Fabric Balls

I decided to make some fabric balls just because I thought it’d be fun. I looked all over the web and was finally able to find a pattern for these balls. I’m guessing most people think they’re easy enough that a pattern isn’t necessary.

The one in the back I made for my friend David. His b-day’s coming up and he’s turning 31 but I figured he’d enjoy a ball to appeal to the child in him. =) I made the one on the right for my sister just because I like giving her random things. The one on the left I made for my friend Don’s daughter. I’ve never met her but I’ve heard all about her, she’s 1 and seems adorable so I think she’d enjoy a ball. Here is a video of her unwrapping it. Soooooo cute!

 

Big Girl Make-up set

When I had made the ballerina play set for our friends’ kid, I made an additional one, thinking I’d give it to our niece. I just found out she’s turning nine and doesn’t play dress up anymore. Instead, she’s into make up and big girl stuff now. Imagine how much of an ass I would’ve looked walking in with a tutu. Anyway, I decided to make her a make up bag full of make up. I just ended up going to Target and picking up a bunch of different items: lip gloss, nail polish, blush, eye shadow and a brush set.

I finished off the bag with a vintage button a hot pink yo-yo that’s made with the same fabric as the lining.

I just wrapped it up in some blue tissue paper and pink ribbon to match the bag. She was super excited about her own make up bag.

 

Ballerina Play Set

I saw this tutu tutorial a few months ago and really wanted to make one. I don’t have a kid and sadly enough, I think I would be a bit of a freak if I made one for myself to wear around the house. Anyway, so I decided I would make one for our friend’s kid because we bought her some princess shoes for Christmas and Princess outfits for her birthday. I figured I would make her the tutu & then buy a leotard and some ballet shoes for a play set. I was going to wait for an occasion but I don’t really like giving gifts on actual occasions. I like giving IOUs or getting credits for future occasions.

I told some sewing friends that I was making a tutu and they warned me the tulle was going to be a bitch to sew. And indeed it was!

I used six different colors of tulle- gray, pink, peach, blue, purple, and pale yellow with little sprinkles of sparkles. I thought it looked nice and a little girl would really appreciate it. You can kinda see it in the picture below

Unfortunately, my tutu did not come out as well as the one on the Distressed blog. My first one was waaay too big as I used my own waist as a guide, minus a few inches. I don’t know how small a kid’s waist is supposed to be but apparently, it’s much smaller, like half the size. So now I have a tutu that’s almost my size. I did try it on and twirled around in it. Since it was smaller than my waist it was more like a tutu apron. Hmmm… I may have to keep it for myself after all.

I used the same pink grosgrain ribbon for the bow. The box is part of a set I bought from Costco and I think it matches perfectly with the play set.

 

Little “Paper” Shopping Bag

I’ve been meaning to use the tutorial for the little shopping bag on Oh Fransson! some time now. I used the Etsuko Furuya fabric that I had bought on a whim. The eyelets I used came in a huge package that came with the Crop-A-Dile that I bought from Costco. Yes, with the matching carrying case and everything. =) My boyfriend picked out the purple eyelet and I think it goes really well with the bag.

The inside I did in hot pink and was the leftover fabric from my Argyle Quilt. You can kinda see it in this first picture. It matches the pink bird perfectly.

I couldn’t follow the directions exactly as the fabric was directional so I had to cut two separate panels so both sides would be right side up.

The side matched up unintentionally and I think it came out really well. I don’t know what I’m going to use it for exactly. So far I’ve used it to put stuff that I’m meaning to return to stores.

 

Mountain Findings

My boyfriend and I went on a hike today in the mountains above Alta Dena. I’d never been hiking there before and it was a decent consolation for not being able to go camping this weekend. (well, not exactly.) Anyway, the trail was LOADED with moss. All different kinds and many of the very beautiful fuzzy suede-looking ones. As I have mentioned before, I’m very fascinated with moss.

This is my collection today and I would’ve taken more but I didn’t have a bag or anything so I had to carry everything in one hand. Not a bad harvest considering my limitations.

On the side of the mountain there were all these succulents growing between the crevices. They were also surrounded by little mounds of moss, so I harvested one of those too. How very cute isn’t it?

I’m actually not exactly sure whether I am allowed to be harvesting this stuff.

The orange ball is this seaweed-feeling plant. It feels plastic-y but it’s this beautiful bright orange and when you see it from the freeway, you can’t even tell it’s there because it looks like part of its host plant that’s just dried out. It’s this spidery web stuff and my boyfriend said it spreads very quickly and takes over bushes and plants. It twirls itself around the host plant and finally asphyxiates it and covers it completely from sunlight. There were a lot of dead bushes that looked as though they had been killed by the orange stuff. It actually looks like orange cobwebs all over the plants. Some of the plants were covered very thickly. So anyway, I don’t know what it is and I really hope it’s not poisonous because I took soooo much of it because I thought it was pretty. It’s a brilliant orange and it just looks so lovely with the moss. Does anyone know what it is? I tried google-ing it but I don’t even know how to search for it.

On a completely separate subject… I bought some Mokeskin Cahier Notebooks today for my trip to the UK next month. I decided to cover them of course. When I told my friend what I was doing, he said, “anything to make it a little prettier, right?”.

All three are done in Japanese washi paper. The one on the right I hand-carried back from Japan and the other two I bought here in LA.

I used Yes! glue to put them on and was my first time using Yes glue and I must say it is everything people have raved about. It’s easy to apply. It’s thick enough that it doesn’t run but not too thick where it rips the paper. It’s super simple to put on with a paintbrush. It is also water soluble so if you make a mess it’s an easy cleanup and if you misplace something, you can replace it before it dries. Lastly, it doesn’t wrinkle, is acid-free, and has good bonding once it’s dried.

 

My Next Project

So yesterday I was surfing on the Oh Fransson! blog and came across this. She’s soooo creative and makes the most fabulous things. I immediately fell in love with this quilt and have decided that it is going to be my next project. Instead of the botanical pop fabric that she’s using, I’m going to use the new Ginseng line by Joel Dewberry in Mulberry. I was sent an e-mail for the presale and I was instantly drawn to the Mulberry colorway but I couldn’t figure out what I would use it for. (Side note: I’ve decided that I’m going to stop buying random fabric unless I have an intended project for it. Wow, I know, super mature! That’s total self discipline there.)

I haven’t felt inspired to craft for so long but this new posting gave me inspiration and I have been working feverishly on my aviary quilt in order to finish so I can start on this new project. My aviary quilt has been collecting dust underneath my table for almost two months now. =( I’ve finally finished it.

Quilting circles using a 3/4 sized sewing machine and extra thick batting is the most frustrating & annoying thing in the world. Never again! I’m sticking to stitching in the ditch from now on. I did an awful job on the quilting. All the “circles” are different shapes & sizes; and there are puckers-galore but I don’t care. I’m just glad I finished it. I’m counting on the washing machine getting rid of all the flaws. =)

I ended up using the lighter woodgrain for the backing. It measure 60″ squared.

Now, on to the new project! =)

 

First Felting Attempt

I bought a package of wool roving on ebay a few weeks ago and I finally got to it. I also bought a Japanese craft book on felting but decided I would start with something relatively easy and start with the soap.

The soap was actually very easy. I found these instructions online which were easy to follow. I didn’t have a felting board or wash board like they have so it did take quit a bit of time but was fun to do.

After I made the soap, I wanted to make something else. I wanted to try something from my new craft book but everything looked really difficult & since I couldn’t read it, it seemed even more difficult. I ended up just making a felt sheet to start with, just to see how it would turn out. This attempt was not so successful. I did this on kitchen floor and got soap everywhere. Also, I didn’t put enough layers of roving down so when I finished felting it, it wasn’t thick enough and was laden with holes. =( Also, it wasn’t a very nice shape, a very awkward attempt at a square/rhombus. I was thinking I could use it as a wash cloth and I needle felted a little leaf and embroidered the leaf spine with embroidery floss.

After staring at it for a while, I decided I would try needle felting the whole thing over a tennis ball. That allowed me to needle felt additional roving to barer parts of the ball. While it’s not as nice & round as the ball I bought, the end result was much better than had I left it as a weird-shaped bath rag.

 

Shelf Curtains/Skirt

These are the new curtains I made for our shelves. We have these industrial looking metal shelves that we got from Costco. It’s not very attractive, especially with all the crap that’s crammed in it. Up till now, I had a table cloth thrown over it, which made it super annoying to get inside as I’d have to throw the tablecloth over everything that was sitting on top of it. Really messy looking and very annoying. So I decided with my newfound sewing skills, I could probably make some nice curtains.

Coincidentally, I found some home dec fabric that was on sale at the Crate and Barrel outlet that they were selling for super cheap.

I tried the curtain on after I made it and it actually looks really cute as a skirt. It actually fits me perfectly too. My boyfriend said I should wear it as a skirt instead of a curtain but then I’d have to make another set of curtains.

This was the first time I’ve done ruffles before and it was relatively easy. My machine only stitches up to 5mm and I was thinking perhaps bigger ruffles might look nicer. Maybe a long running stitch by hand?

I was going to make some tiebacks for them but I’ve ran out of both fabrics. I do have some orange grosgrain ribbon though, which should match.

 

Notebook Holder

I finally made the notebook holder for my boyfriend. I ended up giving him the notebook already because I hadn’t gotten to making the holder.

I lined the inside in an orange batik. I think it goes well with the skulls. My boyfriend said it looks like flames. It’s not really my style but I’m glad he likes it.

 

Mmmmm… donut – _ –

I saw a donut pincushion while I was in Toronto and was insistent that I had one. Mine is chocolate with purple frosting. I don’t know exactly what kind of frosting is purple… I would say grape but I’m not sure about a chocolate donut with grape frosting. My boyfriend said the donut was a little dinky and if he got that at a donut shop, he would have to complain about the size but I said it was a cake donut, which are usually smaller. =)

The chocolate part is made with brown felt while the frosting is made with a purple acrylic sweater that I bought from Goodwill. It’s the same sweater I used to make my mushrooms. There were beads and embroidered flowers on the sweater, which I kept on, hence the flowers. I cut the beads off and resewed them so they could be more randomly distributed to look like sprinkles.

I wanna make a whole bunch of them so I can have a whole plate of different donuts. mmmmm….. donuts… Speaking of donuts…. my absolute favorite place for donuts is donut man in glendora. Donut man has the most AMAZING donuts. He’s on Route 66 and in season he does Strawberry and Peach donuts (not together) but the Strawberry donuts are the BEST! He uses fresh strawberries, which he mixes with a strawberry glaze, then puts like two cups into a fresh donut. OMG…. gives me a joygasm just thinking of it… mmmmm….. DONUT!!!