Coveting

Today I don't want to talk about the weather. Can we talk about the Duchess of Cambridge instead? She's so lovely. Last night, I sat, slack-jawed, perusing her outfits on Stylebistro. I took some screenshots but you should go check out at all the 200-something photos if you want to see what good fashion looks like. So classic. So beautiful. So clean, all those lines. Such gorgeous fit. Such resplendent fabrics (mostly solids, did you notice?). I want to sew all of them.

  

Okay, maybe not all of them. I'll probably pass on this one. I couldn't carry off that collar. I could probably carry off the clap, though. 

(all photos: source=www.stylebistro.com) 

I'm trying to make myself enthusiastic about updating my sloper. I tried last year and gave up. Wimp. This year I must persevere. Hold me accountable, guys: I will hereby endeavor to produce two updated slopers by the time summer (hahahahahahahahaha!) arrives - one regular french-dart block and one princess-seamed block. If I succeed, I will buy myself 10 bars of dark chocolate. If I don't succeed, I will buy myself an unfitting ugly Tshirt from Walmart and wear it and not let myself alter it until I have worn it 10 times. Too punitive? Okay, 9 times. With a photo to be sent to my mother for derision and shaming.

Desperate Weather Coping Mechanisms

Okay, I'm getting desperate. It's still snowy out there and it's Day #7 (or so) that the sun's been held hostage. Other people are coping in different ways, according to the radio - one person wore a Christmas sweater to work and another person strung Christmas lights on his/her house and lit them up. It seems irony and sarcasm are the order of the day. How are you other Northern-hemisphere people coping?  Hope you're hanging in there. Me - I'm still wearing shorts at home and sewing swimsuits and swim robes for the girls. And just the other day we went out to buy even more pairs of flip-flops. Apart from all that, I've run out of other coping mechanisms and have no choice now but to write nonsense rhymes to keep my spirits up. Here's one - more melancholic than my usual and my archaic English conventions and rhyme schemes are all over the place but what's a person to do? I don't feel particularly wicked or sharp right now, just desperate.   

An ode to the coming of spring
(whenever that might be)

O wretched winter, dark and long
Thine welcome overstayeth;
Thou swalloweth the robin's song
And made a March of May-eth.

Why dost thou linger when thou shouldst
Have fled to lands Down Under,
And let the sun do all it couldst
To rend the clouds assunder?

Begone, vile snow and evil wind,
And take thy snow ploughs with thee -
Then let the blessed thaw begin,
That warmth might come, if briefly.

Alas, our skin- it cracketh
As on the winter goes -
We cough-eth and we hack-eth
And have chilblains in our toes.

Now, though the frost be nagging
There is good news to date -
That while the cold be dragging,
The pollen season's late.

Yet -allergies or bitter freeze -
If we a choice could bring
For runny nose or thund'rous sneeze,
It might as well be spring!

Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease . . . sniff.

Finger Puppet Kit

Remember that Rapunzel wig that I made for Kate's best friend's birthday in the previous post? Well, this is gift #2 - the one with which I force her parents to get involved in playing (hyuk hyuk)! My kids get craft kits as gifts all the time and I'll be honest - I like craft supplies but I sometimes groan when the kids get craft kits. Why? Because some of them require serious parental involvement. Which, for some reason, my kids seem to request just before dinner, when they're hungry and bored and I'm cooking and crabby. To which I will bleat, "You can read the instructions yourself, right?" To which they retort, "Yeah, but it says, 'Get a parent to help - preheat oven to 350 F and lay out the shrinky dinks on a baking tray and bake for 5 minutes.'!" Or "Get a parent to iron the Perler Beads so the kids don't get 3rd degree burns." Or "Get a parent to poke a sharp pin into the clogged nozzle of the glitter glue so the frustrated toddler squeezing the tube will stop crying." Or "Get a parent to break out the hot glue gun/rubber cement/noxious-fumed superglue because the impotent white glue provided with the kit Will. Not. Hold. The. Walls. Of. The.3D.Foam.Gingerbread.House.In.Place." 

But wait! That's not the worst thing about craft kits - the worst thing about craft kits is the craft kit box itself, which nobody will throw away because there are still leftover supplies in it after the project is completed (or after the kids lose interest, whichever is sooner). Do we toss out the perfectly good container of petroleum jelly that's still 60% full after making 5 adorable heart-shaped containers of squid-flavored lip gloss? Not to mention the other 3 empty containers that the kids never got around to filling because they decided they were done? Or the 45 sheets of stickers of which they only used 0.00007% for "personalization"? We have a tower of almost-empty craft kit boxes in our house that's driving me nuts.

As far as arts-and-crafts gifts go, my personal preference is to give kids a big cardboard box, a roll of masking tape and a pack of Sharpies. My second choice would be an entire ream of regular printer paper and a huge canister of good art markers (not crayons. Oil pastels, yes, but never crayons. If there is one art supply that every house has an excess of, it's crayons. I know this because my house has an excess of crayons, restaurants give away crayons and pinterest is full of ideas for turning excess crayons into sculpture, melted art and other crayons.)  My third choice would be a pack of fun cardstock, fancy-edge scissors, some craft punches and a roll of double-sided tape. Seeing a pattern yet? We like open-ended crafting. No surplus novelty materials. No instruction manuals. Parents can cook dinner while the kids sit at the kitchen table and go to town on their masterpieces. We can pop in to ooh and aah if we can spare the time between cutting potatoes, or remain hands-free otherwise. And it's not just because open-ended crafting promotes creativity yada yada yada. I like when my kids indulge in open-ended crafting because it means I get to just sit and drink tea. Hooooo.Rah.

In that light, this post will probably sound like an exercise in hypocrisy. Or revenge. Sorry. In my defence, let me say that my kids and I test every single homemade craft kit (like this one and this one and this one) before we foist it upon other families. And we try to ensure that, after the making is done, the mess and involuntary parental involvement required are far superseded by the hours and hours of resulting pretend play that keep those kids occupied (after all, I want those parents to still be friends with us). In other words, we only give handmade craft kits for making toys. Not bottlecap fridge magnets or foam picture frames for grandma; TOYS. 

So I loved this finger puppet kit idea when I saw it some months back. Immediately, I thought of Kate's friends, who were the perfect age for making these tiny little things and bringing them to (goofy) life. 

I found some kid gloves at Walmart for (get this) 25 cents per double-pair pack. That works out to 25 cents for 20 fingers, or 1.25 cents per puppet blank. Unfortunately, because they were on winter clearance, there weren't as many colors to choose from as I'd have liked. Note that bottle of  Fray Check - it is very important.

So first you cut off all the fingers. Depending on the size of those fingers, you might choose to throw some out on account of their being too short. We, however, saved all of ours for samples. As soon as possible after cutting, apply fray check to the cut ends. This will go a long way towards preventing unraveling and furriness.

Next, buy small googly eyes. This is the size we got. There are even smaller sizes than these, but we liked this size.

Add other embellishing things, if you want. We chose dimensional fabric paint, which the kids were easily able to apply. To attach the eyes, we picked small glue dots over glue (fabric, tacky or otherwise): instant results, less messy, less frustration for the kids, less help required from adults. 

We also got out our felt scraps (no need for the expensive wool stuff; the cheap acrylic type is perfectly acceptable) for extra details. Here's sample #1: The Superhero. All you need are an infinity-shaped mask and a cape. We drew on the mouth and superhero symbol with dimensional paint. Note that we did use glue (UHU, not white glue, which is useless) to attach the mask to the puppet blank. This is where the Parental Involvement came in. 

Sample #2 is The Princess.

Pinking shears were our best friend in this project. So versatile! We made a crown

and then added the wet details with dimensional paint. It dried in a couple of hours.

I wanted the storage box to double as a puppet stage, so I bought these:

 which worked quite well plain.

But it was fun to fancy it up, too. Obviously, you crafty sorts can further improve on it with washi tape, your Silhouette machine, freezer paper stenciling, self-made rubber stamps, etc (go crazy, guys). But we were giving our kit to a regular little girl whose mom isn't a card-carrying member of our craft-obsessed blogging community. We thought two pieces of (non-archival quality) paper and a bit of (bought-from-anywhere) sticky tape were just about right. 

Here's what we put in our kit (forgot to include the tube of black dimensional paint in the photo):

All packed up! That sidelong glance the princess is giving the superhero, who looks like he might have had a bit too much to drink? Purely accidental - some unsettling must have occurred during packing ;)

Here are the results from the Kid Testing Laboratory:

They really had a blast! And yes, Parental Involvement happened. I had two main jobs: Glue Applyer and (for the youngest kid) Fine Detail Painter - the kids told me where to apply the glue and paint, and I obeyed. 

This is the Royal Family - King, Prince, Queen and two Princesses -


whose castle was under aerial attack by a dragon/dinosaur


with dreadfully fierce eyebrows


 and who consumed their entire livestock of chickens and bears;

and a simultaneous security breach from the sea by blood-thirsty pirates and (although he's -appropriately - in the off-focus background a lot) The Generic Robber (in his ski mask). The Generic Robber, incidentally, is my favorite puppet. He has the best expressions.

Fortunately, the Justice League of America despatched Supergirl to save the day.

Check out her luscious locks.

"Did you know Supergirl is Superman's cousin, Mom?"

I didn't, Jenna. But I shoulda guessed, given that they have the same first half-names.

"And did you realize that Batman is the only superhero that has a friend, Mom? Everybody else saves the day by themselves." 

I didn't realize that, either. I always suspected that Wonder Woman and Batgirl and Supergirl sort of were each other's accountability group and called each other on their cells for reinforcements or lattes-and-cupcakes when the going got tough. And that the guy superheros got together to shoot pool or baskets after each mission. And everyone'd also attend regular psych debriefs with the JLA's in-house psychologist just because, you know, there's a lot of killing and near-death experiences involved in humanity-saving. In my imaginary world, they would, at any rate. Although - what do I know, right? I'm just the Glue Applyer (but I love the conversations with the kids while on the job).

Kate put up a puppet show for us last night that kept us in stitches. She'd discovered that, by detaching the eyes (the glue dots kept them semi-permanent) and moving them around, she could create alternative cyclops/blindfolded/sleeping-masked personalities as well as additional superpowers that involved seeing with one's tail end. If you've never watched a puppet show by a five-year-old with a wicked sense of humor, I strongly recommend it. It certainly made us forget the snow outside.

Here's the instruction sheet I'll be including in the kit. I drew it up after watching all the different characters come to life during our Kid Testing Afternoon. It includes templates and an inspiration page.

Click HERE to download

Wig

Of all my handmade birthday gifts-for-other-people, the most requested is this Rapunzel wig. And by "requested", I don't mean that my girls suggest I make it for their friends; I mean the friends themselves ask my girls to ask me. Or they get their mothers to telephone me and put in a good word. Or (as one girl did at Emily's birthday party) they whisper shyly to me, "Please can you make me that Rapunzel wig for my birthday when it comes?"

I am always happy to oblige because it's such an easy, quick and inexpensive thing to make, plus I always appreciate the courage it takes for a little kid to actually ask someone to make something for them. To really ask - and not in the demanding, self-entitled way that some kids (and you know which ones I mean) do, but with a bit of um-ing and uh-ing and blushing and the huge grin when I reply that it would be my absolute pleasure to. 

I've made so many of these wigs in the past and realized I've never shared the tutorial! This week, I made a wig for Kate's best friend and decided I'd slow down and take some photos for you. First, you'll need the template, unless you want to draft your own. This one fits Kate but, really, the fleece it's made of stretches to accommodate many sizes of heads. It even fits on my head, if a bit snugly. 

Click HERE to download template.

As for the amount of fabric you'll need, I'm going to say at least a yard. You won't need the full width (60") of that yard, but you will need the full length. In fact, if you can afford it, buy two yards because that will give you a two-yard-long wig. The length of the longest panel (L) in the template plan is the length of fabric you bought. I used 2 yards, so L = 2 yards. The 60" width will give you about 4 wigs.

You'll need to cut out six panels, some longer than others. The cutting plan is on the template sheet. Note that, for once, the 1/4" seam allowances are INCLUDED. Shocking! Also note that the stretch direction of the fleece should be sideways i.e. the fabric should stretch around the circumference on the wearer's head and not vertically from crown to chin.

Here are the six panels, in the arrangement they will be attached to each other.

We're going to sew the wig in two halves, with three panels in each half. The first half has the two short panels and one long panel. Follow the stitching line guides below

and sew them together as shown:

Here's a close-up of the intersection of those seams.

Repeat for the other three panels to make the other half of the wig.

Lay those two halves with their RS together and those top intersection points meeting

and sew around the rounded edge, according to the stitching guides.

Here's what that seam looks like.

And that was the sum total of all the sewing needed! Now it gets braided. It's actually easiest if you have your kid wear the wig now and braid it while it's on her head. Note that I used three long panels (and that shorter amputated-looking one) because most people know how to braid three strands. I've made this with four long panels and it made a thick, gorgeous braid, so you can do that, too.

The numbers show the sequence of layering the panels to camouflage that short piece.

As you braid, tuck that short piece back into the overlaps to hide it.

The last step is to snip the bangs in the front short panels of the wig.

All the previous wigs I've made were finished at this point because they were mass-produced for parties and last-minute gifts and I didn't want to take the time to embellish them. This time, however, I made some pinnable flowers.

They could be sewn on but let me tell you: your wig-wearers will, without exception, unbraid their wigs and run through the house with the long hair (all three strands of it) trailing behind them, singing, "When will my life beeeeeegiiiinnnnnn?" and then ask you to rebraid it for them. Best to have those flowers detachable.

They're very easy to make. Just cut shapes out of felt or fleece, embellish

and glue a safety pin to their backs.

Pin them randomly on the crown

and all down the braid.

I had so much fun making them because I got to use up all my felt scraps!

And Kate had fun modeling the wig for me.

Also thought I'd organize the old blog a bit more and add two more labels to some of my posts. First is the Gifts label - if you want to access my handmade gifts (for kids, teachers, friends, mothers-in-law, mothers, fathers-in-law, fathers, husband, etc), just click on the Gifts label in the category cloud in my sidebar.

The second is the Reviews label. I don't review products as a habit but every now and then people will contact me and send me something and I am happy to review it for free. Incidentally, I have turned down products in the past because they were irrelevant (e.g. crochet books, scrapbooking software and other such stuff) to this blog. So don't everyone send me freebies just because you like how I review things, okay? They have to make sense and they have to be something I can actually say something nice about because I'm even slightly familiar with the subject matter. So anyway, in addition to the occasional product review, you can also find sewing and drafting book reviews and that infamous IKEA sewing machine review. Just click on the Reviews label in that same category  cloud.

Another kid gift coming up - see you back here soon!

P.S. I'm done grouch-posting about the weather. What is the point? There's been an evil prophecy of snow all week so naturally today I wore a short-sleeved Tshirt, capris and flipflops and took the kids for their swim class. We do what we can to cope. I also bought 5 bars of chocolate.