Cloth Doll

I've been wanting to make a cloth doll for a long time, but  hadn't found a reason.  My niece turned two this past week, and that was the perfect excuse. 

I love the look of the simple cloth bodies, and faces.  I wasn't sure how it would be accepted, but I'm happy to say that I think she liked it.

She has wool felt details, and cotton appendages and body.  I added some embroidered facial features, and a bit of lace to dress her up.

Initially I wasn't going to give her a mouth, but Clark insisted.  He even designed it for me.  I gave him a piece of paper, and he drew out a little smile with a line on one side.  He has a good eye, so I agreed.

I love her black mary janes, and blushed cheeks.  I really liked her sitting on the shelf of my sewing room, but now she's gone.  That means only one thing, I MUST make more.

New Friends: Turtle Softies

Ashley from Make It and Love It, recently posted a free (for personal use) pattern and tutorial for these adorable Turtle Softies.  I couldn't help but make up a couple for my boys.

Baby Numero Dos, will have a softie to match his car seat canopy. I used the aqua minky for the underside of the turtle, and the pieces of the shell.

 Clark told me that he wanted to have a green turtle, after going through my fabric scrap pile, we ended up with a green and brown turtle.  The underside of the turtle is brown fleece, the legs and head are brown flannel, and the shell is made up of quilter's cotton.  This little softie is a great project to use up smaller sized fabric scraps.  I don't know why I find so much satisfaction in using up fabric scraps, but I do.  So not only can you use up scraps with this project, but it comes together very quickly, and is perfect for a boy or girl.

You can find Ashley's original post here.

Friday Finds: Wooden Toys for Boys

Two of my favorite blogs (Made, and Made by Rae), are celebrating boys this month.  If I get my buns in gear I might try to turn out a few boy themed sewing projects.  While we wait to see if that happens, I thought that I'd join in the celebration by sharing some of my favorite toys for boys from Etsy.

These aren't just any toys, but wooden toys.  I love wooden toys and buy them for Clark whenever I can.  I love having wooden pull toys, wooden train tracks, and of course wooden blocks.  These Etsy finds go beyond building blocks (though you can find those too) and are fantastic choices for encouraging pretend play.

organic SKITTLES - 10 pin retro wooden bowling developmental set

Little Sapling Toys

Personalized Camera - natural wooden imagination toy with name

Little Sapling Toys

 Natural Colorful Wooden FISH PLAY SET, Great Pretend Play

Sasi Shop

 t-rex wooden dinosaur toy

Banished

Small Bring along waldorf kitchen

Jounik

Wooden Tool Box FREE SHIPPING

Uncle Woods Workshop

Aren't those lovely.  One day I'm going to buy myself some power tools and learn  to do some woodworking.  Until then I'm going to drool over these lovely toys.  Perfect for the little boys (or girls) in your life.

The Fantastic Mr. Hobby Fox

I haven't been as focused on Christmas gifts as I probably need to, but I was able to whip up this hobby fox.  I found the free pattern on Ottobre Design (I love them).  

Who knows if Clark will have any interest on riding around on a hobby fox, but I remember liking hobby horses when I was younger.  The head is made entirely of felt.  This was a quick (less than 45 minutes), and inexpensive project.  I would highly recommend this project if you are in need of any extra projects or gifts.

You can find the free pattern here.  Thanks Ottobre.

I'll be linking up here.



PS- I am working on some larger projects, but they probably won't be published for another week or so. Bare with me...I'm working.

How to make a Mod Podged Puzzle

The puzzle pieces aren't laying flat in this picture, the pieces do fit together nicely normally.

We are kicking off Stashbusting September with this wonderful Mod Podged Puzzle.  I have several white backer boards that I use for mailing my prints, unfortunately I have several that are a bit beaten up.  I chose to make this simple little puzzle with my battered boards, and an irregularly formatted print of Meadow Moose.

I thought that it would be fun to have a few more simple puzzles in the house.  I chose to make an eight piece puzzle, but of course you could increase or decrease the number of pieces to fit your families needs.

Want to learn how to make it?  Buckle up and let's go. 

Magnetic Numbers

So my husband and I have been trying...I wouldn't say diligently, but trying nonetheless to work with our 20 month old on learning numbers, colors, and shapes. I figure that if he is smart enough to recognize animals and make their noises that he could probably learn to recognize his numbers.

About a month ago I decided that I was going to put the magnets and felt that I had sitting around to good use. I am quite pleased with the way these little numbers turned out. Clark loves to move them around on the fridge. He still can't identify all of them (most of them are "Wee" or Eight- "Wee being how he says three), but at least he can become familiar with them.

One of my favorite things about these magnetic numbers is that the magnets are enclosed. The thing that I dislike about the little plastic magnetic numbers and letters is that the magnets always seem to be falling off. In my opinion it is just too dangerous for little guys. Let me know what you think. I bought some felt with the intention of posting some in my Etsy store (which is the only reason that I haven't done a tutorial yet), but am still searching for the time to get it going.