I’ve been tackling some larger projects, so I haven’t posted in awhile. One of them is this zoo blanket. Jack and Tess love to get out all of their animals and arrange them on the floor to “make a zoo”. I thought it would be fun to design a blanket or play mat that had […]
My nephew Leo just turned 3 on Sunday. He loves music, so I made him this trumpet, which gave me a great excuse to use some of my “new” vintage buttons. As usual I just made this up as I went, and the whole thing was a big experiment. I think it turned out well […]
My wife’s grandma just gave me her Tiffany Cigar box full of buttons during our visit last weekend. She said she was never going to use them, so I gratefully accepted the gift. The kids already love playing with them just in the box. Then I drew up some animals and pictures that they could […]
My wife’s Birthday is coming up, and I just finished making her a wool felt embroidered brooch. I got this great idea from Tiny Happy, a really cool craft blog. I pretty much copied her design, which wasn’t too creative of me, but I really thought my wife would love it. Also, I’m really new […]
Here’s a sewing experiment I just did, using up a lot of scraps and some felt. I learned a lot as I went, so the next one should be better and easier. But it’s still a fun little friend.
I’ve seen little books like this all around, but now that I have a sewing machine I finally got to make some. I made the covers from thick art magazine covers, and then used a paper cutter to cut the pages. Then just fold the papers in half, and sew a line down the middle. […]
I’ve just made my first article of clothing with the sewing machine! A skirt for my daughter. I found this cool (and easy) skirt pattern on the bolt fabric blog. I even ended up with a pretty straight top seam! How’s that for some sewing lingo.
I just made some more stuffed animals for the kids. Simple natural canvas fabric, and the I drew on them with some non-toxic fabric pens. They’re really liking them so far!
Yesterday my son and I had fun cutting out some scrap paper and turning them into little animals. It was really a fun way to use old paper. We kept making more and more animals until we had a full zoo. Here are a few of them.
I’ve been wanting to make some wire animal sculptures for awhile, and finally got around to it. I thought it would be fun to make the heads out of wood and paint them. They’re definitely Alexander Calder and Joan Miró inspired. Also below is a quick video of me making one, if you want to […]
Here’s a little climbing toy I made. I used to have one when I was a kid and loved playing with it. I just hung it in the art room. We’ll have to see if the kids can make it climb when they get up from naps.
This is a post of some of my older toys that I thought would be fun to put on the blog. Elephant Puzzle Wood Dolls An embroidered pillow doll I made for Tess Little wood toys for kid’s Easter eggs
My mom just got her old Pfaff sewing machine all tuned up so I could have it. It’s going to be fun making stuff for the kids. I made the lion this morning, and also an outfit for one of my wooden dolls from a holey Paul Smith sock that I never had the heart […]