I found this Etsy shop recently and I love the sketchy designs.
I also started following Pam’s blog and other stalkable social media things, she’s a rather creative lady and I love her work.
I picked up a pile of colours that I thought were pretty and while I love the open endedness of the project it’s also a bit daunting to just have to ‘wing it’. Getting it all organized since it’s a good portable craft and then I’ll start madly stitching.
How fun are these?
Made from vintage linens found while thrifting. Some are embellished with some hand stitching. Get Batman and Robin here and the Wonder Woman here.
Posted in embroidery, fun finds, gifts
Tagged batman, embroidery, hoops, reusing, robin, thrifting, up cycling, wall art, wonder woman
My friend and I spend Friday night hitting the not in Canada stores and then spend Saturday on a thrift fest. We hit about 6 different thrift stores before stopping for dinner and our drive home. We found a Salvation Army and it seemed to be a depot or big drop off one, there was a big garage for all the trucks to pull into and also this “AS IS” building. The big sign said it closed before the store so we headed in there to check it out.
It was soooooo strange. It was just a big warehouse type space, with an open roll up garage door to get in, and the stuff was just piled and piled on the tables. There seemed to be some attempt at organization, like a bunch of crutches piled in one corner, but other than that you just had to dig. It was so crazy and cool at the same time. I tried to nonchalantly snap some phone photos.
I did find this amazing creation.
The price said $3 but when I went to pay she said $1.25, it was all very mysterious. But even for $3 I couldn’t pass up the crafty awesomeness of it, and all that work someone put into it, it’s crazy.
The details are so cool. I have no clue how old it is but here’s a shot of what little info there is on it.
Well I have to say Friday night was pretty stinking amazing. I was super pumped about heading out to Impresario to see Lucky Jackson’s work in the gallery. It was also the official ribbon cutting ceremony and grand opening of the store. My clutches, wallets and some other items are available for purchase there and so it was nice to support the store on such an important day.
But the highlights of the night were 1) meeting Lucky Jackson, who actually stopped me as I tried to nonchalantly sneak past her “Hey! Are you SewTara?!” (darn purple hair) 2) seeing some of her amazing pieces in person and 3) meeting Chantilly. It was truly an awesome night.
If you happen to live out that way, or head East out of Toronto you should pop into the shop. Rebecca, the owner and curator, is selling some lovely handmade items. Currently I have almost a whole shelf to myself. I went in a bit early and dropped off a new batch of items for her to carry. Good news is it’s all on display and ready to go home to happy people. Bad news is she took everything I had and now I have to get sewing all over again!
I also created a new product, some fun hair clips and about half of them are living on the check out counter.
Posted in embroidery, fun finds
Tagged embroidery, gallery, lucky jackson, my girl thursday
I’ve made myself a little brooch. I’m sure if I’m sitting at a table at a craft show it’s pretty obvious I’m crafty but I still thought this would be fun to wear.
I’m just getting ready for Sunday’s craft show, and hoping for good weather! It’s a rain or shine event and I’m under a big tent but attendance will be terrible if it gets all rainy and stuff.
I was planning on making a run for the border on Saturday, but then I realized I’m still trying to recover from my two NYC trips. But I’m not sure if I can resist, Joann’s, Target . . . it might be too magnetic for me to avoid! I’ll letcha know.
A while back I signed up for Wild Olive‘s stitch swap. It was round robin style so the person I sent to isn’t the person who sent to me, which is a fun way to do it and keep it all secret.
Here’s what I made for my partner.
It’s a copy of a piece I made myself a while back. I just changed the colours to fit her favourites.
And here are the surprises I got.
I love how she wrote along the hoop, it’s a nice touch and will stay with the art.
I got an exciting package the other day! I instagrammed (is that a word?) it right away, pardon my straight from the classroom hungry for lunch look.
You may have heard/seen that I won a wonderful embroidery hoop from Lucky Jackson. I choose this wonderful one. I’m not a roller derby gal but it’s super fun.
I honestly have to get working on turning a large part of the wall space in our living room into a handmade art gallery . . .
Well since I’ll be running off in a few days I’m not sure how much crafting I will get to. Plus I already slacked by not finishing my slippers from 2 weeks ago! I plan on tackling this lovely embroidery pattern. It’s pretty portable and I’m sure I can tackle it while on a beach.
It’s one of the many masterpieces created by Nicole of Follow the White Bunny. She writes each week on Feeling Stitchy and she sells her patterns in this shop and on Etsy.
It’s an adorable little hedgehog floating in a tea cup, he’s even paddling his way around. It’s super cute. Buy it here.
Have a safe and happy holiday!!
I can’t remember the first time I stumbled onto Mollie’s site but I’ve been going back ever since. She’s so great with colours, stitches and designs not to mention can throw a cute little face on almost any object. We’ve worked together on a game, a planner and somehow keep wandering back to each other with more ideas.
Here’s the latest idea I’d love to share with you, her Little Snackers designs. These sweet little things are for use one your very own reusable snack bags. With back to school time approaching for most of us I thought reusuable snack bags would be a great tutorial idea and asked Mollie to help out with some of her signature embroidery patterns.
Pattern is for personal use only.
These work perfectly with my snack pouch tutorial from yesterday. If you want a different pouch design, fold over or buttons or something you can find a ton of ideas with a quick Google search. Happy pouch making!
Posted in embroidery, gifts, kid fun, other crafts
Tagged embroidery, reusable, snack pouches, stitching, wild olive
We’ve been making the switch to glass and stainless steel lunch containers. Both my school and my son’s school push for the whole literless/boomerang lunch thing. Bomerang lunch basically means if you send it in packaging or it creates some sort of garbage they’re going to send it back home to you. Strangely we teacher folk are free to load up the garbages at school with our lunch litter but I’m trying desperatly to avoid that. Hence my binge to create some snack pouches!
Now I created a few for my son and I’m going to show you how to make some yourself. I was really hardcore with his and used parts from one of my hubby’s practically new shirts. Somehow he got a weird big circle stain on it right in the front and tossed it into the donate pile. I rescued it. Oh, lookie a Mabel’s Label.
I also tried to use fabrics I had on hand and chose some of the bright colourful kid prints I have to jazz the pouches up a bit. There some debate online about materials to use for the inside and what is and isn’t food safe. To just avoid having to buy something or find out later what I chose was wrong I’m sticking with cotton fabrics. If you plan on carrying something that could get things wet I suggest adding a layer between the inner and outer cotton pieces to help prevent everything else in your bag getting soaked. Cutting up a freezer bag would work great for this and you could probably get a few out of just one.
You will need:
- lining fabric 4 1/2 x 6ish
- printed fabric for outside about 4 1/2 x 3 1/2
- plain fabric for outside 4 1/2 x 3 1/2
- 4 inch length of velcro, hook & loop piece
- strip of fabric to make tabs
Pin the 2 outside fabric pieces right side together and sew together. I use 1/4 inch seam, or slightly less.
Unfold the pieces and press the seams flat.
Stich on the rightside of the fabric to each side of the seam. This will help reinforce where the fabrics are joined and adds a nice little decorative stitch.
Because I repurposed an existing garment I didn’t have to make my own little tabs but if you do it’s really simple. Take 2 pieces of fabric shaped like rectangles and fold it in half so it’s a long piece and then sew down the edge. Turn it right-side out and you should have a nice long thin rectangle. If you want the little decorative top stitch mine has you can just do a straight stitch down one side. Trim one tab so it’s slightly shorter than the other. I’ve found it’s easier to separate them when opening the pouch.
Fold your tab piece in half and sandwich it between your lining and outside piece, placed right sides together. Sew through all 3 pieces.
You should now have this sort of looking thing, with your tab sticking up. Now position the velcro about 1/4 – 1/2 inch from what will be the top of your pouch. Stitch along at least the top and bottom of the velcro, you can do the sides too if you like. Secure the velcro on the opposite side of the pouch, measuring them against each other to get the positioning correct.
Fold the pouch over completely so the outside is outside and you’re looking at the lining. Press to get a nice clean edge and then topstitch along near the edge of the pouch. This will create a nice finish stitch on the inside and outside and reinforce the tab.
Once you’ve completed all these steps for both sides you should be left with something that looks like this.
Place the 2 pieces with the outsides together and stitch all the way around 3 unfinished sides. This would be a great place to use a serger if you have one. I don’t so I just went back and did a zig zag stitch just beside the straight stitch and then trimmed the fabric really close to the stitching.
These are really fun and easy to make. It’s a great way to use up some scraps. I’m thinking of making them to use as loot bags for my son’s birthday party this year, then the kids leave with some goodies and a fun little reusable snack pouch. Since things will only be in there a few hours I’m not worried about them getting stale but if you were, or plan to put wet-ish snacks in there, then you can put a water resistant lining between the fabrics.
Also, I’m going to tease you with a little fun embellishment you could add to these. You’ll have to come back tomorrow for the full explanation. All I can say now is it involves a guest post and it will kill you with cuteness.
Posted in DIY, embroidery, gifts, kid fun, scraps, sewing, tutorial-ish
Tagged back to school, eco, embroidery, kid, lunch, reusable, snack pouches, wild olive
