Lasting Lovies

I made my niece this Molly Monkey doll back in 2010!

Here she is still loving on her two years later.

I made my nephew a Super Kid cape and Super Monkey back in 2010. Here he is enjoying them both then and now.

 

 2010

2012

Have you had the pleasure of watching your creations loved over the years?



Happy Storm Trooper!

Here is the birthday boy!

 He is being Hans Solo pretending to be a Storm Trooper. He had to pose with a gun for the full effect. (Good thing he was able to whip one up out of Lego blocks in no time at all.)
He was very happy with the new characters as well.

 I even added a Sand Person at the last minute. He requested some additional bad guy robots as well as "twentyfourty" more storm troopers and fifteen more Jawaws.
He was very pleased with the eye choice for the Jawaw and stated that they do indeed have gold eyes. I also made weapons for them and he was quite satisfied with their accuracy to the movie. So overall we had a happy camper!

I love that he understands that these are custom made for him! Can you imagine opening a store bought gift and requesting revised weaponry, additional characters, etc. to your own desired specifications!

This is what makes handmade gifts so special! They are custom made just for you!

Have you made a handmade creation for someone recently? How did you customize it to meet their particular interests, desires, etc.

Braided Infinity

For Christmas I also wanted to make a "younger" looking scarf for my two sister-in-laws.

I came across a braided scarf tutorial on pinterest and got to work. Unfortunately the tutorial had me literally pulling my hair out, so I thought I would post my own tutorial that addresses some of the issues and allows for a more polished result.

Again, I wanted to make two scarves from the same fabric so I simply cut it in half width wise. This left me with four 11"x 36" strips.

The pink scarf above was made from some leftover spandexy, velvety fabric I had lying around. I fudged around an just made a width and length I felt comfortable with. You can also use two medium sized t-shirts.

The green scarf below was made from standard cotton fabric from JoAnns.

Braided Infinity Scarf Tutorial

Take two pieces of fabric and sew them (right sides together) to make a tube. I used 1/4" seams. Leave about a two inches untouched on either end.

Do this again using the other two pieces of fabric.

Turn both tubes right side out.

Take a random strip of fabric and tie the ends of the two tubes together. Now you will have two circles.

You are now ready for your knot.

The knot was VERY confusing to figure out. I actually got my husband's help and practiced on two pieces of string.
Hopefully, I can describe it clearly.


Knotting the Scarf

Put the knotted end of circle A through the unknotted end of circle B

Then take the knotted end of circle A and pull it up on top of the unknotted end of circle A.

Now take the knotted end of circle B and put that through the center of everything (where the arrow is)

Now pull each knotted end.

It should end up looking like this:

Closing the Scarf 

 I left side openings on each tube like below:

 please ignore the tulle inside the tubes, I tried it for extra volume, but it didn't look good.

 I then sewed the ends of each tube together. Matching right sides together.

It's fairly awkward to pin together and sew, but ends up with the best result.

Then you have a finished seam across the scarf. All you have left is to pin up the sides and hand stitch them.

Good Luck!!

Forever and Ever Scarf

This is my beautiful mother sporting the new Infinity scarf I made her for Christmas.

She always forgets what they are called so she calls it her "forever and ever scarf."
This photo also includes the doll quilt I made for my niece in the background.

I used this tutorial. The fabric I used was stardard cotton fabric found at JoAnns. I made mine slightly narrower than the tutorial so I could make two scarves out of one piece of fabric. I simply cut the fabric in half width wise to make my two matching scarves. I gave one to each of my Moms. (my mom and mother-in-law)

My mom is a teacher so she loves light weight colorful/ statement making accessories to jazz up practical work attire. She is anxious to make another for herself!

Star Wars Finger Puppets

I just couldn't wait to show you!

These are for my nearly 5 year old Nephew for Christmas. They were so much fun to make!
I have made printable patterns available through PDF. E-mail me at mcgowan.rebekah@gmail.com if you would like a copy of the free patterns for personal use.

The Goose is Getting Fat!

It's feeling like Christmas around here and we have been very busy little Elfs lately!
In addition to our looming list of homemade gifts to make I of course had to make a few Holiday creations for Lucas.

We had a rod iron rack that held rod iron baskets of vegetables and towels next to our fridge. Unfortunately, the need to toddler proof forced us to take this down as Lucas loved to try to pull it on top of himself. We suffer from the same plight as many others. We neglected to realize that Stainless Steel is NOT MAGNETIC! Now that the magnetic black side was finally available for play, we wanted to give Lucas some much needed magnet fun. I had some magnet sheets from an old project in my craft drawer and I always have felt lying around so I decided to make Lucas some magnets. I started out with ABC. then used the scraps to make triangles, eyeballs, a line, a tounge, and a circle. I had also made him a felt tree with felt ornaments and a star and had attempted to hang it on the livingroom wall. Lucas immediately ripped it right off the wall along with some of the wall paint! We felt the fridge was a little safer. So I used the remaining magnet scraps for the back of my tree. There literally wasn't a scrap of magnet left in the end. I love that you don't need to put anything on the backs of the ornaments or star since felt sticks to felt. The new magnets are a big hit and they wander over to the non-stainless dishwasher from time to time as well.

We also have been working tirelessly on our Christmas presents. Some will have to remain secret of course, but I can reveal that I finished my pattern designs and began cutting on my StarWars finger puppets for my nephew.

This idea was born from talking to my nephew and then watching him play. He had recently seen Star Wars III for the first time and apparently it changed his life much like thousands of other little boys and girls across the world. He later found Lucas' finger puppets and instantly began an extravagant narrative with them. So I thought what better thing than to combine the two! Of course I thought this was a completely original and brilliant idea until I did a Pinterest search. Low and Behold others had come up with the same idea. Luckily I could only find a decent Darth Vader that seemed to be a worthwhile pattern to work from. This left me to be able to make my own designs for the others. I hope they come out as awesome as they are in my head!!

My little niece turned two back in September. She adores taking care of her baby dolls and Lucas whenever she can get a chance. So I thought for her I would make my first quilt. I actually can't believe I've never made a quilt completely on my own, but with the power of Pinterest and Youtube I made it through!

I only have the hand stitching left to do around the binding. I had a wonderful time making this little piece.
If you have never made a quilt and are looking to get started I highly recommend using a combination of  this tutorial for the construction , a quilt tying tutorial - you will need a curved needle- I used a 2", and I needed this youtube quilt binding tutorial inorder to really understand what they were talking about. I will try to add the quilt tying tutorial I used. I forgot to save it to Pinterest and unfortunately they have shut down their search feature at the moment.
We have also been stirring up a little Christmas fun in the kitchen as well! I planned to make a cheese log using this recipe. However this was for a vegan, gluten free party, so the cream cheese was Tofutti. I found that it doesn't harden as well as regular cream cheese so it wouldn't keep it's little square package form on its own like the recipe intended. So I just put it in a small bread dish I had from our wedding and topped it off similar to the tutorial. I used green onions for the green bow. I found they curl best with an actual pair of scissors and if you run it along the inside of the leaf rather than the outside.

 We also made our version of the santa hat brownie bites pictured here. Again since we were going for Vegan/ Gluten Free we ran into a few road blocks. It turns out you can not use Egg substitutes with boxed Gluten free brownie mix. It will end up a crusty, overflowing, undercooked, and somehow overcooked mess. At the last minute we decided to just go Vegan and drop the attempt for Gluten free. I used my favorite Wacky Chocolate Cake recipe (no eggs, no milk, yet super moist and rich) in a mini cupcake tin, frosted with Pillsbury vanilla frosting (no eggs, no milk, no gelatin) and topped with strawberries. Excuse our messy creations as we were unable to purchase tubed frosting since it typically has gelatin products and I still haven't overcome my fear of making my own piping in a pastry wrap tube. So we frosted with a knife and then used fondu forks to decorate. Bill ended up frosting most of them so I could get dressed for the party. What a great guy! He thought it was pretty awesome so he didn't mind the silliness or tediousness too much.

Well, I hope you are having a VERY merry Christmas season!
I have consulted with 2 potential creative cohorts who have said they may be willing to do a guest blog showcasing their amazing holiday creations while I try to keep my current works under wraps.
So keep posted for some gorgeous hand made crafts by Carrie and Heather.

Merry Christmas,

                                                           The McGowans
P.S. That Party I was talking about, well it was a crazy Christmas sweater party. And as you can imagine, we won.

Sewing Writer's Block

 I have curtains! This is my studio- seen here. There are lots more pictures of this space coming! Bill recently built a custom daybed for this window. It's ready for paint, but we can't give it up long enough to let the coats dry. We also have plans to build a spool art table for the other corner. I am currently in the process of completing my wall art with scraps from the bathroom we gutted for additional closet space. That hit a delay, because I didn't listen to my husband. You'll hear that story soon. Bill also built new shelves in the existing closet. And I am painting and re-upolstering a chair Bill's grandfather built for my sewing chair. This space is really coming together and is now one of our favorite spots in the house.

Back to the curtains- I picked out this fabric at Ikea- mentioned here. It was the inspiration for my studio/ home office, but the fabric sat in the drawer for a year. I couldn't even use the space in the winter from the chill through the single paned curtain-less windows. I thought I would share what I have learned about myself through this sewing drought by reviewing the 4 items that will apparently stop me dead in my tracks and avoid sewing an essential item like it was disease infested. 

Number 1: the astronomical price of bias tape. Well it's only a few dollars, but I needed a lot of it for 4 curtains. And it added up to an amount I felt was unreasonable for notions. Also I needed buttons. LOTS of buttons. I couldn't stomach having such a large receipt dedicated to bias tape and buttons, so I just didn't buy them. 

Note to self: waiting one year did not make them cheaper, did not allow me to think of a different solution, and the month where we had an extra $40 magically allocated to the fine category of 'sewing notions' never came. 

In the end, I didn't buy all the buttons that the pattern suggested and it made me feel a little better. 

Number 2: Adding backing. I decided to add a white fabric as backing so it would be thicker and more energy efficient. This added a step that was not part of the pattern. Evidently this terrified me.

Number 3: I have very odd shaped windows. They are wide and short and since they are cornered together one side is longer than the other. I have sewn many patterns in my life and I have made my own patterns, but I have not used a pattern to make something custom. I had to measure my windows and then figure out what that meant on the pattern itself. Again for no apparent reason this made me nervous.

Number 4: I have never used fabric that wasn't from the JoAnn's sale rack or my mom's stash. I was terrified to make a mistake on my precious Ikea fabric. Eventhough, I think it was only $9.99 a yard. This may explain my irrational fear of home decor fabric.

In the end my mother and mother-in-law came for the day, armed with their sewing machines and years of experience. They worked away sharing stories of their first sewing machines and who taught them to sew. I worked away at my real job and listened contently to their happy chatter. In some ways, the day was validating. There were many Pow-wows, rethinking, reworking, LOTS of seam ripping, and in the end the curtains were still a bit wider than the windows. They hit all the walls and made all the mistakes that I was scared to. It's just part of the process. Even still, they both said they wanted to make more of them when they were finished, since they finally found their rhythm by the third curtain.

All this to say, sewing has a huge learning curve. EVERY time. The first time you make a project it will never be perfect. You will always learn something. You will always make a mistake. You will use your seam ripper on nearly every project. Once you finally 'get it', you will want to make a million more and sell them on etsy. Then you will get bored the third time and move on. I don't know many things that are like sewing. 

I remember one winter I was toiling away making a suit of armor for my nephew. My machine bound up every hour or so. I was constantly ripping, reworking. My husband questioned how it was fun at all and if I really enjoyed it. Then I finished. He couldn't believe I made it. And I think he saw how it was all worth it. The pains of labor make you love it even more. So don't let fear of failure overtake you. And as far as money: Yes, these curtains were probably more expensive to make then the curtains in my son's room that I bought at Target, but they are custom handmade curtains. No one has them. This is something our mass produced Wal-Mart world makes us forget. These curtains have a story. They have memories. They share all my mother and mother-in-laws stories too. You can't put a dollar amount on that.

 What is the project that is beating you? What fabric or pattern is sitting on your shelf or in your drawer waiting to be tackled? What fears are holding you back?

No Muss No Fuss Bunting

 I am a perfectionist. It's just how I roll. Now when I proposed making bunting and the materials I would use, my mother quickly reminded me about ten times that it doesn't need to be perfect. 

She recalled making our costumes for our Reformation plays in grade school (what? Your school didn't perform REFORMATION plays!) Yes. We literally performed Reformation plays. It was a private Christian School with 80 kids in it. What can I say. Every year it was a different one. So every year we needed new costumes. I will never forget the year my sister was Queen Elizabeth. My mother toiled over that hideous green curtain fabric for days and weeks.In the end it was a hideous green dress that was done soo beautifully Queen Elizabeth could have worn it herself (if she was the size of an 8th grader.) My mother brought it into school and another mom reminded her- 'It's a play... There are bright lights and no one will even see the back.' That's when my mom learned the value of sewing for decoration or play. Don't fuss. Don't spend hours stitching perfect seams on a play costume. Then they will be scared to wear it. JUST LET GO.

Making bunting (for decoration) is about just that. My triangles are not perfect. My cut lines from the pinking shears are not even. Even my well laid plan to have all my farm animals right side up fell through. My stitches are not straight, but I made four strings of bunting from soup to nuts in about one hour with no pins. And they look great because they are about effect- NOT becoming an heirloom or their re-sale value. No muss, no fuss.

This isn't going to be formal instructions, but should be enough info to get a person with some experience sewing through. If you run into problems, feel free to let me know.

So first take a piece of 8 1/2x11" paper and fold it in half lengthwise. Cut diagonally from one corner to the other. Unfold. 

Vuala- Pattern!

Now fold up your fabrics into a nice long rectangle that is tall enough for your pattern and wide enough for a few triangles. 

If your fabric is too thick you may have to guage how many times you fold it so your scissors can still cut through. 

I didn't even draw the pattern on the fabric. I just started cutting along the edge of the paper.  

Just be careful not to cut your paper since it will dull the shears. 

Only cut the diagonals. 

You will use regular fabric scissors for the bottom of the triangle when you finish cutting them out so you have a straight edge to sew to.  

When you finish cutting both diagonals flip your triangle on the fabric so it matches the diagonal you just cut. Now you only have to cut one side! 

Then flip and cut again until you get to the end of your rectangle. 

Do this with as many colors of fabric that you want.

To make things easy for myself I then put them in a stack in the order I wanted to sew them. I tried to not make an exact repetitive pattern, but also tried to not have the same fabric twice.

I then placed my double bias tape along the bottom edge of the triangle on top of my fabric (which should be facing up).Then start sewing. Remember to lock the beginning and the end so your stitches don't unravel. When you get close to the end of the first triangle slide your next triangle into place under the bias tape and just keep going . Leave room on both ends to tie off the bunting. You don't have to use bias tape. You could use ribbon or apron cord or anything you have that won't fray.

That does it! Now hang up your bunting and enjoy your party decorations that were hopefully next to nothing to make!

Sewing for BOYS!

I constantly see the debates online between working moms and stay at home moms. I just chuckle to myself and sigh. As a work from home full time employee and mom to a child with special needs, sometimes I feel like throwing in the towel. However, as my little man found his rhythm and has begun to explore his world on all fours or shimmying around furniture, I seem to have found my rhythm as well. As I did, I found our budget is still tighter than ever and the stash of baby clothes from hand me downs and gifts has finally run out. My mother has been sewing nonstop for my little niece making her gorgeous little dresses and I felt frustrated that there aren't any fun patterns for BOYS! Searching through Pinterest one day, I found a few ideas and patterns and quickly came up with a marvelous plan.

Use DADDY'S old pants to make new pants for my little man.

We were desperately due for a laundry day so I thought it was a key opportunity to hunt through my husband's drawers. Whatever was left during this laundry famine was sure to not fit or be worn out. I pulled out 3 gems. 1 pair of jeans that he felt fit him awkwardly, 1 pair of Dickies that were uncomfortable, and 1 pair of wool dress pants that were used for a Halloween costume.

I'm sure this isn't an original idea and there are many blog posts on the web for this basic pattern and concept. However, I couldn't find exactly this simple process all in one place. So here it is.  I keep saying these pants take 30 minutes. I'm bet it's longer than that, but I made 3 in one evening after the little guy was in bed and still went to bed at a decent hour. They are literally one of the easiest things I have ever made. And since they are made out of 'adult' fabric instead of thin cottons and jersey knits, I can let him be a BOY and play in the dirt and crawl across pavement, etc. Not to mention the constant compliments I get on his great pants. No one believes they are hand made.

The key to the simplicity of these pants is that I use the hem line and inseam of the Adult jeans. This makes them look professional rather than 'home sewn' and greatly simplifies the process. So you only get one pair of toddler pants per 1 pair of adult pants. But if you were going to throw them out anyway or they were just taking up valuable storage space in your dresser, it's definitely worth it.

My first attempt ended up a little tighter than I thought, but it was an easy tweak for the next pair. They are basically a perfect fit so there isn't much room to grow. I was amazed to see how easily he can move in them. Since I did run into this problem, please keep in mind if you are using a jersey knit as a template to make pants in a stiffer fabric allow extra room to account for the stretch you have lost.

Let's get started.

What you will need:

Pair of pants that are in decent shape from the knee down

matching thread (I use a mustardy yellow for jeans)

fabric scissors

3/4" wide elastic

writing utensil- pen/ marker whatever is around

clothes iron

pins/safety pins

Step 1: Making your pattern: select your 'material' and a pair of pants that fits your child well to use as a template.

Take the template pants and fold them in half. Use the actual edge of the fabric for your actual pattern edge for the hem and side seam.

Add 5/8" to the interior edges to allow for a seam allowance. Leave about 2 1/2" extra at the top.

Step 2: Cutting: Now pin your pattern on the pants. I used 1 pattern for both pant legs, but if you choose to do it this way don't leave your brain behind. Because you will have to flip the pant leg and your pattern to do the opposite side. (I only say this as often by the time I have a minute to sew my brain has gone to bed hours ago.)

Step 3:  Sewing: Start by unfolding the two pieces and place them face to face. Then sew along the two sides as shown below. This will be the front seam and the back seam covering the bum.

Next fold your fabric so the fresh seams are in the center. This makes the shape or you pant. Clip the seam allowance along any curves so the fabric can lay flat and iron. Now go back in and sew the inner leg lines. Start at one cuff moving up to the crotch and then turn and go back down ending at the other cuff. Clip the seam allowance along any curves so the fabric can lay as flat as possible and iron. Feel free to trim down you seam allowances.

At this point I had a fitting. I turned the pants right side out and folded the top down to where it was similar to the template pair. I then ironed it so there was a nice crease and tried them on the kiddo. I adjusted as necessary and carefully placed a safety pin to mark the spot and took them off.

 To sew the waistband, You are going to have 2 folds that fold on the inside of the pant and end up being wide enough to fit your 3/4" elastic through. Make your folds and cut off any excess. I did my first fold as 5/8" and sewed it in place. Then I folded the second fold to cradle the 3/4" elastic nicely. I sewed this down right along the outside of the fold. Make sure to NOT meet your stitch as you come around the waistband. You need to leave enough room to thread in your elastic. Attach a safety pin to the end of your elastic and feed it through you opening and around the waistband. When it comes out the other end I safety pinned it to the pant so I didn't lose the end and had another fitting. Put the pants on your little guy or girl and pull the elastic until it is not too tight and not too loose. Un-safety pin your other side and safety pin the two ends together at the perfect length. Remove the pants. Then stitch the elastic sides together. Make sure they aren't twisted. Hand stitch up your opening for the elastic and DONE.

My husband had the fabulous idea of taking the Dickies label off of his pants and sewing it onto the bum of the Dickies we made for Lucas. I love how they came out!

Owls

We are starting to work on the nursery for our new addition. Since, I can't paint or sand his "new to us" dresser, etc. I have to keep myself occupied in other ways. So I decided to make a mobile. My mom started making me a quilt a long time ago. She picked out every piece of fabric to represent my favorite things about this world. Everything from the ocean, dragon flies, fish, to polka dots representing sand and other fabrics representing the woods, lakes and streams I love so much. She pulled it out again just around the time I found out I was pregnant. I convinced her to finish it for the baby. I loved the gender neutral colors of greens, blues, teals, purples, yellows, and browns. The colors are so brilliant and graphic that they will be perfect for the little one on the way. So that was the original inspiration for the room. Then I found these.

These amazing little owl prints were so perfect. They are unique, spunky, and gender neutral.

So this inspired me to make my owl mobile.

First I gathered some inspirations. These little guys were a great start, but I felt like they looked a little too much like penguins. So I made my own little pattern:

I grabbed some thinner fleece fabric, some felts, and some chenille for his back and wings.

Here are 3 more of his friends who are in the works.

When I finish them up I'll be sure to make the pattern available.

An Inspiring Saturday

I had a lovely day with an old family friend on Saturday. I met up with Leslie at her beautiful home around noon. Her studio is filled with so many tactile objects from dried flowers, to jars of lady bugs, mushrooms, and endless other found natural objects. You can tell by her studio that she is an artist who connects to her work through physical touch. She had planned a day filled with textures and colors. We both had to touch everything we saw. After briefly setting up an Etsy account for her we scurried off to Tower Hill to view some indoor gardens. Flowers in February! Nothing could make me happier.

After Tower Hill we headed over to an amazing fabric store in Hudson, MA. I was just going to observe... but they were having a one day sale of 20% off all fabrics including remnants.... soooooo.. What can a girl do.

I am very excited for this fabric. I have quite a bit of it and will definately make a few Phoebe bags from it that will be for sale on Etsy. I still have to find its complementary fabric. I hope to find something stripy.

This is a very sturdy cotton blend. It will make a great rugged Phoebe bag.

This fabric will be a messenger bag for myself using this tutorial. I can't stop touching this fabric. It's so lush and textural.

Below the fabric store was a fun antique store that had boxes of fat quarters priced at 4 for $1. So in the 3 minutes before closing time I found a couple keepers to add to my expanding fabric collection.

What a wonderful day filled with inspiration and good company.