Wee Wonderfuls

new flickr group and some very cute felt creatures

The Hand Sewing for Fun flickr group is now up and running. Here are some cuties that are brightening my day.

Suzanne's snail

Margy's turtle

Anne's turtle

Mollie's turtle

Nancy's snail

fabric

for make-a-long #6: corduroy and rosa ribbon

for make-a-long #7: vintage and new

new reprodepot order: for fall

vintage fabric from maggie: I love house fabric so very much

what's new in Phoebe's room

a new bunny that I special ordered from maggierama. thanks Maggie, she's perfect and we love her!

vintage mother goose kids coat hanger that we found at a rummage sale for a dollar. might be the thriftscore of the summer.

and some new friends for Phoebe.  thanks Grandma!  and Jennifer Murphy :)

I'm going to have to sew faster

Phoebe just about outgrew this little outfit before I got a chance to get her in it!

Tie top inspired from japanese sewing book and made from Liberty fabric and some pants which, it's best  you can't see here anyway because they're already too short and too tight!

Friday flickr group favorites

I'm pleased to report the new backpack is faring well. It has held up through a blackout at preschool, two severe thunderstorms, a partially flooded basement and an emergency evacuation to grandma's. Good thing I added all that interfacing :)

To restore some order around here I thought I'd start a Friday flickr group favorites from the w.w. pattern groups. ComEd is even playing along and restored our electricity.

Today's favorites...

Olive and Archie from Not Too Pink

Winter Kitten from Me, Elise

nappy bag friends from crankyisgood

The Hand Sewing For Fun Flickr group is coming soon. If anyone's made one up please send me a pic. I'm dying to see!

lists, wonderful lists

Ok, it's back to school around here and that means lists! I've started filling up a brand sparkling new  notebook with lists and sketches and plans. I have high hopes. There's some really ambitious time-sucking stuff on this list that I doubt I'm going to get to anytime soon. I guess it's more a wish list than a to do list. It's so hard to sit on ideas for months and months and not have the time to do anything about them. But this stage, writing them down, sketching them out, making fabric piles...this part is super fun! I've got ideas for new doll designs, quilts I've dying to make, all sorts of new products I want to add to the shop, etc.

Don't forget us!

But before I get ahead of myself, very top of my list is Make-a-long! I haven't forgotten you make-a-longers. I've had the last three chapters all planned out for months but life sort of got in the way. I was planning to finish up in May! Guess I overshot that a bit. I have two more sets of patterns in the works that I think are going to be really cute. And then there's the big finale for Olive and Archie.

After that it's time to start working on new fun stuff for the shop. Hopefully (if I can find all the pattern pieces) these will be the next Put-together book out in time for Christmas gift making. And I was thinking these or these for a PDF pattern maybe. I also want to work on new illustrated cards and paper dolls and maybe try my hand at a quilt pattern. Oh and some more stitchettes! And then there's restocking. We've been hunting for the same labels we made the craft it up stickers from and we need to have more Kitty, Bunny, Bear books and maybe more Patchwork Set cards made up.

Since we're talking patterns, I know some of you were asking about a pattern for the Ivy, Ingrid & Imogene dolls. Thing is they're just make-a-long dolls with round heads. The same round head that the birdie has but all blown up. And then the yarn hair. I get a lot of requests for tutorials on yarn hair. Not to sound mental but I can't really figure out how to explain it. On one hand it's really simple and on the other hand extremely complicated. The simple part: cut lengths of yarn, sew them to the already stuffed head of your doll in the hair style you like and trim. The complicated part: how to make the hair styles. I  start with a middle part or around the front hairline and keep going til it looks how I want it. I can't figure out how to illustrate or really explain this. I guess the best tip I can give is to start with long lengths of yarn and trim from there, it's too hard to start with exact lengths and try to get them to match up.

What else? Curtains, baby outfits, new tote bag for the library, pillows for the bed, ramble ramble. Back to the notebook with me. Maybe I need some new colored pencils...

backa packa

Someone's starting preschool very very soon. His school supply list called for one backpack with large zippered opening, no wheels. I let him pick out some fabric from his fancy fabric stash (all the great japanese prints I've acquired for Oscar use over the years) and this is what I came up with.

I used some fusible interfacing to stick the already canvas-like fabric to some even heavier weight canvas and then cut my pieces out from there. I didn't use a pattern but just cut out a backpack shaped front and back and then a 5" wide or so strip to go around. I got some canvas webbing and D-rings for the straps, which I, of course, sewed on the wrong way so I had to cut them off and sew back on the right way because I can never get a thing completely right.

My favorite part: I used this bit with driving cars from the selvedge to make a handle. Oh! and that in addition to sayings like "happy town" and "enjoy city" it says "poo country". hee! I put that bit on the back though. You know, just in case some advanced classmate can read already. Want to avoid any unfortunate nicknaming.

Now he's all set to cart his artwork and peanut-free snacks back and forth. Here he is impatiently waiting for me to get a photo so he can get his chocolate pudding bribe.

up next: the omg-he's-going-back-to-school very long, very ambitious Fall to-do list

Ivy's waiting for you!

Along with a bunch of really amazing work. Be sure to check out the One in Ten auction items here.

farmer phoebe

here's a cute pic from today. (more on the quilt she's laying on here) phoebe's new jean jacket is from a rummage sale this morning. didn't think I'd go in for babies in jean jackets but it was so tiny and cute it just jumped into my bag.

so how's your saturday going? mine's a bust. it was all arranged to be a hillary work day and all I've managed to do is get some cute snaps of the baby. to all the "how do you get it all done"ers out there... I can't!

it's a beautiful cool day here in chicago and it's started raining now. perfect crafting weather. guess I should go try again...

old kids books

Here are some more peeks at the book sale stash I mentioned the other day. As most of you know, I am a huge sucker for vintage kids books. I pore over them at every book sale, garage sale & thrift store we go to and have a fast growing collection to show for it. We were running out of room at the apartment but now that we have a basement, bring them on!

Illustrated childrens books are the one source of inspiration for my crafting that never gets tired. The colors, the stories, the outfits! It all makes me so happy.  A good batch of em, like these, really motivate me to get sewing. They also bring me back to my first months of craft blogging. I just past my 3 year mark here wee wonderful'ing and I've been a little sentimental about my blogging beginnings. You know, back when craft blogging and I were first dating. When we'd take long strolls, pushing baby Oscar through the streets of Oak Park dreaming about projects. When we weren't afraid to take on anything new and jumped right into quilting and toy making with abandon.

Now we're committed to each other. We've had to be responsible and make difficult decisions. We've had to think about our future. We've also weathered a few major bouts of blogger ennui and cynicism. In the end though, it's true love. And I'm feeling the need to tackle some big projects. Maybe it's the books, maybe we're finally getting settled around here or maybe it's the upcoming Fall. Fall is always a good time for me and craft blogging. Like we're kids again.

The rest of these and more book pics will be up in my vintage books set on flickr.