Fruits of Labor

Once again it's been FOREVER since I've posted. I've been overwhelmed with work and hadn't really been crafting much. Last week I decided it was finally time I get the craft hut up and running again. I cleaned out all the chicken dust, threw open the curtains (should have done that before dusting), and pulled out some glitter and glue. More on those projects later though. My neighbor friend Nicole just got back from her honeymoon in Hawaii and we were excited to have an afternoon to craft with each other after a long hiatus with all her wedding planning and crafting. Nicole brought over her fabric scraps and a cute fruit pincushion pattern. This was the first time we actually finished a project in one sitting! Well, almost. A little bit of embroidery on the leaves and I'll be content with it. We hand-sewed our pears and used some wonderful wool felt for the leaves and stems. They came out so cute we decided we are going to make a whole basket full of fruits.

Happy Sewing!

Cerise : )

P.S.: I PROMISE to post more!

Summer Shirt Dress

On a last minute whim, Theresa and I decided we just HAD to use our grand opening coupons at the bigger and (slightly) better JoAnn's in town. Of course, that's always hard to do when almost everything is on sale! We spent way more time browsing than intended, mostly due to a few people with TONS of bolts needing cut, and of course we are easily distracted. A lovely cotton shirt fabric jumped off the shelf at me and I headed overto patterns to find the perfect design for a lovely cotton floral print. I had in mind a wrap dress but a Simplicity Lisette shirt dress pattern seemed absolutely perfect for my newly found fabric friend. When I got to the cut table the bolt was short a half yard for the dress pattern but I decided it would work to shorten it into a shirt or do the other not-as-cute-or-flattering shirt dress pattern in the set. Saturday was my day to relax and not worry about cleaning the house or weedingthe garden so I decided to start on my dress. It's been quite a while since I've sewn. The craft hut is still a chicken-rearing disaster so I brought my machine and tools into the kitchen, threw the leaves into my grandpa's table, and started ironing and cutting away. My goal was to get the dress done for a dinner date and good-bye party but, asusual, that was another silly Cerise dream. After my dinner date (sadly, I missed the good-bye party since dinner took a while), I stayed up late sewing and ran out of thread. Sunday morning I switched from a bright reddish-pink to a bright red spool of thread and kept on sewing while Theresa made a zafu and linen napkins. With the sleeves painlessly sewn on, the button holer was attached and sewing away with not all the button holes being centered down the front plaquette by the end of it all. I added a random mix of white buttons from my collection of odds and ends gathered from thrift stores and old clothing along the other front plaquette and viola! A done summer shirt dress. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day so I'll have to put it away for the summer sun, if it ever comes! It's a little snug in my hips but fits my upper body really great.The buttons were put on too close together so theleft side of the dress is about an inch shorter than the right side, but at this point, I don't really care and I don't think anyone else but my fiancé will notice.

Happy Sewing and Hoping for Sun!!!

Cerise : )

DIY face cleansing pads

I get tired of wasting money and resources on all the little things I use everyday. One of those is cotton cleansing pads for facial cleansing. I got the idea of using some scraps of fabric that weren't big enough for anything else. I used cotton flannel with organic cotton batting for the inside, sewed some squares and now have washable reusable cleansing pads. I am still working on the ideal bag for the pads so that they can be washed in their own little mesh bag.
Theresa, OmMama

More Projects on the Needles!

Here's what else are on the needles:

I am hoping to have this sock done by the time I drive back to Oregon next weekend. These are a Christmas present for some lady I know. I used WAY more yarn that I thought I would on the first one and had to wait to get another skein in to start the second sock. I LOVE this yarn. It's Knit Picks Shine Sport in Grasshopper green. I could live in this stuff! I also really like the sock pattern (Meida's Socks, Nancy Bush, Interweave Knits). The pattern texture is wonderful and I really like the heal flap. Overall, this is definitely one of my favorite projects!

Happy Knitting,

Cerise : )

The Real Oil Cloth

So the snack bags aren't up on Etsy or Art Fire yet but they will be soon! And to add to the good snack bag news I'm working on leak "proof" snack bags. My first thought for this was vinyl and that led me to using oil cloth. But I realized I wanted to be really green about this, I mean vibrant-in-your-face-kelly-green. So I thought a little harder about the oil cloth. I had looked into this fabric before and found out that all this supposed oil cloth was really cute cotton prints coated in PVC. I don't want PVC leaching into my food! The point is to get away from plastic. So I researched the wonderful web full or information for any and every project you could ever want to start. I quickly came up with the very simple and easy way to make oil cloth. Spread some oil on a piece of cloth. It really is that easy! Real oil cloth is made using cotton fabric and a flax byproduct called linseed oil.


This would be a natural alternative that wouldn't leach nasty PVC chemicals into my food (this link talks about the poisons of PVC). I devised a plan to construct a frame on which to stretch my selected cotton prints. I didn't want to staple the fabric to the frame and waste a whole inch on the edge (you can make neat things out of long fabric scraps). My thrift store embroidery hoops came to mind. I would make a large and bulky embroidery hoop that would hold about a fat quarter's worth of fabric without putting holes into the pretty pieces. I went to Lowe's (this was the fun outing alternative to the neighboring Ikea in Mission Valley) and picked up some long skinny boards, stiff metal joints, and found some boiled linseed oil. I have the outer frame mostly constructed, save the tightening mechanism similar to the embroidery hoops. Due to the lack of a real wood saw (I was stuck using my tiny metal jewelry saw with it's tiny little blades NOT meant for wood) the ends of my boards are really rough. I'm going to have to file down the inner frame board ends in order for them to fit inside the outer frame. Then it's just connecting the last few pieces and I will be ready to get greasy! I probably should have waited to start this project after we moved so I had some sunny outdoor space to apply the linseed oil but I think I'll finish it here and try at least one swatch. Stay tuned to see a final product and more about how cool oil cloth really is!
Happy Crafting,
Cerise : )

Facebook Fan Fridays!

Great "breaking" news! We were so kindly featured on Zakka Life's blog on the Facebook Fan Fridays section. Check out the great Zakka Life blog and Zakka Life on Facebook. I love getting the email updates and looking at all the cool craft ideas and projects. Thanks!!! And don't forget to check out the new Krafty Katina and Om Mamma's Facebook page. We might just have to start up a Facebook fan section too!
Happy Crafting,
Cerise : )