I got to go to the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat this year! The first time I found out about it it was too close to the time and I’d never heard of it before. The second year I knew about it, there was some pregnancy complication or something and the next year I had too little a baby or somesuch. There just always seemed to be something that meant I couldn’t go!

Then this year I *could* go, except I forgot about signing up until three days later, so the only class I was interested in was full. Of course. Because Madrona is crazy popular that way.  But I put myself on the waiting list and lo and behold, a spot opened up! So I got to go! It was somewhat difficult figuring out the logistics of getting there on just the Sunday with my one car family, but we worked out it and I went very early on, of all days, Valentine’s Day. Isn’t my hubby sweet and forgiving? Yes. Yes he is.

So Madrona was pretty damn cool. The class was great — it was on steeks, one of the few techniques I really want to learn but haven’t worked up the nerves to try — and now I feel like I can steek anything. So that’s good! The teacher, Mary Scott Huff (who incidently has one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever seen and I want it) was great. She made steek samples for us to cut (cutting someone else’s knitting! SO much easier! Ha!) and had these great printouts for us to keep. Steeking was definitely successful.

So pictured above are all my successful steeks — hand sewn, machine sewn, and a crochet steek. I like the look of the crochet the best but the machine was fastest, and also the most versatile.

The home work was a little shocking (a whole cowl — colorwork no less — in a little over two weeks, since I signed up late!) but otherwise, really good. I don’t think I have a picture of the completed knitting but instead only the steeking process. Here it is marked to be cut:

(Note: Some people did horizontal lines instead of the “bird’s eye” pattern. SO MUCH EASIER to cut because the guides are already there for you!)

And then cutting:

(Also, who was the idiot who went to a steeking class without scissors? That would be ME. Doh. Thankfully Mary had a cute pair she let me borrow. Geez.)

And then all cut! I mean steeked!

After that we cast on for the buttonband which I haven’t finished yet, so no more pictures. When I got home I was in a hurry to finish up some hats for our upcoming snow cabin trip so I still haven’t gotten back to this year. I’m intending to gift it for the holidays, so I guess there’s no hurry.

The marketplace was also good. I think I expected more since I’ve heard such spectacular things about it, but still, very good. Things you can’t find elsewhere. I sort of wish I was more of a spinner, as it seemed more aimed at spinners, but all in good time I ’spose. I can’t imagine why I don’t have a picture of my purchases, but I don’t. OH but I did make this token Madrona hat!

… made from Leticia yarn at the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth. (Pattern is the Unoriginal Hat by the Yarn Harlot.) I also bought some gorgeous pink merino fiber from them, and some fiber elsewhere but the name escapes me now. I also got some pink yarn from a new dyer out of Portland whose name also escapes me (great blog post, right? Geez.) just like the purple in the cowl, thinking I could make a pink version as another gift. I love the purple but in all honesty I think the dark color gets lost and pink will stand out more. Hmm was that it? Yes, I believe it was. Fun times :)

The best part though? Hanging out at a table full of friends and knitters and spinners at lunchtime. I think next year — or whenever I can go next — I’d like to only take a half day class — if that — and just hang out with some great people. That would really make me happy :)

P.S. The other really great thing about Madrona? I wore my new vest, finally finished, and got so many compliments on it! That was really special for me. Also, I just knew so many of the sweaters I saw were handmade and it was really an honor to be around so many talented people with such great taste! Just a great atmosphere. Can’t wait to go back :)

I just figured out today that I neglected to post any of my christmas holiday crafts. Whoops. Better late than never?

Well, I guess it wasn’t a high priority because I didn’t actually do a lot. For the kiddos we decorated their dollhouse christmas trees. We made these last year but this year I decided they needed some ornaments. Cute, yes?

Then I also made a couple ornaments based on a blog entry I have since misplaced (eek, sorry!) and while I liked them, I wish they were a lot smaller. This entry advised not making them under 4″ and I have no idea why, I would much prefer then around the 2″ mark, I think. Anyway, we did these as part of our monthly child-friendly craft group. I planned six but made two. Hmm. Oh well, here they are:

(The wool bead garland was from last year and I liked it so much it stays up all the time!)

While there are many christmas-related things I have been meaning to make (tree skirt, more santa sacks), the only thing that was somewhat urgent was a stocking for the baby, I mean toddler. Last year we could get away with him not having his own stocking, but at almost two I figured this year he would notice.

I really didn’t want to knit one as  I wasn’t overly pleased with Boo’s, and it would take too long, so I got it in my head that I should use my newly acquired wet felting resist skills (courtesy of Spiderfelt classes!) and make a blue stocking with polar bears on them (inspiration from Chasing Fireflies catalog but the stocking is no longer listed so no linky). This turned into a project of ginormous proportions.

First I had to find the perfect color blue, which I was lucky enough to source from local Etsy shop Indigo Crane Fiber! When I did the math on how big I wanted to stocking to end up, the only water resistent item I had on hand that was large enough was a trash bag. This sucker was HUGE. And it looked like I was felting Cookie Monster.

I also wanted it somewhat sparkly, so Leah suggested sandwiching a sparkly layer between blue layers, which I did. I got this batt from Butterfly Girl Designs on Etsy, but had a helluva time getting out the black. Next time I’ll either make more time to place a custom order somewhere, or find a source for just the angelina myself! This is the middle layer — more blue went on top of this and then I began the wet felting process.

Anyway, it worked, for the most part. On one side you can see some of the black peeking through, but I think the appliques will hide it. Here’s the stocking after its initial wet felting, flipped over where you can see that ginormous trash bag resist.

And the whole thing layered and sopping wet. I didn’t have a piece of bubble wrap that was big enough either!

It took a total of four days to felt this to a level I was happy with. Here’s it’s clearly getting smaller, but still huuuuuuge! I think my toddler could have fit in it at this stage! By this point I had removed the resist and was felting it in stages on my glass washing board.

Believe it or not this was the final size. For some reason the foot was the right size but it was still too tall, so I just hacked off the top. If it were for me I probably would have just folded it over, but since it’s a kiddo and I had an appliqued design in mind, I just cut it.

That is actually the last photo I have because I didn’t get around to the applique — of course. I DID make the white felt for the appliques though, using the same method with sparkly white stuff in between. I usually get the urge to do christmas crafty stuff in the fall so I think I’ll just leave it til then ;) Bean didn’t mind — christmas is totally overwhelming at his age no matter what. A plain blue stocking was totally fine.

In a way, though, I wish I had just sewn the stocking, either out of fabric or wool felt yardage, because this sucker is THICK. Luscious and lovely in every way, but nearly impossible to hang because it’s rather heavy. So hey, it may end up as an under the tree decoration. Or I may devote wall hooks to our stockings as I could also envision making one for Boo that’s red with snowmen on it. Ah well — I have a year to decide!

So there you have it. Random christmas posting in February!

One of the loveliest things about winter is how nice it is to knit with wool this time of year. Especially lovely, nice, soft wools like the ones I have in my happy little hands!

This first project, the Girasole blanket by Brooklyn Tweed, was started at a class January 3rd at Little Knits, and I’ve slowly been working on it ever since. The yarn is Arauncania Nature Wool which was half price, which is obviously a wonderful thing when you’re talking about 1800 yards of worsted weight wool!

At first it was super fast but now it’s definitely plodding along. I believe I’m halfway through chart D… and there are I think three more charts to go. Ugh. I don’t even know how many stitches are on the needles at the moment, but it’s a lot. There’s no point in saying “one more row” because that could easily be 20 minutes or so, depending on what else I’m doing at the time :)

On the bright side, this chart is a no-brainer and it’s a pleasure to sit and knit while watching something juicy like The Tudors.  Slowly but surely this will be done. I like the name “girasole” — I’ve been told that means “sunflower” in Spanish. I actually have this insane idea that this would make a lovely Christmas gift for some family members, but then I remind myself that KNITTING A BLANKET is in fact an insane idea and I really should never do it again. So we’ll see.  I don’t quite know what possessed me to think I could or even should knit a blanket. For one thing, we have plenty, and for another, it will take forever. I guess I just really like the look of them. Everyone needs a giant doily for their couch, right?

Ahem. Moving on!

So while working on a blanket, a sweater for Boo that needs the sleeves cut off and re-knit (he keeps growing!), socks that also need to be lengthened (see growing statement above!), a sweater for me that needs to be seamed, and who knows what else is lurking about in the UFO pile, I decided I needed something quick, pretty, and functional to make myself feel better. Since the babe needs a hat that covers his ears for our upcoming snow trip, I decided to work on that. He’s got a little head, right?

I decided on the Toasty Topper pattern from Knitty. The yarn is leftover Malabrigo — OMG the lushness!

I modified the pattern a bit since my gauge was smaller and I wasn’t sure about the scarf. I increased a couple more times than called for although frankly I wish I had done at least two more beyond that — it’s a smidge tight but hopefully blocking will take care of that? It won’t last more than this winter though for sure :( I’m not taking it out though!! Because of the gauge I did two sections of short rows, which worked fine. I only did 20 stitches for the “scarf” and added two buttonholes on the ends. I have buttons sewn on the outside of one section and the inside of the opposite so it stays buttoned.

The buttons are cute, and they work pretty well. The scarf buckles a bit under baby’s chin and I’m not entirely sure why. Too much fabric? Not stretched enough? Not enough space over the face? Oh well, it does work. The hat fits fabulously over the back of the head at any rate. I do really like the pattern, I just figured my kids would untie a scarf in a heartbeat.

In fact it’s cute enough that eldest now wants one of his own! Except he wants more of a balaclava style. I think I’ll just rejoin after the short rows for him and knit the ribbing down in a circle, maybe even with some decreases, although I spose it still has to fit over his noggin. I guess I’ll try it on him as we go!

Anyway.. the hat made me really happy. Finished quickly and now I feel like an accomplished knitter again!

How to make very simple little felt gnomes!

Recently I was at a friend’s house with just the younger lad, and we were playing with some cute little gnomes. They were enchanting in their simplicity and the kids adored playing with them. After a quick perusal of their construction I decided they would be easy peasy to make and how cool would that be for our monthly kids handcrafting group? My friend said she had purchased them at a local Waldorf-inspired bookstore, so when I got home I looked up Waldorf gnomes.

I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. There were a few tutorials for what I guess is a more traditional gnome with a wooden bead for a head, and I found some people more like what I was aiming for on Etsy, but nothing saying how to make them. I thought, well, how hard can it be?

Turns out not hard at all! Literally, my five year old made one almost on his own. Then several people saw the pictures and asked how to make one, so I thought I’d do a tutorial. I’ve never done a tutorial before so hopefully this will look okay!

Now, on to the gnomes!

What you’ll need is very straightforward:

• Piece of felt (I used stashed craft felt but pretty much anything that doesn’t need hemming, and is slightly stiff, would be fine)
• Coordinating embroidery floss
• Strip of wool for stuffing
• Needles and scissors
• Template

I made my own template after some experimentation. I ended up with a circle of a 4″ radius cut into quarters. I cut a reminder for a hole for the face but you can move this depending on how tall you want your gnome to be. It’s easy to make shorter gnomes, just make the length down the sides shorter. I tend to cut out from the template first and then shorten.

I tied a knot at the bottom of my thread and started at the top of what will be the hat in order to hide the knot. For the younger set it also works well if you tie both sides of the thread together at the bottom, creating a double thickness of thread, so the kids don’t pull the needle off the thread repeatedly causing you to go partially blind trying to re-thread that needle umpteen times!

The stitching is done using a simple whip stitch while holding the edges together.

Again, for the younger set, it worked well to use safety pins to hold the edges together.

Keep whip stitching down the sides until you get to the top of the face. Then go through only one edge so that the needle is on the inside of the hat.

I tied a knot through one of the interior stitches and cut it with a bit of tail. I figured the tail would get hidden by the wool, but you can also tie more knots to your comfort level and thread the tail back through the previous stitches.

Hat is done!

Next start below the face the same way — knot on the inside, whip stitch down the front.

Incidently the first gnome I made was a) very, very small (2″ radius), and b) I didn’t cut a hole for the face. I figured if it wasn’t stitched up it would be open and therefore make a face. Which was true, it did — just not a very big face! Opening up the face with some crescents cut into the fabric helped a lot.

Keep whip stitching down the front. Another tip: To make the whip stitches horizontal, bring the needle across horizontal and angle down for the next stitch. I know that’s probably obvious but if I wasn’t paying attention I would start going across at an angle and bringing the needle out at the horizontal which resulted in a slanted whip stitch. Not that there’s anything wrong with slanted whip stitches, I just liked the horizontal look better!

When you get to the bottom, tie off the same way as you did at the hat, i.e. bring the needle through just one side of the felt, and tie a knot through the back of a previous stitch.

Tada! Sewn up gnome clothes.

Next, roll your wool into a little bundle. I use my fingers but chopsticks or pens/pencils work just as well, if not better!

For my five year old I had him wrap it around his pointing finger so he would be ready to insert the wool when he was done.

Next push the wool up into the gnome.

You might want to play around with positioning so that the face has a pleasantly smooth surface and the wool is tucked up into the body.

Next you define the neck with some simple running stitches around the gnome under the face.

Leave a tail of a couple inches to tie the bow.

When you get back to the start, cut the thread off with another 2 inch (or so) tail.

Tie loosely and pull hard on the tails to pull in the neck.

Then just tie a bow as best as you can and clip of the tails however long you like them.

And you’re done! Really simple gnomes! Make a whole family! My kids love them :D

One final note: Sometimes the wool wants to come out the bottom of the overly-stuffed gnomes. I was thinking about sewing a circle of felt to the bottom to prevent this, but haven’t bothered yet :)

So there you go! I hope this was helpful in making your own little gnomes! This was a great project for our crafting group. Everyone enjoyed digging through felt scraps and embroidery floss to pick out their colors, and even children as young as three were able to sew these mostly on their own, needing help with knots and re-threading needles. Such a great, simple project with a lovely and sweet result! They’re great fun to play with as well :) Next I hope to make some sort of playmat or even a little tree playhouse sort of thing.

Good luck!

We have this little friend for whom I love to make stuff. I’m not sure why I always get inspired by her birthday, but I totally do. One year it was the Pointy Kitty, the next year it was a felt cupcake. It’s always something I’ve been wanting to make and then suddenly the time is right!

This year, I was told our little friend loved animals and I suddenly had this incredible urge to make a birdcage similar to one I saw once upon a time in a kid’s catalog somewhere.  (Apologies for the terrible photos. Combination of taking photos at night plus just wierdly shaped birdcage!) This is what I came up with:

The bird itself is the pattern out of Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. For reasons that made sense at the time I decided to use wool felt for the brown part, which I never remember until I’m trying to sew it, does not really sew all that well as the seams are so thick. But oh well, it worked out okay. I love the pink rick rack for the hanger, should our little friend wish to use the bird as an ornament. Or hang it in a tree? Or carry it on her wrist? Who knows?!

The cage itself was trickier. I ended up using two stems of floral wire twisted around and then sewn into a fabric tube. I connected the stems by winding them around each other, going in between every intersection with random yarn, and then sewing over all of THAT with some more felt. That was sort of hard and complicated and messy.  And way more hand sewing than I generally do.

The final touch was a very fancy ornament hook that I happened to find at the bottom of our ornament box. Initially I was going to glue it on then I thought, eh, it’s okay if it moves around! If you pull up on it the bird is secured (if, for example, you are carrying the cage around or it’s hanging somewhere) but you can also pull it down to take out the bird. So it’s not too bad.

All in all I really liked this project. It’s pretty big, although I didn’t measure it, but I’d say around 5″ across. It would be fun to do some smaller versions for ornaments. It would also be fun to do a much bigger cage and more birds, maybe even with wire claws so they could hang onto various birdcage accoutrements. Of course I’ll probably never get around to that, but is fun to consider!

And then I finished another gift recently. This is a baby sweater for our neighbor who has a baby girl (plus two older boys around my boys’ ages). The picture is AWFUL (I don’t know why my pictures have been so horrible lately?) but the sweater is cute. You’ll have to trust me on that.

The pattern is the February Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann and the yarn is totally random stashed sock yarn. It took just over one skein. I’ve decided to start making more sock yarn projects because apparently it takes me a year to make a pair of socks and at that rate I have more than enough yarn for the next decade!!

ANYWAY. I screwed up a couple times. For one thing I put the buttonholes outside the button band. I know. Wha…?!? Rectified that by sewing the buttons into the buttonholes and crocheting tiny loops to go over then that were attached to the other side. I also completely and utterly inexplicably did the button band down the lace section as moss stitch. Why on earth did I do that? I have no idea. I hate moss stitch so evidently I subconsciously wanted to torture myself. As if knitting a garment out of sock yarn isn’t torture enough. And then I had to rip back the body once when I was quite close to being done because I realized I hadn’t added additional stitches under the armholes and that was why it was looking so small. Whoops.

So as it is, a project that should have taken at most a couple weeks has instead taken a month! I hope it fits, that’s all I can say.

There are a few other knitting projects coming down the pike.. my vest just needs buttons (although I’m fairly disappointed with it in general) and my tulips cardigan just needs to be sewn up. I’m on the yoke of Boo’s sweater and currently plotting hat and mitten projects for the boys. And a bigger baby sweater.. you know, in case that one doesn’t fit. Insert eyeroll here!

Well, this post is majorly late, but we did some cute, very preschooler-type crafts for Halloween this year and I wanted to document that. Better late than never!

First, Boo wanted to make some spiders, so we headed to the craft store for supplies, wherein I learned my boy is just as bad in a craft store as I am! That was a fun trip! So, the spiders:

These are, obviously, very, very simple to make. I twisted two chenille pipecleaners together for each of the legs and we glued on a big ole pompom with googly eyes for the head. Super fun, and these guys were ALL OVER the house! We even put glitter on some of them. Any excuse for glitter!

These were Boo’s versions made all by himself. One or two pipecleaners holding one pompom.  I was surprised how much even just THAT looked enough like spider!

Then we made these bats which were a project Boo did at preschool. He made one at school, came home and declared we had to make more. I wasn’t up for painting, so we covered our toilet paper rolls in felt. Worked just fine! Aren’t they great? Boo had his hanging upside with the wings wrapped around, which was cute. (But apparently I forgot to get a picture of. Oops!)

I got to have my first stab at making a Halloween costume this year too! Several months ago Boo requested a “caterpillar costume” as he’s a bit obsessed with caterpillars. Figuring that 1) we weren’t likely going to be able to find one of those and that 2) how hard could it be?, we set about making a costume. The same craft shop trip that procured the pompoms and pipcleaners produced the fabrics for this getup - he picked them out all by himself. He’s got an eye for the glam, no? This wasn’t initially Halloween related, but turned out to be finished just in time for said holiday!

It’s not obvious from the shot but I think the design is somewhat interesting. It’s basically a tube with a hood and a pocket for wings on the bag. The hood can be flipped up for “cocoon” mode as it covers Boo’s face. Then when he’s ready to be a butterfly he can reach back and grab the wings and pull them out. If I made any mistake on these it’s that the pocket on the back is too low. I think the wings would look better starting higher up. Well and then there are basic sewing errors like, oh, forgetting seam allowances for heming armholes and stuff like that. Whoops. No harm done though. Thankfully Boo loves his caterpillar costume!

(Incidently, the Bean’s costume was purchased because we didn’t already have one in that size, it was cheap, cute, and I couldn’t be arsed to come up with anything!)

Finally, the requisite pumpkins!

Best part of the pumpkins was Boo’s participation. I had him draw on his pumpkin with a dry erase marker (saw that tip on the internet — you can wipe it off!) and I thought he did an AWESOME job. We only had a tiny argument about why he couldn’t do the actual carving himself. His pumpkin is on the right, in case that’s not obvious :)

The funny thing about the kiddo being in school this year is that he’s suddenly WAY more into holiday stuff than ever before. I guess that’s a good thing as I usually need a swift kick in the ass to do much for the holidays. I’m generally a grinch. Halloween was really fun, though, and I’m already looking forward to next year!

We’re at our first official hand me down handknit! Witness the Robin Hood Jacket on two different children! The original:

And baby bro wearing the wool while camping this weekend:

It’s probably just me but I find this HILARIOUS! And happy. Very, very happy. Obviously they’re different sizes but since the Boo would only submit to wearing the sweater a couple times I decided to start in on the little guy early.

Course he’s already developing a flair for the dramatics, so we’ll see how long it lasts.

Incidently, I made one change to the sweater since I last talked about it, however many years ago that was. I crocheted along the back from shoulder to shoulder across the hood. It was way too stretchy and the top button wouldn’t stay buttoned. It’s much better now.

(Oh and yes, those are the same shoes too. I hang on to everything!)

ETA: Oops I realized that this isnt exactly true.. Bean has been wearing Boo’s soaker shorts for a while now. So this is the first hand me down sweater. So there.

Going through the latest Interweave Knits Fall 2009 and Knitscene magazines put a bee in my bonnet about knitting. This is a good thing since I missed doing it, but was entirely unmotivated due to feeling poorly. I still don’t feel great, but am doing better, so I’m back to knitting. Woo!

At first I was obsessing over the Alpaka Tunic from IK. (Incidently there are several patterns in there I love, like the Clasica Coat.) I think it’s adorable and would be a great maternity outfit. BUT the suggested yarn is a) hard to find, b) expensive, and c) too wooly as I’d want to wear this in the summer or just when I’m hot with the bun in the oven! Also it’s fairly unlikely I’d actually finish it before the baby was born. So that idea is on hold.

However along came the Heather Hoodie Vest from Knitscene, which gave me something else to obsess over! And fortunately I even have wool in my stash that works and I had no plans for. Woo! So I’m working on that:

Cute and functional, yes? See, I love my CPH, but I hardly wear it because it’s super wooly, which means super itchy, and I can only wear it over long sleeves. It’s pretty rare for me to need long sleeves AND a wooly sweater here in the winter, so for much of the year the sweater sits in the closet all lonely.

However, a short sleeve/vest sweater would be perfect! It will be much more versatile as I could put it over t-shirts or long sleeves. Also, I think my CPH is a smidge short so I can make this one longer. Yay! The yarn is Rowan Yorkshire Tweed, which is discontinued, but lovely nonetheless. Supposedly it’s Aran weight, but feels thicker to me. I’m modifying this pattern a little, but I’m sure I’ll write about those details later.

Now, I have two other projects I’m working on intermittently. These are some socks for Boo from yarn he picked out in Atlanta, gosh, two years ago? Three? Thought it was time to make them. The reason they aren’t done (because kid socks go pretty quickly) is that they are actually too small and I need to rip them out and make them a little bigger. I haven’t felt like it though, thus they sit. The yarn is Arauncania.

This is yet another Child’s Placket Neck Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. And yet more yarn from the stash! Go me. This sweater is for the Boo and uses, appropriately, yarn called Baby Boo, which was a sweet gift from my MIL because of the yarn’s name. It’s bamboo (unsurprisingly) and is lovely and soft. It’s slightly thinner than the recommended gauge so I’m actually knitting the 6 year old size for my nearly 5 year old, hoping it will fall somewhere in between. It’s looking a big large (the cuffs for the arms, not pictured as I only just started them, fit me. Hmm!) but oh well. Kids grow into things, right?

I’m also seaming up my kimono Tulips cardigan which may need to be lengthened, but that’s okay. I’ll use any spare yarn for that and that’ll be fine. That way I’ll use up every last morsel of yarn, which is pretty cool. I haven’t done much seaming because a) I’ve been obsessing over the hoodie vest and b) it takes a fair amount of time to sit and concentrate and my headaches haven’t been cooperating in that department. But I hope to finish it soon. It’s looking good.

I think that’s it for knitting at the moment! I have many more sewing projects in mind than knitting, but haven’t been sewing hardly at all. I’m not being terribly productive right now, but growing a baby takes a lot of energy!  Oh well. All in good time.

I started these felt balls waaaay back before Christmas for the Bean. I thought a color scheme of primary colored balls with their secondary counterparts wrapping around them sounded like a good idea.

They’re actually still not completely done. You can’t really tell from the picture (or, hey, maybe you can!) but the stripe part isn’t secured very well. It’s just needle felted on and while I intended to wet felt them again to get that stripe more flush with the ball itself, eh….. it hasn’t happened yet! Maybe they’ll finish felting through use. Who knows.

I can’t remember when I even got them to this point. May? June? Something like that! The colors aren’t entirely ideal either, but it’s what I had on hand. The yellow is alpaca r0ving and can I just say it’s rather a pain to felt? Probably would have been better to save for spinning. Oh well!

The Bean likes them well enough, but then he loves pretty much all balls. I think felt balls are a fantastic gift for 1 year olds though (and younger or older, for that matter). Good fun :)

This past year was the Boo’s first year in preschool. We were exceedingly lucky to land, completely by accident, at the school we did. We loved it, the Boo (most days) loved it, and his teachers were exceptional.

Combine that with my own inclination to make handmade gifts whenever possible (we did felted soaps for Christmas) and I was a bit stuck on what to make for end of year gifts. I truly wanted to thank his remarkable teachers for such a great year.

And then I remembered the embroidery ideas from The Creative Family. Although I didn’t go about it the same way, I love the idea of embroidering a child’s drawings. Since the Boo has become such a prolific artist this year, thanks in no small part to his school and teachers, I thought it would be cool to do something like that. But what can you put embroidery on? Pilllows would be odd.

And then I saw this adorable apple fabric and it all fell in place. Tote bags! With embroidery! Too cute and hopefully a useful gift for teachers, right? So here they are:

I have to admit I’m smitten with these. Love, love, love.   Thank goodness there is fabric left over because I want one! A little birdie told me my nieces would like two as well :)

I knew they would be fairly easy to make because, come on, they’re tote bags. However turns out all the patterns I have call for home decor weight fabric. Oops. I have quilting weight. So I had to research how to buff up lightweight fabrics. I had to order linen for the embroidery (well I suppose I didn’t have to, but I wanted to) which I also used for the handles.

I based this bag loosely on the bag in Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing book, but then turned to Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts for lining help. The dimensions were similar between the bags. (Er, I think. It’s been a rough week.)

I ended up interfacing the bag with plain old flannel. I believe I picked up that trick from Amy Karol but I’m not entirely sure. I thought about iron-on but I’m never convinced of the durability of that stuff. They have a wonderful heft and I’m not at all worried about the fabric ripping any time soon.

I actually have pictures of the inside fabric (polka dots and one Amy Butler print) and closeups of the finished embroidery but I haven’t uploaded them off my phone yet! I figured I should post while I had the time instead of waiting even longer.

At any rate, I do have a very early picture (uploaded to facebook!) when I just started doing the embroidery. This is actually my first ever embroidery so I’m very proud! I spent some time reading my embroidery books too. The bee is done here and the snail/slug picture is in progress. The other picture on the finished bags is a butterfly. Boo is very proud of these because they were drawn without stencils.

Also? I got to use my grandmother’s hoops. Yay for that too.

I rediscovered how much I enjoy sewing with these but how much I dislike sewing on a deadline. I also dislike the prep work. Washing fabric, drying fabric, ironing fabric, cutting fabric (which I’m very bad at), pinning fabric, finally getting to sew fabric but then stopping to press it again! Argh. I ended up only pressing down the seams along the top because I couldn’t figure out HOW to press the seams on the inside without putting creases in the bags. Boggle.

Hmm what else. I wanted to sew and then top-stitch the tops but I couldn’t figure out where to put the handles, so I ended up just top-stitching. Hope they hold up!

In any case. I loved this project and I think Boo’s teachers were genuinely touched. I do have to say these might have been more work than one would normally put into teachers gifts, although they certainly didn’t cost more. We would have spent more on gift certificates, which seems to be the default gift these days. Now whether or not the teachers would have preferred gift certificates is another question! Perhaps. But I do hope they liked them and that they’ll remember the Boo at least a little.  They made an indelible impact on his young life and I am forever grateful for their compassion, patience, and understanding as we navigated this very new stage of life for the Boo. I will miss them very much as we’re going to a different school next year.

Anna, Anne and Laura, you all are the best!