Felt Desserts (Perfect if you're on a diet!)

Yay, I can post pictures of all my holiday gift knitting (and sewing)! Hope you enjoy, and leave links to your holiday projects in the comments for me to look at, too! 

Gifted To: My niece, Emlyn, and Chris' nephew, Josh. Once I came up with the idea for Ellie, I made a double batch so Josh could have some, too! 

Pattern: My own - inspired by many others around the interwebs. 

I was at a loss this year, trying to figure out a gift for my two and half year old niece. And then my sister gave me a big clue, "Ellie loves dessert!"

With that directive, I took off running. It's been awhile since I made play food, but it's always fun to figure out how to best represent one's favorite foods with felt. I knew I wanted to make her some ice cream - so the ice cream cone came first. Then I added in some Oreos, since they're easy to make up in large batches. 

But those donuts - oh man - they are my favorite of the three desserts. I want to eat them, they look so good! But they were a bitch to sew (each one completely by hand), and I stayed up way past my bed time to get them done. 

Chris totally wanted to keep one for himself. 

Louise's Bridesmaid Hair Pieces

The wedding fun continues! A few months ago, I was asked by my lovely friend, Louise, to create some hair pieces for her bridal party. 

Her colors were red, white, and black, and I made her fascinator-style hair clips out of felt. They turned out so cute, and a few of her bridesmaids wore them during the ceremony with their mis-matched red dresses. I love that look for bridesmaids! 

I think I need a few of these hair pieces for myself in different colors, right? Maybe some holiday-themed fascinators!

Something New: Felt & Fabric Brooches

Ok, this is my last round of beautiful photographs of my work - I swear! (All beautiful photos by Meghan Canavan)

I decided to change the design for my heart brooches. I added vintage fabric to a felt heart, and then hand embroidered the whole thing, adding cute buttons along the way. The effect is very summery.

This yellow one is my favorite:

After making the hearts, I thought circles would be cute. They look like girl scout badges, right?

Have a great weekend - hope your weather is better than our's in Chicago (cold-ish but still humid)!

Something New: Bracelets

Just like the headbands, I'd been planning to make bracelets for awhile. I love the way they turned out - the perfect pop of color!

They come in two shapes: hearts & circles. Like the headbands, they are hand cut with hand embroidered accents, and then machine sewn together for durability. They snap shut with a little pearly snap.

Once again, all photos by my lovely sister, Meghan.

Something New: Headbands

I wanted to add some new designs to my "line" for the craft show. I'd been thinking about making headbands for awhile, and this was the kick in the pants I needed!

The shapes are all hand cut, with hand embroidered accents. They are machine sewn together to make sure the elastic band is sewn in nice and tight. I wore one each day of the show and they are comfortable and cute! They'll be in my etsy shop later this week - hopefully Friday.

The leaf headband was the big seller of the show - I only have 3 left. 

All photos by Meghan Canavan, that talented little photographer!

collaboration

I've been busy directing a reading of a new play - Su Sessiz. One of my favorite things about theater in Chicago is the sense of open collaboration between artists. A playwright starts the process, and then the director comes in and adds their ideas, and the cast and the designers add theirs, and finally the audience responds - for better or worse.

This is rare with sewing projects, but lately I've been lucky enough to collaborate with a few shop owners and artists on some new items.

A special wedding owl.

A set of patches commissioned by my life-long friend, Randi, for her etsy shop. Check out her baby hats - so cute. 

A special mustache for Sacred Art's 5th Anniversary. 

A million owl magnets for Sifu Design Studio. 

January - Drawing to a Close

I've been a bit under the weather for the last week and busy wrapping up all my January projects. At some point mid-month, I was approached with 3 or 4 offers for new jobs or projects, and I took them all on.

Lesson learned: you do not have to say yes to everything. 


I did, however, finish up a ton of felt brooches and list them in the shop:

I've been working a lot on my photography, and I feel like I've definitely improved in the last 6 months, but I would love some input. Are you drawn to a clean, white background when shooting photos of your work? Or do you prefer to experiment with colors and textures?

Valentines! Or... Anti-Valentines

Yesterday I listed a ton of Valentines in my Etsy shop. 

However, let's face it - Valentine's Day is kind of dumb, right? I mean, yes, it's sweet to celebrate love, etc, but shouldn't you do that every day of the year? Plus sometimes you're just not feeling up to it. 

Which is why these are my new favorite:

A bloody arrow through the heart. That's more like it. 

All of these are available in the shop.

a custom mounted owl

Before Christmas I was contacted by my good friend Allison, who wondered if it would be possible to buy a gift certificate for her cousin, Jen, for a custom mounted mustache. On Christmas eve I sent her the certificate with links to my work, saying that she could "pick anything!"

She wrote back to me and said that although she loved the mustaches, she loved the owls more, and would it be possible to make an owl that looks like her cat?

Of course...

I am so pleased with how he came out! I made him to look like her cat, "Owl," so of course I named him "Cat." He's a little bigger than the mustaches, and much bigger than any other owl I have ever made. 

And there's the adorable Jen and Owl. I think Owl & Cat will get along fine!

It's the day of the (holiday) Giveaway, y'all!

Another giveaway, you ask?! Tis true! 

Once again, I am participating in Sew Mama, Sew's Giveaway Day (Welcome, new readers - I'm Katie, nice to see you!). Myself and hundreds of other generous bloggers will be giving away goodies all week, so click the image below for more details.

Now on to what I am giving away!

There will be two winners, chosen at random. Winner #1 will win their choice of felt holiday ornament (pictured above, more pictures on my flickr and in my etsy shop). 

Winner #2 will win their choice of felt brooch, below. Please note that I will make these to order, so you can pick and choose which styles and colors you like. 

To enter, simply leave a comment and make sure your email address is somewhere in there. The giveaway will close at 9am on December 17th, and I'll pick two winners at random at that time. I will ship internationally, but please note that I cannot guarantee that your prize will get to you before Christmas - sadface. 

Ps. If you want to make my day, in your comment you could also share some sort of holiday story or tradition or anecdote! Good luck!

on the Doctor and felt...

If you are my sister, do not look below! Don't do it!

I have a confession: I like geek television shows. Anything sci-fi or fantasy, I love it. I'll save you the list for now and just say that Chris and I are currently watching Season 2 of Doctor Who on Netflix. Thanks to my habit of watching nerdy TV while knitting or sewing, my coffee table has been turned into making-central:

I've been doing pretty well on the gloves. Hopefully I'll finish those up this weekend and then tackle the sweaters. In between that, I've been making felt ornaments for some etsy orders, and doing a few other present type projects.

Do you see those little felt roses up there? Those were discarded from a project (just didn't work), and now I'm thinking of turning them into a little brooch. It's a little bit holiday, but also could be worn year round. I'll keep you updated on that. 

So back to Doctor Who. I'm watching it for the first time, and I have to say, there is a lot of yelling and screaming. It's a very loud show. It seems like every episode has a crowd scene where a large amount of people are attacked and have to run screaming while guns are being fired. And for that reason, I think it will never be one of my favorite shows. I like my panic a little more creative. 

still life with chips

I wanted to share these felt lunches I've been making for the store around the corner, Sacred Art. Now that I've got my pattern down, they are pretty quick to sew up. My lunch includes a sandwich, a bag of chips, an "oreo" cookie, and a brown "paper" bag. 

I'm sure you've seen a ton of these around the interwebs and my version is heavily inspired by others. I find it really interesting that making felt food has become so popular. I suppose it's because felt is easy to work with and comes in bright colors.

Either way, I think I should take some serious still life pictures of my felt food, arranged just so to look extra appetizing. Maybe a Cooking Light recipie made up of felt? Any suggestions?

Ps. Still time to enter the giveaway!

Holiday Giveaway!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I had a deliciously huge meal with my friends, spent some time with my family, performed a few shows, and sewed a lot of ornaments. 

To kick off the holiday frenzy, I would like to giveaway an ornament to a lucky reader - Whoohoo! You can see the available styles above and in my shop. 

To enter, just comment here with your favorite holiday tradition or memory and I'll pick one winner on Wednesday, December 1st!

It's Black Friday!

It is the biggest shopping day of the year or whatever! Huzzah! I'm celebrating by working from home in my pajamas and updating my Etsy shop. You can now find all my holiday ornaments there, as well as the Girl Scout Totes aaaannnndddd....

A new mounted mustache! That's right - it's Santa's mustache! 

To celebrate this festive holiday weekend - all new items in the shop have free shipping. And especially for my blog readers - if you enter the code BLACKFRIDAY at checkout, you'll get an extra 10% off everything. Whoohoo!

the weekend in numbers

Number of:

hats knit - 4

ornaments cut out - 53

ornaments sewn - 10

ornaments still to be sewn - 43

shows done - 5

glasses of opening night champagne drunk - 2

(photo by www.ryanwardthompson.com)

windows broken - 1

bricks used - 1

hours slept - not enough!

It's the Holiday Season!

First and foremost, I want to show you the ornaments I've been sewing for local shops. My very favorite ornament is the white heart with the blue and red stitching. After a little brainstorming session with my bff, I've come up with 5 or 6 other designs that I plan to make up in the next day or two.

I'm not sure why I'm drawn to felt again and again. I think it was one of the very first materials I ever worked with around age 8. Although I've explored a lot of other fabrics and fibers and techniques - it usually comes back to this. And things like this are what people respond to, which has always surprised me. Maybe it's the simplicity? I'm not sure, but I'm happy to keep at it.

Secondly - I wanted to confess that it's always been hard for me to focus on just one art. I have always wanted to do it all, and because of this sometimes I think I've missed out on perfecting a skill. In the past week I've made about 50 felt things - ornaments, brooches, magnets - and it's been interesting. Interesting and exhausting. I'm not used to working like this and it's wearing me down. But it's also given me a new perspective, which I think is a good thing. 

Thirdly - I'm going to do a big holiday Etsy update next week in time for ye olde Black Friday, in which these felt things will be included, as well as my tote bags. December, here we come!

felt inspiration

While clicking around in Flickr-land, I came across this work in progress by Olivia, who blogs at Young Captive.

She titles it "Dresses I Didn't Buy," and I love it. I mean - serious love happening over here. 

busy weekend...

This weekend I:

Made a toadstool & his little buddies.

Began the Christmas crafting in earnest. From top to bottom: Owl ornaments, brooches, magnets & holly brooches. How gross is my ironing board cover? Time to put this tutorial to good use!

Got a new head of hair. It's for the show and it is much darker than I anticipated. Luckily, it makes my eyes look supernaturally blue, and Holly just posted this guide to keeping your very red hair very red!