holiday bunting
remember the birthday bunting i made? well a few years back the girls and i made a holiday version together.
it started with a trip to bolt fabric boutique to pick out a few fat quarters of holiday fabric:
then we planned out what we wanted the banner to say and how many letters that was and how many squares that would require. being raised by an elementary school teacher i naturally made this a lesson: helping five year old nora sound and write out the words and having etta count them.
we traced and cut out all the letters from black felt and squares from the fat quarters. then we sewed the letters on the squares by hand. (fun fact: black felt hides any less than perfect stitches from the younger sewers). finally we planned how it would lay out:
then aunt maggie took it home and finished sewing the letters and stitched it to a long piece of handmade bias tape from gather here.
let's also admire how nice the trim is in my sister's house. seriously that place is original in all the right places.
your home (and children) are lovely abby.
and the colors go so well with your decor.
love,
aunt maggie
for my birthday last year victor bought me sewing happiness by sanae ishida.
it is a darling book with heart warming stories and 19 little sewing projects. i’ve already made the triangle tote bag (to be blogged) and the zippered pouch a few times (here, here, and two more times that haven't been blogged) from the bookand found the instructions to be excellent. so when maya told me she had her first loose tooth a few weeks before christmas and asked for a tooth fairy pillow i once again turned to sanae.
so i love harry potter.
i’m gonna say that again to really hammer the point home: i love harry potter.
next month my mom and i are taking nora and etta to disneyland and universal studios. naturally I've decided to sew the girls a few things for the trip. first up: my mom requested some bags for the girls to have in the park.
quick post on something I whipped up for baby wesley!
one of the oldest fabrics in my stash is this whale laminated oilcloth I bought back in cambridge at gather here in 2012. having never sewn with oilcloth before I was looking for an easier pattern that would provide lots of instruction and up my odds of a successful result.
cue the little things to sew book from oliver + s.
what is the longest you've ever left something as a work in progress before actually finishing it?
a few years ago i modified the much loved class picnic tunic pattern (from oliver + s) to make maya an apron. given that it was such a hit I knew one day I would need to make neela one.
sometimes you just want to have some premade gifts on hand, so two weeks ago i made this 24 piece memory game.
it's back to school sewing season!
first up is maya who is starting kindergarten this year. after i saw this post from gail over at probably actually i decided to make her a lunch box.
a few weeks ago i made my co-worker an owl backpack for her son. upon seeing it another co-worker asked if I could make something for her friend's daughter. so i took another stab at an owl pillow (my first one is here).
i'm always refining how i store my sewing supplies. a few weeks ago i rearranged my thread storage, and now it's kept in the box that formally held my makeup.
so I turned to my birthday present from victor, sewing happiness by sanae ishida for a solution.
in the summer of 2013 i made maya and etta owl backpacks from the little things to sew book (which is by the good folks at oliver + s.)
over the past four years these backpacks have gotten a lot of use, so i decided to make a lil' man version for the son of a favorite co-worker!
what's more fun than a flower girl dress?
oh I donno perhaps a miniature version of maya's flower girl dress for her doll charlotte!
my brother in law omkar (also known as maya and neela's dad) is a huge fan of the Green Bay packers. So much so that I decided to make some "go pack go" bunting for their house:
my obsession with making play food for maya and neela continues...
today i am going to show how i made some play bow tie pasta for them.
vic and i had a super bowl party this past weekend. he spent a week deciding on the menu and the better part of saturday prepping food (don't feel bad for him, he loves cooking).
meanwhile my contribution was cleaning the house, putting the cat in an amazing bow tie, and picking up some flowers from a shop in rockridge.
then I decided to start a new project three hours before guests arrived.
surprise! i've continued with making my family napkins and candles!
i made this set of napkins for my sister sammie, also known as maya and neela's mom.
maya loves toy food. which means neela loves toy food, or rather neela loves to put toy food in her mouth.
so for my first tutorial of the new year I am going to show how i made them some felt strawberries for them.
