Hi There...

I've been going through a little stuffed animal phase. It started with a great elephant this summer which set me searching for stuffed animal patterns. This is much harder than you'd think. The majority are utterly cheesy. Don't google them, you end up in the bowels of craft hell (that's right, think: doilys, gingam aprons and inevitably a weightloss ad blinking to your left and a winking emoticon in a pop up window). Don't get me wrong, I still do it. I get the itch to make something cute and without realizing it, I've googled my way to an eye rolling display of angels with yarn hair. So I hit the eject button that is marthastewart (dot com). Say what you will about her, the woman has the best frustrated-over-educated-artsy-not-crafty hipsters making patterns.

Here's the most recent one I re-appropriated. My lovely friend, Jen, asked me to make a baby-shower gift for her sister-in-law, so that set me on a path of making a few prototypes. I'll take you through the process because, really, the best part is when the little animal starts coming to life...

Martha -god love her- always makes you enlarge the patterns. I don't have a handy photocopier to x200, so I rely on the maternal genes to do my best free hand of Martha's tiny pattern. (Our cereal boxes never could have hoped for such a happy after life). This one is supposed to be a lamb, but always comes out looking at least a little bit like a confused dog.


Then the sewing. I am terrible with following directions and actually find that, for sewing, written ones are often more confusing than helpful. So directions-to-self involve 1. Laying pattern pieces out. 2. Saying "I can totally figure this out." That gets me about 2/3rds of the way until I have to figure out how to do the underbelly or the head, which is always an hour long gigantic pain in the ass. Drew caught me looking off into the distance at dinner tonight trying to figure out what I'd done wrong with the neck/top of head/ear assembly. (I believe there was a hearty look of satisfaction when I figured it out. I was already ripping seams in my imagination...).

Here she is under the knife:

It's always great to turn your sewings inside out. But it's fabulous when your sewing project has...legs, a cute little darted mouth, and ears!


A little stuffing, and voila...she's alive.... and totally ready to be stuffed in a small child's mouth!

And after all of that. Seeing the finished product just makes me want to google more.

Salvage with Selvedge

I like Birthdays. I always have. 

But this year was a little rocky. It wasn't because I was turning 30. I was pretty excited to turn 30. And I had a great party a few days before and have been blessed with fabulous family, friends, cards, and cupcakes. But on the day itself, I was really sick and stir crazy and perhaps wanted birthday miracles when I should have taken a birthday tylenol pm and called it a day. 

So how to you salvage a blah birthday? I'm not entirely sure, but I tried to salvage with selvedge. I took a short ski and thought about making the perfect quilt for me. I gathered my favorite scraps of fabric together and started sewing. 

It did not make everything better, but it was a start.

Happy Love

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Hopefully your card arrived!

A few versions were made in the process.

California went out with pockets.

Close to home they turned into sewn cards.

All stitched through with thread & fabric hearts.

Will post them all soon. For now, here's the pocket.

love. love. love to you & yours,

Emily

*

First round of Valentines: pockets

pocket insides:

Paper scrolls were found inside:

Yes, Open!

You know about my Valentine's card tradition. Here's the Valentine's confession: I don't think the cards will get to you on Valentine's day. I just timed it wrong. But regardless, when they come, Open Open!

I also did three versions...after Saturday, I'll post them all...

 

Your Valentines

Proof I'm hard at work on your Valentines (no one should be surprised that they have an element of sewn craft this year...).

Any guesses on what % will be fabric?

How many "cards" there will be this year?

or...if they will get to you on time?

Here are a few of the construction pieces:

Make sure I have your address....