tiny embroideries.

it's pretty obvious on this blog that i like thrift storing (it's even a verb in the sharp house). it may be a problem. evidence of this is the fact that i bought fourteen tiny embroidery hoops. i couldn't help it.

so, what was i do to besides make tiny embroideries?

it's such a quick and satisfying project, perfect for short road trips or lazy evenings. these hoops are around four inches in diameter (i'm estimating here because i'm too lazy to get up off the couch and measure one), so they're quite tiny.

i think it's funny that i embroidered two sentiments that are often at odds with one another in my life--wanderlust and contentment. i try not to psychoanalyze my crafts too much though...

this is actually a pretty old project. maybe by posting this i'll motivate myself to do something with the other twelve. probably not though.

these two actually ended up accompanying twenty-three other tiny objects to arizona as an advent gift. any ideas for the rest of them?

lumberjack vest.

i maybe have a slight case of the sewing bug. ever since the tiny backpack, i can't seem to control myself. i'm super excited about my latest make.

it's a tiny lumberjack vest! and i sewed it with my own two hands! (oh, and that sewing machine thing.) and what's even more awesome is that i made it from scratch, without a pattern, like a magician! a sewing magician!

it was thrilling. the whole time i was pretty sure i was going to end up with a useless pile of flannel and sherpa. but, somehow, in the end, i ended up with something that is actually wearable. and pretty freaking adorable.

i based my 'pattern' (if you can even call it that) for the front an back pieces off of margot's coat. then there was a lot of head scratching and bad math to figure out how to create all of the various pieces.

and this is what i came out with, a confusing pile of made by me news print pattern pieces. since i'm a glutton for punishment, i decided to add piping to the front and back. this made for roughly twice as many pieces, since the lining had to have a separate pattern. the piping was almost my demise with this vest, but i couldn't help myself. it just adds so much awesomeness.

the construction was like putting together a three-d puzzle (one of my favorite childhood activities). i relied heavily on these two tutorials to figure out the order of operations for everything. i still can't believe i ended up with something that actually looks like clothes.

for the flannel i used a thrifted men's shirt. about halfway through, i was really regretting the flannel. i didn't pay enough attention to pattern matching, and the misalignments were kind of driving me batty. the mess was made even worse by the piping, which also didn't line up right on the first try. i ended up remaking one of the front panels, which corrected the worst of the alignment problems and kept me from throwing the whole project in the bin. the misalignments are also much less noticeable when it's being worn by a super cute tiny lumberjack poking a wicker rabbit in the eye (she's super into poking things in the eye right now).

the vest is super warm, for all of the lumberjacking margot will be doing in it. the outside layer is quilted with some polyester batting and then it's lined with some sherpa-y fabric. cozy. 

the back shot still makes me cringe a bit. oh pattern matching woes. i made sure the vertical red strip ran straight down the middle, but i guess because it's old flannel, it's not square. so even though the red stripe is where i wanted it, the horizontal stripes are not horizontal. the addition of the piping makes that fact super obvious. and since i harvest a shirt for the fabric, i didn't have enough to redo it. live and learn.

margot doesn't seem to care about these silly problems. she is mostly concerned with adventuring, and the vest is perfect for adventuring. so far it's climbed that foot stool, explored the science center, pet a goat, and gone down the slide roughly eight hundred twenty seven times at the park. 

so, there you go. i made a vest. i still can't believe it--a real piece of clothing with a zipper and everything. i kind of want to make another one, just to be sure it wasn't a fluke. i also kind of want to add a hood and some pockets. soooo, if you're interested in making one, let me know. i can try again and try to make a sewing tutorial (it'll probably be terrible and impossible to follow, so you've been warned). or we can skip all of that and you could just wing it too, and let me know how it goes. i feel like it will be awesome. happy sewing!

more tiny shoes.

i made ridiculous shoe laces for tiny shoes, and i'm not sure how i feel about them. 

i found these off white canvas shoes at the thrift store for a dollar fifty-nine. originally, i figured i would just draw on them like the kitty shoes, but before i did that, i decided to try my hand a shoe lace making.

i can't even really call them shoe laces. more like sewn tubes of fabric. i didn't do anything special on the ends, which kind of makes them hard to lace up. i wasn't feeling that committed though.

i don't have any margot in action shots. they're a size six and a half (i didn't even know baby shoes had half sizes!), so they're still more than two sizes too big. they stayed on her feet for about thirty seconds.

i'm not sold on them yet. i think they may be a bit to 'boston celtics' for me (although i think lucas would think that's pretty swell). i may try sewing the tubes in half again...maybe narrower laces would look better on tiny shoes...

so, what are your thoughts? are the laces awesome, or  should i stick with the white laces and draw on them? i was thinking maybe an aztechy (yeah, it's a word) pattern of black triangles. or maybe just coloring the trim and in between the double stitching with highlighter yellow? or maybe go craaaazzy and do the black triangles and the yellow trim (i know, i'm a rebel like that).

hot chocolate.

i like getting mail. not bills or junk or anything like that but real life mail. letters and packages and the such. i also like sending mail. not the part that involves going to the post office and waiting in line but the fun part where you find things that remind you of people far away and pack them up with ridiculously unnecessary attention to detail.

one of my favorite people (hey lilly!) decided to live in arizona, because she's lame. since i like her though, i from time to time send her things. for christmas this year, i sent her twenty-five tiny advent gifts (which i think didn't get there until halfway through december). two of those twenty-five tiny items were these tins of hot chocolate for two.

i used leftover tins from my spice rack project. they were the perfect size for two servings worth of hot chocolate.

the labels were made by me in inkscape (print your own!) and the hot chocolate mix was store bought (the peppermint is from trader joe's. not sure about the hazelnut). they got packaged up with twenty-three other gifts and flown off to arizona, where i'm not sure it ever gets to be hot chocolate weather.

even on their own, these tiny tins make the perfect just because gift. just because mondays are the worst, just because you totally rocked that super big presentation, just because chocolate fixes everything including sickness, heartbreak and car troubles (ok, maybe not really car troubles). whatever the reason, make some. send some. who doesn't need some winter warmth right now?

tiny backpack.

i made a tiny backpack!

and it's probably the cutest thing ever. the super cute model helps too.

i used made by rae's amazing toddler backpack pattern. it was a super fun sew. definitely the most complicated thing i've ever sewn,  full of new adventures---first time sewing a zipper, first time using piping, first time using interfacing, first time lining a bag...

i'm super stoked with how it turned out. and i finally found the perfect use for the geometric woodland spoonflower fabric i designed! i was able to do the front and back panel from only a fat quarter. the red polka dot fabric, the lining fabric, and all of the extra bits came from jo ann's.

i can't stop gushing over it and all of its ridiculously tiny, real-people backpack details--like the adjustable straps and that tiny handle. total pattern brilliance.

it even has a quilted bottom! i had fun here with some contrasting thread and a snazzy decorative stitch.

i also lined it and added an inside pocket, because i'm basically a sucker. the pattern called for the lining to be made separately, but i opted for a sandwich type construction and then bias bound the seams (another first!). i didn't really know what i was doing here, but i winged it and it turned out ok.

margot loooooves it. like giggles endlessly when you put it on her and throws a tantrum when you have to take it off. such joy makes a maker mom beam.

since margot is still pretty tiny, i scaled it down by thirteen percent. seems like random number, i know but i wanted to still use a standard sized zipper. at eighty-seven percent i could use a twelve inch rather than a fourteen inch zipper. hooray math!

i will definitely be making another one of these. it's such a great pattern--easy to follow and interesting enough that you feel like some kind of sewing super hero when you complete it (well, at least i did). next time i'll definitely do a better job with the bias bound seams in the lining and i'll figure out how to use interfacing better so that it's less wrinkly (any advice there?). i'll also try to remember to include the side pockets that i made and then left on the table...live and learn.

ooh, and now you can follow my blog with bloglovin (a little late on the bandwagon, i know).

christmastime.

i always have grand plans of being a great blogger during the holidays--posting ideas for diy christmas gifts, sharing perfectly staged photos of delicious cookies, decking the halls and sharing it with the interweb masses--but then a time warp hits and the year skips from thanksgiving to new years.

so, since no coherent post can be made from the whirlwind that is christmastime, i present you with this random look.

to begin this journey of negligence, i present you a trio of garlands, never blogged about. (i may have a slight garland problem.)

these paint dipped pine cones were made three christmases ago, when paint dipping things was all the rage.

last christmas i made these over-sized, bulky yarn pom poms. they're super squashy, though a bit worse for the wear after a lot of margot playing.

and this year's i think is my favorite. the touch of neon yellow in this wooden bead garland makes me smile every time. i think this one will stay up well past christmas.

continuing on in the theme of decked halls, this little corner of the world makes me happy. those christmas trees were one of my very first blog posts five years ago!

coincidentally, this picture also features a houseplant and a set of gnome salt and pepper shakers. (i may also have a slight salt and pepper shaker problem.)

i maybe spent way too much time making yarn tassels and pom poms for present wrapping. and since they matched, i couldn't resist adding these ridiculous knitted caterpillars to the mix.

and lastly, this felt christmas tree was a big hit this year. a diy craft that takes less than thirty minutes, costs about two dollars and keeps a fifteen month old occupied is definitely a winner in my book.

so, there you have it, photographic evidence that christmas twenty-fourteen did happen. as always, i wish i got pictures of more things (i sense a new years resolution in the making).

so how was your holidays? any super awesome crafts, decor or recipes that didn't quite make their way to blog-land?