Happy Holidays!

Googily

I had someone contact me about making a Googily doll, from the book Jumpy Jack and Googily, by Meg Rosoff. It's her grandson's favorite book and she wanted to give him a Googily doll for Christmas.

I made him out of wool felt, like my other monster softies, but chose to make him a rag doll, with floppy arms and legs.

Pea pod ornament

Eat your vegetables!

Vera's first Christmas ornament! Three peas in a pod. The peas are needle felted wool and the outside of the pod is made of wool blend felt, which I lined with a cotton print. I'm not sure if I will make this a yearly tradition, but I wanted to at least make an ornament for her first Christmas. It would be neat for her to have a dozen or so handmade ornaments to start her own Christmas tree one day.

Want your own? Custom ornaments available in my etsy shop!

Vera's Monthly Photos

At one month, Vera is simple like the hydrogen atom. However when hydrogen explodes the product is steamy water, but when Vera explodes the product is steamy poop.

‎2 months is a light yet noble and gassy time for our wonderful daughter.

She's got as much energy density as a Lithium ion battery now with that 3rd proton.

Like the fourth element, Beryllium, Vera has a small atomic radius. Unlike Beryllium she does not share her electrons.

Ballerinas

After sharing Vera's nursery on Project Nursery I had a request from another mom for two needle felted animals, like the ones used for Vera's mobile. I made a ballerina rabbit and cat for her; my favorite parts to make were the little ballet slippers, "tied" on with embroidery floss. The tiny tutus were pretty fun too.

Reversible Apron

I loosely followed this Classic Reversible Apron tutorial but patterned it after an apron I already had. I simply folded the apron and fabric in half, then lined them up at the fold and traced around the apron. I also sewed along the edge of the D-rings to secure them at the end of the short strap.

The main fabric is Herringbone in Maple by Joel Dewberry and the accent and backing fabric are from Joanns.

My Little Mermaid

Vera was a little mermaid for Halloween! Here's a rough how-to for making your own mermaid costume.

Materials:

1 yard costume satin

elastic

felt

sequins

white cotton onesie

3 tea bags

little boy's snake/dragon/lizard? swimsuit (optional)

Total cost: $8

For my patterns, I printed out seashell and star shapes I found online and free-handed the shape of the fin. For size 3-6 months, the fin pattern should measure about 15.5" at the waist and 26" long. You want to make sure there is plenty of width in the the fin so baby can move around, especially if your little one is as squirmy as mine.

When looking for a onesie at Goodwill, I came across this pair of boy's swim trunks and thought the scale pattern would be perfect for the fin.

There wasn't a lot of fabric so I had to be creative. I cut up the back side of the swimsuit and pieced it together to create the front of the fin. I pinned and sewed the scale fabric onto one of my satin fins; I cut around the scales at the bottom and sewed them onto the satin with a narrow zig zag stitch. If you are just using the satin, you can follow the steps below:

Cut two fins out of the costume satin, one for the front and one for the back.

Pin both fin pieces right sides together, and sew around the edges. Cut off any excess fabric with pinking shears. This will help prevent fraying, since costume satin frays easily. (you could also use a serger). Turn right side out and press.

Cut a rectangular piece of satin, long enough to go around the top of the fin. Fold in half, right sides together, with short ends touching. Sew along the short ends so you have a loop. Turn right side out, fold lengthwise and press. Pin the folded loop around the top of the fin, with the raw edge toward the top. Next you will need to hem the top to hide the raw edges and make a channel for the elastic. Fold over the top of the fin 1/2" and press. Fold over another 1" and press again. Sew along the bottom of the hem, leaving a 2" opening to thread your elastic through. I used a pair of Vera's pants to determine how much elastic I needed. Run your elastic through the hemmed waist and sew both ends together. Tuck inside and close up the opening in your hem.

For the headband, I sewed a narrow tube of fabric out of costume satin and ran a piece of elastic through it. Next, I traced a star on to a piece of magenta felt and embellished it with sequins. Then I sandwiched the headband between my star (still not cut out) and another piece of felt, sewing along the outline of my star. To finish I cut off the excess felt around the star, being careful not to cut the headband.

Front

Back

For the top, I tea dyed a white onesie to make it flesh-toned. It's a pretty simple process: bring a pot of water and three family sized tea bags to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and soak the onesie for about 15 minutes, depending on how dark you want it. Stir occasionally. Rinse the onesie in the sink then run it once through the washer and dryer.

The last step was to cut the seashells out of felt, embellish them with sequins, and sew them onto the onesie.