Crafts and Projects

As the year comes to a close, it's fun to look back on the projects that I started, and finished, over the past couple of months!!!

At the murder mystery dinner that we attended in October, they announced that the next theme was Sherlock Holmes!!!  So, as soon as we remembered, we bought seats at the Sherlock/Watson table!  And I started shopping for costumes!!!

I found a formal dress for $2, and my mom found a top hat!  Both needed some updating before they would be ready for our dinner.

I was hesitant to cut into a perfectly lovely dress, to make it into a skirt, but after a quick amazon search for Victorian era skirt, I decided that it was worth the fifty-dollar gamble to at least try!

I was unsure how the dress boning was sewn in and was very pleased to find that they were in fabric pockets, not sewn in place!

After many pauses and much consideration, I finally took a deep breath and cut off the top edge of the dress.  After pinning the edges down to sew, I realized that I had made a terrible folly!  I cut the zipper pull off in the pieces that were removed!  Oh calamity!!!

I looked up a tutorial on how to reattach a zipper pull, and after much pulling and tightening, and heavy breathing, and failed attempts* it slid back onto the teeth!  Whew!  I was so relieved.  This setback doubled the amount of time it took to finish the project.

But I was happy with the result!  I was going for a Dr. Ogden (from Murdoch mysteries) look, and feel like it's pretty close!

And, with the extra fabric, I was able to make a band that is an exact match for my skirt!

I cut a swatch of the dress for both my mom and myself to carry, so that we can match accessories as we find them!

I've also found a few accessories since then!

Some boots, of which you'll only see the points and heels, but I feel like they're a good anachronistic match!

I also found some antique gloves at a church sale, with the cutest tiny buttons!

With the reusable bags, I've been tying on the tags.  I quickly ran through the ones that I made up last year, so I set out to increase my stash!

I spent several hours tracing and cutting, but I was able to sit and chat with the ladies at the moms' meeting at the same time, so it flew by!

This smile is the product of two days of Grace sewing, ripping out, starting again, cutting off the zipper, and regrouping to finally successfully sew her first zipper bag!!

My mom requested that I make some envelope covers for her photo books, using linens that her grandmothers had embroidered.  So, you know, no pressure.

After completing every single small task that I could, and getting the potatoes onto the dehydrator (you can read more about that in the "food" post later published later this month) I set up my sewing stations and got started!

I found some good fabric to use a lining!

Then, ironed, pinned, and started to sew!

The quilted piece was an easy start, because I just folded the edges and added a liner. (bottom right)

The second envelope was also an easy choice, because I sewed the entire blue oval piece onto the liner, and made the envelope out of fabric that was replaceable! (bottom left)

The third one was the first time I cut one apart.  The middle section was stained and had holes, so I cut the ends, and used the edging as a trim. It came out really cute too! (top left)

I finished three of them the first night, but was undecided on the fourth, as to how I wanted to sew it, and whether or not I needed to cut it.  So, I saved it for the next day.

The next day, I was able to sew the final one, without any cutting, or liner, by folding up each end and sewing it in place, then folding it into an envelope that has very pretty edging! (top right)

I was excited that I was able to finish them before my mom left, so that I could wrap them and send them to Sarah's with her.  (They opened gifts before she left for her TX, OK, FL tour.)

She sent me this picture of them on her shelf!  (With the tags that I made so that she can see which one is which without having to pull all of them out!  I think she was pleased, and I didn't irrevocably damage part of my family history!

I haven't gotten to gift these next items just yet, they'll be for Christmas morning, but I am super excited about them!  They are going to go with an American Girl doll bicycle snack cart that I bought used.  It didn't have any of the accessories, and when I looked up accessories, they started a around $10.  That's not an awful price, but my goal this year was a secondhand Christmas (and with very few exceptions, I was able to stick to that!)  

One night I was eating a Hershey's kiss, and flattened out the foil.  As I've been doing with everything these days, I thought, can I reuse this?  Then, brainstorm:  I could wrap up a chocolate chip!  So, I cut the foil in half, cut off the part that ripped a little bit, and cut the paper in half, then wrapped up two chocolate chips.  They were so cute!  I did another few, then sent it out to my people for inspiration on what other treats I could make!!!

After peeking in the candy jar, I found the Tootsie rolls, and was able to cut off most of the candy, cut the paper in half, trim the ends, and rewrap them into tiny facsimiles of the real article!

I sent out a request for old ice cream cones, but none of my friends had any leftovers from the summer.  I swung by the ice cream shop on the way home, to see if they had any that were bound for the dumpster that I could buy, but apparently the cones tend to shatter, not break in that way. = (  

So, I made a stop at carl's and bought a brand-new box of waffle cones, just to break them apart!  I used marshmallows, cut to be a little stickier, and squished them onto the top of the point of the cone.  Then, I used the clear section of a bread bag and my straightening iron to wrap them up.

The next project was mini-donuts that Kristy had found!  I used the box from the inside of the Hawaiian rolls we'd had earlier in the week, and cut out the net of a donut box.  It was pretty close, so after tweaking it a bit, I cut a second round, which turned out just as pictured.  I used more of the clear plastic from the bread bag to make the window.

The donuts themselves were supposed to be cheerios, but we only had fruit loops, so that's what I used.  I melted down two Hershey kisses (saving the foil to make a few more of the miniatures) dipped the fruit loops, then sprinkled them! It was an early release day for the twins, and I was worried that they were drying too slowly, so I stuck them in the freezer to expedite the process.  They came out really cute too!

I really wanted some jellybeans that I could cut and used the cross sections to make lollipops.  Sadly, no one that I asked had any, nor did Carl's. = (  After accepting defeat, I decided to try skittles, because I really, really wanted lollipops for the collection!

The fear was that the hard shell of the skittles would crack.  I used a knife to pierce the shell, then inserted the pointy end of a toothpick cut into thirds.  A few cracked, so I just ate those, lol.  Most of them worked out pretty well.  The time-consuming part of these was the tiny golden bow!!!

I wrapped an oval shaped piece of bread bag over them, then fought the bow! I needed more hands.  I felt the most wasteful with this particular group, because I had to make the string really long, so that my fingers could tie it, then pull it down into the tiny bow size and cut off the excess.  They did turn out really cute though!  I just wish they had been once used ribbons, instead of fresh off the spool.  

The entire collection!

My sister wanted to see it compared to a dollar instead of the quarter?  So, I thought I'd include it for your viewing pleasure. = )

The twins were so excited to give their gifts to their teacher!  The gift tags were put on in such a way that I would have had to unknot them to take a picture, so I'm just going to provide a description of the contents.  Both of them wrapped up a spartan Christmas ornament, gift card to the ice cream/coffee shop, and some chocolate. = )

My next trip to Aldi, I was able to pick up some Hershey's miniatures, as was my mom's suggestion, cut them down, ate the excess, of course, trim down the paper, and rewrap them!  Listening to the intro of David Copperfield during this time, I felt particularly bad for his plight.

William came home from school one day, with a cardboard piece and paper tube that he was using as a sword and shield.  He made some improvements to the shield, adding a window and painted the shield blue.  Sadly, he had decided to use my paint marker to color the shield, and it only did about a sixth of it before running out.  sigh.  

I helped him get out the acrylic paints that are supposed to be used for these types of projects. It was much faster he said!  

It was a busy, productive time, and I love looking back at all the finished products!

later days

 *I'd like to note here that I was listening to Prince Harry's book at the time, and just happened to be in the chapter that coincided with his war time combat experiences.  It seemed apropos. (Not that I'm trying to compare a broken zipper to war, it was just hearing about his battle while waging mine gave me a small sense of comradery.)