Picnic

Shadow Puppet Theater

A few months back I made some shadow puppets from templates I found online.  My goal was to have our three-year-old guests in Lake Tahoe this summer put on some after-dinner plays for the adults.  I spent about 5 hours making this "theater" using a font I found online and a freezer paper printing technique.  This technique is great because it produces a very precise image and does not make a huge mess, however, it can be time consuming if you are making a large print.  In the future, I'd recommend using transfer paper, it would be much faster.

I hung our theater in a doorway using a pressure bar to hold it up.  You also need to have a bright light source, I just took the shade off a lamp.

The kids loved the theater but were a little lost for words when it came to making up their own dialog so we just had them sing songs with their puppets and had them do a little Q & A with the audience.

Plastic Bag Sack

We LOVE organization in our household!  When I saw this little craft project for keeping your plastic bags all neat 'n tidy, I knew it would make a great addition to our pantry.

To make:

Fold a dish towel in half lengthwise, wrong side out; pin along the edge that's opposite the fold.  Pin twill-tape ends to one open end to form hanger.

Sew a seam 7 inches from the folded edge to make a tube.  Stitch twill tape in place.

Thread elastic through the towel's existing hem: Snip one small slit in the towel's hem.  Flip tube over and repeat, making a second slit.  Tie a large knot at one end of elastic; attach safety pin to other end.  Slide safety pin through 1 slit, and ease through hem and out the other slit.  Tie elastic ends together.  Turn bag right side out.

This craft project and instructions is from Martha Stewart Living.

Haus Pillows

I bought this Kokka fabric a while ago and have been thinking long and hard about what I wanted to do with it.  At $28/yard it's best to think long and hard before cutting it up.

Pillows are probably the simplest of sewing projects and these house pillows are no different.

To make:

1.  Draw a house on a piece of paper and cut it out.  This will be your pattern.  I drew half a house and folded it over so it would be symmetrical.

2.  Trace your pattern onto the fabric and cut out 2 houses.

3.  With the right sides facing each other, sew a 1/4" seam along all of the sides leaving a 4-inch opening in the bottom.

4.  Turn right side out and stuff with poly-fill.

5.  Top stitch the opening closed with a 1/8" seam.

6.  I also embellished mine with doors from fabric scraps and a chimney but this is optional.

Beach Bag

For my friend who shares the same name and astrological sign as I, "Happy Birthday Lisa, my fellow Gemini!"

A beach tote with interior pocket.

Apple Prints

It's the end of the school year and to show our appreciation for Bijou's teachers I made some patchwork eye pillows and had Bijou help me make our own gift wrap made from apple stamps.  Her teachers spent the majority of the year with 16 three-year-olds so I hope they find a lot of time to relax this summer and make good use of these eye pillows.

I attempted this project over the weekend and Bijou pitched a fit about wanting to eat the apple rather than stamp the apple.  We tried again this afternoon with success!

We used red acrylic paint.

Imperfection gives it character.

I drew little stems in with a colored pencil to help it look more like teacher appreciation gift wrap and less like Valentine's Day gift wrap.

Produce Bags

Now that the Berkeley farmers markets have gone plastic free, the farmers ask that you bring your own bags. You can also buy bags made from corn from them for 25 cents each.  The problem with the corn bags is that your food will spoil faster if you leave the food in the bags after you get home so you always have to swap them out.  I decided to make my own produce bags to use at the farmers market and the grocery store out of some leftover muslin.

My daughter is starting a french-immersion program in the fall so to get into the spirit of things I stamped french words onto each bag.  I hope my spelling is correct!  I'm in the process of learning the language myself.

baie: berry

vegetal: vegetable

le fruit: fruit

This doesn't seem like it will be so hard after all!

les noix: nut

          chocolat: chocolate

 

 

le legume: another way to say vegetable.

 

fraiche: fresh

To make:

1.  Cut different size rectangles from the muslin.

2.  Fold the rectangle in half with the right-side facing each other and sew 1/4" seam up the two sides leaving the top open.

3.  Sew a decorative stitch around the circumference of the bag.

4.  Press 1/4" seam around the top of the bag and then press a 1" seam.  Stitch around the bottom edge of the top hem.

5.  Use a seam ripper to rip a small hole in one of the side seams in the top hem.

6.  Using a safety pin, thread a piece of cord through the top hem and tie it off.

7.  Stamp whatever you like onto the bag.

This 7-piece set is available for sale in my shop.

Linen Baskets

For months now, I've looked at my sewing area in horror.  Since I'm the kind of person who prefers things to be neat 'n tidy, seeing this mess literally caused a panic attack.  Although, I hated the disarray of my sewing area I had a very difficult time motivating myself to do anything about it. I decided that if I made these little linen storage baskets it would be the kick in the butt I needed to clean up.  It worked!

Do you recognize the twill tape from this post?

The pattern for these baskets can be found in Zakka Sewing: 25 Projects For The Household.

This basket contains some of the gift cards I downloaded from The Small Object for FREE!  You can have them too, just click here.

Fabric & Notions on Etsy

I'm busy today with some long term projects, soon to be revealed on Picnic.  So I'll leave you with this...

happy crafting!

Card-Blanc Ruler Twill, $2.50

Cottonblue Shinzi Katoh wide tape fuss, $5.50

Cottonblue cute rabbit in forest fabric, $3.50

Skinny Laminx Duikers in Aloe Red, $14

Happy Tape, Girly 5 pack, $22

Summersville Alphabetty, $24.40

Auntie Cookie craft panel, $15

Mikodesign fabric remnant pack, $15

Felt Rocks

I use a felted rock as a pin cushion at my sewing table and I love that it's lovely to look at and has a purpose.  When I saw this felted rock tutorial on Design Sponge, I thought I'd take a stab at felting and make a few more lovely rocks to sit in a bowl and have no purpose at all but to look lovely.  After following the instructions on Design Sponge, my rocks looked a bit more like something the cat coughed up than like rocks.  So I finished them off with a felting needle and felting mat and I think they turned out pretty good.

Hopefully, they aren't mistaken for soap now that I have them sitting on the basin of our sink in the bathroom.

Table Runner

Our table has looked a bit bare ever since we got it a few years ago.  Tablecloths don't really fit into our modern decor so I decided to make a table runner.  Since I've been on a Zakka kick lately I thought I'd make one in linen and paint pears using freezer paper stencils.  I love how it turned out!