gifts & accessories

kid birthday parties have entered the chat.

my pandemic baby started preschool!

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.

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. 

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!

when maya when moved to the big kid room at her daycare my sister and i decided it was time for her first backpack. 

vic had very thoughtfully gotten me the little things to sew book by oliver + s a few months earlier and i was dying to try the penguin backpack pattern. but when we found this owls all around print from the nested owls collection we knew a penguin wasn't gonna happen.

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).

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:

so, not to brag or anything, but my parents have the best yard in Ann Arbor.

this was a really fun upcycling project.

remember the birthday bunting i made the girls? well a few years back the girls and i made a holiday version.

it started with a trip to bolt fabric boutique to pick out a few fat quarters of holiday fabric...

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.

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.

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. 

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.

sometimes it's the simplest and easiest projects that bring my nieces the most joy. 

my sister sammie is exactly the kind of mom i, as the biggest recipient of her nurturing instincts for 26 years, always knew she would be. that is to say she's amazing. she's warm, caring, disciplined when need be, and most of all really fun. so when i see maya idolizing her, hanging on to her every word, and wanting nothing more than to be like sammie, i can totally relate.

my sister sammie loves to cook, maya loves to help, and i love to use up scraps of fabric. so it's not surprising this apron came into existence.

good god i love making doll outfits.

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!

we have a new addition to the family! meet charlotte, maya's new doll.

remember the #lovewins skirts I made maya and neela? 

this is the story of how aunt maggie won christmas.

december 2012: my nieces were incredibly into their american girl dolls or rather they were incredibly into those babies made by the american girl doll company. yes just about everything these girls did revolved around tweedy and mister dolly. (you read that right, mister dolly is what etta named her doll. in terms of cuteness that's right up there with how she calls vic 'aunt vic' or 'uncle vicky').

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.

a few years ago my sister abby gave me handmade style by anna graham of noodlehead.

what is the longest you've ever left something as a work in progress before actually finishing it?

for my birthday this year victor got me "sewing happiness" by sanae ishida.

sometimes you just want to have some premade gifts on hand, so two weeks ago i made this 24 piece memory game.

for the holidays a few years back i made maya a fabric memory game. it was such a hit i thought i would share a tutorial.

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. 

if it's not incredibly obvious, i love my cat. chairman percy fitzwallace aka fitz came into our lives this january and is never leaving.

growing up with dogs i never thought I would be a cat person, but I am definitely a fitz person.

today i am going to share a tutorial for some owl shaped cat nip toys i made him.

a few years ago my retired parents, who had shunned off all pets since my childhood dog had passed away a few years earlier, woke up and decided to get a new dog. so rosie the english bulldog entered our lives.

i feel like you might need a visual to really be with me here.

my sister abby lives in a beautiful 100 year old portland home.

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. 

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.  

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. 

when i moved to california two years ago i had grand dreams of refurbishing or making all our home furnishings.

i was going to find a vintage school map and hang it as a funky piece of art, put $75 worth of anthropologie hardware on a $50 dresser from craigslist i lovingly refinished while listening to podcasts, and of course sew any and all fabric components of the decor along the way.

these days i am a wiser woman and have come to realize just because you can make something it doesn't mean you have to. so today i am going share my thoughts on what is worth it to make vs. what is okay to just buy. 

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. 

i just can't quit this fabric.  

as previously mentioned the show portlandia really speaks to my soul. 

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. 

after six years my longchamp finally died on me last january. however I had been preparing for this day and already had a successor picked out that was unique, reflected my quirky personality, and big enough to hold a laptop: the merchant & mills oil skin bag. 

whats that you don't know about merchant & mills? 

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.