Monthly Archives: November 2011

Felt Stockings

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Thought I’d share the stockings I made last year for Christmas.  I’m an eager beaver and have had my box o’ christmas stuff out for a week now waiting to be rifled through… 

These stockings came together in a couple of mornings.  I stole borrowed the book Fa la la la Felt from my Mom (sorry- i’ll get that back to you soon!) and was inspired immediately to make a couple for the kids.  For Ellery’s, I pretty much copied a design in the book for this white bear holding 3 stacked snowballs…

Felt might be my favorite material to work with.  I bought some good quality felt a couple years ago from OhMa Felt- it’s a big difference working with quality wool felt, and say, the stuff you find at Michael’s… Another book that I LOVE is Kata Golda’s book.   Check it out if you like felt! 

Onto Grant’s stocking… I got so into this project, you have no idea.  I spent some time googling images of my favorite Christmas character, the Abominable Snowman and just went at it piecing together scraps of white felt and some faux fur for his belly.  He’s just the right mix of scary and cute I think!

  I might make a couple more for me and Dean, but I need some suggestions… Rudolph and Clarice maybe?

-Erin

Alissa’s baby shower

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Last month, my dear friend Bridget and I threw a baby shower for our mutual dear friend, Alissa.  We lucked out with a beautiful and very warm October day.  And, we had the most delightful setting- The Gardners’ garden!  I’ve got to give Alissa’s husband, Adam, props for lending his landscaping talents to his sweet in-laws not long ago (a very reciprocal relationship they have).  These are some photos from the party.

 

Did I mention that Baby Ganser will be a boy?  Hence, the hues of browns and blues.  We made our predictions for the baby’s name and birthweight.  Though Alissa is quite the petite pregnant woman, her neice, Julia, has her popping out a 10 pounder!  Let’s hope not!

The main event was the “onesie decorating station”.  We purchased onesies in various sizes and hung them with clothespins on twine.  Guests were invited to embellish them with fabric paint, fabric markers, and stamps.  My decision to iron on (and zig zag stitch) patches of muslin was very worth the little bit of time it took to do it.  How awesome are these?

So true, that last one, so true.  Needless to say, everyone really got into this project.  I do believe Julia has found her calling in life!  And, Baby Ganser has some truly original digs to look forward to, along with these…

A special thank you to Alissa’s mom, Phyllis, for all of her help and support.  Bridget and I so enjoyed doing this for you, Alissa.  You will be an incredible mom!

~Caroline 

Pierrot!

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I’m so glad that I had enough time this weekend to make the Pierrot Tunic for Ellery.  It’s a beautiful pattern from Made by Rae.  If you sew anything for kids (or bags for that matter), you need to visit her blog.  now!  I owe a lot to blogs like Rae’s… besides a 2 hour lesson from (and numerous phone calls to) my Mom, I’ve learned to sew by using online tutorials and watching videos on youtube… it’s a pretty amazing thing, the internet, wouldn’t ya say?

Onto the shirt… I used ivory shirting with little orange circles that are woven into the fabric- they give the tiniest bit of texture and fuzziness.  I paid a little over $2/yd when it was on clearance a couple of weeks ago at fabric.com, and I had an extra 30% off code.  People (mostly my Mom) always diss Fabric.com, but I’m telling you- if you can ignore your wants for designer fabric, you can find some really great stuff if you are willing to put up with their ginormous website for a while.  I ended up with 9 yards of 4 different fabrics for $22 (free shipping.  ch-ching!). This fabric is lightweight and just really sweet I think.  Because of the little graph-paper like grid of lines, it was super easy to cut on the bias- which I did here for a little extra swingy-ness (you don’t have to).

I didn’t have a single issue sewing this- the pattern is lovely, with clear instructions and pictures for each step.

I love it. 

Ellery loves it. 

Especially when there’s a little Halloween candy to go along with it.

I made the 4T size and it fits her average 3 1/2 yr old frame pretty perfectly.

I will definitely be making some more of these soon.  I aboslutely love this version without the ruffle, this one (from the same awesome blog Skirt As Top), and this one. 

All so adorable.  I almost can’t take it.

-Erin