Quilt Stocking Logistics

So, you all know (probably) that I make Christmas stockings. And sometimes I make them out of old quilts. These quilts are the ones that have been used to death and have popping seams and worn-through patches and fraying edges. 

[They look approximately like this.]

[The stockings, not the quilts.]

Well I just got some new (old) quilts, and I thought I might as well start cutting them up into stocking shapes, because I sold a lot of stockings this last Christmas season, and I figured I couldn't start making more too early.

With most quilts, it doesn't really matter which way the pattern is facing on the stocking, so cutting out stocking shapes is kind of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle -- I'm just trying to get the most stocking pieces out of the quilt, while avoiding the badly damaged parts.  However, one of my new (old) quilts has these lovely embroidered flower baskets all over it.  And those kind of need to be facing the right direction, don't they? (Yes, yes they do.)

So I had to bust out some paper and draw up a diagram of the quilt to make sure everything was going to work before I started marking and cutting.

Phew!  I think I got it.

Cedar Sachets (Made from Neckties!)

And now for something completely different...

I don't remember how this idea occurred to me, but I'm really excited about it.  It's unique and fun and manly, which is important.  It's so tough to shop for guys!

Cedar sachets!  Sachet is a really girly word, isn't it?  Well I don't know what else to call these, because they're stuffed with something that smells good, and their job is to sit in your closet or dresser and smell good (and discourage the moths). 

But the cool thing about these is that they have a tie label on the back, for hanging.  Which is not ribbon.  Because that would be girly.  Yep.

 
They're made out of old neckties, which I have a ridiculously extensive collection of.  I find them at thrift stores and garage sales.  Norman takes the ones he likes, but he's picky, so I still have a lot for crafting.  You know I use them to make Christmas stockings and zipper pouches.  And now, cedar sachets, too!  

So I've got airplane sachets, runner sachets, baseball sachets, stripy sachets, wasp sachets, paisley sachets, etc, etc.  So fun!

Anyway... Ta da!  Go check them out at my Etsy shop, and remember that Christmas is around the corner, and that you have brothers, fathers, grandpas, bosses....

Bread Loaf Pan Kludge

("Kludge" being defined by urbandictionary.com as "a quick, messy but functional fix or workaround to a problem.")

I'm trying this tip from The Tightwad Gazette for when you don't own enough loaf pans.  Come back tomorrow to see how this works out...

(Bread recipe here. More time consuming than bread machine bread, but very tasty, and all whole wheat!)

This Year's Babby Birthday Invitations

Lucy turns 2 in about a week and a half! Her party is early, though, to avoid Easter problems. Last year, the birthday theme (if you can even call it that) was polka dots. This year it is "outside". So I made these invitations!

[The chaos of the craft room mid-project]

[Pieces ready for assembly]

[Ta da!]

[The inside]

This was all using stuff I had. I used a "2" cookie cutter as a stencil for the twos. I always have plenty of colored card stock on hand. The cloud paper I just picked up at the thrift store a month or two ago. And the grass is the plastic grass they put in packaged sushi! I knew I had been saving it for a reason! :-)

Norman said they look like Pixar. Not really what I was going for, but I'll definitely take it!

Party pics should be up on Tuesday, assuming I remember to take any!

Child Rocking Chair Seat Revamp

As I write this, it's Christmas Eve Eve. And as you read this, it is Christmas Eve (or later). So I haven't given this present to Lucy yet. It's still in the garage (which is where I revamped it, so excuse the horrible lighting in the following photos). But since Lucy is not a regular reader of my blog, I figured I was safe. :-)

I found this wooden child's rocking chair in the dumpster by our old apartment right before we moved to the house we are in now. So that was... a year and a half ago. It was really in quite good condition, especially for something that came out of a dumpster. It is solid wood, sturdy, and the only thing wrong with it (aside from some scratches) was that it had no seat. I think when I found it there were upholstery tacks and some faux-leather-type pieces around the edges. Upon closer inspection, it actually kinda looks like it was originally a wicker seat, which someone removed and installed the faux-leather seat. But anyway, it's small and adorable and old and sturdy.

I eventually decided to redo the seat with an assortment of old belts woven together. I hit up a thrift store bag sale and raided their belts. I bought about 8 that I thought had a reasonable chance of being leather. And I've had them for about a year. That's why I decided I'd give Lucy the rocking chair this Christmas -- so I would actually get it done.

On Tuesday I bought some upholstery tacks, and Wednesday evening I cranked the thing out in the exact length of time it took to listen to the Glee Christmas album. Exact. It was crazy.

I only had a vague idea of my plan, but as Norman and I were discussing last week, that usually works out for me. But that's probably because I have good instincts about what I can improvise and what I can't.

Enough talk. Photos.

[Before.]
[It looks kind of big here, but let me assure you, I cannot fit my hips between the armrests. It is for a child.]

[Pile of belts]


[Figuring out the weaving]


[Ta da!]

[Close-up of the seat]

It could definitely be more polished, but I think given the condition of the chair, it's just right.

Okie Crafts

I've lived in Oklahoma my whole life. Aside from a few assorted summers spent in Kentucky and Minnesota, it's been Oklahoma. I know a lot of people who have lived in Oklahoma their whole lives, and they are damn proud of it. They love it here. They might die for Oklahoma.

I'm not one of those people. I've actually been trying to escape for the last 9 years. It looks like I'll (probably) finally succeed this summer.

Maybe it's the happy prospect of leaving, or maybe I've finally made peace with my home state. Or maybe I stumbled across some Oklahoma-type items and I knew I could turn them into something awesome. (Psst -- It's the last one!) But I made some Oklahoma crafts. They're pretty cool, actually. And they'll be for sale at Deluxe on Saturday! Woohoo!

[Oklahoma picture book turned into a blank journal]

[Note cards made from the pages of the above picture book]

["Oklahoma is justly proud of its Symphony Orchestra."]

["Sooneropoly" board game coasters -- I've got two sets left!]

Jewelry Scroll Redux

It's been almost 3 years since I refined my design for a travel jewelry organizer, which I call the "jewelry scroll". (You can read all about it and see how it works here.)

It's refined from the original, which I made for my college roommate. She had a lot of fun jewelry, and she spent a lot of weekends out of town, dressing up fancy. She told me she was going to look for a good jewelry organizer at WalMart, but I volunteered to make her one before she had a chance to find out that WalMart wouldn't have what she needed. That first prototype was kind of a disaster. It wasn't padded; it wasn't quilted and it didn't have the dowel rod on the inside, so it sagged all over the place. I've since given her an updated version. :-) Here's a photo of the first one:

[The prototype. Oh my.]

I made the first new batch at the end of 2006, and I slowly sold them over the course of the next year. I didn't make any more until my husband's friend's mother saw one that her daughter-in-law had bought from me, and she ordered 6 more last year for Christmas presents. Well, I figured if someone would buy 6 of them, then surely I could get 6 people to buy one of them, right? So I've brought them back. I finished making another 8 of them about a month ago. I'm just so proud of the design, I couldn't give them up, even though they take forever to make.

So here are some photos of the latest batch.

[There's only one made from an old quilt, but I plan on making more of those if I can get a handle on the rest of my inventory.]

[Most of these are made from upholstery fabric samples.]

All the new scrolls will be listed in my Etsy shop shortly. Plus they all have matching makeup bags, which I will also be listing.

Baby Legs!

OK, so I think technically "Babylegs" is a brand name. Oops. They're just baby leg warmers. But since I hate most everything about the 1980's as a decade, I refuse to call them leg warmers. See, that was the last time.

I made some for Lucy using this tutorial. So easy. So easy.

I bought three pairs of ladies' socks at Michaels for $1 each. Such a steal.

I had made her a pair of argyle ones out of one of my gazillion pairs,

but they're a little long.

They're really great for keeping Babby's legs warm (duh), and for keeping her socks on, since she doesn't wear shoes yet.

(I'm kind of opposed on principle to non-walking babies wearing shoes. But there's not a sharp non-walking/walking line. She's definitely walking, she just has to be holding on to furniture to do it, and she doesn't do it outside. Hmm... Time to hit up the thrift stores!)

This kid just doesn't sit still.

Ah, there we go. Asleep.

Lucy's Christmas Stocking

I realized several days ago in a panic that Lucy needed a Christmas stocking. I hadn't thought about this fact for approximately 5 months. Yipe! My brain kicked into high gear and got right to designing, and then cutting, and then sewing, and before I knew it I had this:


This is very different from what I imagined her stocking would look like while I was pregnant with her. I thought I'd go with some sort of cutter quilt type thing, but now that I know Lucy, that just wasn't going to work. I decided on "girlified denim", as I'm calling it, because I think it's kinda timeless, not too young, not too grown up, not too boyish, not too girly.


While I was making it, I was thinking about its possibilities. This is Lucy's Christmas stocking. Hopefully she'll like it, and it will be the only one she will ever need. I thought about my Mom's Christmas stocking, which her grandmother made for her. She's had the same one for 40-some-odd years, and I suppose she'll have it until she dies. Then one of us will have it. I hope my grandchildren have to decide what to do with this stocking after their grandmother joins us in Heaven.


The lining is made from the gown I wore when I gave birth to Lucy. My mom gave it to me for my wedding. I didn't know what had happened to it after the birth, but when I asked the midwives, they said they had it. They don't throw things away, apparently. That's nice. I was afraid it was gone. They washed it, but it was still a little stained. But ya know what? It was childbirth. I kinda saw that coming. I've been saving the gown, trying to think of something I could make out of it for Lucy that she could keep forever. Eureka!

The Finished Product

I gave you a peak at the cloth pads I was working on. Well, after more like 2 or 3 hours (not the one hour that I predicted), they're done!

In addition to photos, I thought I'd re-answer some of the questions asked in the comments of the last post, for everyone's benefit.


(Yes, the flame fabric might just be my favorite.)

Q: What are the snaps for?

A: I put them on the flaps to keep the pads in place. If you do an Etsy search, you can see what different styles of pads look like. They almost all use snaps. Snaps last longer than Velcro, and are nicer to the rest of your laundry.


Q: So what kind of fabric do you make them out of?

A: The ones I'm working on now are flannel, towel, towel, windsuit, flannel. :-) The windsuit material gives it a little waterproofness.

Q: How do you take care of used ones? And how long do they last?

A: Before I got pregnant, I would rinse them in cold water until the water ran clear, then keep them in a closed bucket of water and baking soda. Then I'd wash them in hot water every couple days. Now (when I start needing them again) I think I'll rinse them and throw them in with the dirty diapers (Which are in a dry pail and get washed in hot water every day). This is because it will be easier since I'm washing diapers anyway, and because it's unsafe to keep a bucket of water around with a toddler.

Depending on how many you have, what they're made out of, and how you care for them, they can last up to 5 years.


And there you have it.

Also, although I planned to serge around the edges of these (as I serged the flaps and the pantyliners I made that I didn't show you photos of), alas, my serger is wimpy. It couldn't handle all those layers. Phooey. Zig-zag stitch plus walking foot, to the rescue! (Which, by the way, I scored at an estate sale for $30. Sounds like a lot for a sewing machine presser foot, doesn't it? Well, they regularly sell for $50+ on eBay. Yeah.)

Sneak Peak

Here's the project I'm working on at the moment.


Yep, I hear the gasps. Those are pads. Menstrual pads. For me to use. I was reluctant to post about them (with photos), because they are, indeed, taboo. But then I thought, "When has that ever stopped me?" So here they are.


My husband has agreed to give me 2 hours a week when I am completely off mommy duty. I feed Lucy, then I can do whatever I want for an hour, twice a week. Mostly that means craft. I think I only need one more hour to get these done. There are 20 of them.


And they'll have snaps! which came in the mail yesterday. Woot.

Diaper Covers

I made some diaper covers. Lucy has three that are too small, three that are too big, and one that's juuuuust right. But now she has three that are just right, because I traced the one that fit to make a pattern for the other two. And here they are.


(Fleece from Freecycle/thrift store) Actually, the dark blue used to be an airline blanket.


Felted sweater from Freecycle. It came pre-felted! The leg cuffs were the sleeve cuffs, and the waistband was the neck. Turned out a lot better than I expected.

Sorry, no action shots... Yet.

And yes, I do feel better now that I've crafted something. Thanks for asking. :-)

Two Things:

I have two things to share with you. I'm putting them both in one blog post in case I don't see you for a while. I feel I will have a baby very, very soon. At least, I'd better, because the pressure on my pelvis is much worse than it was before, so for my own comfort and sanity, she needs to come soon. Anyway, the two things are:

1.) Yesterday I picked and ate the season's first strawberry. Mmmmmm.... There's nothing quite like a sun-ripened strawberry right off the... strawberry plant. It was very tiny, but amazingly tasty.

The weird thing is, I didn't plant strawberries. I didn't plant anything outside this season. I'm pretty sure that plant has just been there all winter since last year and decided to do some more growing and give me some strawberries. Cool.


2.) I made this stuffed guitar for a friend's baby shower. She had mentioned that she hopes her daughter plays the guitar/is a musician, so I thought I'd get her started on the right foot.

It turned out pretty much exactly as I imagined it in my head (and believe me, that doesn't always happen).

I love it. I really wanted to keep it. But they need it more than I do.

Taggies!