...Because they ARRH! A Mini Boden Knock-Off.

I do love a bit of Boden. Sure it's the uniform of the floppy-haired, home-counties male, but I have a soft spot for that. (I went to a British private school, those boys were my first crushes).
And I LOVE LOVE LOVE their kid's clothes. They're just plain awesome, fun and actually kid-appealing.
The downside is that they're bloomin' spensive. Maybe not so muchly if you can order them from the Boden USA site (and get free shipping, which they have RIGHT NOW(!) I'll wait here if you want to go look).
But getting stuff delivered to Canada means ordering from the UK site. And between exchange rates and shipping it just gets crazy. The above shirt would be roughly $50 CDN which, hah. No.

So I totally made a knock off.
Want to see it?

Ta-da!
My sweetie is not a big fan of skulls and crossbones (he's more ninja than pirate). So I went with a trail o'bones that goes around the back too.
I used

A shirt from H&M, - a two pack, with a solid navy one for $12.99... I think SO!
A pack of Wilton Easy Image T-shirt Transfers for dark fabrics (from Michael's).
And some Photoshop meddling.

And I like it a LOT. I'm super happy with the Pirate Captain Dog's face; I went for a hand-drawn-in-Sharpie kind of look and think it was pretty successful. I also think he looks more friendly than the real version. Though I wish I had made him a bit bigger.
The transfers were a bit erratic, I'm not sure if that was a me thing or a them thing. I used them to fancy up a white tee earlier this week, and they worked brilliantly.
This time I had a bit of scorching. It's not noticeable to anybody but me, but it's there. I don't know if it's because of the dark shirt. Or because I had the iron set too high or because I didn't wash the shirt beforehand (it totally says you should but I am RIDICULOUSLY impatient).
I still have 3 sheets of transfer paper left, and plans for more shirts, (next time I'll pre-wash and report back!).

ANYWAY. The transfers were roughly $15 for 5. The tee worked out at $6.
$9 V's $50. I'm calling it a win.

I should add that I DO I have some guilt about copyright infringement. But I think the 30% difference rule works here. You know, if your design is different by about 30%, then you can think of it as "Inspired by" rather than plagiarized. And I didn't just copy and paste. But yah. Guilt.
It's funny though, this knock-off /"inspired by" thing. I feel OK about this design and OK about posting it to the intenetses because Boden is a larger, successful company. I wouldn't even think about ripping off an Etsy Seller or an independent designer in the same way. Because you know, ICKY. Weird huh?
How do you guys feel about these issues?

This is also over here -

and here - 

Wild and Precious

Hey! You know when sometimes the world (and more specifically these here internets) gives you just the thing you need at just the time when you need it?
I love when that happens.
Like this see:

It's a Mary Oliver quote, and I got to it via these kids here. I was struck by it hard enough to go out and procure me some poetry (which actually is one of my favourite things ever, so it wasn't exactly a hardship). 

I had been thinking about making some wall art EXACTLY like Tobi's since I saw it. But I have stencil fear. Or at least, very little stencil kung-fu. 

So I CHEATED. 

I whipped up this printable, I used a stencil font and meddled with it in photoshop to give it a "canvas" background. And  t'morra morning I'm going to trot to the printer down the road and have it printed up HUGE - well 16"x20" - on paper and stick it in a frame and put it over my desk and feel pretty awesomely happy about it.

If you want your very own to print out then you can totally do that! I've saved it as a TIFF file (don't fear the Tiff! He's just big, he won't hurt you, he needs love too) over here on Scribd. It might take a bit of time to download but it will print in WAY better quality than just clicking on this image above and doing a "save as". Oh, and it's 8.5"x11" so you can use your own printer (hit me up if you want the bigger size posted too).

There's something about this time of year that just makes this line ring through my head like a bell, and it might make an ok giftie for someone about to go away to big kid school (um, that's college/university for anybody who isn't used to speaking 3 year old).

And actually, if you DO want to tell me what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life, well I would love to hear.

And hey, here's a high five so high and five-y it makes your palm tingle. I think you're pretty awesome.

x

There, I Fixed That For You

What's small, blonde and has the destructive power of 10 angry tigers armed with chainsaws?
Here's a clue:

whud'up?

And here's what this guy does for shiggles when I'm busy making a new slip cover for the couch (and therefor totally neglecting him)

 There, I fixed that for you

That too.

And here's a bit more of a sneek peek at the reason for the radio silence and the child neglect. New couch covers. Dude. It's a LOT of work. but I love them so much. Actually I like the original crazy floral too, and this couch has a good story too, maybe for some other time.

Felt Pierogies... mmm

Is there anything in the world more awesome than dumplings? That was totally a trick question, OF COURSE there's not!

So. Pierogies (actually at my house they're called "Pierogies... mmm") My bear is an enormous fan and he happens to have a play kitchen that needs stocking. So I whipped up a plate of felt Pierogies...mmm for him.
They were crazy-super simple and they could do double duty as Ravioli or Jiaozi or Gyoza depending on how you roll.
You'll need:

• Some cream-ish felt (I use eco-felt for most everything, it's cheap and it does the job)
• Some fiber fill. (I actually cannibalized a dollar store camping pillow for mine - lots of stuffing for dirt cheap)
• Co-ordinating thread

You could make these with a sewing machine in seconds, but they're almost as quick to hand sew.

First you'll need to cut a circle of felt, (mine is 2.5", I drew around a cup).  I used my pinking shears 'cause I think it looks cute, but it's not essential.

And... 

 you're done!

Next up is Char Siu Bao. mmm. huh. I don't seem to be cruising past this dumpling thing.... mmm.

Christmas Leftovers - Faux Frosted Glass Jars

I loves me some Christmas leftovers. I totally do.

Turkey = good.

Boxes of Lindt chocolaty thingies = better.

Plastic candy jars with lids = best.

See?

And if you're thinking "Dude. Really?" then stick with me here...

I picked up three of those guys from the Dollarama before Christmas; I'm guessing they were meant to be used for gifting homemade treats. I, however, have no homemade treat skillz. So I didn't do that with them. Instead I did THIS:

Buh-bye christmas-themed plastic item! Hullo classy frosted glass apothecary jar with year 'round storage usefulness!

And the BEST part about these? All I used to transform them was some nail polish remover and a clean kitchen scrubbie. Which I happened to have on hand. Which means free. Yay for free!

So, I used the nail polish remover and a bit of paper towel to wipe the print off of the plastic. You could totally stop there. That looks like this, see:

Otherwise, grab your clean kitchen scrubbie and rub gently on the surface of the plastic in small circles until you've reached your desired level of opacity (You guys! I LOVE the word opacity. And I hardly ever get to use it.)

If you were feeling kind of fancypants you could mask off some areas with tape (or say, heart shaped stickers to make a VALENTINES candy jar?)

And that's it. Done. I'm using mine as STUFF holders in my bathroom, (yay for unbreakability!)

How are you using your Christmas leftovers?

Oh and I shared over at Melissa's (complete with embarrassing spelling mistake. GAH!)

And over HERE too!

Play Kitchen In A Bag

Hey you know when is a good time to decide to make your kid a play kitchen? Any other time than 7 days before Christmas. (You might have seen this lapse of sanity in my twitter feed. If you see anything like it again, do feel free to give me a good hard punch and a "seriously?")

See I got started making felt sushi, ('member?) and that was super fun. So I made some edamame. And that was fun too. Then I saw a tute for broc-a-trees on exactly the same day I thought "huh, we could use some brocs" (uncanny!). And then we happened to pick up a little set of pots and pans when we were at ToysRus (more about those later). Then things might have got a bit out of control.

I gave some serious thought to an Ikea hack of a bedside table but I just couldn't make it work size-wise. And then I saw this roll-up version at Balancing Everything and was all "OH YAH YOU DID!" and I did a little dance and that was that.

So, I give you... The Play Kitchen in a Bag!

Now obviously the real props here go to Jessica. The only things that I modified on her design was to add knobs that turn. (um, notice the deliberate mistake in the shot with Teddy; I totally didn't add the second knob 'til after he got it!)

I used three layers of white, medium weight felt for the base and I sewed the elements, sink and faucets on with a close zigzag stitch after I stitch-tacked them down.

Then I stuck the top layer on the bottom two base layers and zipped around the edges with the same zig zag stitch (no turning inside out for me, I'm too lazy).

Next I poked two grommets ($1.99 for a pack of 14 from Fabriclnd) through all three layers of base felt (yay for whacking things with a hammer!).

I sewed the big buttons onto smaller buttons through the grommet holes. Leaving enough slack so that the big buttons can be twirled all the way around.

And voila!

Wondering what ELSE is in the bag? WELL...

We got this set of pots and pans and tools from ToysRus (they're OK but not awesomesauce. I wish we'd have held out and gotten the Ikea Kids Duktig sets).

And some baking supplies (and some cookies):

A couple of pasta dishes (felt farfalle and ribbon basgetti) and some brocs, cauliflower, beans and carrots for sauteeing:

Also eggies for frying (inspired by Heidi's tute actually), the sushi and SAMMICH fixin's . The pink thing is Montreal Smoked Meat, or you know, ham.

And lastly, a bottle of dish soap and a scrubbie, for the unlucky guy on KP duty.

Talking of KP, when it comes time to clear up, the food goes into a take out container

And everything else goes into a clear plastic box,

And the whole shebang goes into the shopping bag!

The Bear mostly cooks "veg-bill curry" and "clown chowder (it's like clam chowder but infinitely creepier)" and "I making PIEROGIES mummy. Are they awe-sum?" Mmm pierogies. Yes, yes they are awesome. Actually I should make some felt pirogies right now. Also maybe some real ones. with butter. and bacon. and butter. hooboy.

Lastly of all I wanted to say that if you're stocking a play kitchen then you could do worse than hitting up your dollar store. I scored this stuff at the Dollarama, and the clear box to jam it all into too.

The Incredible Magnetic Boy

Hey, you know what would be awesome? Being able to magnetize my kid and stick him to the fridge so he couldn't get into shenanigans while I was doing the dishes. What's that? You're calling child services? Oh. Did I say awesome? I meant awful. bad. terrible.

Le sigh.

Turns out there's only one socially acceptable way to stick your progeny to the fridge. Like ziz...

This is part of the magnetic, dress up-able bear set that I made Teddy's grammie for Christmas.

This isn't a tutorial exactly, on account of how I use Photoshop like a chimp trying to tie a bowtie; you know, with honking rage and tears of frustration.

But what I did was take a picture of the shortpants there against a lightish backdrop. Then I meddled with it a bit in Picnik (so much less scary that Photoshop, and free!).

Then I used photoshop to cut and paste it onto a white background and go around the edges of my bear in white. I used a biggish brush with a blurry edge.

I took pictures of some of the bear's favorite things, like Mr. T-bone Walker up there (you can call him T-Bone, he's cool like that) and a few different hats, his bear ears, fire chief and yellow hard hat. I also scavenged a flower and a balloon offa the internets.

I outlined them in photoshop too then I resized them and moved them all onto the image of the bear, so I could make sure they fit him like. Here's where most of the honking howls of frustration came in.

Next I used Picnik to make a word -bubble that says "HI!" and a heart with "I Love Grammie" in it.

I saved my files as jpgs then printed those suckers down at the drugstore. You could use your own printer but mine is LOUSY and for 19c a pop you can't really go wrong.

Once I had them printed I cut my images out then stuck them on sticky magnetic sheets, trimmed the magnetic backing and voila, fridge-ready.

Presentation wise, I stuck them on a bit of card with some rolled up tape and popped them in an envelope.

I might ALSO have made my guy chums some Vargas Girl pin up magnets for their fridges using the same technique. And that might have looked like this... (Look away now if you're offended by scantily clad women or copyright infringement)

But I'm not admitting to anything on account of how those images do have copyrights and googling "Vargas Girls" will show you some genuinely nasty things and may acquire you a virus so bad that it decimates your computer and makes you cry like a baby at the thought of losing every single picture you have. Or, ahem, so I've heard.

Man Gift Four - Eye Eye Captain!

These are more of a silly-thing-stocking-stuffer than an actual giftie, and I feel kind of cheaty calling this a tute. BUT I've given these to a bunch of people for various occasions and they're grin-inducing. So onto the list they go!
Ready?

=

Yup. That's it.
You grab a bag of googly eyes (I got mine from the dollar store), a handful of magnets (also from the dollar store) and some strong glue.
It's a good idea to stick your magnets to something metal before you apply the eyeballs, to make sure you're putting the eye on the wrong (repelling) side of the magnet. Next add a spot o' glue and an eyeball, then let them dry for a good while.
And that's it.
Presentation wise, you can stick them on bit of card with a face on it. And voila, anthropomorphic EVERYTHING! Is it a microwave? NO! it's Sir Nukesalot! Is it a fridge? No! it's MR. FRIDGE! Is it...

I've also made sticker versions. You can buy eyes with adhesive on the back already, but I use double-sided scrapbooking foam mount (cut into circles slightly smaller than the eyes) which means they can be stuck onto uneven surfaces. Like this:

And all of these.
I'd just like to note that the stickies are removable and don't damage surfaces, so while this might look like a spot of vandalism, technically it's more sort of Littering With Intent. (and I never mess with things that might compromise other folks safety, like warning signs or fire hydrants.)

The Skirt That Was In My Head

HAH. Got it done!
You know, the musing I was doing in that earlier post? About what I want to be wearing now?
Well for the last AGE I've had a skirt in my head.
A high-waisted, a-line, red one. Made of soft corduroy. With a Lily Tomlin in Nine to Five vibe (in my head that's cool).
Kind of like this one, Anthro's Hop, Skip and Jump skirt $78 - which is not too crazy expensive.

Or this one the Finishing School Skirt , also by Anthro also $78

But you know what's cheaper than $78? A meter of red corduroy I picked up at Goodwill last year for $1.98. And a pattern I already happened to have, McCalls 4783.
Here's my version:

I extended the waist UP an inch and a half (using the "meh, looks close enough" method of pattern adaptation).
I made the skirt less froofy and more gentle-a-liney.
And I added kind of off-center line thing (yah it IS a technical term) by folding over a little pleat and topstitching it down.

While I was making it the skirt tried to kill me a couple of times (I have pin-related WOUNDS!) but it came together fairly easily and now I LOVE it. Love Love it. I want to hold it's hand at a midnight showing of Pulp Fiction and make it mix tapes. Here's it in action today:

I had to wear thick tights, but it's super comfy and I managed to wear heels all day. Which is a win for me!

The Democracy Tunic to Dress Tutorial

Yesterday was a bit gloomy you guys. We have a new mayor, and I'm not a fan.
I love me some democracy, it's a privilege and I am thankful for it. Even if sometimes the result sucks. And to folks who don't vote I say "pheh" (and I totally roll my eyes).
Yesterday there was a polling station in the lobby of our building (yay for LAZY democracy!) Which means I could have gone and done my voting in my jammies BUT I have a "no jammies farther away than the garbage chute" rule , so I threw on this instead:

It's a tunic. You can tell on account of how it barely covers my bum. And is shaped roughly like a potato sack.
Now, tunics and I are not really friends, in fact we're barely even passing acquaintances but this is different. This is something I've had since I was pregnant and it has some pretty crazy history for me. But it is quite obviously too short, and I would have felt really uncomfortable going any farther than the lobby in it. So a refashion was in order.
I did this to it
Want to see how? Hokay!
Firstly of all I just happened to have some lightweight black cotton from another dress refashion project that exactly matched the tunic. You'll need a fabric that matches (or contrasts if that's how you roll ) depending on how much length you want to add a meter should be plenty.
Then you'll need to
1. Fold your dress in half straight down the middle.
2. Pop your folded-in-half dress onto your extra fabric, matching up the folds, like this see:3. Mark out however much more skirt you want, making sure you follow the line of the existing skirt (in this case it's a slight A-line). Replicate the curve at the hem on your new skirt bottom, and match up the curve at the top too. Don't forget to add a bit to your sides for a seam allowance (the solid line should be farther out. Oops!)
4. Mark out you skirt with chalk or pins. or just go crazy with the scissors if you're brave.
5. Snip! You'll need to cut out two skirt pieces.
6. Whip! Turn the new skirt pieces right-side-together then sew up the side seams so you have one piece of skirt. Press the seams open.
7. Pin the new skirt into the bottom of the old skirt, right-sides-together. Like ZIZ see:

8. Sew around the bottom of the skirt, where you've just pinned. Press the new seam UP. Try it on, admire your handiwork then hem it as you normally would.

And voila! Tunic to dress. Giving that sucker a waist instead of a sack shape is the next step. (I'll stick that tute up tomorrow, on account of some WAY to dark pictures and some shenanigans with Ernesta the body double).

If you don't have any fabric that matches your tunic you could go the obvious clash route and stick two different prints on the bottom, (kind of like in the original of this tunic).

Millinery Yo!

OK, maybe actual millinery is a bit of a stretch, but you guys! I made a HAT! Want to see?

(yeesh the mirror is grubby. I'm going to blame monkeys. Rampaging monkeys. Who use a lot of hairspray? Yep. those ones.)

So, I've been thinking about making a hat for ages (since last Dapper Hat Day actually). I decided that if I was going to give it a go I should do it NOW, so I could wear the sucker for DHD if it went well (or pitch it and never discuss it again if it went badly).

I used this pattern from Martha


And as I'm not a tiny cherubic child, I blew the pattern up to 275% then hacked it about a bit. I used a few sheets of dirt cheap recycled plastic felt. And I made a muslin first. Want to see it?

Pretty hot huh? It's kind of, fleshy coloured. And my sweetie declared "YOU made a PECKER hat!" uh huh. I kind of did. Then I put ears on it. OK. Moving swiftly on...

Once I was happy with the basic shape of the muslin I took it apart, cut out the "real" felt, then pieced that together. I didn't bother with the zigzag stitch like Ms. S suggests. My hat has an inside and an outside. When that was done I simply tucked the raw edges of the hat under and top-stitched them. The I whacked a few decorative leaves on it and called it a night.

To recap:
One free pattern (I didn't even bother to print it, just traced it off the screen - lazy like)
+
about $2 worth of felt sheets
+
an hour
=
One kind of cute cloche hat*

For any actual milliners out there who are tutting and head shaking, I know that this isn't the real deal, but I learned HEAPS just by doing this. When I remake this hat, (which I totally will, they're kind of like crack) I will be using real wool felt. And I think I'll maybe interface it with woven interfacing to stabilise it. Maybe bang some grosgrain ribbon around the bottom on the inside? Any other hints would be awesome.

*and a creepy picture of me in a pig/penis hat on the internets for all the world to see. Bargain!

Not a Quilt

Poking through other people's stuff without the B&E and subsequent costly legal fees = Yay!
What I'm saying is that I love a bit of yard sale action. Where we live doesn't have a lot of actual yards; BUT when the buildings around here have a yard sale they co-ordianate days and they go large. 700-1000 units in a relatively affluent area with a majority gay, aging population - BINGO for yard sale awesomeness.
So that's the backstory, this is the result:

I scored three fat quarters of this floral cotton for the princely sum of 75 cents. It was tucked into the bottom of a box of other fabrics (I bought most of them too) I love it crazy much. In fact I might have found it, squealed, ripped it from the box, cradled it protectively and cooed mineminemine at it whilst growling around me. Maybe.

I'm not much of a quilter, but I knew from pretty much the second that I plucked it out of the box that I wanted it to be a dress. A dress a bit like this one.

I used New Look 6803, (I happened to have bought it for another project, but that's a whole 'nother post) and meddled with view C.

I had to hack the pattern a bit to make there be enough fabric, there's a seam down the front but it gets a bit lost in the florallyness. I also had to piece together the bottom otherwise we'd have been talking tunic or indecent exposure, but again the print makes it barely noticeable.
This is it with different accessories, And the worlds glummest expression

In my head it's more sort of 60's with the kitten heels and skinny belt. I'm giving some serious thought to a pair of cream ribbed schoolgirl-type tights. But that might be... gack? weird? costumey? Opinions are welcome folks.