Easter Bunnies!

These were so much fun! Once I started, I couldn't stop.

I was using the pattern for a crochet monkey found here.

I didn't do the mouth or ears or tail. Then for the bunny ears I did:

1:With yarn, make a double loop with your finger. 6sc into the loop. tighten the loop.

2:2sc into each of 6sc

3: [1sc into the 1st sc, 2sc into the next sc]x6

4: [1sc into the next 8, 2sc into next sc]x2

5-30: Work 20.

Then I did a pom pom for the tail.

The first one I made was the one with the light blue stripe -

he has been named Odd Ball and belongs to the eldest boy I watch.

The one with the darker blue top was named Cool

and belongs to the Munchkin (the youngest boy I watch).

And then the one with the teal and orange stripe is named...

I can't remember what he's named! I'll edit this if I can remember it. Anyway - he belongs to the Chicken Nugget (the middle boy).

The girl one is named Daisy! I gave her to my friend Elsa who is a teacher. She took her into her classroom and the class decided to name her Daisy. Now they read to her. She sent me a picture of one of the little boys sitting across from Daisy in a chair and he would read her a page, then turn the page so she could see the pictures! How Cute!

I'm actually working on another one right now for me because I just think they're so cute!

Not all things work out

I keep thinking of stuff I need to put on here... the bunnies I crocheted for Easter... the 3 skirts I've made... there's other stuff too. But for today I'll put something up which didn't work out well.

I had seen on the Sew Mama Sew blog this super cute and easy shirt! And I'd seen where other people made it and it looked really nice. And I don't like sleeveless but I figured maybe I'd be okay with the ruffles because I have other shirts kinda like that.

Then I went ahead and started working on it, still skeptical. But as I was working on it, my hopes started to rise. I made it solid pink for the main part, then gray and black and white for the other part. It was looking good. By the time I finished I was pretty happy with it!

Then I tried it on. And then I saw it did not look good on me. At all. Only one person saw me wearing it and that's the way it's going to stay. It's really a really easy pattern and a cute shirt, but it's not cute on me. Oh well. That's just the way it goes sometimes.

And really - it looks quite cute in person! Just not on my person.

And I stepped on a thumbtack after that. So yeah, the thumbtack thing was probably worse.

Pink Girly Bags for Twin 5 year old girls

I was asked by a friend of mine to make cute girly pink bags for her twin year old girls. They were both turning 5 (of course, or else they wouldn't be twins) and they both have names that start with M, which she also wanted on the bags. So as long as they were pink and had the letter M she was going to be happy. Which made me happy.

I decided to have some fun and make them each different. But I wanted to use applique, which was fun!

On the first one I just did some patchwork and then put a big M on the front. The pink fabric was some I got at Target - it was a twin sheet set and I've been able to get a lot of fabric from it.

And the second one has an applique flower and a green ribbon as the stem.

I didn't get to go to their party, but their mom liked them - so hopefully they did too!

Earth Day! Or what it's aka - My Birthday!

I had a good birthday! It was a nice day overall. No great highlight (other than maybe the Munchkin running out of school, seeing me in the car, and yelling, "Happy Birthday!") - but a great day overall.

I like to think it's easy to remember my birthday since Earthy Day is my birthday! And I usually don't really go all out for earth day, but I've been wanting to applique so I decided to use an earthy type of idea. I made a little tote and appliqued a tree on it!

The back is all green and the inside is yellow with stars. And the tree trunk has some interesting patterns in the applique - I was going for a tree grain type of idea... I think it worked out alright.

I'm really getting into applique. My mom's got an embroidery machine and I had done some on that before, but I've started doing it on my regular sewing machine. It's fun!

And the whole bag was made entirely from material in my stash or scraps.

Let the Sunshine in! Or Not.

A girly girl I know wanted something to put her sunglasses in. She traced around her glasses onto a sheet of paper to figure out the right size. And I found some cute Prints Charming fabric in my stash and a little batting... and voila!

After working on it, I started thinking of all the possibilities! Buttons to close, quilted fabric, zippers to close, patchwork fabric, drawstring to close... so many options!

H's Bag

So there's a girl in the youth group I volunteer with who really really wanted to make a bag - so we set up a day and decided to do it! H's grandma was a seamstress so she had some sewing knowledge already and it showed. She did great!

So here's some of the awesome parts of the bag:

1. The button/applique H

We decided the bag would just be rather plain, so she decided it needed a little embellishment and I offered the button initial applique idea. I don't really like buttons all that much. Well I like them, but I wouldn't do something with tons of them. But she was a master buttonier. Buttonist. Buttonista. Button-sewer-on-er. She did them all in a flash.

2. The fabric - she got it all at hobby lobby for less than $5!

3. The zipper pocket in the bag lining

Yes - that green thing is a zipper - in the bag lining. That can be a pretty complicated thing. (made easier by the great tutorial here.) But she aced it!

Of course after we finished the 5 hours or so working on it, I said, "so are you going to switch all your stuff over to your new bag!?!" to which she replied, "I'll wait till I get tired of the one I'm using now." But by the next time I saw her she had switched over - so I was pretty excited. As you can tell, she was too!

Long time no post

Alright... I haven't posted in a while. I'm definitely going to try and post more. I promise! I've been super busy making stuff - commissioned bags, crochet bunnies, skirts, towel rolls things... Lots of stuff.

To start with - here's a marker holder for a 6 year old's birthday:

He's a super creative little guy ("the chicken nugget" as I refer to him as). A ladies man too.

I thought it was a fun little gift. The notebook was on sale and had all blank pages. The book (Make a World by Ed Emberley - of the fingerprint fame) has very easy to draw pictures. And who doesn't love markers? Washable markers of course. The marker holder had Velcro on the back so it was easy to take on and off with little kid hands.

He was excited to get it! Hopefully he'll have fun with it.