Creative Friday: a dozen beanbags

Here is one of my hand-made Christmas gifts that turned out to be an unexpected hit:  two sets of six beanbags (actually they are filled with rice).  My four boys have used these for mock battles (they build pillow forts at opposite ends of our hallway and try to shoot them down) and various other games they've come up with.  The bags are made to put up with a great deal of abuse--double bagged in muslin--and filled with 8 oz. of the cheapest rice I could find.  The numbers, printed onto iron-on transfer paper, were added for two reasons: first, it makes it easy to see if any are missing, and secondly, the bags can be divided for teams, which is what we have during fort-battles.

Since getting these, the boys have stopped hurling the 3 lb rice-filled heating pads at one another!

Join Linda on Natural Suburbia for more Creative Friday inspirations...and have a great weekend!

Creative Friday--crafting for Christmas

Advent is always marked by a flurry of Christmas crafting around here!  I have been furiously knitting since October, and for the last few weeks it has just been hats for the menfolk in the family...I still have one to do for my husband, and then I may attempt to knit up a couple of pairs of requested fingerless mitts.

There are other holiday gifts for the kids in the works which for obvious reasons cannot be mentioned here.

I haven't had time to make all the things I had intended to make for our Etsy shop before Christmas; I'd had plans for St. Nicholas dolls and tree ornaments and such, and just can't manage it.  I did manage to make two stockings from this adorable fabric, and they are available at Frost Lane.  I used the scraps--too cute to toss out--to make a few little stuffed ornaments for our tree.   They are backed with red felt.

I have loads to do and so many fabulous ideas (Pinterest is killing me!), that the days are too short and too few between now and Christmas.

So...what have you been up to?  Drop by Natural Suburbia for Creative Friday and to see all the fabulous things being crafted!

Another 2-hour project completed in a mere 5 months!

Another three-tiered skirt for Una.  She loves the first one I made some time ago, and I thought I'd make her another.  I think I bought the fabric back some time in March, hoping to make it for spring and summer, but it seems it will be a late summer/early autumn skirt instead.  I found the easy directions here.

Decompression Crafting

This time of year is crazy.  I am trying to "finish" this school year (I school pretty much year round, but our umbrella school requires grade reporting and I need to sort of assess where we are in order to figure out what we are doing next), prepare for two birthdays and get ready for another school year, this one with the added stress of planning Una's high school years.  Ugh.  I obviously have absolutely no time to be working on crafts--other than those that are birthday-gift related--but that is how I decompress when I feel sort of ready to burst at the seams.  I suddenly develop this overwhelming urge to escape to my workroom and sit at my workbench or at the sewing machine.  Which explains why, in the midst of all that I should be doing, I have been doing this:

I've been practicing wood-burning a bit on some wooden buttons, which are now in the Etsy shop.  And I have nearly finished one of Gemma's birthday gifts, a set of clothing for her favorite baby doll.  I still have a couple of pieces I want to finish.

Do you craft for stress relief?  

Stop by Linda's Creative Friday on Natural Suburbia and see what other crafty folks are doing to decompress.

If you haven't done so already, please check out the sponsored giveaway I'm having this week and enter to win some herbal goodness from Twysted Thystle!  

A huggable gnome doll for a birthday boy

Finally--the Top Secret Birthday Project is revealed!  Of course, his birthday isn't officially until Sunday, and we are celebrating tomorrow, but I think it will be relatively easy to keep him away from my blog, since he has absolutely no interest in it.

Adrian loves gnomes, and even has a "gnome-friend" named Thorwald.  He sometimes writes letters to him, and a couple of times a year sends his old "Dolly" off to Magic Mountain to hang out with the gnome-folk.  Dolly is usually gone for a week or so, and then returns with a little gift from her travels--a pretty stone, an acorn cup or some such thing.

I actually did look on the internet for a gnome doll--not that I would have been able to afford it--but only came up with little wooden and needle felted ones...cute, but not cuddly.  I realized I would have to make one myself.  I used a great tutorial on making Waldorf dolls for the basis of the doll and ordered a few materials from this great supplier (there was a lot I had on hand already).

I had a bit of a dilemma when it came time to do the face.  The Waldorf babies have these tiny little noses and real baby faces, and I needed a old gnome.  So, onto the basic head shape, beneath the "skin", I needle felted a big nose and cheeks and a chin.  I had to accentuate the nose by sewing the skin fabric down around the nose.  I made separate ears from fabric and sewed those onto him.

The hair and beard were the most time consuming, as I had to make felted "mats" for them, attach them to his head and face, and then sew and needle felt the roving to them.

The clothing was the easy bit.  I made the cap from some beautiful, 3mm thick merino felt from this Etsy shop.  Quality felt isn't cheap, but for a special project you wouldn't want to go with anything but the best, right?

I am sooo looking forward to Adrian opening this gift tomorrow!

For more wonderful, creative pursuits, check out Natural Suburbia and Creative Friday!

Rice-filled heating pads--in the nick of time!

We had our first snow this morning, just little flurries drifting, and I couldn't capture them with the camera.  We are enjoying hot tea, cocoa and chai, spice cookies, candles and these wonderful rice-filled heating pads I made this weekend for each family member.

They were easy to make and are so appreciated by everyone.  About half an hour before bedtime I begin putting them in the microwave to heat, but I am thinking that I might just stick the whole lot of them in the oven on low for half an hour and be done with it!

Here is how I made them:  For each pack, I used about 3 1/2 lbs. of cheapo rice from a discount grocery.  I poured it into a big bowl and added about 1/2 tsp. of lavender essential oil (for Gemma I used about 10 drops of chamomile essential oil and just about 5 of lavender).  I stirred it up really well to distribute the oils, and then poured the rice into a sack I had made from and old sheet.  I made sure all seams were sewn double to prevent rice-leakage.  The finished dimensions were about 7 1/2 by 15".  Then I made a second, decorative cover.  I guess I could have made them removable and therefore washable, but my main reason was for identification purposes and to give a second layer of protection from leaks.

These take about six minutes on high in the microwave to heat up, but our microwave may or may not heat very well; I've no way of knowing.  The packs stay warm under out covers for several hours.

Just for the sake of comparison, I made my husband one with cherry pits.  These are much lighter and better for putting on a muscle ache, since they don't feel like sacks of concrete!  Two pounds of cherry pits filled up a sack of the same size, took only 3 minutes to heat in the microwave, but was pretty much cooled off in under an hour.  Also, they smell amazing!  But for warming the bed, we will stick to the rice bags.

An easy, inexpensive skirt for Una

We found some pretty fabric on sale in the craft section of Wal-Mart, and Una thought it would make a nice skirt.  We purchased two yards of it.

I decided to try a gored skirt and make my own pattern.  I am a real novice seamstress, but I can often visualize what I have to do to make something work!  This is a tutorial for those who haven't a clue...

Since it was to have an elastic waistband, I took Una's hip measurement where it was widest and rounded it up to the nearest half-inch.  Then I divided it by four, since it was to be a four-gored skirt.  Then I added a half-inch to this measurement to get the width of the top of each panel.  The width of the bottom of the skirt would be the full width of my fabric which I had folded to create four layers.  Una wanted it long, so I took the length she wanted from waist to hem and added a couple of inches for the elastic casing and the hem allowances.

With me so far?  I folded the fabric again lengthwise and made my pattern on paper.  The top of the pattern was one-half the measurement I figured for the top of each panel.  I created a line from the top to the edge of the fabric at the predetermined length.  Then I just eyed a curve on the bottom, so as to avoid points where the gores met.  The pattern was cut out and pinned with the straight edge along the fold of the fabric.

The fabric was cut and I had four panels.  Here is where I wish I had a serger!  I did a zig-zag overlock stitch around all 4 sides of each panel, then began sewing the panels together..  I ironed the seam allowances flat, made my casing for the elastic and inserted it, and but a 1" hem on the bottom.  It turned out quite well, and I would love to try an 8-gored skirt some time!

There you have it: Skirt Sewing for Dummies!

If you want to take a look at what other, more creative souls have been up to this week, try visiting Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday.

A three-tiered skirt for Una

I love knitting, crafting and sewing, and I have the best of intentions, but typically I purchase materials for my "making" passion at a steadier rate than I can find time to indulge in these endeavors.  Case in point:  this skirt for Una.  We picked out the material for a three-tiered skirt last summer.  It was washed, ironed, folded and placed near my sewing machine all autumn and winter.  It moved back to the ironing board this spring, and finally, this past week, I took Una's measurements again (she had grown again, naturally), found this tutorial again, and set to work.

We are both very happy with the outcome.  It was pretty easy, except that I seem to have trouble keeping my gathers evenly spaced while I sew them to another piece of fabric.  I am sure that a more experience seamstress would have some tip for me on how to do this.

The tutorial confused me a bit (I am not very good with numbers), but I got enough out of it to work out the details.  Basically, you divide your desired length by 3, adding to that number for your seam allowances, and that gives you the height of each tier.  Then you add enough to your top tier to allow for your elastic casing.  as for the width of each tier, you take your hip measurement and add a few inches for ease, and that is the width of your top tier.  The second tier is 1.5 times the measurement of the top, and the bottom tier is 1.5 times the measurement of the middle tier.  After that, it is fairly self-explanatory.

Happily, there is plenty of fabric left to make a dress for Gemma.  If I don't wait until next summer, that is.  If I do, there still ought to be enough for a skirt or two...

Handmade this Christmas

Better late than never posting this one.  The nice thing about this year's post is that my daughter, Una, was able to make a few gifts.  Some I failed to photograph and they were given outside of this household, alas.  She made two very lovely potholders, very much like these, of which I am the happy owner, for her aunt and Oma.

Una also made some Lord of the Rings and Narnia inspired costumes for her brothers, which she has posted on her blog.  They go well with the wooden swords Bret made the kids for Christmas.  Two lengths, as to accommodate the taller and the shorter members of our family.  He made some extras, which will be listed in our soon-to-be Etsy shop.  And there are shields as well, also to be made in two sizes.

And Bret also made the table hockey game, which he gave to the kids on Epiphany.

Una frequently suffers from neck and shoulder pain because of her fibromyalgia, so I made her a nice, long rice-filled heating pad with a fleece cover.

And I knit her this scarf with roses:

Gemma got the legwarmers, which I had knit ages ago:

And there were the stockings, of course.  Those I made for my kids,

and those I made for the niece and nephews.

I had hoped to do a family of peg dolls for Gemma, but ran out of time.  Maybe it is for the best, as she is really too young for little toys that are easily lost.  Likewise, there were other projects I had hoped to complete and couldn't.  Thank goodness Christmas comes every year, and I will have another shot at it!

More making and baking...

OHMIGOSH!  Are we really only a week from Christmas Eve?  I am only just over half done with my baking, and I haven't wrapped a single thing, the tree hasn't been purchased and, well...I am mysteriously calm about it all.  Must be the grace of God...

It has been a productive week, anyway, in spite of the fact that I had to take some time out for eating, sleeping and caring for my dear children.

I really enjoyed making this little church, the pattern saved from an old Martha Stewart Living Christmas issue.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  It really sparkles, and I left a hole beneath it for a battery powered tea light, so its vellum windows glow.  I guess it's about six inches tall.

Stockings for the nephews and niece.  Remember the scrap of "Believe" fabric you sent me last year, Regan?

It is a good kind of busy.  I'm off now for a cup of tea and then decorating some of the cookies baked this week.  Have a good weekend!

Oh, and don't forget to take a look at Natural Suburbia for Creative Friday.  It is astounding what creativity there is out there!  I'm full of ideas for next year...

A busy week and works in progress...

It has been a bit of a whirlwind week, what with a wedding last Saturday, the first Sunday of Advent, Gabriel's birthday, our Goddaughter's birth, the exhibit by Una and Sebastian's art class, making ornaments for our Jesse Tree, setting up our little seasonal shelf for December and making things for Christmas.  Whew!

Here is our Advent wreath this year.  Having to use an artificial wreath this year has made me determined to plant some fir trees on our property!  And holly shrubs.  And ivy.  As for the red candles, they are all that we ever used when I was growing up in Germany.  I never heard of pink and purple candles for Advent until I moved  to the U.S.A.  But I will get my act together next year and we will roll some beeswax candles for Advent.

Here is our seasonal shelf set for December.  I am hoping to have St. Lucia done by her feast day, and I still need to hang paper snowflakes as we cut them.

Besides all the knitting I am trying to get done, here is the project I am most excited about right now.  I have been meaning for years to replace the kids' cheap, junky, made-in-China Christmas stockings with something more befitting a family with a "handmade-is-best" philosophy.  Anyway, I have 6 kids now and only 4 of the  lousy stockings, so something had to be done.  The moment I laid eyes on this vintage-looking fabric, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.  I would make stockings, and use tea-dyed muslin for the cuffs, and embroider the children's names on them.

Some works-in-progress:

And two completed stocking, lacking only hanging loops:

Okay, this post has taken up enough time--back to school, crafting and baking (right after I check out a few other crafty posts on Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday)!

Works in progress

Well, I bit off more than I could chew with the paper mache lanterns for Michaelmas.  They will have to wait around for All Hallow's Eve to become something more than balloons with a layer of mummy-wrap.  So instead I quickly made up half a dozen of these watercolored paper lanterns.  For safety, I put those little battery-powered flickering tea candles in them.  We still need sticks on which to hang them.

I finished one pair of corduroy pants for Gemma, and I have another to do.  I think I may make a little skirt for her from the leftover red corduroy.

I am working on another set of leg warmers, as well, the first pair having turned out very nicely.

 And then there are a few other things I have going on, about which I cannot post, as the kids do look at my blog.  Let's just say that I have something cooking on every burner.  Let's just hope I don't burn out...

The Dress

Nothing fancy, just my very first attempt at sewing up a pattern.  I forgot to put on the brown satin sash before taking the photos, but no doubt you'll be seeing this dress again.  Una likes it!