An owl softie for Cameron

I have made some improvements over my last owl. I love the bright, springy, girlie but not icky fabric. And the sewing has improved drastically since the last effort, if I may say so myself.

This owl, along with some baby blocks, was a gift to my cousin Cameron for her first birthday. She was giving the owl hugs before we left, so, I am hoping that’s a good sign!

Some day, I will really learn how to embroider

Until then, I will pretend I know how. I had a bit of leftover cream-colored felt, and lots of embroidery floss.

I freehand drew a bird onto the felt and hand-stitched over the top. I thought it turned out pretty cute. Then I sewed on a colorful fabric back and a little piece of ribbon on top, and stuffed. It can be an ornament, a plushy toy, or sit happily on a shelf.

I need to learn proper embroidery stitches, and want to explore more of this art form. Quilting is expensive – I need to include cheap projects like this to satisfy my creative itch, too. 🙂

An owl for Luke

I brought in an owl I sewed for my cousin’s first birthday (to be posted this weekend after she has received it) to work today, and my coworker Kim requested one for her son. I realized I didn’t have many boy friendly fabrics. So, I broke my long streak of not buying fabrics happily, and went to the cute sewing store in downtown Maryville to pick out some beautiful woolen, brushed flannels in gender-neutral and boy-friendly prints.

When I finished the owl cut outs as I traditionally do, something seemed missing. I decided to add eyelashes and it made him perfect.

The only downside to this beautifully soft fabric (perfect for a baby boy’s hugs) is that it was much stretchier than the quilting cotton I was used to working with, which meant when it came time to stuff him, the stuffing stretched his shape a bit. However, I think it can be a worthy tradeoff for a snuggly baby toy.

I wish I had a better place to take photos after dark – the colors are terrible in this photo. Look at the eyelashes, though!

And on that note, back to the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. Yes. I don’t know which is better – the adorable dogs or the hysterical commentary.

Also, the Purina shelter ads are making me cry.

Another gift for Riley

I mentioned my cousin’s upcoming fourth birthday and the first part of his present here. The other half, I completed Sunday night.

Riley is the quintessential boy’s boy – he loves trucks, cars, anything with wheels. And recently, he’s fallen in love with fire trucks.

When trying to decide what to get him to go with the aforementioned monster mittens, I wanted to get something fireman/fire truck related but didn’t want to accidentally get him something he already had/would get for his birthday. So, after much deliberation, I decided to try my hand at creating a fireman puppet.

To the rescue

If I were to do it again, I might make a few changes. The hat isn’t quite right, and I would have sewn a separate jacket and sewed it on top of a puppet base. Nevertheless, I think it turned out pretty cute and I think a 4-year-old’s imagination might overcome my pattern’s shortcomings.

One of our dogs was certainly fascinated with the creation, though:

Mmm ... firefighter puppet ...

Another Martha Stewart project – what can I say, I love her.

This is a super sweet project, and you may already have everything you need to complete it.

– Pair of gloves

– needle and thread

– Polyfill

– Buttons

– Ribbons

This project, from start to finish, takes about 20 minutes. Project found here.

Whoo-too: How to owl softie

I would make some changes to this softie the second time around, but this is a really simple, quick, simple softie project that requires only a few items that you probably already have.

1 fat quarter

random scraps of felt

thread

sewing machine or handsewn

Ignore the top - yours won't have the same mistake 🙂

Take your fat quarter and fold in half. This should create fabric that’s 18 X 10.5 inches. Cut a shape similar to a gummy drop with the folded part uncut at the bottom. Pick one side of the folded piece of fabric to be the front of your owl. Cut two wings out of felt and sew onto the edge of the body. Then cut a giant  triangle to serve as a beak, sew on. Then, cut two large white  circles for eyes, and sew so they slightly overlap onto the beak. Sew on two smaller black circles to create the pupils for the eyes. Then, sew two little feather-shaped felt cutouts to the top of the face.

Now that your face and wings are done, fold fabric the other way so that right sides are facing in. Sew around the open edges of your shape (be careful to keep the top feathers sticking out), leaving about 1.5 inches to turn the fabric right side out, then fill with polyfill, sew the remaining hole closed, and you’re done!

The mistake I made in this that I would not make again is choosing to have the hole to flip the owl inside out at the top of his head. This made for an awkward seam. It would have been much better to the hole along the bottom edge. Next time I will do it this way.

For variations, add glasses or even little felt feet.

Another dose of (softie) inspiration

One day I was looking for inspiration for a new softie project to make for home decorating, when I stumbled upon LucyKate Crafts. I seriously love her blog – so many beautiful projects, great pictures … it’s a great blog to spend an hour perusing.

I fell in love with her fox softies, and was inspired to create my own fox. It didn’t turn out as adorable as hers (she is a professional, after all), but still pretty cute.

Oh foxy, foxy

I have a soft spot for foxes, too, because our Cairn, Netta, reminds me of a fox.

Cairn Terrier

Actual fox

Nurse softie

I love surfing blogs for inspiration. I found these easy-enough looking softies here, that are just too adorable. I didn’t follow this pattern, but it did open my eyes to making softies outside of the animal realm.

I mentioned in an earlier post my burgeoning collection of acceptable career-based crafts. So far, there’s a nurse and a doctor. (No, the cowboy and matador don’t fall in the same category :))

Ta-da!

Handsewn puppet

I absolutely love making cute little projects out of felt. It’s a cheap, quick material to craft with. Total cost for creating this puppet was less than $1.

It’s part of the beginning of a series of admirable career-based toys. Coming up with this pattern, cutting everything out and sewing took a total of 1.5 hours, or about the length of one movie that you 1/2 pay attention to.

The doctor is in

Materials – white, off-white, black, chocolate brown felt. Several colors of embroidery floss.

Super easy craft, great baby gift

I completed a new project this weekend and have loads of photos to show with you – but alas, it must wait a few days as it’s part of a Valentine’s gift for someone who reads this blog. 🙂

So, in the meantime, more photos from the vault of easy craft projects.

This quick project will take you about an hour to make 3, is a great way to use up scraps of your favorite fabrics, and makes a sweet, thoughtful gift for any newborn babies in your life. Plus, they’re cute enough in grown up fabrics that you could use them to decorate your home.

For these handmade baby blocks, I cut out 5 inch squares of fabric (6 per block) in a lot of my favorite fabrics that I had only bits and pieces left in. This is also a great fat quarter project. I just figured this out as I went, but this is a great tutorial if you need some extra help.

Sew all of the sides together, and leave about a 1.5 inch opening to flip the blocks right side out through. Then, fill with polyfill and, if you wish, a noisemaker. I used leftover jinglebells from a Christmas-time project. Handsew the remaining seam closed. You’re done!

If you would like to make your project a bit more complicated, add some satin ribbon “taggies” to your blocks to give babies a way to grab them with little fingers, and to give them something to suck on.

So squishy

Love the chicken and owl fabrics especially

And they all fall down