HomeSpun Threads - Free Patterns!

As has already been posted on both Michelle's blog and Melinda's blog, Aimee of HomeSpun Threads is giving away the patterns in her shop, for free! Lots of cute stuff like baby shoes, bibs, bags and backpacks. Check out the fun patterns at HomeSpun Threads.

Mini Matryoshka Softies - Tutorial

I made a cute little fabric dollhouse for Zaylee for Christmas (used this tutorial from UK lass in US), and needed some little dolls to go with it. I originally planned on making wooden spool dolls, but Wal-Mart didn't have wooden spools, and I was too impatient to try anywhere else. So I decided to go a different route.


I created these cute little soft dolls that resemble Russian matryoshka dolls. They're so little and cute, only about 3 inches tall. They fit perfectly in the little dollhouse.

And I'm going to show you how to make them!

You'll need:
Pattern pieces
Main fabric - 1 6x4" piece (quilting cotton with a fun pattern)
Coordinating fabric for the head kerchief - 1 3x3" piece (knit so the edge around the face won't fray)
Fabric for face - 1 3x3" piece (flannel or quilting cotton)
Small amount of poly-fill
Markers to draw face

The hardest part about this will be the pattern pieces, I'm afraid. I'm not tech-savvy enough to make a printable page with the pattern pieces. So maybe just freehand it? Anyway, this is what my pieces look like (I couldn't even scan them, I held them up to the screen and traced them). The back piece is 3 3/8 inches tall, and 2 1/4 inches wide at its widest. Skirt is 2 1/4 inches tall and 2 1/4 inches wide. Head is 1 3/4 inches tall and 1 7/8 inches wide. The hole in the head piece is 3/4 inch diameter, with the top of the hole 1/2 inch from the top of the head piece.

Clear as mud? Okay, let's get started!

Cut one back piece and one skirt piece from the main fabric.



Cut one head piece from the knit fabric and one from the face fabric. Trace hole from the head pattern onto the knit piece.



Cut out face hole.



Pin face and kerchief pieces together, with the right side of the face fabric facing the wrong side of the kerchief fabric - you want to see the face through the hole in the kerchief. I don't have the pieces pinned in this picture, but you get the idea.



Carefully sew around the face hole.



Draw a cute face onto your doll. I used Sharpie pens, you could paint or embroider it on if you prefer.



Pin the skirt piece to the head piece right sides together, and sew (1/4 inch seam).




You should now have the complete front of the doll.



Now put the front and the back of the doll together, right sides together, and sew around the sides and top (1/8 inch seam). Leave the bottom open for turning.



Turn the doll right side out. You can use a pencil or a chopstick to help.



Stuff firmly with poly-fill.



Tuck the bottom edges in, and sew shut. You can hand sew this, or use the sewing machine, depending on how you want it to look.


You're done!

Now some pictures of the dolls and their dollhouse:



I got a lot of inspiration for decorating my dollhouse from this flickr group. Check out the cuteness!

Another Project

Whew, I'm keeping busy! At this rate, I'll be ready for Christmas by the end of November!

Today I made a pillow buddy for Thomas (tutorial part 1, part 2). Using a super soft and fluffy blanket, I made a cuddly, floppy-eared puppy.



Using what I learned from making Zaylee's pillow buddy, and what I learned from making the pink mouse, I added some minimal shaping on the face. A few strategically placed darts make the face a little more rounded rather than flat.

Now I get to keep it hidden in the closet until Christmas. Maybe by that time we'll have actually finished building Thomas' bed so he has a place to put this cute little puppy.

Being Creative (lots of fun projects)

I've been having a fun time the past few days being creative and making things. I think I'm at my happiest when I'm working with my hands, making fun and/or beautiful things.

Here's a cute little blue puppy, Blue from "Blue's Clues." She started as a simple stuffed animal. Since no one in the family had any particular emotional attachment to this particular toy, I figured she qualified for stuffed animal surgery.


I cut a hole in the back, pulled out most of the stuffing (leaving all the stuffing in the head so it wouldn't flop around) and voila - a new puppet! I can put my fingers in the legs and the neck to move it around. The kids really love having a puppet around!



I've been wanting to learn how to make stuffed animals (mostly so I can use that knowledge to make more puppets). I started with a simple pattern for a stuffed mouse. Zaylee has named it Pinky.


I'll be making more stuffed animals, experimenting with different patterns and materials, and eventually hope to be able to draft my own stuffed animal and puppet patterns.


Another fun thing I've made is this rag letter alphabet, based on this tutorial. I was able to use up lots of scrap flannel. The kids like playing with the letters, and Zaylee has been using them to practice spelling. I need to make doubles of some of the letters, so they can write words that have more than one of the same letter.



I'm going to be making the kids some warm winter clothes for Christmas, and on Saturday I started with a cute little shirt for Zaylee. I made a simple pattern using this tutorial, then used that pattern to make a shirt with lettuce edging on the collar and the sleeves.



And then there's this cute little amigurumi-style kokeshi doll that I made using this pattern. How adorable is this?


Amigurumi is a Japanese style of making stuffed knit or crochet toys or figures. And kokeshi dolls are a traditional Japanese doll, usually characterized by a large head, minimal facial features, and the lack of arms or legs. I have a traditional wooden kokeshi doll that I bought when we lived in Japan, and I think they're just so beautiful. So it was fun to find a crochet pattern for this pretty and unique style of doll.

Fall Decorating - Playful Pumpkins

Remember this?


This sweater was my Halloween costume last year. Since I don't have a baby bump this year, I thought it would be fun to use the fabric from the sweater for something else. I cut the legs off to make some warm fuzzy pants for Thomas. Then with the rest, I used this tutorial to create these:


Aren't these the cutest little cutie pumpkins ever! I am absolutely thrilled with how they turned out. In fact, I was so thrilled that I had to raid my scrap box to find even more pumpkin-appropriate fabric to make more little pumpkins.


Look at how tiny they are! This one's only about three inches across, and there are a couple that are even smaller.


Here they are on the mantle with my other pumpkins.



Since yesterday, I've made 18 little pumpkins! These are so fun and easy to make, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up making a few more...

Fun Refashions

I got the itch to do some clothing refashions this week, and now I've got some fun stuff to show for it!

I went to D.I. the other day and got several plain t-shirts to dress up. Today I took a pretty brown shirt, some lace, and some ribbon-


And turned it into this lovely number (don't mind the goofy look on my face).


Basically, I ruffled the lace and sewed it onto the front of the shirt, then added a ribbon over it. Very feminine! I was kind of going for the Anthropologie look - soft, ruffly, lacy, girly. I also shortened the sleeves a bit. I really like the way it turned out.

Next up was this dress I made years ago.


Yuck. The length was awkward, the fit was frumpy, lumpy, and a bit too tight, and basically this dress just wasn't wearable anymore.

However, cut the skirt off and put it on over a cute shirt, and I now have a totally awesome new jacket!


I might add a belt to cinch in the waist a bit, but other than that I love my new jacket! It definitely looks better than that old dress did.

It's so much fun to refashion clothes. I can't wait to see what I come up with next!

Ah, Life

Just a generic post about our latest doings and life in general. Nothing too exciting, in fact, as I'm writing this I'm not even sure what this post will be about. But we're due for an update, so here I go.

- I have a big pile of clothes that I plan on refashioning into something else. I pretty much want to make myself a new wardrobe, a little at a time, because I don't have a lot of clothes that fit me well and are flattering. A couple days ago I was in the mood for refashioning, so I dug around in the pile. After a bit of cutting and sewing, I finally turned out ... a new dress for Zaylee. Yes, I originally wanted to make something to supplement my own poor collection of clothes, but I guess it's just easier to make stuff for Zaylee. :-)

This used to be a skirt that was too small for me (and had been for ages, but I kept it thinking that someday I was sure to fit it again...). I cut off the bottom and took in the sides, then used some of the extra fabric to make little straps. Zaylee loves it.


- Jeff and I have started planning meals two weeks in advance. This is so that we only have to shop every two weeks and, in theory, will save us money on groceries by reducing impulse buys. Still waiting on the money-saving aspect, for some reason we make the same number of impulse buys every two weeks that we used to make every week. But it is nice to know what we're having for dinner every day, and we can prepare for meals that require it, like soaking beans the night before we have chili, etc.

- Zaylee loves holding Audrey. I'll sit Audrey in her lap (and keep supporting her because Zaylee still doesn't do that quite so well), and then Zaylee will talk to her and give her kisses, and just be an adoring big sister. It's really cute. She does get a bit annoyed when Audrey drools on her shoulder. But after getting drooled on several times, she came up with a clever way to keep her shirt dry when giving Audrey a hug - she covered Audrey's mouth with the burp cloth before pulling her in for a hug. Whatever works, right?

- Speaking of Audrey, she is so cute! And growing so much. She loves to blow raspberries and get spit all over her mouth, she loves to suck on her thumb or fingers, she loves to roll onto her tummy and look around, she loves to giggle and squeal. And just tonight I've noticed a new thing she does - when she's lying on her back, she'll push her bottom up with her feet. That's a move I've seen on my Pilates video. When Audrey does it, it's cute. When I do it, it's painful.

- Mom asked me to crochet the corsages for Janelle's upcoming wedding. I've been making pretty blue daisies and tiny white flowers and all sorts of leaves. I'm still not really sure how I'll put them all together to form the actual corsages, but I have starch, floral wire, brooch pins, and a hot glue gun. I'm sure I'll figure out something.

Okay, I just looked at the clock and realized it's an hour past the kids' bedtime, and I haven't started getting them ready for bed yet. How did that happen? Zaylee, go potty and get into jammies! Thomas, let's change that diaper! Audrey, keep lying there looking cute! It's sleepy time!

Tales of a Newbie Refashionista

I found an awesome website called Wardrobe Refashion. You sign up and take a pledge to not buy new manufactured clothes for yourself for a period of 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, or life, and to "refashion, renovate, and recycle preloved items for [yourself] for the term of [your] contract." I've been looking through the blog and getting so inspired - I want to sign up! The next sign up isn't until April 15, so I have a little while to wait. But that doesn't mean I can't do some refashioning in the meantime!

A while ago I bought some cheap $3 shirts at Wal-Mart for the express purpose of refashioning them. Today I came across a great tutorial for turning a turtleneck into a cute ruffle-collared top. It that looked simple enough for me to try, so I took this shirt:


... And turned it into this:


I cut off the sleeves, then cut them into 1-inch strips. I sewed the strips into ruffles and attached them to the collar of the shirt. Then I zigzagged around the new sleeve cuffs to make them ruffly. The whole thing took less than an hour.

Here's a couple close-ups of the ruffled collar.



Isn't that so fun?

And as an added bonus, here's a cute use for the cuffs of the sleeves:


A little girl's choker! She came up with that all on her own. She loves being girly!

Another refashion I did recently was that black skirt I'm wearing in the above picture. It started out as a velvet shirt with a mock turtleneck. I rarely wore it because the sleeves made my arms look like white marshmallows, and the turtleneck was a bit tight. Similar to this skirt, I cut off the collar and the shoulder seams, and cut open the tops of the sleeves, and turned the shirt upside down to become a skirt. I found a bunch of lace that I bought a while ago at the thrift store, and sewed some onto the bottom of the skirt. I love love love! the way that it turned out. Here's a closer look:


Yeah, it's fun to take one ill-fitting, rarely worn piece of clothing and turn it into something much more wearable and beautiful. :-)

p.s. The lace cuff I'm wearing is available at my Etsy shop. ;)