ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS...

To win a sillhouette in THIS giveaway! (well, that and peace and love and diamonds--the usual.)

DO THIS: Freezer paper stencil

As discussed in my last post, I was working on a baby gift, and I had to make a departure from the land of sugar and spice and everything nice to snips and snails and... mopeds.

Okay soooo... I had a red onesie that I made HERE to go with the Old Man Baby Pants I made HERE. And I knew I needed to do something to this to make it cute, but you know, in a totally manly way. I decided I would try my hand at some freezer paper stenciling... because I've been curious for a while, but fabric painting of any kind brings about flashbacks to summer camp t-shirts covered in neon pink and orange puffiness and glitter. And scrunchies, for some reason.
Anyway... trying to get my brain in boy mode... puppy dogs, airplanes, and dinosaurs... er... trains, cars... no... wait! A MOPED! Love it.
Downloaded a pretty simple shaped and because i don't have one of those fancy machines a lot of ya'll have... I went about mine the old fashioned way and taped my paper to a mat and cut it out CAREFULLY with a x-acto knife. Slow and tedious... but not too bad.

There are... lots of tutorials about freezer paper stenciling out there, you don't need my tutorial, but check out Jessica's  right HERE from her blog Running With Scissors. Very helpful.
I was pleased with the results from my very first attempt... had a little trouble with the front wheel, but nothing too bad. I just think the moped is good clean fun. Everyone got a good giggle out of it. Why are mopeds so ding-dang-funny?

I paired the onesie with the Old Man Baby Pants and wrapped it up. Baby boy gift = Mission Accomplished. No scrunchies neccesary.

linked up to a few parties today:



http://www.pollywantacrafter.com/2010/11/craft-link-party-8.html

SEW THIS: Baby Old Man Pants

I had to make a baby gift. It was for a baby boy, and all the baby gifts I have been making recently are for baby girls... sooo... had to come up with something new. I decided on an outfit, and decided to learn how to make a pair of pants. Never made a pair of pants before... but how hard can it be???

I know that buying a pair of pants defeats the purpose of making a pair... but i was at walmart and I could buy a pair of baby pants for $2 or a pattern for $6. So I bought a cheap pair of pants and cut them up to learn how to sew them... if that makes any sense.
I wanted some grey knit for my baby pants, and as i already mentioned, i was at walmart so i popped over to their fabric. No grey knit. Actually, no knit of any kind. Urgh. GREAT. Skip the fabric dept. What do they know? Off to the men's dept where I procured a size XXXL grey t-shirt for $3. Perfect. (BONUS: I have enough material to make about 2 more pairs of infant size pants out of that t-shirt.)

I didn't go at it completely alone. I read THIS tutorial on MADE a few days previous, so i had a general idea of where I was going. Not gonna re-invent the wheel here with my own tutorial for these, Dana's is great. Check it out.

I thought to be fun i would add some 'old man' pockets lined in flannel. I call them 'old man' pockets. My mom informed me they are called 'patch pockets'.  But I think they look like old man pants (like... as in 'Aw, look at the cute old man on the park bench') and are exceptionally adorable in miniature size. (or, you know 0-3 months). For my first pair they turned out pretty good. Once I had a plan (and could pull myself away from a convo with my mom) they probably took only about a half hour to put together. So in a way they are also kind of like instant gratification sewing, which ya'll know I like.

 So there you have it. Cute, comfy, casual Old Man Baby Pants. (And that was a lot of alliteration for someone like me.)

TRY THIS: Shutterfly Christmas Cards

Okay, here's my thing about Christmas cards: They are awkward. I get a piece of cardstock with a Santa pictured on it that says Merry Christmas, and has the signature of my 2nd grade playmate whom i have not heard from since 2nd grade and will not hear from again until next year's card. WHAT GOOD IS THAT??? It's silly. I throw the card away, and don't think much of it. Save your 44 cents... or however much they charge you for a stamp these days.
Okay, here's something I love: Every year, my cousin sends out a photo card with pictures of her kids and her holiday greetings. LOVE IT. Love seeing pictures of those little buggers (who actually, aren't so little anymore). I keep it on my fridge year round... (until i get next year's picture card) It has even on occasion prompted me to call or email my cousin (...the kids are getting so big, thanks for the card... oh and how are you doing... etc) often resulting in a conversation with someone I don't often talk to-- WHICH I think is kind of the point of a card anyway... keeping you in contact with your loved ones.
My Cousin has been sending out photo cards since before it was 'cool' and definitely before it was easy...
I was just having a conversation with My friend Erin the other day trying to explain to her how EASY it really is. And for the same price as those dollar store Christmas cards with Santa on them that will be thrown away... you can send personal photo cards that I PROMISE your friends and family will enjoy SO MUCH MORE.
I have professed my undying love for Shutterfly before HERE when I showed you the photobook I made for a guestbook at my wedding.  Their photobooks kind of rock. I have since convinced several friends to make them for various occasions, everyone has been super pleased. I am sure I don't need to remind you, but Christmas is coming and photobooks make super gifts! But I digress...
We were talking about cards, and Shutterfly has a huge selection of holiday cards with lots of cute creative designs. And they are super simple to personalize, just drag and drop your photos in. If you start right now, you are approximately 45 seconds from personalized Christmas cards. I really love this design:

With glitter, hello?!?! Or this one:

I'm sure you can't guess why that caught my eye...
Anywho... on top of all that Shutterfly is offering 50 FREE CARDS for bloggers... and that pretty much rocks. So I am pumped to create my Christmas cards this year... and you should probably do the same, you know, because you don't want to be the Santa card in the trashcan.

READ THIS: Excuses and Linky-ness

I have come to the conclusion that I am really bad at regularly posting on my blog this time of year. Well, especially right now. Yeah, I know, everyone is extra busy preparing for the holidays. I am no exception. But also most of the projects I am currently working on are for holiday gifts... and I don't really want to give away the magic of a Christmas surprise if I can avoid it!
And... when I am not working on Christmas presents I spend my creative time working on costuming for MIRACLE ON 34th STREET. Which at this point isn't really exciting sewing... mostly hemming and alterations and the like. But it could get more exciting soon... as we make head gear for a most outrageous Christmas-obsessed character... and figure out how to fully wire a sweater with Christmas lights (safely).
Should be... AWESOME.

Also, I just realized that I left a teaser about my vinyl and haven't taken pictures or posted a tutorial for that AWESOME project yet... which was really so simple it shouldn't even require a tutorial, but has me wondering why I didn't make one of these YEARS ago... Oooh... now I've peaked your interest, haven't I? ;) I'll see what I can do about getting that on here tonight for your viewing pleasure.

In other news...

I learned how to make bias tape using this BIAS TAPE TUTORIAL. No, I don't have one of those fancy machines... I have the $4.00 gadget that works just as well... but gets REALLY hot working in close proximity to a steamy iron. Just FYI.

Buuuuuut... while I was just over there getting that bias tape link I saw THIS on the website... and got RIDICULOUSLY excited about it. Anyone else use noisy tennis balls in their dryer? My husband thinks I'm nuts. And the Naturally antibacterial-ness of the wool? Learned something new. Little obsessed.

Also working on some baby gifts right now... and THESE BEAUTIFUL COLORS inspired this:

What IS that you ask? Oh, it's just onesie soup. Oh, I dearly LOVE dying stuff. :) (I know ya'll are thinking fall is nearly over, why are you still dabbling in happy fall colors? Well to you I say... I still have 7 solid days of fall until winter/Christmas hits us SMACK in the face. Soooo... I'm taking it!)

And... I've been fascinated with felt food for a really long time... found this website that has a lot of great PATTERNS FOR PLAY FOOD (felt, crochet, knitted...) it's pretty cute. During a recent chat with Santa (yeah, we are close like that) I learned that one of my favorite little Monsters is getting a play kitchen Christmas. I think he might need some food for that kitchen, and I am always happy to help Santa and the elves out, you know, provided I get my own Christmas sewing done first. ;)

And just in case you feel it's been too long since I have posted a picture of them, I love these three lazy boys more than ANYTHING.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH THIS: From the Remnants bin

I always shop out of the remnant bins. You can find the most random things you never knew you needed there. Like yesterday... when I got a yard of heavy duty clear vinyl for...
...sixty seven cents.
It was exciting.
So tell me, if you had a yard of clear vinyl... what would you do with it?
I think I have some ideas... I wonder if you have any?
My husband asked if I was going to use it to make peek-a-boo windows in our shower curtain. hahahahaha... a little creepy, Mr. P, but creative, I am impressed.
What would you do???

SEW THIS: Late Night Checkbook Cover

It had been 8 days since I had touched my machine, and I was starting to twitch a little. I was in the basement and I was so close to it. I was supposed to be doing laundry while my husband re-arranged his library... but I couldn't focus on folding clothes when she was calling to me. I missed her too. But I didn't have anything I could pick up at a moments notice available... sigh.
I went upstairs to get something out of my bag and sighed at I pushed the ugly torn blue plastic checkbook out of my way, mentally reminding myself to dig through the mess downstairs for that extra plastic one I had seen floating about...
But wait! Who wants plain, navy, tear-able plastic when they could have fabulous, ruffled, flowers and dots??? Inspiration! I rummaged through my fabric pile pulled out some scraps and went to town. It felt good to be sewing again, it felt right. :)
15 mins later I had this little baby:

Cute right? Stylish... Sassy... and much more durable than blue plastic. Not perfect (my ruffles swoop, huh?) but apparently last night was not about pinning or measuring it was just about a girl and her machine. :)

It was simple. A square with pockets and some top stitching... would anyone be interested in a tutorial... or is this pretty self-explanatory?

Anyhow, I got my creative fix, and I like my cute new check book cover. I showed it to my husband... who was less than impressed. "I'm not using that." He said. Well, you can have the ugly old blue one for your checks. I told him... and he told me he would just let me handle the checkbook and come find me and my fancy cover if he ever needed check. Even better idea, Chief!