Canvas Loose-Leaf Paper

 {2012 Craft Books}

Improv Sewing: A Freeform Approach to Creative Techniques; 101 Fast, Fun, and Fearless Projects: Dresses, Tunics, Scarves, Skirts, Accessories, Pillows, Curtains, and More by Nicole Blum and Debra Immergut

What you need to know:

• 101 projects! including doodled stitching and stacked appliqué 
• Many of these projects can be completed in an hour
• Add photos of your completed projects from the book to the Improv Sewing Projects flickr group

About the project I made, Canvas Loose-Leaf Paper:

• Quick, easy, instant gratification project 
• All it takes is a small piece of canvas fabric, red and blue thread, and a sewing machine
• This would be a perfect project for teaching a child how to use the sewing machine for the first time, to learn/practice sewing straight lines (In fact, I'm going to use this project to teach my 9 year old how to sew on the sewing machine very soon)
• You really can 'write' on this 'paper', either with hand embroidery, little alphabet rubber stamps, or a disappearing ink marker

Men's Button Up Shirt

white peasant dress with 3 ruffles down the front

 For Project Run and Play season 6 week 5 the challenge is using a men's button up shirt to create your look.

I went looking around for inspiration and to see what other people have come up with and here are some ideas I found:

• Colorblock button up shirt
• Daddy's Little Girl Dress (clever back detail)
• men's dress shirt to girl's dress 
• The Shirt Jumper
• drawstring shirt (maybe could be made into a drawstring dress?)
• white shirt to little girl summer dress

white peasant dress with 3 ruffles down the front

•  girl's sailor shirt
• The Ashton Top Tutorial
• girl's shirt dress 
• sleeves to toddler pants 
• men's dress shirt sleeves to pants tutorial

back view of peasant dress made from men's button up shirt

 You can find lots of ideas with how-tos in the Cut Up Couture book by Koko Yamase. Only 3 chapters in this book and one whole chapter is devoted to just men's shirt which includes 16 projects…

 here are photos of quite a few of them...

 ...loving the details on this dress & tunic...

 ...and loving this skirt made out of sleeves...

Do you plan to sew along for the men's button up shirt challenge? If so, what do you plan on sewing? I'm really interested in seeing what everyone comes up with for this challenge.

2012 Craft Books Month

Do you like paging through pretty craft books as much as I do? Well, It's February again and I'm back for another craft books month where I'll be blogging about my favorite 2012 craft books and what projects I created from them... feel free to check out the previous years:

• 2009 Craft Books 
• 2010 Craft Books 
• 2011 Craft Books 

This is a fun winter project for me, challenging me to try new things, and something to keep me going during this very cold and dark Minnesota winter we've been having. It'll be mostly smaller projects (no adult sweater knitting here ~ that would take way too long), also for some I will be crafting with my children :)

See you back here soon for the first one. 

More Little Geraniums

 These Little Geranium dresses are too cute, I just had to sew more… click here to see the first 'bouquet', Little Geranium is a free pattern/tutorial, size 0-3 months, and calls for a skirt with a width of 44", but I only used about 34" for these.

Such a small amount of fabric is needed in order to get a bodice and/or pockets to complete this sewing project, so it's fun to dig through the fabric stash and use up those small pieces of fabrics, like small rectangles of precious Liberty of London fabric…


First dress: bodice and pockets, Liberty of London; skirt, raspberry pink 100% cotton twill

 Second dress: bodice, Liberty of London; skirt and pockets, raspberry pink 100% cotton twill

 Third dress: bodice, Liberty of London; skirt and pockets, tomato red 100% organic cotton sateen

 Fourth dress: bodice and pockets, Russian nesting doll fabric from Denmark; skirt, tomato red 100% organic cotton sateen

{dresses displayed on an 18" doll dress form, showing how teeny tiny they are}

These dresses were made for and will be donated to Dress a Girl Around the World :)

Valentine's day is coming soon… "do small things with great love." ~ Mother Teresa

LEGO Valentine Mailbox Necklaces

 My son and I went to a pick-a-brick wall at a LEGO store to gather most of the supplies to make his class Valentine's exchange for this year. Here is how we made them.

LEGO Valentine Mailbox Necklace

Supplies needed:

• 4 "letters": flat 2x1
• Mailbox pieces: gray box with white door
• The LEGO piece needed to make it into a necklace: Black Round Plate 2x2 W/Eye, Element ID: 237626
• 28 inches of red silk cord (I would recommend 28-30 inches for the necklaces, nothing shorter than 28 inches otherwise it will be too tight to go around the head)

 Put the LEGO pieces together...

 Tie a knot at the ends of the red silk cord...

 Thread the cord through the eye of the necklace...

 The little 'letters' (Valentines, love letters, etc.) slide into the mailbox opening...

 Mailbox closed...

 Mailbox open...

 All lined up in a row...

 Packaging (made to look like a red 4x1 LEGO brick)

Supplies needed:

• snack size resealable plastic bag
• red card stock, 6 3/8" X 3", 4 circles
• paper cutter
• 1 1/4" circle paper punch
• stapler
• 3D foam mounting squares

 Fold red cardstock in half lengthwise, attach foam mounting squares on backs of 4 red circles.

 Staple red cardstock to top of snack size reclosable plastic bag, attach 4 red circles.

 On the back write Happy Valentine's Day and To and From.

 The LEGO pieces to make 29 necklaces filled up an $8.00 cup at a pick-a-brick wall at a LEGO store. I bought the silk cord at JoAnn Fabrics, enough to make 29 necklaces was about $10, using a 40% off JoAnn Fabrics coupon. The approximate cost was $0.62 for each LEGO valentine mailbox necklace, if you add the packaging it would cost only pennies more.

These would also make great birthday party favors, too.

If you are looking for more ideas… I was taking a walk down memory lane and trying to think of all the class Valentine's exchanges from the past. We have done homemade Valentine's for all the class Valentine's exchanges since they started in 2004. Unfortunately I didn't take photos every year, but here are a few photos I found...

2011 candy mazes

2010 lollipop holders

2008 Smarties holders

2007 lollipop holders

Happy Saint Valentine's Day !

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Little Geraniums

 ...four little geraniums all in a row...

Continuing on my mission this week of using my stash of polka dot quilting fabrics, I decided to sew 4 little geranium dresses, a free pattern just released last week. The sewing pattern is size 0-3 months and it calls for a skirt width of 44 inches, but I only used 34-37 inches for these dresses.

I'm liking this (new to me) color combo of red with light blue and gray...

1st dress: bodice: gray with white polka dots, Michael Miller Ta Dot, skirt: blue with white polka dots quilting cotton from JoAnn's, pockets: red with tiny white hexagons, Karen Snyder - Studio Anna Lena for Timeless Treasures Fabrics

 2nd dress: bodice: gray with white polka dots, Michael Miller Ta Dot, skirt: red with tiny white hexagons, Karen Snyder - Studio Anna Lena for Timeless Treasures Fabrics, pockets: blue with white polka dots quilting cotton from JoAnn's

 3rd dress: bodice and pockets: yellow with tiny white raindrops, Hoodie's Collection "Raindrops" for Timeless Treasures Fabrics, skirt: mustard yellow cotton

 4th dress: vintage cotton which is polka dotted polka dots !

To get an idea of how small these dresses are, that's my daughter's 18 inch doll dress form, so these are just a little bit bigger than doll dresses.

These were made for and will be donated to Dress A Girl Around the World because teeny tiny baby girls need dresses, too :)

Make it a great day !

Simple Dress

I was thinking of all of the polka dot fabrics that I had in my stash, then went to pull them all out. Then I remembered a vintage polka dot fabric I had and I ended up digging an old sewing project out of the abandoned project pile (put in there 3 year ago!!!)

The pattern for this sewing project is called the Simple Dress, from the book Simple Sewing for Baby by Lotta Jansdotter, it's size 24 months, just a simple little polka dot dress (finally) finished with white (store bought) bias tape trim. The vintage fabric is actually polka dotted polka dots, how fun is that??

For the button closure in the back I did a hand sewn button loop.

Feels so good to rescue a failed project, to at last be completed with it. Now this dress will move on and be actually worn as it will be donated to Dress A Girl Around the World.

More bonus points to me as I only used materials from my stash :)

Happy Wednesday, up next more polka dots… when the dresses will be even smaller.