I’ve been so busy making stuff that I haven’t taken the time to post.  Sorry about that.  I’m mostly doing the same things over and over, and it would get pretty boring if I were posting, I guess.

The pillowcases (above) were made a while back and probably sum things up, for me and most people.

This week I made stuff like this:

See?  Lots of the same, over and over … and I’m having the best time with it.  :)

So what have you been up to?

We’re passing head colds around at my house, and my husband has an especially bad one.  Last night I made an eye pillow for him.

To make your own, cut fabric about 9″ by 5″, sew three side, fill about halfway with rice and sew the open end closed.  In just a few minutes, you’ll have an eye pillow that can be heated in the microwave or chilled in the freezer.  To heat, put it on a small plate and microwave for about 30 seconds.  Flip it over and heat about 30 more seconds.  (Your microwave may take more or less time.)

Then lay down and place the heated pillow over your aching sinuses.  The rice conforms to the shape of your face, providing blessed relief to sinus pain.  (It’s also pretty handy for muscle aches.)

I think I need to buy some flax seeds and lavender to make another eye pillow for those times when I want to sleep and he wants to keep watching TV.

You’ll need four pieces of fabric cut to 8″ by 4.5″, or larger if you favor big Jackie O shades.  I used plain black for my lining pieces, a Michael Miller print on the back and embroidered these for my fronts:

I totally dig these, if I do say so myself.

Iron fusible fleece to the backs of the exterior pieces to pad and protect your glasses.  Then sew the two exterior pieces, right sides together, leaving one short side open.  Clip the corners and turn right side out.

Then sew the lining pieces, right sides together, leaving about a three inch opening along one long side and again leaving one short side open.  Leave the lining inside out and slip the exterior (right side out) inside the lining.  You may want to use a ruler to help push the exterior all the way into the lining.

Sew a seam all the way around the top opening of the case, remembering that you’re sewing an opening — sew around the top, don’t sew the two sides together.

Then reach in through that handy opening you left yourself in the lining and pull out the exterior.

While you have the lining right side out, but still outside of the case, stitch the side opening in the lining closed.  Slide the lining into the case and top stitch around the case opening.

Enjoy your lovely, handmade glasses case!

My purse production has been halted by a shortage of interfacing coupled with nasty snow covered roads.  I decided I should try to find a way to creatively use the little leftover scraps though, and found this tutorial for making business card cases from Schlosser Designs.  Now I can whip up sweet little accessories to coordinate with the purses – love it!

(Don’t look too closely, this was a quick trial run before breakfast.)

Have a great day!

One of the reasons I wanted a sewing machine was to make purses.  I love purses — they have such personality and they still fit even if your weight fluctuates.  This was my first attempt at a sewn purse.  It has mistakes, but I learned a few construction techniques and overall I’m very happy with it.  The fabric even makes me happy, seeing the states all mixed up makes me think my friends across the country aren’t so far away as they sometimes seem.

My second purse was made for my sister in law Alison who’s learning to play guitar.  I saw this fabric and knew I’d be making her a purse.

The interior is a coordinating print.  I love the happy colors!

I hope she’ll like it!  I’ve started on my next purse already.  This is kind of addictive.  :)

We’ve scheduled a family vacation for June and I’m already working on details.  (I love having something to plan!)  My daughters are still using little-girl-going-to-Grandma’s style luggage that they outgrew years ago.  It’s time for them to have some real luggage to take on this trip and into adulthood.

I’ll buy them some nice roller suitcases, but for carry-ons I wanted to upcycle some vintage luggage.  I asked what they might want painted on their luggage and earned a couple eye rolls.  “Mom’s crafting at us again!” But then I said the magic words, “Would you like a horde logo?” OH. YES. THEY. WOULD.  In their spare time, my sweet little girls are hardcore World of Warcraft gamers.

If you want to personalize some luggage, you can create a stencil for yourself using Contact paper.  Draw or trace on the paper side, keeping in mind that you’ll need to reverse your design.  Cut out carefully and apply to your luggage.  Smooth down all around the edges, but if your suitcase is textured you may want to paint carefully from the stencil toward the middle of your design.  This helps keep paint from being pushed underneath the stencil into the little surface grooves.

I use fabric paint because it’s meant to be flexible when dry.  I was told the horde logo should be red, but my red paint looked really pink.  I’m not into World of Warcraft myself, but I’m guessing pink horde logos just won’t do.  I started with a little metallic black around the edges, then mixed the black and red together to fill in.  Carefully peel off the stencil while the paint is still wet.  (Waiting until it dries may cause some of the paint to dry on the stencil and peel up right along with it.)  After it’s dry, you may want to apply a few coats of varnish to protect the paint against scuffs.

Hooray for second chances!

I hope they’ll approve!  (You can see my own Twitter luggage here.)

Tomorrow my Little One will be twelve years old.  She’s getting older and I thought her gift wrap should reflect that.  No cartoons or baby animals this year!

All her gift wrap is leftover scraps from here and there.  The flowers were punched from copy paper and the pink “ribbon” is just folded strips of tissue paper to tie everything together.  She hasn’t seen her presents yet, I hope she’ll be pleased.

I’m happy that even though she’s growing up, my girl is still just as qwirky as ever.  That pink present in the back?  That’s the jar of dirt she asked for.

I’m crazy about that kid.  :)

Some social networking sites only allow you to add one link to your profile.  For my Twitter account, I’ve always linked to ThePutnamScoop.com, a blog mainly based on my home area.  My Blip.fm account linked to my slightly more creative CoopPics.com.  Neither one alone tells you very much about me, but if you saw both, and maybe skimmed through my Flickr pictures or saw what I had to say with friends, you’d have a much better idea of who I am.

It’s not a huge deal, but I work online and many of the people I consider friends are people I initially met online.  I’m guessing the same is true for many of you.  Flavors.me lets you create a kind of landing page/online business card to summarize your online turf into one neat, compact link.  (Mine is Flavors.me/SarahWV if you want to have a better look.)  Sites like this aren’t new, but I love the ease of use and versatility of this one.  Setting up a page is fun, a creative expression.  (I’ll probably keep editing mine for a while, I haven’t even added in work stuff yet.)

If you’d like your own page, this video will show you how easy it is to add and edit content.  Then go to Flavors.me to grab your account.  If they ask you for an invite code, feel free to use the one they gave me: heat.  (Hey, they said I could share with anyone I liked.  You’re reading my blog, I’m pretty sure I like you.)

Once you have yours set up, please share your link in the comments.  I’d love to see it!

Many thanks to Lani Rosales for introducing me to Flavors.me and to Tony Lazzari for sharing the photo he took of me in Times Square earlier this month!

As much as I love crafts, I’ve just never gotten into using a sewing machine.  I just treated myself to this one, and I’m still a little bit afraid of it.  Yes, I know it’s pink.  It’s still a little scary.

The instructions for loading up a bobbin and threading the machine were easy enough, so I worked on a little test swatch and decided to just jump into a project.  I found a tutorial for making rag edge burp cloths at Homemade by Jill.  This is a PERFECT first sewing project. Buying a set of flannel receiving blankets to use as fabric is an easy way to get a range of colors and designs that were made to go together.  The pattern doesn’t require pre-washing or ironing of the fabric, so you can get right to the interesting parts.  It doesn’t matter if the seam is perfect as the finished edge will be ragged to hide small mistakes, which is quite comforting to a newbie.  Really, it would be difficult to find an easier first sewing project.

It didn’t take long to have the stitching done.  Maybe I don’t need to be afraid of this thing after all.

Best of all, after sewing up a stack of burp cloths …

I got to sit in front of the TV watching football while fringing the edges.  Because really, what goes better with sewing than football?  ;)

I have an ear infection that feels like it isn’t going away any time soon, regardless of the antibiotics, and I am too full of self pity to craft.

Well, almost too full of self pity to craft.  Instead of working on what I should have been doing (finishing a crocheted black and white baby blanket) I let myself work on something a little more entertaining – a scottie dog in a felt zebra print.

Isn’t she cute?

(Please pardon the cluttered craft area.)  Someday I’ll finish the blanket, and the blanket and zebra dog will go live with sweet little Ava.  Someday.

But for now I’ll go, before I whine any more.  You go make stuff.  :)