I’m covering all my holiday bases these days_ making Christmas presents that look more appropriate for Thanksgiving, and getting ready for Halloween. (My husband is on a similarly scrambled schedule _ the AP test kitchen has been testing turkey recipes this week, along with Christmas cookies).

First, I decided that I’m just not up for sewing more Barbie clothes for my niece. I’m going to make her a bunch of polymer clay food for her dollhouse instead, since I have a lot of clay leftover from making the polymer clay food charms from years past. Those charms were a bit larger than what I gather is the 1:12 scale used for dollhouses, so I searched online and found a ton of tutorials (many on YouTube) on how to make various dollhouse food items.

My first project was this Thanksgiving turkey. (I should have added a coin for reference. The platter is about 1.5″ long)

And some bread, using this tutorial by Betsy Niederer. (Mine looks pretty good, but hers are AMAZING).

And a few donuts. These were kind of rushed, so I want to make some more and do a better job with the chocolate glaze, and add some sprinkles, etc. I made the box with my Silhouette machine, just shrinking down one of the box patterns and setting the cut settings very low, so the cardstock was just scored instead of cut.

I made a turkey for my son, as well, and he quickly appropriated the bread and donuts for his “cat tree house.” I’ll definitely have to make him more. Just these few items were enough to spur several hours worth of quiet play! We made little plates out of silver cardstock and set up a rather fancy feast for all his little cat figures.

As for Halloween… I started making Parker’s mummy costume by ripping up some muslin into strips and tea dyeing it. My plan is to sew the strips to sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Though yesterday he informed me that he does not want to go to his school party because he’s worried the kids will think he’s wearing toilet paper. Sigh.

I was happy to see that Sweet Pea and Pumkins was hosting a sew-a-long to make the Traveler Dress from the Sew Lisette pattern line, since I bought the pattern ages ago when it was on sale, along with the fabric. Even though I didn’t keep up with the sew-a-long, it still motivated me to actually make my dress, and now I just wish I had done so sooner. Cold weather has arrived, and I think this week was probably the only time I could wear it with bare legs… time to shop around for some cute boots!

I really love this dress, even though I somehow managed to get the lower pockets a bit uneven (or maybe my hips are uneven?) I made a mistake with the pockets when doing the initial pressing and sewing but I ended up liking how they came out. My only complaint is that there is a bit of excess fabric around the waist, mostly in the back. So I’m debating whether to take in the sides a bit or try to add darts to the back. I made a size 8, because while the Sew Lisette Market top I made earlier in the summer fits well, it does feel a bit tight in the arms in a size 6. The top part of this dress is just right.

My birthday was Tuesday, but I won’t get to see my twin sister until today, so I’m extending the celebration a bit. For part of her gift, I made her an infinity scarf using the ruffled scarf tutorial by Terra at Mama Says Sew, with a few modifications. The fabric is some kind of jersey knit that I got in the remnant bin at Jo-Ann’s.

I tried and tried to create the wavy “lettuce edge” using my serger (a very old one I bought at a yard sale a while back), but no matter what I tried, it would not work. The tutorial above calls for just using a regular sewing machine. You put two long strips of fabric together and sew along the long sides using a zigzag stitch and stretching the fabric as you go to get the wavy lettuce edge. That’s how I did one edge of the scarf, but I wasn’t thrilled with how I ended with either little bits messy thread where I let the stitch veer too far off the edge, or excess fabric where I didn’t go close enough.

Like this:

For the other long edge, I tried something slightly different, and I like it a lot better. I folded the bottom fabric around the edge of the top fabric (which was easy to do without pinning because the fabric wants to curl anyway), and then zigzagged (using a very tight satin stitch) over that, so the stitch covered up the raw edge. So what I ended up with was a nice, smooth, folded edge held down by a satin stitch. It makes the edge a bit bulkier, but I like how it turned out. The only trouble I had was making sure I was pulling from the front of the fabric and back of the fabric with equal pressure… if you pull too hard from the back, you won’t get nice, satin stitches.

That’s better:

To connect the two ends of the scarf to make one big tube/ring, the tutorial calls for hand-sewing. Instead, I used the same technique I used in making the dozens and dozens of fleece neck gaiters I made last Christmas, which is much quicker.

I’m definitely going to make a ruffled scarf for myself, and maybe more for Christmas gifts. They are not quite as quick as the fleece neck gaiters because you have to sew pretty slow to keep the fabric stretched, but really, it is just two long seams.

I’m linking this post to the “Pin-Did Challenge” at The Modern Marigold. She’s challenging readers to actually make something they’ve pinned on Pinterest each week.

In addition to his main blog and his Food Network blog posts, my husband also has a blog featuring a photo what he packs our son for lunch every day.  Granted, he does not have much time for food styling and photography, but I’ve long felt the photos could be better, so I decided to make him a light box/tent. I used this tutorial, but instead of using fabric to cover the sides, I used the same translucent drafting paper I used to make the light sabers for my son’s recent party. Unfortunately, the box turned out to be too small to hold the lunch box and accessories, so I’ll have to make him another one.

In the meantime, I tried out the smaller version on this Puzzle Ball I made from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. This will be a gift for a friend’s soon-to-be-born baby boy. This picture was taken at night, with no flash, and with two lights (cheap clip-on lights from IKEA) pointed at either side of the box. I adjusted the white balance in Photoshop, but otherwise, it looked pretty good!

 The directions call for using two fabrics, but I decided to use one solid and four prints. This made it a bit of a challenge to figure out how to put the ball together without the same fabrics touching each other (I think had I used just 3 prints, it would’ve been much easier). I ended up using this tutorial to put the ball together because it seemed easier, and it allows the ball to actually be taken apart in three sections like a puzzle.

(these photos were taken before I had my fancy new light tent!)

Unfortunately, in the last few days something has gone wrong with  my camera. I have an old (2003?) Canon Digital Rebel that I bought from my mom years ago, and it might finally be done. I just ordered a new battery in case there is some slim chance that the problem is old batteries, but I’m not hopeful. Urgh.

Via the random number generator at random.org, the winner of the Autumn with Matthew Mead book-a-zine is #7, Dana.

Please send me your address, Dana, so I can get your prize to you. (hramerh (at) gmail (dot) com)

I realized in my recent post about my son’s birthday, I forgot to include a shot of the shirt I made for him, using my Silhouette machine and fabric paint. I used an image from a Star Wars LEGO instructions manual and tweaked it in Photoshop to simplify it to a basic black-and-white poster-like image, and cut it out of vinyl, which I then stuck to the shirt and used as a stencil. Instead of removing all the little excess bits of vinyl before sticking it on the shirt, I transferred the whole thing to the shirt and then peeled off the parts I didn’t want. The only problem I had was that I mixed black and white fabric paint to make gray, but the only white paint I had was a “velveteen” type.  It looked great, but then, because apparently I can’t leave well enough alone, I decided to iron it from the back to heat-set the paint  (even though the directions don’t call for it). Well, that made the paint puff up and obscure some of the design. But now that it’s gone through the wash, I kind of like the grungy look.

We’ve been enjoying some warm weather here, so I’ve been in denial a bit that summer has ended. But, I do love fall in New England! (I just wish it lasted longer. Snow for Halloween is not unheard of.)

Here’s something that will get you in the right frame of mind for fall: Autumn with Matthew Mead.

Matthew was nice enough to give me an extra copy of his new book-a-zine to give away here. I’m still going through my copy, but I already know I will be making some of the yummy autumn cocktail recipes!

Just leave a comment here for a chance to win. I’ll pick a winner on Friday morning.

I’m still in disbelief that I am the mother of a 7-year-old second-grader. I think part of it stems from the fact that I am helping to plan my 20th high school reunion, and the person who is leading the effort was my best friend in second grade. So I’ve been remembering all the fun we had, and it doesn’t seem possible that my child is already making those kinds of memories.

Parker originally wanted to have a LEGO Star Wars-themed sleep-over party, with just two friends. He then changed his mind, so we said he could invite a few more friends just for an afternoon. And then two friends asked if they could bring siblings, so altogether we had eight kids.

First, the invitations: (altered a bit to remove our real address etc)

I scanned the instruction manual from a LEGO set to make this invitation, but later realized you can dowload PDFs of many different manuals from the LEGO website, so I could’ve saved myself a step. Using Photoshop, I created the “Parker Seven Years” piece to match the LEGO Star Wars logo. I can’t find where I got the LEGO-like font, but here is one that appears to be close or the same.

I looked at one of my son’s LEGO boxes to mimic the words on the left-hand side, which specify the age-range, how many pieces, etc, and replaced it with the date of the party, location, etc.

I might have gotten a little carried away with the goodie bags. I made personalized drawstring bags, using my Silhouette machine to cut out the iron-on letters. For the boys, I used a free font called Star Jedi for the letters, and a free dingbat font called Famous Spaceships for the tie fighter silhouette.  

Inside, I put a small bag of LEGOs (we bought Parker a few used Star Wars LEGO sets from eBay, and they came with a large bag of random pieces), a box of crayons and personalized stickers. I made the crayon boxes using the image from invitation, and after some trial-and-error, printed and cut them out using my Silhouette. Once I figured it out, it was pretty amazing to just fold up the boxes (the Silhouette cuts dashed lines for fold lines, so you don’t even have to score the sides, etc.) and glue them together.

I also used the Silhouette to make the stickers.  The mini-fig images are from a downloadable poster at the LEGO website. I opened the poster in Photoshop, and then cut and pasted each image into a new document, and then (just to make things more complicated) re-colored the backgrounds. (Actually very easy, just use the ‘magic wand’ tool to select the background and either fill with a new color or adjust the hue/saturation). I printed them on full-sheet labels and used the Silhouette to cut around each sticker (but not through the label backing). The only downside to this method is that with the Silhouette, there are wide areas around the margins of the paper where you can’t place images to print and cut, so it does waste some of the label sheets. But, the end result is pretty impressive. I see a lot more sticker-making in my future!

When the guests arrived, we sent them to find their bags, which we had hidden around the yard. They then sat at our big outdoor table, and we told them their mission was to build a spaceship using every piece of LEGOs in their bags. This proved to be more involved than we anticipated. Quite a bit of time went by and they were all still quietly working away. In fact, we had to stop them because the pizza we ordered for lunch arrived.

After lunch, we gave them handmade light sabers. I had seen all the pool-noodle variations on other blogs, but I really wanted something that would light up. (which turned out to be kind of dumb, since it was so bright and sunny that you couldn’t tell these lit up at all! But they are really cool at night.)



Here are the basic supplies I used: small flashlights, some kind of thick translucent paper (drafting film?), clear packing tape, silver duct tape, colored transparent file folder dividers.

You’ll notice I have two different kinds of flashlights. The smaller, silver flashlight on the left is an LED flashlight. I found a pack of four of them at Home Depot more than a month before the party for about $5, and was thrilled. (at the time, I was anticipating only having to make 3 light sabers). By the time the guest list had expanded, Hurricane Irene had happened, and thus both Home Depot and Lowes had almost no flashlights left, except super-exepensive versions.

I finally found the larger flashlights on the right at Walmart, I think for about $3 each, the night before the party.

The first step was cutting a circle out of the file folder divider and taping it over the top of the flashlight lens, to make the light beam take on a slight color. Next, roll up a piece of vellum/drafting film, tape it together with a long piece of packing tape and then tape the tube to the flashlight.

The translucent paper I used was in an 18X24 sheet. My father-in-law gave me a whole stack of it when his office closed years ago and it has been sitting under my bed, waiting for the right project! After some experimentation with size, I determined that rolling a 6X18″ inch piece lengthwise made for a sturdy-enough tube that was still translucent enough to let the light shine through.

I found it easiest to roll the paper into a tube roughly the diameter I wanted, and then check it against the flashlight, rather than try to roll it around the edge of the flashlight. To reduce the wrinkles in the tape, I cut a long piece of tape, rolled up the tube, placed one long edge of the tape on the loose edge of the paper and then sort of rolled the whole thing gently on the counter to get the tape to stick the rest of the way. (that probably makes no sense, but basically: don’t try to smooth the tape out with your hands, place it gently in place and then roll the tube on the counter to get it to stick).

Once the tube was securely taped to the flashlight, I covered the handle and a few inches of the paper with the silver duct tape. In retrospect, I should’ve covered the bottom few inches of the paper tube with packing tape as well for extra stability.

Unlike this picture above (which was taken AFTER the party), I did not want the kids to be bashing each other with the light sabers because I was afraid the paper tubes would bend and I didn’t want them to possibly get paper cuts from the edge of the tubes. (I was imagining someone getting poked in the eye). So, we bought a bunch of helium balloons, anchored to the ground with rocks and ribbon, and let the kids loose to battle the “droid army” in the back yard.

That proved to be great fun, though the boys were quite a bit rougher than I expected (I’m sure my husband was not at all surprised), and several balloons were quickly popped and several light sabers bent. I brought out the duct tape, though and did some quick repairs.

Two days before the party, I read this list of classic party games at One Charming Party, and immediately decided I would do the “hot potato present opening” game. One of my party pet peeves is the feeding frenzy that happens when kids crowd around the birthday boy or girl. I know, I know, it is human nature and they’re just excited, but I didn’t want to have to spend time nagging them to move back, etc. So, I had the kids sit in a circle, and we played “Pass C3PO.” I downloaded the Star Wars theme music, and when the music stopped, whoever was holding C3PO got to give Parker his gift.

The cake. Finally, the cake. This is my food editor husband’s job every year, and every year, he does not disappoint.

This is a clone trooper helmet, made by photocopying and enlarging an image and using that to cut out the shapes. The base layer is a yellow cake, and the parts that protrude from that are made from brownies. The entire thing is covered in fondant.

I’ve been a terrible blogger lately, in large part because we recently bought a very dilapidated summer cabin on a pond, and have spending every spare moment on not-very-fun DIY projects. But, the transformation has been amazing. In the first nine days, we went from this: (well, most of the furniture and stuff had been removed by the time we got it, but still…)

To this:

Can you believe that floor was hiding under old linoleum and carpet? We just cleaned it well and polyurethaned it.

And, we have my son’s 7th birthday party coming up on Saturday, so I am scrambling to get all my little crafty projects done for that.  I hope to have lots to share next week, including a give-away, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, I was at Petco this week _ and was startled to see Martha Stewart products.  For a second, I thought maybe she had branched out to craft supplies for pets. I wasn’t so much surpised by the  by the plush doggie beds, etc… but by this:

REALLY? Martha Stewart brand dog waste bags?
Though I guess I should not poke fun. I was there to buy a cat pheremone diffuser. Yes. It’s like a plug-in air freshener, except it emits cat pheremones. We’re having a little issue with our blind cat, Tangerine, not using her litterbox. (Nothing to do with her being blind… she used it without trouble for the first six months we had her.) Her vet recommended this diffuser, which is supposed to calm your cats and get them to use their litterboxes. We’ll see.
Good thing she’s so cute. (with her belly shaved for her inconclusive-yet-expensive ultrasound, trying to stowaway in a bag of clothes I was taking to the camp)

I recently wrote an article for AP about Liesl Gibson and her book, “Oliver + S: Little Things to Sew,” featuring the bucket hat I’ve made a few times this summer. Liesl was extremely nice and very interesting to talk to. Here’s a link to my story, which includes a link to download the hat pattern and instructions:
AP article: Oliver + S Bucket Hats

And here are some photos of the hats I made to go with the story. That’s my adorable niece modeling for me. The blue hat reverses to the blue spaceship print, the green reverses to the orange robot print and the yellow reverses to the red and white hippo print. For the yellow/red version, I pressed a bit of the yellow lining to the outside edge of the brim and it sort of looks like piping. Of course, that means the yellow lining is a bit skewed, but that might be something worth trying again, maybe making the lining brim piece a bit bigger so it could wrap around to the front.

I made this kitty from the Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Toys to Sew and Love book, with some modifications, for my cousin’s baby, due to arrive in September. That white (actually pale, pale green) piece on the face is supposed to be the top of the head, and the eyes and nose are supposed to be placed much lower. But when I did that, it just looked weird. Like an alien, actually. (It doesn’t help that the pattern calls for much larger, almond shaped eyes). Maybe I stretched the head out when stuffing it, or sewed it on at a weird angle. My original eyes were gray and blue. My husband suggested that it needed some white. When I pointed out that cats’ eyes don’t have white, he reasonably enough pointed out that real cats don’t wear dresses either. Such a stickler!
So, I ripped everything off, sewed the head on at a slightly different angle and made the point of the white fabric the center of the face. I think she’s quite cute!

While I had the pattern out, I cut out pieces to make a second kitty, though I’m not sure I like it enough to finish. But, I did try a different way of attaching and stuffing the limbs. The book calls for making all the limbs, stuffing them, and then hand-sewing them to the body. I find that very cumbersome, and I worry that they won’t hold up to a kid yanking on them. I have a Simplicity baby doll pattern that I’ve used a bunch of times to make stuffed animals, (including the famous Huckle) and it calls for this technique:
Make the limbs, leaving the tops open, and a 1-2 inch section open along one side for stuffing later. Turn them right-side-out. Baste the arms to right side of the belly/front piece.

Pin the back piece, right side down, onto the front piece (if the body is big enough, you can do the legs at the same time in the previous step, but since this pattern had a small body and large limbs, I did it in two stages). Sew along each side of the body, leaving the top (neck) and bottom (where the legs will go) open.

Pull the ends of the arms through the neck to give yourself a bit more room in between the body pieces. Pin tops of the legs to the bottom of the belly piece, with the legs pointing into the body, in between the belly and back pieces. Sew across the bottom.

Pull everything through the neck, and Voila! the limbs are securely sewed onto the body. You can then stuff them and the only hand-sewing needed is to close up the small openings in the side seams.
(You still have to sew the head on by hand).