A month of crafting

So, it seems that I have been on a serious crafting binge lately.  I've made paper projects, fabric projects (mostly fabric, truth be told!) and any number of yarn and needlecraft items as well.  So I figured, why not see how many I can do, and post about, for one month.  of course, this thought only just hit me today, but believe me, I have enough projects to cover the nine days I haven't written about, and I can pretty much say that most, if not all of them were made on the day that I post them to!  So I will do one post with pictures of the past 8 days projects as well as today's, and then I will post each day after that.  If I forget a day, of course I will post them together. Now if I could just figure out how to post pictures without having to upload them to a separate site first...  :)  Well, here goes, time to try!  :)

These shirts were made for our "summer camp" that we've been trying to do with our neighbours.  Since we both have animal-like last names (ours is canine, hers is bird-like) we decided to go with Camp Paws and Claws as our "camp" name!  :)  These were SUPPOSE to be made before school got out, but...  Well, suffice it to say, it didn't happen until the first of July!  lol  So here are the shirt fronts, since each kid decorated their own backs all by themselves.  :)

Wee E wearing our very own "summer camp" shirts.

Wee Miss V wearing her "summer camp" shirt.  :)

So then I joined a page on FB and found a pattern for a crocheted flower headband.  Well, the headband was all well and good, but personally, I thought it would look much better as a necklace.  So I tweaked the pattern a bit (mostly in my head, cuz I'm just that good, lol) and came up with this!  A crocheted flower necklace!

Wee Miss V wearing her new choker.  She LOVES it!

Closer view of the flower and the button in the center of it.

Back clasp.  Thinking I might try to make it so that the clasp is the center of the flower on the next one.

So I made this necklace (and a similar bracelet that has since been lost, probably for good, lol) on 2, July, so I think that definitely qualifies as my Day Two project!  :)  I also helped Wee Miss V and Wee E make pillows for themselves, but since I didn't make them, I can't really put them in as a project that I did, can I?  So this is the only thing I have for Day Two, but that's better than nothing, right?  :)

Day three was a busy day, because I/ we made a bunch of stuff!  I made a top for the Wee Miss V, (idea garnered from a tutorial for a dress on this blog), I helped the kids make hand print shirts for Independence Day (found on the Family Fun website), and the three of us made a bunch of felt and fabric flowers, which I made following the tutorial on this wonderful blog.  I also made a paper flag bunting that I downloaded and printed from here, but I can't remember if I finished it on the 3rd or the 4th, so I'll leave THAT one as a day 4 project.  But there were SOOO many of them, it's difficult to remember!  lol  So here are the pictures of my day 3 projects!

"Pillowcase" top made from two large handkerchiefs.  :)

I really love the look of this top.  I had intended for it to be a dress, but it simply wasn't long enough, and I didn't have any coordinating fabric to add a ruffle to the bottom and make it longer!  Ah well, that will have to be for another time!  :)

Wee Miss V's hand print eagle shirt.  She had a BLAST making it.  :)

Wee E in his hand print shirt.  Despite the face, he really enjoyed making it!  :)

The kids had so much fun making these shirts, even rushing to the sink to wash their hands had them giggling insanely.  We had some issues with the "wing" colour, but managed to figure it out in the end, thankfully!  :)

Felt roses, one felt layered flower, and one fabric "wrap and twist" rose.

I love making these, I really do!  The layered flowers, not so much, but the rolled roses and the "wrap and twist" rose were FUN!  I will definitely make more of them as time goes on, most likely for wreaths and such throughout the year!  :)  And for hair bows, and brooches, and, and, and I don't know what else, but they really are fun to make!  :D


So now on to my "Day Four" projects!  I actually didn't do much on the 4th, in fact, I'm pretty sure that this wonderful paper bunting was the only thing I actually made on 4, July!  lol  So here it is, and it really WAS fun to make!  :)

Patriotic paper flag bunting strung on a shelf.

This bunting was so simple to make, I think the only thing that I had to provide myself was the twine upon which it is strung.  It didn't take THAT long to make, and looks so nice hung up there, don't you think?  :)

Day 5 wasn't that big a day either, all I really made was more of the rolled felt flowers and I made a dish cloth for my neighbour.  She liked it, but it really wasn't that much, and I don't have any pics of that stuff.  Ah well, it happens, right?  lol

Day 6 was another easy day, just more of the felt flowers and another pillowcase top that I made for Wee Miss V, since I happened to have two lovely lavendar handkerchiefs hanging about.

Lavendar pillowcase top.  I think I really love this way of making summer tops!

Have I mentioned that I really, REALLY love this simple and easy way of making tops?  Seriously, you cut the arm spaces (not all that difficult), sew the sides together under the arm holes, either use bias tape (of which I am unfortunately out) to seal the arm holes, or just kinda wing it (which is what I did) and try your best to hem the arm holes without making it look like you made the top drunk.  Then sew a channel along the top for the ribbon, or whatever you plan to use for tying the top on, and viola!  You're done!

So day 7 was suppose to be a big day, but in the end all I managed to make was a skirt for Wee Miss V.  It was a pattern I had never tried before, complete with in-seam POCKETS, which I have NEVER tried before, and kinda scared me, truth be told.  But it turned out really nice, and I'm definitely making her at least one more like it.  :)  Actually, I started the circle skirt I made on the 6th this same night, but since I didn't have a child to try it on at 1am, I wasn't able to finish it until the next morning.  lol

Floral-print sheath skirt with in-seam pockets.

I really like this skirt, it was so simple and almost painless!  The blogger who posted the tutorial for it really made it seem do-able, so I figured it couldn't hurt to try it, and if it didn't work, no big loss, right?  Well it DID work, spectacularly at that, and I am VERY happy with the result!  I'm even thinking that I could possibly modify it ever so slightly to make it a skort, so that Wee Miss V doesn't have to worry about flashing the world when she plays, cuz she LOVES wearing skirts!

In fact, she loves wearing skirts so much, that my day 8 project was another skirt, this time a circle skirt, the tutorial for which I found here.  Of course, I modified it, because I don't particularly like the look of exposed elastic, to include a top waistband into which the elastic is inserted and covered, making it that much easier on me.  :D

Pink sparkly Jolly Roger circle skirt.

 Wee Miss V absolutely LOVES this skirt, mainly because she adores this fabric.  I love it because it really was that simple.  The only "difficult" part was having to call my mother to figure out how to finish off the hem, which in the end I just lettuce-leafed and let it be with that.  I think I'm completely in love with that method of hem finishing, it's SOOO pretty!  lol

So for day9, which is today in fact, I mostly tried to teach each of the Wee Ones how to sew by hand, which they actually didn't do too bad at.  But I also made a belt for Wee Miss V, out of that lovely floral print fabric, and I didn't use a pattern for it, I just kinda made it up as I went along.  Not the brightest idea on the planet, but hey, it works for me!  lol

Eventually I hope to add a small clasp to one end, so that she doesn't have to tie it around her waist, but for now, she enjoys it the way it is.  And yes, that IS the same shirt she was wearing yesterday, it is one of her favourites because it's from her absolute favourite movie!  :D

And so that's it from 1, July to now, YAY!  Okay, so I might have skipped a day, but hey, I think I did pretty good!  Now I just have to search the web and come up with something to make for tomorrow, and each day after that, cuz I highly doubt that anyone wants to see pictures of the same projects over and over again!  :)