Holiday Notes

Not a long post, just a few thoughts. Not a sponsored post, either. Just something I think's worth sharing. I spent a few hours yesterday looking for a holiday card design I liked. Sometimes I design a card myself, and sometimes I go the must faster route of picking one and dropping our photos in. I chose one on Shutterfly and one on Zazzle that I liked, laid them both out, and checked in with my better half to see what he thought was a better fit. We agreed on the Zazzle design by Fine And Dandy, but then when I was looking for coupon codes I almost fell out of my chair. There's a code for 50% off that's for a limited time, and there's another code - LOVEPEACEJOY - that takes 75% off of your greeting card order if you're ordering at least 75 between now and the end of December. Okay, we may not need that many, but it made my order-- for full-bleed front-and-back 5x7 cards on a metallic paper-- under $50. With free shipping. And they don't slap a logo onto my card. That bugs me about some of the other card printers. I've always been happy with previous Zazzle print and paper quality, so I'm anxious to see this one arrive.

The photo shoot for this year's holiday card consisted of a backdrop of the reverse side of my I Spy quilt and a pile of glittery shatterproof ornaments. In the end I loved two of the shots of the girls individually, but the shots of them together were pretty useless. For example, when M decided that pulling hair would be fun:

In other holiday news, as far as developing your own crafty holiday wish lists, you can find some of Adrianna's and my own favorite crafting items on the "Stuff We Use" page that you can see by clicking the tab below our header. My sewing machine is still my favorite all-around item, and I was thinking to myself again over the holiday that I'm so happy with it. It's not high-end, but comes with so many extras that have been helpful to me. Often I've gone back to look at the accessory feet and realized that I already have the one I'm going to need for X project because it came with the bundle. And the quilting table has been quite useful. Just a thought if you're not sure what to put on your own list and are considering a sewing machine.

An I Spy update: Packages are arriving and I'm cutting my own yardage and a few yards for others. Sorting early next week!

And now I'm off to work on a new project. A big, big, big project. More on that... eventually.

Make a Santa Bag: A Tutorial

[This is a re-post from September when it was included as part of the Holiday Bake, Craft, Sew Along series.]

Today I'm showing you how to make an item that can fall into all four categories-- a Santa Bag. It was inspired by one I bought at Pottery Barn Kids before I started sewing regularly. Once my machine and I became BFFs, I realized they'd be far less expensive to make myself and I've loved watching my girls play with it. It comes out as a decoration after Thanksgiving, and then gets dragged all over the house for imaginative play. I don't think I finally managed to put it away until June this year, because they kept finding it and filling it with things. It has been on my to-do list because I think several of my friends with kids would also enjoy it, and as far as holiday decorations go, it's pretty compact when it's time to pack it away. If you can convince the kids it's time to make that happen.

Here's what we're going for:

And here's a not-to-scale graphic of our pieces to make the bag:

One yard of red fleece is more than enough, and whatever the smallest cut your shop will allow of the fuzzy fleece will work-- really all you need is one 3" cut from the bolt!

Since the body of the bag is cut on the fold and doesn't need to be stitched, we'll start by stitching the sides closed. A 1/2" seam allowance works well. Use a slight zig zag or stretch stitch (looks like a lightning bolt) to give your seams a little stretchability in case kids decide to climb in it themselves so that a friend can slide them around in the bag. Just sayin', that might happen. And you don't want those side seams to snap and spoil the fun. No worries about finishing the edges-- fleece doesn't fray.

At about 5" in from the top edge, pin your casing onto the inside of your bag. Stitch all the way around on the top and bottom edge so that you've got a channel to thread your drawstring through later.

It'll look like this:

You can flip your bag right side out and put it aside for a minute. Now grab your drawstring and fold it in half. I used a pin to get it started under the presser foot, but you may or not want to bother to pin it all the way down. I tend to avoid pins when possible. Whichever way you do it, stitch all the way down the length of your drawstring with a 1/4" to 1/2" stitch allowance. You want to leave enough room inside the tube to be able to turn it. If you hate tasks like this, you might decide to just stitch it and not bother to turn it. Up to you. Either way, you want to use a stretch stitch here, too, 'cause this will get tugged on a good bit.

Now I used my ball point threading bodkin to turn this inside-out. Or right-side out, in this case.

In order to thread the bodkin, I chopped one side of the tube off at the end, slid the bodkin in and....

Then fed the end through the eye. And started pulling. You can use a safety pin for this if you don't have a bodkin.

And that gave me this. The turning stretches the fleece, so it'll end up a bit longer than it was before turning.

Okay, put that aside for a moment and let's return to the bag. Pin the right side of the fleece to the right side of the bag and stitch all the way around.

Then flip the fleece into the bag so that you can barely see it from the outside. Pin it.

Stitch the bottom edge of the fleece to the bag all the way around.

Now fold the fleece portion in half. Half in, half out.  Use a few stitches on each side and a few stitches in the center of each side to tack it down so that it doesn't fold in. Make a nice, chunky, fuzzy edge.

Snip tiny holes in the outside of the bag on one side. One on each side of the side seam, within the lines where you created a casing. Thread the drawstring through.

Once it's threaded, it'll look like this.

Now it's time to make those fuzzy balls that hang on each end of the drawstring. We've cut 6 marquis shapes, and we're going to use 3 for each ball. Start by pinning two fleece shapes together, right sides facing.

Stitch down one side.

Fold one of the shapes to the side to make room to attach the third piece the same way.

Now you've got one side left to close up. Sew this one half way.

Now you can turn it fuzzy side out and fill it with scraps or fluffy filler stuff. After stuffing, tack the end of the drawstring to the edge, then turn the edges of the fleece in and hand stitch it closed. No stress-- the fleecy texture is very helpful in hiding stitches. Make 'em sturdy stitches to avoid Santa bag castration later on. (I've waited a long time to have a reason to reference castration on a crafty blog. What an exciting day!)

And you're done!

Enjoy!

Giving Much Thanks

We had a fun crafty bloggy playdate this morning. Jen from Upcycled Education came over with her little O. My kid isn't even in "real" school yet and I'm loving school breaks as a chance to connect with our scattered friends. Jen and I were talking about all sorts of blogging things that crafty bloggers love to talk about-- how this, that and the other work. She's scheduling some super fun crafty posts as she's about to head to her mountain retreat for a few weeks. I'm hoping to get to tell you more about her place soon. She's set it up for her own family to enjoy-- crafty and comfy and beautiful, and then she's made it available for vacation rentals, too. If I'm going to spend the time and money on vacations these days, I'm going some place with character. And hers looks like one of those places.

Since she was bringing little O with her today and I also had Juju, my godson, to help entertain my own two... the holiday crafting has finally begun. I've held off as long as I could-- the kids try to pull out Christmas stuff all year long and I resist because I want to feel like doing Christmas stuff at Christmas. The kids were totally happy to use a tapestry or canvas needle and thread to string cranberries. It's something I've never done before-- honestly, I don't think I've ever held a real, raw cranberry until I bought these. I love cranberry juice and cranberry sauce. I'd just not seen the real thing.

The kids were at it off and on for a few hours. And it was 95% less messy than I expected. Looking around, I don't see cranberry juice on anything. How's that possible? My kitchen table is already battle scarred from a thousand projects, so I wouldn't have thought to cover it anyway, but even if it were worth worrying about, the cranberries didn't do any damage.

Even M at 2.5 was able to string a few, but mostly she liked rolling them around and then wearing the strings the big kids had made.

I feel like I'm swimming in cranberries in my sewing area, too. Garnet, actually. My cousin and her husband had their first baby last week and I'm doing a garnet and black nursery for them. I'd started quite a while ago and a million things have slowed me down, but now that baby Luke is here I've got to get this shipped to them. I know he's not likely to actually sleep in his crib anytime soon, but I'm sure his Mama is ready to see it all put together. And now that he's out and we know that he is a "he" I can scrap any plans for ruffles I might have pondered adding at the last minute should the opportunity arrive.

Strange that I'm doing two nursery sets this year. Both are for a "Katie". And their babies are boys named "Liam" and "Luke".

I made two crib sheets with this fantastic tutorial and tried them on M's bed just to check the size and make sure they wouldn't spontaneously disintegrate or something. Isn't there always that irrational fear that something will be grossly wrong as soon as you hand it off to someone else? Or is that just me?

Cranberries and holidays and sewing for new babies. Life and craft and reflection on what has changed. On my kitchen table and on my sewing table. So grateful for all of it. Hope you get to do some heartwarming crafty things over the coming days, too.

Two (new to me) Places I Love to Shop

I love reading other blogger's posts about the places they shop, especially if they're places I'm not familiar with. Okay, sometimes there's a big swell of jealousy to get over. I spent three years on the other side of the world where there were few fun shopping options, fewer affordable ones, and little to no thrift opportunity. Today I have two stores to talk about -- one that I think is even funner than the Forever 21 accessory store and you might have near you, and one that's the thrift store every other thrift store wants to be when it grows up. If you're ever near one or the other, I suggest you stop by.

First... Charming Charlie. Do you have one near you? I saw a friend mention it on Facebook. I'd never heard of it so I looked it up. There wasn't one all that close to me at a quick glance, so I forgot about it. Filed for later reference. And then, not even a week later, my husband and I were out for date night. We were in an area we'd never visited before - the National Harbor - and I was checking out the map of shopping and dining. My eyes almost popped out of my head when I realized there was a Charming Charlie not even a block away. My poor husband. We've been together for 14 years, so I guess he's not surprised when date nights are briefly hijacked by trash pickups and shopping excursions. He's not ever gotten upset about it. Bless him.

So we went. Well, I went, and he walked around to see what else was open and check out The Awakening. And? It. was. awesome. One of the largest accessory (+ some clothing) stores I've ever seen, totally affordable in the retail realm, and ORGANIZED BY COLOR. That's the best part. See? Here's about 1/3 of the purple section. Adrianna can just run on past it for blue.

Pardon the after dark cell phone photos. This is blog photography on the fly. I think my favorite section was the clear/almost clear stuff. But it's not as exciting to photograph as, say, the red section:

In the end I walked away with almost the same shirt in two different colors. And a few bracelets that I think I can mix and match for fun. And an intense desire to go back. Maybe with a plan next time. On to part 2 of this post...

So now that I live outside of DC and have dozens of resale and thrift stores to choose from, I'm even jealous of myself. I've found some fantastic stuff. I wasn't unhappy with my options.... and then this new store opened. My first thought was "Wow, that's a huge store space they've chosen. With all of the other thrift stores around here, how will they stock it?" Ha. I still can't really grasp how it happens, but somehow it does. The existing stores around here were a lot of Goodwill Superstores and Salvation Army stores. This new one, 2nd Avenue, is run by Purple Heart and... wow... someone really figured out how to make this work. The things I love most about it:

1. It doesn't smell funny. Seriously, for the first ten minutes of my first trip, I walked around smelling. How does it not smell funny? In every other thrift store I eventually get annoyed by the mix of detergent scents and dusty mustyness and occasional flat-out funk. I guess I was looking for hidden machinery that makes it smell better. Couldn't find any. I'm thinking it's partly because there's no carpet on the floor. And maybe partly because the store is new. And partly because it looks like they're working hard to keep it neat. And partly because they seem to be quite choosy about what makes it to the sales floor. Whatever the reasons, I really loved the lack of funny smell.

2. The shelving makes sense. See? Tchotchkes are difficult to neaten, and they've figured it out. You can actually see things because the shelves are tall, shallow and well-lit.

3. And then there's these bags. All that little crap stuff that's hard to price and sort and put somewhere, they've bagged and priced in clear bags hanging above the shelves. I think it's SO fun to look through them. They're not really sorted by theme, but they're much easier to look through hanging than scattered in bins with things getting squished and damaged and loss of important pieces. There are random craft supplies scattered throughout. (!)

4. Mostly ORGANIZED BY size and COLOR, on hangers that match. There's a theme to my shopping happiness.

5. The reason I won't ever bring my kids with me. Or if I got crazy, maybe I'd bring one at a time. LOTS of kid excitement. This was the least neat aisle in the store. I can let that go, given that *I* wouldn't be able to keep my two from wreaking havoc here.

6. The everyday prices are totally reasonable, but on Sunday and Monday? Almost the entire store is half-off. Just the newest items with the tags that are the color of the week are not, and on Monday even those are marked down a bit. If you're looking for refashion items, Sunday and Monday are the days to go.

My favorite find of my first trip: near-perfect Pedipeds for $2.90. Okay, they don't fit my girls, but I know one that they'll be darling on.

On a recent trip I found a bag with two large action figures for $2.90. And on Sunday, so it was half-off. I knew K would love them, but they were a little scuffed up. (Flash and Batman in a bag together-- and apparently there was a brawl.)

So I told her I'd be like the little old man in Toy Story 3 that makes the toys new again, and got out some cotton swabs and nail polish remover. 

I was a little too rough on the poor guy's chin, but otherwise he looks much spiffier.

And that's my Friday post full of randomness. It's been that kind of week. Coming my way any time soon? Just give me five minutes notice and I'll meet you for a shopping date.

Worth Reading: A Field Guide to Fabric Design

Back in the day when Adrianna and I lived about 4 miles from each other, I found the "How It's Made" episode that showed how fabric is made. It was good... but disappointingly brief. I think it was about a basic cotton lawn or something. At the end we both said "that's it?!". We wanted more. I myself could watch a dozen hour-long episodes on the subject. I already love to know how things are made, and when we're talking about crafty things? I'm engrossed. Which is, I guess, what makes DIY crafty blog reading so much fun. Learning more and more about how things come together, and applying those things to the projects we want to tackle.

When I saw "A Field Guide to Fabric Design" available for pre-order over the summer, I put my order in in under 20 seconds. I knew that I'd love it, and had an inkling it might help me with a project/business idea that's been bouncing around for months.

It finally arrived not long before the wisdom teeth thing. So it was on my bedside table, and with the kids taken care of by a combination of my husband and my Mom, I was able to really, really focus. (That might be why I don't read as much anymore? Constant interruption? That and persistent exhaustion, so that if I do sit down with a book after the kids are in bed I'm as likely to fall asleep as read it.)

There's a whole lot of ground covered in this book. Some already familiar to me, but the parts I enjoyed most explained how repeats in commercial prints work-- and the limitations of presses, digital fabric printing options other than Spoonflower, and minimum quantities required for a traditional commercial run. Holy moly. So glad there are so many other options for fabric printing today. Also glad I got a photo of this book before one of my kids managed to draw on it.

I know it's sort of a nerdy crafty book. Not everyone is interested in printing their own fabric. But if you are, the guide is comprehensive, thoughtful and beautifully designed. And Aneela Hooey's Sherbet Pips on the cover felt like a welcoming face to me.

In the realm of fabric design, an update on Spoonflower I Spy: Swap 2.  I think we have our final list of 56, and we're so very close to having the Flickr fabric set of 112 prints finalized. The process so far is much smoother than last time, with a few things I think could be improved if there were a third round. Some day. Beyond the organizational aspect, I've got lots of folks saying that they've either already ordered their fabric or they plan to within the next day or so. I'm excited to see the fabric begin to arrive. And also to get it back out the door before I manage to misplace any of it. Not that that happened last year. Shhhh, Care!

Learning to Sew at 5

My recently-five-years-old daughter seems to be at least as interested in crafting as I am. She's always been curious-- wanting to touch and try everything that I have around, making for some nervous moments. Also some cringe-worthy moments, like when she saw me temporarily using my lips to hold pins as I was removing them from a garment. She was probably three and a half at the time, and said "uhhhh... Momma? I don't sink dat's a good ideeeeea." Ooops. You are soooooo right, kid. At least I know where she gets that habit?

She and I are both pretty relieved by pleased with her growing battery of fine motor skills and lengthening attention span. She can finally do more things on her own. She's done a number of embroidery projects, but... it's taken time for her to get to the point where she can remember that if the thread is coming out of the front, it's got to go back through the front to get to the back. It can't go around. For what felt like a long while her projects were more mommy-intense than kid-intense, which I could only take so much of. I've never ever ever considered being an early childhood educator. I know that my patience runs out pretty quickly. 

Since she's finally ready to work a little independently, when Ann from Elle Sophia Design offered to send a sewing bag and Learn To Sew Projects for K to try, I didn't have to think too hard about it. I knew we'd both love it.

The Learn To Sew kits are packaged and ready to be given as gifts. I think of this as the higher-end alternative to the mass-produced kits kid's craft sets at the chain stores. There's a lot more love in the details to this, and I'd feel much better about giving it. As much as I'd love to give only gifts I've made this year, I'd rather add in gifts made by other thoughtful hands than go the mass-produced route. At least that's what I'm aspiring to this year. (Odds are you'll see some indication of my success around here.) The directions for the kit were well-written and would make it easy for any non-sewer to follow and help a new sewer along.  

The My First Sewing Bag was personalized and contained a pair of child scissors, a felt needle book and a tape measure. As soon as I put the camera down she used the measuring tape to tell me that she's 9 feet tall. We'll work on that.

She's made a whole lot of progress in terms of remembering how the needle can't take the long way around.

Here she's starting what she says will be a candy cane pillow for her Mimi. Sorry to spoil the surprise, Mom.

The greatest threat to K's new organizational tool: Little sister.

Ann is currently offering 10% off with code ELLESOPHIA10 at checkout. I think the project kits would make thoughtful small gifts or stocking stuffers, and the "My First Sewing Bag" is a lovely invitation for a growing girl to make sewing their own.

Completely unrelatedly, the Spoonflower I Spy Swap 2 is full and participants are placing their orders now. Amazing how much learning happened in the first round that's made the second round much less challenging. We have swappers from all over the US and from Canada, Australia and the UK. A number of US swappers have offered to help cut fabric for perfect strangers overseas so that they too can participate without crazy shipping times and costs. That makes me feel warm and fuzzy to think about. All in all, so far, so good.