Dropping the ball
I actually wrote most of this post waaaay back in October. Then I got sidelined by a few things. Dave had knee surgery. And I had kind of a Facebook-induced emotional breakdown. I've decided that Facebook is not a healthy place for me, personally or professionally, so I won't be maintaining my Fibers of Being page any more. I'm going to continue to blog as I'm able, though I know that without Facebook, I will be reaching far fewer of you. At this point, I believe maintaining the website is still worthwhile for me as a creative endeavor and outlet, but I will see where this next year takes me.
I know I promised to share all the wonderful handmade projects I was working on for Christmas gifts, and I also promised to share how my encounter with the sewing machine went. I can deliver on the latter. The other, well, that's where I dropped the ball. I learned a valuable lesson, which is that now that my time is not really my own (well, it never really was, but now I know it), I have to become one of those people who starts working on Christmas gifts in January. At least, I do if I want to make them myself. I did manage - by just a few hours - to have Nettle's stocking ready for Christmas Eve. And I knitted her some "muck-lucks" and a scarf, which she hates wearing. I started making a scarf and some gloves for some friends, but have yet to finish them. And I did just a tiny bit of baking, which was time-consuming but not particularly successful. In other words, the holidays happened. Hmmph.
Aren't those little bunny grahams cute? Too bad they tasted like sawdust! Someday I'll learn not to be so heavy-handed with flax and brans.
Here's a brief, mostly pictorial account of my sewing endeavor, which was not as disastrous as I feared. In fact, it made me want to try another sewing project I've pinned, or make another one of these nice little pentagon balls. The hardest part turned out to be trying to figure out how to draw a perfect, equal-sided pentagon. I couldn't print the template the tutorial provided since my printer has stopped cooperating for the time being, and where's a protractor when you need one? But once I managed to get my pentagon drawn, the rest was pretty simple.
First, this is the tutorial I used: http://gotosew.com/2015/05/pentagon-fabric-balls/
And here's a few pictures of the process...
picking out the fabrics
cutting out the blocks
sewing the blocks together
stuffing the ball (I used some wool roving)
sewing on a handle and sewing the opening shut
And that's it. You can see I finished this up in the evening. I worked on it off and on throughout a Saturday afternoon and sewed it up before bed. My guess is it would take an hour or two for someone who is efficient and didn't have interruptions. This ball is about 5-6 inches across and takes 12 blocks. The tutorial says you can make a larger ball by using 24 blocks, so I'll probably be making one of those for Nettie when I get a chance and maybe a few for gifts in the future.
I can't say I enjoyed the machine-sewing part of the project... it was sweaty and nervous.... but my confidence is buoyed a little and I do plan on keeping some sewing projects on my list so that I stay in practice.
And Nettie's been having fun with her new ball.
Easy appliqued onesie project
The little bunny onesie I made over the weekend with its matching pants
I haven't had to buy any baby clothes for little N, thanks to lots of hand-me-downs. This is good in many ways... it saves money, resources, and time... it's "green"... but I'll be honest: It's been difficult NOT to want to buy a few sweet little outfits for her. Still, I've remained strong and am planning on treating myself to just a bit of shopping once she's here and I start to get a feel for her personality.
Like every expecting mother, I received an over-abundance of blankets at my showers, and so decided to return a few. In a moment of weakness, I opted for store credit rather than a refund at one of the shops, and ended up using part of it on a dear little pair of peach colored pants. My justification was that since there was no top to go with them, I would have to get around to that appliqued onesie project I'd been meaning to do for months.
So here is a photo diary of what turned out to be a really quick and fun project. I'm planning on making up a few more in the coming week; I have so many ideas for cute designs!
First I came up with my design, a little bunny, and sketched it on regular paper.
Then I cut out the bunny and cut small squares of my fabric and the webbing product to match the size of the bunny. I ironed the fabric and webbing together, following the instructions for the webbing.
I traced the bunny onto the paper side of my fabric square, then cut it out.
I used a second-hand Gerber brand white onesie, size 0-3 months. Gerber runs small, so it was pretty tiny. Pre-washed of course. I peeled the paper off my design, positioned the bunny where I wanted it and then covered it with a damp "press cloth." Pressed with a hot iron for about 15 seconds and the bunny seemed well-adhered to the onesie.
The webbing manufacturer says you could stop there, that the design will be secure using only their product. I don't know, that may very well be true. I wanted to add a little texture, though, so I decided to add a simple blanket stitch to the edge with embroidery thread. The hardest part of that was deciding what color thread to use! I went with the "safe" choice, a peach very close to the color of the pants.
Then I just used a bit of natural colored "chunky" size yarn to make a fluffy little tail. I sewed it in place and that's it! I don't think it took quite two hours to complete, and that was with lots of stopping to take photos, so it's really a quick project, especially if you skip the embroidery.
Hope this inspires you to take on one of the creative projects you may have been putting off. Pull out the fabric stash! Make a little mess! See what you come up with...
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