Reading Pillows

Here is an adorable little something I whipped up a week ago for a certain birthday girl in our house.

We are a Reading House.  We all love to read.  It is common to find anywhere from one to all four of us with a book in our hand at any given time and our kids wouldn't know how to function if they didn't read in bed at night before falling asleep.  I also believe that one can never have too many pillows floating around so a Book/Reading Pillow makes perfect sense!  I have had this idea pinned for years and finally got around to making one.  (And, yes, the Babysitters Club books were part of the present - what goes around comes around!)

The front side has one deep pocket going across the entire pillow front.  

The back side is plain - no pocket.

I added the ruffle to the front of the pocket just for fun...

... some embroidered initials ...

... you can tote it around the house with a sturdy strap ...

... and it closes on the bottom with an invisible zipper so it can be washed if needed.  

It was a relatively quick project, although those initials were stitched three times. The first time I wasn't happy with how the stitching looked so I ripped it out and did it a second time with different floss.  They looked much better, but unfortunately that time I stitched through too many layers and stitched the pocket closed in that corner.  Soooo... out came those stitches.  Third time was the charm, I guess.  :)  I had intended to make it up in purple (her favorite color) but when it was finally time to choose fabrics this mint was just calling my name too loudly to ignore.  She recently made herself a new pillow for her bed in a similar light blue/green color so it was a pretty safe bet.

It now lives happily on her bed and/or gets toted around the house.  Happy reading, Leah.  I hope to make a pink Eiffel Tower one for Grace but she doesn't know that yet so we'll see how much time goes by before that one gets made!  (Grace still sleeps every. single. night. on this cat pillow I made her three years ago - you just never know which projects will become favorites!)  

Ahsoka Felt Doll from Star Wars Clone Wars

Remember our family of dolls?

Read here for the whole doll family history.

At some point I predicted the next doll would come from Star Wars and I was right.  Sort of.  Leave it to Grace to latch onto an oddball, spin-off character rather than one of the famous ones.  Not Luke, Leia, Han, or even Chewy.  Nope - her favorite is Ahsoka Tano, a character from the Clone Wars cartoon.

Seriously?!  I have all these adorable girly dolls...  

...from this cute book...  

... just waiting to be sewn.

 And my daughter wants this:  

Sigh.  

It was only a matter of time before Grace begged for an Ahsoka doll to join our doll club.  Not being a lover of strangely morphed creatures myself, I put her off for a good long time.  "Mommy doesn't sew creepy things" I kept telling her.   "She's not creepy, Mom, she's just from Star Wars and has cool head tails."  As expected, though, I eventually gave in - and then promptly blew her mind by creating this, my most ''detailed'' felt doll so far:

Here were Grace's "instructions":

white face markings, orange skin color, striped headtails, clothing decals, belts, armbands, the whole works...

and my interpretation of them:  

Ahsoka is made from cheap acrylic felt.  Its definitely not my favorite material to work with, but I doubt Ahsoka is destined to be an heirloom so I'm okay with it.  I keep a stash of rainbow felt for the girls to craft with (and for last minute doll making, apparently).  These pictures were just taken today and she's been played with for a month or so already so she's already pilly.    I used a mix of machine zigzagging to make the doll and some big hand stitches with embroidery floss for some of the details.  She's pretty lightly stuffed with polyfill so as not to put too much stress on the seams and make the headtails all funny shaped.  All in all, she was started and finished in one afternoon.  

 Grace was thrilled, which is what really matters.  I also make no predictions whatsoever on what the next addition to the doll family might be... you never can tell!  :) 

Colorful Crochet Shawl

I puttered around on a crochet project during January and February when I was putting in a bunch of hours at the costume shop.  After sewing all day I rarely felt like sewing at night, so crochet was a good change of pace.

This was definitely a 'process' project rather than a 'product' project and I knew that going in.  I undertook this shawl with two goals in mind.

1.  To try to read a chart/follow a pattern.   I have never read a chart before and, to be honest, hardly ever followed a pattern before.  I'm a self taught newbie crocheter and have done mostly rectangles (scarves) and the occasional circle (hat).  The chart was pretty simple looking so I thought I'd take a whack at it.

2.  Try 'skinny yarn'.  This was wool sock yarn that I received for free and is the thinnest yarn I've worked with to date.  I still have SO much to learn about yarn fibers, labels, styles, etc.

I am intrigued by shawls and this one seemed like a good beginner project.

Its from this book which I received as a Christmas gift.

And here is my finished shawl, while it was laid out for a light blocking.

Both goals were met - I followed the chart (much easier than I thought it would be after one false start) and enjoyed the yarn.  I like the shawl overall.  Its only downfall is that its not really my colors.  As I said, I got the yarn for free and it was an experiment so I'm okay with it.  Leah has worn it twice so far and I'm happy to let her wear it.  It was a fun experimental learning project for me.   If I make it again I'll definitely do a solid neutral color.  This free yarn was variegated with very long repeats so the shawl turned out almost striped.   It was pretty amazing how the color-swapping turned out - it was almost always turning colors at the end of a row so as to make the following row a new color.

I do like the lacy look of it.  Its pretty, though it definitely falls in the 'decoration' category rather than the 'keep you warm' category.

Here are a few photos of Leah wearing it.  Definitely more her colors - a multicolored shawl over an electric blue dress with a lime green undershirt peeking out!  Yikes.

 Its supposed to close with that flower on a clip.  I've made the flower but don't have a clip to sew it to, hence the long strand of yarn hanging there.  Once I buy a clip that will finish the closure.  I can't decide if I'm sold on the overall shape of the shawl - I'll have to wear it to see how it lays better.    If I get some photos of it on an adult I'll update the post with those pictures for comparison.

Overall the project was enjoyable.  I found it relaxing to work on and it was fun to watch the circular shape grow in a lacy open manner.  I'm not sure what my next crochet project will be but I'm hoping another garment - something I can putter on for a while without a deadline.