Origami Mommy

Drawing inspiration from crafty tutorials

We had our last round of summer visitors, and the boys are now back in school, so I hope to be able to be more productive for the few weeks remaining in my pregnancy, but in the meantime, here are a few fun things I've made recently. Most of these were inspired by tutorials on the web and so they required very little brainpower from me (big plus). My only criteria when scouring blogland for tutorials were that they be fast, easy, and teach me a new crafting skill. I'm really in awe of all the crafty bloggers out there - so much talent and so much generosity! 

First of all, I made a tiny hairpin out of traditional Japanese fabric, chirimen.

The lovely tutorial for this can be found here at Miscellany of Me. It's very simple, really similar to the pincushion I made a few weeks ago, and could be made with just about any fabric and literally takes just a few minutes. Satisfying!

Next, I decided to tackle purses again, because I was disappointed by my last attempt at making bags without interfacing (way too floppy).  It took me this long to figure out how to find interfacing in Japan but I finally succeeded! I decided to try this tutorial for a pleated purse and it was really wonderful. I feel like I learned a lot about bagmaking from making this.

So, once I got past my fear of fusible interfacing, I decided I could apply it to other bags, and so I made a tote bag, 

and then two little pouches which stand up nicely on their own thanks to fusible interfacing on the lining.

These bags could all use a nice pressing to look polished enough for photos. I don't have time to do it right now, but I did find a nice link which tells you how to press small, fiddly pouches and bags on Nicole Millelieu's (highly addictive) bagmaking blog. I see more bagmaking in my future!

I've also tried making a few tiny toys. I tried this Calico Kitty pattern and made a small cat, along with a bag to go along with it. I didn't do a great job but it was fun to design the clothing and my daughter liked it a lot. I hope to move on to other stuffed animals after this.

And for this kitty or any of my children's dolls, I made a small pillow

which was super simple to make and based on this sweet tutorial at p.s. i quilt.

I've also been rediscovering knitting. I used to knit all the time, but stopped after I had children who kept getting tangled in all my yarn. I'm loving it again. I like the rhythm of having a knitting project handy - actually not just one, but several. One or two small ones, easily and quickly completed, another more ambitious or complicated one, all in separate bags or baskets around the house, and I can pick each one up depending on the circumstance (for instance, a simple, mindless one is perfect to work on while helping my son with his homework). This is perhaps not the most efficient way to knit (or to do any sort of crafting) but I get bored if I have only one project on my needles and then it never gets finished at all!

I completed the baby knitted slippers I was working on and also made a tiny newborn hat, which I'll also embellish with a flower if baby turns out to be a girl.

I posted the link to these slippers in my last post. There are a few nice tutorials out there for crocheting flowers to use as embellishment. Here's a particularly helpful one, at The Handmade Dress. I was making mine smaller so I used fewer triple stitches - once you learn how to make one it's easy to modify.

The hat is just a basic hat I memorized a long time ago. I kind of winged it with the measurement - I totally forget how big a newborn head is. At least knit is somewhat stretchy! I'm embarking on a few teeny sweaters next. I usually knit baby sweaters big so they'll fit for awhile, but I think there's something precious about a sweater that just fits a newborn and I think that's all I'll have time to knit, anyway.

Speaking of tiny and small, I had bits of felting yarn leftover from previous projects so I decided to try making a tiny tester bag to see what kind of gauge I'd get after felting. I might use the rest of this yarn to make more slippers, or to make more bags to carry little figures around. My children love having small bags to slip just one or two little toys in and I love encouraging them to combine handmade things with their store-bought toy play. The handle is i-cord which is amazingly simple to do.  This was fun and so fast!

I actually made one of these small bunnies, which are not only darling but also incredibly speedy, but, again, I wasn't happy with how mine turned out (hence no picture). Clearly, stuffed animals aren't my forte. But if they appeal to you, definitely check out the link on Little Cotton Rabbit!

Finally, we had a few scrapes and mishaps last week, so I made an ice pack holder as well as a lavender rice bag for aching muscles. I think these would make a nice gift for a child, or for a parent along with this beautiful little first aid kit bag I spotted at Maya Made  (and hope to make someday). I made mine very small - the rice bag is about 3 inches by 3 inches, perfect size for a child. It would be easy to make several of these in different fabric patterns and keep them handy in a basket.

I hope you enjoy checking out some of these links - I know these projects were a lot of fun for me to do. If you know of any other tutorials for fast, quick, whimsical and fun projects, do let me know!

Latest quick projects

Since returning from our trip, I've been finishing up other small projects that had been lingering away. It felt like I just couldn't justify moving onto new projects until these were done. Here's the completed pillow I made with a Wee Wonderfuls Tulip Fairy as the centerpiece. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I also made a baby receiving blanket with Echino fabric - a quick and satisfying project. The vivid colors make me happy. The online tutorial can be found here. I love the Purlbee blog - there are a million projects on here I want to try.

In fact, these little felt hearts, below, are also from the Purlbee blog, here:

They are so quick and easy - the perfect way to satisfy the urge to handsew if you have only a few moments.I think they make a perfect and compelling project for a young beginning crafter. The doughnut took a bit longer but I've been wanting to complete some more felt food for Mia's play kitchen. I think the boys were more fascinated by this than she was, though!

I also finished up a few dolls for Daniel and Mia. Daniel's is based on a pattern from Wee Wonderfuls. He decided he wanted his to look like Ron Weasley - but he decided this after we put the hair on. He helped stuff his doll and felt so proud to be part of the whole process. I should have supervised a bit more and made sure the head had adequate stuffing - but I also wanted for him to feel like he helped create his doll. Mia wanted hers to have lots and lots of long, wavy hair. The waves were made by braiding, spraying with water, and then ironing the yarn before undoing the braid. This was my first attempt at embroidering a doll's face once the doll is completed - for some reason it's hard to find online directions for hiding the knots - so I had to improvise. If anyone can give me more tips I'd love to hear them!

Finally, I've been using one of the small baskets I made to hold a tiny baby slipper knitting project. These baskets are proving to be handy for keeping small projects separate from one another. I think I might add a pom-pom to the slippers once I am done with them. These slippers use almost no yarn at all and the tutorial is online here.

It is nice to be doing some knitting again! 

Bird love

I've been obsessed with birds in my crafting lately. Here's something I embroidered onto a baby gown for our new baby:

You can get this design for free and see other lovely things at CraftPudding - I adore her stamps!

I also made this bird and leaf applique pouch, from a Japanese kit from Hobbyra-Hobbrye.

This is the sweet back - a simple bird on a twig.

I got the kit because I had never done applique before and thought it would be a useful way to learn that as well as some quilted pouch techniques. Plus, there are a lot of projects that I want to do that are just not getting off the ground because I'm just not getting the concentrated time I need to do the prepwork for them.  I love the kits I've found in Japan - there are some pretty decent ones here.  I feel ready to tackle designing something of my own now.

Speaking of kits, I can't wait to try a fleece ball from Ikat Bag's new shop.

But that will have to wait for now. We're off on a trip to the countryside - have a good week!

Needle book and other tiny projects

My projects are getting tinier and tinier. Here's a needle book I made the other day. I did the tree free-form style. I had a strong craving to embroider an autumn tree somewhere (although the hot weather has just now kicked in here in Japan), and this was the result.

Finally a place to store all my needles! It's only about 2 inches by 2 inches. The only problem is that Mia thought this was a little book I made for her, and keeps trying to grab it. I suppose a small felt book will be my next tiny project.

I also made her some small bags out of linen. She prefers the brighter one while I prefer the (as yet unfinished) subdued one. A great way to use up yo-yos.

Finally, the ultimate of small projects - a tiny hairpin.

I made a lot of mistakes with this, but it was just a first try, to see how it works, and oh, it's so much fun. Here's the wonderful tutorial by Mairuru.  I'm going to make more of these this weekend - we're going on another car trip outside Tokyo. I'll be giving a talk on diaper-free babies in Japanese at a workshop. More when I return - and please do stick around, because I am planning a giveaway in the next few weeks!

tiny pincushion tutorial

The children and I have been working on a lot of projects - mostly sewing, beading, and some papercraft - so I'll post about that next week. In the meantime here is a brief tutorial for a tiny pincushion made with a bottle cap as the base. You can whip these up in about 2 minutes! Very addictive to make.

You'll need a bottle cap, a small amount of fabric and a piece of ribbon wide enough to cover the side of the bottle cap, a bit of batting, and some thread and glue.

Cut your fabric into a circle somewhat bigger than the bottle cap, as in the photo above. (How big you make it depends on how big you want the pincushion to be - but this is a forgiving project and you don't have to be very precise.)

Glue the ribbon around the bottle cap. While it dries, start a running stitch around the perimeter of the fabric circle. Kind of like you're making a fabric yo-yo.

When you're done, gather it in, and fill with some batting. 

Next, gather in all the way so you close it up, tie it with a knot, and then glue it upside down inside the bottle cap. Quick and easy! 

I like that the cap prevents your pins and needles from going through all the way to the other side and poking you by accident - a problem I've had with my other handmade pincushion. I also love how tiny these are. You can glue a fabric or felt circle on the bottom if you like. If you don't have ribbon, you can use bias tape or make your own bias tape out of contrasting fabric. I did that for some of the pincushions in the photo below. You can also use felt, maybe even cut with pinking shears, instead of ribbon. I think I'll have to try that!

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!

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!

Relaxing weekend, sewing bits

How I love slow, quiet weekends. We spent most of the weekend hanging around home, and I got a lot of small sewing projects done - almost all of them inspired by tutorials on the Internet.

I started out by making these birds, based on the bird tutorial by Spool:

This was very easy - a perfect first stuffed ornament project for a novice sewer like me. They're so sweet. 

My son wanted his own bird to sleep with, all red, with wings and a tail like a phoenix, so I'm putting that together for him now. I'm feeling ready to tackle other stuffed softies too.

After that, I quickly whipped up a banner for us to use on the Fourth of July, which we celebrated together while thinking of all our loved ones back home.

This was easy to do because I finally got a rotary cutter last week! It's amazing how much it's improved my sewing. I am so excited to try some patchwork now. In fact I got a small taste of patchwork when I made these coasters as a wedding gift for the editor of the Japanese edition of my DIaper Free Baby book. The tutorial for these is online and free here.

And then, I got out my rotary cutter again to make myself a pincushion, which I've long been in need of - I'd just been sticking my pins into my ironing board!

This is, again, based on a free online tutorial - Heather Bailey's pincushion.

My version is simpler, as I had no ribbon and no time to put in the side panels, but it meets my craving for little pops of color around my sewing area.

I did a speedy felt sewing project too - these little fish with buttons so Mia can practice buttoning. Very simple to make - you could make them any shape, really - just a single layer of felt with a slit for the button. It gave me a chance to practice sewing curves on the sewing machine - still tricky for me as you can see!

In between satisfying bouts of sewing, I got my fill of some of the latest Japanese craft magazines, and took a look through a lovely little needlework book too - I'm longing to try some embroidery soon. 

Hope your weekend was just as relaxing.