Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Below is the video I mentioned in my last post — it's "17 Things I Made" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. You might know her as the author of The Little Pea. I'm a little late — I'm just figuring out who she is and what I've been missing. Maybe someone who's better with words and deciphering emotions can tell me why I cried while watching the second video. Be sure to watch both.

Thanks to Snow White and Rose Red for clearing up the mystery and for mentioning the teary eyes.

Sounds of My Life (part 1)

I was inspired by this to post some video today. Link via KnitSonya. Anyone else want to share sounds?

P.S. I also wanted to link to a video (that I saw posted on a blog) by a female author showing and describing some of the things she's made, i.e., her kids, a song she plays on a piano, books she's written. Anyone remember this? It's what inspired me to shoot the ukulele video. This is the downside to having almost 600 blogs to keep up with.

Sweater Sleeve Kid Pants Tutorial

This is not fine sewing — you'll want to skip this post if your inner perfectionist screams at the idea of "winging it." This is a fun and funky tutorial to help you make a pair of kids pants out of the sleeves of a wool sweater. I used a pair of 18-mos-sized sweatpants as a pattern, and adjusted for length to fit my tall 2-1/2-year-old. The sweater I used is at least an adult XL with long, raglan sleeves. To see the other pants that I made with sweater sleeves, see my original post here.

What you will need:

• A 100% wool sweater, adult-size (Large, XL or beyond)


• A pair of kid pants that have a rise that fits the child recipient (you can add length if you have enough sweater)
  
  
• Enough 1/2-inch elastic to wrap around the child's waist, plus a little extra (you could use other elastic widths, just make sure to adjust the waistband accordingly)
  

Step 1: Gather your materials
Start with a Large or XL, 100% wool, adult-sized sweater. The bigger the better, because you never know how much it will shrink when you "felt" it.

Step 2: Cut out your pattern
Cut along the inseam of the pants that will become the pattern. This photo looks like I cut through both layers together, but I didn't. If you look at the back of the pants, you can see I started on the other side and worked my way around. I used size 18 mos. sweatpants, because I knew that the inseam fits my two-and-a-half-year-old, and that I could add length.

Step 3: Get your fabric ready
Wash and dry the wool sweater to "felt" it. Cut the sleeves off sweater at the seams. I washed and dried this wool sweater a few times before deciding to cut into it. I could have "felted" it more, but I figure it's fine as is.

Step 4: Layout your pattern (part 1)
With inseam and sleeve seam on the same side, lay the "pattern" over the "fabric."

Step 5: Layout your pattern (part 2)
Make sure the you have enough width at the top by stretching out the elastic. Move the pattern up or down till you get enough width for the waist (plus a small seam allowance) as well as the right length at the bottom.

Step 6: Cut inseam
Following the curve of the sweat pants inseam, cut the sweater to match. On these sweats, the inseam has the same curve for the front and back. The only difference is the rise is shorter in the front, longer in the back.

Step 7: Rough cut the waist
Follow the curve of the highest part of the waist (the back) and leave an extra inch or so for turning to make the casing for the elastic.

Step 8: Trim the front rise (part 1)
With inseams up, place the pant leg on top of the sweater in preparation for trimming the waist in order to lower the front rise.

Step 9: Trim the front rise (part 2)
Leaving about an inch allowance for the casing for the elastic, and following the curve of the waist, trim off the excess waist in the front of the.

Step 10: Rough cut second leg
With inseams on the same side, lay the first leg/sleeve on the second sleeve to use as a pattern. Cut rise and waist.

Step 11: Trim waist/front rise of second leg
Make sure that you flip the second leg over, so that inseams are where they should be — on the inside. You are making mirror copies of the legs, a right and a left leg. You don't want two of the same leg. Match up the crotch and the waists, then trim the front waist/rise of the second leg.

Step 12: Prepare for sewing
Turn one leg wrong-side out, then insert the other leg so that the right-sides are together and the inseams match up.

Step 13: Pin together
With inseams (and stripes if you have them) matched up, pin legs together. Make sure the waist and rise match. One of my legs had some excess at the back rise, so I trimmed it off.

Step 14: Sew inseam
With a zigzag stitch, sew along inseam, removing pins before you get to them. Sew inseam twice. To get the knit fabric to go through my machine smoothly, I pulled a little on the back of it as I was sewing.

Step 15: Top-stitch inseam (optional)
On the right-side top-stitch next to the inseam to help the seam lie flat on the inside. You can skip this step.

Step 16: Turn waist edge (optional)
Turn the top edge of the waist to the inside, about a quarter of an inch, and sew down with a zigzag stitch. Alternately, you could just run a zigzag around the top edge without turning in down. This might be a better option, since the turning adds bulk around the waist.

Step 17: Make casing
After finishing the edge of the waist, fold over the waist about an inch and pin. Starting at the back of the pants, sew a zigzag stitch around the pants waist, stopping a couple inches before completing the circle. You need to leave an opening to run the elastic though.

Step 18: Add the elastic
Attach a safety pin to the end of the elastic and run it through the casing, making sure to not twist it. Keep holding the other end of the elastic so you don't lose it inside the casing. Safety pin the elastic ends together and try pants on the recipient. I skipped this step and the next, and had to undo a bunch of stitches to make adjustments to the elastic.

Step 19: Sew the elastic together
After the elastic is properly sized, pull it through the opening in the casing and run some zigzag stitches along it to close the loop.

Step 20: Close the casing
After making sure the elastic fits properly, sew up the remaining casing. You're done!

Step 21: Bribe child to take photo
Let child watch video so you can take a no-flash photo that's less blurry. Ignore slightly wonky inseam, and enjoy!

Step 22: Bike ride
Make up for video watching with bike ride and outdoor photo shoot. Much better.

Larger photos can be found over at the flickr set.

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Trivia tidbit: My photo of the original recycled sweater pants appears in wee form in the book Knitalong by Larissa Brown and Martin John Brown.

Crafty Crow

My Kids Sweater Pants were featured on Crafty Crow today. Have you checked out all the great stuff over there? Cassi does a great job gathering up all the best kid craft ideas.

I just realized that I don't have a tutorial for the kid pants, yet. [Wonders if she should do the gnome hat or kid pant tutorial next.]

P.S. Bunny was the first correct answer — it's a Three Little Pigs project! She's been a long-time reader and commenter — spread the love, please go give her a little visit.

Can you guess...

what the theme of this WIP is? Think fairy tale.

Looking at this stack makes me wonder about other people's stashes. I feel like my pieces of stash look bulky and not neatly stored compared to everyone else. Are y'all just buying little fat quarters? Two-yard lengths just don't display like those tidy piles I see around the craftosphere. I'd like to have tidy piles, too, but I definitley can't make my self a shirt out of a fat quarter.

First correct guess about the fabric wins a little surprise something.

Speaking of winning — Joanna never claimed her sweater apron prize. Joanna, if you are out there, please drop me an email, so I can send it off. I'll wait a couple more days, until Friday, Oct. 3, then I'll draw another name.

Crafty Community

These are almost all the toys that I have made in the last couple of years. They are all the result of being inspired by the work, swaps, and suggestions of other craft bloggers. Some are my own design, some are online patterns, and some are from books.

Here's the list of my inspirations — I hope you find some, too.

Top row (left to right):

• Batik Make-Your-Own Doll of my own design, based on these dolls, from this book for Bethany's hand-printed fabric swap.


• Crochet Creature based on Camilla Engman's "Bedfellows" from the Happy Hooker Stitch n' Bitch book. Here's a flickr search of Bedfellows made by others.


• Knit Bee Lady with removable stinger hat is my own design based on the boy doll from, "Woman's Day Book of Best-loved Toys & Dolls, 1982.


• Crochet "Bedfellows" Bear (with slight mods) from one of the two Camilla Engman designs in Happy Hooker Stitch n' Bitch book. Here's a flickr search of Bedfellows made by others.


• Well-dressed Cat is a quickly designed fleece toy that I made for my son when he was sick with a fever. I was trying for fastest-toy-ever, and this lopsided kitty is what I came up with. I thought I was going to embroider the features, but the Sharpie sketch worked just fine. I've had to draw over it once because of fading. He's one of the most loved of this bunch!
  


• Archie Doll from the Make-a-long Wee Wonderfuls pattern. I bought some of the accessory patterns, too.


• Stripe-y Patchwork Cat is a free PDF pattern designed by me. You can get it here.


• Spaceboy, pattern by Wee Wonderfuls. I think part of the success of Hillary's patterns is that there is something about them that actually gets you to sit down and make them. My return (number of dolls made) on investment (patterns paid for) over at Wee Wonderfuls is very high.

Middle Row (left to right)

• Wee Bunny is one of several free patterns from Wee Wonderfuls. Bitter Betty kindly made this one for my kids.


• Fabric Balls are fun to make and they get a lot of play around these parts.. I used this tutorial.


• Gnome Guy is another of my make-your-own dolls for Bethany's hand-printed fabric swap series. You can see his mushroom accessory right in front of him. The kids use it as a pick axe, which makes me want to make a set of soft tool series.


• Olive from Wee Wonderfuls' Make-a-long patterns. She's well-loved, too.


• Bedfellow Bunny from Camilla Engman's pattern in the Happy Hooker. Again, here is her inspiring flickr set of her own creations that these patterns were based on.


• Batik Imp If you are interested in batik, you have *got* to check out Malka's work. She makes the most amazing quilts with her self-dyed fabrics.


• Knit Boy Doll is straight from the pattern in, "Woman's Day Book of Best-loved Toys & Dolls," 1982. When I Googled this book I found that Star Wars fans have an interest in it because of the Outer-Space Station project.


• Make-Your-Own-Husband Doll is a knit doll based on the pattern from the Woman's Day book, but designed by me to look like my husband.

Front row (left to right)

• Knit Bean Bags from Kids Knitting, by Melanie Falick with illustrations by Kristin Nicholas. These are so much fun to play with.


• Lambkin is from a free vintage pattern over at Turkey Feathers' pattern shop, The Pattern Bee. Here's the flickr pool of everyone's creations.


• Tiny Chihuahua, made by Bethany from a pattern in this book (isbn# 4579108884), sits between Olive and Bedfellows Bunny.


• Another Lambkin from the free vintage pattern over at Turkey Feathers' pattern shop, The Pattern Bee. I embroidered grass and flowers around the legs to make them look like they were frolicking through a spring meadow.


• Last, but not least, Little Bunny based on the Bedfellows Bunny. For the ears and upper torso I used some really cool silk Noro yarn that was tape with an embroidered running stitch down the center. I've searched on Google and Ravelry and can't seem to find it. I bought it about three years ago.

Phew! Now that was a lot of links. Enjoy!

On Top of Spaghetti...

all covered with crochet meatballs.

It's what I woke up thinking about today. I think I was inspired by the felt food (check out this flickr group!) that I see people making. My big boy, H, cut all the noodles for me. I wasn't sure how to make sauce. Call it a work in progress.


The meatballs inspired H to want to learn how to crochet. [Jumps up an does a jig of joy] We started with hand crochet, then he did a hooked chain with me doing the work of the left hand. He really got the concept! I can't tell you how exciting this was for me, since he tends to show no interest in anything that involves fine motor skills.


Yesterday I was working up a little Green Kitchen embroidery for a possible new header, and my littlest guy wanted to try it out. He learned how to turn the hoop to pull the needle through the other side. Really, it couldn't get much better than this — both of my children wanting to learn crafts. I thought it might never happen.

Another exciting thing that happened yesterday was a blogger meet up. Bethany, from Bitter Betty (Have you checked out her Gourd House tutorial, yet?), and I got to meet J (I don't think she posts her name), from Ruched, who recently happened to favorite one of my flickr photos > which led me to her blog > where I discovered she was vacationing locally > which led to the meet up. We got to see some nice jewelry work she's been doing, including some PMC pieces that were castings from vintage button molds and other interesting objects. She also has the cutest, mellowest lap-baby I've ever met. Thanks for the visit, J.

The Sweater Apron Winner is...

There's a lot going on over here. So, without making anyone wait any longer, I'm stopping in to announce the winner of the Sweater Apron Give-away.

Congratulations, Joanna! Unfortunately, I don't have a link to contact you. Oh, the joys of using Blogger (see more about this below).

This is Joanna's sweet comment:

"I love this tutorial, and I really love the orange halter version! I linked to your giveaway and tutorial on my blog...you just need to scroll down past the top post...I love your blog and have added you to my blogroll, if you don't mind..."

So, Joanna, please email me with your mailing address and I'll send the apron off. I hope you don't mind it's not the orange one.

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About Blogger:

I'm furiously working on redesigning (about time, no?) and setting up my blog using WordPress, and if all goes well I'll be able to switch over seamlessly, without anyone needing to update RSS feeds. This change will make it so that I can easily reply to comments, which has always been Blogger's downfall. Don't they know we like to have dialog?

Hedgies

From Molly Chicken's super cute pattern. Mine are a little wonky because I used the leftover cashmere bits from the sweater apron. Last call on that apron give-away.

Top 10 Signs The School's Alright

I knew we picked the hippie right school for our son, but I didn't know how *right* it was until I watched the after-school circus class. In a timber-frame barn on hardwood floors girls and boys were strutting on tall stilts and spinning around on all sizes of unicycles. Balance boards and Diabolos were being played with in the sidelines. One polite boy asked me if I was using the unicycle that I was sitting near. "No, I wish," I thought to myself. My son waited patiently, hoping to get a chance at one of those one-wheel wonders. Eventually, a kindergarten buddy showed my boy how to get onto a unicycle, even helped lift him onto it. Any lingering doubts I had about our school choice dissolved upon watching this simple kindness.

My oldest child needs *a lot* to feel filled up at the end of the day — a lot of exercise, food, social interaction, and learning — a lot of just doing. He's a bit of a 110% kind of guy. After his first day of all-day kindergarten, he had a Tae Kwon Do lesson and a park date. When we got home he said, "It's sort of a do-nothing kind of day." He said this at 6pm, not realizing what time it was, or that his fun, active, and educational day had been *all* day. He kind of laughed at himself when I pointed out the irony.

All summer I had tried to find the right balance of physical, social, and down time for him without much success. More never seemed to work, and less *really* never worked. Apparently, spending six hours a day away from me was the magic answer. That, and, maybe the little guy just needed to join the circus!

Here are some other reasons that this school's alright (for him/us):

10: You walk over a bridge to enter the multi-acre campus.
9: The parental dress code is appealing.
8: Not only is there a sailboat to play on, there's a pirate ship, too!
7: There's more than one structure that could be called a hobbit house.
6: You can call your teacher a clown, and he is.
5: The lunch shack cooks and serves vegetarian meals — with salad bar — that my kid loves.
4: My child now knows how to feed an Emu and an Alpaca.
3: I instinctively knew that I should preface a food gift (tomato chutney, naan, and Indian Coleslaw) to the kindergarten teacher with, "These were cooked in dishes that meat has been cooked in. I hope that's OK."
2: The unicycles!
1: While one mom I know went out of her way to *not* send her children to a school where kids are running around barefoot with green hair, I'm happy to say that we spend good money to do that very thing.

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P.S. I wanted to find more photos to link to, but I'm not finding the time. And, I still need to pick a name for the apron give-away. You have until tonight at midnight Pacific time to leave a comment and link. Thanks!!!!

Will Post For Post, a.k.a. Will Blog For Mail

One of the best and most surprising parts of the craft blog world is the snail mail exchange. It can be a trade, a contest, a give-away, or, sometimes it's just pure kindness. Anyway you cut it, it's super exciting to get a real package in the mail from this virtual world we've created here.

I've been lucky enough to receive several lovely packages over the last few months. Here they are:

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Maura, a.k.a. Dalbhat — India
Maura and I are flickr friends, although we both keep blogs. I remember taking notice of her because the witty comments that referenced the Clash, love guns, and art, were coming from someone in India. My kind of people in India? Who knew? Recently, Maura asked me if I wanted "some bits" from India. What she sent was a bundle of exotic goodies: embroideries, ribbon, paper, and a children's book that she wrote! I'm waiting to tell you more about Maura in a future post.

More photos here.



Thanks, Maura.

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Helen, a.k.a. Show Your Workings — New Zealand
Helen sent me these lovely hand-printed fabrics because I left a comment over at her flickr. (Obvious motivation to start leaving more comments, no?) Helen's present was not a formal give-away, just a nice person sending out a little bit of handmade goodness to a loving home. She made the "cell" fabric with a potato — pretty cool, mod design from such simple tools. The rose print was a surprise bonus piece.

More photos here.



Thanks, Helen.

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Mo, a.k.a. Lime Gardenias — Pacific Northwest, USA
I won *my first blog contest ever* at Mo's blog. I commented on this particular post because I thought the lady in the bottle was cool. Who knew that Mo was making a super stash of prizes to give away that day. It was difficult to photograph this package because the items got immediately assimilated into the house — chocolate got eaten, kids took what they thought was meant for them, etc. The package was beautifully put together and color coordinated down to the chocolate wrappers. Yum!

More photos here.



Thanks, Mo.

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Alison, a.k.a. Starlit Nest — The Mountains Above Town
It's pretty handy to have an Etsy fabric seller in the family. It's even more handy when she sends you a package of the entire Park Slope line even if she lives just a little ways up the mountain. Alison always puts together a nice package, and this one included something for each of my kids, too. My oldest got a well-timed tooth fairy pillow out of Heather Ross dog fabric (he loves dogs) and the littlest got a just-his-size utility apron with sock monkey fabric (he loves monkeys). Alison also has an Etsy shop for the cute things she makes.

More photos here.


Thanks, Alison.

Kids Sweater-Apron Tutorial (Re-visited) & Give-Away

Remember my Kids Sweater-Apron Tutorial from a while back? Well, I decided to post the entire thing over here on my blog, instead of redirecting everyone over to my Flickr. It's another one of my ploys to draw readership and get to know more about my readers (last time I got to meet so many lurkers — fun). And, just to make it exciting for youz guyz, there's going to be another give-away. Since my sons love the original two aprons, I've made up another one (solid gray with stripe-y pocket and navy trim) for the lucky winner. This time it's cashmere — what it lacks in density and structure it makes up for in softness — mmmmmmm, cashmere. It's big enough for a five-year-old, but could be worn by someone more wee.

Same rules apply: leave a comment on this post, AND, link back to this tutorial on your blog or flickr. In about a week, I'll have a kid pick a name out of a bowl. I'll post a reminder with the actual cut-off time before then.

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Green Kitchen's
KIDS SWEATER-APRON TUTORIAL

Materials:

One shrunken adult-sized wool sweater
Seam binding or other edge trim
Buttons (optional)
Sewing machine
Thread to match or contrast



Step 1: The Rough Cut
Take one fulled/felted/shrunken sweater, and, using pinking shears, cut along the seams to separate the pieces (front, back, sleeves). You should be able to make two aprons out of one sweater. Hold the body piece of sweater up to the recipient for sizing. Make adjustments to length, width, neck shaping, etc. This sweater was just right for my son, so I didn't alter the shape. The second apron I made (see end of this post) was a slightly different design with more altering. Use your imagination and let the sweater give you ideas for what works best.


Step 2: Trim the Seams
Trim off any thick seams. You only want to have one thickness of sweater to work with.


Step 3: Even Things Out
Fold sweater piece in half vertically to make sure the sides are symmetrical. Trim where necessary.


Step 4: Choose a Binding
I used a polyester knit seam binding because that is what I had around. Having a knit binding is important because you need to stretch the binding around the thick sweater edge. I'm sure you could do it with a woven, but you'd need to make sure it's pretty wide to take the sweater thickness into account. Make sure you have enough binding before you start sewing. Don't trim it until you have sewn it on.


Step 5: Sew Binding to Back
On wrong side of sweater, zigzag stitch the seam binding around the apron. Try to keep the stitching close to the edge of the sweater, so, that when you turn the binding to the other side, it gets hidden by the binding. I went quickly and some of my zigzag shows on the front.


Step 6: Miter Corner
At corners, lift foot and miter the corner of the binding. Lower foot and continue. The knit binding is pretty forgiving, so I didn't worry too much about making perfect corners. I just tried to not have obvious gaps or lumps.


Step 7: Binding Off
When you get all the way around the apron, trim off extra seam binding, leaving a couple inches for finishing.


Step 8: Cutting Corners
Because of the thickness of the sweater, clip the corners to make it less bulky before finishing the binding.


Step 9: Binding Front Side
Fold seam binding over to the front of the apron and straight stitch it close to the edge of the binding.


Step 10: Seam Binding Finish
This is how I finished off my binding. It's not beautiful, but I couldn't really think of something else to do to make it look better without doing some hand stitching. I zigzagged the end, overlapped, and stitched. Folding over the end would have made it much too bulky.


Step 11: Neck Strap & Ties
To ready the seam binding for the neck strap and apron ties, I zigzag stitched the seam binding to itself so that it wouldn't flap open. You could leave this step out if you are in a hurry. You can see by my uneven stitching that I was in a bit of a hurry.


Step 12: Attach Neck Strap
Fold over ends of neck strap and stitch to sweater fabric just under the binding at the shoulders. I didn't stitch the neck strap to the binding because I didn't want it to show on the front. This made for a bit of extra work because I ended up hand stitching the front of the neck strap to the shoulder of the apron to avoid the gap.


Step 13: Strapped
This is the back of the apron after the seam binding and neck strap are attached.


Step 14: Fashion a Pocket or Two
I used one of the sweater sleeves to make the pockets. A contrasting sweater piece could also be nice. Cut along the seam on the sleeve to see what you have to work with.


Step 15: Lay Out Pockets
I used the sleeve cuff for the little top pocket and the bulk of the rest of the sleeve for the big pocket. Trim pockets to fit, making sure to square them up as you go. Use your creativity when choosing pocket placement, size, and orientation.


Step 16: Pocket Detail
The little pocket at the top is made from the sleeve cuff. Since it's edge is already finished I didn't do any seam binding, just turned the edges on three sides and top stitched.


Step 17: Pocket Binding
The big pocket needed a finished edge on the open side, so I put some seam binding on it, same as the apron edge. But, this time, I just ran a zigzag stitch on the front.


Step 18: Sewing Pocket
Pin pockets in place and then sew, hand turning the seam, and top stitching about 1/8 inch from edge. At the top of the pocket, where the binding is, I did a bunch of reinforcing stitches so it wouldn't tear out.


Step 19: Sewing Ties
To make the apron ties, cut two equal lengths of seam binding. I guessed on length and they turned out a little long. Just make sure they're not too short. I attached the straps directly to the binding on the back side. It seemed like the strongest place and I didn't mind that it would show on the front because it's an area that is mostly hidden. Reinforce with many back and forth zigzag stitches.


Step 20: Tie Front Attachment
This is the front of the tie attachment.


Step 21: Tie End Finish
I zigzag stitched the end of the ties to keep them from unraveling. It's not the prettiest solution, but for a utility garment I thought it was fine.


Step 22: Button Detail
I attached a button to the front of the apron to cover the stitches from the neck strap.


Step 23: Ta Da!
You are finished.



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Variations on a theme:

Because of the kind of V-neck sweater I had on hand, my next apron became a halter style one. The front pocket was large, so I divided it into one medium-sized pocket and smaller ones for putting kitchen tools.



Buon Appetito! And, don't forget the link-o.

Mustard & Catsup: A Hand-Rolled Hem Headkerchief

This headkerchief was inspired by the Purl Bee's hand-rolled handkerchief. I didn't really follow their directions, 'cause I was out in the world without a computer — but mine was fun to make, with its whip-stitched edge. I made it with roughly 1/2 of a fat quarter of batik fabric that I got at one of my LYFs, Round Robin Fabrics. It even had little bits of wax still on it (at first I thought it was kid schmutz, but I remembered what it was from my own adventures in batik).

I don't make it over to the other side of town much, but each time I find myself at RRF, I really enjoy the store and its owner, Robin. We talk quilting, craft blogs, and kids — just like here, but IRL.

TTFN,
Michelle

And the Winner is...

Nancy of Belle Epoque — who even wrote up a post about the pincushion she made from my tutorial.

Thank you everyone who played my little give-away game. I got many delurkers out of that happy experiment. This blog gives me an endless amount of entertainment. I enjoyed that give-away so much, that I want to do a Kids Sweater Apron give-away as soon as I can sew one up.

In another subversive attempt at boosting stats, I will to be pulling in my stray tutorials and re-posting them on my blog. The sweater tute has been living over at Flickr and that just doesn't boost ye olde blogge stats, mwah-ha-ha. [Amusing oneself while riding the world's longest summer vacation crazy train.]

Giveaways and Giggles

Here's your reminder to comment & link for a chance to win this wrist pincushion. Comments will close Tuesday, September 1st, at midnight Pacific time. I'll announce a winner on the Wednesday after.


Here's the guy that makes me smile everyday. He climbed up and over to get into the sink/refrigerator section of our play kitchen. He would open the door to slide out, then do it again.


And, something to make you laugh. That's my sexy beast, and I'm proud of it. More biergarten pictures here.

Wrist Pincushion Tutorial and Give-away

I have listened to all your suggestions about how to make Green Kitchen a more fun and exciting crafty place to be, and I have decided that more tutorials = a better craft blog (good for you). Also, more tutorials = a boost to my viewership and technorati rankings at the same time (good for me). And, to make this post even more fun, it's also a GIVEAWAY, which makes this a win-win-win situation. The only rules are: first, that you need to leave me a comment telling me that you have linked to this tutorial, and, second, that you actually link to the tutorial. If you only have a Flickr account and no blog, you can add a link there. No blog? Maybe now is the time to start one up. I'll be choosing a winner in about a week. I'll announce the final deadline time soon. Now, don't you want the cutest, Little Red Riding Hood pincushion ever? Go ahead, link a mother up.

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WRIST PINCUSHION TUTORIAL

Materials:

Embroidered Ribbon (a piece about 2 x 10 inches)
Embroidery Floss (in a complementary color)
Cardboard (I used a piece from an old seam binding package)
1/2 Inch Elastic (long enough to go around your wrist, plus a couple inches)
Stuffing (I used polyfil, but I'm sure wool would be great.)
Heavy Duty Thread (for attaching the elastic to the pincushion, I used Coats & Clark's button thread)


Step 1: Choose your ribbon. It needs to be at least a couple inches wide.


Step 2: Using pinking shears, cut the ribbon to size — about ten inches long.


Step 3: Fold the ribbon over on the back side. You'll want a bigger, stuffing end and a shorter, flap closure end.


Step 4: Prepare your thread. I used two strands of embroidery floss.


Step 5: Starting at the bottom corner of the bigger end, put the needle from the inside to the outside of one of the corners. This is the beginning of the blanket stitch.


Step 6: Blanket stitch along the long end. Working from front to back, put the needle through both layers of ribbon starting about 1/8 inch away from the corner, while making sure to keep the end of the thread behind the needle. Pull thread tight, but not so tight that it starts to bunch up the ribbon. If you need more instruction: Alice at futuregirl has a nice blanket stitch tutorial here.


Step 7: Continue to blanket stitch, keeping stitches 1/8 inch apart, up the one side to where the doubled up ribbon ends. Tie off and cut, leaving enough thread to tuck in later.


Step 8: Do the same on the other side. Tie off thread, again leaving enough to tuck in later.


Step 9: To make sure you don't poke pins through the pincushion and into your wrist, you'll need to make some wrist protection. Cut a piece of thin cardboard to fit inside the sewn ribbon, making sure the flap still has enough room to have its end turned in and sewn close.


Step 10: Cut radiused corners on the cardboard, so it doesn't poke through the ribbon.


Step 11: With the cardboard inside the ribbon, start stuffing the pincushion. The cardboard should be on the bottom side of the pincushion, the stuffing on the top side.


Step 12: Fold over the ribbon making sure there is enough to hem and overlap. If there isn't enough, you can trim the cardboard. The red lines show how the closing stitches are going to be worked.


Step 13: Starting at the top corner, work a blanket stitch down toward the closure, stopping before the end of the ribbon to make room for the finished edge.


Step 14: After folding in the ribbon end, continue the blanket stitch to the end.


Step 15: Before working across the flap, it helps to put in a pin to hold the ribbon from pulling away.


Step 16: Because it's a little easier, and won't be seen, whip stitch across to the other side. Leave the thread attached. Now, make sure the stuffing is as you want. You might need to rearrange it and add a couple pinches. If you need more instruction: Alice at Futuregirl also has a nice whip stitch tutorial here.


Step 17: Finish up the seam by blanket stitching to the end. Tie off thread and work in the end by poking the needle back through the pincushion, pulling the thread tight, and cutting the thread.


Step 18: Measure your elastic. Wrap the elastic around your wrist, making sure there is an overlap of an inch or two. Mark where the overlap ends.


Step 19: Using a strong thread, like button thread, blanket or whip stitch the elastic together along the edges. Try on for size. You want it tight enough so it doesn't slip around, but loose enough to be comfortable.


Step 20: Hiding the thread knot and end between the elastic and the pincushion, whip stitch the elastic onto the pincushion.


Step 21: Try on the finished pincushion and make slight adjustments for comfort by carefully bending the cardboard to fit the wrist.

Enjoy! And, don't forget to sign up for the give-away.

Pizza My Heart

In our town (and several others) there's a pizza joint called, Pizza My Heart. On Valentine's Day they used to make heart-shaped pizza, not sure if they still do. Even when it's round it tastes great — a definite stop-by.

This one here is homemade. The dough was going in a heart-y direction, so I went with it.

The makings: Trader Joe's whole wheat dough, TJ's organic pasta sauce, non-organic mozzarella, Applegate's nitrate-free pepperoni.

This is one of our family's fast food compromises.

If I Could Design Our Flag

It might look something like this:



During the few hours of free time I had up in Seattle, thanks to my sister's online scouting for me, I got to find the cool fabric store -- and, shop without children, I might add. You know it'll be interesting when a fabric store is fronted by faux fur and Japanese prints. Although it's not a large shop, Stitches has so many fun and exciting things to look at, touch. I finally got my hands on the Naomi Ito linen that I've been eying online, but was too afraid to bite into without seeing it first. Then, by the counter, I spied rolls of the lightest Italian wool jersey in two stripe-y colorways. These were the two fabrics I came home with. They are both things I can't get in my own town. I *love* both of them. And, Amy, the owner was very pleasant, turning me onto the good independent coffee right up the street.

She Works Hard For Her Comments

Wow! Last time I had 50 comments, I had to push out an eleven pound baby.

Birthing a likeness quiz is a *lot* easier. Woo baby!

Elvis Presley Blues

The day that he died, I was just about entering fourth grade — nine going on ten years old. I was riding seatbelt-less in my mom's brown Chevy Malibu station wagon, on the way back from a school clothes shopping trip, when we heard about it on the radio. I remember feeling silly for crying, embarrassed that my cousin had to see me. I climbed over the seat to put my head on my mom's lap.

I know all the clothes I bought that year: navy floral cords, polyester "Levis" that mysteriously never faded, an orange t-shirt with navy top-stitching in the shape of a sun, and a blue nylon jacket that just wasn't cool like the satin ones that everyone else had; the ones that looked like you were in Grease. I wore Birkenstocks and desert boots and had a Dorothy Hamill. It was the year I gave up wearing homemade clothes.

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I always thought my dad looked like Elvis. He was a rocker, *not* a mod. He used Brylcreem on his black hair and knew a lot about cars. He smelled like solvent and grease — both, the car and hair variety. I used to listen to my mail-order Elvis record and think that he was my dad, or maybe vice versa. My dad would sing Elvis songs like Elvis. It all blended together.

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Dead Elvis has been a part of my life, too. I've made a couple different prints of skeleton Elvis, also known as, Skelvis. A friend made me a paper maché Skelvis with removable guitar. When my sister and I lived with another set of sisters, back in the red house with the green kitchen, we dressed as Dead Elvises for Halloween. We carved huge pompadours out of foam blocks with an electric knife. I went for the 50,000,000- Fans-Can't-Be-Wrong Elvis. Lacking the funds for a $10,000 gold lamé Nudie, I decided to spray adhesive glitter to a suit instead. Some of the glitter stayed on the suit, but a large amount ended up in my car, my bed, and my eyes. Metallic tears were shed that night. Actually, it was more like shred.

Please, do *not* try this at home.

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Oldies but Goodies: Linkage Love

While going through the "saved" posts in my Bloglines, I rediscovered these lovely things:

This capelet

These doors

This kiss

This hat

This bag

This kitchen

This tutorial

These veggies

This song

This book

These clothes

This house

This story

These flowers

P.S. Thanks for playing along with my quiz. Over 600 people have taken it! I'm already planning another.

A Michelle Likeness Quiz

And now for some comic relief.

Let me know your score in the comments and/or if you make your own quiz. I love to take likeness quizzes.

Imaginary Friends No Longer

Thank you all so much for sending kind words and thoughts to my friends. They read my blog, so your words will reach them directly. They are amazing people, strong people, funny people — and wonderful parents. It was a privilege to attend the service and to get to spend time with the family. I crave the day when we live closer.

My trip wouldn't have been possible without the help of many. It took four people to cover my shifts as mom. No wonder I'm always tired! My sister picked up the necessary slack to make the largest shift do-able for my mom. My brother-in-law put in some good physical time, letting the big bro ride on his shoulders so he could do some slam dunks. And, my husband, who works six days a week, ten hours a day, made some delicious meals to fortify the team. Thank you, family!

And, then, there was that one special craft blogger, Steph from Ruby Crowned Kinglette, who answered my call out for a place to stay. People at her work thought she was crazy for letting someone she'd never met stay overnight — but we knew it was OK, we were already friends. Steph was working the day I got in, but, there was already potato salad and tabouleh in the fridge. She threw some chicken on the barbecue when she got home and gracefully served up courses as the crafty guests arrived through an open front door. We sat in the backyard on one of the most beautiful days of the summer and shared stories while nibbling on Padrons. Alcohol was consumed. The next day, Steph arranged her day on the fly as I gave her updates on where I was and what I needed. She was a sweet, grounding influence as I floated around in a dazed state. Thank you in big capital letters, Steph.

It's Steph's birthday today, so please go cheer my no-longer-imaginary friend on into old age. ;)

Silence

I want to be quiet over here for awhile.

My friends just lost their littlest one.

I *Heart* My Readers

Seems like a good time to give thanks to everyone who hangs out over here at Green Kitchen. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun without you.