Projects I've completed for Presents - 2

So after the little elephant was done, I got to work on doll dresses for my niece's 3rd birthday. I actually made 2 dresses, but sadly it appears I only photographed the first one. (shoot)

 This dress is a reversible dolls dress. It's closures are velcro (so it's easy to put on). You can see both sides in the pictures below. It's a very simple pattern that crosses in the back and fits very snuggly on a standard size baby doll.

I do like this dress, but it seemed a bit plain, so I made a second one that was a summer dress that tied in the back, which I didn't use a pattern for. (sorry no pictures on that one!) That one was measuring the doll and sewing pieces together like I used to do as a kid when I would make clothes for my barbie dolls. (Trust me, I did that A LOT!) It has a more full skirt

My niece who adores baby dolls, seemed to like them, so I was pleased.

Projects I've completed for presents - 1

Making presents causes a little bit of an issue when blogging...I'm not sure if the people I make things for are looking/reading my blog, so I don't like putting them up before I give the item to the recipient, but then I look like I'm not crafting at all.

Well, I recently gave some items away, so you can see what I've been up to.

First, there was a tiny elephant toy for a baby shower. I've done one of these before and it turned out as cute as ever. Just in case you want the step by step it's pretty easy. I started by putting right sides together and cutting out a front and back template.

I sewed along all the seams after pinning everything. making sure to sew the eyes first (I just did eyes that were thread, so by doing them first I could make sure they were nice and tight and the knots were inside the body).

Then I turned the little fella right side out and sewed the ears shut (so when I stuffed him he wouldn't have chubby ears). Then I used a chopstick to get all the corners nicely flat before stuffing.

I used fiber fill to stuff him, while making sure to get some in the nose and all the extremities before doing the head and body.
Once he was done being stuffed, I sewed up the back and sewed on a permanent bow so it couldn't be untied. Here he is sitting up waiting to be given to my friend for her little boy who will be arriving in December.

I can tell he can't wait to meet his new friend. Can't you?

Project for the Day: The window seat cushion

So, it's been forever since my last post. This of course is partly due to our intensive budget project, but also due to my having worked nearly all of August to finish several large projects (and therefore had no time for crafting).

But here I am. I'm sure you are rejoicing :)

First off, it is nearing my birthday and I had told one of my very good friends that I wanted foam to make a window seat cushion (I walk on the wild side... and I had coupons! Score). So, she came with me to get the foam (ended up with a 24 x 72 x 2 inch piece and I started out working the very next day. The first step was to make a template for the window seat I used some paper we had been given that was no longer needed at an office and taped it together to make a template. I wanted to be sure not to get my foam (it being $32/yard it's not exactly something you want to ruin) dirty, but also, I knew the small size would be easier to use to get around the various angles and such. Also, making the template didn't spoil my daughter's ability to use it for art (which is why we got it anyway).

Once the template was made, I placed it on the  foam and began trimming. The window seat itself is 96 inches long by 18 inches, but I was able to cut all of the window seat out of the above piece. Yay! The strangest part about this step was my normal scissors weren't sharp enough to cut the foam so I had to use my good sewing scissors (gasp!) to do it, since I didn't have a utility knife (or at least a really sharp one) handy.

After I had cut out all the pieces, I was able to test it in the window seat area to make sure it fit, as well as do any trimming necessary to make it nice and straight on the front (I used the factory cut edge on the front to ensure a smooth front, but if the back was strange it would cover more or less of the window seat ledge. Once it was perfectly fit, I had a helper test it out. Looks like it met approval.

Then on to the fun portion. If you remember way back when, I used to have three green curtains in that window prior to the window seat going in. Well, that third curtain became the fabric of the window seat. That curtain wasn't going to be big enough to cover the whole thing, and also, I wanted the cushion to stay on the window seat, so the bottom became the white grippy fabric that you often see on the bottom of kids slippers for going downstairs without slipping. I got 1 yard of that at $12.99 (also not cheap). That grippy fabric I cut and sewed as close to the perfect fit of the bottom as I could. All additional fabric needed on the bottom was covered by the former curtain.

The down side of this cushion was that the shape (and the clingy aspect of the grippy fabric) prohibited the normal techniques I use for covering furniture of turning the material inside out, pinning, and sewing up with my machine. So instead I sewed everything into a giant flat portion and then I had to close this thing up by hand, so that took quite a while.  ( you can see I pinned it closed as I went along).

Once I finished that, I put it into place (praying that it still fit) and it was immediately taken over by individuals ready to test it out when I went to get my camera. After the initial test, it was scotch guarded (love that stuff) to protect the fabric as well as the wood seat underneath.

So there you have it. A new window seat cushion. Happy Birthday (early) to me!

An anniversary present for my husband

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary. I can't believe it has been 8 years since I wore a really big poofy dress; was surrounded by friends and family; and married the man I had fallen for at first sight. This fall I will have known him 10 years and that too boggles the mind!

Well this year posed a bit of a problem for me anniversary wise. Elliot and I have never really exchanged anniversary gifts (or at least nothing too remarkably large). We've only gone out for dinner on our anniversary 3 of the last 8 years as well. In 2009, we had a candlelit dinner of mac and cheese because I had been laid off for crying out loud. So this year, when we are in the process of doing a big "pay off all our debt" project I certainly wasn't going to go out and buy something to give Elliot, but he wanted to make me dinner, so I had to think of something else. Didn't really feel like baking either as it's extra hot here which didn't put me in the mood for a cake or pie.

So what did I do? Well, I've been bugging my spouse for a few weeks...ever since we finished the swing set (back in mid June) that we need to finish the last wall so we can plant the pampas grass to hide the compost bin from being able to be seen from the street. (If you look at the picture closely you can see the topsoil piled up in the bags in the top of the picture. The pampas grass will go in the triangle of space to the right of this picture (on the other side of the fence to cover the big black compost bin (you can see one of the legs of the compost bin in the bottom right of the picture)).

So today, while my daughter was napping, I started and finished the wall. The first thing I had to do was remove the bricks we had originally put in along the side of the garden. I needed to make a raised garden, so those didn't need to be there. Also, I needed those to contain the side of the other garden (on the left of this picture). So those came out, then I dug out and leveled the ground around the right garden and started putting in the blocks.

I used some remnants of blocks we had pulled out of the ground from when we had removed the falling down shed as the back of the garden (as they are thinner and I didn't want to take up that much space). I was also one block short, so I have to go out and get that, but I placed all the other blocks, and the back ones, and emptied all the topsoil we had into the garden. So now the driveway is clean. After that I buried the bricks half way into the ground (which is good, since you can't open the gate forward with them out all the way) as they are on the rest of the garden and dusted off the path.

PS...it's too dry and hot currently to even think about moving/planting any pampas grass there right now, so it will remain empty until the fall probably when I can divide my large stash of pampas grass in back. That will significantly hide the composter and also will contain the pampas grass enough where it shouldn't take over the neighbor's yard or anything.

Done! Happy Anniversary Studmuffin! I look forward to many more years of projects with you!

Using up old Magnets

Hope you are all having a lovely Friday the 13th! I know I should be hiding under the covers or some such item to prevent disaster, but I had to craft something today because my daughter is an art protegee (as much as a two year old can be) and I must put it on the refrigerator.

How many times have you received some promotional magnet from a bank, restaurant, radio station,  insurance company, etc? You know the ones with contact info or a baseball schedule or something.

I had an overabundance of these at my house, but I kind of hate throwing them away since magnets are kind of expensive when you want to buy them. But, they aren't the most attractive item in the world and I prefer the front of my fridge to be fairly clean. I want only the most important info up there and I still want my fridge to be cute - so the important ones went on the side of the fridge where I could find them quickly and the rest go in a box in my craft drawer.

So, today I determined I needed additional magnets to keep my daughter's drawings up like any proud mama as well as attach the latest and greatest pictures to the refrigerator of cousins and such. I certainly didn't want to buy some, and also didn't want to use these as they aren't, well, cute. You know what that means? CRAFT PROJECT!

First I pulled out a few duplicate pictures that are adorable of my daughter from her first year (cause who doesn't want pictures of  their kids on a refrigerator). And some cute fortune cookies and found objects that I thought were interesting enough to be up there. Then I got out the magnets and mod podge. Then we were ready to roll!

First, I cut the magnets to size, put a thin coat of mod podge over the advertising, put down my new "art" and put a second thin coat of mod podge over the top AND EDGES of the magnet (I don't want them to peel up or get gross as they age).

Then I let them all dry and PRESTO! NEW custom magnets! And no injuries (though using scissors could have spelled disaster on this most superstitious of days). Easy and fast project...as well as bonus- practically free (especially if you already have Mod Podge laying around like me :) )

The Arbor Swing set

You know those large swing set/slide/clubhouse/sandbox/jungle gym systems that allow a kid to have a whole park in the comfort of their own backyard? We were given a wonderful gift from my husband's parents (my daughter's granny and poppy) that they wanted our little one to have a swing set/ slide combo for her second birthday (coming up in August). I was really impressed with this offer (as those are a rather large investment).

We have a city-run and maintained park just two blocks from our house with a plethora of slides, but no swings (it must be a thing as we have been hard-pressed to find a park with swings - I would guess because of liability (like the long-gone teeter-totter)) so I was really excited about the prospect of having a swing in our backyard.

We ran into just a few issues (some physical, others personal). The first physical issue was our yard's landscaping. We have an extremely hilly backyard- which meant the area for this swing set is very limited. Not only did the footprint of this swing set need to be small, but it also couldn't be too tall (we have a phone line under our oak tree on one side of the yard, and a power line on the other. This meant that after searching the only swing sets that would fit in our yard were the little cheap metal ones.

The designer in me personally hoped to be able to find something a bit more aesthetically pleasing than the metal swing sets, the mom in me was hoped for something more sturdy/safer and the frugal part of me wanted something that would be useful well past my daughter's swinging years.

Here's what I came up with- I would design a swingset that would be able to convert into a porch swing holder in the future. It would be an arbor-style for the beauty as well. So I read all over the internet regarding building techniques/fastners/wood types, swing set safety and such; drew up a sketch of what I wanted; went to the hardware store with my father-in-law to purchase all the pieces; and came home and began cutting, drilling and bolting items together to create the set. Then I went back to the hardware store to exchange items that I discovered didn't work for my design and get ones that would.

I wanted to finish (from buying the pieces, to digging and pouring concrete footings, to hanging the swings) in one weekend- and that was a tall order. My husband and I were finally checking the swings at 10:17pm (with some worklights on). It was a good thing we finished because it poured rain the next day and that would have made my project very delayed and swampy.

Here's what my daughter got!

I kind of love it :) I also look forward to bragging to my daughter that I built it myself as I rock on a porch swing attached to it several years from now.

Projects from the wedding and a toddler pillowcase

I've been fairly busy since the last post. Several projects of various sizes and materials.

As you recall I was hiding some jewelry pictures from before the wedding in the chance that my sister (the bride) or my mother would see them prior to receipt. This is the major issue I have with a craft blog where I make gifts...

 The first item was for my daughter. She was a flower girl for the wedding and had to wear a lovely wreath (I made a while ago) as part of the outfit. The difficulty arose in that she in not quite 2 and wasn't too thrilled about the "hat" for more than about 2 minutes. We practiced all the time trying to get her to wear it, but she just wouldn't do it. Enter puppy. Puppy is my daughter's lovey. She sleeps with it and carried it around everywhere we went for months. Puppy came everywhere with her- so I decided to make puppy a wreath too (with a little elastic band to keep it on his head). From that moment on my little girl would wear the wreath as long as puppy would. So she wore it through all the pictures and walking up the aisle (with puppy of course in tow). Win-win for everyone.
The next item is a bracelet I made for the bride. This was with champagne-colored pearls similar to the bridesmaid jewelry I had made. These beads were from old necklaces my mother had been given or acquired over the years (some of which were my grandmothers) so it definitely counted as a something old, it also was a new to her and newly created, and I used blue seed beads on the wire so it would be her something blue too. It looked lovely on her and she seemed to love it too.

The third item I created as a gift for the wedding was a necklace for my mother that matched the wedding party a little bit. She seemed to really like getting some of her necklaces back and it was a nice addition to her outfit as well. Kind of fun having all the women in the family wearing matching jewelry (oddly enough I don't remember being fond of it as a kid...don't tell mom :) )


So the wedding was lovely. One thing we learned from the trip though was (since we were sharing a room with our daughter- her being in a pack-n-play at the end of the bed) that she used her puppy as a pillow. It hadn't occurred to us that she might want one, but from that moment on I had noticed she puts her head on stuffed animals or balls up her blankets under her head when she sleeps.

This called for a trip to Target to pick up a toddler sized pillow. We ended up purchasing a travel sized pillow (same size as the toddler pillows, but 1/3 the price and they don't come with a character-themed pillow case). I was completely fine with the lack of pillow case as I intended to make my own anyway.

Here is what I did- I created two pillowcases that were the pocket variety (where the end has a flap that prevents the cover from falling off the pillow) that match my daughter's quilt I had made her (that hangs above the crib (mostly because she has several crafty friends and family members who gave her beautiful quilts that are on her bed and we used for play surfaces) as a large art piece. These pillow cases are two colors each (the top is a green with a white and yellow floral pocket end. The other is the white and yellow floral fabric with a different green patterned fabric pocket end.

Both turned out pretty well (though I did have to resize the pillowcase once after I had put it on as I wanted a pretty snug cover for the pillow and the size listed on the package made a much to large case).

Then I started on a BIG project which I will discuss in another post. (I know...so cruel to make you wait- but I'd hate to not have anything for you to read later :) )