Summer at the Fall Jolly?

What do you all think about having some summer items available for those buy-in-advance folks?

This dress and hat are simple and require very little fabric.

Pillowcases

Adding ribbon to a pillowcase is so easy and it looks so snazzy. I made this one for Adeline's room and plan on making a pair for Titus' room in great boy colored stripes...no bows, of course.

I think I'll make some of these for the craft fair, do you think they'd sell? I think they look so Pottery Barn!

The Knit Washcloth

With the craft fair in our future, and the Ladies Luncheon getting ever closer, I started trying to do all the things I signed up for. And, one of the crafts were these fantastic knit washcloths. Now, I've heard that these things are quite the hot items at craft fairs, that women travel from afar just for the washcloth. Whether or not that's true, these washcloths are so easy to knit. I am not an experienced knitter by any means. My repertoire consists of one baby sweater (which was going to be for Will when he was about 12 mons. I just finished it. He was 3 1/2.), christmas stockings for my family, and these washcloths. It takes me no time to whip out one of these puppies. Once you get the pattern down, which doesn't take long, you can easily do this while watching tv, talking on the phone, etc. etc. And then, you have a knit creation that you can be proud of! So, knitters, get out those size 7 needles and knit yourself a washcloth and then do one for the Fall Jolly!

Church Babies

My mother used to make these for me when I was little. I loved them. They are a very old design and women used to make them for their little girls to keep them occupied in church!
You make them with Hankies, some cotton balls and thread. I like to make a bonnet for them so they don't look like ghosts. These are great for keeping in your purse/diaper bag, and they only take about 10 min. to make. It's also a fun way to use Granny's hankies. You can also make these out of sweetly trimmed vintage pillow cases. Those are more "rag" doll type, and they are so adorable when finished, and make very special and inexpensive gifts for little girls!

Yo-yo!

It is hard to see in the photo, but I hot glued vintage buttons into the middle of each yo-yo.

I, like many of you, am a busy stay-at-home mom with limited time and often limited resources. I'll post a few easy little projects that only take an hour or so and can be done in stages. These project require mostly scrap sized pieces left over from other projects or charm packs which you can purchase at many quilting stores or online at fat quarter shop. Projects that start to finish take about two hours, preferably less, are my favorites. Most of my crafting occurs in two hour nap window, but I also like to get dinner started and scrub something before my little ones are up.

I discovered yo-yo making last November when my friend Sarri showed me an adorable Christmas garland she made for her banister. I immediately began a garland for Eliot's Christmas tree by simply hot gluing thirty of them to a strand of red ric rack. When dreary February hit, I was again inspired by a charm pack of 4 inch quilt squares which I transformed into another garland for my kitchen window. You do not need a sewing machine to make yo-yos and Sarri even commissioned her seven year old to make them too. I love to work on them while curled up on the couch drinking tea and making them helps me stay awake while watching a movie on the weekend.

I think for Fall Jolly it would be cute to do the Christmas yo-yos on ric rack and put them in a garland of greenery which can be obtained at Wal-mart or Michael's with possibly an added string of white lights. With the right fabric you could make a garland to adorn a nursery wall, a fall display, or Easter tree. Heather Bailey has an excellent tutorial which she has allowed me to post here for your convenience. There's really no end to the possibilities for yo-yo's. I have seen them attached to hair bands, used to adorn a child's dress, or if you're really ambitious sew them together to make a table runner or quilt.

What's with the crafting famine?

Okay, if someone doesn't hustle up and complete a craft to share with us I might just up and start posting pictures of Popsicle stick and googly eye somethings that I can crank out! Look out people, this blog is about to go out of control! Do something, quick!

Knitting Bag

Sorry about the lighting on this picture, but most of you know about the weather right now, so we won't complain, we'll just press on with dark pictures. Anyways... I felt more like sewing than knitting I decide to sew a bag to put my then unfinished baby socks project in. I'm not sure why I ended up finishing the socks before the bag, but now both are done, so it must have been a good idea! I want to make a knitting notions bag to go with this, and I think other knitters will agree that you can never have too many project bags! Keeping your projects in cute bags with all of the necessary equipment makes picking up a project a pleasure, and easy to take along to boot.

Evening Clutch

I made 3 of these clutches–one for each of my sisters. They are fairly easy on a sewing/embroidery machine! The ones I made have all their inside seams covered with velvet, but I would just serge the seams. They have a small zipper on top under the flap so nothing falls out. They look great with the metallic thread. They're a bit larger than my hand, so are a great clutch size! I have more dark satin fabric (although this is a cottony jacquard) that I think would work well. Do you think they would sell?

Save the earth! (one craft project at a time)

Come on, reuse some stuff in your closet or linen drawer. It's the perfect solution if you've been wanting to make something but can't make a trip to the fabric store. It's also a happy way to hang on to something you love but will never fit again. Plus, it's free. And if someone's being snarky about your carbon footprint you can reassure them that you repurpose old clothes. That'll show 'em...

I'm hoping that there will be a decent showing of little girl clothes at this craft fair. Here's my latest repurposed craft, a skirt for Alice from an old dress of mine.
Even the lace trim was part of the old dress. I didn't even have to hem this or make the sideseams, I just used the bottom of my dress, added a yoke, elastic, and some tucks, and voila! See? Repurposing also saves you from having to do a lot of the sewing.

I used some fabric from another project for a shirt:
And we're ready for the hopscotch playing field!
Any thoughts on clothes for the fair? Would you buy them (or at least want them)? Maybe some Christmas dresses or fallish skirts?

On a repurposing note, if any of you have an old skirt/dress out of solid black, navy, red, brown, or grey fabric that's heading for the goodwill bin, send me an email. I have a boy project perfect for the craft fair I've been wanting to try.

Soap

Making your own soap with pure glycerin soap is super easy. You can buy it in 1, 2, and 3 lbs. bricks which you then melt in the microwave, color any color you want and add your favorite scent. You then pour it into a mold of some sort (a milk carton works well) and let it set-up! It's so fun being able to make soap that's in bright cheerful colors. And bright soap looks so wonderful in glass jars in the bathroom. Another great idea from Martha Stewart is pouring the melted soap into an ice cube tray and making what she calls soap cubes. they're really cute and the perfect size for little hands in the kids bathroom! Michael's has the glycerin soap bricks for sale but I recommend buying them on-line as they are the same price per pound, (except shipping), then you can get pure and natural soap gentle enough for newborns!
A great place to buy it is at...www.clearlynaturalsoaps.com
I thought this might make a great craft fair item!

Man crafts

Since I'm not really a knitter or crocheter I have trouble sometimes coming up with things I can make for my husband and sons. My husband really gets a kick out of crafts done just for him, but it takes a little more work to come up with 'manly' rather than 'cute.'

One year he bought me a copy of Cynthia Treen's book Last Minute Fabric Gifts. So I made him this scarf:


It's made out of a nice brown wool herringbone that was a suit jacket in its first life. The fringes are a cream wool yarn. It was pretty easy (except that the fringes took WAY longer than I had anticipated). It looks nicer in real life than in this picture, honest.

Bethany mentioned that she has a slick way to make kid ties from men's ties and I'm excited to try it. But I want to see some more man crafts! Bring yours out and post it!