Handmade

I have a small goal to make at least one homemade item for Ellie (and any future kids) for Christmas and their birthday.  Last year I made Ellie a hedgehog softie and a hat.  This year it's a hat and mittens (ignore the wrinkles, they need to be laundered).

I found this new favorite fabric shop in town and last Saturday my friend and I checked it out.  If you are cheap and like thrift stores this is an awesome store.  We dug through piles of remnants and both left with some fun fabric.  I got this snuggly soft pink fleece remnant for $2.

I used the Snow Pixie pattern for the hat (deviating on the edge finish).

And for the mittens I started using this tutorial, but deviated a bit.  Perhaps on a whim, perhaps due to a mistake cutting the sleeve part too small.  It's really hard to say.  I had some leftover material from the braids I did on the hat and added loops to the mittens so I could add mitten clips later if needed.

I love how the braid detail turned out.  To make the rope I took long strips of roughly 2 inch strips (with the most stretch width wise), sewed together, and flipped inside out with a chopstick.  It took a whole night to hand stitch it to the hat, but it was worth it.

Treat Package

Today I delivered some treats to someone.  Pumpkin cookies.  

Although I had meant to grab some paper plates at the store this week I plum forgot.  

I did have cardboard from the cake mix I used in the cookies and parchment paper (wax or brown paper would work too).  So I improvised.  

This is the long version of a short story--it only took two or three minutes.  I cut out two pieces of cardboard and sandwiched them together so you couldn't see the cake box pictures.   Here are the remaining steps I did:

Carpet Bag

Last night I finished my purse!  This is a project I had started years ago and then put down and never finished.  When I pulled it out I altered my original vision of the bag a bit to fit my current needs.  

It's kind of a fun upholstery fabric, and the grey seems fitting for winter.  I've got a thing for asymmetrically placed knots on purse handles--not sure why.  It is, however, handy to include when you have an ugly seem where you lengthened the handle strap.

This is a terrible picture, but here's a glimpse of some of the inside.  

It has two side pockets, a magnetic closure, and some mommy friendly additions I included in the redesign.  I was so sick of finding my daughter's sippy bottle sideways (leaking) in my bag (no-drip sippy cups are a joke sometimes), and the spare diapers always swim around my bag.  

After a day of use I am enjoying my new bag.

Sewing Nook

This weekend I finally buckled down and reorganized my sewing area.  It has been driving me nuts.  Confession my whole house has been driving me nuts--nesting has kicked in (I'm 4 1/2 months along) and I want everything reorganized.  My cutie pie daughter thinks the house is more fun messy.  Baby steps...  Anyway, here is a glimpse at my sewing corner.

I bought the sewing table used before we moved to Arizona and refinished the top half in a cheery green.  I love it!  As we were shortly moving I decided to give the old machine that came with it to a friend.  If I still had the original machine I probably wouldn't have to prop something under the flap (it was very heavy), but my plastic storage thing was nearly the perfect height for the job so it works.

I oddly find it refreshing to reorganize something like a bulletin board.  I should get a few frames and/or a little shelf up next to it so it's not so lonesome.  Another confession, I came across a bag of vintage notions this weekend.  Full of ric-rac, buttons, and other lovelies.  The wooden spools displayed on the board were from that bag--love!

I'm happy with my newly cleaned sewing corner. Enough so that I started sewing a purse, which I have been itching to do recently.  I did have to put a few other projects on hold, but I'm nearly done and excited to have a new bag.  Unfortunately I still haven't finished my quilt...I may ditch the extra quilting rows I wanted to do (purely for looks, it's not really needed) and bind it.