Scallywag Makeup Bag

Here's something I made for a friend today!

If you want to make one, here is a super wonderful, easy to follow tutorial:

Straight Sided Triangular Cosmetic Bag Tutorial

I used some fabric that was on clearance for $1/yard, and for the inside I used picnic table cloth stuff -... waterproof, easy to clean up makeup spills!! :) The only problem with that is now I can't iron the bag! At least I ironed the fabric before I sewed it.


So, what crafty things (or not) have you finished today?
Now that I have the bag done, I am going to go work on a wholesale order.... today I'm sewing on 40 little eyeballs! Lots of little eyeballs!

First week of SPRING!

Well, it's been almost 10 days since I last posted. That is entirely too long! Here are some little tidbits on my life:

• My husband is now the proud owner of a Wii! I wasn't too excited about getting it, but I have to admit... the first night we had it, I stayed up 'til 3am playing Lego Star Wars. Making all the Miis was a lot of fun, and even K was excited to play. He is really good at the boxing (which is almost like working out!), and he giggles the whole time. I can tell I'm going to have to set a daily time limit on this or he'll want to play it all the time! I am really, REALLY good at bowling... which is odd, since my average score at *real life* bowling is about 60. Oh well, I'll take it! :) I haven't played Nintendo for a billion years. I used to LOVE it... all the good old games like Zelda, Turbo Challenge, Mario Kart, and Donkey Kong. I think some of these games are downloadable on the Wii. Just what we need, something else to keep us indoors! Don't worry, I set limits that many children and husbands would claim were unfair. And, the Wii is on my side. It suggests quite often to take a 15 minute break and head outdoors. They do care!

• It is Spring already, even tho the weather might not be cooperating. The days are getting longer, the chance of snow is still there but I can see a glimmer of hope that one day it will be warm enough to go outside in shorts and a t-shirt again! Fall is my favorite season, but Spring comes in a close second. It is just so nice to get out of the dreariness of Winter. Here are some pictures of some beautiful flowers from my sister: Coincidentally, today is National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day!!! Those are one of my very favorite indulgences, so I think I will have to celebrate.
  

• I have been working on some wallets (both girly and guy types), business card organizers and holders, needles and pins keepers, and some other fun things. Once I get my designs down, I will start listing some on Etsy! I also just finished a new design for my BusyFingers BabyBuddies. He is the green dino, and he is so cute: It is so incredibly exciting for me to see my little business start to grow! My things are being featured in more treasuries, and one of my sock monkeys is even on the first page of the Children's Gift Guide!! I also got my first potential wholesale order! All of this makes me so happy, because being with my son and crafting are two things that are very important to me! It is great to see that it might be possible to stay at home and earn a little bit of money at the same time.
  

I'm off to do more fun "at home" stuff, like laundry, dishes, vacuuming, and such! TTFN! :)

Sonic the Hedgehog

Last Christmas, when we drew names within my family for gift giving, I drew my sister's name. Surprise! I have made her so many things, why not one more :) I wanted to make her something one of a kind, and I searched the internet for a long time looking for just the right pattern. I finally found it here: Silver Seams- That link takes you to a free plush hedgehog pattern! Looked easy enough, but I had never made a stuffed animal before, so I started with some muslin. It was a good thing I did, because it turned out absolutely horrible! It took me forever to figure out how to sew the pattern pieces together. Sewing 3-D creatures is a lot harder than it looks! After fiddling with the pattern and making three more deformed muslin hedge-things, I was brave enough to start on the real thing. I used some white faux fur fabric that I had gotten off Freecycle (I have received lots of great fabric from Freecycle!) for the tummy, arms, legs, and face.
I used neon green fleece for the back.
I hand cut little felt hands and feet:

I used felt for the nose, embroidered the mouth, and used safety eyes for the first time!
I trimmed the fur around the face to make it a more defined area.


Now for the hard part. Little did I know that they actually HAVE long, bright blue fun fur fabric. I almost died in the store when I saw it a week after Sonic was finished. I have a knack for always choosing the hard way, though! Instead, I went to Ben Franklin and found some bundles of bright blue eyelash yarn with specks of pink and neon green. Perfect! I bought three. They were normally $10 apiece, but I found them on sale for $2 on clearance.

I made the furry back by wrapping the yarn around 2 fingers about 10 times, cutting, tying the center, and sewing onto the hedgehog.
Repeat hundreds of times. Run to the store to buy SIX more bundles of the yarn.
Get cramps in your hands.
Slowly grow to hate the hedgehog, as you work on it for hours and hours and only seem to get an inch of work done.

And then one day, he was done! I used the *very last inch* of all that yarn I bought to cover the last bald spot on the hedgehogs butt. I was tricking myself thinking he was done, however. Next, I had to cut all the loops so the yarn would stick up like soft spikes. There were lots of loops. After that, I had to give him a haircut so he could see. That created a pile of blue fur on the carpet about 5 inches high, which got the attention of K's potential mess radar. He ran through the pile before I could stop him and now, months later, I am still finding blue fur in weird places.

I am just glad I got him done before Christmas (barely). Sis gave him the name Sonic, since he's blue, and he has had a happy life ever since.