Firstly, Happy April Fools’ Day. Secondly, I have no pranks for you today. Sold out of them yesterday and getting restocked tomorrow, so today, you’re just plain outta luck. Sorry.
Now on to more interesting things…
Here’s another bunch o’ stuff I’ve been up to recently. I figured it would be nice to post these all together since they’re all sewing projects, but they’ve been occurring on and off of the last few months and for different purposes, so it’s also nice to see them as a collective. Plus, I can retrospectively see mini themes and groupings, like the colors I’m drawn to at any given time or similar techniques or fabric types. Nice and cohesive.
—
First, there’s always my staple go-to gift, the personalized toy bag. I can’t stop making these because they’re so practical, useful and fun to sew up.
These were for couple of birthday boys from The Bub’s school. I enjoyed tailoring them to suit their (haha, okay, really their moms) tastes and sensibilities.
And what’s up with all the “J” names, I have no idea, but this was literally the fourth “J”-initialed bag I’ve made in the last month.
It’s been enjoyable to revisit and rummage through all my fabric in search of the perfect combos to make all these goodies with. I still have the much bigger goal in life to have more stuff *leave* my house than *enter* it, so I continue to slowly chip away at what seems to be my own private art supply store. Okay, fine, maybe it’s a chain by now.
—
I guess the gender divide is starting to happen because I can’t recall the last girl’s birthday party my eldest was invited to; it’s been a while. That makes me sad because I hold onto hopes for more gender coexistence, especially when the kids are still young. C’est la vie.
Anyway, I was very excited to once again have the chance to make a gift for a birthday girl, and in this case one who is quite the girlie-girl and very much a fashionista. I love any 5-year old with a diehard fashion conviction.
So of course I took the opportunity to go over the top with a jazzy tote bag paired with great pops of color and fun textures.
I made the whole thing up from scratch as I went along; I really sew the best that way (you know, when I don’t completely screw it up and it actually comes out just the way I imagined it). This time I nailed it. Phew!
I had actually never worked with webbing before but for some unknown reason I have numerous giant spools of the stuff, so I swore to myself I’d start using it. I wasn’t originally going to put a letter on the bag, but The Bub insisted we needed an “O” on it and I’m glad he did because the neon pink sets the entire color palette off just that much more.
I think I just might love egg yolk yellow together with neon pink. Yeah, that’s right, I’m calling it now. Future trend alert.
—
Not too long ago, I found myself the willing sucker of a social media pay-it-forward gift-making assignment. A friend posted something to the effect of, “Hey, if you’re one of the first five people to comment on my post, I’ll make you something sometime this year.” I thought, ‘Heck yeah!“.
The kicker was that I had to agree to post the same assignment and rules, so I did. Three friends of mine responded. Three. Um. Not sure what that says about me, but I was also really kinda fine with only having to make 3 things instead of five. Less people to follow through with gift-giving? Sure thing!
I don’t have the third gift made (haven’t even thought about it yet), but I have finished the first two.
First up, a giant stuff carrot.
Obviously.
I got to use up more of the luscious upholstery fabric I was recently bequeathed by my personal Fabric Fairy.
Turns out, I am a complete and utter sucker for great-quality velvets and corduroys. I’d probably eat the stuff if given half the chance.
This project required some sorting out as I wanted the stems to not be completely floppy and dead-looking, so I sandwiched in some wire armature supports into each leaf.
Can you tell from this photo how totally chewable and yummy that orange velvet is? Gorgeous and heavy, I want a three piece suit made out of it.
But for now, a giant useless carrot will do just fine.
And you know how sometimes you stuff something and those funky buckled creases occur? In this case, those creases are perfect because they mimic the grooves and texture that a carrot has. I was originally going to embroider some lines onto the surface, but no need!
Why is this giant stuffed carrot on a plate? For no reason other than to show you the scale…and it’s funny.
Eat your vegetables!
—
The second gift for my other social media sucker friend was also an extravagant velvet and corduroy affair.
For this gift, I chose to focus on her cat, Daisy, who, after gracefully adjusting to life with two new kid additions to the family, deserves a little extra attention of her own, methinks.
I perused my friend’s online photos to find close-ups of Daisy and sketched out my version of her.
I transposed my sketch into little pieces of fabric and became a zig-zagging fiend on my sewing machine, appliquéing them all together.
The photo doesn’t do it justice, but that yellow ( kinda ochre-y, kinda chartreuse-y) velvet background fabric is simply edible in my book. It’s divine.
I used a dark purple thread, partially because it would add an extra pop and partially because I was totally and utterly lazy and didn’t want to change my thread.
I love the results.
What makes it even better was finding the perfect fabric to back it with; not only does it have just about the same colors in it as the front design, but it’s a sweet floral and, hello, for a cat named Daisy, that makes it a perfect match.
This is what the finished pillow looks like.
It looks a tad deflated here because I didn’t have the right-sized pillow insert at the moment, but you get the idea. Oh, and I failed to iron it before taking the photo. Another signature SK move, you’re welcome.
Anyway, I think Daisy likes the finished product!
I love mini projects like these because they break up my regular schedule of bigger design jobs and make for nice quick bursts of imaginative carefree fun.
That’s it for now!