Bee Eyes & Mouth!: Day 158

Some Of The Details Are In :-]

It is so hot here that Honey Bee and I can't think or work very fast today.
At least HB has his eyes and mouth this afternoon!

EYES:

Two scraps of sweater and two buttons with blue thread...

...make funny, expressive eyes.
And orange floss French knots seemed a nice touch for a mouth.
Amazing what can be done even just with access to the surface of my already stuffed Bee. (Referring to the cart-before-the-horse comment from last night!)

He has a questioning look on his face which matches mine, saying "When is it going to COOL OFF here?" Well, it's Summer, so the answer to that will likely be MUCH LATER!!!

See you tomorrow for more of Honey Bee's construction.

Honey Bee Project: Day 157

Back On Track!

Two days ago I was talking about the materials and supplies for this Honey Bee. I'm not sure where my brain was when I was throwing in the black sweater for the body. These bees have a yellow body with black striping, for goodness sakes! I am amending my materials list and will be using yellow for the body and black for the stripes. (Back on track in more ways than one...)

Here I go with tonight's makings:

Body pattern pinned to the fabric. This is not sweater fabric--I'm so sorry--I didn't have anything remotely close to the right color for this, so I am using the yellow wool skirt that I had used for my Pencil Case back in February.
Also, I am not talking anatomically correct for my Bee. He will just be a cute, soft, cuddly one. 

He needs antennae, so here I am cutting off a sweater seam for them.

The two fabric pieces are now stitched around 3 sides.
What is that black bump at the top?

Endearing Antennae  :-]

I was thinking that stuffing him now is a bit cart-before-the-horse because I usually like to stitch faces, buttons, and other details when it is still easy. However, in this case I want to see how the body shapes up, get a feel for the Little Critter, then put the finishing touches on him. I want to get to know him so I can depict him in his real character. It will not be as easy, but I can better place his eyes, mouth, stripes, etc that way.

You haven't seen Katzenberg lately. He was helping me by falling asleep under  the chair. Can you believe it, he actually is using the leg of the chair for a pillow. He must be VERY tired!

My little Stuffed Creature.
Between now and tomorrow I will get to know him better and can add his details.

See you then.

Skipping A Day!

Multiple Things Have Deterred Today's Project...

Sad, But True.

Please come back tomorrow for the continuation of my

Honey Bee Project


Day 157 will be put off until Sunday, June 26!
(I truly apologize.)

Honey Bee Softie: Day 156

Another Bee For The Garden...

Phase I: The drawing phase and supplies accumulation.

Project work for today consisted of thinking about what to make, drawing the proposed softie, and finding the proper materials to execute the idea.

Here are my drawings:

[Note: If you click on the photo itself you will have a better view of the drawn pattern.]

Front of Honey Bee
Looking at the close view drawing you will see my plan for the following:
1. Antennae--sweater seams with knot in ends.
2. Eyes--buttons.
3. Yellow Bands--ribbon.
4. Stinger--triangular piece of sweater.

Back of Honey Bee
5. Wings--translucent ribbon.

Here are my materials all in a pile.

The only yellow ribbon I have is that on the spool above, and it is too narrow for what I want to use. The wide velvet ribbon in the photo is part of the black sweater that I will use for the body. I may be able to incorporate that to make the yellow bands. Time will tell. There are buttons to choose from for the eyes (my assortment that is now contained in my new Button Jar), and the translucent ribbon in the foreground will make a nice set of wings.

Please come back tomorrow for the next phase of my project.

Have a Great Saturday!

A Friend For Snail: Day 155

Bumblebee Project

I am going very simply tonight, as my day job was pretty busy and all things from my feet up are tired!!

My Snail was saying that she is "kinda lonesome", so I thought I should make her a friendly companion to keep her company. One that could understand her feelings and way of life.

Here is the Bumblebee:

My tools and supplies. Notice the black circle of felted sweater in the right upper corner.

That circle has a running stitch all the way around, close to the edge.
I am now pulling the thread ends to create a ball, and am stuffing it with the sweater scraps that you could see in the first photo.

Now my Bumblebee is complete. I added two dark green buttons for eyes and a green ribbon for wings. They almost look like they are moving!
Of course he is a friendly bee, but he didn't want to go without..........

...a Stinger. Just for show, mind you. :-]

Here are the two New Friends having a conversation over a flower.

Have a Nice Evening!

Festive Garland Tutorial: Day 154

Spruce Up Your Patio!

With Summer Holidays and Parties coming up, 

how about making some of these Sweater Garlands?

They are easy to make, require NO sewing, and the list of needed items is short, sweet, and easy to find.

The Needed Items:

Hefty Twine

Small Gauge String

Scissors

Measuring tape

One to several sweaters of the colors you want to use.

The How-To:

I recommend that you read through all instructions before beginning.

Please, if you have questions or comments don't hesitate to contact me. 

For this step you will need your sweater/s, scissors, and measuring tape or ruler.
The strips I cut varied between a range of measurements between 1 1/2" wide X 6" long, to approximately 2" wide X 5" long. The size is up to you, depending upon what size Sweater "Puffs" you want. You can go larger or smaller!

Now for the twine, the string, and your rectangular pieces of sweater.
Bunch up each piece in the center and tie the string around it. You will have each piece individually tied with its own section of string...no "garland" yet.

It looks a bit like a flower or a tiny dress for a mouse (if  your imagination goes a little wild!).
Here you can see the small gauge string (dark green) that has now been tied to the length of twine that will be the garland on which each of your sweater flowers will be attached. It is best to measure the length of twine you will need before beginning. For example, I wanted this for my patio umbrella outside to string around the edge.

Now its time to make your flowers. After they are all tied to the small gauge string, you can arrange them in the order you want before attaching them to the twine.

Here are some of my flowers.

They are lined up in the order I want. (I have already attached some of them to the garland twine.)

The full length of my garland. I left an extra section of twine at each end for attaching to the umbrella.

The Photo Shoot After The Garland Is Attached To The Umbrella:

It feels very festive!

Even my yard is happier...it seems to be smiling. :-]

Take time to enjoy the great outdoors.

More Button Storage: Day 153

A Proper Place For Buttons

In keeping with the last 2 days of making storage jars/containers more appealing, I just wanted to share another idea I had for a Sweater Label. This is my project for today.

A great jar with rounded square corners needs a label. You will see the entire jar shortly.
I measured the jar label in order to make the pattern to cover it. 

This time I want to embroider "Buttons" on my sweater piece, so I traced the pattern onto tracing paper and wrote the letters as I want them. This is it!

I have cut my sweater piece and also cut out the tracing paper template for the embroidery.
Now you can see the jar. I love square jars!

The tracing paper is pinned to the piece so I can now get out my floss and start sewing.
This is the very same technique I used for my Scissors Case on April 5th.

The stitching is finished, but I am not sure how well this has turned out until I  tear away the tracing paper. I must take a Very Deep Breath first. :-/

The process of taking away the paper has to be done very gently not to pull the stitching out of whack.

You can see my little pile of tiny pieces of tracing paper. The tweezers are an essential element as a helper to accomplish the task.
OK, it's readable. I'm happy.

Now the same drill as the last 2 nights: the gluing of sweater to jar.

Glue has been glopped. :-]
I learned something new tonight, though. Using another stick to hold the piece down while glopping with the other stick made it so much easier. No messy fingers/hands/etc. AND I also "picked up" the sweater label with the stick to place it on the jar. So very cool.

A nice improvement.

Taking its place on the shelf with my White Button container.
Tonight's jar holds all manner and color of buttons. Until I sort them otherwise they will live happily together here. I like the mish-mash of variety.

Of course you may know by now that I LOVE buttons.

 Goals For Everyone Tomorrow:
1-Observe the buttons on your shirt, dress, or coat.
2-Look at the details on them.

THEN:
Think what a brilliant invention buttons are!
Maybe ask Google about the history of buttons. :-]

Button Storage: Day 152

A Make-Up Day

As you recall, my camera took a day off yesterday. Now we are back on track, Camera and I, so here goes the Catching-Up-For-Lost-Time-Blog...and of course a project for today, too!

Yesterday the project was inspired by a tutorial of Martha Stewart's called

Decorative Jar Lids. 

The idea is to cover containers (jam jars, etc) for your crafting supplies so they will look great and be aesthetically pleasing, being more than just a Plain Jane container. Her version calls for woven fabric.

My version, OF COURSE, must be Felted Sweater Fabric.

And my story of the tutorial is as follows:

For the pattern, draw around the lid you want to cover, then allow for an additional  amount to lop over the edges. I used a baby food jar for my project, but you may cover any lidded jar with this technique.
 I couldn't keep a photographic record of the process for you, but I took photos today of the outcome.

The next step was to choose the fabric and cut it out. Pretty straightforward.

"Is the glue the same as your previous project, the Sweater Rose?," you ask.
YES! :-]
I spread the glue on the lid, then placed the lid in the center of the blue sweater circle. Before covering the edges of the lid with the overlapping fabric I cut from the outside edge of the circle every 1" so the fabric would lap over itself and lay flat on the lip of the lid.
Once that was done and the overlap adhering nicely to the lip, I cut around the edge to remove the excess. (You can see the cut off pieces here.) Now the jar lid is fully covered.

I stitched a button to the blue circle before I glued it.

The orange buttons in this jar are so cool...just had to show you!

Now it's THE NEXT DAY, Monday, June 20!

My project for today:

This has also been inspired by Martha's Decorative Jar Lids, but I am now off on a bit of a tangent.
Here is a plastic box that contained a pincushion that I purchased a while back. Couldn't bring myself to throw it away. I'm such a fanatic re-user of things, and can't stand to waste anything that might be of use in the future...however far distant that might be. :-/ Eeeeekkk!

I wanted to cover this label. I measured the label and drew a circle with my compass for the pattern.

Actually I tore as much of the label off as I could so there would be less space for the box embellishment and more space for the contents to show.

A button stitched to the circle...a little fuzzy, sorry.

Glopping the YES! glue to the sweater piece.
This was quite the tricky and fuzzy mess trying to keep from sticking everything to my hands and fingers before putting it where I really wanted it.

Success...the blue circle has found its home on the plastic box. And my white buttons have a new home where I can see them and get some inspiration for future projects. The good thing is that there is plenty of room for more White Buttons. I haven't yet rounded up all of them in my sewing area.

And here is my Happy Button Container on the shelf.
Some of my treasured toys are admiring it.

Tuesday is almost here. Have a good one!