The Craft Room: The Whole Story

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

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

 

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

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)

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!

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!

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.