Plushroom Soup

Thoughtful Thursday - Oh, Baby

First, I am not pregnant. I repeat (mom): I am NOT pregnant.

However, four of my friends have given birth so far this year, and four more friends are due by the end of February (not to mention the handful of friends that gave birth last year. Oi!). So as you can imagine, I have spent a large portion of my free time crafting baby gifts.

I know this kind of post is very atypical of me (and I promise it will remain this way). But I know many of you are in the same boat as me: lots of preggers friends, needing creative handmade gift ideas, but having no idea where to start. So for those of us less baby-minded, I thought I'd put together a little round-up of all the lovely tutorials and patterns I've found this past year.

My favorite stand-by quickie gift is the Cozy Quick Blankie from the Purl Bee. It's perfect because it sews up in under an hour, uses just two yards of fabric, and the end result is really cute and, well, cozy.

My other standard go-to gift is embellished baby burp cloths. All moms I know tell me you can never have enough of these around, yet the store-bought variety are dreadfully boring. So I like to dress up 3 to 6 of these and include with most baby gifts. Chickpea Sewing and Paper Dolly Girl both have excellent tutorials for how to do this. And though the latter tutorial calls for flannel scraps to be used as the absorbent interior, I like to used the standard Gerber cloth diaper you can buy in packs of 6 at Target or any baby store. It's more absorbent than flannel, is already pre-cut, and serves as an excellent template for cutting your fabric pieces. You can also sew both of these up in well under an hour.

This free skirt pattern from Oliver + S is super easy, and sews up in just about an hour. The pattern calls for a yard, but a baby skirt really only needs a fat quarter (or two 18 x 11-inch pieces). And how adorable is that squirrel fabric?! I kind of want a skirt from it for myself. . . . For a slightly fancier skirt, Two Little Banshees has a nice tutorial.

More time consuming but sure to be a hit with babes and adults alike (I gifted a set of these at a recent office baby shower, and the whole room got super excited and tossed the balls around for the remainder of the shower) are the Fabric Beach Balls, again from the fine folks at Purl Bee (and no, I'm not a paid endorser!).

Not free but super adorable is the Baby Binky Bunny pattern from mmmcrafts. The pattern is so easy to follow and is great fun to make.

Finally, if you're a knitter, I highly recommend the Offset Wraplan pattern by fyberduck. Simple, quick to knit, yet easily and endlessly customizable.

So, there you have it. My take on awesome handmade baby gifts. Feel free to share your favorites in the comments!

Thoughtful Thursday - Creative Burst

As mentioned in my July Goals post, I always have tons of ideas bouncing around in my head. I've been really energized lately about making these ideas a reality, and this week I started on two of them.

The first is a unicorn. Sure, I could've just thrown a horn on my existing horse pattern and called it good, but I wanted my unicorn to be less cutesy, more stately and elegant. So I started tweaking the pattern into a new shape—elongating the face and neck, narrowing the legs, and giving the creature a little more movement.

Once I have some workable pattern pieces, I sew up a prototype. I usually make my prototype out of a cheap muslin or flannel, but I thought it would give you a better picture of my process if I sewed this one in my usual fabrics.

This is the part of pattern design that is always a little frustrating for me. I'm not a natural at drawing, so I go through a trial and error process before I can replicate what I see in my mind's eye. As you can see, I didn't get the legs quite right this time. So I've started pinning the legs into the shape I want, and I'll go back and tweak my pattern pieces accordingly.

The head could also use a little more work; I'd like to shorten the snout just a tad. I'm really excited about the possibilities in this piece, though, and should have it finalized by the end of the month.

The other project I this week has been in the works for a long time; it was one of my original ideas when I decided to start Plushroom Soup. It's still very early in the planning stages, so I can only share this small sneak peek:

I wish I could share more with you, as I'm practically bursting trying to contain my excitement about this one. Stay tuned!

Last, I'll leave you with a screen capture of a treasury I'm featured in:

Many thanks to Harvest Moon by Hand for featuring my Ginger Pup along with all these other great MN artists!

Watch That's Clever? Looking for Alpaca?

Then look no further! If you want to try your hand at making the alpaca demonstrated in the show, you can buy the pattern in my Etsy shop, on sale for a special price for the rest of the month.

I know my segment of That's Clever aired this morning; unfortunately I didn't know this beforehand, so I couldn't set my DVR to record the show. If you happened to tape this particular episode, please let me know; I'm dying to see how it turned out!

I actually taped this segment way back in April 2007—back before I went solo and was still creating with Amy under the name Crabtree Studio. Amy taped a segment too (as did a bunch of other talented Minnesotans!), but HGTV has no info on her episode yet. Though finding our air dates has been an exercise in frustration, taping the show was a blast! The film crew were super fun to work with and if any of you are reading, thanks again for the great experience!

Introducing Patterns and a Giveaway!

I'm pleased to announce the arrival of my first patterns! Now you can make your very own alpaca herd or a happy little horse.

Amy and I cooked these up during our Crabtree days (mega props to her for doing all the interior drawings!) and will be debuting the print versions at No Coast on December 5 and 6 and Craftsmas on December 7. The patterns are also available as a PDF download in my Etsy shop.

The print version of the pattern includes full-sized pattern pieces and detailed instructions folded together in a cute little half-letter-sized booklet. The PDF version also features full-sized pattern pieces and detailed instructions and is set up to be printed double-sided on standard letter-sized (A4) paper, landscape orientation.

To celebrate the new patterns and the launch of Plushroom Soup, I'm hosting a giveaway! Just leave a comment here about your favorite item to sew (or sculpt, or draw, or whichever craft medium you do best) and which of the two new patterns you'd prefer if you won. I'll randomly choose FIVE people to receive a print version of the pattern (if you prefer the PDF, that's fine too; just let me know!)—two readers will win the alpaca pattern, two will win the horse pattern, and one very lucky reader will win both! Winners will be announced on December 8.