Single Sock Dog Update

Single Sock Puppy is a favourite of the peeps who visit here and so I thought I'd add two photo's that people have been kind enough to send me of their versions of the puppy.
First from Emma over at http://emmalm.wordpress.com:
She made a standard one and then a dragon from the same idea. Love it!

These three were made by http://www.cutoutandkeep.net user Kantia and her daughter and a friend.
She was kind enough to repeat my tutorial for a single sock puppy on the website and show other users her results

Pam over at http://pamandmatt.blogspot.com kindly pointed me to hers in my comments. One is a mouse but I think he is super cute!

Thank you to everyone who visits and posts comments! It really helps to know that people are positive about my/our work and that I'm part of such a bright and vibrant community :)

Manic Mobiles

What I should never do is stand in the shower and think about how happy and blessed I am. This is apparently like honey to bad luck flies. Seriously, a close family member dies, husband changes jobs (not for good reasons) and then husband slips a disc in his back and is bed ridden for three weeks.

But the interesting thing is this- it turns out I craft to relive stress. So there has been oodles of crafting- it's just that blogging is not stress relieving in the same way,so the proof of all the crafting starts now!

I had to make a mobile for my then soon-to-be-born Godson. I made many different its before settling on one idea but the others are still around and I'll sell them in my shop on Folksy. One of the ideas not to make the cut was this steam punk type airship:

I am particularly fond of the little patches on the balloon part. Oh! and the propeller. I didn't think the fins would turn out to look so convincing.

Next I tried a little floating house- which was too uncomfortably like the "Up" house (which I haven't seen but it seems my my sub-conscious has!)

 

  

But, finally, this is the pattern I liked the most although this one was a bit too big.

Eventually I got what I was looking for. What so much felt had to die for!

It was a wrench to give it away but since I made so many I'm fairly confident I could redo it in my sleep now!
Hope these brightened your day (they brightened some dark hours for me making them).
Stuffed dinosaur tutorial soon- just sketching out the pattern to be able to be downloaded. Sleep tight!

Quick and Simple Snack Bag Tutorial

So here is a project that is supposed to be super quick and easy to satisfy a need. What need? Well! I like to buy the larger packs of snack etc because it's cheaper than lots of single helpings. However, these packs are not very easy to handle- trying to reseal a large pack of biscuits with an elastic band in a moving car on a road trip is not fun! The second need is very simple. If you give me a new packet of biscuits in a car I won't stop and will eat them all! This way I can portion out only a few and car trips can cease being a weight-gain fest...

These bags are easy to squeeze into the small spaces left when we've crammed the car for holiday and are wipe clean (but can be turned inside out and really washed if required). They also satisfy me eco-conscience because I'm not constantly buying plastic bags and containers.

I  made some of these for an expectant mum and they went down really well! She has plans to use them for damp flannels to wipe dirty faces, sterilized pacifiers etc.

To begin:

We will need 

• Fabric- 1 window piece 20cm (8inches) by 24cm (9 and a half inches) and 1 back piece 20cm (8inches) by 20cm (8inches).
• Clear plastic 2 pieces to the same dimensions as the fabric. (A note: I had the plastic left over from a clear plastic table cloth protector but you can buy this type of plastic in smaller amounts too. If you're willing to sacrifice the display window you can even fuse some plastic bags together to create the lining)
• Hook and loop tape (velcro) about 8cm (3inches)
• Bias binding (this can be avoided if you serge/overlock the edges instead)
• Scissors
• Thread

 First, let's cut the window. Take the larger piece and cut a hole in the bottom half of about 8x8cm (3x3inches). Try and centre the window with and equal amount of space on the sides and the bottom. NOTE: Do not do like I did and get so excited about cutting the window that I cut it so the pattern is facing the wrong way! Doh! now my skull pirates are upside down :(
Next cut a 1.5cm (half inch) diagonal at the corners of your window like in the photo below:

 At this point you could iron the folds inwards - but this project is DO EASY. So it's not necessary if you don't want to crack out the iron and speed and instantaneous gratification are more your thing!

Here's is a close up of the corners for clarity:

 Next, sew the smaller back fabric piece to it's corresponding plastic backing with the right side of the fabric facing away from the plastic. It can be helpful to sew with the fabric side on your feed dogs (the little feet that move the fabric forward under your presser foot.) The plastic can get stuck on these whereas I found the plastic slid happily under my presser foot.

 Again- this project is about speed and ease. Don't worry if it's not too straight (see below), I include a chop off your mistakes step!

 Now, on one of the short 20cm (8inch) sides fold the fabric-plastic sandwich over twice to make a finished edge. Like this:

 On the same edge, sew one of the pieces of velcro:

That's the small back piece done! tea time!

OK. Now take the larger front fabric piece and sew to it's plastic counterpart with the right side of the fabric facing away from the plastic. Once this is done it is easy to fold back the window flaps under the fabric outer and sew down (I used a zigzag stitch).

 Close up:

 The inside now looks like this:

 Take the small back piece and the front piece and sew together with wrong (plastic) sides facing. See the yellow stitching below. Remember the top of the back piece will take extra strain at the seams so sew further than the edge.

 Your bag should now look something like this:

Trim off the pesky not-lining-up bits! This also makes adding the binding easier since it removes the bulk inside the binding's fold.

Sew around the whole outside with the binding. There are many tutorials online for sewing on the binding (from the easy fold in half, set machine to massive zigzag and go for it! to the sew one side then the other. Do whichever suits you)

 At this point sew on the other bit of velcro to the plastic side, on the flap of the front piece.

 That's it! Admire your work

 Fill with treats (optional: munch treats immediately after sewing bag!)

 Make more!

Leave a comment below and tell me how you used your bag or point me to photo's of yours!

Stuffed Dinosaur

So one of my best friends is having a baby half way around the world from me. I think this is very inconsiderate. Obviously I'll be crafting like mad, but now I'll have to pay for my makings not only in sweat and blood (hand sewing is torture) but also in postal costs! The agony!

Anyhoo. Here is one of many baby related crafts I've been sinking into:

 A baby stuffed dinosaur! A green spotted, blue spiked baby dinosaur!
(Note: I BRIEFLY called him a brontosaur but after the ensuing wikipedia battle with my husband I came to realize it is only correct to call him a diplodocus. Who knew brontosaurus is no longer acceptable?- since about the turn of the century?!)

 I was incredibly surprised at how well he turned out (I freely admit he is not my first dino, but the last one was tried about a year ago and I still haven't emptied the bag that the resulting demented half-creature lives...)
I made him with some super cheap bits of cotton that I already had in my stash and I used shrink plastic for his eyes. I'm a bit amazed at how much I like his eyes- they even follow you around!

So! Do you think I should make a tutorial and a pattern for everyone to have their own precious dino? I'm sure my construction could be figured out from my photos but its sometimes nice to have some help at 2am!
Let me know in the comments below.