On Wednesday, I made a rather cute yet rather silly party hat for my friend Christina because her birthday is on New Year’s Eve. Fingers crossed that she likes it!
Category Archives: crafting
Day 359: Blue Whale Plushie
On Christmas Eve, I spent a lot of time with my Mom.
While I sat at the kitchen table working on the stuffed blue whale that I was making for my new nephew, she spent hours preparing dish after dish for our Christmas meal the next day. It was nice to sit and chat with her. I don’t spend nearly enough time at my parents’ house lately.
After I finished embroidering the mouth of the whale and sewing on the eyeball-buttons it was time for me to use the sewing machine to finish the whale. My mom brought me downstairs, showed me how to thread her sewing machine, and then left me to finish the whale.
I never did finish it. Instead, the whale fabric flitted around the sewing machine like it had a mind of its own, and the needle kept coming unthreaded, and the thread kept getting all jammed up in the machine, and I started swearing, and steaming, and getting extremely angry at the whole idea of sewing.
“Why did I even start this project when I find sewing so frustrating?”
My mom was on the phone with my sister when I started freaking out. Luckily, she got off the phone and came downstairs to see what was going on.
“There’s something wrong with this stupid machine! I don’t think I can do this!”
My mom was rather calm considering the state I was in.
“Let me look at it.”
She sat down at the sewing machine and took over. I went upstairs and worked on the bean dip appetizer she still wanted to make for Christmas Day.
By the time I was finished with the bean dip, the whale was completely sewn. I flipped it inside out and stuffed it and then sewed the final little bit by hand.
It was adorable, thanks to my Mom.
After we finished with the whale, I went with my family to church and I sang with my Mom in the choir. She’s great at alto harmonies. I stood next to her and sang the soprano part, and we sounded nice together.
While we were singing, I thought about how great my mom is and how much she’s done for me over the years. I’ve been very lucky.
Note: This blue whale plushie is part of my “Jeannimals” project. Learn a bit more about it in my post about the plush heart I made for my niece. It also involves a sewing disaster.
Day 357: Bathrobe Belt
Jim has been missing the belt for his bathrobe for a loooong time. This means that he occasionally walks around the house in just his robe without a tie and with only his hand clasping it together.
Since we have roommates, this also means that he may or may not be in constant danger of flashing them. While my roomies never really mentioned being uncomfortable about the robe situation, I wonder if they also recognized the constant uncertainty. Exposure could happen any moment!
But no more! On Saturday, I made Jim a belt for his bathrobe to eliminate this little situation forever….and I also made it to make Jim happy. I’m sure it will be more comfortable to have a belt.
Since I’m not much of a seamstress, it actually took me over two hours to make the thing and the craftmanship isn’t even that good, but it’s the thought that counts.
I gave Jim the belt yesterday as a Christmas present, and he seemed quite happy. Yay!
Day 339: Think Big
After 339 days of making something this year, this phrase makes me chuckle and think, “What? Bigger than this project? How?” Perhaps that’s a little silly, but it feels true. Making something every day has been extremely tough!
That said, this phrase does make me look ahead and think about next year. In case anyone is curious, next year I plan to do 52 projects, one each week, that are all more challenging, elaborate, and hopefully impressive than the ones I did this year. I plan to post to this blog more than once a week, though. Perhaps I’ll provide background on the project development at the beginning of the week and even provide updates on progress during the week. We shall see!
Day 333: Easy No-Sew Tree Skirt
On Wednesday, a few friends and I had a craft night, and I made an easy, no-sew tree skirt. The project took me a total of about 2.5 hours, not including the time at the craft store. I used the old “tie-the-strips-of-fleece-together” method, and it worked well. See below for instructions.
Here’s the tree skirt on the beautiful Christmas tree I got this weekend!
In this close-up, you can see that the strips of my patterned fabric kind of look like bacon. Hilarious.
Supplies
- 1.75 yards of two different fleece fabrics – I bought one solid red fleece fabric and one patterned red and white fabric. Note that you need to ensure that your fabrics will be big enough to make a circle 60 inches in diameter. You may want to tell the person cutting your fabric that you’ll be making a tree skirt this size.
- Tape measure
- Pen or pencil
- String
- Straight pins
- Scissors
Instructions for this easy no-sew tree skirt
- Find the center of the fabric and mark it with a pen. To do this, fold the fabric in half the “tall way” so that the fabric is folded to be tall and skinny. Then, measure the fabric along the tall edge with your tape measure and make a mark at the center. Then unfold the fabric.
- Using the center you just marked as a guide, draw a large circle on your fabric. To do this, tie a piece of string to your pen (or pencil) and then cut the sting to be 30 inches long. Hold the end of your string at the center you marked in the previous step, extend the string out fully, and draw your circle by slowly moving the pen around the center in a circle. Note: Your resulting circle will be 60 inches in diameter, which will seem very large. It will be smaller when you’re done.
- Lay your solid circle on top of the patterned fleece, with the pattern facing down. Then use the solid circle as a guide to cut a circle from the patterned fleece. After this, do not separate the circles.
- Using your same pen and string, cut the 30 inch string down to 5 inches and measure a small circle around the center in the same process. Then cut out the small circle. It will be 10 inches in diameter.
- Cut a slit through both fabrics from the outer edge straight to the small circle. Using the straight pins, pin the fabric together along both sides of the slit.
- With the circles still together, cut 1 inch wide strips through both piece of fabric. The strips should be about 6 inches long.
- Once you’ve cut these strips all around the circle, knot one patterned strip together with one solid strip. Do this all the way around the tree skirt.
- Then take out your straight pins because you’re done!
Note: If you’d like, you can sew the edges along the slit and around the smaller circle. However it’s not necessary. The solid fabric and the pattern fabric will naturally cling together, and if they get a little out of alignment along the small circle and along the slit, you can just line them back up.
Finally, here’s the first ever picture on my blog of me in the process of making something! Thanks to my friend Christina for taking this! Can’t believe it took so long to post an “action shot!”
Day 284: Crayon on Canvas – Part 2
On Wednesday, I finished the crayon on canvas piece I started yesterday. Actually, I’m not sure it’s finished–I may still add to it.
Day 283: Crayon on Canvas – Part 1
Back on Tuesday, October 8, I started working on a project using charcoal and crayon on canvas. I first created a design with the charcoal, and then shaved crayon onto the canvas. Then I laid paper over the canvas and used a hairdryer to melt the crayon. It worked okay, but I think using an iron is supposed to be better.
Day 245: Paper Star #2
Last Saturday, I finished my paper star. Here’s a summary of what I did to make this.
- Created a star-shaped paper frame using pieces of black construction paper glued together.
- Glued white paper to the back of the star and then trimmed it to also be the same star shape as the frame.
- Glued together strips of red paper to make long strips that would fit over the whole star. I did the same with pink strips of paper.
- Then, I glued the strips of paper onto the star, alternating between the red and pink sort of randomly.
- Finally, I trimmed off any of the excess paper so that the paper strips formed to the shape of the paper star.
Mine star is now hanging on my bedroom wall, and I love it! I would guess that the whole project took about 2.5 hours total over the two days.
Day 243: Paper Star #1
Last Thursday, I started making this paper star. Can’t wait to finish it!
Day 208: Paper Wreath – Part 2
On Thursday, I finished the paper wreath I started making on Wednesday. Here it is hanging on my door. I love it!
Making Made 