Monkey Ball

This was going to be part of the aforementioned baby gift, until the bags turned out so awesome that the monkey ball just couldn't compete.  So the monkey ball became a give-away at the baby shower and went home with someone else to eventually appear in a little boy's Easter basket.  :)

Its a pattern from a book I have - Sewn By Hand by Susan Wasinger.  The photo of the balls in the book are cuter - they used vintage scraps in pale colors and the edges look more frayed/fluffy in the book photos than mine turned out to be.  One of those times where you try to adapt something to the scraps you have on hand and it just doesn't turn out quite the same.  Plus I whipped this out quick by machine and I think the charm from hand stitching really adds something.  Oh well... can't win them all.  I'll try it again sometime when I have more vintagey scraps hanging around, when I want a hand stitching project, and when I have time to tweak the pattern shape a bit as its ends up being an oval rather than a sphere.  Not sure how that happened but I think it would be better as a true ball.  I did stick a jingle bell in the middle so thats fun.

The 'Mom' Bag

I've been waiting to post this one since I finished it...which I can now do because its been given as a gift.

I made my good friend a drawstring backpack purse.  I have worked up this pattern on my own over the last year or so in a couple of different formats.  This format is the nicest - fully lined, made with nice quilting fabric, and nice fabric straps (vs string or clothesline).  I use my personal one all the time so I knew this friend would use it too as she bums around town with three kiddos.  Nice looking enough to take to church yet casual enough for days at the park.  I absolutely LOVE how it turned out.  I love it so much I had a hard time giving it away - I wanted to give her mine and keep this one for myself!  Guess I'll just have to go get more of the cool dark grey and white fabric.

Then I used the scraps to make a little grab bag.  Just big enough for keys, phone, and wallet.  Great for both keeping those things together in the bottomless pit of other purses/diaper bags and for those rare times when we moms get to pop out on our own and don't have to bring all the kiddy supplies along.  Its based off a Terry Atkinson pattern that I've used alot.  I used Leah's rubber stamps to stamp her name on the bag.  Permanent ink, which I heat-set with a hot iron just in case.  That worked well, I thought, so I'll keep it in mind for personalizing other things in a way that is faster than embroidering.  Sorry for the iffy photos - our digital camera is on its last legs with a dying light sensor.  These pics are as good as it gets for now.

Overall, a super fun project for a super cool friend!  Enjoy!

Weaver Dice

I have been working on a couple different things lately... some of which must wait to be revealed until after a baby shower later this week.  But I just finished these as well, and these I can share right away.  


These dice are our 'end of the year' gift for Leah's teacher.  She and her students play a game each week involving rolling large foam dice and trying to get matching numbers.  Leah told me a while ago, "Mom, you really need to make Mrs. Weaver some fresh dice.  The ones she has are all dirty and the numbers are coming off."  I told her I could probably manage that, and one day had her secretly show them to me so I could see what they looked like.  Leah was right - they were very used soft foam (think chair cushion insert) cubes with numbers painted on.  You can hardly tell what the numbers were on some panels.  So... fresh dice became the project.  


We looked everywhere for foam cubes to paint on, but no luck.  Then, during spring cleaning, I had some jeans that don't fit anymore but had plenty of usable denim so I decided they would go to the scrap bin in the sewing room rather than GoodWill.  Another day or two later I came across some scrap felt and then the two ideas (denim and felt) came together in my brain and I concocted the plan to make these.  I had only intended to test out some parts of it this weekend, but ended up making two entire dice.  Which, if I do say so myself, are pretty cute!  The pictures don't quite do them justice - they are even cooler in person.  The denim should keep them durable enough for lots of rounds of kindergarten Tootsie Tuesday (the name of the dice rolling game).  

Details for those who care:  

1.  Started with 7'' squares of denim, cut from old jeans.  

2.  Drew the number by hand (backwards no less!) on HeatNBond

3.  Fuse letters to squares.  Easy zig zag stitch around to secure them.

4.  Marked a 6'' square stitching line around denim on reverse side.

5.  Stitched on lines to form cube, leaving a hole for stuffing. 

6.  Stuff (the girls favorite part to help).

7.  Close seam by hand.

I then had two stuffed cubes that were a bit too 'plump/round' and not enough 'cube'.  I ended up stitching with yellow embroidery floss around each side of the cube.  It makes them more 'cube' and also happens to look like the topstitching on jeans.  Stitching through the denim with thick floss was killer on the fingers - I ended up sewing with a small pliers in my lap so I could use the pliers to grab the needle when it got stuck.  That both sped things up and saved my fingers.  

Here is a close up of the stitching and one with my hand for size reference. 

Leah loves them and can't wait to take them to school so our 'end of the year gift' will probably be delivered sooner rather than later.  Plus, we wouldn't want her teacher to get around to making new ones of her own before we give the gift, now would we?!

Notes to myself for later:  The plan for using freezer paper to stiffen the cube sides didn't work.  Paper didn't stick well enough after stitching and also made it too hard to turn the cube inside out.  Fusible interfacing might work for cottons, but not in the seamlines on something as heavy as denim.  The topstitching worked to achieve the same thing as the freezer paper would have.  Also, K pointed out that the numbers are not in the 'proper' positions for dice.  :)  

Comfort Dolls done

Here is my family of angels:   

Some cute buttons to attach the wings on the back!  

I've decided to send three to the people at the Comfort Doll Project, as they inspired the project.  Three I will keep for myself.  The big one (the girls call it the 'Mama Angel') will probably reside in the sewing room, keeping an eye on things.  :)  Two of the smaller ones I'll keep with the intention of giving them out to someone I know if/when they are in need of a little TLC.  Someone from church in the hospital or something like that.  I'll have two sewn up and ready to go - I can always make more if need be.  


I thought about decorating them more - some lace on the front, or buttons down the front of the dress.  Maybe on a later batch - right now my list of things to sew is pretty long and I have both a baby deadline creeping up on me and warm springy weather and Leah needs some leggings for under skirts at school.  Time to move on to the next project...

Comfort Dolls underway....

Here are two little angel comfort dolls that have emerged from the sewing room in the last week or two.  

They are a combination of a pattern from the recent Sew News magazine and from a Tilda/Tonne Finnanger book.  The idea started from an article in Sew News about sewing comfort dolls that are then donated to women at domestic abuse centers.  See www.comfortdollproject.blogspot.com for more info or the article here:  http://www.sewnews.com/content_downloads/Sew_Your_Support.pdf. 

They are fast and fun (and adorable!) so I plan to make more.  Then I will have to decide if I should mail them to the official Comfort Doll Project people or if I should just take them to our local shelter with a scriptural message attached (rather than the generic one that the Comfort Doll Project people attach).  We'll see - first I have to make more.  

I made the larger one first.  I like different things about each one.  I like the wings on the smaller one better.    I like how the seed bead necklace turned out on the bigger one.  The larger one has a boxed bottom so she can stand on her own, the smaller one has just a whipstitched bottom because I modified the shape of the 'skirt' halfway through.  They might need some hair so they look less 'baldy'.  :)  I love how the bottom fabric makes a cute dress.  

The bigger one is 7.5'', the smaller one 6''.  (They are supposed to be six inches or less - the idea is that they are small enough to tuck into a purse and/or hold in your hand inconspicuously.)  


The girls have enjoyed flying them around the living room.  I'll post more when I get them done!