kirstencan

Handmade Robin

A Robin Costume for the 4yo's handmade Christmas present.

Long-sleeved green tee, oversized red tee with sleeves cut off, freezer paper stenciled 'R' patch appliquéd on - appliquéd stripes and collar also.  So. Easy.

It looked better without the stitching but I wanted to secure it.

In one of those lovely meant-to-be shopping moments, The day I was at Target picking up the t-shirts for this, there was a stack of toddler girl's GREEN leggings on clearance.  Only green.  He fits into a 5T.  He'll never know they were supposed to be for girls.

Ka-Pow!

He's gonna love this.

p.s. I'd love to take better pictures of these handmade gifts, but the kiddos are hanging out right outside my door - I'm lucky to get pictures of them at all!

Geeked out shirts

For our gift-giving strategy for the kids, I am trying to make something handmade for each of them. 

Here's what I made for Thomas.

At first I bought a red shirt to stencil, but Aaron couldn't believe I'd make one of our kids a Red Shirt, so I switched to yellow.  Just a simple freezer paper stencil for the collar and logo -  but my boy (who is at this moment asking if he can watch Star Trek now, NOW, NOW!) will love it.

The other part to his gift is another shirt (hopefully he'll forgive me for giving him clothes for Christmas...)

Totally digging this one.  My best stencil ever, I think.

I should probably wrap them separately, but I think that Star Trek and Star Wars can co-exist in the same packaging.

One down, two to go  - what are you making for your kids this year?

And then...

On Sunday I spent the evening singing with 20,000 other people and the Tabernacle choir. 

Can't beat that.

Today it snowed.

Not much, but more is on the way.

So I'm feeling MUCH more Christmas-y.  And that's a good thing.

So I made some more Christmas pillow covers this afternoon.

Much more cozy.

I think that's my holiday decorating mantra:  "Cozy and colorful".

Happy.  Now if only we had our tree already...

Pumpkin Pillow

Something that's been in my sketchbook for a while:

 

A little holiday pillow.  Just a little textured black sale fabric, some orange flannel, and bits of a felted green sweater.

With a touch of embroidery - some of which isn't too visible here (it snowed all day, so the lighting hasn't been great) but I did some loopy green vines and pumpkin lines.

 

But, Oh, no!  Did we lose some features?

 

Never fear, little pumpkin!  We have a lovely assortment of eyes, noses, and mouths for you to choose from.

See, we keep them here - in an easy to access pocket.

Monkey will hook you up right.

Hmm...
 

Not your favorite face?  Don't worry, it'll be changed shortly, I'm sure!

Holiday decor + holiday activity rolled into one!  Woo!

....

So, yeah, this was my little crafting therapy this week.  It didn't take long to whip up at all.  The embroidery was done while waiting at dance.  Pillow covers go together fast.  I used velcro (scratchy side) on the pumpkin, but none on the felt - they didn't need it.  I was hoping to avoid velcro altogether, but it holds the felt pieces on better.  Also black velcro would have been better, but I used what I had on hand.

...

Oh, and thanks to Rachel of One Pretty Thing for featuring my book mobile as well!

Halloween Costumes - Harry Potter Style

Well, here are the kiddos 2009 costumes! We had to get all dressed up for the annual carnival at church on Saturday.

Here's Hermione:

Her fave accessory was her time-turner (although I think she liked having her hair crimped, too). It is pretty darn cool, I admit.  It's this that I ordered from Half.com to put away for Christmas - and when it arrived in a completely smashed box, I got refunded but got to keep it.  Which worked out pretty great for Halloween.

Ron -  he's even got the red hair for it.  He has Scabbers the rat (an IKEA toy we already had) sewn to the shoulder of his robe. Although we should probably have used the brown rat instead?

 

And a little blonde Harry, whose bangs usually cover up his lightning-bolt scar.  He kept being goofy and waving when I was trying to get a shot of him, so I ended up with one shot of him exactly blocking his face.

So here's the deal - after much deliberating they all chose these costumes independently!  I was pretty excited, because I loved the Star Wars theme year (and you know I was excited for a possible Lord of the Rings theme - but they nixed that eventually).  My mom made the Hogwarts robes - she made them up based on an angel costume pattern.  Yep, she amazes me, too, with her mad sewing skillz.  She bought the fabric with her Joann's coupon so they didn't cost much.  I think they turned out AWESOME.

I ironed on the Hogwarts logos and sewed the button + loop fasteners. I also made the scarves from fleece - which took no time at all.  We bought the ties and Harry's glasses (ironically the one kid who doesn't wear glasses needed them and the other two took their glasses off) - everything else we had around (white shirts, pants/skirts, sticks for wands - which we didn't bring to the carnival).

We even had Hedwig!  I found an official Hedwig owl at a yard sale this summer (it was free even!) and put it away for Halloween because I knew they were all considering Harry Potter characters.  We forgot to bring Crookshanks, but we had that planned, too

Thomas was less than excited about putting on a shirt and tie for the carnival.  Until he saw how awesome his sibs looked - then he didn't complain at all - and asked to put it all back on the next day!  I'd forgotten that 'church clothes' are not his fave and might cause a problem.The coolest part was just that we had all three characters, I think.  And the kids have new awesome dressups to add to their collection - and to wear whenever they watch a Harry Potter movie or read the books - so I think they'll be in use a lot!

2008 Costumes

2007 Costumes

(I got no good photos of them together in 2006!  But here's 1, 2, and 3)

Skipped a generation?

Well, the girl didn't inherit my yarn issues.  She seems to have taken to it quite well!

After making a couple of scarves for her dolls (the first one was a tad wobbly, the second surprisingly NOT) she started on a washcloth... which looks at least as good as the ones I make.

Yup, she definitely picked this up faster than I did.  I might be a teeny bit jealous.

I think she might need this book for Christmas:

We've checked it out from the library once - so I already know that it's great.  And just because I have no desire (or skills) to read a crochet pattern, doesn't mean she won't!

Oh, and Monkey?  Totally finger-crocheted this scarf for his teddy.  I did the wrapping around his fingers, and he did the looping.

So... me and Thomas will have to stick together.

I definitely can't do everything...

My sister and I were just having this conversation about how we're pretty well-rounded individuals.  I think I pretty much am.  I am relatively successful at many things that I try - which in itself is a talent, probably, but I have no stand-out talent or ability.  This was my story growing up with music, dance, sports, and even in college.  As an Art Education major, I had to take classes in every medium, which means I have no real focus even in art.  Shoot, check out this blog - a little of everything.

But, holy cow, I am not gifted in the fiber arts.  Knitting and crocheting?  Does NOT come naturally to me.  Whatsoever.

My grandma (who crocheted, knitted, quilted, etc.) taught me to crochet at least 2 or 3 times while I was growing up.  And I'd promptly forget.  It just won't stay in my head.

But I did re-learn how to crochet last year, while sitting at dance watching another mom whip out dishcloth after dishcloth.  She taught me and was most helpful.  She even praised my very trapezoidal dishcloths.

But again, there was no dance this summer - and I didn't keep up my practicing.  I forgot.  Completely.  I don't know what it is about yarn, but I just can't remember how to work with it.

When dance started back up again - I had my hook and some yarn, ready to try while I waited for my daughter.  My friend was so patient to remind me how to do it again.

It is a very calming craft for me - and very portable, which is a plus.  I've been crocheting while at book club, outside with the boys, watching tv, and of course, waiting at dance.

And I've met with more success.  I have no grand ideas of shawls or hats (or following a pattern of any kind).  I'm pretty happy that my double-crochet trapezoids have become virtually square.  I'll feel extremely successful if I keep producing dishcloths.  I might at some point go for a scarf.  I'm sticking with squares and rectangles.

I even ventured into Walmart (for the first time in ... a year or two?) because it's the only place I know of to get the HUGE cones of cotton yarn.  I just wish I could get a cone of pear-green and white or something instead of stone blue and white, you know?

Anyway, maybe if I make enough of these I'll remember how to crochet for more than a week.  Because once I learned double-crochet, you know I immediately forgot the single crochet.

.

My other thing I've never been good at?  Tennis. 

What about you?

Cushions and cupcakes

My daughter's horse-loving friend had a surprise birthday party last weekend - a good excuse to play with fabric to make her a gift.

Since she was getting a room redo (and finally her own room!) for her birthday, we decided to make her some cushions.  The horse is a freezer paper stencil (inspired by this appliqued one) that Princess helped me paint - the fabric is a blue-green  silky, taffeta-y... stuff that I'm pretty sure I thrifted.

The smaller pillow is Heather Ross horse fabric mixed with scraps my MIL gave me from the quilt she made for me.  Didn't I mention that she gave me a whole bag of scraps from that quilt including several quilt blocks?  Well, she did (woo!), and I cut a couple of the blocks up to make this pillow go together super fast.  No plan, just improv'd, but I love how it turned out.  The horse fabric is on the back as well.  Both pillow covers have simple envelope closures.

(This is why I always have a few spare inexpensive IKEA pillow forms stashed away in my closet!)

I also volunteered to make cupcakes for the party - since the birthday girl's mom was swamped trying to get rooms re-arranged and redecorated in a hurry.  I decided to try rolling out and cutting shapes from starburst candies.  I'd heard of that somewhere...

I think they turned out cute - but I don't know that I would do it again.

I'm just glad all the candy and candy residue washed off my counters!

Birthdays - another excuse to do something creative (even if it's not for your own kid!).

No more plain tees

In an effort to make my wardrobe a little more interesting I've been dressing up some of my plain t-shirts.

This is a quick appliqué around one side of the neck - the flowers were already cut and ready to go from another project that I didn't end up using them for. I'm lazy that way.  Or efficient?

I also did some quick bleach pen doodles.

Now, you never know what you're gonna get with bleach pens.  The above green faded to a cool yellow-ish, the below to a blue!

I think I'm going to add some more feather-y doodles to the above...

And this blue one didn't look like it faded at all, so I just washed it (some fabrics just don't take the bleach well) and when it came out it was bleached in an outline!  Weird.

 

I freezer-paper stenciled a Silly Walk tee with chocolate brown paint.

And quickly sewed on this robot patch to a corner of a red tee - like the flowers at the top, this patch was all done and ready to use - in my appliqué box.  All I had to do was sew it on.

 

And lest you think I've been doing purely selfish embellishing, here's a bleach pen robot I doodled on one of the boys' shirts.

::beep::

Because why keep your shirts plain anyway?

(BTW, 'Ultimate T's' at Target are on sale for $6 this week!  Go and pick some up - and while you're there grab a bleach pen!)

Mobile Swap - so very late

This post is rather embarassing.  After signing up for the mobile swap, finding out my partner, and mulling over many possible design ideas... I stalled.

Ideas wouldn't pan out.  Somehow I couldn't settle on a final idea.  Then I decided to make a mobile similar to the one I made for our playroom, made from vintage children's books hung from baker's twine.  Still not working.  I'm not kidding - it sat and sat, because something just wasn't right.  I would pick it up and change one thing and put it back down - for a couple more weeks. 

One day, a couple of weeks ago when spending the day at my mom's house, I decided it had to be finished TODAY.   And so, I finally did get it sent out to my very patient swap partner. 

Here's a look:

It is extremely hard to take photos of a mobile - they're always moving slightly!

I added blue ribbons to it, because it needed something.  Kristin had said she wanted a blue/green mobile.

Thanks, Kristin, for waiting so patiently for this - I hope it looks awesome in your preschool!

An interesting thing about this swap is that you don't give to and receive from the same person.  I got this mobile from Fede in Australia.  I absolutely love it.

Check out all the great mobiles in the flickr group.