Shirt and tie

This Christmas, my sister asked us specifically to avoid buying toys for her two sons. They were overflowing with toys (I stayed in their guest bedroom, which resembled much more of a Toys R Us warehouse than a bedroom.)

I stumbled upon this tie tee-shirt on omi creates and decided it was the perfect blend of "crafty" without overcommitting myself to a homemade Christmas present that may not ever get completed...



I bought some basic long sleeve (Ottawa in the winter is coooold!) t-shirts from Old Navy and machine appliquéd a tie directly on the front of two shirts: one for my 2-year old nephew, Max, and one for a my 6-month old nephew, Ryker.  I also decided to make some bow-tie shirts with a little pleat in the bow.

Without the monkey-suit-feel of a tux, Max was able to add a little pizazz to his outfit!

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Christmas Reindeer Pops

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and to share about these fabulous reindeer pops that my friend Magda made. Aren't they adorable?

The head is made with an Oreo truffle, which is just a simple blend of Oreos and cream cheese.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas filled with love and chocolate!

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Fabric ornaments

December is always filled with mixed emotions of exciting holiday celebration and oh-my-goodness-I'm-too-busy!

I love the idea of making Christmas gifts. After I took the snap coin purse class, I had originally thought to make a few as gifts for friends. Unfortunately, the workroom ran out of purse frames... So I went on a hunt for another easy Christmas project.

Vanessa Christenson posted a great tutorial on her blog for fabric ornaments and I was sold. I picked four different print fabrics and decided to mix it up with some Kona solids.


The project is super easy. I got really good at sewing curves on the machine, and eventually got used to the hot glue gun and stopped burning myself...

Some lucky friends and family will be getting a fabric ornament for Christmas depending on how many I manage to make! I just dropped off my first batch at the workroom for the awesome pretty ladies that work there! In exchange, I stuffed my face with baked brie at this month's Stitch and Bitch. I think it was fair tradeoff!

There are less than two weeks left until Christmas and I've still got a couple projects to finish! Hope you're all having a great December, whether you're rushing to get some crafty projects done or braving the shopping malls!

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Pillowcase Dresses

Those of you who know me well, know of my intense love for jokes -- the terrible ones.

So here's a great one to kick-start this post:

"Corduroy Pillowcases Make Headlines!"

This past weekend was the Little Dresses for Africa event. Emily (and hubby) did a fantastic job of organizing the event, with close to 30 participants sewing dresses from pillowcases! Jenn and I were so glad to be helping out. We taught several newbie sewers the ins and outs of the basic sewing machine and then they each created a beautiful dress from a basic pillowcase!

It took a little while to get the hang of things, but a super-size thank-you to all the great ladies that came out! Your patience, enthusiasm and dedication were most appreciated!



The room was beautifully decorated with tissue paper pom poms and the cutest little "trim station" with multicoloured ribbons, thread, trim etc. The snack station was overflowing with delicious treats: cookies, rum cake, cream puffs, mini muffins.

Emily made the cutest little "button" shortbread cookies as thank you favours.



I'm going to clean up the tutorial that I developed for the class and make a link available on the site! You can sew your own pillowcase dress and send it to Little Dresses For Africa, and maybe even use the tutorial to sew a summery tank top for yourself ;)

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