on the wild side: tiger hats

Walking on the wild side?
It is starting to get cold in the morning,
 Miss C. needed something to keep her warm while walking to school.
So I made her a tiger hat.

Of course I also made one for her doll!

I used the simplicity pattern 1514.
It is fast and easy, but the tiger fabric is a pain to work with, it makes a mess during cutting,
it is slippery during stitching....I found it is best to use rotary cutter instead of scissors,
and sew the fur on top and the fleece on the bottom.
(it is especially important for the doll version where the seams are 1/4")

It comes with pockets to keep fingers toasty,
and paw prints, can it get any better?!

While the big dolls are able to have the same tiger hat,
(it is part of the pattern)
Camille is a lot smaller, so I made her a simple beanie hat,
with a rectangle of fur, and a fur yo-yo.

Ready to come with us for a walk on the wild side?



Happy sewing!

it starts to look like fall...

Fall is here, lots of leaves to rake in the yard,

cool weather (the heater has been turned on),

the dolls have their new outfits,

the only thing missing was some fall decor in our house.

I had great plans, especially after my Halloween Hunt a couple weeks ago...

Well it did not work out at all,

so bad and sad that I do not want to go into the details...

(but it did involve some paint and foil, there is always Christmas)

So I went with something easy,

and it did make me happy in the end:

I decorated our sideboard in the dining room, with a variety of pumpkins, real and glass;
(how fitting to have a glass Cinderella pumpkin since I made Cinderella dresses for everybody!)

and pottery: the green one is from Miss C.'s pottery class,

the beautiful orange and black comes from a South West Native American tribe,

the yellow pitcher holding the flowers is from PB.

And no setting is complete without a proper drink collection!

Of course the amazing banner is really the most interesting part for me.

I received as a gift from Chartreuse and Co,

perfect for somebody who enjoys paper crafting!

A non fall related news, but totally inspired by vintage things,
we purchased some new chairs for the dining room.
I guess we are going for vintage industrial look....
I have plans for the IKEA bookcase,
hopefully it will work better than my fall plan!

Happy day!

I am linking this post to Primitive And Proper who organized the Halloween Hunt.

dolls celebrate Fall too!

Fall is here and more importantly spooky time!

Miss C and I had a fun time recycling some of her clothes

into Halloween outfits appropriate to go to school....

no costume allowed!

It all started with a pair of stripped legging,

we cut off the bottoms of the legs and made a mini for Polly (no sewing required),

and a skirt for Camille (a little sewing, an elastic waist was added).

Her top is made of a cut-off sock! Yes she is that slim!

For Mathilde, I sewed a pair of legging out of the same legging.

With some skull knit, I made a t-shirt using Liberty Jane free t-shirt pattern.

Happy sewing!

leather tablet holders: how to by Mon Cheri

Happy Columbus Day!

For a change of pace, Mon Cheri has the day off, so he's making a post.

Take it away...

Morgane went on the Haloween Hunt on October 5th and met the Graphics Fairy in real life and explained that I used some graphics for a project, so I'd like to show off the result.

I made two leather tablet holders as gifts:

and,

I made them using the same technique we used to transfer an image on wood to make trays and crates, ironing on the image from shelf paper.

I put together images from the Graphics Fairy, printed them on the contact paper, then ironed onto two brass plates.  This is what the plates looked like before I ironed on the images; 

The brass plates were cut from a door kickplate using a hacksaw.  The images were formatted in Open Office.  The only tricky part is the lettering, you have to convert the text to an image and then transform it to the mirror image before transferring it to the contact paper.  If you don't perform this transformation, the writing comes out backwards.

  

A careful examination of the world map shows it is backwards in the picture for this reason.

As for the rest of the project, Morgane made the fabric liner.  I cut the leather, tooled it, dyed it, and sewed it all together by hand.  I acquired all the tools, leather, and dye from Tandy leather company.  I used a 4-5 ounce leather cowhide and water based dyes.  I made up my own decorative design for the cover flaps and cut it with an exacto knife, then pounded the image into the leather using metal stamps.

The Graphics Fairy is a great resource to add customization to projects like this.  Thanks Graphics Fairy! 

Thank you Mon Cheri for sharing your art work,

they turned out really well!

Happy day!

working early on a tree skirt

It might be early to start on a Christmas project,

but I have a tendency to run out of time later in the season,

so maybe this year, my Noel quilt will be actually ready on time....

It has been a while since I worked on a quilting project,

well a not paper pieced project!

(I need to remove the blue marking guide line!)

A couple of weeks ago, I visited my local quilt store,
and just could not stop admiring their new Christmas collection,
and this book: Simply Modern Christmas, by Cindy Lammon.

I had not purchased a quilting book in years,

I found most of them too easy or not my style, I guess I was not inspired by them,

I see so many more inspiring designs and quilts on blogs.

(and I have a lot of quilting books from many years of "collecting")

Well this one was different, not too easy but nothing challenging either,

it felt ...right!

So I chose some fabric from Moda Winter's lane,

added some quilting linen that I had been saving

( I decided to use the good stuff right away instead of waiting!)

and some Christmas fabric from last year (Blitzen from Basic Grey), 

the one is used on my reindeer pillow.

I set out to make a tree skirt, simple and modern.

The explanations are quite good and easy to follow,

very little diagonal piecing, just for the large background pieces.

So here it is so far.

It has been pieced and quilted,

now I need to cut the circle at the center 

(quite a shame since it matches up so nicely in the center!)

and make/sew all the binding.

I am going for a wide binding, the point on the chevron is very small,

I did manage to align everything pretty nicely except for the edge,

so a little cheating is necessary....

I think it will be OK,

let's just not mention it anymore!

Happy sewing! 

rosemary appetizer

Lately Mon Cheri and I have not been out on dates,
so I brought them to us,
through drinks and appetizers taken in our backyard,
well less noisy than a house full of children!

My latest favorite snack/appetizers on a fall evening:
Rosemary shortbread, and creamy feta/rosemary spread.

I followed this recipe from An Edible Mosaic.

It is truly delicious, together or separate.
The first time I made the spread, I followed exactly the recipe,
but I found it a little too oily, so the following time, I used one less Tbsp of olive oil
and it was just right for me.
The cookies are just perfect as is,
I did make them a little smaller the second time
as they are so rich.

I like to set up our little table with a variety of dips, sauce, cheese and crackers,
a personal interpretation on tapas,
we usually skip dinner after that.
Malou is of course a big part of the event,
always ready in case something fails, gravity is her friend.

With all the rain coming down right now,
it seems doubtful that we will be able to do it this week end,
there is always the week end after that....


Happy day!

Halloween Hunt for grown-ups: vintage shopping!

This Saturday, I was able to participate to the Hometalk Halloween Hunt!

It was located in the "greater" DC area, more exactly Frederick county in MD, and Loudoun county in VA.

So I left home at 7:30, visited 4 shops,

 ate breakfast and lunch on the spot,

and made it back by 4:30, not without getting a ferry ride!

It was a short cut....!

One of my girlfriends accompanied me on this expedition,

it was definitively funnier that way!

We started at "Sweet Clover Barn", enjoying looking through everything,

here are a few pictures of my favorite vignettes:

There I also met Karen from "The Graphics Fairy",

I was a little shy but I went ahead and introduced myself,

she is as sweet and nice on person as she is in her blog.

I

After that, we drove over to "Chartreuse and Co", and saw more cool stuff,

with 6 barns to check out, it kept us quite busy.

I must admit I enjoyed the first one best,

I guess I am not a really antique person,

I like my vintage to be inspired and antiqued but new!

It probably comes as a response to my grandmother's passion,

she liked everything old, and there were never a sturdy chair to sit on!

While we were there, we received lunch and took a little break...

After crossing the river, driving over the Potomac River, in its autumn beauty,

we met it to "the Old Lucketts Store" and the design house.

Last year, Mon Cheri and I visited the Old Lucketts Store once last year,

it was just as fun!

Once again my favorite was the design house,

it goes with me liking new things made to look old...but really sturdy!

I took a few pictures, but Karen (of "The Graphic Fairy") did a much better job,

so for better pictures check it out here.

And finally we checked out "On a Whim".

By the time we got there, we were all spent,

and I forgot my camera in the car,

it was hot, I was lazy....

But I did get to see a great paint demonstration,

so it was totally worst it!

Now I have to come up with something with the results of my hunt,

not sure what it will be....

at least it was a great hunt!

Happy day!

Camille, our new doll from France

Here is Camille, our newest friend,
Miss C.  received her as a birthday present when we were in France.

We introduced briefly Camille as Polly's little sister during our photoshoot at the stable,
now we get to give her a proper introduction.
She came dressed as a ballerina, but did not stay that way very long.
Miss C. also received 2 outfits for her (the pink top-shorts and the fur coat).

Well, it was of course not enough clothes for just our young fashionable Camille,
so Miss C. and Mamie spent some quality sewing and knitting!
My mom knitted the blue sweater, purse and leg warmers
and Miss C. knitted a scarf.
My mom also sewed a little kilt while Miss C knitted a little shrug to complete the ensemble.

It was her first attempt at knitting and she did a great job,
too bad I cannot help her in pursing this new craft addiction!

Happy day!

hanging swim pennants

The pool has closed, swim season is over,

time to hang ribbons and trophies.

It was Miss C.'s first real year,

she did really well, 

making it to the A meet a few times for the swim team,

and placing sometimes in the dive meet.

In our family, participation is required,

success is optional!

So I hang up all those ribbons on a purple twine,

between the 2 pennants I sewed earlier this season.

If you are interested in making your own,

here is the pennant tutorial.

Her trophies are standing underneath, proudly.

Not everybody gets 3rd place in dive,

even when there are only 5 girls in this age group.

I can honestly say that I could not do even the most basic dive,

I am very proud of my little swimmer/diver!

While I did not make any pennant for Brick master,

I am quite impressed by his progress in butterfly.

He started late in the swim team 

(at 11 while most of his team mates started around 8 years old)

but on his second year, we saw some real improvement.

I am one proud Mom!

Happy day!

two cute little pouches

Over the years, I made many pouches and make-up bags,

who doesn't love little zipped containers, right?!

So of course I made a few more,

as usual mostly as gifts for girlfriends and family members.

For these 2 pouches, I used a retired pattern from Michelle Patterns :  the inset zip clutch & pouch.

I have used some of her patterns before: the dumpling and the grocery bag,

always with great success.

This pattern has a neat inset zipper, making the top of the pouch very clean and professional looking.

I had fun matching a solid with a fun print, even if it made for not so perfect top-stitching!

Someday I need to make one for myself!

Happy sewing!

dolls and horses at the stable

Hello there, we are off to the stable,

would you like to come and join us?

Since you last saw the ranch, we added a rope at the entrance,

there were too many risks of horses running away.

 Well, come on in,

there is a lot of space here, and it is full of friends!

Our 2 horses Diamond and Gem are enjoying all the attention the girls are giving them,
Gem especially appreciates the carrots Camille brought him.

The girls like to spend some time in the club-house-part of the stable,
showing off their trophy,
Miss C. needs to make some more to complete the look,
may be some ribbons?

The hay stack can also be used for resting,

taking care of horses is a lot of work!

Camille, our newest friend from France, is Polly's little sister,

(the girl with the cowboy hat)

she has the same blond hair and blue eyes,

it must run in the family!

Rebecca is an animal lover (just like Miss C.)

and supervises Camille and Gem's interactions,

foal can be so unpredictable.

We hope you enjoyed your day with us,

at the stable,

it is so much fun to hang out there and play with the horses.

See you here back soon!

happy day!