More Christmas Gift Bags

Christmas gift bag making is not done in this house.  It's all part of my master plan to make stuff out of my stash.  This particular fabric has been eyeballing me for a number of years.  I think my mom sent it to me.  It looks like upholstery fabric...Can you just imagine it adorning some sad couch in suburbia?  Blah.

So baggage:

Three big bags were made out of this stuff.  And I went a different route with construction.  After the last fun I had with my serger, I serged up the insides:

Boxed some corners:

And installed grommets:

I had everything on hand, even the grommets and the ribbon (had a roll of it left over from my wedding).  The grommets have been used in various projects over the years, but I rarely find a reason to use them.  Yay!  And obviously they were a little hard to sew around, though I did try to use the zipper foot.  Oh well.  It's just a bag.  Also my stitches seem to be off.  Is it a tension issue?  Probably.  I need to get the machine tuned up.  It's been at least four years since its last visit to the sewing machine doctor.

Sock Monkey

So two Christmases ago, my sister-in-law gave me a sock monkey kit.

And it's been sitting in my craft room for all this time.  Due to a recent bout of snaggle-toe, I seem to have busted through a number of my fun tall socks.  So I thought I would give this a go and see if I could salvage some of my old socks in the future.  This monkey was made with the supplies provided, but I've got a pile of holey socks saved up for a rainy day...or the Superbowl, which I have been informed that I am supposed to watch.

And there he is!  The kit was pretty easy to use.  My stitches are really wonky, though.

And I don't know if that snout is quite right.  Looks more like a pig snout than a monkey snout. Bah.  So, I'll make up some more of those sock animals with my crazy tall socks...if I can.  Like I said, all the toes have been busted through.

Sad Giraffe...No More!

Do you remember sad giraffe?

Well, she is no longer sad.

She has ears!!

 And a tail!

...and a piece of fuzz...

WeeWee Pad

Also known as a changing mat.

I made two changing mats recently using some of that PUL stuff from Babyville.  Over two years ago, I bought two packages of Babyville fabric sets (like this one).  In case you aren't keeping track, that's six sheets of PUL in 21" x 24" cuts.  So in these last two years, I have used exactly one sheet of this stuff.  Nuts.

So I whipped up two changing mats using a sheet of PUL for each one, a layer of leftover batting, some coordinating cotton, and bias tape.  I didn't bother changing the size of the PUL, but I did give the mats rounded corners.

I love this purple/red fabric.  I picked up about a yard of it at the Goodwill ages ago.  It wasn't my favorite fabric at the time, but it has definitely grown on me.  I'm thinking of making a bag or a zipper pouch out of the remaining fabric.

It felt good to use up some things in the craft room.  Well, two sheets of PUL and two packages of bias tape isn't much isn't much, but it's something.  My primary goal this year is to use what I have.  I mean, if I croaked tomorrow, people would have to go through all my crafting shit and that's not fair to them, so if I use stuff up, then it's less stuff for people to donate or sell at a yard sale or burn.

Last Animal

My mom sent me three animal Fab-liques (yes, that's what they are called) a number of years ago.  I used two of them earlier this year on this pillow:

So the third applique was used in the same manner:  pillow on striped fabric.  Real original, I know.

My stripes didn't line up, so I switched the orientation of the fabric from horizontal to vertical for the back:

I like this stripey fabric.  I found it at a thrift store, but there's nothing written on the selvedge, so I don't know its origin.  It looks like Ikea, but I could be wrong.

Bibs, Bibs, and More Bibs

Look at that pile!  I made almost 30 bibs recently to be split between three new babies.  I'm sure I still need to make more new bibs, but I'm out of towels.  My last trip to the goodwill yielded three hand towels.  I don't know why people are not donating their towels.

I decorated rocking moose with the bibs.  

Here are some of my favorites:

This last one is the best.  I love that little bit of ribbon.  I'm not sure where it came from, because I don't remember having a box of chocolate from this place.  I still have enough of this ribbon to make another bib.  Yay for me!

I Spy With My Little Eye...

Three more I Spy quilts!

Well, they are in the works.  I am a bad mommy and have not made my own kid a quilt.  Bah.  But I saved a bunch of squares from the last quilt making run, so I had almost enough.  I added a few new squares and I put them in strips.  That's as far as I've made it with her quilt.  Boo.  I need more good white thread, but I have picked out a backing fabric (watermelon seeds) and binding (purple calico), so I just need to cut those strips and I'll be ready to assemble this thing in no time.

As for the other two quilts, my heart cockles were warmed when I asked my sister-in-law if there was anything she wanted me to make her new baby and she asked for a quilt to match her son's!  So nice!  So I started cutting two more batches of squares.  All of the cousins are going to get personalized I Spy quilts, it seems.

So far that is ten squares each.  I need 48, so I ordered another set of squares from Crafterhours, which should be here any day now. I went with Alloy, because I think I did the Eden set last time.  I think that will bring me up to 38 for each blanket.  I'll have to scrounge around my stash to see if there are any more novelty fabrics that would work.  Maybe even revisit the scrap stash?  I don't know.  It really is a lot of work to come up with fairly unique squares for this.  I have yet to pick backing fabrics for either of the two new blankets.  I do have some fun lemon/orange/lime fabric on a black background that could work for one, but we'll see.  These won't be done for a while...I'm guessing next Christmas, so I have some time.

Plus my sister-in-law needs to give me a baby name to work with.

Post Xmas Frenzy

I don't know what it is about me and the period immediately following Christmas, but all I want to do is look at Christmas-themed crafts on the internet.  So I've been pinning, because I've finally figured out that I need to pin things in order to remember them.   I've also been going through a gift bag making frenzy.  Thirteen bags total, actually.  All Christmas themed.  I blame my mother who told me that my sister really wants a bigger collection of fabric gift bags.  I also blame my sister who confirmed this and then later texted me that birthday bags would be appreciated, as well.

boo!  blurry!

I started with this one, because it has been lingering in my stash like a barnacle on my ass, I swear.  It is ugly.  It is country-time-lemondade-lives-in-Vermont-ugly.  Seriously, I think this fabric should go listen to A Prairie Home Companion** and leave me alone.  My mother swears she did not contribute this slice of ugliness to my stash, but I have other thoughts.  Anyway, I think it was destined to be a pillow in a former life.  I took it and paired it with some lovely, woven green/white gingham (lovely by itself, but paired with this fabric...hideous):

Ugh. See?  Ugh!  

Let's cover that up and look at something delicious:

Ah, that's better.  So...this red fabric is hideous to the touch.  It's really stiff.  I was using the back side of it as the scrap fabric for ironing on fusible interfacing to things and I was about to put it away when it hit me that it should live on as a bag.  I paired it with some lightweight fabric and gave it some cording...and so pretty!  It's my favorite new bag, actually.

With the help of my mother-elf, I made a bunch of other lined, drawstring bags with blue Christmas fabric that has been in my stash for a good five years.  I paired it with the softest green/white stripey fabric that I was almost sure used to be a sheet in a former life.  It makes for a nice lining, though.  Then I used up some green fabric with the Christmas lining that was used in the polka dot bag:

Then my mom left and I lost my little elf helper, so I turned over to my scary serger.  I took a class a number of months back on the general usage of the thing at Treadle Yard Goods, but have not revisited it.  I even had the power foot still packed away in the bag that I had brought to the class.  Anyway, years ago when I made these bags, I also cut out a bunch of bags to sew, but never did.  So, yeah, they've been sitting in my stash since that post in 2009.  

Whatever.  

Stop judging me.

I didn't want to make any more unlined bags and I didn't really want to have to sew a million tiny bags, so they sat there until the other day when I serged them like crazy.  I think seven got serged up.  I didn't do drawstring casings, but attached a bit of ribbon to the back of the bag and I can just tie it up like so:

And so:

And then to make things even more appealing to my eco-conscious sister, I reused some ribbon from Bath and Body:

She's definitely getting that one.  

**No offense to anyone in VT.  I used to have to go there with an ex-boyfriend.  We would take the train up from Brooklyn and then his parents would drive the hour or so to their home in Vermont.  All the while, we listened to a best of CD of the Prairie Home Companion show and it always put me right to sleep.  I still can't listen to that show, even though it is like a Minnesota National Treasure or something.