last day of Chinese New Year, and today's full moon, I made some tong yuen (little balls of glutinous rice flour and water). I served them with peach syrup. They were tasty, but came out quite a bit tougher than the ones my MIL made when she taught me. Oh well- I guess that means I just need to try again. Yum!

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 16- a teeny blanket

2011-02-18T00:20:00.001-05:00

This was meant to be a church-themed White Elephant gift. Get it? It's the Comforter.....

Heh. Yeah.

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 15- chili

2011-02-16T01:36:00.001-05:00

Today, I made a huge batch of chili. Half was for us, and half went to an ill friend for dinner. And since chili isn't that photogenic....you'll just have to take my word for it. Heh. Cheers!

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 14- a hem!

2011-02-14T17:34:00.001-05:00

Yes, it took about 5 minutes....but it was totally worth it! My new favorite lounge pants just got a 4" chop, and now I can wear them out without stepping on them. Woohoo!

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 13- bi-polar washcloth

2011-02-13T12:04:00.001-05:00

Party on the left, business on the right...great for any occasion!

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 12- sugar cookies

2011-02-12T16:56:00.001-05:00

Today, my favorite sous chef and I are making sugar cookies for a party on Monday.

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 11- a card

2011-02-11T16:59:00.001-05:00

Can't elaborate much...never know who might be reading! Mums the word....

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 10- knit washcloth

2011-02-10T16:59:00.001-05:00

I must be the worlds slowest knitter! I started this months ago, and just pulled it out again. I ran out of yarn, so I knotted on another color and kept going. It will be a kitchen dishcloth for my sister when it's done.

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 9- Fixing a pillow

2011-02-09T15:46:00.001-05:00

My industrious toddler has de-buttoned two of my four sofa pillows over the last year. Each time, it's a hunt to find the missing buttons. I finally had to admit defeat, though, and replace one of the buttons with a fabric button gifted by another blogger. It has a tiny rabbit on it, which I thought was appropriate, given that this is the year of the Rabbit. (by the way, today is the seventh day if the Chinese new year...which makes it EVERYONES birthday. So, you know....happy birthday, y'all. Happy year of the rabbit!!)

~Aunt LoLo

TAD 8- wheat bread

2011-02-08T17:43:00.001-05:00

I really hoped THIS would be the February that got me into the craft room!! Oh well....creating in the kitchen is tastier! This is an experiment...my favorite bread recipe, using half whole wheat (ground by my awesome sister.)

~Aunt LoLo

Hello? Is this thing on?

2011-02-02T11:11:00.001-05:00

I'm trying to figure out the best way to set up my Posterous feeds this year...here goes nothing!

Thing a Day is back!

2011-02-02T10:40:00.000-05:00

I'm still working on my interpersonal issues between me and Posterous...but at the very least, Posterous put up my first post yesterday. Woot!

Go here to see what I made on the first day of February. My hope is that I get all my ducks in a row, and can document my journey here as well, through the wonders of AutoPost. We'll see.

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!!

Test 2

2011-01-31T18:09:00.003-05:00

Testing Windows Live Writer, with images

Test

2011-01-31T18:09:00.001-05:00

Testing Windows Live Writer

Quilt, Gifted

2011-01-27T15:13:00.001-05:00

My Mother in Law, MaMa, is here, and we’ve been having loads of fun. She’s an excellent cook, so we’ve been spending all of our spare time in the kitchen. Of course, that leaves no time for my craft room…but it’s a small price to pay for all of the delicious food she’s teaching me to make! (At this point, she’s over her shyness, and doesn’t even bat an eye when I pull out the camera every time she pulls out pots and pans. Heh.)

Her first night here, we all exchanged Christmas gifts. I wanted her to use her gift from me right away…and was really excited to see what she would think of it.

She liked it. *grin*

That Quilt I Mentioned Once or Twice

2011-01-26T00:42:00.000-05:00

Yes, I’m dragging this out. It’s what I do! Here’s the quilt, all quilted, and waiting for my fabulous peeps to come over and help me sew the binding on. (Seriously, quilting bees are just one of the coolest things I can think of right now. I machine sewed the front of the binding on, and then a friend, a sister, and my mom helped me hand sew the back of the binding. Amazing.)

Come and Be My Friend?

2011-01-21T17:17:00.000-05:00

Please know I am not trying to drum up followers or anything insidious like that. What I AM trying to drum up is interactions, and a bevy of "friends" to Chat Craft with during the day. Are you on Facebook? Come and find me! Just "like" my page, and then we can chat it up, LoLo Style.

I love to post about what I'm up to during the day, in the craft room, and get feedback. So, if this blog is a place to discuss and show you the (long!) process things take to get into my shop...then facebook is the place to discuss the process things take to get to my blog! Heh. Something that like.

The Bookcase Bench, Revealed!

2011-01-18T11:32:00.001-05:00

This is a blog for my crafts, right? So…essentially, a space for me to brag on the stuff that I make?

Alright. Good. Just checking.

I made a bookcase. Yes, yes. I know. Please, hold your applause until after the show!

Our home is still very “new” to us…and we are still figuring out how to live and work in this space. One thing that I knew we needed was a bookshelf for Ming Wai’s room. Her old room had a wall of built-ins, and they were full of books, knick knacks, treasures, toys and stuffed animals. Her new room boasts a dresser, which she’s never had before…but no place for her books. Keeping her squirrelly brother in mind, I needed a bookcase that was squat, un-tippable, and preferably could be stood upon. (Because if something is squat and sturdy, a small boy will find a way to stand on it. And possibly jump off.) I decided that what I needed was a bench, with storage underneath.

Enter Ana-White.com. Basically, she’s a housewife in Middle of Nowhere, Alaska, with really great taste in furniture…and absolutely no way to get to a store and buy it. So…she makes it. This particular bench is a dead ringer for this one, from Land of Nod.

(I added 12” to it and really did intend to make a cushion…but Ming Wai’s stuffed animals don’t seem to mind sitting on the hard wood!)

You can get the plans here.

Oh, and did I mention that making furniture yourself gets you out for a fraction of the cost? Yeah, baby! Less than $50 for all the materials. The only thing I needed was…someone who know how to build furniture, because I don’t even own a saw. Luckily, I have a new friend (Hi, Tasha!) who just happens to be awfully handy with tools, and is slowly filling her home with handmade furniture. Yes!!

I dropped the kids off at my sister’s place, showed up at Tasha’s, and we went to work! It took us just one morning to make the bench. She did the cutting, I put things together (with a lot of direction from her!) and it came together pretty easily! Of course, it took me several months to get it sanded, primed, painted and sealed…but, who’s counting, right? The important thing is that now? Ming Wai has a place for her collection of books (with room to spare! *phew*) and a place to sit while staring out the window, dreaming her dreams.

And that just makes me happy.

(Yes, those are Christmas lights around her window. Her Daddy does it every year, just for her, because it makes her happy. Amen.)

Love,

Aunt LoLo, Builder Extraordinaire

PS – Here’s my next project. Wish me luck!

LoLoTute: Sew Yourself a Door Stop (a tutorial!)

2011-01-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

First off, a big congratulations to “Andy and Melissa”. You won the pillowcase set! Shoot me your info and I will get your pillowcases off in the mail.

&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

When I think of door stops, I generally think of unsightly, and very heavy, pieces of art that you aren’t sure what to do with. It’s kind of a joke, right? Hey! That would make a great door stop!

So, when my father (in all seriousness) requested a pair of door stops for Christmas, I was stumped. He suggested a bean bag, since he knew that a certain little grandson (*ahem*SIUJEUN) would most likely throw them if he could get his hands on them. (And he would be absolutely right.)

So, after a little searching online, and a little wracking my brain, and a little sewing (and a little seam ripping and tweaking), I have come up with a doorstop!

(My tutorial is based on the one found here…altered by me to fit my own brand of crazy. Proceed at your own risk.)

Supplies:

Décor-weight cotton fabric

Filler (rice, wheat, beans, etc.)

1 freezer-weight zip-top bag (sandwich or quart size)

fiberfill

Tools:

Sewing machine

Iron

Chopstick

Measuring cup with a spout, or a funnel

You’re going to start off with two pieces of fabric – one 16.5” x 9.5” (the body of the bag) and one 4” x 9.5” (the handle). (Alternately, the handle could be a 9.5” piece of webbing, or bias tape, or rope or whatever else floats your boat.) Just to make things easy, make sure both of your pieces are pressed flat. I used décor weight cotton, from IKEA. (A thick cotton is necessary to get a really crisp and sturdy cube.)

Working with your larger piece of fabric, fold it in half (right sides together, short ends meeting) and sew up matched short ends with a 1/4” seam allowance. Congratulations – now you have a tube! Add a matching 1/4” seam along the folded edge. (Just trust me on this. It makes your cube more…cubish.)

Now, shift your tube around so that the two seams are matched up, and centered.

Now sew two more 1/4” seams, one on either side, along the fold. (You don’t need to worry about backstitching, or trimming your threads neatly. They will all be hidden and sewed inside other seams.)

Now, shift your tube again so that you have two matching, and stacked, sets of seams. Sew a 1/4” seam along one of your open ends. Leave the other end open for now. Now? Your tube is a bag.

And if you stand it up, you’ll see that you’ve made a sweet little grocery-sack type thing. Carefully flatten out the bottom so that the bag will stand up on its own. You will end up with small triangles of fabric sticking off to either side. Finger press those, then mark the fold.

Hold up the bag to make sure that your first triangle is even, centered, pretty, and all that jazz. I like to sew just outside of that seam that runs cross-wise through the triangle. It makes for neater corners. Once you have sewn up the first triangle, you can use it to match up the second triangle. That way, they will be identical. Sew that triangle off as well.

Now, let’s turn our attention to the open end of your sack. You need to leave a gap so that you can turn your bag right side out, and also insert your handle. Following my marks in the picture, sew two seams, each one starting at the pink hatchmark and going out towards the outside corner of the bag. (When I sewed this up, I found that I had made my opening a little TOO small. If you think you might have issues, just make the gap bigger, but don’t OUTSIDE the matched seams. You need that part sewn shut.)

Now, set that aside and pull out your smaller piece of fabric. To make it into a handle, fire up your iron. We’re going to make binding! First, fold your piece of fabric in half, lengthwise, and press. Open it up, and fold each long edge towards the center, wrong sides together, to meet in the middle, right above your pressed crease. Finally, fold it back in half along the original crease and press again. Voila! Head over to your sewing machine and run a seam along the open end, as close to the edge as you can get. (About 1/8” for me.)

Here’s where it gets a little odd. Grab your (still inside out) bag and (using one of your already-sewn corners as a guide), pinch off a third corner. Holding that corner in one hand, pick up your (freshly made) handle in the other hand and carefully feed it into the gap you left at the top of the bag, and up into the corner. Feel with your pinching fingers to make sure that the handle extends past your intended seam by at least 1/2”.

Stick that baby under the needle before everything falls apart, and sew off that corner.

Repeat the process with the fourth corner, again matching it up to the corner below it to make sure that it is the same size.

Now the fun part. Turn it right side out. At some point, it will look like this:

Don’t worry! Keep tugging, prodding, sweating and begging. Eventually, it will right itself. And behold! A cube! With a handle!

Now to fill it! You’ll need a small zip-top bag, filler (I used wheat, but rice or beans would also work) and a chopstick. (My zip-top bag was freezer-weight, quart size. I wanted to make sure 1) that I didn’t puncture it while filling it and 2) that it would be thick enough that it hopefully wouldn’t attract pests to the wheat inside. These were designed to be used at my parents’ cabin…and they have critters out there in the woods!)

Use the chopstick to poke out the corners of your cloth cube, and then stuff your bag into your gap at the top of the door stop. Carefully pour in your filler, pausing often to shake and shift and poke and prod. You want the filler to firmly fill out the bottom four corners. Keep adding your filler until your door stop is about 3/4 of the way full. Carefully squeeze out all the air that you can from your plastic bag, and zip up the top. Tuck the bag completely inside the gap. (My door stops took about 3 cups of wheat, FYI.)

Fill out the rest of the door stop with fiberfill, and use a blind stitch or a whip stitch to sew your gap shut.

Congratulations! You have a door stop. Now, go forth and stop your doors. (I was surprised, when I took stock, of how many doors in my house needed door stops just to stay put…never mind how many doors would need stops if I were to open the windows!)

If you make one of these, please come back and let me know in the comments! I’d love to see pictures.

LoLo Tute: Easy Pillowcase (and a Giveaway!)

2011-01-07T07:00:00.002-05:00

The giveaway is now closed. Congratulations, Melissa!!

(You might have already seen this post. I tried to get things done ahead of time...and apparently, got things all mixed up, with three or four posts going up in the same hour. Derp. So. Here you go! Giveaway!)

Now, I certainly can’t take sole responsibility for this tutorial. The original directions were found here, from Su at Vively Online. So, if you want a sweet little cheat sheet that you can print out…head over! She’s awesome!

But, if you’ve gone, say, to IKEA and picked up a Fjadrar pillow (because they’re big and filled with feathers and oh-so-cheap), I’m about to show you how to make a case for it. And you don’t have to think about any measurements. Sound good? (This, by the way, makes an envelope style pillow case.)

(This would also work for any square 20x20 pillow. Just so’s you know.)
First, round up your fabric. I’m using a cotton print from IKEA here, that used to be my drapes. Just about anything will work here. Now, cut it to size. You need a rectangle 19.5” x 45”.

Heat up your iron, and find one of the short ends of your rectangle. Fold 1/2” of the raw edge toward the wrong side of the fabric and press. Now, fold it down 1/2” again and press. Do the same thing to the other short side, then head over to your machine and stitch both hems down, close to the open edge so they don’t flap around.

Lay your fabric right side down on a table, and fold up the closest short edge to about the middle of the fabric, like you’re folding a letter. On the wrong side of the fabric, measuring down 5” from the hemmed edge, make a mark on the left and right sides of your fabric.

Now bring down the other hemmed edge to that mark. Pin through the top two layers so that you now have a tube.

Now that your tube is pinned, you can sort of roll it a bit to make sure that the second layer (what will be the outer layer when you turn this thing right side out) is positioned just about in the middle. (Here you can see that my 20” case is laid on my cutting mat, and the second layer edge just about lines up with the 10” mark.)

Making sure everything is flat, even and nice, pin it if you like, then put a seam on both remaining raw edges.

Snip your threads, flip, and you’re done!

Now, here’s the fun part. Just because it’s a new year. And because I have this insane goal to actually put things in my etsy shop this year, despite all the crazy new tax laws, so I need to practice sewing a few things. And because I love you.

Do you happen to have any 20x20 pillows around? Or live close to an IKEA? Or just really need more pillow cases in your life? I’m giving away a set of the pillow cases featured in this tutorial to one lucky reader. So, if your home needs more brown, green and khaki in its life…this is the giveaway for you! Simply leave a comment on this post to be entered. I’ll pull a winner early next week, and announce it…mid week. (See what I did there? This way, if I forget to take any of these actions, I can just tell you that it’s all on schedule. Heh.)

PLEASE make sure to leave an e-mail address in your comment. A winner without contact information…will quickly become that-person-that-could-have-won if they’d only had contact information!

Good luck! And here’s to doing 2011 up right!

A Facelift for the Living Room (2011, Thing 1!)

2011-01-05T13:03:00.000-05:00

After Christmas, I was more than a little ready to move on. Make a little change. Shake things up a bit. I mean, the holidays were festive and all…but once Christmas is over, I want nothing more than to set my sights on SPRING. Down came the tree, down came all the snowmen and reindeer. Down came the stockings and the hangers. And out came the sewing machine!

I picked up this fabric at a Crate & Barrel outlet before I moved from one coast to the other, specifically to make pillows for our new couch. The new couch we hadn’t bought yet. Or picked out. Or shopped for. I was pretty sure it would be a solid, though, and…knowing us…it wouldn’t clash with a subtle blue print. I was right! (The fabric is MARIMEKKO. I’m not sure of the name…I can’t seem to find it online. Any MARIMEKKO experts out there?)

I vaguely referenced this tutorial from the lovely Su, at Vively Online, but since I hadn’t looked at the tutorial since she originally posted it…I can’t be entirely sure that I didn’t botch it up. Heh. (Su? Check my homework and let me know, yeah?)

The pillow forms are from IKEA, and are $7 each. In case anyone would like to make themselves some fabulously cheap Sofa Bling, I’ll put up a tutorial in a few days, with exact measurements for these pillows. I still have a few yards of red Chinese brocade that I picked up, also for pillows, at Pearl River in NYC before I moved. I figure a pillow can never have too many “dresses”, and besides…Chinese New Year is just around the corner. And nothing says SPRING like red, gold, and a house full of cherry blossoms, right??! (I have a really cool cherry blossom project in mind as well. Stay tuned!)

Happy 2011, y’all!!

2010 Lunar Eclipse

2010-12-26T10:45:00.000-05:00

Now, I realize that the lunar eclipse was a few days ago. And a lot of you probably saw it. But…if you were East of me, you might not have wanted to stay up until 2 am to watch the whole show…so, Danbury? This one’s for you.

You’re welcome.

I took these with my Canon Rebel, a tripod, my 10-second delay function (so I wouldn’t shake the camera) and my longest lens.

Pre-Christmas Panic

2010-12-24T02:14:00.001-05:00

It is 10:48 on December 23. I had a few friends over tonight, plus a few family members, for a really fun bit of caroling around the neighborhood. I’ve spent the past few days shopping with the hubs – outlet malls and local malls – mostly shopping for clothes. All of a sudden my son has nothing that fits him in his drawers. Last Sunday was especially comical, with his shirtsleeves rolled up to hide the fact that they only came halfway down his arms.

I’ve got all the kids presents wrapped. The Christmas Cookies are baked. The stockings are planned for. But, still…there it is. The Panic just hit. I have no special breakfast planned – and what is Christmas without a special breakfast?! I have no new PJs for the kids – and what is Christmas without new PJs?! Didn’t Mom and Dad always have new PJs for us on Christmas eve so we’d look cute for our Christmas morning photos? I haven’t made the dresses for my nieces that my daughter wanted me to make (but I did make the prototype, for her). And what is Christmas without piles of handmade goodies for your nieces?!

I just feel the panic – that I didn’t do enough, that I didn’t buy enough, that I didn’t make enough. Does anyone else feel the panic? Or, better yet, is anyone else missing PJs/special breakfast/oodles of homemade and thoughtful gifts from their Christmas line-up? Go ahead and tell me. I can take it!

What I’ve Been Up To

2010-12-16T13:29:00.000-05:00

So, there was a lot of this….. (30 loaves, at last count. What hasn’t been gifted away has been safely stashed in the cold box, waiting for its day to come.)

Which led to a bunch of this.

While the hubs was out of town last week, I sanded and primed this. (It was built a few weeks ago, during another of hubbie’s business trips, under the tutelage of a brilliant and generous friend. It will be a bookcase/window seat for Ming Wai when it’s done. Plans are here. We modified it to make it 4’ long.)

There was a bit of this, which I will tell you more about later. It turned out so cute!!

And of course, some of this. My own little Siu Jeun went and turned 2. I made him Dorie Greenspan’s Devils Food Whiteout Cake. It met with mixed reviews….but mostly meh. Which is a real shame! I think the chocolate was just a little too chocolate for us. Don’t let that discourage you, though. If rich, dark chocolate flavor is your thing…this is the cake for you! I think with some tweaking, this could be a very welcome addition to my party cake repertoire! It looks so very impressive when it is sliced open.

(Sorry for the photo quality. It was snapped, in the dark, with my Dad’s iPhone. Still…not bad for in the dark, with an iPhone! He had just blown the candle out, which is why he looks so thrilled. There’s a cake! On his high chair! And it’s CAKE! And there was FIRE! And now there’s NOT! And did I mention the CAKE?!)

LoLo Castle Gets a Little Christmas Cheer

2010-12-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

The poinsettia table…

My new wreath. Can you guess what I made it out of? (Tutorial here.)

The first nativity to enter my collection.

The second and third nativities to enter the collection. It’s not much of a collection yet!

The console table next to the front door. I’d love to add some lights to this little tree..

And the only safe spot left in the house for our stockings.

Peace, y’all. Yes, stockings eight feet off the ground definitely brings me peace!

My Crate & Barrel inspired pillow

2010-11-18T12:06:00.001-05:00

Behold! A pillow. Lo Gung and I saw a pillow in Crate and Barrel, and I thought I can make that! I happened to have a felted wool sweater at home, which provided all the materials I needed. It’s stuffed with ripped foam…which, as it turns out, does not make the best stuffing for small decorative pillows. But. It’s already in my craftroom, by the bag full, so Free won out!

The circles were freehanded, stacked, and attached with three triple French Knots in the center.

(Inspiration is here. )

Thing 34: Little Boy’s Messenger Bag (a tutorial!)

2010-11-12T13:54:00.000-05:00

(This is my brain turning into licorice….)

Any questions?

Heh. Just kidding. The idea was to make a bag where the sides went straight up to become the strap…but I totally underestimated how long I needed that strap to be. So…it’s more of a man purse. *sigh*

Cut two matching rectangles as wide as you want your bag to be and twice as long (plus 8 inches) as you want your bag to be tall. (That gives it a 4” overlap for the front flap, plus 2” to go over the top of the bag, and 2” to go under the bottom.) Then cut a piece that is 8” wide by the distance from your boy’s knees, across his chest, around and back to his knee. (Obviously, I took the measurement hip to hip…and that gave me a purse. D’oh!)

Sew your two big rectangles, right sides together, making sure to leave a gap for turning. Clip the corners, turn and press. Set aside.

Take your big strap piece and fold 2” in on either side so that they meet in the middle. Press. Fold in half lengthwise, so that your folded edges meet and right sides are out. Press. Sew along the length, right along the edge where the two folded edges meet.

Now, here comes the part that made my brain turn into licorice. At one end of your rectangle, measure in 4”. Mark that. It’s your “flap. Now, measure in another 2”. Mark that. Now you have the two corners for the “top” of your boxy messenger bag. Now, measure down as far as you wanted your bag to be tall…mark that. Go another 2” and mark that. There’s the bottom of your bag. You should be left with a length that is identical to the back of the bag.

Time to attach your strap! Your strap should have ended up 2” wide, and so should just fit into the “bottom” that you measured out for yourself. Carefully pin your strap into place and sew the short ends to the bottom of the bag, right sides together. Then, sew up the sides to close up the sides of your bag.

You’re done!

(If you want a stiffer bag, use something heavier than the flannel and cotton/poly bed sheet that I used or add interfacing between your layers.)

(PS – I obviously sewed the long sides of the strap before the short side. Do whatever doesn’t make your brain turn into licorice!)

I Fixed It: A Key!

2010-11-05T10:00:00.001-04:00

Ok, so in the interest of full disclosure, I got this idea from Pioneer Woman. She mentioned a few days ago that, as a child, if her mother locked herself in her room to catch a nap in the afternoon....she would fashion a key out of a door hanger, and break in.

Hrm.

See, a few weeks ago, I realized that I had to start locking doors in my house. A lot of doors. Siu Jeun, my nearly two year old, is lovingly called our Destructobot. Or Glambo. But only if he's wearing my heels and kicking toys.

*ahem*

So, I pilfered all the locking door handles in the house (from the bathrooms, actually) and placed them on doors that needed locking: my bedroom (it has two doors) and my craft room. (My husband keeps an XBox in the room that Siu Jeun finds...irresistible. The day Siu Jeun chewed on, and killed, a game controller was the day we decided we needed more locking doors in our lives.)

The only problem was, I could only find one "key". It was a stiff piece of wire, with the end bent into a loop. I hung it outside my main bedroom door, and had to remember to put it back...or else!

Thanks to Pioneer Woman, a handy wire hanger from the dry cleaners, and a pair of wire snips/needle nose pliers, I am now the proud owner of three keys. One for each room.

There. I fixed it.

(Ok, so this post is kind of a far fetch. I really wanted to push myself and post on LoLo Craft once a day for the entire month of November. This...is turning out to be a bigger stretch than I thought. Oh, and later this month? I'll celebrate my anniversary, my birthday, my twin sister's birthday and host Thanksgiving...so, I'm relying HEAVILY on post-dated material and hoping for the best! My Christmas list is nearly finished, and I have a docket of gifts that need making. Here goes nothing! Some days, you work on a quilt fashioned of bits of fabric lovingly cut by your great-grandmother. Other days, you snip a hanger to bits and call yourself a genius. I take what I can get!)

Unmatched Matchy-matchy Frames!

2010-11-04T13:08:00.000-04:00

Confused? Check it out.

A quick trip to the thrift store…a pile of wooden frames in various sizes…and a can of spray paint. Voila! Matched unmatched frames.

I pulled a huge box into my driveway, and laid out my frames. Since they were all really inexpensive (read: CHEAP) I had to use a screw driver to open up the metal tabs on the back that held the frames to their insides. Once all the backs, fillers and glass plates were removed, I got started.

Ming Wai really, really wanted to help…but somehow, I didn’t think that handing a can of black spray paint to a four year old wearing all white would help anything. So, I did the next best thing. I gave her the camera!

Paparazzi, take it away!

(Hello, Crazy Tiny Manly Hands.)

(She takes good pictures! She, of course, kept the camera for the next half hour and proceeded to take 171 pictures of me, her shoes, leaves, the ground, my rear end, her feet, my legs, a tree, a bird, my head..you get the idea.)

The frames are all put back together now…and it’s time to round up some pictures of the kids. I have a wall in the upstairs hall with one. lone. picture, right in the middle. (It’s a Black Apple print, so it’s not such a terrible thing…but, still. It’s lonely!) I hope to fill the wall with memories, faces and smiles. I can’t wait! (I’ve admired this type of frame grouping for…well, for several years now, but I’d never found a suitable cache of wooden frames to use.)

Thing 33: Pebbles and Bam Bam costumes revealed!

2010-11-03T13:22:00.000-04:00

Ming Wai came up with her own costume, using what she had around. Her cousin, Ernie, did the same (and went as Rudolph). The two little ones were carefully planned by their mamas. Siu Jeun was Bam Bam, and MiMi was Pebbles. Both costumes were made by me out of quilting cotton, painted with black acrylic paint. Ming Wai helped a bit with the Pebbles costume. *grin*

Princess Dress, Final Revision

2010-11-02T11:25:00.000-04:00

After Ming Wai went to bed, I stole her dress back from her bedroom and “finished” the edges. I did..something…with yellow flannel. I have no idea what I did, and I certainly didn’t do it right, but…it’s a costume, so I’m not too worried about it!

I cut 1.5” wide strips of yellow flannel and then sewed it to the wrong side of the unfinished hems around the cuffs, neck and bottom hem. Then I folded the flannel up over to the right side of the garment, folded the edge under, and topstitched it. I wasn’t careful with the cutting, I didn’t iron the wrinkled flannel, and there are spots that I fudged. But, you know what? Ming Wai has worn it three days straight. She loves it. And that’s what’s important! (I’m afraid that if I wash it, it will shrink or be damaged…so I’ll let her wear it one more day before I put it in peril! haha)

And Siu Jeun? He just likes to sneak into the craft room, because he figured out that that’s where Daddy hid the Rock Band set.

Rock on, dude. Rock on.

Not Just an Ordinary Quilt

2010-11-01T11:30:00.001-04:00

(I am going to push myself this year and use LoLo Craft to participate in NaBloPoMo. Christmas is coming, and I HAVE to get my rear in gear! Hopefully, this will give me the push that I need to get busy!)

They’re just scraps of fabric, like any other scraps of fabric. They’re cut into shapes…diamonds, squares and triangles. I found them in my UFO (UnFinished Objects) box, bound up with a rubber band.
And yesterday, I was ready to tackle them. Ming Wai was my side-kick, busily scribbling away in her coloring books.

I laid out all the pieces and tried to figure out what goes with what, and where, with whom.

I can kind of picture it…a starburst, edges filled in with triangles, and then ringed by rows of square patches.

None of the fabrics are ones that I would choose to go together. They’re not even the same weights of cotton, most of them thin to the point of sheer.

None of the points match up completely. I don’t think the diamonds were cut completely straight.

I don’t care though, as it wasn’t me that cut out the diamonds. Or the squares. Or even the triangles. The edges are worn and frayed from years of bundling and unbundling. I can only guess at the original quilter’s pattern, or even if they were meant to go together. Judging by the quilter’s other work, they are meant to go together in one big quilt, but the cutting was never finished.

These pieces represent, to me, what quilting ought to be about. I’m sure they were all cut from cast off clothes or bed linens. Years of memories, cut apart and sewn back together to give it one last shot at life.

My Great Grandmother Susie, I believe, cut these out when she was alive. She was a quilter, but not like the Quilters of today. She made quilts because she needed quilts. I quilt in her memory. I have never bought $12-per-yard designer quilting fabric, and I’m not sure I ever will. I prefer to keep on in the Todd style, and use what I have on hand, the more memories the better.

After Great Grandma Susie passed on, her daughter (my Grandma Mary) started piecing these together. At least, I think this is the quilt I remember her working on. I remember her sitting in my parents living room, during a week-long babysitting stint while my parents were vacationing, and trying to put these together. She worked with a needle and thread. I work with a machine. I hope to piece together enough blocks to make a pillow each for the women of the family. The ones who remember Great Grandma Susie, and the ones who miss Grandma Mary the most.

The corners, no doubt, will be wonkier than I mean them to be. The pattern, no doubt, will be nothing like Mary or Susie envisioned. But, it will be ours…to remember them.

The Ghosts, Revealed!

2010-10-28T01:10:00.001-04:00

I first blogged about these here. (Go back to that post if you want instructions. It’s super simple – a balloon, two sheets of tissue paper, some glue and a few drops of water.)

And now..here’s the finished product.

They’re so scary, even the heads of the ghosts that have lost their heads are scared!

It’s OK, weird head-only ghost. Not everyone can be super scary and hang from the ceiling all cool like.

Things 31 & 32: Halloween Costumes

2010-10-27T01:19:00.001-04:00

After seeing a fabulous tutorial on ikat Bag this morning, I decided to just get my rear in gear and break out the sewing machine again. I hit a few speed bumps, but overall, I’m really pleased with my day’s work!

(Both costumes ended up being way too small on the bottom, but a few slashes, and a few extra triangles of fabric, fixed the issues!)

These certainly aren’t perfect, but Ming Wai, at least, adores hers! I finished it after she went to bed (since she wouldn’t agree to take it off before then!) and it’s a little more finished now. I used lemon-yellow flannel to finish all of the hems. I’ll get pictures of that later!

Siu Jeun is going to be Bam Bam for Halloween. He…wasn’t pleased about me stripping his clothes off him, and stuffing him into this thing. Heh.

I might blow up this picture and frame it. It just makes me giggle!! (I know, I’m awful.)

Tutorial: Tissue Paper Ghosts

2010-10-18T13:16:00.000-04:00

I got it into my head this season that Halloween simply would not be Halloween this year, unless some glue and tissue paper were involved.

And so, I invited them to the party. This project was inspired by one I saw in a Martha Stewart magazine when I was in college. And…you know, when I say “inspired” I really mean that I saw it in Martha’s magazine, and then made it from memory using what I could find around the house, and NOW (ten years later), I’m really just stealing the Mod Podge, balloons and tissue paper from the party.

Now that we’ve got that all cleared up, let’s move on.

I had originally intended to make little balls that looked like mummies, using thin strips of white tissue paper. It…well, it didn’t work out that well, since mummies have arms and legs and a neck…and balloons have none of those things. I ended up giving my strips, and some truly tiny balloons, to my daughter to use.

I am simply too cheap to buy real Mod Podge, so I made my own. I found bottles of glue at the office supply store on clearance after all the Back to School sales were over. At only $.20 for a bottle, I figured that even if it didn’t work out, I still wasn’t out too much for my little experiment.

Luckily, a squirt of cheap Scholastic glue, with a few drops of water, makes a perfectly acceptable glue spread. (What do you call it if it isn’t real Mod Podge??!)

I decided to move on to ghosts. I used a 6” balloon, and sheets of white tissue paper, cut into three or four wide strips down the long side of the sheet. Paint the top and top sides of the balloon with your glue, and get to work. Lay a strip of paper onto the balloon, centering it on the top, and then paint again lightly with your glue to stick it down. Make sure that the edges are stuck, especially. For clarity’s sake, let’s say that strip is laying down 12-6, if it was a clock. Pick up your next strip of paper and lay it onto the balloon, perpendicular to the first strip , 3-9. Top that with a coat of glue, and lay your next strip down sort of 2-7, and top that with glue.

Keep going, alternating directions, until you have at least 2-3 complete layers of paper (about 9 wide strips). It does not take much glue….just enough to moisten the paper and stick it down.

Now go check on your kidlet. She’ll probably declare herself done. (I had her working over a piece of tin foil so that she wouldn’t get drips on the table.) Check out that masterpiece!

She made sure to tell me that the pink one is a girl ghost, and the blue one is a boy ghost. (We bought a few fish this weekend, and she’s sort of on a name/gender/setting up pretend families kick now. She hasn’t named her ghosts. Yet. But I’m sure she will in the morning!)

When the glue is all dry (which should happen overnight), carefully dip your finger into some black craft paint and give your ghosts eyes. Then, carefully pop the balloons with a small snip from your scissors. As the air comes out, the balloon should pull away from the tissue paper, leaving you with your ghost! (If it doesn’t pull away, tug it gently, and it should come unstuck.) I currently have one of these guys set up on my mantle, but once this new flock is dry and eye’d, I might string them up and hang them from the chandelier by the front door. I’ll be sure to get pictures up when the ghosts are all set up!

How are you decorating for Halloween this year? Do you have any quick and or cheap crafts to share? Let us know in the comments!

GIVEAWAY: SILHOUETTE DIGITAL CUTTING TOOL!! | Prudent Baby

2010-09-24T19:51:00.000-04:00

GIVEAWAY: SILHOUETTE DIGITAL CUTTING TOOL!! | Prudent Baby

Enter to win a fabulous cutter!!

It's Autumn!

2010-09-24T19:44:00.000-04:00

Oh, kids. Thank goodness for Google Reader. If it wasn't for that...I'm fairly certain nobody would be reading this at all.

I've shown you my craft room. Yes, I have a room all to myself....but I'll be jiggered if I ever get in there. There's a baby gate up to keep the kids out, and so when I need to put something away....I just sort of...throw it in there.

Ugh.

So, the room is a mess, and it's no fun to be in there.

Which reminds me...the kids playroom had the same sort of description two weeks ago. I got upset one day and went on a rampage. Every toy, stuffed animal and block was dumped in a pile in the middle of the room. Only the stuffed animals, blocks, cars, balls and toy food were allowed to stay. Everything else was lumped together in a big cardboard box and shipped off to the garage.

Sounds like my craft room needs some tough love...

Thing 30: A House Coat (and a Tutorial!)

2010-09-11T00:10:00.001-04:00

This is one of those projects that stewed around in my head for MONTHS before I ever sat down to attempt it. Of course, when I sat down…I had only a very, VERY vague plan in mind.

Like. Really vague.

I wanted something snuggly and warm, but not something that would be too cumbersome. Something just for the kids to wear around the house to keep them warm. So…cozier than a sweatshirt, but less in-the-way than a traditional robe.

So, here’s how I did it.

Step one – Find a shirt that fits your kid. (This housecoat was for Siu Jeun, my little dude.) Lay it out on your snuggly material (I used fleece, but flannel would work as well. Or minky if you’re crazy. Or stretch velour, for that matter, but I won’t admit here that I have some in my stash. Or that it’s purple. Moving on.)

If your fabric allows, fold it in half so you can cut both pieces at once. If not, just cut the Back Piece out first, and then we’ll fold it in half for the next step.

Step 2 - So, lay it out. You’re going to make a really quick n’ dirty pattern here. Use a fabric marking pen to make your cut line for the top of the coat. Leaving a 1/2” seam allowance, trace around both sleeves and the neck. Be sure to mark where the neck begins and ends!

Then, move on to where the armpits are. (I’m sorry I don’t have a picture of this part…but you really can’t mess it up.) You’re going to make an A-line coat, for maximum move-ability. To make this coat (for a 21 month old) I drew a 14” line, angling out from the armpit. Where the line passed the hem of the shirt, it was 2” away. (With those two measurements, you can easily make both sides identical without any tricky folding.)

Step 3 - Now, cut it out! (If you didn’t have a square of fabric big enough to fold in half and still fit your whole coat, take the piece you just cut out and fold it in half, stem to stern. Or neck to hem. Whatever. Fit that piece somewhere on your fabric and trace it out, exactly. Fit it one more spot and trace THAT out, exactly. Cut those two pieces out, and you’ve got your Front Right and Front Left pieces! Make sure to flip it over for the second Front so that you end up with the Right Side of the fabric…on the right side, when you put them together.)

(If you cut out Front and Back together, on folded fabric, take your Front piece and fold it in half, stem to stern, and cut it along the fold. Now you’ve got your Front Right and Front Left. Nice, yes?)

Step 4 – Take a look at your neck line. Do you see where it ends? Now figure out where, on your Front pieces, mid-way down the chest would be. Fold the top corners of the pieces away from the chest, from the edge of the neck to mid-way down the chest. Sew those down. (I like them on the outside, but folding them to the inside, hemming it 1/2” from the edge, and trimming it off works, too!)

Step 5 – Sew it together!! Sew your top seams. Sew your side seams. (Right sides together, please.) Hem up the bottom if you like, and the opening in the middle. Or don’t. Whatever. It’s a housecoat! It’s made of fleece! It’s all good.

Step 6 – Stick it on your kid. For extra fun, get the kid to run away from you after you put it on them. They look like some sort of rich Super Villain. Excellent.

(Step 7 (optional) – make one for big sister.

Thing 29: The Pants from the Shirt that Made the Dress

2010-09-08T09:30:00.000-04:00

Do you remember, a few weeks ago, when I made this dress for Ming Wai?

Just humor me here, ok? Tell me you remember it.

Got it? Good. (I mean, how could you forget those fancy hands???)

So that dress was made from the body of a large men’s polo. The sleeves were saved.

For these.

They’re not perfect, by any means (the legs are different lengths!) but I am getting better at making these. The waist fits much better than some of the first shorts I made him. And I’m kind of diggin’ this cropped length.

Also? Mardi Gras beads – not just for New Orleans anymore! (Gold is rather fetching with navy, though, isn’t it?!)

The Craft Room: The Whole Story

2010-08-25T17:20:00.000-04:00

Hello, friends. Can I call you friends? Cronies? Pals? You know I love you, right?

Like, really, really love you?

I’m ready to prove it now. Are you ready?

*deep breath*

I am ready to show you…the entire craft room. In all its glory.

Just keepin’ it real, folks. I have BAGS of foam, waiting to be turned into cute little poufs and chairs and whatever else I can think of to fill. I have scads of fabric waiting to be made into quilts, and armfuls of old clothes waiting to be made into new clothes for smaller people. I have wrapping paper, and detritus from a childhood of pack-ratting…and this is where all the magic happens. But can’t you just see the potential in there? Once the boxes are dealt with? And the fabric is folded? And the kids can be convinced to stop rifling through my gear, looking for their crayons?

I have to admit, I’m a little leery of this room. I’m afraid that by the time I get it Just Right…there will be a new little LoLo, and he’ll swoop in and take over my craft room. Isn’t that silly?? It’s ok…maybe the little LoLo will prefer Daddy’s Den!

(PS – No, I’m not pregnant. No, I’m not trying to be pregnant right now. That is all. Carry on.)

Thing 28: A Little Red Dress

2010-08-23T16:45:00.001-04:00

It’s been a little quiet around here this summer, yeah? Just a smidge? I hope y’all have been having loads of fun in the sun…or whatever you like to do in the summer.

My family just returned home from a fantabulous little reunion in north-central Washington, on Lake Chelan. We meet there every summer, rent houses, play on jet skis, go tubing, play tennis after the kids go to bed, and generally enjoy ourselves. (I think the Moms of Young Kids might enjoy themselves the most…there are so many extra adults around, it’s really easy to slip out with our husbands while the kids nap in the afternoons, or after they go to bed. Hooray!)

This year, there were four grandkids in attendance – my two, plus my twin sister’s two. Three of those four are girls. And so….three of those four were in matching dresses.

This was for Ernie, the biggest girl. I had a size 5, a size 4 and a size 3. Quick and easy, and the girls looked pretty sweet in their matching frocks! They were really quick – I made up three of them in one evening. Just a sliced-off white top, with a red skirt attached. I cut the skirt fabric as long as I wanted the skirt to be, and two and a half times as wide as the shirt. I sewed that into a tube, used the selvedge edge as the hem, and gathered it up to match the top shirt. Easy peasy!)

(I also made two more of these, so the other girls would have dresses to match my daughter’s, for church. So much fun! But it was a busy day there, making five dresses. *grin*)

(The tops were all pulled from the Outgrown Pile, and the red fabric was a Freecycle find last year. I think it’s vintage – there was an old-fashioned tag stapled to it, with an address from Canal Street, NYC.)

The Polo Dress, Part II

2010-08-09T01:34:00.001-04:00

Do you remember this dress? I first posted about it here.

Here are the front shots, and Ming Wai’s…er….Fancy Hands.

The dress is cute….but even cuter on my niece, who is two. The buttons don’t pop open when she wears it. Heh. Oh well. Live and learn…and next time, decide what kind of seams I’m doing BEFORE cutting out the dress! At least it’s sturdy…with all those nice (seam allowance eating) french seams!

A peek at the new LoLo Craft Room

2010-08-02T13:33:00.000-04:00

After a bit of begging on our local Freecycle, a woman came through for me – a table for my craft room! Until I received this lovely Formica (sturdy!) beast, I could not sew a stitch! And now? I sew with reckless abandon.

(Just please don’t ask to see the rest of the room. It’s absolutely dreadful and barely walkable.)

Want proof? Here’s another neat find from Freecycle – seven bags of foam stuffing! (This is what I used for that little pouf the other day.) That takes up half the room right there!

Craft Fail…or Win? (Thing 27)

2010-07-30T05:34:00.001-04:00

Do you see that blue dress? The one in the middle? I made it, during the afternoon. I got The Feeling, and I just had to go and MAKE something, or else I would explode. You do know that feeling, don’t you??

I dug through my To Re-Purpose Pile, and came across a long-sleeved navy polo shirt. Size Large, Men’s. Perfect! I grabbed a dress from my daughter’s drawer that always looks nice on her, traced it out, and started sewing! I was going to copy the sleeves as well….and then decided I just couldn’t be bothered. I also decided, after I had already cut it out, to attempt French seams. For the first time. From memory. (Heh. Yeeeaaaah…..)

I ended up with a rather cute dress, if i do say so myself, that is just a smidge tight across the chest. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to re-gift it to my (smaller) niece, or unpick the seams and re-do them sans “French.” (Since French seams are essentially one seam sewn around another seam, undoing the French-ness would give me nearly an extra inch around the chest!).

I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures of the FRONT of the dress. My camera ran out of batteries as soon as we reached our destination, and when we got home again, it was time for bed. *sigh* The life of a blogger is tough!

Thing 26: A Pouf!

2010-07-28T01:14:00.001-04:00

Ladies, and gentleman, I present to you…a pouf!

(No, sweet husband, it’s not a powf. If’s pronounced poof. Got it? Ok. moving on.)

I used this tutorial, from Living With Punks. Her poufs were a little different – they had some rather smart looking piping around the edges. However, I had neither piping nor the patience to go out and buy some. So…no piping for me!

I learned a new trick with these – a way to make super strong handles! The fabric for the handles is folded twice, so it’s actually four layers of canvas. Also, see that nifty little x’d box there? That makes it really stick to the rest of the pillow. Neat, right?

My finished pouf is sitting in my daughter’s room, and I just ADORE it! The hardest part was stuffing it. I used some ripped foam filling that I scored off of Freecycle. Now, I love me some free, but that stuff makes a HUGE mess. And my three year old was helping me stuff. And my one year old was sneaking handfuls of the filling and launching it down the stairs. And I very nearly took the (unfinished) pouf, the “helpful” three year old, and the maniacal one year old and locked them all in the cellar to sort themselves out.

I didn’t.

But it was close.

(The fabric is a home-dec weight cotton from IKEA.)

Thing 25: An (itty bitty) Man Purse!

2010-07-20T00:54:00.001-04:00

My daughter, Ming Wai, received an invitation to attend a birthday party last weekend. We were thrilled, of course, but a little stumped. See, the party was for a little boy. Turning three. And I prefer handmade gifts over store-bought ones.

So, what, pray tell, does a three year old boy like?!

I decided that most little kids, regardless of gender, need bags to carry around their “treasures.” And so…I made an Itty Bitty Man Purse! It was originally going to be flannel on the outside (see the strap? That flannel.) and grey cotton on the inside. However, after I finished quilting it, I couldn’t bear to put the grey inside! So…I just folded it the other way, and let the cotton shine.

Then, I needed to find a model. My first model was difficult to work with, and seemed to dislike the product.

(He couldn’t figure out how to get it OFF….and he HATES being tied down, in ANY way. Thus, the half-nekkid Floor Tantrum.)

I moved on to another model, just to show the versatility of the bag.

This model was much easier to work with, and really knew how to “work” the product!

And then, just to show what a good sport he was, our first model decided to give me a Goober Face Shot. Just to be nice. (See, Mom? No more tantrum! I’m easy going – don’t tie me up, and I won’t fall to the floor screaming like a banshee on crack. Honest!)

PS – I didn’t have a pattern for this one. If anyone is interested in a tutorial, please let me know! I thought I could explain it pretty simply, but it’s something that’s better seen than…read? Just leave a comment if a tutorial would be helpful.

Things 21-24: Pillows!

2010-07-09T11:45:00.001-04:00

Hello, y’all! I’ve missed you, and I’ve missed this space! I promise, I HAVE been sewing…but remembering to take pictures, and then remembering to put them onto the computer, and then remembering to blog…well, that hasn’t been happening. Not so much.

However. I’ve had my hiatus. I’ve taken the “bloggy break” that seems so popular this summer. And now? I’m back!

When we moved into our new digs a month ago, we did some Furniture Shuffling. The big girl got some new (to us) bedroom furniture, which moved her old bed into her little brother’s room (in standby, for the time being). Siu Jeun is still sleeping in his crib. The futon went into the den, to make it into a guest room, and we were left with one extra mattress – Lo Gung’s old, old twin-size from his bachelor days. What to do?

Well! I’m glad you asked! It, of course, moved into the playroom to start its new life as a trampoline! Hooray! (We had an old mattress in our playroom when I was a kid, and I think it’s a BRILLIANT idea!) Besides, if we have a plethora of guests….a few of them can always sleep in the playroom!

Lo Gung just had one caveat: If I insisted on putting an old mattress in the playroom, it could not LOOK like an old mattress. It is made up with a fitted sheet, and I have been tasked with filling in the edges with good-looking pillows.

Here’s what I’ve got so far: repurposed pillows!

My stash, now that I’m here in our new place, is slightly embarrassing. So, I’m doing my best to work through it right now. These first two pillows were actually Lo Gung’s idea. We had some old (and really soft) robes that we didn’t use any more. “Why don’t you make pillows for the kids??” Oh, how I love that man! When we found two HUGE square pillows ($10 for the set) at a moving sale in our neighborhood, I knew it was meant to be! The kids love sitting on their pillows. Siu Jeun, especially, loves plopping face first into his new pillow and snuggling down for a Tactile Moment.

These next ones aren’t nearly as fun…but do serve their purpose. The shams are repurposed from a flannel queen-size flat sheet I found at Goodwill. I have a soft spot for green and purple together…so when I saw this sheet, I knew I had to have it for SOMETHING. (These pillows are just guest pillows/extras that were lazing about in the linen closet. To save space in there, I plan on making shams for the REST of the “extra” pillows as well, and then piling them onto our Playroom Bed. Two down, two to go!)

PS – To make the shams, I followed a tutorial from Vively Online, as best as I could remember it. Because I never actually have directions in front of me when I work. I rely on my steel trap MIND. Which…is why my seam ripper is my best friend. Anywho, if you’d like to make some quick and easy shams, head over here!

A quick fix, and an unlikely model

2010-05-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

A friend brought a dance recital costume by for a quick fix while Siu Jeun was napping one morning. (The little rainbow band that you see around the waist had to be attached.) Siu Jeun woke up while I was stitching it on. My friend, being the sweetheart that she is, went downstairs to get him. By the time they came up to the sewing room, he was snuggled in her arms, head on her shoulder, rhythmically patting her back. As soon as he saw this tutu, though…it was a different story! He was all grasping hands and jumping feet. This guy would not rest until that tutu was where it belonged. On him! (Blame it on having a big sister who likes to dance around in tutus!)

Oh well. Blue is a lovely color on him!

Thing 20: Lemonade Dress!

2010-05-23T20:33:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry - this is the best picture I have of it! I saw this tutorial over at Ruffles and Stuff and knew that I had to try it out. This? Is the basis of my Summer Uniform. At the moment, I have a very limited number of thread colors on hand...so most of my colored shirts are safe. The black and white ones, though? They are cowering in fear. Their days as tee-shirts are numbered, y'all.

(If anyone is local, I'm leading a session on Wednesday morning for our Relief Society "Crafty Playdate", and we're making these dresses. Let me know if you need more info!)

(This is us....in Boston! We took a quick overnight trip with my husband's aunt and uncle. Boston, you're beautiful and I LOVE you.)

The bonnet was a NYC Chinatown find a few weeks ago, and the sandals are a throwback to my Pacific Northwest Days. Lo Gung declared me Utterly Pacific Northwest. I said 'thank you.'

Thing 19: Purple 'Parkly Pillow

2010-05-21T12:00:00.000-04:00

My daughter lost the vote on the color of her new bedroom walls (my "pink" vote bested her "purple" vote). Our compromise? Purple pillows!

She picked out the fabric herself...and check it out! My first buttonhole! It turns out...it's just as easy as the Brother manual says! Long Live Automatic Buttonhole Features. Oh, and I did the button by machine, too. BOOyah.

(I cut the case a little too small, and the opening was gapping. Thus...the button. It was necessary!)

QIP: Hedgerow, partially sashed

2010-05-20T12:00:00.001-04:00

QIP: Hedgerow quilt, arranged!

2010-05-19T20:44:00.001-04:00

That? Is one. large. quilt. Each block is about 12” square.

I finished half of the vertical sashing today. More pictures later! (Sorry for the weird lighting. I roped Lo Gung into helping me arrange it all after the kids went to bed on Monday night. He has a great eye for color and mixing patterns! Besides, we both knew that if I did it on my own, and he didn’t like the end result, I’d throw a major hissy fit. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. *grin*)

QIP: A Nine-Patch Sort of Thing

2010-05-12T20:42:00.001-04:00

It’s a start. I went out and bought the sashing material for this quilt yesterday…and then realized I couldn’t NOT pre-wash it. My blocks are all made from repurposed bed linens (i.e. – fabric that has been washed DOZENS of times and will never shrink again). And the sashing? Is brand new cotton. That will shrink. A lot.

So…that quilt is on hold until I do laundry again. It could be a while. Laundry me no likey. Heh.

In the meantime, I took all the scraps left over and started work on a new quilt! What do you think? (That block up there is approximately 4”x4”. Hello, Itty Bitties! ) I’m totally winging this one. I took all my scraps and sewed them into long strips. Those strips were cut into 32” lengths, and then sewed together into random groupings of three. Those groupings were sliced up to make the rows you see above…which were then put together to make blocks. After I counted it up, it looks like I have enough to make 126 of those little 4” blocks. So, maybe a lap quilt? This is my favorite way to create – just take what I have in front of me and start putting it together!

Thing 18: A Big White Tutu

2010-05-10T10:44:00.000-04:00

My daughter had a birthday party to attend, and this is what I came up with to send with her. It’s super simple – 7.5 yards of white tulle, folded in half lengthwise. I put in a 1” seam on the fold, making a casing for my elastic. After I fed the elastic through, I sewed the ends of my elastic together, tried it on my daughter, and trimmed off enough so that she could comfortably walk. Easy peasy! The little pink bow is hand stitched right onto the elastic where it meets together. I didn’t even sew the tulle back to itself!

Mommyhood and Creativity

2010-05-09T13:25:00.001-04:00

(Originally Published on May 5, 2010 at Suburban Housewife Uprising)

Have you seen this? If not, please take a moment to do so. I agree with this video whole-heartedly..and it has definitely changed my view of myself.

I'm a mother. It was my choice, my dream, and my goal. I've always wanted to be a mommy. When I entered the workforce after college, I just couldn't find my groove. I took no pride in the filing and data entry jobs that came my way. (Looking back, I realize it's because there was no creativity involved...just drone work. If I had been doing something like working in a craft based shop, the story might have been really different!)

Now that I'm a Mom, though...it's so easy to get overwhelmed. I think that's why I started to craft. Playdates and kid-approved dinners can only get you through so much. I needed to create something that couldn't be eaten, torn apart or smashed. Something that would beautify my surroundings...and the fact that I could now make gifts for only a few dollars, instead of a few tens, didn't hurt either!

I craft for other reasons, too. There's something very soothing about hiding out in my craft room and sewing yards and yards of straight seams for a quilt, while I listen to the kids play (or fight?) downstairs. I need that escape coupled with a sense of accomplishment sometimes!

Sometimes, there are other distractions. Last Friday, a good friend and I ditched our kids and homes for the day and took off for an amusement park. All. day. long. We spent ten hours riding roller coasters, eating burgers, screaming and laughing. It was absolutely amazing - by the end of the day we were holding each other up and acting like (rather tired) high schoolers again. Good times, my friends.

So what do you do? I think all women are creative, to some extent. Some of us sew, some crochet, some paint, some just make a mean PB&J. What do you do to unwind and add to the world?

Thing 17: Red Dahlia with a Yellow Center

2010-05-07T21:52:00.001-04:00

I spent an hour or so at a friend's house today watching her two youngest while she attended a Mother's Day Tea with her third youngest at school. I had my son with me while his big sister was at a birthday party. It was definitely the easiest babysitting I've ever done! My friend's two kids stayed asleep for the hour I was there, and my son just ran around the basement playing with the toys and trying to feed me blocks. Piece of cake.

While I suffered through the (insanely quiet and easy) afternoon, I worked on this. From start to finish, it took me one hour, one change of ric rac (I ran out of the red...but perhaps it's a happy mistake?) and four changes of thread. Not bad for an afternoon's work! As you can see, it's rather large - probably four inches across. I could see it adorning a headband, or becoming a brooch. A very large brooch. Yeah.....

This one very well might end up in the shop. The shop which is currently empty, so I'm not even going to bother linking to it. However, I put together a package today with a few aprons - donations for a friend's auction at work. I included a stack of business cards in the package. So...I guess I'd better put something in the shop? Yes? Seeing as how I'm playing "business" by sending the aprons into a REAL $1,000-per-table auction. Eek!

If you had all the time in the world, and the necessary skills...what would you most love to sell? I love to make aprons. I'm also really enjoying making quilts right now, and have been dreaming about sending a few of my babies out into the world. A quick search on Etsy revealed that the most expensive quilt available right now is $4,000. For a quilt. It's a wall - hanging. (It reminded me of a Show Pony - the quilt won a worldwide competition a few years ago, and then toured the globe doing its celebratory lap.) More normal quilts (baby sized) will set you back about $150, but those are generally made from designer cottons. I focus more on...repurposed bed linens, to put it politely. They are inexpensive, colorful, and it's always a surprise what you get. I like the challenge!

ETA: I take it back. Apparently, the most expensive quilt is actually this one. It's $12,000. But if you buy it, you can't have it until 2011, as it's currently in a show in Oslo. Huh.

LoLo Tute: Tiered Tee-Shirt Dress with a Sash

2010-05-03T09:07:00.000-04:00

So, I got this hairbrained (harebrained?) idea to get some shirts for my daughter off the clearance rack at Target…and then turn them into fabulous dresses. (In theory, it’s a great idea. In practice…make sure you don’t get pajama tops, sized big for your daughter to grow into. The neckline of this dress has come close to slipping over her shoulders a few times. Live and learn, eh?)

Anyhow, start with a t-shirt that fits your child well across the chest and shoulders. Maybe something with a stained hem that you thought they couldn’t wear again? The, pick out three coordinating cotton fabrics. (A light weight cotton would be really great here. I just used what I had in my stash, and it made a very structured skirt.)

Cut your tee shirt off about 8” down from the top of the shoulder, and play with your fabrics to figure out the order you want to go with.

Figure out how long you want your skirt to be. I needed about 15”, so I cut my fabrics into pieces 5” wide. (You can definitely play with proportions here, as long as you get the total skirt length that you’re looking for. My tip is to measure your kid in all sorts of places so that you know how long you need to make things like skirts…without dragging them out of bed to try things on. Measurements like neck to shoulder, shoulder to belly button, shoulder to hip, hip to knees, hip to ankle…I now have a list of about 20 measurements for my daughter so I can play around and draft patterns after she’s gone to bed.)

I wanted an A-line skirt, so I did some kind of fancy footwork with my ruler and disappearing ink pen. Basically, each tier of the skirt was 5” wider than the previous tier.

Let’s use the purple tier as an example. My shirt was 11” wide, so I cut two purple pieces that were 5” tall and 16” long. From each end, I measured in 2.5” and put a dot at the top edge of the strip. Then, I used my straight edge to connect the dot to the lower corner, and cut there. Does that make sense?

If it makes sense, continue on with your other two tiers, adding 5” to each one.

Sew your skirt tiers together, but not to your tee shirt for now.

Now, here’s the part that’s a little weird. We’re going to make a little fake “sash” around the middle, with ties. Make your ties by cutting two pieces of fabric that are 6”x 15”. Make each piece into a sash by folding it lengthwise, sewing the raw edges, and then turning it right side out. Press and set aside.

To make your sash, take two pieces of cotton, 4” tall and a few inches wider than your t-shirt. Sew one to the front of the shirt (wrong sides together) and then one to the back. When you sew them on, center the t-shirt on the strips, like so:

What you’ll end up with are little flaps sticking off of either side.

Fold the flaps back so that you have right sides together…

and then sandwich your ties into it and sew it up.

To finish your dress, turn your skirt inside out and fit it over your t-shirt section, right sides together, wrong sides matching. Sew around the entire perimeter, turn it right side out and you’re done!

Still going...

2010-04-28T23:48:00.000-04:00

I worked on the quilt some more tonight. While my new method of building this quilt is much more streamlined...it just about BLEW UP MY EVER LOVIN' MIND today. You see, after I finished the first ring, I had to figure out how to evenly divide each ring color between the remaining 5 colors, to make up the second ring. Saying it that way, it sounds simple, but...I very nearly cracked trying to figure it out. My daughter, Ming Wai, came upstairs. Mom, can you come see? Siu Jeun dumped out all of my cards, and he's NAUGHTY and can you come see, Mommy? Mommy, can you come see? Mommy?? Mo....

That was the point I looked up from my mumbling (two here, two there...oh wait, I accidentally put down three, and this one only has one...why do both of these piles only have one?), wild-eyed, and screamed, "Stop talking to me! I won't talk back! I won't! I can't hear you! I'm working! I'm trying really hard!!" She gave me a confused look of pity, turned around, and left. Poor thing. Her mother's batty!

Once I got that part figured out, I started the sewing. Aside from one minor mishap (I made a silly error on about 7 blocks that then had to be unpicked and fixed) the sewing went smoothly! Around 10:30 tonight, I finally declared my sewing day Over. I am one strip away, on all the blocks, from completing the second ring. I might actually finish these blocks this week...instead of next month. Woot!

A QIP and a TIP

2010-04-28T00:09:00.001-04:00

Clever, right? Well, I have a “Quilt in Progress”, and I came up with an awesome TIP today! So…there ya go. I could have called it A Quicker Way to Hedgerow…and it probably would have made more sense!

I am working on a quilt for my mother in law. I’m hoping to get it done by Christmas…but it’s my first queen sized quilt, so this is going to test the limits of my (limited) attention span!

Seeing as how that attention span is so *ahem* limited, I set my brain to thinking about the piecing process for the blocks. I need 56 blocks. Each one has an identical center piece. There are four rings on each block, and I have six fabrics to choose from. Right. Here goes a little math. I wanted to figure out if there was a way to streamline my process, while still keeping the blocks random looking. Then I thought…what if I just wanted to make all the blocks different. So, starting with the inner ring. If there are 56 blocks, and six fabrics, that means that there will be two fabrics that will start out on ten of the blocks, and four fabrics that will start out on nine of the blocks. Make sense? That gives me…10 blocks starting with light blue, 10 blocks starting with the plaid, 9 blocks of navy, nine blocks of stripes, nine blocks of pink floral, and nine blocks of green floral. 10+10+9+9+9+9 = 56. (Right?! Please tell me I’m right.)

So, that figured out, I wanted to see if there was a way to streamline the actual sewing process. For the first nine blocks, with the light blue inner ring, I sewed a piece, snipped, ironed, sewed the next bit, snipped, ironed…and kept on going on like that, completing each ring, until the entire block was finished. In the hour I could carve out, before the kids started falling over themselves and moaning for sustenance, I could finish two, maybe three blocks, completely.

Today, I decided to try something new, using a tip a friend taught me – linked up sewing!

So, here are all my strips, lined up and ready. I counted my centers out into appropriate piles (of either 10 or 9). Then I grabbed a strip, lined up one of the centers (right sides together, strip on the bottom) and started sewing. New the end of the square center piece, I grabbed another center, placed it about 1/4” down from the first piece, and just kept on sewing! I continued on until that pile was gone, then grabbed the next color strip and set to work on the second pile.

After that, I snipped off the pieces, flush with the right side…

…then sat down and evened out the left side. Oh, and I pressed them after this.

I made sure everything was still in its right pile, grabbed matching strips of fabric…and kept going! Today, during my hour, instead of finishing two or three complete blocks, I finished the first two sides of the first ring…on 46 blocks. Not bad! I might finish this thing before Christmas after all!

So, the tip is – make like a Ford and start an assembly line. To save thread and time, try to link up your pieces. (This works any time you have lots of straight seams to do, all in a row.)

Did anyone else notice how convoluted this whole process is, all under the guise of “easier”? Yeah…in college, my professors said my mind worked in “interesting ways”, too. Heh. Maybe that’s what they mean when they say Creative Thinker!

And now, for something completely different – the actual state of my work space right now. OY. This room is the ONE spot, in the entire house, the baby cannot get at. Thus…a lot of random things are thrown in here! That, and I always seem to have too many projects going at once!

ReFashion: A new skirt from old shorts

2010-04-27T00:29:00.000-04:00

I used a pair of shorts that were really too short to be decent, and a vintage bedsheet. (It was originally purchased for the quilt I made for my daughter last summer, but there was still over a yard left.)

The bottom tier is twice as big as the middle tier...which is twice as big as the circumference of the shorts. The entire length of the skirt is 11" (the bottom tier was cut 6" tall and the middle tier was cut 5" tall).
I sliced off the leg portion of the shorts just above the crotch, which took about an inch off the shorts length (seriously short shorts!) and attached the skirt to the raw edge.

In hindsight, I'd like to try this again, attaching the skirt to the waistband of the shorts and leaving the shorts intact. That way, she could flip and tumble and nary a Hanes to be soon. (Woot for that!) Maybe with a pair of jersey shorts...

(This was inspired by a post at CraftEvolution)

LoLo Tute: Little Pants from a Mama Tee Shirt

2010-04-19T23:16:00.000-04:00

(This tute is inspired by this one from KoJoDesigns)

Look! Pants! Bet you’ll never guess what they’re made from! (Umm…or if you read the title of this post, I guess you could totally guess.)

*gasp* That’s right! How did you know?! I found this shirt for just a few dollars at a Banana Republic outlet last summer. It didn’t look like it would be particularly flattering (hello wide with horizontal hot pink stripes!) but it did look like a really fast way to get nearly a yard of decent quality patterned jersey! (It’s nearly impossible to find decent jersey in our local fabric shop.)

I took a pair of leggings that fit my daughter well, and traced them out on the shirt. They just barely fit on either side of the deep scoop neck.

To make your “pattern”, set the pants up so that the two legs are matching each other, as seen in this photo below. You’ll end up with one straight side, and one side with a cute little “nose”. If you’re not going to add a separate waistband, add two inches to the top to fold over at the end to make a casing for a drawstring or elastic. Make sure you lay the pattern down once with the nose to the left, and once with the nose to the right, cutting out two of each orientation (with your fabric wrong sides together). You’ll end up with four pieces. (That strip on the left is the bottom waistband from my shirt, which seemed like the quickest way to get a waistband onto my pants! If you are cutting your own waistband, cut a strip of jersey that is as long as your Little’s waist, and about 4” wide. This will be folded in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, when you stitch it on later.)

To stitch your pants together: grab two pieces with opposing “noses” and stick them right sides together. Stitch from the tip of the nose up to the waistband. Repeat with the other set of leg pieces.

Once that is done, open those sets up and lay them right sides together, so that they finally look like a pair of pants. Now you’re going to sew from one cuff, up that leg, through the crotch, and down the other leg to the other cuff. My fabric was this really thin, curling sort of jersey, so I pinned the snot out of it before I sewed it. (Yes, really. Just go with me on this. It was a lot of pins.) After you’ve sewn up the inseam, match up the outer seams and sew those as well. Now you really have something that looks like pants! Even up the bottoms, but don’t hem them until you’ve tried them on your Little.

Once that was all done, I slid my pants up into my waistband piece, raw edges matching, and sewed it on. (This can be a little confusing if you’ve never done it before, but picture this – your waist points north, your cuffs point south. Turn your waistband piece so that the raw edges point north and the folded edge points south. Then just slip your pants inside of it. You’ll sew in a big ring all the way around your pants.) If you added extra inches at the top of your pattern, fold your waist down once to hide the raw edge, and again to make your casing. Stitch it all the way around, and then snip two small holes in the front and use a safety pin to scootch your drawstring through. For easy easy drawstring, braid together three long strips of jersey. For more details, see here.)

To fancy them up a bit, and to firmly declare a Front and a Back, I cut a little butterfly out of a piece of cotton in my stash and used Steam a Seam to stick it to the pants leg. I didn’t even stitch around it…but I will if I see the butterfly start to flutter away!

And there you have it – pants for a little girl! These would also make great PJs.

I didn’t add a drawstring in this shot, but after seeing her wear these pants a few times, there will definitely be a drawstring added. I’m tired of seeing her little undies peeking over the back waist!

mad in crafts: 1st EVER MAD SKILLS PARTY

2010-04-19T11:08:00.000-04:00

mad in crafts: 1st EVER MAD SKILLS PARTY

Wanna have some fun? Go over and check out Mad in Craft's first ever MAD SKILLS PARTY. There are a few great tutorials up already (including two from me) and I'm sure there will be more! (Oh, and make sure to link up one of your own tutes if you'd like to play along!)

LoLo Tute: Toddler Dress from Dad’s Old Button Down

2010-04-16T00:00:00.000-04:00

This might be one of my most requested tutorials…so I’m going to try my best to make this sound as easy as it really is, okay?

Gather your materials: You’ll need a man’s button up shirt, a sleeveless dress or top that fits your little girl (or just a t-shirt that fits if you’re good at eyeballing things), a few pins, and a sewing machine. (Plus the usual – thread for the machine, a fabric pen to trace your pattern, and scissors!)

First, make your bodice pattern. I’ve made three of these dresses so far, and each one is a little different. I think my pattern is almost there…

If you have a sleeveless dress that fits, great – trace that, and add your seam allowance (I like about 1/2”, to leave room for my rolled hems on the arms and neck). If you’re using a t-shirt, you’ll need to trace the shirt out onto a piece of paper, and then on your pattern cut off the sleeves. Take a look at the next picture of my bodice pattern, and make it look like that. Heh. This bodice only goes down a few inches past the armpits, but you can of course make yours as long as you like.

Now that you have your bodice pattern, grab your shirt and line your pattern up on the front of the shirt with the buttons in the middle of the bodice. Make sure that there’s a button about 3/4” down from the top of the bodice. This is now your Back Bodice Piece.

(See how I situated the bodice piece so that it ended up with a button near the top?)

Now, flip the shirt over, and set your bodice piece up as high as it will go, without overlapping onto the yoke of the shirt. (The yoke is that separate piece at the top. It won’t be pretty on our dress – no big ol’ seams running across the chest for us!) (You’ll want to unbutton the shirt when you trace/cut out this second piece, so you don’t have those buttons getting in your way.)

Once you’ve cut out those two pieces, cut a straight line across the remaining shirt, as high as you can, to make your skirt. (This should fall just below the armpits of the shirt.)

Like so:

Your three pieces!

Keeping your back bodice piece buttoned, lay it together with your front bodice piece, right sides together, and sew the two pieces together at the sides and shoulders. Now you have a little cropped tank top looking thing!

Once you’ve done that, unbutton your back bodice piece and lay it out right side up on your work space. Unbutton your skirt piece, and lay that on top, matching the raw edges, right sides together. Next, pin it in three places – once on the button placket, once on the buttonhole placket and once matching the center of the skirt and the center of your unbuttoned bodice piece.

(It’s pictured here all opened up, so you can see where to pin it.)

Here comes the trickiest part – you need to pleat up the fabric so that the skirt will be the same width as the bodice. (Alternately, you could do a long running stitch and gather up the fabric that way.)

Here’s how I do my pleats. I think they’re called box pleats, but I just call them inside out tennis pleats…because I’m crazy like that, and I made it up one day and it looked like a tennis skirt. Anyhow…moving on.

To make a box pleat (or an inside out tennis pleat. whatever), grab a little chunk of your fabric with two hands. Pinch your fabric between both sets of thumbs/fingers, and then lay it down flat and pin it in place. (Does that make any sense?)

I can fit one pleat at the middle pin, and then three on either side of it. I like big pleats!

(In that picture, the bodice is underneath the skirt piece, raw sides matching.)

Time for the big finish! Sew along that line of pleats, removing the pins as you go. You’re done!

When you flip your dress back over, your “inside out tennis pleats” will be…inside out pleats. See?

The neck and armholes can be finished either by turning the raw edges under, and then turning again and stitching around, or you can finish them with bias tape or ribbon. I usually do the double turn and stitch method myself, because I’ve never thought far ahead enough to make up bias tape ahead of time. Heh.

Current Project

2010-04-15T19:58:00.000-04:00

A sneak peak at a bit of spring fun...

LoLo Tute: Boy Shorts from Dad’s Old Button Down

2010-04-14T23:10:00.000-04:00

So…you want to make a matchy matchy set of outfits for your boy and girl? Or just use some shirt sleeves to make shorts for someone? Have I got a tute for you! This is totally forgiving….so just go with the flow on this one. First, make a pattern for a pair of pants. If you need help doing that, go here. Basically, trace a pair of pants that fit well onto either a piece of stiff paper, or directly onto your fabric.

This project was inspired by a tutorial over at KoJoDesigns.) Since KoJoDesign’s first pants tutorial last year, I’ve made at least half a dozen pairs of pants for various and sundry kiddies. Today, we’re taking it to the obvious next step – shorts! (The KJD tutorial will tell you to trace a pair of pants onto your fabric. I’m making so many pairs lately, I found it a lot easier to trace my pants onto a piece of postal brown paper and make a real pattern. I bought the 25’ roll for a dollar at my local discount store. You can also find it at office supply stores.)

Instead of lining your pattern up so that the entire leg will fit, I used a short sleeve from a button down shirt my husband didn’t wear anymore. Line the waist of your pattern (with casing ease already built in) with the shoulder edge of your shirt sleeve. To make things easier for myself, I lined the straight edge up with the southern edge of the sleeve. One less seam to sew! You can see that the other side of the pattern almost matched up with the northern edge of the sleeve. I fudged a little bit there, and only cut the curved section from that edge of the sleeve down the slope to the waist band. One more seam I don’t need to sew!

On my pattern, I had marked where the “top” of the pants were, so I would know how much was left over for the elastic casing. Make sure to mark this on your fabric for later.

Here are my two pants legs, all cut away from the main shirt.

Here’s where it gets a little hard to explain, but bear with me. Since three of your seams are already sewn, you’re going to need to match up the rounded parts that aren’t already sewn. I did this by turning one pant leg inside out, and leaving the other one right side out. Then, I nested them together, like so:

Make sure that your right sides are together! That would mean that your right side out leg is inside your inside out leg. You still with me? Just stick the right sides together, and you’ll get it.

Now, you’ve got all your seams matched up…just sew them up! Right sides to right sides, you’re going to sew one long curved line from one end of the rainbow to the other.

Just trust me on this! It’s like magic. As long as your right sides were together, and one leg was nested inside the other, when you turn that inside out leg back to right side out…you’ll have a pair of pants!! Neat, right?

All that’s left to do is fold over the top to make your casing, and sew it up. You can check out the KoJoDesigns tutorial above for ideas for slick drawstrings, but I used a grosgrain ribbon I had in my stash. (As it turns out, my one year old son is now fascinated by bows….and spent all morning yanking on this one, either untying it or simply pulling it out of the shorts casing. *sigh* Shortly after this picture was taken, I replaced the ribbon with a length of elastic. Yes, the elastic shows through on the front of the shorts, as it is outside of the pants in one spot, between the two holes I had cut for the drawstring, but…if it really bothers me, I’ll make a little bow and sew it onto the elastic to hide it. Luckily, I’m not really bothered by things like that!)

There you go! Shorts in a flash. I swear, once you get all your materials lined up…making a new pair of shorts for your Littles might be faster than doing the laundry.

But don’t let that give you any bad ideas…..

These shorts are, obviously, super wide. (In fact, they’re as wide as a man’s shirt sleeve!) These would probably fit my three year old daughter just fine…which means that I might be making a few pairs for her, as well, to wear underneath all of the summer dresses she loves to wear!

Things 15 & 16: Easter Outfits

2010-04-13T08:00:00.001-04:00

The night before Easter I made up some more matching clothes for the kids. Of course, on Sunday morning, when Ming Wai say the nearly-finished duo, she decided that those were the ones that should be for Easter. It was a bit of a scramble to finish up the last few fittings, but we got it done. I'm still fine-tuning the bodice pattern (you can see that it has a weird sort of a slope to the shoulders), but I like this one all the same. Since the pattern is as handmade as the dress, I am prodigiously proud of both. A tutorial is in the works, and should be ready next week!

Thing 13 & 14: Cards

2010-04-12T08:00:00.002-04:00

We're trying to add an hour of Creative Time in the afternoons to fill the gap between Siu Jeun waking up and shuffling the kids off to play while I make dinner. We're still working out the kinks, but I was able to make up these two cards when the stars aligned one sunny afternoon.

Thing 12: A Red Mum

2010-04-10T08:00:00.003-04:00

It's bigger than the others...and quite a bit fluffier. Therefor, I hereby name you MUM.

Heh.

Midnight Crafting

2010-04-09T08:00:00.004-04:00

Not quite midnight, but a good friend agreed to come over after the kiddos were in bed and work on some refashioning projects with me. She was the genius behind that sweet shirtdress up at the top, for her daugher. She made it from one of her own shirts that just never quite fit right, and then used the cuffs of the sleeves to add those adorable little puff pockets. I could just eat it up!

I used one of Lo Gung's old black t-shirts, and a pink PJ top that we found on clearance. Overall cost for a new nightie and v-neck top - $2.97. Not bad!

The Shirt Frock

2010-04-08T20:30:00.000-04:00

I had a request for a clearer shot of the front and back of this dress. So....here ya go! *mwah*

Never Too Young to Be Polite

2010-04-07T09:00:00.001-04:00

As I've mentioned before, I absolutely love my local Re-Use-It network. (Previously known as Freecycle...but our moderators jumped ship. Long story.) A good portion of my crafting materials have come from generous ladies in my area - bags of ricrac, stacks of vintage fabric, and sacks full of tulle have all found their way into my home.

As I prepare to relocate across the country, I am doing my best to de-stash and simplify. When I get my daily e-mails from the network, I look very carefully at all of the "Wanted" notes. If any of them match anything in my craft room...chances are, I'll drop them a note. Many of the requests are on behalf of children, just budding into their creativity. I love that what I rounded up (for free) can now be redistributed to young people who are in need of copious amounts of (free!) materials to experiment on.

This past week, a grandmother put out a request for any sort of craft materials. Her (very creative) grandchildren had recently moved into town, and she wanted enough materials on hand to keep them occupied for the majority of the summer. I contacted her, and put together several sacks of things I thought young children might enjoy working with.

I was tickled pink when they arrived. Grandma was such a sweet and gracious woman. As they approached the door, her grandson put on his best Polite Face and handed me the card that you see above.

To: Aunt LoLo
From: The one you helped

(inside)
Thank you for everything you have given me and I'm so happy I don't know how to say.....

(yarn on right)

The sweet words were accompanied by pictures of candles, a boy making a candle, and a ball of yarn that was unraveling to spell out the words "Thank you."

I was so impressed with this young man, and his (beautiful) and sweet gesture!

LoLo Tute: A Silhouette Project

2010-04-06T07:00:00.003-04:00

In Joy School right now, the girls are learning about the Joy of Being Unique. As an on-going project, one of the moms helped the girls start little books, All About Me. I'm not sure what all they have in there so far, but she mentioned to me that silhouettes were needed, approximately 5x7. I was on the case!

I started by taking head shots of all the girls. I underexposed the pictures, and posed them by windows, to get as much contrast as possible. They were in the playroom, on the hardwood floor, so I lined their feet up on the boards to try and get a perfectly placed "side view." (Ming Wai's was still a little off...but I think her head's on crooked. All the other girls' pictures turned out fine. Heh.)

The next morning, I loaded the pictures onto my computer and cut several pieces of computer paper into 5x7" rectangles.

To make the silhouettes, carefully tape a piece of paper over the screen (fixing the tape to the computer, and not the actual screen) and then use your mouse to shrink your picture viewing window until the head fits comfortably inside your paper. Carefully, trace around the head with a pencil. (Lightly now, you don't want to damage your screen!)

Remove the paper from your computer screen, and carefully cut out your head with a pair of sharp scissors, or a craft knife.

Give your Little a piece of paper (in their favorite color, please), trimmed to size (5x7" here) and tell them to go to town. I intended for the girls to scribble and mark up the page in a riot of happy colors. Most of the girls obliged me, but one drew a beautiful little picture of a snowman. Overachiever. *grin*

I used double-sided tape to attach the silhouettes over the girls' artwork. (Except for Miss Overachiever - her silhouette was mounted on the back of her artwork. I didn't have the heart to cover it up!)

And there you go! Easy peasy silhouettes, perfect for small All About Me books.

Thing No. 11: Something for Me!

2010-04-05T09:00:00.001-04:00

Finally...a little project just for me! I've made several of these teacup pincushions (tutorial here at Gingham Cherry), but all of them left the premises in the possession of other friends. No more!

Since I started sewing three years ago, I've kept my pins all jumbled up in a small baby food bowl. It worked great - it was especially easy to pull pins out of my project while I sewed and just chuck them into the bowl. Getting them out..was not nearly as much fun. I guess that's why we all have pincushions...and not pin bowls.

Anyhow...I've seen the light. Here's my pincushion! I found this beautiful little cup, all lonely-like, on a shelf at Goodwill. The fabric is a fat quarter from my local quilt shop that I fell in love with. Look closely - it's cherry blossoms and little lucky red envelopes. How sweet is that?! I'd never seen Chinese New Year fabric before...

A little bit of sleuthing on ebay makes me think that this line of china, while not very valuable or rare, is approximately 50 years old. I'm happy to have such a pretty little piece of history sitting on my craft table!

Easter Outfits

2010-04-04T00:24:00.000-04:00

I made these up for the kids this morning, and I'm really pleased with how they turned out! (I'm less than pleased with Siu Jeun's cooperation during the photo shoot...but what can you do, right? I just barely managed to snap this before he ran off. Even Ming Wai couldn't hold him down. He was a boy with places to go!)

The dress and the shorts are made out of a short-sleeved button down shirt I saved from our Goodwill-Bound pile. The shirt used to belong to my husband. I believe he bought it back when busy brown floral prints were still all the rage in men's wear.

Heh.

(PS - A tutorial is in the works for both the dress, and the shorts. The dress used up most of the body of the shirt, and the shorts use the sleeves. Pretty slick!)

(PPS - I promise that Siu Jeun will be wearing more clothes than this on Easter. I was too anxious to get this shot to get him dressed first! I'm picturing a nice cream colored polo shirt...)

PPPS - Happy Easter, everybody!

Quilting Basics ~ Preparing & Cutting � Sew,Mama,Sew! Blog

2010-04-01T14:01:00.000-04:00

Quilting Basics ~ Preparing & Cutting � Sew,Mama,Sew! Blog

If you've always wanted to learn how to quilt...now's the time. Sew, Mama, Sew is going with a Quilting theme this month. I'm looking forward to loads of awesome tutorials! This one is the first, and it's great.

Cheers!

Thing No. 10: It's big and pink...

2010-03-24T20:42:00.001-04:00

It isn't immediately obvious in this picture what you're looking at...I mean, besides a really big pink flower. And that's what it is! It's a really big pink flower...that happens to be a barette. It's about half the size of my daughter's head, and it just makes me giggle to see her wear it.

We stopped at the "big" Michael's (across the state line, in New York state) and found that the huge gerbera daisies were on sale for just $1.09! I held up a few against Ming Wai's face and picked the color that looked the best...and, by that night, she had a new barette. Snazzy, yes? (I promise to try and get some better pictures later so you can actually see the rest of Ming Wai's head. We had an unexpected day of good weather today, and I was too busy to take advantage of the great light with my camera!)

(Full disclosure - it's really heavy, for a barette. The only way I can keep it in her hair is to first put a rubber-backed elastic headband on her, and then clip the daisy to her hair and the headband together. The rubber keeps it in place. Someone suggested that I stick a few small pieces of rubber shelf liner between the barette sides. I might try that as soon as I get my hand on some rubber shelf liner!)