Sewing and sowing

What does one do in this season, too cold to go out, to snowy to play ball?

You sew and you plan. The Babee sewed her very first garment, the simplest of skirts in the simplest of fabrics - fleece. Suited to the arctic temps out there! Think she looks a little bit proud?

Last Christmas, the kids received a 3/4 size sewing machine, it has seen a lot of use by little hands, making the littlest projects...

The biggest kid creates the tiniest projects.

And sowing - is of course not happening yet, but in the planning stages. My order to Baker Creek Heirloom seeds went out yesterday. Spring has got to be on its way.

Taking stock of the ever building inventory...

Father's day project

Very simple triptych for father's day, on purchased pre-mounted canvas squares. The 5x5in size is becoming too small for this family! How bittersweet.

The background as well as the hand print are done in acrylic paint, should last very well. I put he kids' names and date on with sharpie after all had dried. It was well received and if I make another 2 sets in the coming years, I figure a 3x3 arrangement could look really neat!

{this moment}

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{this moment}

A Friday SouleMama ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

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Slippers for a Sneezing Girl

My oldest had asked for slippers just like mine:

I was working on them, but then she came down with some crazy flu-like plague and it seemed only right to hurry up a bit and finish them. I went for 'chunky' and modified my original pattern (which was already a bit modified starting from this pattern), the outcome was pretty slouchy.

I make the sole out of a layer of felt (outside) and one of fleece (inside), and then I put patches of leather on the parts that need anti-slip. I hand-stitch around the outside. On the first try, I used a pretty blanket stitch but that turned out not to wear well, so now I go with the more functional, if plain look.

If I do it again, I will know where to decrease a bit more to get a better shape... But I still like them enough and she seems willing to wear them ... and hopefully warming her feet will make her better quickly!

Roses on ice

The roses I got for Valentine's day have been looking sadder and sadder but I didn't want to toss them just yet. Naturmama Caro to the rescue - in her wonderful book, she describes how to make ice sculptures with embedded treasures from nature. Oh, and here is a link to her blog for it, if you want to see. I sprayed a Bundt pan with oil and showed the kids the picture, that was all the action needed on my part - didn't it come out nice?

Now we can see the ice sculpture through the window when we sit at our dining table, for as long as it stays cold. Happily ever after :-)

Hats

 

Somehow we own about 24,497 hats in this house, yet on those mornings when I'm trying to get the kids ready, the 'just right' ones could never be found. Of course the solution is to knit two more hats, doesn't that make perfect sense? 

 

I followed these directions and then modified them a bit for size. I knitted the bottom half in a double strand of grey wool from our local farm and a multicolored alpaca that adds a bit of softness, plus it brings the wool up to about bulky weight, which is what I used to knit the top half.

Crochet around the outside to create a more finished look, then lined the inside with fleece. The lining doesn't do all the way up, just around the head and is about 3 inches tall (plus the earflaps). I handstitched that in, then applique'd the flower leaves with the sewing machine. The flower petals are held in simply with a button that I attached using strong embroidery floss.

So far the hats are enjoying favorite status, and I do hope it stays that way til winter's end... that must be close now, yes? 

  

{this moment}

. . . . . . . . .

{this moment}

A Friday SouleMama ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

. . . . . . . . . .

Paper dip-dyeing: Take 2

My rainbow-obsessed middle daughter was getting on my case about having a craft session like we did last year. Sure thing, I said, and tried to make a few modification from last time, being that one is supposed to learn from prior experiences. I made the green tea and turmeric dyes much, much stronger and filtered the turmeric through a coffee filter. Sorry about the lack of pictures, iPhoto ate them. I think it heard me bitching about apple iProducts on the internet. My bad.

At the kids' suggesting, we added a blueberry dye that was a total winner. We boiled a handful of blueberries in a little water, mashed with a potato masher and then strained the juice. Plain, it's a beautiful deep violet (7th from the top in the picture). Add some baking soda and it makes a purplish gray that later dries into a beautiful green (9th down)! Who knew? Here's a picture of the full color palette and one of the set-up:



 

The beet juice was made like the blueberry juice and came out really thick and intense. The cabbage juice was frozen from last year and definitely a bit pale in comparison. We played with the pH-indicator properties of red cabbage juice to make three different hues.

This time, we used rice paper, which took the color beautifully but was really fragile when wet. Still looking for the perfect paper - maybe I'll shop in Germany on my next visit. For folding and more detail on the 'how to', refer to the old post and the links in it.

A bit of a gallery of our artwork:

 

Trim a Tree!

I hosted the annual trim-a-tree craft event at our church this past Saturday. We made 6 different types of ornaments. Candy cane mice were made out of felt and candy canes, origami birds were folded, and some tissue paper pom poms were tied and fluffed. Beyond that, here are my three favorites in more detail:

A little angel made from a paper cone, and a wooden bead held in by a yellow pipe cleaner that was then fashioned into a halo. Add some Einstein-inspired hair and gold foil wings, and you have yourself a merry little angel. Gold stars are to crafts what bacon is to cooking. It never hurts to add some.

This all natural ornament was made from dehydrated orange slices, star anise, large bay leaf from the Indian spice store, and some cinnamon sticks. Start by tying the cinnamon sticks to the orange slice with some curling ribbon (or raffia, or rustic looking twine), then use Elmer's glue in liberal amounts to affix the star anise and bay leaf. Smells divine!

This was the simplest ornament in our line-up: Cut a simple shape from gold foil (imagine some very thin sheet metal, really), and then use a blunt knitting needle on a soft mat to imprint patterns or textures. Works for all ages.

All is calm, all is quiet..

And so we wait ...

Christmastime is always a time when the cultures clash - two spouses with vastly different family traditions. The values of the liturgical season, called Advent, at total contradiction with what is going on in the world. Around us is not a time of quiet reflection, spiritual preparation and simplicity - it's a time of acquisition, rush and stress.

“Advent: the time to listen for footsteps — you can’t hear footsteps when you’re running yourself.”

— Bill McKibben

In this household, one of the big debates is always 'When will we put up the christmas tree?'. We usually hold out until the middle of advent, as a compromise. For the next two or so weeks, however, we will still have something to look at and be reminded of the season: This year's advent wreath is not a wreath at all, but a set of logs, cut to order by the talented woodworker husband. My middle daughter helped me adorn them with mostly natural materials - we had some ivy, moss, pressed leaves, dried rosehips and some evergreen twigs. And big pine cones! Add just a touch of sparkle and put it all into the lid of a large cookie tin - done. It is the centerpiece at the dining table and the kids like counting down, as we light one more candle every Sunday until Christmas.

The stitching equivalent of comfort food

I just love when a sewing pattern becomes so familiar that sewing it is almost like running, meditating or, really, any one of those repetitive yet calming occupations that put me in 'the zone' to the point that I let the dinner greens burn or the fire go out, or let the kids get into that suspiciously-silent type of trouble.

 

Two pairs of Anna Maria Horner's Quick-Change Trousers - the advantage of knowing this pattern so well is that I was totally comfortable adjusting them to a size 3T in slim/tall...

The leotard pattern has proven its (small enough) weight in gold by now - this time I made a slim size 8 for the biggest sister. She's particular about how her clothes fit, yet she doesn't size according to the generally accepted industry standards for 7 1/2 year olds... she has a hard life like that. I am always happy if I'm able to help out on that front, easier done for a leotard than for a ski coat...

Now I will get back to my gingerbread eating, sofa sitting self, and I wish the same to you over the long Thanksgiving weekend!

A little light

We had a little rainbow themed birthday party here this weekend, and it being November, I wanted an indoor activity for the kids to do. I'm thinking what kid doesn't like to play with sticky glue and light stuff on fire? Plus it's the season of St. Martin, and as Germans, we have a tradition of crafting lanterns right around now. Traditionally, children carry them around the neighborhood while singing songs, and we've done that in the past, too. I dug up some pictures from a couple of years ago to show you: 

      

  

But back to the craft at hand: We upcycled jars from tomato sauce and the likes, covered them in diluted Elmer's School Glue and then stuck one layer of tissue paper on it. Smoothing the paper down with more glue will make the parents' OCD happy, but it's optional and the more 'textured' look works fine, too. We dried them upside down, which didn't take long.

It's one of those craft project where different age kids can all produce nice results because even a totally holey pattern of random colors will look nice once the candle inside is lit. We filled the jars about halfway with water, and used unscented floating candles inside.

A little light is just what we needed in this increasingly dark and dreary season... as I'm looking outside right now, I see the first flurries of snow!