Theodora wanted two bears from her Silver Fox coat for her granddaughters. This was my first opportunity to work with Silver Fox so I was excited to get this project.

The hide was extremely thin and held stable with some older fused interfacing. Without the interfacing, the hide tore like thin paper. The first thing I needed to do was re-enforce the hide with a stronger facing.  Normal interfacing does not stick well to animal hide. I’ve found one brand that works well for most hide in good condition, but this one needed more adhesive so I added more adhesive to the interfacing. My initial tests worked well so I set to making the bears.

As I got into the project, I did run into a little trouble with a couple of the pattern pieces. There were a couple of seams in the hide that were just too weak to hold up to the stress of sewing and turning. I ended up re-doing one head because the muzzle split. After I turned one of the bodies and started to attach the arms, the front pannel started to give way and crumbled so I had to re-cut and sew the body again. Then, while working on the joint of the last leg, a section of the leg separated from the interfacing and ripped. I had to cut and sew another leg. However, once I got that leg attached, I realized that I had accidentally put the joint in on the wrong side and the leg was backwards. So, I ended up cutting and sewing a third leg.

By the time I finished, I had two pretty stable, absolutely adorable bears from Silver Fox.

It isn’t exactly original. I had a knitted hooded scarf that I really liked. I have no idea where I got it or when, it seems like I’ve always had it and it was getting old and worn out. I wanted to make myself a new one, but I don’t knit–not only that, but I couldn’t find a pattern. So I created my own pattern.

As simple as the concept is, it took a bit of experimentation to get the exact proportion to the hood. I like to make them out of fleece because it is warm and soft. It can be worn several different ways and I know everyone I’ve given one to as a gift has found it to be very useful so I’ve put some in my craft shop on the web site. They run $15 each plus shipping. 

http://www.fairygodmothercreations.com/harfs.htm

I am the adoptive mother of three special needs boys. All three of my boys have needed extensive therapy throughout their lives–and will continue to need it. One day, I was talking with my youngest son’s attachment therapist and she mentioned how much teddy bears can help her with some of her patients and how she wished she had a simple pattern to make teddy bears. She was not big on sewing, but wanted a way to make something personal for some of the children she dealt with.

I’m sure there are patterns out there like mine, but this was specifically developed for her. I wanted something that wouldn’t take cutting out more than two pieces and that needed little instruction.

Here is the pattern for this bear simple bear pattern (161 KB)  Here are the instructions simple bear directions (903 KB)

I also created an outfit pattern for added fun. Here is the pattern simple bear outfit pattern (83 KB) and here are the instructions simple bear outfit directions

Anyone who has ever seen me in my craft room has usually seen me wearing one of  these. There are versions on the market, but most have hard plastic wrist bracelets. I wanted something soft, that could stay on my arm for hours comfortably. After searching around for some time, I decided to make my own. This pattern is simple and is a good use of scrap cloth. If you can’t find chipboard, use matt board. You need something to hold the shape and to protect your arm from pins. Wrist Pincushion (536 KB)

 This is a fun little pattern for a paper trinket box. These are small (about 2″ square by 1 and 5/8″ high. Great for jewelry and little items like that. You can print it off on to pretty paper and then spray mount it to a thicker paper stock, or pick up some light card stock made for desktop printers and print directly on to it.

I like to add personalization–but you have to have access to some good graphics software to do that so I’ve made a PDF pattern that you can simply print out ( Mini gift box  308KB) AND, I’ve made a Word Doc file (  Mini Gift Box 70 KB)  that allows you to make some changes and customize. Create your own custom trinket boxes with this pattern.

Last year I decided to “go green” and wrap ALL of my holiday gifts in re-usable gift bags. I took advantage of after-holiday fabric sales and “Christmas in July” sales to amass a bunch of holiday fabric.

It was a lot of work, but not as much as I thought it would be. For me, sewing is fun and I can do some things pretty quickly so it really wasn’t much more time consuming than traditional paper wrapping (especially since I like to decorate every package).

Friends and extended family members got a kick out of opening their beautifully decorated bags and my Christmas tree looked particularly festive with all the beautiful fabric covered gifts and decorative ribbons. So, even though my kids thought it a bit odd at first, it turned out to be a real success (and I have all the bags I used for the family to use again this year). So, if you want to download a PDF of how I made my bags, just click here gift bag1

I really enjoy making things with my hands. Taking different materials and morphing them into three demensional objects simply facinates me. At the same time, I don’t have  a lot of patience so I tend to choose crafts that can be done in a matter of hours or days–as opposed to weeks or months. I particularly like sewing crafts, but will periodically create using other tools, materials or methods.

This blog is a way for me to share–and reach out to other crafters. I hope you will find it useful and  will even join me on my journey to new crafts and ideas.