Origami Mommy

Adorn your walls with fabric

I recently learned how to stretch fabric over a canvas frame to make a beautiful and inexpensive wall hanging. I needed some splashes of color in one of our rooms. I think the hardest part was figuring out how to say "staple gun" in Japanese!

What a fabulous way to satisfy the urge to see beautiful fabric around you. This took only a half yard each of fabric from the Far Far Away collection by Heather Ross. I got the remnants on sale at a fabric shop.

I'm loving pink and green these days. 

I was first inspired by seeing a photo on this post in Sasikirana Handmade - I love looking at the colors in this blog! And then I found a great tutorial here, not that you really need a tutorial. You just need to know how to use a staple gun.

Here's another lovely post on using fabric in an embroidery hoop - I'll have to try that for some of my smaller remnants.

It just makes me so happy to see splashes of color here and there in my home!

Recyclable craft quickies

Here are 2 super-quick craft projects you can do with your little ones.

First, a nice summery fish tank. I got the idea from my brother who made a fish tank with his little boy and even provided imaginary "fish food" (using an empty spice container). All this is is tissue paper inside a clear plastic container, and your child can create fish of different colors to put inside. Simple, but somehow incredibly delightful for little ones (especially toddlers).

This next project takes a bit more time, but is great for kids who love to paint. Cut up milk cartons to make bridges and highways, and arrange them on a painted roadway (or river, or both). Use toilet tissue rolls as columns to support the bridges. We used a cut up paper grocery bag to paint on. Connect several together and you could make something quite elaborate!

I love encouraging children to provide handmade props for their toys!

Tutorial: A bouquet of paper hyacinths

Daniel came home from school a few weeks ago clutching a little bouquet of flowers he proudly presented to me. They were super-easy to make, as he showed me, and you can make a lot of creative decisions to make this project your own - size, color, type of paper, etc. I tried lengthening the flowery part and they came out looking like hyacinths (or some other similar type flower - I'm not really good with flower names, so if you can help me out here please do!)

I love the possibilities here - made with construction paper, they have more structure and shape; made with tissue paper, they are airier and lighter. You can see examples of both in the first photo of this post. I'll demonstrate below with origami paper, but I love the look of tissue paper flowers too.

Begin with two pieces of paper, one for your flower and one for the stem. Any size, as long as it's roughly square.

Start rolling up the stem paper as tightly as you can into a little paper roll. Secure with tape. I cut my stems in half to get two stems out of one piece of paper, but you can leave it as is, of course.

Take your piece for the flower and fold it in half, then fold in half again, or else fold into thirds. Really, you can fold any way you like, as long as you have some closed-fold sides to cut into later.

Daniel folded his like the picture above, but to get the hyacinth look, I found it was helpful to fold like the picture below - into thirds, slightly uneven, with two closed folded edges on the same side. 

Begin cutting through those closed folds at intervals, but not all the way to the other side, just like the photo below. Keep on cutting till you reach the end.

Now, attach one end to your stem with some tape, and then begin rolling, moving ever so slightly down the stem as you do so. Secure the end with tape.

If you use tissue paper the petals will fall gracefully; depending on the thickness of the construction paper you use you might want to tease out some of the petal layers. Other than that, you're done. Make a whole bunch and put them together in a small vase by a window - so pretty!

This last photo is of the bouquet Daniel brought to me - I love how child-friendly and quick this project is.

A craft a day

Summer vacation has started at last. In Japan the school year begins in April and runs until March and summer vacation is typically only about 5-6 weeks long.  It's taking a bit of time to find our groove, but I made a list of daily goals and jobs. One of our goals is to do a daily craft. Here's some of what we've done so far.

Painted peg people, painted with paint markers and inspired by these darling dolls.

I was also enchanted by the spool dolls at Sweet Sweet Life. Perhaps a little house next?

and fabric covered rocks, inspired by Red Bird Craft's sweet story stones:

I have no mod podge or other decoupage materials here so these were just made with a wash of glue and water. Collecting the perfect rock for these was part of the fun. I think the peg people and rocks could do with a final coat of acrylic sealer but I'm a bit leery of using that while pregnant...

More crafts are in the works....origami flowers, embroidery and sewing, more recyclable crafts. I'll share our projects as we go along!

Handmade, hand-me-down goodness

Yesterday I said goodbye to my dear friend Becky, whose family is relocating from Japan. Becky and I live in the same neighborhood and we have so much in common - our children are the same ages, we each have two older boys and a little girl, our boys go to Japanese elementary schools, and we both love Etsy and all sorts of handmade goodness.

When she left, she gave me a huge, welcome, wonderful pile of gorgeous handmade cloth diapers and wool pants to use when my baby comes.

This pile makes me so happy! I so love that it's all handmade, I love the colors and designs, I love that there is so much wool in there, I love that these were used and handed down, and I love the connection I feel with another mom and the connection our children will have, sharing these bits of loveliness. Anyone who has known me for years knows I get a bit rhapsodic and giddy about cloth diapers and trainers and wool pants. They are perfect to use as EC (infant pottying) backup and there are so many fun designs out there. And I'm especially grateful to be able to use these because most of my stash had been given away already (forming other little bits of connection with other moms and babies out there!).

Farewell, Becky - I am going to miss you and your beautiful family! I will think of you every time we use these lovely items.

Sewing on Mt. Fuji

We escaped Tokyo over the weekend for a little weekend trip with friends to Mt. Fuji and a lake called Yamanaka-ko. While the rest of the group went into a hot spring and went swimming, I dug into a bag of felt and fabric scraps I'd brought along for some handsewing projects because it was so wrenching to be torn away from my sewing machine just when I'd started falling in love with it so.

Before I left, I made a new skirt and a dress for Mia. The dress was made of Japanese double-gauze fabric (which I adore - two more double-gauze fabric dresses are in the works right now), and was loosely based on the pillowcase dresses that you see tutorials for everywhere. I sewed elastic in the front and back and then made bias tape out of the material that I used in the armholes and for shoulder straps because I had no ribbon. I realize I am much happier winging it when making a dress rather than sticking to a precise pattern. I made a matching scarf out of the same double-gauze fabric with a pale pink striped cotton backing on the other side.

I also made a skirt out of a small piece of Heather Ross's Far Far Away fabric by Kokka, combined with a tiny ruffle made of Rowan fabric.

This, too, I made without a pattern. I just made each tier a bit bigger than the one on top and then used my newly-learned ruffling techniques (making a loose running stitch along the top and then pulling gently on the bobbin threads to gather) to experiment. I learn something new with each sewing project. This time I learned that I have to pay close attention while cutting fabric so I don't ruin the design - there are no whole unicorns on this skirt anywhere, which was a great disappointment!

I also made some bags - a tiny treasure pouch for Mia to carry small toys in and a larger tote bag for me out of canvas. I especially like the button detail on the bottom.

We went to a few really nice places on this trip. It was balm to my soul to be away from people and buildings. I was raised in the countryside so living in cities all these years and raising my children in urban areas has been hard for me. 

Mountains and water were everywhere and the weather was cool, although foggy. The fogginess made it challenging to take good photos, and in the end we never did get any good photos of Mount Fuji, although we drove up partway by car and then hiked a little bit up the mountain.....just a bit.

We also went to a children's nature park where they could play around in the water....

make things out of wood....that woodpile, heaven for my little boys! and saws and chisels and hammers and nails everywhere....

My brave friend allowed her foot to be used as leverage while the kids were wielding their saws...!

While the others were busy with their activities, I hand-sewed a bunch of little felt things and also got started on some embroidery at last. I don't think I was too successful with my first batch of felt mascots at all, but my children loved them and loved being able be involved in choosing colors and that's all that matters. 

As evening approached we got settled into an inn...

and then ate a lovely dinner

Sparklers afterwards....so much fun on a summer evening!

Recycled milk carton truck tutorial

I mentioned in an earlier post that one of the highlights of our children's Japanese kindergarten was the annual "play store" (omiseyasan gokko) where the oldest children would create beautiful handmade toys, origami sweets and vegetables, jewelry, sushi, and other such things for the younger ones. One of the things our boys learned to make there were trucks and vehicles like these, with real working wheels.

These are very easy to make from recyclables. 

Assemble your materials first:

You'll need straws, bamboo skewers, water bottle caps, and milk or juice cartons.

Tools you will need are a paper or box cutter (for adult use only!), scissors and tape and decorative paper, and glue.

The first step, putting holes in the bottle cap wheels, is for adults only, and if you have impatient little ones, it might be best for you to do this before making the trucks. In fact, if you prepare a whole bunch of these in advance you can set up a little vehicle factory. Your children could also get to work decorating their cartons while you do this part.

Take the box cutter (or a small knife) and make a small hole in the center of each bottle cap. I found that the easiest way to do this was to place the bottle cap on a folded washcloth on a table, place just the tip of the box cutter in the center, and press down while twisting the bottle cap around (by turning the washcloth, thus avoiding having to touch the bottle cap with your fingers and getting too close to that blade!). Definitely do put the bottle cap on some sort of surface to provide traction while cutting.

Next, cut your straws to size - just a bit bigger than the width of the carton.

Start assembling the wheels and axles. First, stick the end of a skewer into one of the holes. Add a dab of glue if you'd like. 

You can actually stick the skewer in the bottle cap the other way which might be easier for kids because it's more stable and less frustrating. 

Next, add the straws.

Once the straw is in place, trim the skewer down with scissors (another adult-only job), and stick the skewer through another bottle cap.

Now you can tape these onto the bottom of a carton and your vehicle is done, aside from decoration, which is what your children will have the most fun with. 

If your children want to make a dump truck or cut out windows and/or doors, they should do that before you put the wheels on. Making a dump truck is very easy - you just cut out part of the side and bottom of the milk carton and then stick it back in the other way, attaching with tape. It really works! Fire engines were popular in our house too as were buses and passenger cars.

Once you have the wheels and axles down pat you can stick them onto anything, really, like water bottles or small boxes. If you want to make trains, connect the train cars with the bit of straw you cut off the axles (this is especially great if you use bendy straws).  

Here are some photos from Japanese children's craft books for more ideas! I especially love the corrugated cardboard around the wheels in the last photo. 

Simplest pincushion

There's no shortage of cute, tiny pincushions here in Japan. I picked this up at a fabric store. It's adorable and the base is actually just a piece of pretty ribbon glued around a cap from a water bottle. It looks like it would be a cinch to make.

The sweetest shoes

I love Heather Bailey. Here's the result of yet another one of her free online tutorials: Bitty Booties

I've downloaded a couple of free baby bootie/baby shoe patterns, but I thought I would try this one first because felt is so easy to work with. It took no time at all to make - truly a quick and easy pattern - and my kids love them! It makes us all feel pretty excited to meet the baby whose feet will be wearing these this winter.

Tutorial - Pretty Little Fabric Flowers

Here's a tutorial (my first sewing tutorial!) for a fabric flower with yo-yo centers. They're so pretty as hair ornaments, accessories for a bag or dress, or even a bracelet for a little girl.

These are a great way to use up tiny scraps of fabric.

I tried making a PDF file of the pattern, but couldn't figure out how make it to scale. So I took a photo instead of what you're going to need. You need to cut out 2 circles for the yo-yos and then 2 pairs of 6 petals each - 12 in all. 

I used a Clover yo-yo maker which is 6 cms wide. I wanted each petal to be 1/6th of the flower - so each one was roughly 3.5 cms wide at the bottom straight edge. The yo-yo maker is marked in thirds so it was easy to measure out a sixth of the circumference. You can trace any circle and just adjust accordingly if you don't have a yo-yo maker.

To make the petal template I measured and drew the bottom edge on a piece of paper, folded it in half, and then drew half a petal onto one half of the bottom edge so that when I cut and unfolded it the two sides would be even. 

Here is a sample pattern (with measurements in inches). 

Make your yo-yos - if you don't know how, there are a lot of great tutorials on the web for that, including this one: Heather Bailey's Yo-yo Tutorial

Next, I placed each petal pair together, right sides facing in, and sewed along every edge except the bottom. Then I trimmed the raw edges with pinking shears.

Next, turn each petal inside out, and then make a quick running stitch along the bottom of each petal (not all the way to the edges) so that you can pull the ends to gather it, as shown in some of the petals below. (Backstitch one end of the running stitch so that you don't pull all the threads out when gathering, as happened to me a few times!) Remember to adjust your machine before doing this so that the running stitches are nice and long. I think that you could do this part by hand as well, or even skip it if you are good at gathering while pinning the petals on (which is the next step). 

Next, pin two or three of the petals onto the back of one of the yo-yos, keeping them gathered at the bottom. Here's what it should look like:

They will overlap slightly. Sew each one down through one layer of the yo-yo (don't sew through the other side!). Keep adding petals until they are all on, and then trim your dangling thread ends.

Next, turn the flower over and sew on the other yo-yo. Again, be careful to sew through only one layer of the yo-yo as you do so. If you want, place a hair elastic on the flower before you sew so that you can use it as a hair ornament or a little bracelet. That's it - you're done!