With These Hands

I love making birthday presents for my two nieces. This year I wanted to make a slim, almost sleeve like bag for Ellie to hold some more adult type art supplies. Initially I was looking for an kit, but really couldn’t find anything that had a good variety and was of better quality. That’s when I thought to make a bag and stuff it with individual items for her to use and enjoy.

The outside is all canvas, while the interior is soft cotton flannel. I used fusible webbing to adhere the ELLIE letters and hand stitched “creates” with DMC.

There was plenty of room for everything: pastels, sculpty clay, brushes/watercolor, and two pads of paper:

Included in her gift box was a little softie I created from a drawing she had made for us. It’s the sweetest owl and he’s been residing on our fridge since he was drawn:

I scanned him onto my computer and printed him out onto a sheet of printable fabric. I then quilted the owl imaged fabric onto some solid cotton flannel. I finished it off by using some sweet Japanese owl fabric I had in my stash and stuffing him with polyfill and some dried lavender buds. He smelled good!

♥

July 2nd, 2009 ★ No Comments »

Since I finally had the chance to give the gift yesterday, I finally get to post pictures of the lovely item.
This bag was for Melanie, my Matty’s speech therapist. She has been a part of weekly lives for about 3 years now. The help that she has provided to Matty and his verbal challenges is immeasurable. As well as the guidance she gives to me. I feel like I’ve learned as much as Matty, if not more!
Such a sweet person warranted something special.

This time it was a yoga mat bag. A bag! For her yoga mat! I was excited to make it and knew exactly the fabric I wanted to use. I had used this fabric before to make purses and wristlets and such and thank goodness superbuzzy, had some left! As I couldn’t find it anywhere else. It’s from the Echino line from Japan. And I just adore it.

I also made her a hairband to match. Sweet.

I have made a few yoga bags in the past and was pleased with the results. This one I like even better. The fabric is beautiful and I used a very slippery nylon outdoor fabric for the interior. The bag slides right in without any catching. I think I might start producing some more of these to keep in the shop.

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materials used:

heavyweight cotton
nylon blend fabric
thread
interfacing (for strap only)
elastic (for hairband)

January 8th, 2009 ★ No Comments »

Every year I convince myself that I’m going to make as many gifts as possible. Try new ideas. Search for exciting tutorials. Expand my crafty repertoire! And well, every Christmas comes and goes and I’m might eke out a few. Nowhere near the production I conjured in my head. It’s because I’m a blatant procrastinator. I’m not proud of it, but there it is.

And of course, this year was no exception.

A) I was sewing up until the last moment. (Many gifts were being mailed to faraway family.)
B) I had many more ideas that I didn’t have the time/energy to implement.

There were completed items that had to go RIGHT into the box for mailing, so I didn’t even have the where-with-all to photograph them. Which still bums me out. They included various pouches and hairbands (no big deal) to new items like this crayon roll (for Tai) and this pencil and notebook holder (for Ellie). I will make these items again though, so all is not lost.

On Monday night I was yet again closing in on my own personal deadline but still managed to produce these wristlet & tissue pack sets for Matty’s teachers. This was after I completed the cookie bags for his little class. Yep, I was up until 1. Sigh. The wristlets are of course my own tried and true design and the tissue packs were an idea from Skip to my Lou. Not too difficult, but very nice indeed.

But I did get photos this time!

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And lastly, the sweet cookies.

I’m almost positive I did something similar last year. (But who could remember?!) I like to keep it simple for the kids. No chocolate, no nuts, as I really do not know if there are any allergies or such. These are simple, 5-ingredient butter spritz cookies. I adore these cookies. My mom made them for many years when I was growing up and they still bring me Christmas joy. I used the tree plate and added some green food coloring along with red sugar. Easy but cute. My kinda deal. They went into small bags fastened with red ribbon. Attached you will see nametags that I printed from Emily’s offering over at the the black apple. (I just love it when she offers cute tags!)

And that was it for this year.
I would love to say that I will start early for next year and be all done and just breeze through the holiday season.
But we all know the truth.
C’est la vie.

December 24th, 2008 ★ No Comments »

Oh what a mad scramble leading up to the day of the bazaar. See, I contacted the school REALLY late about my submission and they were nice enough to let me in. Then I procrastinated a day or two. Then it was Thanksgiving. Then I was sick. And like wow, I was chained to my sewing machine for a good two days straight here at the end.
But I got a lot of nice new, very cool and adorable items made and that pleases me.
Know what pleases me even more?
Doing well at a fair.
And I did!
Even though I was still pretty darned sick and foot traffic was kinda slow.
I remember being bummed at the close of the show, thinking I had done poorly.
But Sunday came and I sat down to tally and woo-wee, I did good!
As usual, I met some wonderfully sweet people who were amazingly generous with their compliments and support.

Some pics of my booth.

Really, my favorite part of my set-up was my little (real!) Christmas tree I had purchased from Whole Foods that morning. It smelled just like Christmas and looked adorable hanging out with my bags and such. I put felt little red birdies and my business cards in the branches which made me quite giddy. I’m so easy.

December 11th, 2008 ★ No Comments »

It came and went by fast.
And now I can breathe again!
After a slow start on the first day, Thursday, things picked up a WHOLE LOT.
And I had my best year ever at the Arlington County Fair.
I’m still flying high because of it.
I beat my first two years and also beat the goal I set for myself.
Amazing!

Some pics of my set-up:

Now it’s time for me to sit down and list all the extras in my shoppe. I will hopefully have this completed in the next few days or so. If you’re looking for something that you saw at the fair, please keep checking back!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to stop by my booth.
And very special thanks to those who loved my things enough to make a purchase.
It means a lot to me and I’m very appreciative!

Cheers!

August 11th, 2008 ★ No Comments »

Phew.
It’s all done.
It wasn’t THAT much, but you know, being that I had (and still have) like a billion things to do before the new babe gets here, it felt like my plate was extr-y full and all.
But now?
All done!
Well, the custom sewing projects are done.
And shipped!
That’s the best feeling.
And now all that’s left is for all the lovely ladies to enjoy their new items. Yeah, yeah, THAT is the best part.

So here is the work:

A ladybug hip-pack and hairband set.

Matty actually modeled it for me! (Being that in my current state, or you know, ever, do I have a 28-30 inch waist. Ahem.)

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A pretty pink pinwheel purse (say it 5 times fast baby!).

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And finally, a three piece set: messenger bag, laptop sleeve, and wristlet. A lot of work, but very pleasing. I loved doing the exterior embroidery design and I’m thrilled with how everything came out.




And that’s all for now! I need a break. But probably won’t take one. I have plans to actually make myself some stuff now. Finally!

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materials used:

nylon quilted
wool felt
magnetic snaps
zipper
lightweight corduroy
cotton
thread
nickel swivel clip
d-rings
dmc thread
interfacing
cotton canvas

September 17th, 2007 ★ 2 Comments »

Yeah, I can’t get enough of the owls.
I just ADORE them.

I still had some of this very awesome Japanese owl print cotton and decided to make a few items . My favorite part is hand sewing the wool felt appliqués on the outsides.

Eyes open!

Eyes closed!

On that second pouch, you will notice some extra cuteness in the corner there. I added a pink owl button and a removable pinback button, which I got from the very cool Kung-Fu Cowgirl over on etsy. See the whole set that I got? Darling!

Both pencilcases are in the shop, along with a few other items that I was able to whip up while waiting for some fabric to come in for the custom jobs I’m in the middle of. (Poor sentence structure!)

Check ‘em out folks!

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materials used:

wool felt
dmc thread
interfacing
cotton
twill
thread
zipper
button

September 12th, 2007 ★ No Comments »

…of the custom work I’m in the midst of.

I’m loving this black mini purse.
It was made at the request of a very lovely lady, Jeanie.
I met her at the Arlington Fair.
She was helping her friend Judy in the jewelry booth next to mine.
Both of those ladies definitely helped pass the minutes.
(And allowed me to take a loo break!)
Oh and Jeanie’s husband rocks. Did ya know?
Check it.

So this mini is for her friend Mandi.
Mandi is cool.
And she has an 80s tribute band, The Reflex.
I think she’ll dig this mini.
Who could resist a mini made exclusively for themselves?

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materials used:

ebony heavyweight twill
heart print cotton
magnetic snap
thread
wool felt
dmc thread
interfacing

September 1st, 2007 ★ No Comments »

Well, I survived.
The Arlington County Fair is behind me and phew, am I relieved.

It was a lot of hardwork but I made it through and made some good dough.
Got to talk to some wonderfully lovely people too.

My favorite part is when folks who remembered me from last year came by to visit or buy. Their excitement about my products was so humbling and flattering and sweet and awwwww.

So here are some pics of my booth, my view, and my new friend.

Booth!
I took this on the first day when it was all chock full. I didn’t have the flowers yet either. I picked up some pretty Gerber daisies from Whole Foods and they beautified my space even more. I love daisies.

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I was right across the way from this acupuncture doctor dude. I got to stare at heiney placards and like big ears and stuff.

And then of course, there was this guy again. He always makes me chuckle, watching him walk. Matty was fairly interested in him, he would grab his deflatable hands and push in the groin-al region. Good times.

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And my new friend.

(I know that’s a crappy picture, I only had my camera phone when she was all complete. I’m gonna take some better photos of her tomorrow, weather permitting.)

Now, she was completely handsewn by moi. I did it during my downtimes, in between customers. She is from the Wee Wonderfuls Put-Together Book-1. I finally had the time and motivation to actually put one together! And I just adore how she came out. I added a little red birdie and matching purse so she could act as my mascot during my time at the fair. She certainly kept me company and intrigued some of the shoppers. One lady even wanted to buy her! (No sale though, I just couldn’t part with her after working so hard. Plus she looks awesome sitting in my workspace at home.)

Her name is Roberta, by the way.
Or, if you like: Rowr-berta
Or even better: Ropuurrr-ta

Yeah, Mike got a good chuckle out of those too.

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So that’s all folks.
For now.
The shoppe will be updated with all items that weren’t sold. Should take me a coupla days. You know, I know I said this would be my last hurrah before the new babe gets here, but I’m kinda hoping that I have some time to keep it going for a while. I say that now, you know, before all the middle of the night feedings and such. So who knows if I’ll even have the stamina to continue. God willing I suppose! Time will tell.

August 21st, 2007 ★ 1 Comment »

Very pregnant.

And sewing.
A lot.

The Arlington County Fair is only 8 days away!

My self-imposed production schedule is kinda ridiculously ambitious. But I figure this fair will be my last hurrah for a good long while.
I have lots o’ stuff cut out already and it’s just a matter of me sitting at that sewing machine and going to town.
Last night I was up until 1230.
Tonight?
Who knows!

Once everything is complete, then it’s on to pricing, picture-taking, and packing.
Erm, fun stuff?

August 8th, 2007 ★ No Comments »