Web Project: Embroidered Dish Towels

Now that you've read through the embroidery tutorial Amie posted yesterday, it's time to put your sewing skills to good use! Posie Gets Cozy -- aka blogger/crafter Alicia Paulson -- has posted free pdf files and instructions to create your own Days-of-the-Week dishtowels, right here (found via the amazing Design Freebies blog). Alicia has created designs featuring a pastry tube, cookie cutter, Dutch oven, stovetop espresso maker, and an egg cup, plus more kitchen kitsch to trace and embroider. Use towels from your mother's linen closet (please ask first!), or look for plain flour sack towels, like this set from Williams-Sonoma. Cleaning up after dinner will never be a chore again!

I Heart Little Red Riding Hood

First, I fell in love with this Japanese fairytale fabric imported by Portland, OR mail order haven Superbuzzy. It's such an adorable pattern that Amie used a yard or so to whip up some of the Crayons A Go Go kits she sold last year at the Cooper-Young Festival. This cotton print comes with red, pink, or ivory backgrounds; Superbuzzy also has a Riding Hood canvas print that's a little more cartoonish, which you can view here.

Then I discovered this super-cute drinking glass, now on sale at Urban Outfitters for $2.99. What little girl (okay, 39-year old woman) can resist?

All this blogging about Little Red Riding Hood also reminds me of the doll my mama bought me when I was about 8, when we lived in South Louisiana. She found a mass-produced 3-in-1 doll that has Riding Hood on one end; flip the doll over, and discover Grandmother and the Big Bad Wolf, who are hiding underneath. I wasn't as intrigued with dolls as I was with my stuffed animal collection, but this particular toy kept me busy for hours and hours. If you're curious about what the doll looks like (I still have it!), here's a link to a very similar toy, called a Topsy-Turvy doll. My circa-1970s version is the Dippity Flip.

Embroidery Tutorial

At The Crafty Crow there is a link to a great tutorial from Just Pure Lovely about embroidering an original drawing. I am always surprised at how good children can be at embroidery! At camp, we talked a lot about "drawing with your needle" as they carefully made their tiny stitches. It's very satisfying for the little sewer. Many campers turned their works of art into pillows or even purses.

Web Project: Hand Puppets

Anthropologie has some super-cute elephant and dog hand puppets on sale this week. Theirs are wool, handmade in Nepal, and perfectly sized for little hands. Why not use these images as a springboard to conceptualize your own hand puppet, cut and sew it from felt, and bring it to life with embroidered details?

Web Project: Cloth Books

During Sewing Camp, Amie encouraged sewers to try to create their own fabric books, using scraps, embroidery, and simple pen-and-ink to tell a short story. She brought in a great vintage cloth baby book (a score from a library sale) for inspiration...

Via the ever-popular Decor8, I just discovered an advanced sewer, based in France, who is creating similar books and selling them on Etsy. Isn't this book, a "pocket fairy tale" called Lulu Leloup Turns Blue, adorable?

Sewing a story of your own creation could feel like a major acomplishment. I still remember my circa early 1970s babysitter, Kris Brandt, helping me handmake a book using magic marker and wallpaper scraps. I was so excited to "author" my first publication!

Of course, good ol' Martha Stewart, crafter extrordinaire, has instructions for a felt "quiet" book right here. It's an advanced project, but it should help inspire our Sewing School regulars!

Web Project: Make Your Own Bird Mobile

The good folks at Spool Sewing have a fantastic freebie available on their blog: A Bird Mobile, complete with bird patterns and assembly instructions. This would be a great project for parents and kid sewers - and make a perfect decoration for someone's bedroom. Plus, we all have plenty of fabric scraps that would suffice for a flock of brightly-colored birds, and fallen tree branches that would provide a rustic spot to roost. Bird pattern pdf here.

And if this project looks too intimidating for our Sewing School students, Martha Stewart has a handy on-line tutorial on making no-sew crepe paper birds.

Embroidery Lessons

My favorite day in Sewing School is the day we break out the embroidery hoops! We typically have enough hoops for 6-8 sewers at a time to embroider. At first, the kids seem pretty overwhelmed by the idea of painting a picture with their needle and thread. Then they realize the sky's the limit, and we have students embroidering portraits of their pets, flowers, and their names on muslin that they can later applique to pillows, purses, shirts, or skirts. At Sewing Camp this summer, I brought in a copy of Sublime Stitching for inspiration and hands-on use. Butterflies, scotty dogs, and cats are always in high demand! After awhile, I tend to resort to tracing the pictures instead of ironing them on - it's easier (and faster) than wrangling a hot iron in a roomful of kids. Amie and I also encourage our sewers to draw - on paper first, to eliminate "do overs" - their own pictures to embroidery.

Name Tags

Getting ready for school....Frankie is off to daycare and Phoebe starts pre-school...how did that happen?!

Everything must be labeled! To help, I've sewn little name tags on twill tape. They are perfect for blankets, bags, coats, sweaters, scarves.

The beauty of these little name tags is that you can easily take them off last year's hoodie, and attach it to the new one. Plus, they look super cute!

Here Kitty, Kitty!

The first Sewing School Lesson - How to Make a Toy Mouse. This mouse is very versatile, it can be a pin cushion, cat toy, or just fun little mouse for play.


Inspired by Lois Ehlert's Hands where a young Lois makes cat toys with her mother, my Kindergarten class made their very own cat toys. This project was such a big hit, I thought it would be a good one to share.

Materials List: felt (really any fabric works), thread & needle, scissors, pencil & paper, ribbon and other crafty materials such as buttons, pom poms, and googly eyes are good too.
Step 1- Make your pattern on a folded sheet of paper.

Step 2 - Cut out pattern. Open up paper. Trace onto fabric.

Step 3 - Cut out fabric. Fold fabric. Pin together.

Step 4 - Sew together. Leave a hole for stuffing! (I used a whipstitch, but a running stitch is OK.)

Step 5 - Stuff the mouse!

Step 6 - Sew the hole closed.

Step 7 - Cut out 2 ears from fabric.

Step 8 - Sew on ears. Put one on each side.

Step 9 - Time to make it your own! Add a ribbon or felt tail. What can be the eyes and nose? Buttons? Beads? Does your mouse have spots or stripes?
This mouse was made from cotton fabric turned inside out. Then, the eye was sewn with thread.

You can also stuff the mouse with some catnip so a cat can play with it! If you're making a cat toy, don't use small things like buttons or beads that could make a cat choke.

Note from the teacher: I tried to make the directions very kid-friendly (hence the number of steps and short sentences). Kids may need help threading the needle, tying off, and sewing on the ears and decorations. Many of my students opted to use craft glue to attach pompoms, buttons, etc. If using glue, make sure it's not a cat toy.

Hope you have fun making your little mouse!

Organized!

I finally finished organizing all of my fabric (it's amazing how it grows, isn't it?) and sewing supplies. We found the mail organizer on the side of the street and I painted it white. It looks so cute holding all my favorite fabrics - there's a slot for the Japanese fabrics, one for Heather Ross fabrics, and a bunch for vintage fabrics. I filled an old refrigerator tray with large scraps. The remainder of the fabric is stored on a big red bookshelf in the room.


Now, if I can just keep it looking tidy...
My other goal this summer was to make my own pizza dough, I'll have to get on that one soon. Hard to believe the summer is almost over!

We are headed to the Jersey Shore next week. Hope you're having a fun summer!

Story Time

During camp, we read several books that involved sewing and handcrafts. These are books that I have found inspiration from as well.

Hands by Lois Ehlert

Lois Ehlert is truly a kindred spirit. Each time I read this book, I am reminded of how important it is to have the freedom to be creative at a young age. One of my favorite pages is about sewing cat toys with her mom. I designed a simple cat toy pattern for school and camp based on the image - the kids love it. Tutorial coming soon!

Mother Earth and Her Children: A Quilted Fairy Tale by Sibylle Von Olfers, illustrations by Sieglinde Schoen Smith

The campers poured over the quilted illustrations in this new book. If you haven't seen it, you must! The work is truly amazing.

Mrs. Noah's Patchwork Quilt by Janet Bolton

Sadly, this book is out of print. Janet Bolton was a big, big influence on me right out of college. While my aesthetic has changed, I took from her the idea that one can draw with cloth and needle. The book is a story about a patchwork quilt Mrs. Noah made to pass time while on the ark. A pattern for the quilt is included.

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback

This Caldecott Award book is a great way to talk about recycling and using old clothing to make something new.

Beginnings

Phoebe discovered a little pot holder maker in my sewing room. She immediately began to "weave" the loops to create designs.

I was surprised how carefully she chose the colors and the position of the loops.
The teacher in me was thinking about fine motor, spacial relationships, shapes, and colors. The mother in me was so happy that she found something constructive to do in the sewing room! Pretty soon, I'll be shopping for her here!

Happy 4th...

...from my favorite American seamstress, Betsy Ross.

I was so happy to see one of the Sewing School students decked out as Betsy Ross in our neighborhood 4th of July parade. The costume was made by her grandmother and in perfect vintage condition.

Keeping Organized...

Or least trying to....

My big goal this summer is to organize and rearrange my craft area. At school, I use Project Bags to keep the kids' stuff together. Each kid has a gallon zip lock bag to keep already started projects. Before, they had the projects stuffed into their cubbies or relied on me to keep up with them! This idea is great at school and camp and has transfered nicely to home as well. I like to use those plastic bags with zippers or snaps that linens, kids' clothes, and other random things come packaged in. I knew I was saving them for a reason....

Here are some of my current project bags:

I will hopefully finish this little dress before Phoebe is too big for it!

Cherished scraps of hand dyed wool felt that I got at an educational conference.

OK, here I used baggies to store transfers of patterns I like. I copied the pattern for Phoebe's current size (3T) so the original can be used as she gets older.

I really, really want to finish the Wee Wonderfuls Turtle. I have the project bag filled with everything needed for the project, including stuffing.

For me!

I finally finished a skirt for me! I am realizing now that the skirt is all wrinkled and the picture is silly - it's hard to take pictures of yourself. I guess I was just too excited to finally have something done. I'll have to work on this...

The Japanese mushroom fabric is from Reprodepot bought with my Mother's Day gift certificate. I used my favorite skirt pattern (New Look 6843). I need to add a little pocket now - just big enough to hold my chapstick and keys.

I have been dreaming about this gnome skirt for awhile now. Would it be too much for school?