04/07/2012 - Chickadees

Easter chickadees! I made these little cuties for Easter baskets.

Reclaimed Material: scrap fabrics
Other Material: none
Tools: scissors, sewing machine, fabric marker, thread, needle 

How I did it: I put two right sides of the scraps and eyeballed the shape of a chickadee and cut it out. I repeated this three more times, making each subsequent one smaller. The scraps I used for the bodies were fleece and cashmere. I used satiny fabric and cut out the wings and beaks for each side of each bird. Using a zigzag stitch I top stitched the wings on the right side of each body. For the larger two chickadees I stitched on beaks because the little ones had black lines where the beaks were which worked nicely for me. I put the right sides together then stitched them all around, but left an opening at the bottoms to stuff them. I turned them right sides out and stuffed with other fabric scraps. With a needle and thread I whip stitched the bottoms closed. With the fabric marker I made little dots for the eyes.

What I would do differently: Although I don't enjoy using patterns I probably should have used a simple pattern. One of the smaller ones looks a bit deformed. Why is it the smaller the something is the cuter it is?

04/02/2012 - Noah, the finger puppet

Zoe gave me this idea by grabbing one of the ends I cut off of an inner tube during the big basket project. She put one on her finger and walked around saying she had a finger puppet. She also named this little guy. I told her I made the finger puppet for her. She looked at it skeptically and said, "his name is Noah." Then she snatched out the green hair and said, "because he has NOAH hair." This is what she gets from the Bible stories I tell her?

Reclaimed Material: rubber inner tube, button, plastic bottle ring, green thingie
Other/New Material: none
Tools: scissors, Sharpie, X-acto knife

How I did it: The tube was already cut to the size I needed and I had already cut skinny little strips. I used the X-acto to cut little notches along the top to string the skinny rubber strip through to bring the top together around the hair that was going to be pulled out anyway. I cut two more notched to sew on the button, using the rubber strip. After cutting two more notches for the mouth placement, I cut the plastic ring in half. The ring had little flaps on it, so I notched them on each side to hold the mouth in place after I tucked it into the rubber. I drew a black circle on the button to make the eye and gave Noah to Zoe the next morning.

What I would do differently: It would be fun to make more Zoe-approved puppets.

03/24/2012 - Rubber Octopus Toy

I have this weird thing where I critique rubber inner tubes. My favorite class of inner tube are the lovely ones that are shiny and wide. Some of the tubes I go through are nasty with bits of the road imbedded in them, filled with a green goo after a flat, or covered in bright orange patches. Those tubes give character to some projects, but they are not my preference. I wrote all that to say that this little buddy is made from my favorite type of rubber.

Reclaimed Material: rubber inner tubes
Other/New Material: none
Tools: scissors, white marker

How I did it: I tied a simple knot in a piece of rubber inner tube. I tucked one of the ends into the knot so that both ends came out the same side to make the legs. I cut the two ends into 24 kind of equal strips by cutting the ends in half so there were four pieces, then again to make 8 pieces. I cut each of those eight strips into thirds. Next I braided the thirds and tied them off to make each leg. I used the white marker to draw on the face. 

What I would do differently:  I was trying to for a "clockwork orange" thing with his eyes, but the execution was not so successful. I need to little bits for faces and also maybe stuff the head with fluff. Zoe is happy with him though.