Crafting a First Birthday Party

Now that February has arrived, I can finally look back at the whirlwind that was November through January. On top of the usual holiday fun, we had an extra-special event that landed smack between Thanksgiving and Christmas: Vinnie's first birthday!

Hooray! We made it!

I was quite excited to put his birthday party together. I've hosted dinner parties, a Halloween baby shower, and St. Patrick's Day parties, but this was the first time I've put together a child's birthday party (even if most of the guests were adults).

As comedian (and father of 5) Jim Gaffigan pointed out, "the baby's first birthday party is not a party for your baby; it's a party for you." So, I didn't get all crazy with a meticulously coordinated theme or blow a bunch of cash on an expensive smash cake (especially since I had a feeling Vinnie wasn't even going to touch it).

Doesn't mean I didn't get crafty, though! I opted for a primary color scheme and some "Baby's 1st Birthday" plates and signage. I got a lot of my gear at Daiso, (a large, Japanese dollar-store) including serving bowls, plates, invitation supplies, and decorations. My favorite were the pre-folded tissue paper puffs; much safer and (eco-friendly) than balloons, and they're re-usable.

Party favors for everyone!

For favors, I made large gingerbread cookies in the shape of a 1. I bought the cookie cutter from an Etsy store called West Tin Works (check them out, they have lots of fun shapes!). My mama and I decorated the cookies with royal icing. We did this pretty late at night, and I think our exhaustion fed into our creativity.

Batman, zombies, vampire clowns...the usual for a 1st birthday, right?

 Mama and I also baked the cupcakes for the party. OK, my mama did pretty much 99% of the work on those, which is awesome (especially since she used to be a professional cake decorator).

I've always wanted a cupcake tower!

For decorations, I didn't want to go too overboard since I had rented a nice space in our apartment's complex. The main attraction were the galleries of photos of Vinnie, which were mounted on colorful cardstock trimmed with decorative-edge scissors. I did one section that was Vinnie at each month, one that was Vinnie with friends and family, and one that was some of Vinnie's "greatest hits." It was a really nice way for guests to see some of my favorite pictures of the little guy, since I don't post many pictures online.

I think my favorite thing we made for the party, though, were Vinnie's birthday bibs. I finally followed through on my threat to applique. I used the same "1" shaped cookie cutter to make a template for the fabric, then attached it to the terrycloth bib using fusible webbing. My mama then sewed it on with a super-close zig-zag. We made two, one for his birthday at home, and one for the party the next day.

Hmmm...wonder which party Vinnie liked better?

Not that I had to worry about my little man getting messy. As I predicted, he didn't even touch his cupcake. It was still amusing to watch.

"You want me to do what with this?"

I had a lot of fun putting this party together. I had a LOT of help from my family--especially my parents, who flew in from out of town--and I feel so lucky to have been able to gather so many people together to help the Professor and I celebrate our little man's first birthday.

Handmade Princess Bride Westley Doll

"As you wish."

I've been meaning to share this for a while now. I mean, it's not every day I make a doll. In fact, I'd never made a real doll before last autumn, nonetheless a doll of the Dread Pirate Roberts (a.k.a. Westley) from the Princess Bride.

It must have been the pregnancy hormones that made me commit to this madness. I was bandying about ideas for a regular craft swap I do with a friend, and I mentioned making a doll for her wee son in return for a black, crochet baby blanket. I'd been looking for something to hone my sewing skills, since I'd mastered the skill of sewing two squares together. A doll was the next logical step, right?

To be fair, I started with a pattern I found on an Etsy store, Dolls and Daydreams. There's an adorable superhero boy pattern that served as a base for the body and the mask. Rather than making the legs, arms, and body in different colors, I went with black fabric. The tricky parts were the boots (made from upcycled pleather from a couch I skinned), the chest (trying to get that sexy, open-collar look), and the hair (how do I give a doll a ponytail?).

Appliqueing the face turned out to be rather challenging, too, but fun. The mask was made from the same upcycled pleather, but I used wool felt for the hair and mustache, and craft felt for the eyes. It's hard to tell from the picture below, but I machine stitched wavy lines of hair to make it more interesting. Freestyle.

"No one would surrender to the Dread Pirate Westley."

The chest issue was solved by cutting a slit in the chest fabric and sewing it open to make a "collar," and then sewing a triangle of flesh-colored fabric to fill in the space. I hand embroidered the criss-cross laces of the shirt with a simple back-stitch.

I figured out how to make the ponytail fairly easily: I stitched a little bit of felt to the back of the doll, so that when I sewed the head on it looked like a ponytail:

"Why won't my arms move?"

The boots. Oh lordy, those boots. Remind me, the next time I work with pleather, to make the legs BIGGER so I don't have to turn thick, stiff fabric in a one-inch-wide tube. It took me half an hour each to turn those legs!

I am exceedingly pleased with how my first doll came out, and most importantly, I learned a lot (#&@*ing pleather). It was hard for me to let him go, even though I knew he was going to a good, geeky home. It'll be a while before I have the time or space to make another doll, but fortunately, it'll be a while before my own wee son can play with dolls. If I start now, I can have it done by his 5th birthday.

Summer Sundress

Ta da!

We may still have nine days to go before the official beginning of summer, but in my head, it's already here. The Professor is finished with the semester, the heat is rising, and there's a ton of watermelon in my fridge. Yup, summer's come early to my world.

What better way to celebrate than by whipping up a spiffy new sundress? I found this lovely pre-shirred fabric at JoAnn's a few weeks ago, and I thought it would be a simple place to start with sewing my own garments.

All I had to do was measure, iron, and sew straight lines. The trickiest part was making and measuring the straps from scratch, but with the Prof's help that step was fairly easy. Within a few hours, I had the first home-made dress I'd had in over a decade.

Straps!

There's something so very empowering about making your own clothes, especially as a big girl. I've spent so much of my life hunting a limited number of stores with a limited range of styles for clothes that really expressed "me." So, yeah, it's really exciting to be able to put something together than not only looks great, but gives me that added bump of pride when I say, "oh this? I made it."

Embroidered Dice Bag

I managed to squeeze in a bit of crafting before I got taken out by the double-whammy of Con and cold. The Professor’s birthday was at the end of March, and he had been dropping hints that he needed a new bag to hold his gaming dice. I was more than happy to oblige!

This was the perfect excuse to break out the brand-spankin’ new sewing machine my Mama gave me as an early birthday present. I don’t know why I hadn’t given it a run sooner! It’s truly a thing of beauty:




It’s a computerized machine, which is a light year leap from the antique Featherweight I’d been struggling with for months. Though I still love the old girl dearly, there’s really nothing like a sewing machine that is wholly and completely yours to bond with.

It only took me a couple hours to fully put together the bag, which is made from up-cycled denim from a pair of torn jeans. The embroidered emblem is the symbol of the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom, from the old Ultima computer games. It’s a game that the Professor loved as a child, and I thought it’d be appropriate for a dice bag.




He truly loved it. It was nice to finally be able to craft something just for him that he’d actually enjoy and use, as opposed to the knit scarves I keep trying to hoist off on him!

I'm really looking forward to tackling some other sewing projects, and learning some new skills. Is it too ambitious to think I can sew a sundress by summertime?

Hand: Toasty Tote

I feel like its been forever since I've posted something crafty, what with the film screenings and the traveling cross-country these days. I have, however, been crafting up a little storm in my downtime, bouncing between sewing, knitting, embroidery, and felt plushie-making.

The winner in the race to completion was my very first homemade tote bag:

I'm super-proud of this bag. I mean, bursting-at-the-seams proud. I designed it myself. I made it without a pattern. I did it with patience and without cutting corners. I made EXACTLY what I wanted: a cute chocolate brown tote with pink striped accents and lining.

It was inspired by the adorable Urban Threads patch I bought from AuntiFranni's Etsy shop. I have a "thing" for cute toast. Don't ask me why. I can't explain.

The straps. Oh those straps. They took me twice as long to complete than the body, what with the two different fabrics and interfacing and having to stitch them to the bag....grrr. Put it this way: I had to rip the stitches out more than one during the process of attaching the straps to the bag. And stabbed myself in the cuticle with the seam ripper. Not. Fun.

It was all so very worth it. I learned so much in the process of making this (including yes, it is natural to get so frustrated you feel like crying, which my Mama and her quilting friend reassured me of). The tote also held up remarkably well on my recent Midwest adventure, with being stuffed under airplane seats, rolled up and used as a neck pillow, and being crammed to near-brimming with non-knitting goods as I ran from plane to bus.

It's a solid piece of work. Maybe there's hope for me as a seamstress after all.

Hand: Taking the Cake

I've been plagued by the weekend blahs. Yesterday I was in a particularly nasty funk, which called for some major-league cute crafting to cure.

So, I pulled out my new copy of Softies -- which I snagged as a b-day gift to myself a couple weeks ago -- and whipped up this adorable little party cake. It's all hand stitched, made of equal parts craft felt and pure cuteness. It was also a major bonus that I had all the right supplies on hand! I love projects I can start and finish without a trip to the craft store.

Now I'm eyeing my felt stash, and wondering just how awesome a little black and white cake would be...

Hand: Of Xocolates and Sewing Machines

Despite all the crap that's been going on, I know I am a very lucky lady. Sometimes it takes something as silly as a greeting-card-industry-holiday to remind me that yep, things aren't always as bad as they seem.

My V-day was lovely this year, and for all the right reasons. Woke up to make Strawberry Empanadas and coffee, and wrap the husband's present (a copy of Rumors, my second attempt to give him that CD since the copy I gave him for Xmas was destroyed in the car crash). Had a relaxed breakfast together, and went out to run a couple errands and pick out some amazing chocolates from The Xocolate Bar on Solano Avenue. Came home, watched Across the Universe, then did some co-op gaming until pizza arrived. Mellow and sweet. That's the ticket for all my holidays in '09.

Mmmm...Dulce de Leche, White Chocolate with Passionfruit, and "Aztec Amor" (with cinnamon, orange zest, and chili).

I've actually been doing quite a bit of crafting lately, though not sharing it all since a lot of it has been gifts and stuff for swaps -- including a Joss Whedon swap I just dropped a package in the mail for.

I can share, however, my very first non-supervised machine sewing project:

A sewing machine cover for my Singer Featherweight!

This machine was given to me by my mother-in-law about a year ago. It belonged to her mother, and hemmed clothes for six growing children for decades before it was passed on to her. I feel really honored she chose to trust this precious machine, this family heirloom, into my care. I was actually too afraid to touch it, until my own Mama talked me into taking it out of the box this past Thanksgiving.

My Mama has continued to fuel my enthusiasm for my this little machine with history books and pointers, plus lore about the Singer Featherweight she picks up at Quilting Shows and the like.

I felt this little machine deserved a special cover now that it's out of the box, and though the cover isn't perfect, it still looks a lot better than a dusty old case I was hiding it in. Besides, how can I not get excited about sewing when I see that on my desk?

I'm planning on making a similar one for my Kitchen Aid mixer (and I even have some adorable fabric all set). Who knows? This may be the start of a cozy craze in my apartment! Especially when I have a tutorial as easy as this one to work off of.

More things to post soon, once swaps have been swapped and gifts received. I can't wait to share!

Hand: "Tea Time" Shadowbox

This is something I've actually been holding onto for a long time, since late July, to be exact.

It's a shadowbox I made for my Mama's birthday in August, but upon completing it I deemed it far too fragile to ship. So, I held onto it until I could give it to her in person...which wasn't until she and Dad came up to visit for Thanksgiving.

She truly loved it, which I'm so happy about!



I cut the little table out of craft felt, and detailed it with backstiches. The flowers are from a lace trim, which I carefully cut out, and sewed on with seed beads in the center.

The tea set is a trio of pewter buttons I found in a shop on Haight Street, and were the inspiration for the whole project.

The background is layered craft paper and vellum.



The mat was a lucky find, since it matches the buttons so well!

I've mentioned previously how much my Mama and I love going to tea, so this was my little way of always being able to give her a tea party, even when I'm far away (awwww...).

Mind: Hoping against hope & Halloween wrap-up

The polls are closing around the U.S., and I'm way, way too nervous to focus on anything productive. I know everyone and your mother has told you, but I'm gonna add to it...if you haven't voted yet and your state's polls are still open...GET OUT THERE AND FRIGGIN' VOTE!!! It's not too late!

I just have to share, I'm so proud: my little brother is voting in his first presidential election ever today. I so wish I could be there with a camera to record this moment. Hell of an election for him to cut his teeth on (especially in San Francisco, where there's a million initiatives on the ballot).

Okay. With that being said, now I distract myself from hitting "refresh" every thirty seconds on CCN.com by sharing my Halloween wrap-up, before it becomes completely obsolete.

First, I want to share the little plushie Halloween ornaments I made using Annie Oakleaves' adorable free Halloween pattern.



I forgot to take a picture of the back, which is a cute candy corn pattern. This is my first attempt at embroidered plushie-things, and I think they came out well!

Here's a close-up of one of the bats, chillin' on my calavera garland and taking in the stormy day outside:



One of my annual Halloween traditions is the mass baking of sugar cookies, which this year were little sugar pumpkins and chocolate autumn leaves. I love my cookie gun!



And, of course, our jack-o-lantern. My husband really isn't into the ritual sacrifice of gourds, so I was on my own this year.



He lasted a full two days before giving into the creeping rot. He was cute before that!

Okay. Enough distraction. I think I broke CNN.com, besides. I think I'm going to need to find a local pub in Berkeley to watch the votes roll in. No way I'll be able to sit with no TV at home.

Fingers crossed. Here's hoping there's good news tomorrow.