save the bunnies

I remember when I was little my mother made a plushy carrot purse with a zipper on top.  A little bunny family lived inside.  It was one of those toys that you just have very nice memories about.  Well, who knows what happened to it, but a year or two ago I found a young lady selling the exactly same little bunny family carrots!  I snatched one up and have loved having it around.  

Unfortunately,

There is something going around.

It seems like Gordon (daddy rabbit) had some sort of disease....  it all started with the thread.  

Just a tiny bit of it began to turn brown.

Rusting thread?

The brown spread.

It spread to poor little infant bunny.

And now daddy has spots.

This is Bianca (momma bunny).  This is how they all came to me.  

They used to be such lively folk...

And now they mourn.

I never spilled anything on these little guys.

And yet the disease spreads...

Any help?

Ideas?

They are made of felt, so I fear scrubbing them.  I acknowledge that I will most likely have to make a new little family after the funeral.

I just feel so bad...

raggy bowl

Hey yall!

I found another tutorial that you might find fun.  Over at Wee Folk Art you can find the instructions for making a rag bowl.  The following is the one that I made.  They are surprisingly sturdy and strong.

I happen to know that the recipient of this bowl loves the colors purple and blue, I threw the green in for good measure.  While I found the tutorial very informative, here are some tips that I think could be of help if you embark on this swirly project yourself.

When it comes to crafts I am a cheater.  I absolutely could not afford to purchase the top of the line materials for every project I feel up to making, I just like to make too much.  So I completely cheated and ran across the street to my Home Depot and bought rope there.  I say cheated because I have absolutely no idea how much upholstery cording is, but I didn't really want to go out of my way to find out if I can find something else to substitute.  I bought some that looks like this.  Yup, the fabric covered all of those bright colors right up.  I can't remember if this was the exact same kind, but it was the definitely the longest (thickest) rope that I could afford.  Remember not to get anything too thin because that means a lot of coils for a decently sized bowl.  Use any rope you feel like, just make sure the core of the rope isn't made out of rubber or something that you can't sew through easily.

My second tip is to use a curved needle.  I didn't use one but I wish that I had.  It is easy to make your own curved needle.  Hold a needle on both ends with some pliers.  Say the magic words, "Hey yo needle I need you to curve, to make a bowl easier you will serve".  Ya just kidding.

That totally wouldn't work.

Hold the needle horizontally above a candle.  Slowly bend it with both of the pliers.  As the metal gets hot it should bend without too much trouble.  When you are finished you feel like superwoman for having bent metal with your own two hands.

The purpose of bending the needle becomes clear as you try to insert it through two rows of cording without going straight into the next row.  You also use curved needles on some types of hand-made books.  And on spherical quilts.

Tip three really isn't a tip, it's a confession.  I didn't make a little securing not after every stitch, they sort of got in the way for me.  I just held the rows tight as I went.  

I also didn't form mine around a bowl, hence the sort of flatter shape.

And my last tip is that if you use needle nose pliers it is so much easier to push the needle in and pull it out without your fingers getting sore.

So yeah, those are my tips.  

I honestly loved making this bowl.  It's an easy sit-in-your-rocker-and-craft-on-your-lap project.

-Becka

P.S.  Just be sure to keep it all tight as you go.

Smocking and Shirring

A while back CK posted a wonderful post on tips for smocking.  You can find the tutorial here.  In the post she mentions that you can find pre-shirred (is that how you spell it?) fabric from the fabric store.  But for those of you who want to learn how to shirr your fabric yourself, I'd like to direct you to another tutorial I found.

The wonderfully talented Kathleen Frances from Grosgrain created a video showing how to shirr your own fabric.  It's incredibly helpful and easy to follow.   Click here to find the tutorial on her blog.

I also found it's link on youtube and posted it below.

Its amazing what that last step with the iron does to the fabric.  At the beginning of the video the material was so flat and smooth.  But in those last thirty seconds, the material becomes so spastically scrunchy and all the little horizontal ribs become so tight and wonky*.  Shirred material looks so complicated but now I know it is just a product of multiple strait sewn lines using elastic thread!

*This post has been linked up to the Word of the Week (WOW) at A Belle, A Bean and a Chicago Dog for our use of wonky.  

Smocking Secrets- REVEALED

My good friend, Bianca, is a professional seamstress.

So when she offered to teach me a little smocking,

how could I pass up the opportunity?  

I always thought smocking was some kind of magic.  

And, in some ways, it is!

{I swear it takes magic to have the patience needed to get the tension 

consistent in each stitch!}

But after a few practice sessions I see that there are a few basics that make smocking so much more comprehensible.

Lesson 1:  Smocking begins with a pleated piece of material that you can make by machine or buy at the store.

 

My material was pleated by machine and if you look closely you can see that the folds make a series of what can be referred to as the hills and valleys:

Lesson 2:  For basic designs, the needle wraps around the hills and comes up between the valleys

Lesson 3:  For the basic wave stitch, the needle always moves from right to left, wrapping the trailing thread around two hills and then passing up between them through the valley.

The trailing thread always stays either above or below the needle, depending on which way 

the wave is going.

Here's my first design:

{Yes, I know I need more practice in order 

to get that magic!}

For more basic videos about smocking check out here!

For easy-to-follow diagrams check out here!

And now I present you with some

of the most beautiful hand made smocking designs ever!

This is my baby's blessing handmade blessing dress:

Even the little roses and ribboned hand cuffs are handcrafted.

Thank you Bianca!!!

-CK

This post is linked to:

Sew Can Do