Lala Love

Happy belated new year, friends! I'm hoping to blog more frequently in 2012, even if it's just short and sweet posts, like progress photos of projects.  I've been flirting with the idea of renaming this blog or starting a new one that shares personal posts mixed with crafty ones.  "Early Bird Special" was originally a collaboration with a friend 5 years ago, and I feel like the name and concept don't really apply to my life now.  Also, I'm kind of sick of dealing with people using the EBS logo without my consent, to promote their company sales.  But with a name like "Early Bird Special", what did I expect?

I'm kind of leaning towards, "Short & Scout."  It would be a play on my girls' names.  "Short" being for Harper and "Scout" for Darcy Scout.  I admit, I'm a little apprehensive to change simply because I don't want to lose any readers or downplay the info here on the EBS blog.  What do you think?  Consider a blog name change / "re-branding", or leave it alone?

So I mentioned before that I started crocheting, and I've actually been doing a lot more crochet than embroidery lately. Today I'm ready to share a couple of crochet projects with you!

Darcy and I have been in love with Lalaloopsy dolls for a couple of years now, starting back with they were "Bitty Buttons" dolls. My friend Dana shares a love of Loopsies with me too, so it's fun to go ga-ga for Lala together.  (Hi, Dana!)

Anyway, Allison Hoffman of Crafty is Cool came up with an amazing pattern for Lalaloopsy inspired amigurumi dolls.  I wasn't confident enough in my amigurumi skills to try making the doll, but I did think I had the skills required to make the dolly dress.  Darcy only had one Lalaloopsy doll, Pillow Featherbed.  She's the one who wears pajamas, so I decided to make the dress to see if it would fit a real Lalaloopsy doll. 

 

It does! Darcy and I were both very happy with how it turned out. Allison’s pattern suggests using a baby weight yarn, but I didn’t have any on hand, so I used a worsted weight yarn (Vanna's Choice) & an E hook. Since the worsted weight yarn made the dress a little bit bigger & bulkier than the original, I dropped 1 row on the sleeves and the bottom layer of the dress.

I definitely want to make more of these dresses, but try using a finer weight yarn next time.  The worsted weight does seem to make the dress stiffer than I'd like.  Darcy and Harper received a few new Loopsies for Christmas, so I have justification to make more dresses.  ;-)

Over the weekend, I decided I wanted to try making an amigurumi doll, and used Allison's doll pattern as somewhat of a guide.  I referred to her pattern for the head and the undies.

I wanted the scale of my doll to be considerably smaller than Allison's, so I made the arms and legs pretty tiny.  I'm attempting to make an amigurumi Lalaloopsy Littles. They're the new little siblings of the bigger Lalaloopsy dolls. 

Aren't they cute?! This week I'm working on getting the hair and face just right, then I'll start working on her outfit.  I am very nervous about the hair, since I've never done it before.  I worked on it quite a bit yesterday, and I was not happy with how things were looking.  So today I'm probably going to remove the mess I made yesterday, and start over with the hair.  

Maybe I'll come up with something I like by the end of the week, so I can share a new progress picture with you.

Happy Stitching! 

Amy

Handmade Owl Costume

With just a few days left before Halloween, I thought I should get this posted before it's too late! Pretty much right after Darcy's birthday projects, I jumped in to Halloween and costume mode. For a few weeks she said she wanted to be a unicorn, then last week she changed gears and said she wanted to be a, "WOO! WOO! AN OWL!"

Honestly, crafting an owl costume sounded a lot more fun and exciting than a unicorn. Nothing against unicorn costumes, it just seemed like it was going to be another embellished hoodie costume.

I didn't wast anytime and jumped right on the owl costume production. Originally, I had one idea in mind, then the ideas just kept coming, and I just. couldn't. stop. But I did it! I finished Darcy's owl costume.

What you're about to see is actually a mish-mash of 3 different ideas I found online.

What do you think? Is it too much? Over the top? Or is it super great, OMG?

Unfortunately, my little model came down with a sickness last night, and is in no mood to try on her costume. She's way too busy today with sneezing, coughing, fever and napping. I sure hope she gets well by Saturday evening. We were hoping to take her to Haunt the Zoo at the OKC Zoo tonight. But maybe tomorrow or Sunday will be better for that.

So there are 3 elements to the costume: shirt, wings & mask.

The shirt idea came from a very cute last minute costume idea by Ellen Baker of The Long Thread. She posted this last year on Alpha Mom, and I fell in love with it then. I tried to get Darcy to be an owl last year, but she wasn't having it.

Ellen's owl costume tutorial also includes a mask. But since I'm an overachiever and I'm always looking for an excuse to embroider, I decided to make my mask out of felt. I tweaked her original design just a bit, added some inspirational ideas from Lori Marie, and came up with my own design.

I made the mask last night, and I'm still crushing on it. I still need to put a final top stitch on the inner right eye (for any of you attention to detail types), but that shouldn't take too long. I kind of want to make a larger size for me!

The wings. Oh, the wings. The wings came from an adorable owl costume idea from the Martha Stewart team.


See? Adorable, right? But the instructions are supposed to be suited for a baby. Reading some of the comments on the website, a lot of the people were saying the suggested template enlargement of 375% was way too huge for a baby. So I just decided to "wing" it (har!) and print wings #2 - #4 on to a regular sized sheet of paper. For the base wing, wing #1, I cut it in half and printed each half on to a piece of paper. Using those measurements, the wings are just the right size for Darcy.

The issue I ran in to was a color issue. When I purchased the felt, I bought light pink for the largest wing. But with only 4 wing layers, I just couldn't get it to look right. I decided it was the light pink that was throwing it off. But I'm stubborn, and didn't want to purchase more felt in a darker color, so I just added another wing in the chocolate brown. There. Problem solved.

The wings have strips of velcro underneath the shoulder, and they attach to the top of the shirt. I also added some elastic arm bands under the wings to help hold them in place, but I might end up adding more velcro. I think the elastic might end up being too tight or bothering Darcy after too long.

If you decide to use any of these ideas for an owl costume for your kiddo, hopefully my information will be helpful to you.

What are your kiddos dressing up as this year? Are YOU dressing up?

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Hand Embroidered Pillows

Just checking in with a couple of photos of a new project I started last week. I'm so in love with it, I just have to share it with you!


Isn't she sweet? I have 3 more all stitched up and I'm hoping to get them sewn and stuffed tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to put these in one of the local shops, along with some more new plush I've been working on. (This project was made with the Cute Little Heads pattern by Sublime Stitching.)

I have more to share with you, but I'm really short on time right now. I just wanted to pop in and say hi and tell you I miss you! *sniff*

Busy just never stops around here. ;-)

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Handmade Father's Day

Darcy has been on a drawing kick lately, and we're really enjoying it. It's so awesome watching her drawings evolve, and the different shapes and faces she comes up with for her people and animals. One of my favorite drawings she's created was a picture of John. I knew right away I wanted to embroider it and make it a snuggly for one of John's Father's Day gifts.

Ok, so a quick and funny story about the picture she drew of John. Darcy likes to pretend she is a pony named, "Honey Pie" & John is the bad guy named, "Licorice." Licorice hates lots of things and just about everything makes him angry. Especially ponies. So Licorice would capture Honey Pie and lock her up in an invisible cage and Honey Pie would kick the cage door open and gallop her way to freedom!

They would play this game for an hour at least every night when John got home from work. So much fun to watch. :-)

The picture she drew is John as Licorice, and it's the best thing ever.

All snuggled up:

John really loved this gift and I'm pretty sure he got a little misty eyed. I love it when that happens. You make something for someone and they're so overjoyed they get a wee tear in their eye. Best. Feeling. Ever.

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

Hand Embroidered Easter Gifts

Brace yourself, because I'm finally posting pictures of the snugglies I made for the girls. I made these for their Easter gifts, and they were a total hit.

I started with the bunny, and when Darcy found out it was for her, she said she'd rather have an elephant. Well then. So Harper got the bunny and Harper loves the bunny.


I just love her hair, don't you? That's the fancy chain stitch, you know. Which just so happens to be our last lesson for the "Embroidery 101" series.

The bunny pattern was a generous freebie from Helen Dardik of Orange You Lucky. I love her website and her art work, and can easily spend a ridiculous amount of time admiring her talent.

Next up, the elephant. Darcy loves the elephant. How can she not?




The elephant embroidery pattern is from Alyssa Thomas of Penguin and Fish. She has an entire alphabet of animal embroidery patterns that I would love to get. It was a little bit too much for me to spend at one time, so I went with the choice of five option. Alyssa made a pillow using her hedgehog design, and I almost died from the cuteness. So I copycatted her idea, and used the elephant, since that's what Darcy wanted. The original patterns are not this large, just so you know. ;-)


They're both pretty wonderful, and I'm so happy that both girls love them so much. I think a new addiction has been born.

xoxo,
Amy

Dolly All Done

Over the weekend, Darcy and I were invited to a birthday party for my good friend Susan's little girl, Ava. It was Ava's 3rd birthday, so I wanted to give her something extra special. The first plan was to go to Target and pick out a toy that I thought might appeal to her, but decided to make her something instead.

After brainstorming, I settled on making The Black Apple doll, pattern found here. I have been wanting to do this pattern since I saw Emily's appearance on the Martha Stewart show last year. I'm still pretty new to making dolls and softies, and this is a great pattern for beginners like me.

Knowing me, I just had to incorporate some sort of fancy pants stitching on the doll, and what better place to showcase stitches than the hair! I love stitching hair.

*Dearest Readers: Please don't unsubscribe to my blog after seeing the not so pretty pictures of my project. My camera is officially dead to me, so I had to use my phone to take pictures of this awesome project. Don't judge me.*

So on with the hair! This added a little bit of extra work time to the doll, but I really like how it turned out.

Time to sew and stuff!

When I looked at the pictures above online, I kept getting ideas of more details that I wanted to add. (The details are the best part, you know.) I did add a little skirt to my doll's body, giving it little pleats and topped it with the black lace. I've had those sparkly buttons in my collection for a few years, and I think this was the perfect project for them. See honey? It does make sense for me to horde a bunch of craft stuff for years at a time!!

After adding more details, like a black peter pan collar, fancy mary janes, and pigtails, and finally embroidering her face, she was finished!





I was so nervous about doing her little face, because I loved everything else so much. I guess that's why I put it off as the very last thing. I decided the safest and best option was to use the Cute Little Heads pattern. (So glad I did.) I just picked one of the faces in the pattern pack, and cut out each facial feature separately and placed them accordingly on the doll's face. I wondered if I needed to enlarge the features a bit, but honestly, I think it worked with the size they are.

The birthday girl and her Mama loved the doll, so I was very happy.

Darcy loved the doll too, and kept asking if she could snuggle her. I felt bad limiting her snuggle time with "Dolly", (that's what Darcy kept calling her) so I promised I would make one for her too. Her birthday is in October, so that gives me a little bit of time. But since Darcy is more of an animal lover, I'm thinking I will make her the Molly Monkey doll! Isn't she adorable?

I also have plans for a Little Red Riding Hood doll brewing in my head. Oh the cuteness!

xoxo
Amy

Stitchosaurus

I don't know if I've mentioned this on my blog before, but my 2 year old daughter Darcy is obsessed with dinosaurs. She goes crazy anytime she sees anything about dinosaurs. She has approximately 30 different dino action figures and can correctly identify at least 10 different species. I never imagined my little girl would love dinosaurs this much. She makes our hearts swell with pride.

A few weeks ago I was browsing Etsy, and stumbled upon my new favorite cross stitch designer, andwabisabi. She had a Brontosaurus among her collection, so I bought it for Darcy.



I started this piece last night around 8pm and worked on it for about an hour, then finished it around 10am this morning. So it went pretty quick.

I also bought some cute dinosaur fabric from another Etsy seller, and I'm planning on using that as the main fabric in a quilt for Darcy.


She really goes bonkers for this fabric. When I pulled it out today for the cross stitch photo shoot, she squealed and said, "My dino covers! I just wub it so much!" Then she ran over and started counting all the dinos.

We're going to be moving to a bigger house (same city) next month, and I'm focusing on these colors and other dino goodies for her room.

What things are the kids in your life currently in love with?

xoxo
Amy