I don’t think I will ever have the time to do this, but I like think about projects I can’t actually do sometimes. Moroccan Boucherouite rag rug kneel & mercado via bud pnq, pinterest and a pretty comprehensive how-to from chawed rosin.
Showing posts with label sewing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sewing. Show all posts
soft shell
A couple of years ago I bought a little pattern for a turtle pincushion off of etsy when I was looking for some fabric. My making time has really dwindled recently — I have to focus more on drawing right now. When my son was a baby, the only things I could make easily near him were knitting and hand-sewing. Having a sewing machine, pins and iron out was too much trouble. Now, it's opposite. I don't have the time to knit, and if I have a spare hour in the week to make something I need it to be efficient. I need a machine! Anyway, I tried out this turtle for a birthday present. I used muslin lining instead of interfacing to keep it soft, and I used velvet for the body (which is really hard to keep straight, but feels nice). My auggie, who is now 3 1/2 and whose interests are: trucks, cars, emergency vehicles, lego (and now skateboards) surprised me by asking for one of these. He's asked 4 times. It's partly the velvet, I think. I was going to use one of his dad's old shirts instead of the flower fabric, but he really wants the flowers, so I'll try to do another one if I can soon.
doll apron pattern
I put up a pattern and tutorial for a doll apron with pockets up on the Windy blog today.
Little Quick began developing another series last year called Sixes & Sevens with Leah Mallen of the great documentary Coast Modern as well as our little Foggy film. We've paused in development to take care of some new Windy business. These aprons were part of the project.
The Sixes & Sevens dolls are in storage, so I used the sweater pigs as models.
Simple quilted playmat (3–5 hours)
This spring we ordered a living room rug online with a pebbly texture. Auggie did not like the feeling on his feet, and would not step on it. It was too tricky to return it and so I made a quilted playmat instead — it seems to have worked. It was pretty easy and took about 5 hours. I took my best bloggy photo of it (above) immediately after we last cleaned and vacuumed.
As I was taking pictures, Auggie began making soup for this monkey, even though he is quite indifferent about it (the monkey, not soup).
I used the cheerful quilted playmat pattern from the purlbee. It's smart, you don't need to finish the edges, you just turn it inside out with the batting stitched in. I modified it to make it faster: I didn't bother with the quilting step at the beginning, I just used 2 large squares of fabric. Also, I did the top-stitching by machine. I made my mat a yard by a yard. The fish fabric is thrift and the cars are a kokka pattern from purlsoho — both are cotton/linen canvas.
The topstitching is a follow-the-lines technique, done by machine. It would have taken about 3 hours if I had sewed straight lines instead of zig zags for the top stitching — as it was this was a 5-hour project.
Done & dusted!
Sewing for kids
This looks fun: hand sewing workshop for the 5 and ups at collage collage.
Six weeks of classes, beginning November 17. Find out more here. Photo from collage collage.
Shoelace Sewing
Simple shapes with pre-cut holes that your little one can use by sewing around the edges (this isn't a practical sewing project). This activity was originally inspired by a 5-year old boy I spoke to. His kindergarten class has a wooden sewing set which is very popular with the children. Here are instructions and templates so you can make your own sewing set.
This is great for the 3-5 set and is a surprisingly easy craft project to set up.
First Quilt
Here are some things I found very helpful in getting going on my first quilt: a small one for my son Auggie. If you are thinking of trying your first quilt, you might find these tips and book recommendations helpful.
Softy Pigs (Miyako Kanamori: Part 3)
I posted earlier about Miyako Kanamori's Sock and Glove (Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-off Socks and Gloves). As you can tell from the title, this very sweet and simple book has easy patterns for fashioning stuffed animals from gloves and socks. A few of the patterns, such as the fish we posted about, are suitable for socks that have lost their mates. However, most of the patterns require a pair of socks that are in good condition (including the heels and toes). We don't often have extra pairs of socks in good condition, but we do often have t-shirts and sweaters that get a few holes, snags, tears or worn through the elbows. Could you just cut sock shapes out of the fabric and use the arms for the bits of the pattern calling for a tube shape?
A beautiful pink pullover which accidentally wound up in the dryer + a stripey long sleeve t-shirt with worn elbows provided the opportunity to try it out and yielded 4 pigs and 2 pig t-shirts. The first pig went to a birthday party and was promptly named Rocco and given a flowered kimono to wear over his striped shirt. The remaining 3 are currently waiting for a big bad wolf to join them (although, they've been waiting for more than a year now).
Here are the 3 little pigs: Karate Pig, Friendly Pig and Farmer Pig.
Rocco.
The original dog I tried from the book. A tip if you try these patterns: overstuff. The stuffing gets compacted really quickly.
This concludes my Kanamori series!
Sock fish
Miyako Kanamori: Part 1
Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-off Socks and Gloves by Miyako Kanamori is a very good book! (Phew...out of breath from that last sentence.) As you might guess from its descriptive title, this book gives you patterns for making little softies from socks (mostly long socks) and gloves. The patterns are quite simple and you can use a machine or hand sewing for the projects. This is a good book for your bookshelf; it has a lot of easy, fun projects.
One little note: most of the patterns involve a pair of gloves or a pair of socks, and they need to be in fairly good condition (toes and heels are often part of the pattern), so this won't help you use old socks. However, all you need is a pack of work socks and you're off. The gloves in the book are mostly rough work/gardening gloves, which you can find in Vancouver for about $2, so that's quite economical.
Anyway, we'd like to show a couple of projects from the book, beginning with sock fish. These fish were not the very cutest project, but they are very simple, quick, and they only use one sock (and they are great for baby socks, which often lose their mate and remain in good condition even after wear).
Kanamori's fish has a button eye and uses a sock with a contrasting colour for the toe, which looks very cute. However, we didn't have any socks like that, so we tried adding a little blanket stitching to separate the head from the body (and to make a little fin). Because these are for babies, we stitched on felt eyes which are safer.
Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-off Socks and Gloves by Miyako Kanamori is a very good book! (Phew...out of breath from that last sentence.) As you might guess from its descriptive title, this book gives you patterns for making little softies from socks (mostly long socks) and gloves. The patterns are quite simple and you can use a machine or hand sewing for the projects. This is a good book for your bookshelf; it has a lot of easy, fun projects.
One little note: most of the patterns involve a pair of gloves or a pair of socks, and they need to be in fairly good condition (toes and heels are often part of the pattern), so this won't help you use old socks. However, all you need is a pack of work socks and you're off. The gloves in the book are mostly rough work/gardening gloves, which you can find in Vancouver for about $2, so that's quite economical.
Anyway, we'd like to show a couple of projects from the book, beginning with sock fish. These fish were not the very cutest project, but they are very simple, quick, and they only use one sock (and they are great for baby socks, which often lose their mate and remain in good condition even after wear).
Kanamori's fish has a button eye and uses a sock with a contrasting colour for the toe, which looks very cute. However, we didn't have any socks like that, so we tried adding a little blanket stitching to separate the head from the body (and to make a little fin). Because these are for babies, we stitched on felt eyes which are safer.
Hello Baby
So, we are going to try doing a weekly arts + crafts post. Either a project from us, or a review of a craft book. Friday is a good time to gather up your materials for the weekend. Our production company is called "Little Quick" so you can tell already that we like projects that are little and quick.
Today's post is about a pretty well-known book: Baby Stuff (or the Japanese title is Hello Baby which is a much better title) by Aranzi Aronzo. Now, reviewing a very well-known book has the advantage that you can probably find this in the library or your local bookshop right now and you don't have to wait for it to arrive by post!
The number one thing we like about this team are their biographies:
Mr. Aranzi
Mr. Aranzi has a Mexican father and a Japanese mother. It's been 10 years since he started creative activities in cooperation with Mr. Aronzo. He lives in the U.S.A. and works at a securities firm.
Mr. Aronzo
Mr. Aronzo is a Norwegian Vietnamese-Indian. He lives on the street and travels all over the world. His main occupation is playing the tambourine.
Mr. Aronzo is a Norwegian Vietnamese-Indian. He lives on the street and travels all over the world. His main occupation is playing the tambourine.
Great!
OK, so we tested out Baby Stuff (we both have babies). This book has very clear instructions (so clear, that you can actually follow directions in the Japanese version without being Japanese). It comes with photocopy-able templates. One nice feature is that several of the projects could be easily sewn by hand. Although we both have machines, we like to do things by hand. It's fun. The projects shown here were about 50% machine and 50% by hand.
The other good feature about Baby Stuff is that the projects are actually good projects for babies. So, if you don't have a baby of your own, and you're not sure about these projects as gifts: go for it. We've done 3 projects and they've all been useful. And they are mostly very fast. (For real fast, not the kind of project that promises to be 2 hours but takes you all night.)
Pictured here are two of the projects we tried: Baby Bandana and Lil' Friend. (These are copies of projects in the book.) The only thing we didn't do according to directions is trace the sashiko-like embroidery of the fish from their template with special chalk. You can just lightly draw in your shape with a pencil freehand and stitch over top.
Both these projects are well-used and well-loved. There were originally two Lil' friends and one was passed to an 11-month old, who loved it, too. Something about the size and texture is really baby-pleasing. The bandana bib is a nice way to add texture and colour into your baby's wardrobe.
Review Summary
· Aranzi Aronzo's Baby Stuff
· We liked it!
· Mostly projects for adults to make for babies. (Children could try some of these patterns with felt, glue, needle and thread, but the end project may need some help to be baby-safe.)
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