Here’s some smaller sewing projects that I’ve made recently. I looked back and realized that I hadn’t been posting anything of sewing or food. Mostly because it’s been hard to make myself do either for some time. Having the monthly challenges is helping, but sewing hasn’t been as much of a draw for me lately. I’m having some struggles with low motivation and difficulty making decisions, so it’s been hard to pick what I want to sew and when. Our basement is still a mess. It got overwhelming very quickly. The upstairs public areas have stayed relatively tidy since we’ve started to have people over more. The basement however, is still in recovery mode from the repairs. Hopefully we can get that sorted soon as well.
I did sort and put away a bunch of woven fabrics the other day and have been boxing stuff up for my local Buy Nothing group. Some of the fabric and patterns that I haven’t been able to use for a while, or didn’t really care for any more went to a group that works with disabled individuals to teach sewing and a bunch of the other fabrics have gone to beginning sewists to help them make muslins and other things for practice. I sent a big box to a sewist friend of mine and have one started for K1 too, although it’s been long enough she may have forgotten it’s coming. š
Anyway, here are some projects. Some of them are gifts from Christmas!
Here’s some snuffle mats I’ve made for the dogs in my life. Piggy has one too, but we have to monitor pretty carefully, as she gets super excited and tries to rip the fabric thinking there’s food inside. Silly girl. I swear, we do feed her the vet recommended amount!
The blue and black one is for my sister in law’s dog. She also likes to inhale her food, so hopefully this will help her calm down too. You hide the food in between the fleece lines and on top of it and the dog has to snuffle her way through to find the food or treats. Piggy loves hers!
The second one is for K3. Her pup is on restricted movement right now due to an injury, so I thought maybe it would cheer him up. I tried a different folding technique on the ends and if it works, I may make another one for Piggy too. These are all completely washable, much better than the ones that are tied to a plastic mat. You can’t wash those and that seems unhygienic, considering how drooly dogs get.
I found some new doll clothes patterns and even though none of the kiddos have complained about the doll wardrobe lately, I was getting bored with it. I did have a request for a cheerleading outfit though and may have gone down the rabbit hole of really fancy doll clothes patterns on Etsy. It’s also possible that I now own patterns for a full doll size tutu with the Basque bodice… You know, the really fancy, stiff pancake tutu with the heavily embroidered bodice? And the Giselle flowy tulle tutu that can also be a ballgown. And maybe a Regency style doll gown (I would look terrible in the Regency style, but it’s so pretty, so the dolls get it instead.) And maybe also the following adorable patterns. This first skirt is the Tie Dye Diva Potato Chip Doll Skirt- Because you can’t just make one! I made this one super fast and it has the tiniest little pockets that are surprisingly easy to make. I also own the skirt in real kid and people sizes, so there’s that. Tie Dye Diva is one of the sponsors for the 52 Week Challenge.
These two are also from Tie Dye Diva- the pink shirt goes with the Potato Chip skirt (not these two obviously) and the dress is a reversible dress for a 14 inch doll of which I now have Anna and Elsa from Frozen. They came from my Buy Nothing Group as well and I had a mighty need to dress them in traditional Scandinavian clothes. What can I say, as tiny as they are, doll clothes are proving to be the thing that gets me out of my sewing slumps a lot. And I’m a grown-up, so get to decide to dress up the dolls. Plus, my American Girl doll, Kirstin is now retired and needs more clothes. I do have her sewing patterns too, but wanted a full Scandinavian costume. The 14 inch doll clothes are hard to find too, so who knows, if I can get them looking nice enough, I could sell them.
The last doll clothes item is this raglan shirt. I don’t remember who it’s by though so will have to tell you when I make the next one. This set of fabrics matches a hoodie I have and it makes me happy because they’re so cute together. I’ve wanted a doll raglan for a while because ragland style and dolman style (where the sleeve is part of the top piece) are the easiest styles to sew and I abhor sewing tiny little sleeves in flat. Now I can make all the cute baseball shirts!
Piggy also got a sweater when she was nervous about the windows being replaced. I had to keep her in the basement with me. We should have probably given her the stronger meds that make her calm, although the herbal ones worked too. Isn’t she adorable? When/if I make her more, I’ll extend the back and the belly coverage a little. The front fits fine, but the back and belly is slightly shorter than I’d like it to be. I have thought about making her a mesh shirt for hikes that has fabric on the belly to keep her from getting itchy, but mesh along the back so she doesn’t overheat, which bully breeds, especially bulldogs, are prone to have happen.
Her new collar says “Don’t go bacon my heart.” with hearts and bacon. I couldn’t resist although it made the Husband sigh and shake his head. He loves me and my punny heart though, so it’s all good. š
I made this bag to hold my dowel rods for my dolls at work. It’s a set of hanging racks that you can use for display if you’re selling at craft fairs and such, or in my case, when the office dolls need to go shopping at the clothes store. It gets set up in very elaborate ways, but I kept having dowels roll under my couch and it was very annoying. Now they’re all safe and together and my office doesn’t look quite as much like a toy store exploded in it.
I made us chopstick curtains for the kitchen too! We just had the windows done finally so now can have pretty things. Unfortunately, the curtain rod that was up there needs to be changed out, as the hanger bits in the wall just fell out when we took it down. Whenever we try to do house projects, we always find stuff that makes us either very annoyed or very confused. Things just weren’t done or not done correctly which makes more work for us. But my curtains will look super cute once we get a new rod for them!
I made this adorable gnome shirt too for K1’s kids, but I don’t know if it will fit any of them now, as it’s been a while. If she thinks it will, I’ll send it, otherwise I’ll find someone else to give it too. I don’t want the cuteness to go to waste in my basement!
I thought I had talked about this apron on here, but looking back, I don’t see it. So this was one of my Mom’s Christmas presents. The pattern is called “Pickle Dish” so she obviously needed to have it! I used pickle fabric for the backing and canned pickled veggie fabric for the contrast. I think this picture was taken quickly right before wrapping it for the trip there, so I don’t have any detailed pictures, unfortunately. It was my first time making the block and it was a doozy! I used the Accuquilt block die for it, otherwise it wouldn’t look as good. I will try it again because I need a pickle dish apron too, but I’m still recovering. š
So that’s the non-clothes or not for me items I’ve made lately. I’m going to post the clothes for me in a separate post to not clutter things up. I really haven’t posted about sewing since January, but I promise I’m still stitching along. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my sewing room!
