Last week my 7 year old daughter asked me if she could do some embroidery. She made this pillow a couple of years ago, but hadn’t done much since. Sounded like fun to me! She does a lot of drawing, so I got out a disappearing fabric pen and let her create a design on...Continue Reading

I’ve been thinking about making some sort of Easter felt board, then yesterday I had the idea to make egg shaped boards for the kids to decorate. Our 2.5 year old really enjoyed helping me, and was so excited to play when they were done! After she finishes creating a design, we put them up...Continue Reading

Cooking is still one of little E’s favorite things to do. We’ve been getting so much milage out of the miniature kitchen set, that I decided to make a little pizza oven for her. In the last 24 hours I’ve “eaten” about 50 pizzas. After she puts the pizza in the oven and closes the...Continue Reading

When the twins were younger, I made these vintage fabric dolls. They still sleep with them almost four years later. Yesterday I decided little E and I better make one for her to sleep with too. It was very cute working together. She chose some vintage necktie fabric I had lying around, and then we...Continue Reading

I recently finished a unicycle embroidered shirt. And some of you on the Facebook page requested a template. So here it is! If you’ve never done embroidery before, here is a simple tutorial. It’s fast and fun! Happy stitching! Click on the image below, then print. (Note – I used almost all backstitch for this...Continue Reading

Our daughter just turned 2 yesterday, and she loves taking care of her dolls. And like many other kids her age, she’s also pretty fascinated with poo. So when I was at the sewing machine a few days ago, I couldn’t resist making some doll diapers with detachable velcro poo. Yesterday morning I gave her...Continue Reading

Warmer weather is coming, and last week I made cutoff shorts from some holey jeans. A couple of springs ago, I made this ball, and I always wanted to try narrowing the panels to make a football shape. So yesterday I gave it a go and it worked! In addition to some regular stuffing, I...Continue Reading

Hey Everybody! I’m Joel’s younger sister and I love to tackle big fiber arts projects, but now that I have two kids my time for crafting has diminished quite a bit. My new favorite craft is embroidery because it is quick, versatile and satisfying. I was inspired by photos of your embroidery based on Joel’s...Continue Reading

I finally tried painting fabric and made some simple little dolls. Last night I laid out a few scraps of muslin and the non-toxic acrylic paints I always use for kids stuff. (See my favorite tools page if you’d like.) I kept the paint pretty watered down so it soaked into the fabric. It was...Continue Reading

My daughter has been doing a little stitching at school, so I asked her if she’d like to do some embroidery at home. (I’ve been meaning to do this with her for months.) She was very excited and wanted to get started right then. For this first project, I told her to stitch wherever she...Continue Reading

Our twins love to get up early in the morning and play together while the rest of us are still asleep. But now baby E is wanting to get up early too. So, when I get the chance to nap, I’ve usually ended up with a stuffed animal draped over my eyes to block out...Continue Reading

I was drawing with some non-toxic fabric pens the other day just for fun. (See my favorite tools, if you want to know what kind of paint pens.) I’m not sure what I’ll do with all the drawings yet, but I made this bird into a little pillow toy. Kind of cute, and very fast...Continue Reading

We got to spend all of last week at my mom’s house. Among the exciting fun with grandchildren, I got to spend some time with my mom too. We made this play mat for little E. I was lucky enough to somehow end up with this very cool strip of fabric from London that my...Continue Reading

Baby E got ahold of my son’s old giraffe toy that I made when the twins were little, and she is having a pretty good time with it. I just used some natural canvas fabric and drew on it with non-toxic fabric pens. It’s held up really well over the last two years. I might...Continue Reading

Our baby girl is starting to play with toys! At almost 5 months old, she’s still having a little difficulty holding on to things, and getting the right parts of certain toys into her mouth. So I decided to make her an easy to hold, sun shaped toy, with lots of rays to suck on....Continue Reading

I just finished this embroidered shirt, now that it’s getting to be long-sleeve weather here. The design is actually some flower pots from an old sketch I did for one of these coloring sheets. While I was making it, my son got a piece of paper and said he wanted to draw the design too....Continue Reading

My son loves stripy pants as much as I like stripy socks. You can see in this old post that he’s been sporting these trousers for almost a year and a half. After finally wearing a hole in them, we tried to talk him into cut-off shorts, but he didn’t like the idea of his...Continue Reading

A lot of people ask me what toys and craft projects end up being favorites in our house. One of the hits has been these vintage fabric dolls that I made a year and a half ago. My daughter really latched onto hers, and has slept with it every night since, taking it on vacations...Continue Reading

Here’s an easy little fish toy that I made today for the baby. I used fabric scraps, including part of an old neck tie. So far she likes to watch me wiggle the fish tail in front of her. It’s pretty cute. If you want to try making one, there are photos and directions below....Continue Reading

By Wendi Gratz Embroidery is a really terrific craft. The tools are inexpensive and readily available, the projects are portable, and you can embroider ANY drawing. Today I want to introduce you to the basic tools, teach you how to transfer an embroidery pattern, and give you specific details on how I stitched up one...Continue Reading