Sewing – Page 3 – Making A Life

Seeing Stars

April 20, 2015April 20, 2015spaleksic1 Comment

For those that know I have a brain tumor, don’t worry the stars are completely unrelated to my medical state. But I do have a tiny obsession with stars. There is something about the odd number of points and graphic nature that draws me to them. Plus real stars are so shiny, and who doesn’t love a little bling.

Often I get started on one project that morphs into one or more others. This one started with a bunk bed and turned into tea towels and pillows. How does that even happen? All I can say is that my mind is a complicated place.

Printing fabric is super easy if you haven’t ever attempted it.

For this project I used:

Canvas drop cloth for the pillows – left over from another project purchased at a big box store
Flour sack tea towels – left over from the watermelon tea towel project
A rubber stamp – Michael’s
Acrylic paint – Craft Smart from Michael’s in Blue Jean, Navy Blue, Shamrock and Lush Foliage
Fabric Medium – Craft Smart brand from Michael’s
Paint brush
Yogurt container lid
A six-year-old helper (optional)

Instructions:

For the tea towels or canvas yardage (pillows) the instructions are exactly the same. I like to involve the kids when I make things especially when what I am making is for them. My six-year-old helper decided where the next star was to go by putting his finger on the fabric and then I would stamp the next star in his desired location.

Iron the fabric (optional)
Mix the paint with the fabric medium as per the bottle (the fabric medium waters down the paint which allows it to be absorbed by the fabric a little better and doesn’t make it crusty when it dries)
Paint the mixture directly onto the stamp, and stamp the fabric
Once you have completed stamping the fabric let it dry
Iron to set the colours on the appropriate heat setting for the type of fabric you used

Felt Easter Baskets

April 4, 2015April 4, 2015spaleksic3 Comments

A couple of weekends ago I was supposed to have my crafty moms over to make Easter baskets but I had just received some rather shocking news. But I was pretty determined to make the Easter baskets anyway. So here they are just in time for Easter. These are my take on a masculine Easter basket for my little boys. I used yarn scraps for the filling because my littlest love tore apart all of the snowball pom poms that I made earlier in the week, and it seemed like a pretty good use of his mess.

Instructions and pattern for the baskets are below. Click here for the bunny pattern.

We also decorated the eggs this morning which is a tradition carried on my by husband from his childhood. We were down one egg because Logan stole it from the table and bit into it shell and all.

Materials:

Three/four sheets of felt 9″x 12″ – cut one sheet in half for the inside, cut one sheet in half for the outside, cut a circle for inside, cut a circle for bottom, cut
One larger sheet of felt 23″ long or longer (paisley) – optional if you only want one seam on the outside
2″ wide Ribbon or felt at least 14″ long
3 plastic canvas sheets 10.5″ x 13.5″ – to give the basket structure
two skeins embroidery floss
needle
basket filler (yarn scraps)

Instructions:

Cut all of the materials as per below images – note 2 felt circles are required but not shown. Ribbon is cut and folded in half to cover mesh handle.
Sew the two mesh sides together, then sew on the bottom with embroidery floss. Safety pins work well to hold the bottom and sides together while sewing.

3. Sew the handle cover sides together with either felt or ribbon using a blanket stitch. Attach the handle to the basket with a straight stitch.

4. Sew the 2 pieces of inner lining together, and then sew the bottom on.

inner lining

5. Sew the outer lining together, and then sew the bottom on.

outer lining

6. With the inner lining inside the basket and the outer lining outside the mesh basket, sew the inner felt lining to the outer felt with a blanket stitch (around the handle I used XXXXX’s). Fill the basket with yarn scraps, or easter basket grass.

Happy Easter.

On the twelfth day of Christmas…an angel

December 24, 2014December 24, 2014spaleksic2 Comments

This is not a recent craft I made it in 1992 at the ripe old age of 15 for my Nana for Christmas. She loved Christmas and she loved angels. At the time I was pretty big into cross stitch. My intention when I made this for her was to add to her Christmas decorations, her intention was to put it in her living room year round. When she became an angel this picture was given back to me. I hang it up every year for Christmas along with the Christmas ball she made for me and the very old but functional carousel ornamotion decoration that has her hand writing on the box. I remember all of the Christmases we had together and I have some amazing memories of a great woman. I won’t forget the year she fell in the bushes after a few glasses of wine, or the year she was practicing giving the finger which I caught on film and used as my Christmas card, or the Pistachio torte. I’m sure she would be terrified to think I remember some of her funnier moments but I remember the good as well. Have an awesome Christmas and make some great memories with friends and family. Cherish every moment.

On the tenth day of Christmas…Elf Shoes

December 22, 2014December 23, 2015spaleksic5 Comments

IMG_20141207_091708 A couple of weeks ago before I had decorated the house for Christmas the kids found our stockings lying around and proceeded to wear them as shoes. They were giggling away as they showed me their elf shoes. This inspired me to make them some felt elf shoes. Sasha helped to pick out the colours and worked with me on the design. Here is the Elf Shoe Pattern that fits toddler shoe sizes 8-12.

Instructions (Can be hand sewn or machine sewn)

Cut out the number of felt pieces required based on the pattern
Pin the soles and sides together, and sew
sew the zig zag trim onto the top of the shoes
Sew on the pom poms
put dots or lines of puff paint on the bottom to stop the little ones from wiping out

On the fifth day of Christmas…Frozen, Waldorf style

December 17, 2014December 17, 2014spaleksicLeave a comment

My talented mom has also been crafting this holiday season. She was challenged by one of her friends to make a Waldorf style Frozen toy and this is the end result. I was so impressed that I thought that I would share it. I did have a laugh when she told me that she would head to Walmart for inspiration. I can picture her standing in the electronics section with a posse of little girls watching Frozen on all of the TV screens. I am pretty sure that she wasn’t singing along but I can’t be too sure.

Superhero capes

December 16, 2014June 4, 2015spaleksic4 Comments

If you could choose a super power what would it be?

At a party this weekend I was asked what superpower I would chose if I had the option and my response was the ability to fly. Most people wrote something about reading thoughts or controlling people with their minds. Thinking about it now flying might not be the most practical super power but it sure would be fun. In keeping with the flying theme I made all of the super hero’s in my life personalized capes for Christmas. And if you are interested I will make one for you too, click here for details.

When you have more than one child I find that there is fighting over everything. Having personalized toys helps cutting back on the fighting (at least when they can recognize their own names).

Up, Up and away.

Remembering

November 10, 2014November 10, 2016spaleksic2 Comments

Life is short and I am reminded of this everyday. A child in my son’s preschool class last year lost her dad. Her father was a member of the Canadian military and died on leave on the way home to see his family. I can’t think of anything worse for a child than to lose a parent.

As I was making the Christmas Sock monkeys (on a Saturday night after most of a bottle of wine) I got to thinking that if the socks had meaning the monkey would be more than just a decoration. My mind went on a bit of a spiral and I ended up thinking about the family from Sasha’s class that lost their dad & husband.

Before I sound like a complete nutter, we see this family everywhere, our kids are the same age, they go to school together, our youngest go to a play group together and our kids have swimming lessons together. So in the school yard bright and early Monday morning I approached the mom. I told her that I was thinking about them on the weekend and I explained my idea about turning her late husbands socks into sock monkeys for her kids. It was a slightly awkward conversation because I was asking for her late husbands socks and I have no idea how that conversation can be anything but awkward, but she brought me the socks a couple of days later.

When I started working on the sock monkeys I was in tears because one of the socks had pink paint on the toe and heel which I later confirmed came from painting their daughter’s room. As I worked on these monkeys I thought about my own family and how I can’t imagine the pain of this family and the strength of the mom. It’s my hope that these monkeys bring them a little joy even for a minute.

For a pattern and tutorial to make sock monkeys please visit Craftpassion.com.

Our Cross-dressing Christmas Tree

November 9, 2014December 9, 2015spaleksicLeave a comment

My favourite post from last Christmas

Making A Life

With three guys in the house the testosterone over flows. Much to my surprise the Christmas tree is male too. I was told by my four year old that “the tree is a boy, and boys don’t wear skirts”. Of course I learned that the tree was a boy only after I made it a skirt. So the compromise, a train tree skirt. For the times that I have put up a tree in the last 18 years, the skirt was missing. Sometimes I put a towel, or piece of random fabric draped around the base of the tree. I just filled the bottom with presents and who knew what was hiding underneath. But this year I committed to “finishing” the tree. I was out shopping, and I saw a beautiful tree skirt (with a train on it) for $100.00, and thought hey I can make something like this. My go to for “floor” fabrics…

View original post 82 more words

Crafty Mommas – Monkey Making

November 4, 2014November 4, 2014spaleksicLeave a comment

This past Sunday I hosted a monkey making party. I really enjoy making things and I want everyone to know how to make things too which is why I invite people over and attempt to teach them. I say attempt because I realized this weekend as I tried to show someone how to sew a specific part of the monkey that I am not the best crafting instructor. I think that it is mainly because I have been making things for so long that I don’t even realize what I am doing or how I am doing it. When Jen asks me how I sewing a specific part I don’t even know how to explain, I am just sewing. Sewing is so natural to me that I don’t question what I am doing or how I am doing it anymore, I am just sewing. This isn’t particularly helpful but I am at least aware now, and next time I might be able to explain a little better. Here are some of my lovely friends crafting their monkeys. They look super intense but really we had fun.

Monkeying Around

October 24, 2014December 3, 2015spaleksic4 Comments

There are lots of things that I should be doing and making sock monkeys is not on the list. I was in Michaels a couple of weeks ago buying these socks with the intention of wearing them as socks when the cashier mentioned that she had bought some to turn into sock monkeys. Obviously I thought that was a good idea because now we have a family of Christmas sock monkeys. Using the great tutorial I found here and a walking foot for sewing knits on my sewing machine it was pretty easy to make these little monkeys. Sasha was quite involved with the little striped one that he has claimed as his. He helped by turning the body parts inside out, stuffing them and selecting the eyes. I am going to have to teach him how to sew next!