Adorable DIY Dog Harness

Today I wanted to take just a minute to share a fun DIY dog harness pattern I found online.  I'm making it this evening, but I have no idea if it will turn out.  Oh, I got a dog on Saturday.  A DOG!  I love him.  His name is Wilson, and that is why I am sewing a dog harness.  He is a Havanese.  And he is ADORABLE.  Here's a picture of him, just because.  And after the picture, you will find the link to the super cute "Kimono Dog Harness."

Wilson, the super adorable Havanese.

And now, for the harness, head on over to Sew, Mama, Sew!

This is her dog in the harness:

Cute!  

Free Vintage Images

Who doesn't love free art?

Example, found under the WPA Posters collection @ loc.gov/pictures.

Another fun one from the WPA Posters collection.

Thanks to Martha Stewart Living, I now have a new amazing resource for art that I can print off my computer (they mention the website in their "Changeable Art" article in the April issue).  And the website belongs to the Library of Congress!  I never would have thought in a million years to look there.  But indeed- they have a huge online catalog of prints and pictures. You'll find a lot of good quality drawings, cartoons, photos, old baseball cards, etc.  Lots of wonderful, vintage stuff.  Some of them can't be viewed as a large image, but a whole lot of them can.  ENJOY!

Link: Library of Congress Images

If you happen to check it out, let me know what you think.

Homemade Cloth Napkins!

My most recent project is homemade cloth napkins.  It's part of my "green effort" and money-saving effort!  I found a few different tutorials, and tried a few different methods.  The BEST method turned out to be from a lovely tutorial from the nobigdill.com blog.  If you're interested in trying your hand at sewing some cloth napkins, head over here to get the scoop.  It wasn't a quick process, but it was very rewarding!

Cloth Napkin w/ Mitered Corners Tutorial

That's all for today!

Super Cute Appliqued Onsies!

Everyone and their mother has either seen or made the cute appliqued onsies at this point (they are ALL over blog-world).  So, my latest project was to tackle some for myself, for my sister-in-law's baby shower. If you're my sister-in-law, stop reading now! Here they are:

 

I think this is my FAVORITE.  Lovin' the teapot.

I might be adding some ric rac trim to the plain white outfits.  Not sure yet.  But they were fun to make, and are adorable!

Winter Blue Felt House (miniature)

I'm thinking about making various small houses/shops in this style to use as Christmas ornaments next year.  This house is just made out of basic eco-felt and then hand-stitched and stuffed with a little polyester fiber-fill.

Marie Antoinette Plush Doll

This doll is based off of an embroidery pattern in the book Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love.  (FYI- Amazon has that book at a BARGAIN price right now- hardcover edition brand new for $11!  Follow the link to scoop up your copy like I did before they run out of the bargain priced lot- then it goes back up to around $19.)

I want to sew a cape in cream crushed velvet for this doll, but I'm not sure when that will happen (hopefully some day?).  I also like her as she is.  She stands about 14" tall and is just lovely.  I had a lot of fun (and, let's face it, a decent amount of difficulty) making her.

 ( ◕ ‿ ◕ ) 

Cupcake and Owl Felties

I did these two the other night so that I had something to occupy my hands while we watched a little TV.  They didn't take long at all.  Both are made of felt- part wool felt and part craft felt.  The patterns for these little guys can be found in the book From Felt to Fabulous. This is a thin book, and though it doesn't seem like much there are dozens of cute creature and item patterns in the back.  I love how simple everything in it is.

Cupcake Ornament

Woodland Owl

I also made a little felt flower yesterday, which I was planning on putting on my Marie Antoinette doll (which ended up being a giant 13 1/2" tall!).  But after thinking about it, I decided I want several small flowers in Marie's hair vs. one large one.  Marie will hopefully be finished in a week and I'll post pics of her then!  So far I'm loving her.

Felt flower with pearl beads

Mr. Joe, the Sea Monster Stuffed Animal, and Waldorf Dolls

My latest sewing project was "Mr. Joe" and it was for my husband, who happens to be named "Joe." He might not be a fan of me divulging this, but he saw all the stuff I was sewing for other people and decided he needed something, too. I wanted it to be something simple, so I went with a cute little monster pattern from the book Softies Only a Mother Could Love.  It did end up taking much longer than I had originally planned, but that is because I decided to make it a TV project (TV project = all hand sewing, and no machine).  He's made out of anti-pill fleece and has felt eyes, so hand-sewing was an option for this guy.

I think he looks a bit like some type of sea creature, and I imagine he probably eats plankton.  He is a bit like Patrick from Sponge Bob Square Pants- he's really cute but not too smart.  If I had it my way, he would have been pink.  But as he was for the spousal unit, a nice tan color was in order (my fabric stash is still very tiny and depressing, so I didn't have much to choose from).

Here is Mr. Joe, all finished!

I love the blanket stitch around the eyes.

I added eyebrows because I thought they really added an adorable expression.

And I just couldn't resist adding his "name" to the bootie"

Butt tattoo!

And now, the Waldorf Dolls part of this post.  I am feeling like I want to try to make one. They don't look easy, and are definitely beyond my skill level.  But I'm becoming slightly obsessed with them.  Just look how at beautiful some of these dolls are!

I think it would be awesome to be able to create something like that.  Making them takes a lot of time and the materials are not necessarily cheap (100% wool stuffing, and the "good ones" seem to be made of all organic materials).  But I think the process would be very rewarding.  If you've ever made a Waldorf style doll, please do tell me about your experience!

Peanut Flour Pancakes

I was craving pancakes today.  I don't do white flour or sugar for the most part, so I made the pancakes up with peanut flour and a tad of stevia.  I did drizzle just a tad of real maple syrup on them.  Delish!

Peanut Flour Pancake Batter (makes two pancakes, or more small pancakes!)

1/4 c. peanut flour
1 large egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 Tb heavy cream (or other milk-like product of your choice)
dash of salt (optional)
dash of vanilla extract (optional)
dash of cinnamon (optional)
a small sprinkle of stevia or other sweetner of your choice (optional)

I unfortunately didn't take a photo of these before they were devoured, but they looked like regular pancakes, just darker (probably what whole wheat pancakes would look like).  You won't be fooled into thinking they are buttermilk pancakes, but they are still quite tasty.  The oddest part for me was the real maple syrup.  The regular ol' syrup most of America uses (and I used to use) is basically high fructose corn syrup, so getting used to the flavor of actual, factual maple syrup might take a bit of time.  The pancakes by themselves come in at about 7 grams of carbs and 3 grams of fiber for two pancakes- it's great if you are watching carbs.

Fleur (Matryoshka)- My Favorite Doll

Today I made Fleur, and she is oh-so-lovely.  I made her for my sister.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to keep her.  But I set out to make something adorable for my sister, so I am going to stick to that plan.  Hopefully Fleur will brighten her day, just like she (Fleur) has brightened mine!

Fleur

Isn't her face sweet?!

I love this little detail.

I really am in love with this doll.  I'll probably make myself one, too. Fleur is from the book We Make Dolls

I also made a doll last night.  I love the embroidery that I did on this one, but I don't particularly love how the face ended up.  No matter, live and learn!

The "other" doll.

I also practiced "free motion stitching" which was interesting, but difficult.  I think it will take me a bit to get the hang of that.  I was able to make some really cute loops, but I'd be pretty wary to try it on a real project at this point.

Harvest Pumpkin Soup

The other day I murdered a giant pumpkin and made some soup.  All I will say about it is that roasting a giant pumpkin and pureeing it can take an entire day (if you are easily distracted, which I am) and it is a lot of work.  And if I’m being really honest here, I should also tell you that my house was filled with a copious amount of smoke as that huge pumpkin roasted.   Like, call the fire department smoke.  But the resulting Harvest Pumpkin Soup was delicious (wasn’t sure if a regular pumpkin could make good soup- turns out it can).  The recipe for this soup is here (they don’t use a giant, regular pumpkin- they are obviously much wiser than I am). A giant pumpkin will make a ridiculous amount of pumpkin puree, fyi.  I have bag fulls of it frozen in the freezer.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I have the time (and let’s face it- the desire) to make faces on pumpkins before I slaughter them. But it is what it is.

Wine and the Bunny Girl

Mixing red wine, sewing, and crafting books can be dangerous. For instance, you could end up sitting at the sewing machine at 1:30 in the morning making a crazy little pink doll. I'm not admitting that this happened to me. But if it DID happen this is probably what I would wake up to find:

I'm still not sure how I managed to sew all those little pearls and silver beads on...what with the wine sleepiness and all.  I do think it's quite appropriate that the words "sing," "play," and "dance" ended up on various parts of her (ears, lower tummy).

I did make some changes to the pattern (basically gave her a flat butt so she could sit up by herself), but it was more or less taken from the "Polly" pattern in the book Softies Only a Mother Could Love.

Charles, completed.

Charles is done!  He turned out a bit lopsided and, well, funny looking.  I blame that on my inability to properly use a sewing machine.  I'm learning, but ever so slowly.  I do really like the way the hand-dyed gray wool felt turned out for his jacket.