neela heart maya, maya heart neela
so, not to brag or anything, but my parents have the best yard in Ann Arbor. with a large grassy area, woods, stream, hammock, and 200 year old oak tree with a tire swing over the pond it's kid heaven.
y sisters and I had lots of forts in the woods over the years, but never a tree house. so when my sister Sammie said she was going to have one built for maya and neela I knew I had to make something for it, but what?
ore bunting!
as part of my two year stash busting quest, all the fabric came from my existing collection:
- the purple plaid i got from the east bay creative reuse center.
- the magenta sparkle print was from britex, and used to make maya her sparkler dress and neela a matching top.
- the bee print was a gift from vic's aunt and uncle, and left over from Nora and Etta's mash up dresses and neela's float like a butterfly, sting like a bee top.
- the purple polka dot was leftover from Nora and etta's twirly dresses and a class picnic tunic for maya.
- the magenta swirls, originally from stonemountain & daughter, was left over from the mommy and me top and scarf and a swirly swingset skirt.
- the letters were from a chambray i got a while back at stonemountain & daughter, with the intention of making myself a lisette traveler dress.
- finally i used some pretty special fabric, liberty of london apples print originally from gather here for maya's peacock dress three years ago, for the bias tape binding.
just as I thought the girls love the bunting and love their treehouse!
they even wanted to bring teeka bear up!
love,
aunt maggie
my in-laws are currently cleaning out victor’s late grandparent’s home, which means there are a lot of lovely things they are trying to find homes for.
over the holidays they encouraged victor and myself to take anything we could find a use for. when I saw a giant bag of embroidery thread in victor’s grandmother’s cross stitching supplies, I knew it would be perfect for my nieces to make friendship bracelets.
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.
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.
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.
this past weekend my sisters and i went to austin for my "bachelorette" party.
in addition to bridesmaid dress shopping, day drinking, and succulent photographing we made a trip to craft, where for $10/hour you can use all their supplies and tools for whatever creative adventures your heart desires.
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.
you saw those snazzy labels i made for my sisters's candles? well today i'm going to do a tutorial for how i made them.
I have quite a few fabric crushes these days. so indulge me for a minute.
(fair warning this is a lot of cotton + steel...and may end with a fabric purchase.)
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.
after my fantastic experience with my first dropcloth sampler (more on that here and here) i was excited to try the second one my sister had sent me: the color wheel.
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.
merry christmas!
what does one get the woman who raised your significant other? homemade napkins and a candle of course!
for the past few years I've done non physical gifts for my family, giving gift certificates for restaurants or local experiences instead. this year I did that as well as a few homemade things.
today I am going to show what I made for my very favorite person: my own mama.
anyone hoping to get a kindle for the holidays?
i got one last year from victor and thought i would share a tutorial for making a simple case for it.
i'm nothing if not predictable.
a coworker recently had a baby boy. so guess what i made him?
have I mentioned lately that the bay area has the best weather?
then again i spent the first quarter decade of my life in the mid west and northeast, so perhaps i'm easily impressed.
since i no longer need cold weather gear, I've developed a fondness for what i call 'san francisco scarves' or infinity scarves made from cotton.
can we talk about how handsome my cat is?
if you can draw yourself away from that face for a moment you will see he is wearing a purple polka dot bow tie, made from fabric left over from maya's spunky polka library dress. today i'm going to share a tutorial on how to make your own cat bow ties.
quick post today
a little while back i whipped up this stuffed owl. admittedly it was inspired by the cat nip toys i made fitz around the same time.
my parents are huge hippies, i mean we belonged to a tofu co-op for a good part of the '90s. combined with the fact that they had my sister abby in the mid-70s one has to imagine they dressed her in some pretty funky stuff.
sort of like these goldenrod cords i recently made a friend's baby.
today i'm wrapping up the series on my favorite home made gifts by talking about things you can make for housewarming, hostess, and girl friends.
yesterday i posted about my go to gifts for little girl apparel and today i'm going to post about apparel gifts for little boys.
until a few months ago i had never made clothing for a little boy. i had gotten by sewing gender neutral baby stuff and toys whenever necessary and didn't have any desire to change my approach. why sew for boys? i've got this girl thing down and it's really fun.
but when our friends had a baby boy back in june i knew it was time to get on with it and set to work on my first boy project. since then i've developed a few favorite boy apparel items i turn to when it comes time to make things for the little dudes...
for the next few days we are talking about my favorite homemade gifts for various types of occasions. yesterday i shared my favorite kid toys and accessories to give as gifts and today i'm talking about making little girl apparel as a gift.
now sewing for little girls is sort of my 'thing' so i'm breaking it down into three pieces of advice.
this is awkward but we should probably talk about how it's the holiday season. for the next few posts i am going to share my go to homemade gifts for various demographics. let's start with the obvious: kid toys and accessories.
