Purdue Hoodie

I appliqued a block P on a grey zip sweatshirt for Malcolm to go with his Purdue shirt and pants.  It's cute, but not quite what I was hoping for.  I had some Purdue fabric left over from some long-alls I made him back when he was a toddler, so I used that for the P.  I wish that the print on the fabric was a little smaller so that it would have shown up better on the P.  The stitching around the P is a little wonky where it started and finished, and I think it has to do with how I hooped it.  The zipper and the sleeve made it difficult to get properly hooped, and I think it wasn't tight enough, then slipped at the start and finish, leaving the stitching not quite finished looking.  If I want to do more sweatshirts, I'm going to have to find a way to get them more stable for stitching.  Oh well, it is still great for layering in this Spring weather.

Close-up of the P

Yes, he's wearing his Purdue t-shirt under the sweatshirt.

Etsy Shop is Open!

I have toyed with the idea of an Etsy shop for a long while.  I crunched the numbers, and it really isn't worth it for me to offer any of the clothes I sew because I would have to change such ridiculously high prices to make it worth my while and not loose money.  However, I can do embroidery and applique on shirts for a reasonable amount, and I like how relatively quickly those go from an idea to a finished product.

I've been working on building my stock, while also doing some other side projects, and today I just bit the bullet and listed my first 10 items.  I need to do a lot of tweaking to make things look more professional, and I want more examples of finished products for people to browse through, but it is a start.

Just a few hours after opening up the shop, I had my first request for a custom item.  Hopefully, it will go through and I will have my first official sale very soon.  *fingers crossed*

Check out my shop to see what I have in stock, and "like" my facebook page to keep up with new additions, info, and promotions.  Hint:  I have a stack of samples and seconds that I plan to offer for half price sometime in the future, and I will announce that on the facebook page.  Don't miss out!

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Etsy

Pay it Forward Craft: Kermit

I completed another of my Pay it Forward Craft 2012 projects.  Three down, two more to go! Since the person I was making it for really liked the other Kermit shirts I did, I did one for her daughter too. This was my first time putting Kermit on a feminine style shirt, but girls need Kermit stuff too.

The shirt turned out great, but I ran into a few problems trying to get it set up. I sized up a little on the shirt, and used a 3T, hoping that I could make it work, and in the end it did; but just barely. I learned that girls' shirts are cut a little more narrow, so it was much harder to get the back of the shirt up and around the hoop so that I didn't stitch the shirt closed. I have a smaller version of Kermit that I have never used, so I cut out a template, only to discover that it was much too small. That one is more suited toward a pocket patch or as a crest or something. I had to hoop it a little high, then edit the design to get it lowered enough, and it just fit. I hope the little girl likes it.

Dresses for Sisters

Last year, Kevin's cousin has a baby girl and I thought it would be fun to make matching dresses for the new baby and her big sister.  I had been experimenting with shirring, and decided to make a couple of shirred sundresses.  I bought the fabric, then procrastinated past the time where sundresses would be worn.  This Spring, I finally tackled the dresses and was so excited for them to finally be done, that I forgot to take any pictures before packing them up and mailing them.  Luckily, the family took a picture of the girls and their mom before church.

          

I didn't have the girls' measurements, so I took a best guess. Luckily, they fit!

Dinosaur Eggs

I made some dinosaur eggs for the kids' Easter baskets and they turned out really cute.  I used this basic recipe:

1 cup used coffee grounds
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/4 cup sand
3/4 cup water

Then, because I had more dinosaurs to hide than this batch would make, I added about the same amounts of everything, but omitted the coffee grounds because I was out.  Once I shaped the "egg" around the little plastic dinosaur (purchased at the dollar store) I placed them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and baked them in the oven on 175 for about an hour.  It dried out the tops nicely, then I flipped them over and tried to get the bottoms to dry.  When we opened them, we discovered that the insides were still a little soft, but they were still plenty difficult for the kids (ages almost 5 and 2) to break into.

The dinosaur eggs in the Easter basket.

First, we tried banging them on the driveway.

Then we discovered that standing on them worked better to crack them.

Dorothy tries the brute strength method.

Malcolm shows off his first discovery.  He was pretty unimpressed with having dinosaur eggs in his Easter basket (where are the toys?) until he discovered there were things inside.

Dorothy finally broke one of hers apart.

Once he figured out how to get them open, he had no trouble.

One of my favorite things was when the kids were shouting out, "Parasaurolophus!" when they would uncover that kind of dinosaur. Please excuse how silly I sound, but here is a video.

Daisy Shirt

On my other blog, I mentioned that I bought a pair of striped pants for $1 at a consignment sale and had plans to make a shirt to go with them. Well, as I tend to do, I made it, then did not take any photos. I accidentally got a decent picture of the shirt today, so here it is!



It isn't the best picture ever, but you can see the daisy I appliqued on the yellow shirt to go with the crazy pants. I have a skirt I bought to go with the shirt when it warms up, but I want to embellish it in some way with yellow and/or daisies to make it compliment the shirt a bit. Hopefully, I will take a picture when I get it done.

In other finished project news, I finally finished two dresses for Kevin's cousin's girls. I was so happy they were both done, I promptly packed them up and mailed them. About two days later, I remembered that I had not taken any photos (smacks head). Once they get there, maybe I can get his cousin to take a picture or two for me. They turned out really cute, and hope they fit the girls.

Quick Update

I know that I haven't posted in a long while, but lots is currently happening.  I'm stockpiling my work right now, and will do a big reveal in a month or so (I hope).  In the meantime, I am still working on some smaller projects and will hopefully post some of those here and there until I am ready to make an announcement.

Don't worry!  I'm still busy, creating lots of new things.