Handmade Holiday Bazaar today!

If you're in the Gainesville area, come on out to the Handmade Holiday Bazaar today from noon to 5:00pm in parking lot of Loop de loop! Support your local crafters and get a little holiday shopping in! Treats from 2nd Street Bakery and live music!

If you're not local, check in with jollyprojects.etsy.com after today and there should be some unconventional holiday stockings listed!

Holiday Stockings!!!

I am REALLY excited about this one! After the wedding buzz started to wear off I realized that the holidays were right around the bend. In an effort to really make our house "home," I decided it was time to start collecting our own holiday decorations. We are not religious and tend to have pretty modern, funky style so the idea of DIY holiday decor seemed appropriate, if not necessary. We are now slowly beginning to accumulate ornaments and I think we're going to do the Chanukkah bush this year! I desperately wanted to be able to hang some funky holiday stockings from the mantle this year, so I decided to really push myself beyond my sewing comfort zone for this project. I figured this would be a relatively easy project for a beginner sewer and, if they turned out terribly, they might at least provide a few good laughs along the way.

I picked out fabric for the stockings online and at the local JoAnn shop. I have to admit that I am in love with fabric that I picked out for Steve's stocking and we might just have to have twin stockings. I found a pretty decent free pattern online for the stockings and then amended it a little to better suit my vision. Using the pattern cutout, rotary cutter and mat, I cut the fabric to form. I was thinking that the fabric alone might not be strong enough to support the stockings with gifts inside, so I did a little internet research and came up with idea of using fusible fleece (also ran it by a friend who sews and she thought it was a decent idea). So, I also cut the fusible fleece to form.


After all of the fabric was cut to shape I fused the fleece to the fabric by pressing the two together with an iron on the "wool" setting. I tried doing this both ways but it only seems to work with the iron pressing on the fabric (with the fusible fleece underneath). This part takes a little patience because you really need to let the iron sit on the fabrics for about ~10sec covering every inch of fabric.

After fusing the fleece to the "inside" of both pieces of fabric it was time to make the fuzzy cuff for the stocking. I found this really neat hot pink material on clearance at the store. While the fabric looks great, it really sheds (something we get plenty of with the doggies). Also, the presser foot of the sewing machine gets stuck in the "fuzz" so I ended up having to hand sew the cuffs onto the fabric. I don't actually think I would recommend this one -- probably best to stick with faux fur.

I also hand-sewed the hanging loop onto the cuffs. Once the cuffs and loop were sewn on, it was time to hit up the Hello Kitty machine. I pinned the layers together and put the foot to the pedal. I am still working on my technique so I will not be sharing an image of the inside of the stocking =)


After sewing up the sides and around the "foot," I finished the stocking by hand sewing the cuffs together. Finally, I flipped it to right-side out and POOF... Steve's stocking is complete!


Just for fun, here's a close-up of the fabrics...

Dishtowel apron

I'm back! The wedding was fantastic... just beautiful. I am anxiously awaiting the email from the photographers saying they have put up a sneak peek on their blog. It will be a couple weeks before all of the photos are posted. What an amazing day!

Now that the doctoral dissertation has been accepted by the editorial reviewers (Phinally Done) and the wedding is finished, I can craft again!!! I dusted off the Hello Kitty sewing machine the other night and reintroduced myself to the art of sewing. Amazingly, it came back to me pretty quickly. Perhaps this is not surprising considering my initial knowledge level was pretty slim!

I grew weary of sewing small pieces of scrap fabric together and decided to actually make something. I really wanted to make a full-length apron and holiday stockings before 2008 has passed, so I decided to amend my desires a little to fit the time constraints. The stockings are the big project and I will post a separate blurb about that over the weekend. I still have a few skills to pick up before the full-length apron can be accomplished so I decided to make it REALLY easy by sewing together a half apron.

I took a regular size dish towel that was lying around and found enough scrap material to act as the ties. I sewed the fabric ties to the corners of the towel and POOF -- I have an apron. I actually like the towel material because it's easily washable and feels substantial when I am wiping my hands off. Tomorrow I will find the camera so I can take a picture of my first official sewing project.

Embarassed blogger...

I think it's safe to say that there hasn't been much time for crafting lately. It should get rolling again soon because I have dedicated Tuesday nights for crafting at a friend's house. The whole dissertation process + wedding planning basically killed the concept of "free time," so when November 2nd rolls around I will be crafting up a storm!

I have started a few decoupage projects that I will be wrapping up soon, and I am determined to sew an apron and/or pillowcase by the end of 2008.

Update... it's been awhile

I finally completed an actual project on the new sewing machine (pictures coming soon). Most people would probably be embarrassed by this project but I am filled with pride! It's terrible really but I love it -- my very first sewing project! I had this holiday pot holder lying around and so I decided to dissect it and steal the batting for a new project. I bought some pretty cheap but cute fabric at Jo-Ann's a couple of weeks ago when I first got the machine and thought I would try a pot holder as my first project.

I learned two very important lessons while tackling this last night: 1) I probably should have stuck with square/rectangular shapes until my skills improve and 2) I have NO IDEA how to sew piping? -- the fabric that goes around the border of the potholder. This monstrosity is just so cute...

I have collected the addresses for beaucoup de garage sales this weekend and I am thinking about trying to make it an early morning so I can try and catch some goodies! I probably shouldn't be doing this because we are finally getting the house clean again --- but how can I resist? So many potential craft substrates at such nice prices!

I think I might also swing by Michael's on my way home to pick up some YES! paste and Mod Podge so I can give this tutorial a whirl! I will probably use one of the fabrics I picked up from Funky Fabrix (see older post).

Hopefully I will have a new report by the end of the weekend!!!

Jolly Project #3: Splatter chairs!

We have a neighbor who keeps placing perfectly good items out on his lawn as trash --- now his collection of trash is slowly taking over our garage! A few weekends ago Steve was passing by and noticed two modern chairs just sitting out on the lawn and rescued them from garbage dump doom. In my excitement to repaint the backs of the chairs yesterday, I forgot to take the "before" shots. The chairs have chrome frames with some synthetic black fabric on the seats (all in perfect condition) and had darkly-stained wood backs.

Over the weekend I sat out on the porch in the gorgeous weather and sanded down most of the stain (150 grit). It was a pretty windy day so I dusted them off and put them back in the garage until a less windy day rolled around. Yesterday's experiments in the lab went to hell so I decided to give myself a few extra hours in the afternoon (i.e., I played hooky and went home). Even though it was just as windy, I couldn't wait any longer to paint! Two wooden chair backs, one can of black spray paint, one can of black with silver metallic particles paint, a paint brush, and the leftover "Atomic Vomit Green" Nickelodeon indoor paint from our guest bathroom = NEW SPLATTER CHAIR BACKS!

That's Emma in the background hunting for lizards -- she's an awesome "Gainesville Brown Dog"!!

It's hard to get a feel for the splatter color from these pictures but it's really bright green!

Excuse the oversized bike box in the background and coiled up bike chain under the chair --- that's a pretty good example of our world --- bikes, bike parts, bike lights, etc. EVERYWHERE!

That box belongs to our brand new babies -- Specialized S-Works Enduro Pro -- amazing full suspension bikes that we got a smoking deal on. Sorry, non-craft tangent there.

PS -- The Janome Hello Kitty sewing machine came in the mail yesterday!!! I am intimidated, I won't lie. I picked up an illustrated learn to sew book yesterday that should help, and I think I need to make a run to Jo-Ann to pick up all of the sewing basic tools.

Jolly Project #2: Dragonfly bud vase

Today I tackled my first etched glass project! This was really a "right out of the box" kind of project because I decided to buy the dragonfly stencil, Armour Etch, bud vases, and brush at Michael's. I had big plans to draw out my own stencil but I figured I would take it easy on the learning project. To be honest, this is a pretty easy task -- follow the directions on the stencil/etch and go. The only thing I experimented with was leaving the etch on for a little longer than instructed and that didn't seem to really have an effect. I read a few tutorials/blogs and everyone mentioned being generous with the Etch to avoid streaks and/or inconsistent etching. My first vase came out perfectly (pictured above) and will be delivered to my mom this coming weekend. The second vase had a more interesting design but, unfortunately, I was a little too generous with the etch and a little bit smeared off the tape and onto virgin glass --> small etch smear. This will will stay at our house where I will obsess over the boo-boo until I have the time to make a new one!


For anyone looking to take on an incredibly easy project with minimal time consumption, this is the one for you! I was pretty surprised at how easy it was. Next time I am going to buy the contact paper and make my own stencils.

The next project will be repainting the wooden backs on the chairs I mentioned in the last post. I sanded them down to get a nice rough surface on which I can paint but it was a little windy today and I had to forgo the painting. Next weekend we are headed back home for a friend's wedding so I probably won't get to tackle a new Jolly Project until the weekend of 26th!

Hello Kitty!!!!!

This is my new baby! I know what you're probably thinking -- that looks like a toy! Seriously, this machine has received rave reviews! Let me back things up a little... I have NEVER touched a sewing machine in my life. I can barely sew a button on by hand. This has always been a goal and I decided to make it one of my 2008 resolutions so here it goes! I picked up this adorable little thing on ebay for around $65 with S&H. It's a 3/4 machine but apparently works really well. I'm just a beginner and I think this will suffice for quite awhile. I found a really neat fabric store (Funky Fabrix) and looking at all those amazing fabrics just made me REALLY want to be able to sew. I think I put the cart before the horse a little because I ended up winning an auction on ebay for some really amazing fabric:





So there I was... purchasing fabric with no real plans. I figured it was a sign... buy a sewing machine once and for all. I am guessing it will arrive early next week! More to come once I get it up and running.

Jolly Project #1: Purple Planter

Well, where to begin...
I have struggled to find a hobby for most of my life and it is only in the last few years that I have come to realize that I need to let my creative juices do their magic. The combination of job-related boredom/monotony and frequent financial crunches made crafting an ideal solution. It all began with painting. I don't exactly remember what inspired me to start painting but over the course of about a year I have become pretty comfortable with my "style." However, there were times that painting just didn't quite satisfy my creative urges, and I didn't know what I needed to do with all of that pent up energy. I happened upon a neat magazine called "ReadyMade" and the rest is history...

You won't be seeing too many fabric-based projects any time soon because I don't know how to sew (although this is one of the '08 resolutions). Aside from painting canvases and bathrooms, I will call the purple planter my first official craft project. Last weekend I attended the Kanapaha Spring Festival and picked up a few succulents. I was in the market for a planter and I realized that would be a good project. This past Saturday I hit up the garage sales with the in-laws (as of this coming November) and picked up a few neat treasures for a mere $35 (hardwood desk, bookshelf, modern cube shelving, bazooka bubble gum lunchbox, small gardening tools, top-loading rolling file cabinet, etc). I will post more about these treasures as they become projects.

One of the items that I found this weekend was a set of four camp cookware pots ($1). When I came home from garage sale-ing I decided that I wanted to paint one of the pots and use it as a planter for the new succulents. Behold the new purple planter (see above)!!! I wiped the pot down with a paper towel and applied a base coat of the color "Iris" spray paint and topped it with sprays of metallic silver, and then finally a few layers of clear acrylic (inside and out). The purple looks more like blue in the picture but I think that resulted from the flash reacting with the silver sparkles.

Now every time I walk in the kitchen I look out the window onto our sun porch and smile at the new planter. Hooray for project #1!