Crafting365: day nine: Give us Eyes!

I didn't get time to finish them last night

I've been in town all day today, bought a sewing pattern for baby pants and some beads for another project. Esme was so happy when I got home :) Off to the workshop...

Crafting365; day eight: On my Desk and Dachshunds

Back to your normal toy blog.. at least for a little bit :)

On My Desk
This is what is 'On My Desk' today, the Wednesday meme sponsored by Kootoyoo. Today there is a dog toy, drawings, pattern pieces, miscellaneous tools, yarn, threads, scraps and some rabbit and alien friends waiting to be finished in a box by the wall. There are also the heads of five small rag dolls that are still awaiting the rest of their bodies cut out... poor things.



Let the Dog In!
At the Shop
The dog toy is a first attempt towards Carrie K's pit bull toy. It's not a pit bull. More like a fat squat dachshund, and houndstooth at that. But it is a nice pattern and I'll be making more of them :) Back to the 'drawing' board...

Jhoanna posted a link to Crammed Organisms, a plush show that has a deadline of March 29th. Their theme is 'Fairytale, Folk and Fable' .. and I'm drawing a BLANK! Besides the dragon, everything I have is not exactly fairy tale... and everything else I can think up is boring. I want to find something I can get excited about making but for some reason I just keep coming up with nothing but air... *sigh*

Notes: Esme was four months old yesterday. I had a postpartum diabetes test last week and it came out normal.

Crafting365: day seven: Two little dresses, for now and later

Thanks for all your encouragement on the bonnet!
As I said yesterday, I've been inspired to try a few little dresses for Esme. I've been sewing for years, but clothing always has seemed very difficult (especially the finishing) and I rarely attempt it. However, I was encouraged by a lady at the fabric counter, a couple of bloggers and some wonderful finished projects of others... so I bought an 'easy' pattern. I bought a one-year size, which will give me some time to get it right before Esme grows into them ;) Even though the pattern was 'Easy', it had several things in it that I had never done before. I learned how to gather here and how to apply single fold bias tape here.


The one-year dress

It could be better finished, that is for sure - but not bad at all. It looks like the drawing on the package. It'll be a while before Esme grows enough that I can see how it fits ;)

That being the case, I took the experiment a little further. Having seen how the other dress went together gave me more hope that I might be able to make something Esme can wear NOW. I took out my measuring tape and measured her.

Measurements taken (important):
1.) Diagonally from one shoulder to the opposite hip.
2.) Around the tummy at her thickest part
3.) Across from shoulder to shoulder
4.) Around the neck (loosely)
5.) Around the arm at the armpit (armholes, loosely)
6.)& 7.) Length from shoulder to hip and also hip to ankle

Using those measurements and the basic idea of the yoke from the other dress I drew a new pattern and ended up with this.


She really likes it, she started to squeal-whistle about it :)

Instead of a zipper there is a tab in the center back with a snap on it and a button and loop at the back neckline. The next one needs a much longer and wider skirt, and I really need to learn better finishing techniques. That might just take lots of practice. Overall I think this is a very good skill to learn and one I had been putting off for far too long :)

Crafting365: day six Esme wears a funny bonnet

Esme: "Mom, I look silly!"
She was such a good sport about it though ;)
Not every sewing project hits the target ;) I think subonnets are cute and practical. Am I old-fashioned? Maybe I am, a little. I saw GrandmasGirl's shop at Etsy where she was selling prairie sunbonnets for baby to play outside in.

Then I remembered I had most of an old pattern for one from the flea market. How hard could it be to make? Well, a little harder than I thought, especially with *most* of the pattern. I was missing the bottom piece and had to make it up. I'll try again and do things differently! In the meanwhile, I'll use this one when Esme and I go out for walks in the sunshine ;)

Yes Rhelynn, you CAN sew a baby dress...
The bonnet was a good warm-up towards making a dress for Esme. I'd been thinking of one ever since I saw little dresses with ruffled sleeves at My Poppet shop blog. Also LittleGirlPearl's Flickr pictures impressed me further. I thought that at least with baby patterns you only waste one yard of fabric instead of four ;) So, I talked myself into it and bought an 'easy' dress pattern in size 1 yr. It's waiting to be finished right now...

Reminder: Ultimate Blog Party (for women bloggers only) at 5 minutes for Mom is March 7-14. I found out about it at WonderMommy.

Crafting365: day five Felt Mushrooms to keep Slugs happy

Available at the shop

Orange psychadelic slug and felt mushroom :) Mark said it needed to have a few bites taken out of it already. I have posted a tutorial picture over at Flickr on how to make the mushroom!

Note: Esme can now turn all the way from her back to her tummy on purpose, and has been doing it often the past few days. Before that, she would once in a while surprise herself by rarely doing it on accident. She's trying to crawl on her tummy but hasn't quite got the forward motion yet!

Crafting 365: day four and Homefront

Homefront
Esme loves to play with Daddy while he reads.


A big smile for Daddy

Crafting365: day four. I picked up a coloring book yesterday for ideas. After we had looked through it, Mark drew me a small slug picture and asked how that would be made into a toy. An hour later we had the beginning of an invasion of giant felt slugs ;)


At the Shop
Cute Giant Slugs!
We'll try to keep them well-fed on felt leaves so they don't
go after the poor bunnies anymore.