Stitch-Craft

Month: January 2010

  • Handmade Mini Treehouse

    I’m finally getting around to posting what probably was my son’s favorite Christmas gift, and it is one for which I can take only the smallest sliver of credit. I suggested to my husband that our 5-year-old might like a mini treehouse like this one, but I was sure we could make one for far less than $130. (Of course I now see similar items on Amazon for about $60, but at the time there wasn’t much out there. And even $60 is a lot).  He took some cut-up tree limbs and branches from a friend’s debris pile and bought the round cuts of wood and greenery at the craft store. My father-in-law cut the pieces to make them level, and my husband screwed them to the round cuts. The ladder is made out of popsicle sticks hot-glued to string.

    I still want to do something to the base (I would’ve painted it to look more like grass … but was happy to leave the construction to someone else), maybe add some wool felt, or a felted stone wall. The wooden furniture is purchased dollhouse furniture. We’ve turned the armoire into a refrigerator, and filled it with some little charms like the ones I made for his girl friends and cousins, minus the jewelry findings.

    Santa also managed to find a little Huckle figurine on eBay, who is right at home with the other animals.

  • Be My Valentine (but keep your germs to yourself)

    I have no idea what we’ll do this year yet, but last year I made 20 tissue cozies for my son’s preschool classmates. I’m sure the kids would’ve preferred candy but figured the parents would appreciate the tissues during cold and flu season.

    Depending on how far you want to carry the theme, attach a card with the following message:

    “Knock, knock.”

    “Who’s there?”

    “Ah-choo!”

    “Ah-choo who?”

    “Ah-choose YOU for my Valentine!”

    Grown-ups may gag at the punny sentiment, but at least a tissue will be close at hand.

    You can click here to read the how-to article I wrote for AP. This really is a very easy project, but the written instructions make it sound more confusing than it is, so here’s my attempt at illustration via Photoshop.

    I’m hoping to find an idea for this year here:

  • Gifts for far-flung friends

    I just spent three days with my best friend who lives much, much too far away. In addition to the good company and good food, I also got a chance to see her family and inspect whether they REALLY liked the Christmas gifts I sent them. Though I’m sure it’s possible they only took them out for display purposes before I arrived, they did seem to genuinely like everything I sent.

    Here’s the Mommy & baby Black Apple dolls I made for my friend’s adorable daughter, featuring pigtails heavily inspired/directly copied from Larissa at mmmcrafts. If I was smart, I would’ve made the baby doll using the full size pattern and then enlarged the pattern to make the Mommy doll, but I didn’t decide to make the baby until after I made the Mommy. It was pretty tricky to make such a small version, and I ended up leaving the entire bottom edge of the body open to stuff it. (but here’s one smart thing: if you’re adding pigtails, leave the opening in the head where one of the pigtails will be, so when you turn the doll right-side-out, you can cover up your messy hand-stitching with a bow)

    And here’s the recipient with an armful of babies:

    I made my friend’s 6-year-old son a personalized space-themed pillowcase using my tutorial, and tooth pillow using Larissa’s darling pattern. It’s the same pattern I used to make my son’s tooth pillow, but this time I also made a little hat.

  • Wilbur’s New Home

    Another successful gift! I made this needle-felted farm back in October (see more pictures and a mini-tutorial HERE) but didn’t add the finishing touch — the pig — until last month, just in time to give it to my 4-year-old niece for Christmas. And I found the Charlotte’s Web book I had bought for her on sale maybe two years ago and promptly lost in a laundry room drawer. I had grand plans to make some of the other critters but ran out of time….

  • The Princess and the Pea

    Tomorrow I’m giving the last of my Christmas gifts to my cousin’s four little daughters and their baby brother. The baby is getting the color book I made back in October. The girls are getting cupcake and ice cream charms I made last month and this Princess and the Pea book and play set I finished this morning. (the advantages of not seeing them until after Christmas!) I’ve been wanting to make a set like this since seeing Amanda Soule’s version.

    The book is by Lauren Child. To make the doll,  I scanned the picture from the front cover, removed the background using Photoshop and printed it on iron-on transfer paper. I used fabric I already had for the mattresses and used thin batting in between the layers. I think if I were to make this again I’d use thicker batting but overall I was pleased with the result. Two of the mattresses are made from pre-quilted fabric I had leftover from another project but for the others I didn’t bother doing any quilting. The blanket is cut from an old thermal blanket that was my son’s when he was a baby (and I will admit, even though he is now five and I am not having any more babies, it was a little sad to cut into it. Even though I still have several more.) Hemming the raw edges had the unintentional but pretty effect of creating a slightly scalloped border.

    The pea is wet-felted. I can’t remember where I saw the idea to make a little pocket in one mattress for the pea, but it is a great one. The little pillow case is a tiny simplied version of my pillowcase tutorial found on my tutorials page.