During my time off, I upgraded my sewing machine to a Janome DC2011. I can finally finish all of those sewing projects, YAY! One of the sewing projects that has been on hold for *quite* a while was another crayon roll. Directions for this project can be found in a link in my first crayon roll post.



And of course it had to have a matching tote bag to carry the coloring book!

I am so far behind the game on this one, however I am so excited to share my discovery!

After visiting a colleague today at the International Spy Museum , I popped into lou lou on the way to the Metro to check out their fancy schmancy accessories for spring. While browsing through everything girlie, pearly, and shiny, a row of mod-bohemian style prints caught my eye. When I looked at the tag, I almost made an audible squeal.

AMY BUTLER MAKES HANDBAGS!

If you have spent any amount of time in a good fabric or quilting store, you know Amy Butler by her beautiful printed fabrics. She also has a line of home decor, pattern books, paper etc. If you aren't familiar with her line, check out her website (you'll also find some free sewing and craft patterns).

I probably could have found this information out a lot sooner had I been subscribed, but oh well. The discovery made me so excited, I thought I'd share!

YES!  Between the two machines, I was FINALLY able to crank out a crayon roll and matching tote!

I have had many friends become new parents within the last year and it was important to me to give them something thoughtful, functional and of course handmade to celebrate. Unfortunately, grad school has put me so far behind in my recreational projects that some of these gifts will reach the kiddos closer to their first birthday than their actual birth. Not to worry, these crayon rolls are fun and functional and can be useful during their early stages of development and exploration.

I have two more crayon roll kits in the works and will post pictures when they are finished. In the meantime:

About this time last year, the DC metro area was experiencing record amounts of snow. Without getting into my own opinions as to why, the clean- up effort took longer than necessary expected, thus leaving many people confined to their homes. We were not alone, and in addition to learning how to brew beer, I had to find other ways of keeping myself entertained and distracted from the anxiety of waiting for graduate school admission decisions. This is how I ended up making fabric flowers by the dozens.

When my mom saw pictures, she called them “Crazy Daisies”. At least I think it was my mom. Anyhow, these turned out to be a great stress-reliever, not to mention a cute little gift for friends, office mates, or just a different way to express team spirit. Here’s a tutorial on how you can make these fun little guys in about 20-45 minutes:

Supplies:

•  small scissors
•  6 to 8 pieces of 2”x 2” or larger squares of scrap cotton fabric. The squarer they are, the easier they are to handle. I would recommend using a rotary cutter and ruler to cut these.
• Matching thread
• Hand sewing needle
• Tacky glue (or hot glue if you’re in a hurry)
• Small wooden discs, heavy ribbon, foam square or anything else you want to use for backing
• A small button

Tip before you begin: Don’t get frustrated if you struggle on your first or even second try. The pictures you will see in this tutorial are actually from two different attempts to make it! Have some patience and you can have a lot of fun with these.

1)  Begin by pre-threading your needle and placing a secure knot at the bottom of the thread. Set aside.

2) Place your first square with a corner pointing towards you. Bring down the top corner to the one closest to you. You should have an upside-down triangle.

3) Bring in the two sides so that they meet at the bottom point.

4) Flip the square over and fold the corners in so that they meet in the middle.

5) Fold in half vertically and flip over, pinching the bottom. Congrats, you just made your first petal! It should look like this-

6) Very carefully, thread your needle through the sides of the petal, making sure to catch every layer of fabric. Do not push your petal down to the knot; leave a little bit of a tail.

7) Repeat steps 2-6 for each petal you want for your flower. Look very carefully to make sure that the petals will be facing the same direction before you thread it… I’ve made the mistake before and it’s a PITA to re-do!

8) Once you have your petals on the thread, trim the bottoms so that they are all flat.

9) Take the tail you left at the end and your remaining thread and tie together so that the petals form a circle (the flower!). This is the most difficult part; do not tie it too tight or the thread will break, do not tie it too loose or the petals will go wacky—and not in the way you want them to.

10) Once you have your basic flower shape, mount the back to prevent fraying. For this one, I used a wooden disk (center), but you could also use ribbon (if you intend to sew or glue it onto a fabric surface). Another idea is just to make a simple broach out of it.

11) After the backing has been placed, glue a button to the center to hide the raw edges and finish it off. In the spirit of today’s Superbowl XLV, I chose a black button to go with the yellow flower.

Try experimenting with different colors, sizes, buttons and number of petals!

I saw it, I made it, you can too!

A few years ago, my husband and I were living in Pittsburgh and decided to drive out to Punxsutawney, PA for the annual Groundhog's Day Festival. It was an... interesting... experience that I think yinz should do at least once if you're "nearby".

When we went, it was a bit of a last-minute decision (I think we made up our minds the week prior). Since Punxsutawney is a very small town, there are very few hotels or B&B's so rooms fill up pretty quickly. Because of this, Mr. Stout and I decided to drive in from Pittsburgh. The drive was about an hour and a half and the festivities began at 3am. You can imagine then what our mindset was like when we went into town around 7am.

I saw all of these people walking around in these amazing groundhog beanies and headbands. I wasn't exactly thinking clearly from my lack of sleep and half of a funnel cake breakfast, but I just had to have one of these.



I didn't realize before, but you can actually buy these online for about $10 at the the Punxsutawney Phil's Official Souvenir shop:
http://www.groundhogstuff.com/

Sadly, I am a day late in posting this in time for you to get one of these nifty guys in time for this year's groundhog's day celebration. However, if you have a little bit of time this weekend you could probably your own hat! With a bit of research I found this great tutorial: Make your own fleece hat!

It looks super easy, and according to the person that wrote it, easy enough for 8 year olds. This project can be completed by hand or sewing machine. With some brown fleece, a little bit of alteration (making the ears round), and some imagination, this is a great 1-day project to do on your own or with your kids.

How did yours turn out? If you have comments or suggestions, let me know!

Happy Groundhog's Day!

Last fall, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art had an exhibit called Grassroots: African Origins of American Art. The exhibit held a fantastic display of hand-woven baskets from Africa and described how women in America still make these baskets out of sweetgrass (the virtual exhibit is still up online; for more info, click on the link above).

Between that exhibit and a class I was taking called The Green Museum, I was inspired. I wanted to see if I could try making a coiled basket using up fabric scraps (being green). I couldn't wait until winter break to try it! I insisted on doing the process by hand instead of by machine... and it resulted in a big unraveling mess.

Fortunately, amongst the multitude of crafting supplies I have laying around, I had some yarn. This turned out to be much much easier than my initial attempts with the fabric. It was also a lot more portable. I was able to take it to work and found that it is also a great way to keep the attention of small children on an airplane. I found the tutorial here: Craft Yarn Council website.



The picture above is my first attempt at coil basket making with yarn and clothesline! As you can see, it's a little wonky-shaped but I figure its not bad for a first attempt. If I make any more of these, I'd like to try experimenting with embroidery floss or beads!

I saw it, I made it, you can too!