Hems To Dolls: My Craft Room Chronicles

My "Mommy Poppins" Purse

2013-04-22T03:00:00.000-05:00

I've been lucky enough to be able to pattern test Jodi of SewFearless.com's Mommy Poppins Purse! The bag is a carpet bag style with the intention of being a diaper bag. I, of course, am not (and will not) be in need of a diaper bag but I have found it works perfect as a library day purse - lots of room for returning books & bringing home new books -I am raising another generation of

Ottobre 1/2013 #19 Relaxed

2013-04-20T15:53:00.000-05:00

My kids have both hit growth spurts since Xmas, meaning they are running low on pants that fit properly. I was able to find a pair of jeans for D at the thrift store ($1.50!) but they didn't have any 4T jeans for B. So, this gave me the motivation that I needed to make her a pair of jeans, not to mention that the one pair of jeans she was willing to wear got a big rip in the bottom! Using my

Sweet Pouches

2013-04-20T15:29:00.003-05:00

A long overdue post!! I'm not sure how but I neglected to post about the Sweet Pouch I received from Emily! Bad Alyssa!! I love it! She made me a quilted pouch with the cutest lining & great sweets! YUMMY! I just love the stamping she added - I always smile when I see my pouch! Which is daily since I keep it in my recently sewn Mommy Poppins Bag. To show my appreciation I made Emily

Girls' Anywhere Dresses

2013-04-17T12:26:00.000-05:00

The new Anywhere Dress from Andrea of Go To Patterns is so easy! It took me maybe 1.5 hours to sew two! I made one for my B in 4T and one for a friend's daughter in size 8 I'll have to update the post with pictures of V in her dress later. Don't you just LOVE the bright blue flowers!!! I used a vintage piece of fabric from my Grandmother's stash that I have had forever! I love the bright

Received Covert Robin Gift

2013-04-01T11:19:00.001-05:00

Received Covert Robin Gift, a photo by alyssa_j_s on Flickr. Just wanted to post real quick. I recieved my Covert Robin Mystery Gift from Jill - that beading must have taken a long time! I need to look up where the closest Starbucks is...must be one in Mankato -thanks for the treat! I, of course, totally forgot to take pictures of what I made for Leslie but I hope she really likes the

Covert Robin Mystery Gift Exchange

2013-03-25T10:44:00.000-05:00

I just happened to stumble upon the Covert Robin gift exchange just before the deadline to sign up -so of course I signed up! I am to make a handmade gift valued at $20-$30. The hard part for me is as far as I can find my giftee has no blog or any other way for me to stalk covertly learn about her to find out what she likes or even how old she might be - is she a mom, grandma, aunt? etc.

Boardwalk Skirt

2013-03-12T15:49:00.001-05:00

B is loving her Boardwalk Skirt! I was able to pattern test the Boardwalk Skirt for Andrea of Go To Patterns a few weeks ago. I made it from a vintage pillowcase and other stash fabric and notions. The skirt came together rather easily just as the instructions showed. I made B the size 4 and with her being lean, I had to use the drawstring in the front to make it snug enough to stay on

D's READ shirt

2013-02-22T14:31:00.003-06:00

At D's school February is focused on reading with the kids all wearing the READ shirts on Fridays. We got the order form in January but there is no way I am paying $20 dollars for a shirt when I can make D a shirt from my stash. With D reminding me Wednesday that he needed/wanted to wear a READ shirt Friday I made sure to get myself down to my sewing room to get something made. My initial

Sweet Pouch Exchange & Extras

2013-02-08T13:32:00.001-06:00

I was happy to join into Roslyn of Sew Delicious's Sweet Pouch Swap. I used the tutorial from Pink Penguin to make the pouches. This is the pouch I am sending to Tasmania! After I had this pouch all sewn up, I realized that it matches the Peggy skirt I made for B from Roslyn's pattern! Not sure how I managed that one! I also made a pouch for Grandma Robin. I love the bright colors of

Purple Sparkle Outfit

2013-01-25T14:19:00.001-06:00

This is the outfit that results from taking my 3 year old with me fabric shopping :) While browsing Joann's Fabrics B saw this purple sparkle (not sequin) fabric and asked if I would "Please get it? I looooovve it!" Since it was 50% off the clearance price I figured it would be a good buy (just over $6 for the 2+a bit yards). I made another skirted Go-To Leggings and a self drafted

Flour Sack Towels

2013-01-24T13:02:00.000-06:00

A few more flour sack towels. I had a yellow bird requested. I used a bluebird pattern and changed around stitch colors. The first one didn't quite turn out as nicely as I wanted, so I stitched another towel and watched it closely to stop and switch colors part way through to get the correct placement of yellow. Our lovely story time lady likes her towel so much that she has

Family Crossword

2013-01-21T10:57:00.000-06:00

I've been wanting to make some home decor items for myself after making a few canvas items for other people; so I made this 18"x24" canvas for us. I'm not sure if I saw this idea any where before but this is what I came up with. Unfortunately the green background color isn't as dark as it shows in my edited picture - honestly, I'm not thrilled with how this turned out - the colors just

Book Purse

2013-01-11T23:48:00.000-06:00

After seeing this pin I had been dying to make a similar purse. I really have a hard time destroying any books but I figured if I could find a suitable book cover at the thrift store then I could justify sacrificing a book but then I didn't get to a thrift store and didn't get there and didn't get there.... so I dug through my own shelves - confession - I am a bibliophile!! I have shelves and

Reuse Embellish & Gift

2013-01-11T22:50:00.001-06:00

My dear friend C's Birthday was this week and it worked out that we were able to get together for lunch on her actual Birthday. I gave her this etched jar, a 1/2 pint of homemade apple pie jelly, and wrapped it all up with an embroidered flour sack towel. For the etched jar I used a jar that, in a former life, was a wheat germ container. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the design out

Snowmobile Shirts

2013-01-04T22:20:00.001-06:00

Dear Hubby semi-posing for a pic for the blog :) I put my Silhouette Cameo to good use this holiday season making presents for my dear husband. I happened to find a couple of designs in the Silhouette store while they were on sale that I knew the hubby would like. I've used both to embellish shirts and as shown in my earlier post I also embellished a cup. D specifically requested a shirt

Quick Easy Gifts

2012-12-20T11:38:00.001-06:00

Just a quick post of some quick gifts that I have ready to give. With my Silhouette Cameo I was able to embellish a bunch of the cups I got at the Dollar Tree. Mostly I just put the recipient's name but I did do a little extra on a few of them. I then filled the cups with candy. For my husband I used this snowmobile design from the Silhouette store. I also cut this design out of the heat

Tea Towels

2012-12-20T10:57:00.002-06:00

This is actually an early birthday present(Shock! I actually got something done early!!!)I got this mailed with the Xmas presents -which, shockingly, I got mailed in plenty of timefor Xmas!!! I happened across a sale on plain tea towels or maybe flour sack towels, but any way, I purchased a few to do some embroidery embellishment with my new Brother PE770. I found all these designs for free

Go To Cape for Women

2012-12-19T23:26:00.001-06:00

Yes, I am make-up less - I was trying to catch some sunlight and didn't apply make-up after showering since I had no intention of leaving the house today or seeing anyone - but now lots of people will see me - oh, well too late now. I jumped at the opportunity to test Andrea's Women's Go To Cape pattern last week. After sewing up B's cape I wanted to have one of my own. I dug

Love Letters Upcycled

2012-12-12T09:14:00.001-06:00

The kids recieved an early Xmas present from Auntie L that I couldn't wait to have them open :) The kids each recieved a personalized ornament made by the lovely Kayla of Love Letters Upcycled. Kayla has such lovely items in her etsy shop - I'm thinking I need to get a set of the spoon hooks - they'd be great in the kitchen! Just had to share! Hope everyone is getting all the crafting done

Winter Handmade Gift Exchange

2012-12-12T07:00:00.000-06:00

I love doing the Handmade Gift Exchange through Craftaholic's Anonymous! This time I was paired with the lovely Trista of My Sparkled Life. I was lucky enough to recieve a beautiful crocheted earwarmer, coffee cozy, gorgeous damask frame and cute glittered clothes pins! I, of course, forgot to take pictures of what I made for Trista but she is wonderful and did a blog post already of her

Go To Cape for Girls

2012-12-11T20:49:00.001-06:00

I was able to test Andrea's pattern for a little girl's cape and am loving it! It was easy to construct, even being fully lined! I used a dark blue stretch velvet for my outer fabric and a cotton print for the lining. The velvet was a jumper from my MIL - ya for recycling! Andrea's instructions are clear with pictures that help explain quite nicely. With my early Xmas present! A

Holiday Village

2012-12-11T09:41:00.001-06:00

The start of our Holiday Village. I purchased this shape in October with the intention of using it to make various holiday villages with the kid's help to decorate. I never got around to making any Halloween houses but made sure to get some blanks cut yesterday to decorate for a Xmas village. I altered the shape by taking off the extra little "piggy back house" and removed the house peak on the

Grandma's Doll

2012-12-10T22:17:00.001-06:00

My hubby's step mom requested a doll for Xmas to go with the doll I made for her three years ago. The brunette in blue is named Clarice. Grandma R requested a sister for her. I decided a blonde in yellow with cherries would be nice & cheery. (Grandma has a thing for cherries) Clarice's buns were made by braiding three strips of felt then hand sewing them on. I really love the effect of

Refashioned Shirts

2012-11-16T14:35:00.000-06:00

I got a start on refashioning some of the shirts my MIL gave me. I traced an existing shirt of mine to get a pattern for re-sizing the XL shirt to my size - this worked very well! I cut the sleeves off a couple of turtle necks to make pants for B. I should see about getting some heat transfer vinyl ordered - all these plain colored shirts get boring after a while, plus I haven't had the

Test Cut Before Cutting Vinyl!

2012-11-16T13:50:00.002-06:00

Well, I learned a lesson with my Silhouette yesterday - do test cuts on cheap paper when making your own designs - especially lettering! I cut a phrase out of vinyl but lost pieces of letters because they were too thin :( I went back into the letters, converted to path, released path, and then proceeded to edit pretty much every point to make the letters thicker and to clean up the lines a bit