Let’s knit toys
The plush artist Heidi Kenney (aka My Paper Crane) is having a solo show at Schmancy in Seattle opening this Friday, August 8.
I’ve had the privilege of seeing Heidi’s charming and kooky work in person, and it’s just so much fun to experience up close. If you’re in the Seattle area, please check out it out!
A friend made a documentary a while ago about people who competitively twist balloons into animal (and other) shapes. Can you think of a better subject for a documentary? I almost can’t. It’s called Twisted: A Balloonamentary, and it’s being screened in New York this week!
There two more screenings, today (6/25) and tomorrow (6/26), at the Pioneer Theater. I’m planning to go on Thursday.
More screenings are planned or ongoing in Ann Arbor, Iowa City, and Portland —check out the “Screenings” section on the film’s website. Or you can get the DVD from Amazon!
John saw Twisted a while ago at a private screening, and he reviewed it recently on Geek Out New York.
My jewelry-designer friend Audrey recently made the most beautiful pair of earrings out of handmade Japanese paper and sterling silver.
I love how they look so incredibly light—the use of the paper is just inspired. (Now if only I wore earrings…)
The earrings are part of her collection, which can be found in her Etsy shop. (I also blogged about her shop when she opened it last year.) Audrey specializes in mixing industrial and natural materials with traditional elements of fine jewelry. The result is beautiful designs that balance strength and delicacy.
I think her jewelry would make an awesome Mother’s Day gift for a hip kind of mom!
For those of you who kindly left comments on the interview I did with Kristen Rask of Plush You, we’ll be determining the winner of the Mochimochi Land gift certificate soon! Kristen has been traveling, and has been without much internet access, so as soon as things settle down for her we’ll be contacting the winner.
Kristen is actually in New York right now, and I had the privilege of sitting down with her on Monday for a cup of coffee and a chat about her Seattle store Schmancy and their huge annual plush show, among other things. It was so much fun! I had met Kristen only briefly before, so it was great to get to know her better. She’s even busier than I had thought, organizing all the shows and events that take place at Schmancy, in addition to running the store itself, and she’s working on a couple of books at the same time. And look—she brought me a present!
This sweet little bag is a Schmancy original, made by Kristen herself. I don’t know how she squeezes in time to do her own crafts, but I feel lucky to benefit from her industriousness! The little bag is perfect for holding knitting notions, so I’ll be using it a lot. And the cute little cloudy thing is a pin! I really need to brighten up my workspace, so I think I’ll find a way to use it for decorating.
Thank you Kristen!!
Update: I just realized that the magnets in my laptop are perfect for hanging Little Cloudy. Yay!
My mother-in-law Bonney was eager to share her latest fabric find with me when I arrived in New Hampshire for the weekend:
Oh my. Was all I had to say. I asked her if she had plans for her half-naked cowboys, firemen, policemen, construction workers, and delivery boys—fortunately, no plans in particular.
I’m supposing that the primary purpose of these prints is to sit in a closet and occasionally be brought out for laughs, but maybe I’m just not thinking creatively enough. For the curious, Bonney got them from eQuilter.com
I spent last Saturday afternoon at a plush workshop taught by the famous Jenny Harada!
The workshop was held at Etsy Labs in Brooklyn, where Jenny took us through the basics of sketching pattern pieces and putting them together with a sewing machine. My hands were too busy to take any photos during the class, but Jenny let me take a quick photo of her with her mound of plushes afterwards.
Aside from making my own plush toy, I had a lot of fun looking through Jenny’s crazy creations and picking her brain about her design process. It’s funny how there are some similarities with making knitted toys, but sewing is still a little foreign to me. I think I’m gradually getting more comfortable with it, though.
So here is the monster I made! His name is Herman.
Herman’s shape is something I’ve had in mind for a while—I sketched out his body freehand, and I used Jenny’s patterns for his legs and horns. Don’t you love his purply furriness? The fur is great because it conceals less-than-skilled sewing.
Herman’s a lot of trouble, though. As soon as I brought him home, he started trying to eat everything in sight!
He tried to eat John’s stuffed elephant…
Then he went for the Woodins (log and all!)…
Even John wasn’t spared!
So we’ve got our hands full with our new friend. Maybe sometime soon I’ll try sewing something completely on my own!
This is Charleston.
I’m very much a beginner at sewing, so I was amazed that I could accomplish a cute toy in one day. With the help of my mother-in-law, of course!
His bottom, which I had to sew shut by hand, is a little bunchy…
But I think he’s totally cute!
We made him from this McCall’s pattern:
It was a little confusing, because there were different pieces for doggy 1 and doggy 2, but they looked like the same dog to me.
Anyway, a dog got made end the end, and I feel like I’ve accomplished my “argg out of comfort zone” challenge for the month.
Fall is the season for trying something new. For me, new beginnings this fall will be finally mastering crochet (or at least amigurumi), finally getting a New York driver’s license (just a matter of paperwork and waiting in line, but a challenge to get up the energy to do it, nontheless), and finally learning how to use my sewing machine.
My lovely mother-in-law and giver of said sewing machine came down for a visit this weekend, armed with little squares of fabric (which she had purchased in a cute little kit on Etsy) and an entire roll of batting. It was time to face the machine, unlike that last time, when it was only time to think about facing the machine.
“C’mon, kids in China use these things all day long,” she assured me. Well, I can show those precocious child-laborers what’s what, I thought, and so I hunkered down and churned out this little number in two days:
This was before ironing the front flat and adding the back, but I was rather pleased by my progress by this afternoon, when the light was good for picture taking. (Not all the squares perfectly lined up, but I’ve decided not to care about that.) I now have it almost entirely done, and I’m sure it will make a good gift for somebody’s baby someday. At the moment, I don’t know any babies.
I was actually so excited about my now-remedial sewing machine abilities that I ran out and got yards and yards of yummy fabric at Purl Patchwork today too. The next one will be grownup size, and just for me!
One new beginning down, two to go.
Latest Comments
RSS