Kid Sewing Sweatshop

A few weeks ago, three of my nieces came up the mountain to visit. Since I am always commissioned to sew on missing buttons or fix broken elastic, I figured it is time for these girls to learn some basic sewing skills.

The oldest two (ages 13 and 9) learned how to make basic bags and totes on the sewing machine. They sketched out what they wanted to make, cut out the pieces, and then -very wearily- stitched them up with the machine. I sat next to them to help, but otherwise they did it all themselves. I also shoed them how to hand-sew embellishments and buttons on. The most important part!

The youngest niece (age 6 next month) I taught to hand sew. At first she was a little scared of the "sharp needle", but I convinced her she was old enough to do this herself. I machine-sewed a little felt tote for her and then she cut out and hand-sewed on little hearts herself. For a first time sewing project her stitches came out pretty even. She really enjoyed it, so hopefully she will keep it up.


- Sarah

Robeez Remake :: leather shoe tutorial

Don't you hate when you get really great kids shoes and can't find any more of them? Or worse... they cost $40 a pair? Never fear folks! Frugal Mom is here to save the day! *insert trumpets here*
Let's make some soft soled shoes...


First get all your supplies together! I didn't have any soft leather on hand so I used suede cloth, but you can always cut up a thrifted leather jacket. You will need: a soft shoe that already fits your little one, 1/4 yard of super thin elastic, 1/4 yard suede cloth or soft leather, matching thread, and a fresh heavyweight needle.
Trace all the pieces of the shoe onto paper. Then go around the pieces adding a 1/4 inch seam allowance (excluding the sides that stay raw edges in the finished product). Don't forget to reverse the left and right soles. If you are using soft leather cut one each of the soles (suede cloth cut two), four shoe tops, two thin casing strips, and two (suede cut four) heel backs.


Skip this if you are using one layer of soft leather: sew your outside suede to your lining (WRONG sides together) on the two ends, but not the top or bottom.
Sew the thin casing strip onto the top of the heel piece. Stitch only on the top and bottom of the thin strip. Repeat on other shoe.
Take two shoe tops (right sides together) and sew together on the short curved side. Turn right sides out. Topstitch along the same short side. Make two small parallel snips on one side to loop the elastic through later.


Pin the shoe top (facing down with right sides together) to the sole. Then pin the heel back to the sole. The heel back should overlap the shoe top a little on each side. Sew using a regular 1/4 inch seam.
Test the fit on your child's foot. If it's a little big, just sew around it again with a little wider seam. Trim close to the seam without cutting it.


Using a tiny safety pin, thread the elastic through the casing on the outside of the shoe making sure to go through the loop on the shoe top. Tie the elastic in a knot at whatever length gives a snug fit around the ankle. I ended up with about 3-ish inches. Shove the knot into the casing to hide it.
Turn right side out.... and.... Ta Da!


If your baby is infatuated with little birds, stitch some creepy cute red birds on the shoe tops before sewing it all together. 'Now she tells me...' right?!

Enjoy!

- Sarah

What have I been up to?

Well...

Thursday the Camsters and I got new tires put on the car and picked up this cute fabric from Twain Harte Pharmacy while saying hello to our pals...


Creepy cute right? It's called "Wee Woodland" by Moda. I got 2 yards which should be enough for a sleeveless dress for my sweetpea and a skirt for me. We will be so matchy-matchy! See those pattern pieces? I know! I'm actually sewing from a pattern.

Friday I spent crying over incorrect serger tension, then decided to just use the regular ol' sewing machine.

Today (Saturday) I attended a docent meeting where I got my official state park badge, name tag, and a fancy certificate. Then Husband and Camsters came to pick me up and we strolled around Columbia for Gold Rush Days. Now Husband is making some burgers for dinner. Uh... 12 of 12 will be postponed until tomorrow when I have energy. Don't judge me.

Mini Me

Camellia is ready to be a docent side-kick! It was raining yesterday, so this is what we made. Don't you just love the little dripped metal buttons in the back? Now I just have to sew "pantalettes" (white pants that go under your dress) for the both of us, a bonnet for Cami, a "day cap" (fancy white half-bonnet that goes on your head) for myself, and some little leather shoes for Cami. Almost ready. Almost.

- Sarah

Last Night into Today

Well, last night I got my hair cut. I won't say by whom, but it did not turn out as planned. I looked a bit like a squirrel that was caught by a cat, but not killed. It was pretty bad.
Last night I made a new Columbia-inspired dress for Dolly. Complete with wooden buttons and a little green bonnet.
Last night it was pouring out and so windy I thought we would all just blow away. Me, Camsters, Husband, the dog next door, the whole town.

When I got up today...


I went to get my hair fixed.
Camsters loved Dolly's new old threads.
And...
It snowed.

All is right in the world. Well... except the snow.


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Fabric Toadstools :: part 2

8. From the beige fabric, cut a strip about 6-8" long and 2 1/2" wide on the fold. With right-sides together, sew down the open side to form a tube. Now cut a small circle from the beige fabric that is roughly 2" in diameter.
9. With right-sides together, pin and sew the circle to the tube bottom.
10. Make little snips around the seam and turn right-side out.
11. Fill halfway with small beans or rice. Don't fill the bottoms with kidney beans.... I found out the hard way that they are too bulky. Fill the rest of the way with poly-fil and stick the stems into the "X" you cut into the toadstool tops. Lastly, hot glue (or hand sew if you have the patience) the stems to the tops.



12. Pat yourself on the back and take a pathetic amount of pictures showing how truly crafty you can be sometimes.


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Fabric Toadstools :: part 1

I'm making these fabric toadstools for the Camster's 1st birthday using just scraps. Join me!
1. Find some cute mushroomy looking fabric for both the colored tops and the beige stems.
2. Trace around random circular objects onto your beige fabric.
3. Then cut out circles about 1-2" bigger than the beige circles out of your colored fabric.



4. Do a running stitch around your colored top.
5. Pull one of the treads to gather the colored top until it is about the size of your beige circle.
6. Pin together with right-sides together, then sew completely around the circle.
7. With scissors, cut an "X" in the center of the beige circle careful not to cut the colored top. Turn right-side out. Loosely stuff the toadstool top.


Continue on to "Fabric Toadstools :: part 2"

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My Evening Project

I'm not much of a "quilter" even though the first thing I learned to sew was quilts. I was planning on making this a tutorial, however, I figured if you wanted to make something like this you would already have the basic quilting skills required to put some random shaped blocks together. How's that for a run-on sentence?. So, instead I'm just going to show you what I've been up to.

I've been working on a pretty basic block quilt with embroidered hands in the bigger blocks doing sign language. Each sign is a different word. I am including six of the Camster's favorite signs: tree, book, school (sketch pictured), play, draw, and love. I was given this cute baby sign language fabric by my silly Aunt... one of my many silly aunts... and I thought I had to do something great with it. I saved a huge piece of it to use as backing.

Etsy Love

I love love LOVE Etsy. There is always something cute in the clothing and jewelry categories and there is always something bizarre and adorable in the geekery. What I love most though, is the fact that it exists. A place where you can buy and sell ONLY handmade or vintage items. Awesome!

The thought of selling my own handmade goods has crossed my mind a few times, but I've always considered my "free time" taken up with teaching pottery wheel, Survivor Night, poi classes, and other random projects. But after all my holiday sewing, I am starting to see that I found plenty of time to sew for others without too many complaints from Husband or infringing on my other activities. So why can't I start my own shop again?!

Oh yeah!.... It's because I always want to keep what I make. Well that stops now! Kinda... Maybe... I mean we'll see...

With all that said, be sure to check out my past "Etsy picks". Just click the link in my tag cloud over there. ---->
Someday (when I get Internet again) I will start that weekly segment back up.

Love ya, love Etsy, gotta go,
-Sarah

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Sock Monkey-Style Dachshund -tutorial-

Thank god for spell-check because I have no idea how to spell "dachshund". Anyway, when I was cleaning out all my crap... I mean junk... I mean treasured items out of storage, I found four sock monkey socks. Score! And what 10 month old wouldn't enjoy a sock dachshund as a holiday gift?! And what busy mother wouldn't enjoy making such a quick and easy gift?!

Here we go..
1. Find two socks... hopefully of the clean variety.

2. For more clarification I have cut the left and right sock out of two different colored papers. Teal is the left sock and red is the right sock.

3. Take your left (teal) sock and cut out the heel. Then cut from the point of the heel to one inch ABOVE where the sock seems to bend. Cut again from the point of the heel to one inch BELOW where the sock bends making a triangle. Set scraps you just cut out aside.


4. Now cut across the sock two inches above your discarded triangles. The middle section will be your NECK and the bottom part will be your HEAD.

5. Take you top section and make it a proper rectangle/square thing. Then cut it in half so you have two fat FEET.

6. Now let's talk about that right (red) sock. Cut straight across from the bottom of the heel to where the bend in the sock is. Then cut straight across to create a square up top. You can cut that square in half creating two more FEET. The section with the heel is the BODY and the toe section is the dog's BOOTY.


7. Now assemble and sew. Remember to keep right-sides together when sewing and also to leave a gap somewhere to stuff. Just so you know, the HEAD and NECK pieces should be sewn together at the long sides and the short side (which makes the top of the head). Stuff the dog completely and then sew the side and bottom of the FEET before turning right-side-out, stuffing, and sewing onto the BODY.

I made his ears and tail out of brown felt and his eyes from black felt. But you could use buttons. So here ya go! A quick and easy sock dachshund.


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Polar Bear Tote Bag -tutorial-

You will need:
1/2 yard of black canvas or other heavy fabric
1 yard of black webbing for the strap
1/2 yard of polar bear skin (you won't use it all, but you need the width)
3x3" scrap of pink felt
2x2" scrap of black felt
(if you don't have a serger you may need 3 yards of white bias tape or skinny quilt binding to match the bear skin)
sewing notions

Okie dokie... let's get started!
1. Fold your black canvas in half to form a square. Feel free to cut it down a bit to make the size tote you want. Sew/serge down both sides.
2. Fold the top rim under and topstitch so the top edge looks pretty.
3. Squish (technical term) the side of the bag so that the side seam is in the middle. Then snip off a triangle piece and sew the opening together. This will be the side width of your tote. Turn right-side out.


4. Cut out a polar bear head from your polar bear skin fabric. My skin was conveniently already backed, so I just serged around the whole shape. If you don't have a serger you may want to sew some bias tape around it to keep his head from fraying.
Cut out two half-circle shaped ears and attach to the head only at the flat side so they are flappy.
5. Cut out two paws and serge/bias tape around them like you just did to the head.
6. Spend 10 minutes sketching the perfect heart and then cut it out of the pink felt. While you're at it... cut out two circle eyes and a half-circle nose from that black felt.


7. Now is a good time to start wondering why the he'll you're making a polar bear tote bag of all things. Oh yeah, crazy Niece #1 loves polar bears. Oh my.
8. Pin the head to the rear-inside of the tote to make it a flap. Check to make sure it looks right before you sew it on. A simple topstitch will do. Now position, pin, then sew on your paws and heart on the bag so the head flap won't cover them up. Then finish it off by sewing on his eyes, nose, and strap. Pin on the strap and try it on before sewing!
9. Done? Good! Now relish in your new creepy-cute Polar Bear Tote Bag-ness.

Upcycling Baby Clothes to Beanies

Does everyone call them beanies? I think so. Although sometimes while talking to people from other states it does sound like us Californians have weird names for things. Or maybe it's just my weird family...

Anywho-- since our "big move" the Camsters has grown out of all of her 6 month clothes and the majority of her 6-9 month clothes. It's not that she is hugemoungous (California word?), but she is long. She also needs some beanies to get through the chilly months before snow comes and no local stores seem to have anything lighter than a fleece snow cap.

Before having the guts to cut up a bunch of her cute outgrown clothes, I reminded myself of the 500 pounds of premie to 6 month sized clothes I freely donated. Ok... I think I'm karmicly set to hack up precious baby clothes.

Step 1: hopefully you have one beanie that fits already... if not, cry.
Step 2: take said beanie and trace it's general shape onto a piece of paper being sure to both a) allow a little room for seam allowance, and b) adjust the beanie while tracing to include the 'v' shaped cutout on top that tapers the head. If that made no sense, just draw something like this...
Step 3: sift through and pick out shirts and dresses that are a nice print, stretchy, and have enough space to cut out your pattern.
Step 4: hack 'em up!
Step 5: sew the two sides first
Step 6: then fold the other way and sew the top only going half way down the sides.

Voilà!

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Boo!

Hope you all had a spooky and happy Halloween!
We had a great time over here! Saturday we spent the day carving our pumpkins...


...then we roasted the seeds for a snack. Then we saw an ad for a $10 pre-cooked 10lb. turkey, so we had to rush to the store to pick one up for a family dinner on Sunday. We also spotted some cheap-thin-crust-garlic-chicken-pizzas... so two of those made their way into our cart for lunch and dinner. We were exhausted after carving pumpkins. Pity us.

Then I finished up Camster's hat and shoes for her costume and attempted to make popcorn balls. Let's just say bad projects come in threes and I've now payed my dues.

Sunday the three of us headed over to my parent's house with turkey, baby, and sad sad popcorn balls in tow. After lunch the Camsters hopped into her costume and posed for her Halloween photo session.






Yes folks, my daughter was a garden gnome for her first Halloween. There were about 382 more pictures, but I'm learning restraint so I will only post two. You should be so proud of me. It's hard.

Husband was proud that I (slightly) worked down my fabric stash by making this costume from scrap cottons and scrap felt. Honestly, I don't think it made much of a dent, but don't tell him that.

The Camsters was one of maybe five trick-or-treaters at my parent's house so she got all the good candy... which mysteriously disappeared into my belly.


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French Bebe

I've tried to make a cute baby beret three times now and they never seem to look right...
Does anyone know if there is a good free sewing pattern or tutorial out there for baby berets? I think my problem may be that I'm trying to convert an adult size to a baby size. Maybe I'm using the wrong material? Who knows.

Perhaps I'll try to learn to knit or crochet or whatever so that I can make nice looking baby beret. 'Cause you know I'll make like 50 of 'em!



It looks "okay", but there's something off about it. Hmmm.

I'm just striking out lately. Jeez... I'll try to bring you some GOOD ideas soon.

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Crawwwk!

How do you type the sound a raven makes?!
"Crawwwk" is my best bet.



Last weekend I bought a set of 10+ hand puppet patterns online here. So far I've made the raven with moveable mouth and a simple horse. Of course I just happened to have black crushed velvet in my mondo fabric stash. What could work better? And black vinyl-leather for the beak and feet... score!

As for the simple horse-- I probably shouldn't have used fleece. I should have used flannel. Fleece just stretches too much when it comes to stuffing the head. Live and learn. I'm planning on making a movable-mouth horse next by adapting the donkey pattern. I found some inexpensive tan corduroy and some cute trim to use as a bridal. We'll see. I'll share of course when I finish it.

Even if you're cheap like me... I mean frugal... I would highly recommend this pattern set. You print them right from the site and it's only $15 for 22 puppet patterns total. So far I've found them very easy to follow and put together. Kudos to you puppet pattern lady!


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It’s Getting Cold

Its getting cold, but we're keeping out little butts warm on our new polar bear rug!


My parents recently got new carpet in their basement. Since it's so dark down there they opted for white (and it still looks a medium beige in their dark cave). My mom and I actually had this idea at the same time... I had seen one like this on Etsy and my mom thought a rug like this would be a neat Christmas gift for my polar bear loving niece. What kind of animal is a polar bear for a favorite animal? Weird kids...

Luckily, my mom had two big scraps of her new white carpet. One for niece #1 and one for the Camsters. All we did was draw the outline on the back and cut it out with a box-cutter. Then we added gianormous (yep.. it's a word) buttons for eyes and a nose. The ears were just little carpet scraps with pink felt hot glued on.



Ta da!

Now I know that not everyone has just gotten carpet installed, but if you know someone who has... grab a big scrap and make an animal rug!

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Frida Inspired Chair Cover

Wow... Sorry it's been a week since I last posted. Time has gotten away from me it seems. I would say that I've been too busy doing fun stuff to post silly blogs about my silly life, but alas-- that would be a lie. The Camsters and I have been sewing. That's really as good as my excuse gets... sewing. I know... it's lame. BUT! Wait till you see what we made!

A chair cover! A Frida Kahlo inspired chair cover! We also started an iPad case and a baby kimono, but that is a WHOLE other post. Remember how I was saying when we moved into our new place I wanted to decorate Fridaliciously? Well here is how you can do it too:

1. First find an old skirt with paint and bleach stains on it. Then hack it up.
2. Use the plain part as the seat cushion top. Set the ruffles aside.
3. Find a large piece of weird yellow-orange-ish fabric with pin dots and drape it over the chair.
4. Tuck and pin and hack and sew.
5. Cut the extra weird yellow-orange-ish fabric into strips and use to wrap around the side of the seat cushion. Pin and sew and pray it works.
6. Ruffles are good. Sew your extra ruffles onto the bottom edge of main cover. Make sure the green paint and bleach stains are towards the back. While ruffles are good, obvious wear and tear is bad.
7. Make a hideous red rose out of felt scraps and pin it to the cover. Don't sew it on otherwise when you wash it -and you will one day soon- it will get funky.
8. Lastly, put a cute baby on your hard work and take pictures until she cries. If you don't have a baby, steal one.

Camster's Cousins: Round One

Whenever my nieces come up to visit, the days are filled with projects and activities galore. ThIs visit is no exception.

Yesterday included the big reveal on our tie dye projects from Friday.

Camster loved her shirt.

Cutting out and sewing a Halloween costume for the Camsters. I used my new birthday serger for the first time. A little gnome dress gave me the chance to use multiple settings.

Voilà!

We also stopped by the fabric store to grab some supplies and found this. Baby sign language fabric! Being that I took sign language as my foreign language in high school and we are now teaching Camster sign... this purchase was a MUST!

And then we watched a play written and performed by the girls titled "The Princess Academy". Very entertaining.

Happy Six-Month Birthday Sweetpea!

So today is Camster/ Sweetpea/ Kitten/ Cuteness/ Poopypants/ Sweetie Pie's six-month birthday! Yippie! I've... I mean Camster has survived to the halfway mark. We all wait for it, but hate when it has come so soon.

By day, we tie-dyed shirts with the cousins and ate "special sandwiches", which is just a nice way of saying unhealthy whipped butter sandwiches and drank radioactive looking apple kool-ade. Then as a girlie collaborative we cut out some different sized felt flowers and attached them with a button to a headband. Adorable success. We finished up the afternoon by getting the Camster's ears pierced. She was such a good sport and only cried for a second, I assume because of the abrupt noise and shocking pinch. So freaking cute! Babies are so cute with little baby sized earrings!

By night, Husband took Camster and I out to Baskin Robbins for a late night ice cream. Bananas, scoop of strawberry, scoop of chocolate, and the best part... hot fudge. And Camster played with a spoon. A good time had by all!

Felt Alphabet Soup

I got "abc" blocks awhile back for the Camster, but I thought something a little more travel friendly was in order. Thirty-five wooden blocks don't compact well... not as well as felt! I think the more you read this blog, the more you will understand my love-affair with felt. No hems, no unraveling as you hand sew, you can find it just about anywhere, and it's soft. <3 <--- that's a heart by the way...

Wanna make your own felt letters? Well you're in luck folks! I just happened to put together a little tutorial for ya!

First, print out the whole alphabet in a bold 3 inch sized font. I even printed mine out in orange as to conserve my precious black ink. Cut them out and arrange them on the felt so there is a 1/4 inch gap between them for cutting.

Sorry if it's hard to see (crappy indoor camera shots), but next outline the letters with a pen. I used a regular ball point pen because it will be covered up later with fancy pantsy embroidery, but you should probably use a sewing pen with washable ink.

Then sew along your pen line, but leave a gap so you can stuff it later. Don't forget the inside of your "O"!

Cut your letter out with a small small small seam allowance so your stitches don't bust. Don't forget the inside of your "O"!

Stuff it, sew the gap left for stuffing closed, and VOILA! Pretty felt letters! It might also be a good idea to make doubles of the commonly used letters or extra letters you need to spell your child's name. Have fun!