Category Archives: Kids

Auction quilt

Posted in Kids, Sewing, Stuff to make by

Because I have passed on attending my daughter’s school auction four years in a row, I donated a handmade baby quilt made-to-order, to assuage my guilt. It has been really interesting making something to another person’s taste. Teal, gray, and black? Really? I tried for some red, some orange, some yellow, but the quilt recipient knows what she wants. So, here is a bad picture of the quilt top, before sewing it up. It’s much more traditional than something I would usually make, but have to say I’m pretty pleased. It looks so quilty!

The pattern is adapted from Quilting for Peace. I love this book, and the principle behind it. This is as close as I’ve come to a charity quilt, but I’m inspired!

Dare to Be Square

Posted in Kids, Sewing, Stuff to make by

Where have I been?? I’ve been crafting away but sadly cannot figure out how to download from my old camera to my new mac. So sad and frustrating. But I did make a gorgeous play mat for my friend who is expecting a baby in July. I modified the “Pokey the Play Mat” pattern from Boo Davis’s book Dare to Be Square. The colors are really appealing for a baby–bright but not harsh. Plus, I had almost all the same fabrics that she used, on hand–scary! Her pattern has a cute snail face; mine is just the log cabin square. Why? Because I don’t like snails. Sorry garden molluscs.

I highly recommend this book if you are looking  for a modern approach to quilting. Boo Davis makes heavy metal inspired quilts (really), so go figure. But she still respects the skills and traditions of old-fashioned quilting, which is a really appealing mix. I also like how she uses simple, traditional patterns, like a log cabin, and transforms them with the use of color and clever graphic design to make something totally modern. She also has a wicked sense of humor.

Dollhouse Love

Posted in Kids, Stuff to make, Things to see by

Abe was indifferent. Zeke was a step up from that–fond? bemused?–whatever implies a distant affection. It was clear: neither of my kids toppled head over heels in love with the dollhouse I rescued from the curb, took home and painted, papered, and decorated with homemade furniture and–get this–a miniature Frank Stella.

I mean, I went through a lot of (happy) trouble working on that thing. To make the Lilliputian furniture, I drew up little elaborate blueprints. My husband then took the plans to his architecture firm and asked the model shop to cut the pieces to size. (Did the model shoppers ever figure out the identity of the “client”? Was it, in fact, completely obvious?)

I sewed tiny pillows & stitched mini felt blankets. I made side tables out of those plastic thing-a-ma-bobs that come in the middle of pizzas. Bunk beds. Books as big as postage stamps. A bath mat the size of a match box.

My family (and the model shoppers) humored my obsession with the small scale. They regarded me with polite–and always kind–detachment. But in the ten years since, I’ve learned something important:

Sometimes, it takes a village to love a dollhouse.

First it was Sophia Alvarez, my seven-year-old neighbor. When she wasn’t constructing a Playmobil megalopolis in her bedroom, she’d come over and rearrange the dollhouse furniture for me. Over the years came other caretakers–Addie, Lila K., Lila M., Sophie U., Sophie B., Mary, Danny, Norman, and every teenage babysitter I have ever hired. It ends up I’m not the only one who appreciates the little things of life.

So if you’re with me, make sure to check out these shrunken exemplars of pristine Modernism in a NYT slide show.

(Photo by Robert Presutti for the New York Times)

Or creep yourself out with this slideshow of shoebox crime scenes beautifully photographed by Corinne May Botz in The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.

The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death

Or admire this 23-room, 5-story house made by Faith Bradford, in this online tour. You can also see it in person at the National Museum of American History in D.C. (And yes, I was just in Washington for school vacation week. Guess what? No one in my family wanted to go see Faith’s dollhouse with me. Sigh.)

America's Doll House: The Miniature World of Faith Bradford

One-Hour Pillow and Other (Small) Adventures

Posted in Boston, Kids, Sewing, Stuff to make by

I curbed my craftiest ambitions this week after one of the fabric-painted robot tees that I made last week emerged from the washer: a smudged, sorry schmatte. What happened? I swear I followed directions (I think). And still here is this mottled t-shirt-now-dust rag. Tragedy. Or at least, very minor disappointment.  

Moving on: I’ve been meaning to make a pillow cover with some of this flower print I bought at a yard sale. I had a 22 x 22″ pillow insert, low goals, and about one hour, so I stuck with an envelope-style enclosure. I (more or less) followed the instructions at Cottage Magpie, which I thought were very good with excellent, helpful photos. I’m actually really proud of the piping (which I bought pre-made–so why the pride?). But the piping was fun to sew (zipper foot!) and it gives the pillow its essential pillowness, I think.

My other small adventure: sewing covers for the ugly blue mattress and pillow that came with the IKEA doll bed I bought for my neice and nephew. (Why does IKEA favor retina-searing shades of blue?) I also sewed a doll blanket to go on top. (For Boston locals: I bought the big polka-dot print from Fabric Corner, a sewing shop on the corner of Mass Ave. & Mill Street in Arlington, which has a lovely fabric selection & kind, friendly staff.) Following Brigit’s doll quilt post, I just sewed regular seams and turned inside out (although I added a layer of quilt batting and didn’t do the quilter’s knots).

 

But my biggest–and tiniest–achievement of the week? Figuring out how to do that tricky little stitch to close up seams. The stitch is sometimes called an invisible stitch, which makes it impossible to visualize, right? Whereas when the stitch is called a ladder stitch (visual here), it loses all its terrible mystery and becomes possible, and really not that hard.

Liesl Gibson Crafternoon!

Posted in Brooklyn, Kids, Sewing, Stuff to make by

The New York Public Library (42nd Street) hosts a crafternoon one Saturday each month. The program draws some luminaries of the crafting world, and fills the room with interesting crafty people. I went to one last year with Denyse Schmidt, Heather Ross, and Liesl Gibson. Liesl taught us how to make little sail boat ornaments out of walnut shells, provided the supplies, and set us loose. On April 2nd from 2 to 4, Liesl Gibson will be hosting again and talking about her new book Little Things to Sew. I would have already bought this book if my daughter did not have a “secret” plan to buy it for my birthday.  I think she really wants the paper doll accessories from the dust jacket (pictured above), but she is genuinely pleased as punch with her birthday surprise (as am I).

There will be supplies on hand for participants to make something. The event is free, but be sure to arrive early as the events are really popular. I bet there might just be a raffle, too. (As a side note, I enter more giveaways and online contests than I care to mention. Ask me to comment for a chance to win some buttons and I do it. My compulsion has a sort of scary sweepstakes, coupon cutting, green stamps aspect to it. Does anyone else suffer from giveaway-itis?)