Coffee Please

For Christmas my sister gave me this very cute camera case and coffee sleeve.



Ever since I've wanted to use some of my scraps and make some more coffee sleeves. In November the blog Sew Mama Sew featured tons of projects. One of the techniques was thread stiching by clutterpunk. I thought this would be a good project to try it out.

Name Change

I made a messenger bag for one of my nieces for Christmas and it turned out so cute I decided to make another one for my other niece. She is a big fan of dolphins so I wanted to appliqué a dolphin on the front flap.



Here is the detail on the dolphin. I used felt and embroidery floss to attach it. Felt is one of the materials I've been experimenting with lately. I was really pleased with the way it came out.




You may recognize the corduroy for the bag from the roof to the doll house below. I had just enough left to make this bag. In fact I had to get creative in the way I made the strap by piecing the parts together in a way that it would not look odd. I extended the middle by putting a strip that ran against the grain of the rest. You may be wondering why I'm sharing just how little of the main fabric I had left. Disaster struck on the night I gave the bag. I love my husbands grandparent, but I forgot about an important character trait of his grandfather. He puts his name on everything and feels that everyone else should too. Before I knew what was happening he had convinced my niece that her name should be put inside the bag in permanent marker. I didn't know how to stop it. After all it was not my bag anymore.






Needless to say Kylie was not thrilled with the execution of the labeling of her bag. To her credit she did not let it show in front of grandpa. I was trying to come up with a way of fixing the bag. Like I said I had no more fabric to make a new pocket, and I was not thrilled with the idea of taking the entire bag apart to redo the pocket as it's the first step in the process. I decided to add some additional felt appliqué. After embroidering her name and a few water drops so it would be wide enough to cover the original name I attached a large piece of felt across the marker. Much improved if I say so myself. This way she was able to keep the pocket and still have a stylish bag.


I also made a bad for my nephew, but his was more military style with a helicopter painted on the front. His dad jumps out of Blackhawks in the military so I thought he would like that. The name did not look as out of place on his bag so his mom and I decided to leave it. Sorry no picture. Somehow I forgot to take one.

Welcome Home Racoon and Rabbit

I had a lot of fun decorating Annie's cottage. Just your basic plants and window for the most part. I also put a door and mailbox on the front of the house. Since I used a flower print for the inside I added a stone pathway and small pond too.

Of course I wanted to include a few creatures to live in the house. I modified a finger puppet pattern for the two animals. When she is older the felt bottoms can be taken off if she wants to use them as finger puppets.

Thanksgiving Contribution

I was looking for a recipe on All Recipes yesterday and came across this recipe for stuffed mushrooms. Now I personally am not a fan of the cooked mushroom, but my husband and father-in-law love them. Surely over 1,000 people couldn't be wrong so I thought that I would give them a try.

My first attempt did not go so well. The directions said to fry until there was no liquid left, taking care not to burn the garlic. How exactly are you supposed to do that???? I tried stirring frequently, but when they started frothing I suspected I'd done something wrong.

Needless to say the garlic burned. Luckily I had enough garlic for a second attempt. I used a few of the mushrooms to replace the burned ones above. Instead of a tablespoon of oil, I only used 2 teaspoons the second time. I also went ahead and pulled them when I thought that they were done and drained them on a paper towel.

They turned out well. Even if it did take me two tries.

My husband said they were the best stuffed mushrooms he had ever had. He liked them so much he even let me take his picture enjoying them. If you like stuffed mushrooms and cream cheese you should definitely try these.

While the Boys Are Away...Mom Will Play

This past weekend my husband took Joel down to visit his nana. I decided to take advantage of a weekend alone and get ahead on some Christmas presents that I wanted to make for my brother's girls.

While browsing the many sewing blogs out there I came across this fun fabric doll house at UK lass in US. I knew that I wanted to try it once I saw it. As I started looking through my fabric stash I found these three fabrics that I thought would be perfect. I'm not done yet. All the details still need to be added. More to come later.

I also knew that I wanted to make a bag for my other niece to coordinate with the dress I made her for her birthday (see previous post). I also wanted to try felt applique which I thought would mesh well with a messenger bag. I've been wanting to try one for a while. Of course as soon as I had it all cut out my sister-in-law told me that Kalena had requested a purse style bag. It's okay because I'm actually going to make her two bags.

I accidently appliqued the deer (or donkey according to my husband) in the wrong corner of the front flap so the flap is a little shorter than I would like, but overall it still turned out pretty well. I do like the applique on the front.

deer me

Last Spring I was shopping for fabric when I happened acrossthis Michael Miller fabric that so reminded me of my niece Kalena. When I bought the fabric I did not know that she was going through a deer phase, but apparently she loves deer. It fit her personality so much that her mother happened across it at The Fancy Tiger, a fun little fabric and craft shop in Denver, and purchased the same fabric. We put our stashes together so that I could make her this adorable dress. I let her pick out the pattern earlier this summer so that I could make this up for her birthday. I have hopes to make a bag with the left over fabric and some coordinating fabric.


I was putting the finishing touches on the dress at my mother's house and decided to look through her buttons before going and buying some. I couldn't believe that she had these in her button stash. It turns out she also purchased them at The Fancy Tiger while visiting my brother a while ago. When I put them on they added the perfect touch.



I think that the dress was a success over all. She was dancing as she modeled for us.

flowers and balls

I can't believe my summer is almost over. I haven't done as much creating as I hoped, but with a baby in the house and out of town visits (which I thoroughly enjoyed) what did I expect.


A while back I found some fabric with polka dots and flowers on a navy background. I thought that it would make a cute dress so I went ahead and got it. The original design plan that I had in my mind didn't happen. I made it up in another fabric and hated it as a dress. I turned it into an okay skirt that I may or may not wear. What I did accomplish was figuring out fold over elastic or FOE and a rolled hem with my serger. I have plans to do another skirt later that uses these same techniques. After abandoning my first design idea I purchased a McCall's pattern (M5879)where you pick the top and skirt you want to design your own dress. I chose a scoop neck and pleated skirt. I think that it came out pretty cute.

Recently I came across this really cute idea for using fabric scraps. I first saw the idea on her blog my lily eden. She calls it alphabet soup. I didn't have time or the fabrics that I wanted to make the whole alphabet so I thought I would start with Joel's name. He has fun chewing on them and throwing them around.

I thought that the O would be the easiest letter since it is basically and elipse. (Elipse is the offical term for the shape formally known as an oval. Sorry it's the fourth grade teacher coming out in me.) Surprisingly it turned out the be the toughest. I'm not sure if it was becase my guide lines were not drawn as well as the others or if it was all the curves. The J is my favorite. If you like the idea there is a give away going on here for an alphebet soup kit.