I haven’t made a tutorial for this as it should be easy (everybody knows what a crab looks like!) but if you want to see what I have made with this pattern look here!

This should be a jpg file so when you click it, it will go full size and then you can save it onto your computer and then print/resize/ect. This pattern is free to use so please spread the link to this (please don’t copy and paste somewhere else or hot link the pattern) and please send me links you your creations so that I can link them here to show everybody! All that I ask is to be credited for the pattern/tutorial.

I seem to be on a theme at the moment. It started with a squid plushie, then the crab, I love making beaded octopus, and now this ammonite! I actually made this just before I went away for the wedding.

It is made out of an old t-shirt and the pattern will be available soon.

Is there any other marine life (past or present) that I could try and make?

The fabric I used Cath Kidston (outer) and some velvet (inner) and was about 7cm by 18cm. As it was quite easy to do, if a little fiddly because of the size, I thought I’d do a tutorial for it.

Things you need-
Two pieces of fabric
Matching coloured threads
Pins/hair grips
Snap closure
Sewing machine (optional if you want to sew by hand)

1. Work out how much fabric you want for the pouch and how much for the top flap, roughly about a third for each. Fold right sides together and sew up the sides so that you end up with a pouch on each piece of fabric.

2. Place both pieces of fabric together, pouch sides together, and pin together (or tack or use hair slides like me if the fabric is thick). Make sure that where the line of thread which you sewed in the last step lines up on both pieces of fabric. From the top of these lines drew where you want to sew the pouch shape.

3. Now sew over the lines you have made. I sewed the lining slightly off center from the outer fabric to counter the lining being a lot thicker than outer. Cut all spare fabric.

4. Turn the top flap and outer pouch right side out. The lining pouch should fit nicely in the outer, wrong sides together.

5. Turn the raw edges of the pouch together so that it is hidden between the outer and lining. Pin together. It may be a bit tricky, but there should now be no raw edges showing.

6. Sew around the edges, trying to match thread to fabric colours. This is what my sewing machine looked like when I was doing this. It was very tricky!

7. All sewn up! The red thread somehow looped through to the outer side. As I couldn’t fix it without trying it again I just left it as it was only in one place. Sew the leftover ends into the space between the layers of fabric.

8. Add a closure and you are done!

If you use this tutorial, send/comment me a photo and I’ll share it here. If you want to buy one, keep an eye on my Folksy, link on the right sidebar!

I love his little tuffty ears!

The eyes are old buttons, the nose as a scrap of leather and the feet are left over fabric from my t-shirt bag project. The faux fur is left over from making a wolf tail, which I might post here at some point.

Pattern/tutorial will be posted here once I’ve digitised the paper templates I made/used.

I’ve got the paper pieces of the pattern I made for the crab, I’ve just got to work out how to get those shapes onto the computer before I can post a tutorial, which I might as well do for the practice, if nobody else uses it.

I also made a few other things whilst I gave up hand sewing the crab for a while, which will be posted soon!

Still looking for postage stamp price info!!

Front. …………………………………………………Back.

I did use a tutorial for this, but I found it years ago and had saved it as a word document so I can’t find where I originally got it. The person who made the tutorial was selling under the name of ‘Pink Olive’ and the bag in the tutorial was made of a gray tweed fabric with a cat applique on the front. If this tutorial is still around I would love to link to it, so if anybody can find it tell me in the comments!

Found it!- http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=32204.0

I’ll post the pattern and a tutorial if this works out, I’ve got the legs pinned to the body, but as a result the body is a bit misshapen so I don’t know if everything will be straight when I sew it. You’ll see the result in a few days.

Also I’ll post pics of a bag I have made out of (yet again) another t-shirt, this time out of most of it rather than just pieces, once I’ve got my camera to behave. It’s refusing to sent the photos to my computer .

Guessed what the plushie will be? *drum roll* A crab! My Mum thought it was a frog! :£

That never happened.
My sewing machine decided it would not work but rather tangle all my thread repeatedly.
So I spent two hours taking my machine apart and putting it back together, cleaning and oiling it all in the process, just to get it up and running right as Sam arrived home. Boo.

By then it was too late to try and start a dress. But wanting to have something to show for the evening, I picked up my basket of felt, jar of buttons, scissors, needle, and some thread and started piecing together these while we watched a movie:

If I had any idea how incredibly easy and addiciting these would be to make, I would’ve started them a long time ago! I finished half of these last night and the rest today and plan to restock my felt and button collections to make more, as soon as possible.

These three are my favorite:

The pink and orange one matches the fabric I have for Cailyn’s Easter dress (which was my original inspiration for making flowers.)

I’m gonna have Cailyn wear one tomorrow and will have to get an action shot then!

Now to figure out what to do with all of them…
I planned to glue clips to them so I could attach them to Cailyn’s head bands. But I might try out some other options since I have so many to work with. Velcro? Brooch pins?

I like the idea of having them be  interchangeable depending on how I want to use them at any given moment — on different styles of headbands, on a hat, pinned to a shirt, etc. Makes me wish I was more of a hair bow/headband/brooch kinda girl, myself!

Either way, I need to make more head bands  for Cailyn now.
Anyone have a favorite baby headband tutorial to recommend?

On the upside, Cailyn slept for seven hours straight for four days last week. Even better, this week she has slept between eight and NINE hours every night (except last)! I’d like to say I feel amazingly refreshed. And in the mornings, usually I do. But by the end of the day I am still completely drained. I think my body is finally realizing how much sleep I have to catch up on from the last few months. That, and Cailyn seems to think if she sleeps well at night then she doesn’t need to sleep during the day. At all. There have been several days where she’s only gotten in a few half hour snoozes. Which wouldn’t be terrible except that she gets herself so exhausted that she’ll just cry and cry and not let herself fall asleep even though she’s obviously so incredibly tired. And that doesn’t make for a fun (or productive) afternoon. But we’re working on that and she’s gradually improving. Yesterday she finally got the idea that she CAN fall asleep on her own, even if it is after a crying fit!

In the meantime my project list continues to grow: I have quite a few Christmas gifts I’d like to make, a few items for Cailyn’s nursery I have yet to tackle, my advent calendar for Sam, Cailyn’s stocking, and the throw pillows that I bought fabric for while I was nesting. It’s getting hard to decide which project to attack when I do have a few minutes to spend! Last night I tackled the first of four throw pillows. It turned out rather cute if I do say so myself, even if I did keep it simpler than I planned in order to just get it finished. I’ll post about it soon!

A project I DID finish (and just in time) was Cailyn’s halloween costume!

I told the back story in my last post. We decided she would be The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

And after perusing the internet a bit, I found this adorable (and simple!) option at www.scholastic.com that suggested using felt to make a sack, not unlike an infant sleep-sack.

I picked up several shades of green felt at the craft store. I got a 3′x3′ piece of dark forest green for the base and a couple small squares (12″x9) each of two lighter shades of green for stripes. I also got pipecleaners (pink) and pom-poms (white) to match a pink cap that Cailyn already had.

After a little brainstorming I sketched this pattern:

I was prepared to wing it a bit, as that’s my usual modus operandi but hopefully between the photo and the sketch you can get an idea of what I did. I did change some of the measurements from what are listed on the sketch, so I’ll explain that below.

The words “Forest”, “Pirate” and “Apple” refer to the shades of green felt I had.
I did buy some glittery felt which I ended up not using because (a) It was a bit stiffer than the others and (b) I realized that I didn’t want glitter everywhere!

The measurements I determined just by some rough measurements of Cailyn (2 months and 12lbs at the time) and gauging what fabric proportions I thought would look good.

- The narrow stripes: 24″ around- Because each piece of felt was only 12″ long and I sewed two together, so it ended up closer to 23″ around when finished.
3″ tall -  I cut each felt square into3 strips 3″ tall (which resulted in 2.5″ of length added to the costume once sewn together.) I only cut four strips of each color, to make two stripes of each color, but only ended up using three stripes total.

- The wider stripes: I wanted them  to have some bunch-iness to give it more of a caterpillar affect. So I left that felt the 3′ long that it was originally (35.5″ after being sewn together in one piece.)
I cut 3 strips of the dark green felt (from the 3′x3′ square). Two of them were 6″ tall (to give room for seam allowances at the top and the bottom) and then I decided that adding only one more would give plenty of length to the costume, so I cut that one 5″ tall, leaving them all 3′ long.

I then sewed a basting stitch along the edges that would meet with the narrow strips, in order to gather it from 3′ to the 23″ that those strips now were.

Here it is all gathered and ready to pin and sew together. I only used 1/4″ seam allowance for the whole project except here where I used 1/2″ seam allowance on each seam where there was gathering, to give myself plenty of forgiveness to cover the basting stitch.

To give it some nice texture and visual affect, I sewed the narrow strips on top of the wide strips instead of trying to hide the seam.

During all this time, Cailyn was only happy one way:

Sorry for the blurry photo and how huge my nose looks. Her in the baby-pack did make for some awkward maneuvering to get the job done, not to mention a sore back by the end of it!

Brody kept himself entertained too:

On with the project, though!

- Elastic bands: I sewed an elastic band into the top (14″) and bottom (16″) of the costume so it would fit her snugly under her arms and still allow for easy butt access if/when necessary, i.e. I didn’t sew it closed at the bottom, so it wasn’t a sack after all just a long tube with elastic at both ends.

- Shoulder straps: I added straps at the top although the elastic held it up snug enough I probably didn’t need them. They were two inches wide and I decided their placement by holding up a pair of her overalls against the costume and putting these straps where her overall straps were. It was rather difficult aligning them properly and then sewing them with the elastic already in place bunching the fabric up, so I would suggest rethinking that process.
I had two red buttons that I sewed onto the front of the costume and it would’ve been easiest to sew buttonholes in the straps but my machine’s buttonhole setting wasn’t working so I winged it and sewed a nice little loop thing for the button to fit into.

- Legs: Once the costume was in one piece, the last step was adding the caterpillar legs! This is actually another part that would’ve been better done at an earlier stage in the project, as I ended up gluing the legs in place (they were only decor) because it would’ve been way too difficult to try to fit the finished costume around my machine to get those legs sewn on. Here you can see the legs pinned in place.

- Hat: This was the finishing touch! I used needle-nose pliers to push/pull a pipe cleaner into one side of the cap and back out the other side, so that the mid-section of the pipe cleaner would be against her head and the ends would be sticking out opposite sides at equal lengths. I then wrapped each end around a pom-pom. It definitely wasn’t the most pristine job, but it worked! Even after that, the hat was still missing something, so I cut out pieces from leftover felt to make eyes and a nose. The nose I just hand-stitched on with a few place-holder stitches and the eyes I used a wide basting stitch so that they would be easily removed later and the hat reusable!

Here’s a good shot of the hat and Cailyn hanging with Uncle Andy. Oh, and for the record, underneath the costume she’s wearing a green, long-sleeve onesie.

I wish I would’ve gotten more good photos from the night. I didn’t get any great ones of her modeling the costume, it was too much of a whirlwind just to get her dressed, to the party, and then back home again. But my friend Gillian took this really cute one:

The end!
I know this was hardly the best explanation/tutorial but I really did just wing a lot of it as I went. I’ll try to be more organized next time! Hopefully it was enough to give inspiration to anyone who wants to recreate it. Feel free to comment and ask any questions or get clarifications!

I started working on her costume without giving much thought to costume ideas for us grownups. That is, until Sam determined what our family costume theme would be (I’m a sucker for themes) when he emailed me this link to a Where the Wild Things Are hat pattern with nothing else but the subject line “Please?” – the afternoon before his costume day at work.

So once again he won me over with his idea and I spent that night making him a Max from Where the Wild Things Are costume.
Which, I have to say, made me feel a little cheated at first. Because I am the one who liked the movie and he gave me the impression he was indifferent to it. But I let him keep the costume idea for himself because it IS a great costume idea and I DID enjoy the movie so much.

I briefly considered what Where The Wild Things Are character I could dress as until I realized I didn’t want Cailyn to be left out and was already too far along on her costume to scrap it (not to mention how complicated any other Wild Things costume would be.)

So once again Sam stepped in with the answer: children’s books. Of course! We would all dress up as a character from a different children’s book. It would be an obvious theme without being overdone. So I began racking my brain for what my own costume could be before giving in to my draw to one of my favorite books from the Dr. Seuss collection: Are You My Mother. And what would be more fitting for me than dressing as the mother bird!

So here we all are at our church’s annual hoe-down (complete with square dancing and a donut eating contest).

As you can see, she really was a VERY hungry caterpillar.

I told Sam that this should start a tradition of literary costumes for Cailyn each year. So now I have a whole year to figure out the perfect storybook costume for next year. Maybe by then she’ll start to develop a preference!

As for this year’s costumes: more pictures and details to come in following posts!

It was a very simple project to tackle. I just used a piece of elastic in the waistband and some brown bias tape I had on hand to  fancy up the hem.

Since I’m a little hesitant on how to measure for an infant, I followed the estimates provided by this adorable Pom Pom Skirt tutorial guest posted on the At Second Street blog by kojodesigns.
I cut my fabric seven inches tall instead of six and still the 30 inches wide, as I wanted to leave plenty of growing room. My elastic was 16 inches long (15 once sewn together) and it fit her waist without being snug (what can I say, I have a little chunker.)

Making the skirt was also the perfect opportunity to make a matching head band! I had been wanting to make some head bands as the store bought ones we have are already getting tight and leave marks. And let’s face it, they just aren’t as cute as homemade ones can be!

I followed this soft baby headband tutorial by Little Birdie Secrets that I had seen on Ucreate. It refashions tights into a headband! The only change I made was using part of the waist band for the loop to cover the seam, instead of using part of the tight-leg, as I used small tights and ran out of leg!
I was so stoked to find that tutorial though. It’s such an excellent idea and I love how soft and sweet and versatile the headbands are!

With the headband finished, the next step was making my first flower to adorn it. I decided a fabric rose would be the easiest way for me to go. I searched Google and found this tutorial by DuhBe. It was indeed very easy! Mine turned out a little sloppy as a result of trying to finish it quickly because a little miss was getting hungry, but it was still cute.

The last step was to glue the fabric rose to a metal hair clip, so I could attach it to the head band and yet have it remain removable. All went well until this point.

You see, I didn’t entirely think through the clip having an opening which glue would seep through and hence glue the clip shut.

(Notice the sloppy glue job… that foretells the disaster that happens next.)

And I had forgotten how hot a HOT glue gun gets.
So when I squeezed glue on the clip just to realize that it was indeed going to glue said clip shut, my first instinct was to wipe the glue off as quickly as possible.
With my bare thumb.
And as soon as that hot glob of glue stuck to my thumb, my next response was to get it off my thumb as quickly as possible.
With my other hand.
Yes, that was not smart. It hurt. A lot. A large blister formed on my thumb instantly and a smaller one on the finger that tried to save my thumb.

It left me wondering how hot glue guns ever passed the safety standards to be produced and sold in stores.
(Although I am very glad they did. It is such an indispensable tool!)
(Oh, and the blister is still there but the pain is gone, thankfully. Although it did give me a good excuse that night for not being able to steer with the PS3 remote!)

All in all, even with my hot glue incident, the skirt, headband, and flower combined took less than three hours to complete, and that included a few interruptions from Miss Cailyn.

Speaking of Cailyn- here she is sporting the new outfit at a wedding we attended the next day.

Love her!
And this headband definitely has a little growing room as it slid down over her eyes several times. Which I have to admit was hilariously cute.

proof of concept

Also, Tina knitted two pieces of sushi, a Maki and a California Roll… though the catnip pouch we stuffed in there (sewed by Elizabeth) was mysteriously extracted by a cat in less than 24 hours.

sushi

The instructions at the above link are much better than anything I could produce, so instead I’ll just give you photos and witty anecdotes.

This ended up being about 28″ in length, and the loops are scraps of ribbon that I saved (because I do that sort of thing). The loops are about 8″ from the top of the fabric, and are stitched across the front and back to reinforce them. If I were to make another one, I’d probably use shorter ribbon loops – however they nicely accomodate our scarves:

I attached the scarf holder to the back of the closet door with a couple of little nails since there’s no internal structure to support it. Other options could include putting a strip of wood or metal to provide backing – or just use nails. It’s totally easier.

(Oh, I promised witty anecdotes.  The best I can do is stories about the scarves.  From left – the multi-colored wool one was a gift from my friend Oday, given to me when I visited him in Poitiers.  It’s warm and fabulous.  The second one is Shane’s, provenance unknown.  Third from the left was a Christmas present from Shane’s aunt Corinne – blue and soft and fabulous.  The last was a gift from my friend Karla on the occasion of my departure from GSLIS last year.  I feel terribly sophisticated whenever I wear it.  I also have a super fuzzy red scarf that was a gift from Eva – she said it was very David Bowie, a beautiful soft pink scarf from Sarah from last Christmas, a silky one that Heidi sent me from Morocco, and at least one scarf that I made myself.  The good thing is that I have a lot of options.  The bad thing is that since I can’t really make anything other than scarves, I need to either diversify my knitting, or befriend more people with cold necks.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It’s going to be a very crafty Christmas, and I’m just getting started!)