It's a Giveaway!

I do not do that many giveaway's and I have never had one on my own blog (nothings changed). This giveaway is like a PBS TV kinda thing. You know, your kids watch PBS for years and you never donate during drive time. Well, not you exactly, me. I will admit that I have never donated to PBS (guilt ridden).
However, sometimes something so amazingly Momma altering comes along that I feel a need to participate. This is one such example. I read The Crafty Crow Blog religiously. Incredibly inspiring blog if your a mom of little ones. And after a few visits you will find Cassi's ability to hunt down everything she posts pretty inspiring too! There are days that I visit more than once looking for projects to do with the kiddos. Sanity saving projects for when three Lilliput people are hanging on you all at once, moaning with despair and boredom. So I am doing a little giveaway over on this amazing blog right now! I can't imagine that there is anyone in blog land who has never heard of The Crafty Crow. If there is, and you are reading this right now, then I just did my first PSA (Public Service Announcement). Go bookmark The Crafty Crow right now! Your Momma of the year badge may well depend on it. Thank you Cassi for all that you do!

Collecting Polish Dolls ~ Red shoe diary~

If I collect something, it is usually a useful item. Transfer Ware china (to complete a set), fabric (for clothing), sewing notions, vintage linens (to use), antique euro lithographs (for art) to name a few. Yes of course, over the years I have collected beyond need in all the above categories. But it's still useful stuff. Just more than I can use in this lifetime.

Rarely do I become smitten with something that doesn't have a purpose other than just making me stink'n happy. The thing that has stole my heart are these.

They are Polish tourist dolls from the 60's. They are poseable, stand on their own and come in a wide variety of dress. Many are blond and have mohair wigs. On the way to me right now are three red head dolls. Two girls and a boy with a beard! I will take pictures when they arrive.

I do love a good pair of red shoes. These laced up boots are to die for.

Oh my that nose! And those sideways glancing eyes......are you in love yet?

Little Bo Peepish.

Tea at grandmas?

Ooh Sailor boy, you do make my heart swoon. The dolls with hand painted eyes are my favorite. But I like the transfer eyes too. I have found no information about why some are hand painted. I am guessing it had to do with artistic ability or the area they were made in.

Ditch the girl sailor boy.

With any luck I will have a Hansel doll on the way to me shortly to complete my Hansel & Gretal Fairytale. And yes the witch is missing her nose but I think I can glue a new wood bead in it's place (that's what it should look like). This doll should have a big ol' round wood nose. Look at her eye brows! Goodness.

Nothing would make me happier than to find a box of blank doll bodies so I could dress them my self. How fun would that be?

Making Vintage Style Play Food

The play kitchen area at our house has seen a great deal of action over the last few years. The food items and play cookware migrate all over the house to be incorporated into other play. So, as it goes, I too spend a great deal of time playing...er... I mean cleaning up the pretend cooking chaos. I have made my share of felt foods and shopping bags in an attempt to off set the plastic and cardboard store bought stuff . I have purchased a wide range of classic dishes and stainless cookware because it pleases me too. But hands down the best things in our play kitchen are a stainless steel bowl, child size vintage hand beater (couldn't find it today) and these bags of flour and sugar. Items that have "real" qualities to them are always a hit with my little people.

To make the bags I used vintage label images printed in mirror image onto Avery T-shirt Transfer Paper. I made traditional square corner sacks out of light weight linen. Crafty Daisies has a tutorial for squaring corners. Muslin or flour sack towels would work well too. I filled my sacks with real flour and sugar which gives them the most splendid feel and weight. A tiny bit of flour dust comes through the material when you smack it. I find this irresistible but you can double bag the flour or use plastic pellets if you do not. I closed the top of the bags on my serger. I then folded down the top 1 inch and ran a straight stitch across the serged stitches to make sure the contents stay in the bag. This is a super quick project and would make a fantastic gift with a bowl and beater or felt cookie dough and rolling pin.

Here are the public clipart images I used plus a few extra. Just click on them and save them to your computer. When you get ready to print, put the images into a PowerPoint or Word document so that you can fiddle with the size. Make sure to select print Mirror Image in your printing properties so that when you iron on the transfers the words will be readable. Drop me an email or leave a comment if you have any questions.

You can find more wonderful labels in Labelstone's Flickr set (check out the dog and cat food). And at Dover Publishing where you can sign up for free weekly clipart images sent via email (wonderful source of vintage poster art and food labels). Or just Google Vintage Food Labels!

The thing I did Instead

Instead of the things that I should have been doing. It's not that often that I am granted an afternoon to craft or sew. I usually tuck such indulgences for between 5:30 am and when my first little person rises sometime around 7:00 am. That's my free time to do what ever nurtures me. Today was an exception. My dear friend Karen had Soren and Dunn over to play date with her two kids. The wee Ella took a nice long nap so I had about three hours of free time. Free time which really should have been used to get caught up on chores. But instead of mama washing the windows and prepping for dinner I made something new.

I have been working on a couple of owl patterns for felt. One to sell in my shop and the other for potential publication in a crafty book for Spring 2010. Creating PDF's is hard! Not the PDF part but the drawing of patterns, scanning them in to the computer, fiddling with them for hours, making them pretty and printable. Hard! I have so much appreciation for pattern designers now. There must be some good software for such things. If you know of any please pass names my way.

I love projects like this owl which use up all kinds of little crafty scraps. Crafty scraps accumulate at my house like crazy. It's like they get together when I am sleeping and reproduce. I also spent some time today sourcing wool felt for owl kits that I would like to put together for the fall. Finding wholesale sources for supplies is so time consuming. So, if you know a wool felt distributor pass along that info to me too please.

On the way to me........

Well, I made out big time in the Sew Mama Sew May giveaway. I made out twice actually. That sounds a little naughty doesn't it? Just a sec........let me wipe the silly grin off my face.

First, on the way to me is one lovely custom tunic similar to this.

It's actually on the way to Soren of course. It would have been too selfish to get it for myself. Even if the lovely Heather was willing to sew it in any size and color. I think this will make an amazing swim cover up now and then a darling top for school in the fall. Heather is the owner HeathertyFeatherty on Etsy which is a very charming little shop if you would like to order one of these numbers for yourself (that wouldn't be selfish).

Since the giveaway gods were apparently smiling on me I will also be receiving this super cute bundle of goodies from the very talented Melody ! Melody's Etsy shop TheWillowTree has sweet softies and the most amazing sock monkeys. Look in her sold items to see her Sock Monkeys because there are not any in her shop at the moment but it's worth a gander (I love the punk one). I have wanted to make a sock monkey forever and now I will get to because the socks come with the directions . As for the baby shoes and taggie I have the perfect baby to gift them to.
Thank you to Heather and Melody for the very generous giveaways!

Far Far Away again.....

This is the second installment of sewing with Heather Ross double gauze from the Far Far Away line. I used a peasant dress pattern from one of my Japanese pattern books and altered it a bit. I gave the dress a drop waist, full skirt and a ruffle neckline. Soren loves it! I think it's too long and would like to bring the hemline up around her knee but she won't have it. And this is a girl who knows what she likes. So I won't risk her not wearing the dress just to make it suit my desires :) The benefit of all this length is that she will be able to wear it for like 4 years! It's going to fit way longer than her willingness to wear the thing.

The bottom is serged but I have yet to turn a hem . Soren wore it all day anyway and you couldn't tell it wasn't finished. I was a bit worried that this print might be too sheer in white. It's not. In fact, I wouldn't dream of lining this print even if it was a garment for me. This is the second dress that I have made with this ruffle neckline and I love it. I think I will be making more.

How To Make Graduation Caps

I made 12 graduation caps for Soren's preschool class graduation last week. My baby is off to Kindergarten! This was my second year making these caps and I thought others might like to know how to make them too. The store bought caps just don't stay on sweet five year old heads very well but these work great and are sturdy for the dress up bin at home. I probably should save this for next year but maybe I will re-post it next spring. These would make fun party decorations for any graduation get together as well. The measurements noted here are for a preschool head. Adjust accordingly for an older head.

Graduation Cap Supplies :

~Black Foam Core

~Black Poster Board Paper

~Craft Glue (clear drying)

~Brass Brads

~Pearl Cotton or embroidery floss for tassels

~Scissors

~Exacto Knife

~Ruler

~Cutting mat

~One Nail or an awl

First Cut the foam core into 9 inch square pieces using an Exacto knife and ruler. I got six pieces out of each sheet that I purchased. Use something sharp like a small nail to poke a hole through the center of each square. It's easier to do it now. Just use a ruler and measure on the diagonal to find the center.

My poster board was 22x28 inches so next I cut 22 inch x 4 inch strips for the cap bands. Measure your intended wearer with a piece of paper or a tailors measuring tape around the head right above the eyebrows. If you want to get really professional take the strips to school and wrap them around each graduates noggin and mark the perfect fit. 22 inches worked perfectly for this preschool class.

Mark a 1/2 inch line along one of the long edges and snip little slits all along the edge to the line.

Turn each strip of poster board into circles (tube) by overlapping the short ends and gluing into place. I used clothes pins to hold my paper while it dried. I only overlapped my ends by 1/2 inch as the kids this year had massive heads! I did vary the sizes but a smidgen so that each child would have a cap that fit them well.

When the bands are dry fold over all the little tabs to the center and apply glue to the tabs. Center the circle band on the square and press it into place. Then set something heavy on top until each hat drys. I used cereal bowls inside each hat to hold the band down. Mine fit perfectly inside each hat resting on the little tabs. I also put a salad plate on top of the band for extra pressure.
While all those hats are drying you can get to work on the tassels. You can probably order tassels but they are super easy to make. I used a spool of pearl cotton. Embroidery floss will work well too and it comes in so many pretty colors. I wrapped the pearl cotton around two of my fingers (middle and pointer) 20 times to get it thick enough for the tassel part. Then cut a 19 inch length of the cotton to pass through the center of the little bundle and tie off. Next tie another little piece about 1/4 inch down the tassel to secure the whole thing. Lastly I cut the loops on the bottom. Ta da tassel!
Stick the string ends through the whole in top of the cap and a brad too. Then tie a knot in the string on the inside of the cap and fold down the little brad tabs. Really bad picture....Sorry!


Sit back and soak up the accolades that will rain forth by all the other parents greatly appreciating your efforts at making their child's graduation a shining moment :)

Shoot me an email or post a comment if I need to further clarify any step.