Soft Mini Elephant

I wanted to make something small to add to a baby shower gift recently, and I thought about making a soft stuffed elephant. I ended up finding this Chinese pattern online, which has pieces for two different sizes - this is the larger one. I used Chrome to translate the page for me, but the pictures are much more helpful for figuring out what to do and in what order. There were a few tricky spots, but it was a relatively quick thing to make, and I think it's totally cute! I'm thinking of making a few more of these and stocking them in the shop. If nothing else, a few more people might be getting these as gifts!

Lime for scale

Summer Has Arrived

I got a new camera a few weeks ago! My old one was just getting old and starting to not work right. I'm still learning how to use this one, but it's been fun so far.

My hydrangea has started to bloom. This plant is from a cutting my grandma took from one of the plants we used to decorate at our wedding. Love that.

I made chocolate-cherry ice cream (I have a photo of the actual ice cream, but I think it's still on the camera.) Cherries are so pretty; these were cooked into a candied cherry syrup. I haven't made ice cream since last summer, I think. Working on remedying that.

I also made a sweater/jacket for a friend's new baby girl (who made her entrance to the world yesterday!) 100% cotton, pattern from Little Crochet by Linda Permann. I've made two patterns from this book so far and both were very cute. I need to work on choosing a yarn weight that fits the project ahead of time, though, I've had to make alterations for sizing both times because I chose heavier yarn than what was called for.

And the thing taking up most of my sewing time right now is curtains for our living room. We have woven wood blinds/shades right now, which I really like the look of, but they don't totally block the light. I also just wanted drapes - something to add some color or pattern or something. I'm making lined pinch-pleated draperies out of a small scale black and white gingham I bought from Fabric.com. It's coming along fine so far, but they're much more time-consuming than I anticipated. Working with these big pieces of fabric take a lot of space (and pins!)

So that's part of my summer so far. An update on the Palette Challenge will be posted soon!

And the 6th Anniversary is for...

Last Saturday, my husband and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. I wanted to make him something small (his "real" gift was some computer-related item), so I looked up the "traditional" anniversary gifts. Depending on who you ask, apparently, the 6th anniversary deserves sugar/candy, iron, or wood. So obviously, I decided to make him some coasters.

Well, they have cork which is like, wood-ish so I figured it worked. Also, they fit my short time frame, I had all the materials, and he needed them for his office.

Super simple: trace a circle (ie another coaster) onto cork. Cut out.

Trace circle onto felt. Cut out.

Trace circle onto something pretty, like a map from your recent trip to Paris. Cut out. (See the theme?)

Glue everything together. I used Alene's between the cork and felt, and Mod Podge for the cork and map. Although apparently something kind of gets gooey when they have condensation on them, so this might not be the best mix. I'm not saying you should make these yourself, exactly. Might be better for hot drinks, I don't know.

But there you have it!

UPDATE: It's now mid-November, and my husband has been using these. They're still getting kind of... oozy when there's condensation on them. I'm assuming it's the Mod Podge, although I was hoping it just needed to cure a little more. At this point, they're good for hot drinks but not necessarily cold. I'm thinking maybe I can just somehow seal the top. I just noticed that the Mod Podge bottle mentions some sort of Clear Acrylic Sealer, or my husband mentioned maybe just putting contact paper over the top. If I change something up and get good results, I'll post another update!

Little Things for Little People

As I mentioned, I've been making things that aren't for me, which takes time from making things for myself... but I like doing it. Plus, I have fabric for myself on its way to my house as we speak, so...

I already shared the sweater I made (and the, um, half a sweater I have sitting here). The next thing, which finally got mailed last week, is for our friends' kids. Inspired by these felt flash cards from Sew Much Ado, I made a pair of full alphabet + numbers 0-9.

I used grey felt for the backgrounds, a rainbow of colors for the letters and numbers - red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown, and white - and a multicolored thread to sew the letters and numbers on. The stitching around each piece is basic grey to match the felt. The curves were a little tricky on some of the letters, maybe just because I'm not used to sewing felt and it moves differently under the presser foot than fabric. Overall it was a fairly simple project, just took a while to complete. I did things in batches; a group of letters, then a long pause, then another set, etc. I also ran out of grey at the very end. I used yardage for the grey instead of buying a bunch of sheets of felt, and I ended up one sheet's worth short. Of course, that's easy enough to buy, but beware that depending on how well you cut the felt, if you use yardage you might end up a little short. I used a rotary cutter but still had some narrow pieces that wouldn't work, either due to my measuring and cutting or due to discrepancies in the felt itself, I don't know.

I didn't mess with the grommets from the original, but I did make simple little bags to put them in.

 
I also added a few books to the box, and a little blanket for their baby girl. I somehow forgot to take pics of the blanket; I was sure I had already done that but I can't find any... you can sort of see it through the tissue in this picture:

The front is a brown flannel with multicolored hearts on it; the backing is a green dotted minky. That minky... so soft but such a pain to sew. I'm sure I'll use it again, but this was my first time and I didn't quite realize what it would be like. Any tips to make it easier are welcome!

Also, I've decided to switch out the plaid Traveler dress for a jersey maxi skirt for the Fall Challenge. I'm still planning on making the dress, and I ordered the fabric, but right now the ETA is mid-October. I also ordered a rosy pink jersey, so that will let me stay with my goal of 3 items. And the 2nd panel of the hand-stitched skirt is *almost* done.

A Sweater in Pink - Celebrate Color

Here is my first item for Celebrate Color! I crocheted this pink sweater for a friend who's due with her first baby next month. I try not to always do "pink for girls" but I loved the color of this yarn. It's a very soft pink, a little muted rather than bright. I added a brown button, and I think the colors are perfect for fall. It has a little more subtlety than a lot of pink yarns, and somehow that's what I lean towards for this season. Subtle but deep - even though the trees put on bright colors, they have that gradient effect to them that adds something the bright green of spring doesn't have; the light changes in autumn, too, making these colors just "fit" better.

Back to the sweater - it's the Bombay Love pattern; my Ravelry project page for it is here if you want to see that; the actual pattern is at the Yarny Days blog.

I don't know what size this would be, since I don't have a baby to test anything on. I love this yarn though; it's an organic cotton by Lion, and it came out so soft and squishy in this simple double-crochet stitch. The original pattern called for a contrasting edging, but I didn't have anything that really worked with this and I like it without the contrast. In fact, I liked making it so much that I started another one with no recipient in mind.

This one is striped, but I'm stuck at this point because I ran out of yarn. Now I have to figure out where I bought it and if I can get more of it.

This sweater also feels very autumnal - something about these stripes makes me think of old-timey football games and wearing your team's colors. There's an Anne of Green Gables memory floating somewhere in my mind tied to this, but it's soft and fuzzy so I'm not sure if it's actually relevant or not.

And finally - I have these small dishes (as seen above) that I bought in Mexico years ago that I use for loose ends and such while I'm sewing, but I recently discovered they're great for holding a ball of yarn. It's rather annoying when the ball of yarn is rolling around or falling on the floor or getting stuck under a blanket, etc etc; with this little dish it stays contained and rolls nicely on the smooth surface. Anyone else do something similar?