Fleur

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like you to meet Fleur.

She's me.  

I'm her.

She's my doppleganger in fabric.

She has princess seams. Of course she does.

I put them in everything, remember? A bad habit I've had since I was a teenager.

And, for the first time ever, I've seen the back of my own shoulders

and the... uh... cross-section of my hips.

And yes, it is very weird to see my own body in print fabric.

Ah, Fleur. You were a loooooooong time in the making. 

So, given that she's a clone of me, I interviewed her for my own job.

Turns out she has a pathetic resume.

"Can you cook?"

"No arms, ma'am."

"Can you do the groceries?"

"No legs, ma'am"

"Laundry? Give kids baths? Chauffeur? Vacuum? Think up new crafts?"

"No, ma'am."

"Well, what then can you do, you useless fool?"

"I can dress up, ma'am."

Well, phooey. I have to share clothes. But at least now I get to take the photos.

Remember that princess seam dress?

I have to say she wears it well...... for someone without arms.

And that denim skirt?

Well now I can get 43, 598 photo angles on it.

And here's a skirt I never showed you before, because I never got round to doing the photos. It's brown linen with ribbon embroidery. 

The camisole is store-bought, but it occurred to me that I can drape jersey outers (I'm thinking sleeveless mock turtlenecks!) on Fleur to change her look if I get bored of ebony scrolls on white.

So now you've met Fleur. She's gone to live in my sewing room where she'll be (literally) watching my back.

Isn't she useful after all? She is, quite definitely, the most useful thing I've made.

I'll deconstruct her for you in the next post(s)

and we can have a good laugh together at all the funny bits - it's always slightly bizarre to stitch yourself up.

But first, here's the website that inspired me.

It had me thinking, "I need one in my size. In exactly my size. I think I'll make one."  

And so I did:)

Guess the Monster Part 4

Welcome back to Guess the Monster!

Since this is the last installment of clues, I'm going to share them all here once more, along with the three new ones:

Clue #1

Clue #2 - This cardboard measuring device:

Clue #3 - The Monster is very useful.

Clue #4
Canvas.

Clue #5

In addition to the sewing machine (serger not necessary), these are the electrical appliances I used:

(Drill, hairdryer, glue gun, screwdriver)

Clue #6

These are the unelectrical tools I used:

Spirit level, sewing measuring tape, woodworking measuring tape, wood/metal file, paintbrush, cardboard vernier callipers

Clue #7

(Polyfill stuffing and high-density foam) 

Clue #8

A large flat cardboard oval. 

Clue #9

It's not for my kids.

Clue #10

Many of my previous time-consuming projects - like this and this and this - were time-consuming because of the amount of detail involved. Typical reactions to those projects included, "How long did it take you to make that??!!" or "I don't think I have the patience!" or "I think I'll do a simpler/truncated version of that for my kid". The Monster is much more time-consuming but has zero details. No zippers, no buttons, no velcro, no snaps, no hooks/eyes, no pockets, no buckles, no straps, no grommets, no interfacing, no embroidery, no piping, no painted eyes or garlands or other embellishments, no nothing. It's extremely spartan. So plain, in fact, that I threw in some print fabric just to give it a bit of an edge. When I told someone recently what I was making, she didn't comment on how much work it must have involved. Instead she said, "How did you do it?"

Clue #11

Clue #12

If I were to make a pie chart of the tasks Monster involved, I'd say:

P.S. Monster is finished. I never thought I'd see the day. But I'm going to bed now. See you all later.

Guess the Monster Part 3

Welcome back to Guess the Monster!

Clue #7

Polyfill stuffing and high-density foam 

Clue #8

A large cardboard oval. 

Clue #9

It's not for my kids.

Guess the Monster Part 2

Welcome back to Guess the Monster!


Here are today's clues:

Clue #4
Canvas.

Clue #5

In addition to the sewing machine (serger not necessary), these are the electrical appliances I used:

(Drill, hairdryer, glue gun, screwdriver)

Clue #6

These are the unelectrical tools I used:

Spirit level (pictured below), sewing measuring tape, woodworking measuring tape, wood/metal file, paintbrush, cardboard vernier callipers.

Guess The Monster Part 1

Hey all!

We're back from the lake, burnt brown and slightly lightheaded from all that time in the sun. Before we left on our trip, however, I had a go at the Monster with the husband's drill. I learned two things:

1. There is a reverse direction to the drill. Apparently this was why, after drilling for 10 minutes, nothing happened to the wood.
2. It is impossible to drill through solid oak. Oh wait, I had the drill on reverse.

Clearly, woodworking is not one of my natural skill areas.

Anyway, I am very close to the end (in a good way). In fact, I am so close to the end that I am just about bursting to vent about the entire YEAR of working on this project. So while stalling for time till I get the final screws, nails and stitches put in, I thought we'd play Guess The Monster!

Some of you are understandably sick of hearing about the Monster (who can blame you?) so this is for you who do enjoy all this cruel suspense  - I'll post 12 clues over the next few days, after which you can all guess what the Monster is. No prizes - other than bragging rights to having guessed first. And the promise that I really will reveal all, and show photos, of course, when it's done. This is also to hold me accountable, so that I will slog at it and finish it by the end of the week. 

Ready to play?

First, the old clues - things you already know about the Monster, just for completeness' sake. The other nine are new clues.

Clue #1





Clue #2 - This cardboard measuring device:



Clue #3 - The Monster is very useful.

3D Popsicle Stick Crafts II- Easels and Mini-Museum Kit

We'll be away for the weekend, lazing by the lake and hanging out at Grandma's and Grandpa's house. Decided to make surprise craft kits for the girls to enjoy while we're there. This is based on this store-bought kit, which I thought was such a fun idea. Emily has been in love with easels of all sizes and types for a long time, so I know she will like this.

With this Mini-Museum Kit, the girls will make their own art, frame it and display it on small easels for willing family members to behold. When the art exhibition is over, the framed masterpieces will be glued onto the front of greeting/thank you cards that they can send out to people they love. 

Here's what will be in each kit:

• 2 small easels and 2 smaller easels
• 6-8 frames, assorted sizes 
• 6-8 pieces of paper to match the frames
• Homemade water color palette
• Q-tips pretending to be brushes
• A small paper cup to hold water for moistening the Q-tips
• Some other art medium e.g. mini color pencils, mini markers etc (bought from the dollar section of Michaels).
• Paper towel for cleaning messes!

Here are some mini-tutorials for the different components:

Easels

First cut out a Y-shaped piece of cardstock and glue the ends of three popsicle sticks onto it as shown, to form the easel legs. Glue two smaller popsicle sticks together to make a doubly-thick stick. Glue that across the easel legs in an "A" configuration. 

The double layer gives sufficient thickness to hold the artwork up without slipping off.

 

Fold the cardstock hinge to stand the easel up.

Here's the smaller easel posing with my lens cap to give you an idea of how teeny it is.

Frames

Cut frames out of cardstock or thick paper. We used our fancy-edged scissors to make the decorative borders. Add double-sided tape to the back of the frames so the kids can peel the backing layer off to stick their artwork on later.

Homemade water colors

We used Melissa's tutorial for the paint. For the palette, we used one of these candy molds: 

We cut it into thirds, so each palette had six wells. The recipe is exactly enough for all 18 wells. We let them dry for 2 (or more) days.

Now to find boxes to pack three kits for the girls. How hard can that be? I think I  might have some cardboard lying around :) 

What is it about mini things that kids love so much? I bet it's because they themselves are mini-people. Anyway, this might become our new favorite homemade birthday gift - I'll draw up a pictorial instruction sheet and throw in some blank cards and envelopes to take the activity beyond the art exhibition stage, and maybe add some real postage stamps. A museum and mail kit in one!

3D Popsicle Stick Crafts I - Baskets

In between fighting the Monster, I've been doing some things with the kids. Here's an old, old craft that Dad did with me when I was little - popsicle stick baskets.

It was, apart from being very therapeutic, an extremely kid-friendly craft because it involved harmless old white glue. You can customize them to any size and shape you like, as long as they have an even number of sides.


The alternating layers of popsicle sticks create a pattern of gaps, which accounts for its basket-ness.

To make them, you'll need a base in the shape you want (we used corrugated cardboard), popsicle sticks, and white glue.

Here's how to make the octagonal basket.

First cut out an octagon out of corrugated cardboard, so that each side is about the same length or a little shorter (not longer!) than the popsicle sticks you are using.

Next, glue popsicle sticks on alternate sides of the octagon to form the first layer.

Then apply glue on the very ends of the popsicle sticks of the first layer, and press a second layer of popsicle sticks over the gaps in the first layer.

Continue gluing and laying alternate layers in a pattern as shown

until you attain the desired height. Allow sufficient time to dry firm.

This is Kate's basket - she used the mini sticks on a hexagon base. 

Jenna made hers in rainbow-ish colors.

The alternating of colors really appealed to the part of her nature that loves order, patterns and organizing.

She used the regular popsicle sticks on a hexagon base. 

So same shape, two sizes.

Easy! The girls easily found uses for them in their play kitchen/shop. You could turn yours into vases and pencil holders if you made them narrow and tall. Or make different sizes and layer them within each other. Or (as the girls begged me, but we were too lazy) punch holes in the base and twist wires to make handles. Or weave ribbons vertically through the gaps.  

One more popsicle craft and then we're away for the weekend. See you tomorrow!