Simple Embroidery for Day of the Dead

Last Friday, I hosted a Halloween craft night and it was a whole lot of fun. We created super simple embroidery and needle felted decorations. My theme for mine was Day of the Dead but, since I was hosting a bunch of art teachers, I decided to just share the basics and leave the options and creativity up to them. Here's what they came up with: 

 So fun, right?! After sharing these images on my Instagram, I got a lot of questions about embroidery and needle felting basics. This project is all about the basics so I thought I'd create a little easy-peasy tutorial for you and the crafty folks in your life. I do believe children as young as 7 years old could handle this craft with you by their side. Here you go:

If you are not familiar with Day of the Dead and would like to read more, you might want to start here. 

 Supplies needed:

* Embroidery hoop (ours were about 6" wide)
* Fabric (scraps work great for the background!)
* Embroidery floss
* Embroidery or chenille needle
* Craft store felt in a variety of colors

Optional:
* Wool Roving
* Needle felting tool
* Needle felting cushion

 Instead of needle felting, you could always just glue on flowers, jewels or Halloween decor! The fun part on craft night was having a ton of supplies on hand for everyone and just seeing what all they could dream up!

 I like to keep my Calaveras (skulls) in the hoops and then hang them that way. I have a Halloween Tree (yes, I'm that person) and they look so cute on there.

I hope that tutorial helps. Have a wonderful time creating!

If you like this, you might want to grab MY BOOK, right here!

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DIY: Crafts on a Plane!

Well, hey there, long lost friends! I trust y'all had a super fab and totes turkey-tastic Thanksgiving. We don't eat meat in our house so ours was simply tofu-licious (just kidding, we don't believe in the senseless slaughter of tofu either). I'm quite positive that I devoured my weight in good food goodness this past week. However, I'm sticking with el elastic-waistband-o for another 24 hours before I gotta find out the ugly truth.  

Since I seriously was in pajamas and/or the same ensemble for three days in a row, Ima gonna have to skip sharing with y'all what I wore this week. Howevers, I did manage to whip up a coupla crafts during our travels and this here post is the result.

 Oh, okay, one outfit pic. Since I did manage to get dressed, comb my hair and put my face on, I outta show you the product of my one day of effort. sweater: Free People, found at Buffalo Exchange; top: JCrew on super duper Black Friday sale; skirt: TJMaxx years ago; floral fishnets with orange tights underneath: Urban Outfitters

Yay! Match-y embroidered jewelry! Y'all, whipping up these little do-dads took no time at all since the embroidery work was so minimal. Which is perfect for me because embroidery is not my fave thang in the universe. I mean, I've done plenty of it (check out this embroidered necklace and this one, an embroidered blouse, an embroidered dress and this thing). And I was super inspired by Mary Beth who's jewelry and etsy shop was featured in my last post. Her work is so amazing! By the way, you can still leave a comment to enter to win her whale ring. If you don't have an instagram account, don't sweat it, leave a comment anyway! 

Okay, what was I saying again? Oh yeah, CRAFTS ON A PLANE!

 One of my fave things about travel is that it gives me plenty of uninterrupted crafting time. And a four hour flight to Cali is the perfect chance to catch up on all things crafty, dontcha think? I had picked up some alpaca yarn from my trip to this sweet place and had my sights set on knitting myself a scarf. Nevermind the fact that I suck at knitting. Forget all about the thought that I hate knitting. Totally disregard the idea that the last thing I knitted was this gawd-awful hat that ultimately became the cat's chew toy. I had four hours, I was gonna knit me a scarf, y'all. 

AND about 30 minutes in, this was pretty much how I felt about my life as a knit-wit. Thankfully, I'd brought my embroidery backup. 

Please note all the alpaca hair strands all over the black cotton. 

Oh, how was California, you ask? So thoughtful of you to inquire. It was swell. We hit Disnatch a coupla nights in a row to check out the final days of the Mad T Party Band (sniff-sniff!) hit the rides and see the castle at night...

Oh, sparkly. I was also able to catch up with a couple of my fave Californian buddies (thanks for lunch, Jane and Hayden!) and shop. Because there's always time to shop. The hubs loves to hike so we try to tackle a new trail each time we are there. On this trip, we hiked to a grotto where the hubs captured this footage of me being obnoxiously (albeit totes normal) whiny and annoying. It's what I do best. 

I thought he was simply snapping photos until we sat down to look at our pictures together. The video had me laughing so hard at my annoyingness that I just had to share it with y'all. 

 "Wait. We hiked down all that for this?! Where are those knitting needles, Ima bout to knit/purl sumbody."

Once we returned back to civilization, I busted out these jewelry blanks I'd picked up at Michael's. They were on super duper clearance which is always my kinda party. 

To attach my embroidery work to the jewelry, I decided to adhere the fabric to some cardboard backing. Which, in this case, was the cardboard from a dark chocolate package. I'm all about the recyclin', folks. 

 After tracing the ring, I cut out the cardboard...

and glued it to my embroidery piece. I fringe cut the edges of the embroidery so that I could tack it down with glue a lil easier. My glue of choice is Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue. Mostly because I like the name Aleene and I'm totes tacky. Oh, and added bonus, I now have the nutritional facts of my dark chocolate on the underside of my ring! This way, when someone discovers my ring at Goodwill years down the road, they'll think they've found some sort of Da Vinci Code-esque (guys, why are all my movie references, like, 10 years old?!) puzzle which will ultimately unravel the universe! YES, mission accomplished!

Okay, tell me the truth: Does this giant bracelet make me look like some sort of Wonder-Woman-silver-cuff-wearing wannabe?

If so, I don't suppose that's a bad thang, do you? 

Hope y'all have a restful last day of your weekend! 

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DIY: An Optical Illusion of Embroidery

Dontcha think it's pretty safe to say that the interests you had as a kid kinda-sorta shape your interests as an adult? Now, granted, not all the things you were fascinated with translate into adulthood (my super mad collection of Hot Wheels cars never resulted in my becoming a mechanic even if the grimy paint/clay combo under my nails kinda makes me look that way) but you gotta admit, some things leave their mark. For example, if you know me even a lil bit, would it surprise you that I loved my Fashion Plates growing up?

Gah, anyone else out there have these? My fave thing to do was to put together the most ridiculous outfits possible. Not at all like what I do on a daily basis. Not. At. All. 

There were some toys that I wanted with every ounce of my lil kid fiber which my parental units just flat out refused me. Take this Make Me Pretty Barbie, for instance. Just because I had this habit of hacking the hair off my dolls didn't mean I'd do the same to ole Babs. If Ida had this bad boy growin' up, I wonder how that woulda translated to adulthood. Would I have frosted my tips? Become tanorexic? The funny thing is, as I'm typing this post, I'm currently wearing a hot pink necklace, a side pony and a bow. So I guess some things stick with ya no matter whut. 

 What toy creator thought, "hey! Let's create a decapitated life-size Babs to make lil girls feel totes inadequate about their looks!" Sadly most of my buddy's Make Me Pretty Barbies ended up with Sharpie'ed faces and half burnt scalps. Which, with her edgy and punk-ish looks, always made her the Angsty Artsy Babs in my book. 

Naw, my parents couldn't be bothered with fun stuff like Decap Babs. Instead I was given educational and crafty stuff like my beloved calligraphy set and a never-ending latch hook kit. If you grew up in the 1980s, I wanna know what toys you had, yo. Take the wee quiz on the right and click on the toys you grew up with. Do you think stuff had anything to do with who you are now?

I spent weeks latch hookin' the crap outta that mushroom on my babysitters couch. I never did finish the thing...but I have always loved creating with fibers. So there's that.

Oh, my bad. They DID get me a Barbie (or twenty) along with an office chair (whuh?) and a 500 piece puzzle. To this very day I freaking hate puzzles. Why would anyone wanna put together 500 pieces of anything let alone a crappy 1980s landscape. These are the questions that haunt my sleepless nights. 

Often times, when I'm dreaming up lesson plans for the kids, I think to myself, "what did I love to do as a kid?" It's then that I think back to my Fashion Plates and my latch hookin' ways and retro fun-ness comes to mind. Like working with my spirograph for instance.

I'd totes forgotten about Spirograph until I discovered one in my art room a couple years back. Granted, it's missing some key pieces but I still had fun toying around with it. Over the summer, I found this very vintage version of a Spirograph called a Magic Designer. Did y'all have either of those growin' up?

When I first found that Spirograph in my room years ago, I spent a couple hours playing with the designs. I love the look of 'em -- they are so 1950s space-age-y. It was then that I decided to make several photos copies of them, trace them onto a piece of fabric and embroider a design. Hence the pillow. 

If only I'd had a Magic Designer in my life. Have y'all ever seen this bad boy? Check out what it can do.

Yeah. Magic. I don't think I'll be stitching up that anytime soon but I do love the look of the designs, don't you?

I really want like a half dozen of these in my art room for the kids to tinker around with. That's not too much ask, right? What I really like about the Magic Designer is that it's like a little self operating machine. You seriously just adjust the settings, insert your drawing tool and turn the crank. It's fascinating to watch. 

The only problemo? That little holder for your drawing tool is so narrow that I can't seem to get anything to fit. I tried to place the inside of an ink pen into the holder but it didn't work. The lovely artwork I showed above was left behind in the box from the previous owner. So now I'm in search of a wee pen. Along with the meaning of life. Wish me luck. 

But back to teaching. So you know I scored all those lovely embroidery hoops for my fourth grade kids. Now my brain is just in "embroidery project"mode. I dunno about having the kids stitch up this kind of optical illusion-ness as it took me forever but I do like the thought. So I'm working on it. Any and all advice/comments/here's-what-you-should-do's would be greatly appreciated. Purty puhlease and tank ew.

When I stitched this up a couple years ago, I really wanted to play around with a variety of stitches. My grandma taught me how to embroider one summer as a kid (see, back to my what-you-do-as-a-child theory). At the time, I really only learned the running stitch. It was fun creating this pillow because it forced me to learn add new stitches to my life.

For more of my embroidered madness you can visit this fall top, this floral dress, that stitching of Amsterdam that I've yet to do anything with (sigh), this embroidered necklace, some stitching by my students, and some stenciled embroidery. 

So, whuh about y'all? Where there interests/toys/things-you-learned-and-loved as a kid that hang with you to this day? Still going to therapy because you're freaked out at My Buddy going "anywhere I go, he goooooes" (gah, stalker much?) or at Jem and the Holograms [my bad, spelled her name wrong in my poll!] being so "truly truly truly outrageous" that you'll never measure up (really? I wanna know what crap songwriter came up with those lyrics, y'all!). Take the lil quiz and fill me in! Oh and if I've forgotten any of your fave 1980s toys, please do fill me in. 

Until then, hope your week is Truly Truly Truly Outrageous! 

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In the Art Room: Sewing and Embroidery

No matter what your passion is in life, I bet the seed was planted when you were young. One summer, when I was probably 10i-sh, my grandmother taught me how to embroider. And I've loved creating stuff with fabric and thread since. 

This year, I decided to open up my art room to the folks I work with for a Sewing Group. Some of my 4th grade students caught wind of this and wanted to know if they could join. I kinda put the idea on the back burner as I had no freakin' idea how I'd use sewing machines with the youngins...and I kinda thought the kids would forget about it. But, as you know if you work with children, they never forget anything. When one of them started pricing sewing machines at the local thrift store and another petitioned her friends to enquire about a class, I started to toy with the idea of making it happen. When I accidentally said, "I'll think about it," the kids cheered and asked, "Yay, can we start TODAY?!" 

There is a wonderful enrichment program at my school called Gentry's Educational Foundation founded by Evelyn Hickerson, a teacher. I approached her about teaching a sewing class and she agreed to purchase some sewing machines. Because she's seriously that awesome. This woman is so dedicated to the education of all students that she'll stop at nothing to make it happen. We are so fortunate to have her enriching all of our lives. 

In my after school sewing class, I had almost 20 students (3rd and 4th grade) and two adult helpers. I was a little nervous having that many children sewing on machines at once...and I also felt like the kids should have some basic sewing and embroidery skills first. So I decided to start by having the kids create an embroidered sampler using this book as my guide.

I picked up this book years ago when I wanted to teach sewing in my art classes. I've since had to let go of that notion (30 minutes just seemed impossible to teach sewing to the under 10 set) but was thrilled to give it a go with this group. My after school classes were a lovely 60 minutes in length and that felt like absolute heaven. No rush, plenty of time to explain, chat and sew. 

Interested in giving this a go? Here's what we used:

• Gingham fabric
• Patterned fabric
• Embroidery floss, 24" in length, split into three strands
• Bees wax. This isn't necessary but it does come in handy. We ran our embroidery floss over the wax to prevent it from tangling.
• Large eyed, sharp needles
• Embroidery hoops
• Graph paper
• Sewing machine
• Pins
• Stuffing

1. Our first of business was writing out our names. We first did this on graph paper using the guide found in the book. This was then rewritten onto the kids' chosen piece of gingham in pencil.
2. Next we learned how to split our embroidery floss. I had the kids work with a partner to prevent the floss from tangling. This was then threaded into the needle, doubled over and knotted.
3. After that, we hooped our fabric. 
4. We didn't embroider our name first. We chatted about what a sampler was and how this would showcase a sample of embroidery stitches we learned. Our first stitches to learn were the running stitches seen under the name.
5. Once those were complete, we moved onto cross-stitching our name. Some students sewed buttons onto their sampler while others learned how to create a satin stitched heart.

All that took a couple of sewing classes to complete. Once they were finished, the kids chose a piece of fabric for the back of their pillow. Thankfully I'd just been donated a huge stash of fabric (which included some coveted Scooby Doo fabric). The kids laid their samplers on the fabric, cut it to the same size and pinned it right sides together on the top and sides. We left the bottom open for adding the stuffing.

Now I wasn't at all comfortable with the idea of the kids sewing for the first time without adult supervision. This is where my two super adult sewers came into the picture. They called each child one at a time to a machine and gave them a private sewing lesson. Perhaps in the future I'll be more comfortable leaving the kids less supervised...but until then, I'm all about the one-on-one.

So what were the others doing in the meantime? Well, they set their pillows aside and began creating mini-stuffed animals! In My First Sewing Book, the author gives a ton of animal patterns for the kids to chose from. I simply enlarged them and laid them out for the kids to pick from. Of course, I gave them the option of creating their own stuffies too (see last photo, ya'll. Too cute). With that sampler under their sewing belt, this proved to be the perfect project for them to work independently on while they waited for their turn at the machine.

For a Stuffie, you'd need the following:

• Two pieces of felt per student
• Embroidery floss
• Needle
• Thread
• Pins
• Patterns (or paper for creating their own)
• Stuffing

1. After picking their pattern, the kids pinned the pattern and two pieces together. This was then cut out.
2. After removing the pins, the kids were told they had to use a satin stitch to create a face. Buttons were available for eyes. 
3. Once that was complete, the two felt pieces were pinned together and stitched almost all the way around with a whip stitch.
4. Stuffing was added and the stuffie was stitched closed. Most kids were able to create more than one.

When their turn was up at the sewing machine, they stitched those three pinned sides. Stuffing was added to the pillow and they had the option of hand-stitching the pillow closed or using the machine again. I was surprised that not all of the kids picked the machines. I think some of them really enjoyed the control of stitching by hand.

Since completing these stuffies, the kids have started bringing in things they've sewn at home. They've independently created purses, pin cushions and stuffies for their buddies and siblings. Which makes me so super happy.

And excited. I've already started my yearly process of begging for longer art classes next year so I can do this with all my students, not just an after school class. I know how much I loved creating like this when I was a kid...and I want all of my students to have this very same experience.

Do ya'll sew in your art room? Would you mind sharing with me the projects you do? I'd love to have more ideas and share them with my sewing group! Thanks, ya'll!

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