Media Mail 3: Babycrafts

 The third and final book in last week's surprise package of craft books is The Complete Book of Babycrafts, which was published by Arco back in 1981.

This book is chock full of goodness.  It starts out with a knit section and, if I could knit, I would be sure to place my child in an embarrassing outfit such as this one:

I love the little one!  So cute!

Speaking of cute, what about this wooly bear caterpillar coat:

What a funny thing.  How would this withstand Minnesota winters?

I think I'm really interested in making Puff, here:

And I like this owl, but those eyes are freaky!

I really love this!  I've seen these floating around Pinterest, but this one is pretty neat with the flower garden on the side.  It just slips over a folding table.  So nifty! I think I'm going to make this one, for sure!

I also like this coat...

And then there is this:

A clown pajama bag!  And wouldn't you know that I have one of these from when I was a kid:

Very crazy!  This fella now hangs on my craft room door and holds interfacing.

So those were my three books from the media mail package from my friend, Brain!  Thank you, again! I think I'll get the most use out of the babycrafts book!

Make a Bra!

Oooooh!  It's that time of year again...Bras for a Cause!  Back in Santa Cruz, CA, where I used to live, there is an annual fundraiser sponsored by Soroptimist International Capitola-by-the-Sea (whew! that's a mouthful!).  Proceeds from this fundraiser go to services for women in Santa Cruz County.  Anyway, the deadline for entry is July 20th...next week!  And the bra then needs to be in by August 3rd.  And I can enter from afar...yes!  I meant to do this last year, but I was distracted with that whole pregnancy thing.

Oh!  I love this fundraiser.  I love seeing all of the entries and the creativity and I was bummed to not participate last year.  And it's for a good cause...women!  Yay! Women!  Usually they are more specific on their website as to the female-oriented organizations that receive the proceeds, but, yay, women!

So here are some of my past entries....

My 2008 entry was called "Bra-den of Eden."  Not the best name, I know.  I had worn this as part of a Halloween costume (oh, now I'm going to show you my midriff...get excited!):

 I cropped out my friend to protect his privacy, but not the privacy of his mouth.  Sorry, Friend!  Anyway, like I was saying, I had made this bra for a 2005 Halloween party and shoved it in my Halloween storage bucket.  When I came across the advertisement for Bras for a Cause, I was just three days from the deadline, so I whipped this bra out of the box, reinforced some of the flowers, hot glued the apple and the snake to the bra and sent it in.

Unfortunately, you can't really see the snake or the apple, but they're there.  This bra raised $55.00.  I also made an apron as part of my donation.  I love that pattern (McCall's 3979, View E) for aprons.  Oh, and I also made that dress (McCall's M4826, View A) -- It's like the third piece of clothing I ever made.  Yes, that's me. And, yes, I could have used one of those bras.

And the next year, 2009, I wanted to do something a bit more challenging, so I decided to make a bra from scratch.  Well, it was kind of from scratch.  I used the cups from a bra and covered them in some vintage shiny silver shag fabric, added some plastic straps, and grommets.  I called it Bra-Bra-Ella.

Sorry, no picture of me in this get-up.  It looks a bit saggy on the model, but it was pretty cool.   And check out the ladies on the apron (I made that, too).  They are Barbarella ladies!  Yay!   This package raised $60.00!

My final year, 2010, I took a black strapless bra and covered it in little blue plastic gems and feathers.  I can't remember the name of it...Blue-something, "Blue-la-la," maybe?  Again, not a great title.  No apron this year.

This bra raised $55.00.  

So, I'm going to try to remember to print out the application this weekend and then work on this year's bra before bed every night.  I have some ideas...maybe just a recycled idea from 2010, though.  We'll see.

You should print out an entry form and make one too!