pretty pretties

I'm constantly inspired by Heather Bailey- and I've been thinking about these cute little bobbins ever since I read this blog post forever ago.

I went out and bought some supplies (dowels and finials) right away. Then I looked at my embroidery floss collection and laughed- haha so not the best way to store and catalogue all that floss!

I recently found some baker's twine in a rainbow of colors- and no way to store it. Oh wait- I think I remember something...

Ta-da!

These were SO fun and easy to make! 12 inch dowels, cut in half. The finials were glued on the ends with elmers glue. Painted with regular acrylic paint, and finished with a satin polyurethane coating.

One of my faves...

I've been using it to attach my rag-a-muffin tags to the items in my etsy shop.

I love it when beautiful notions can double as colorful decorations! (and still be functional!)

heather

So you know Heather Bailey, right? No? Well. She is the best pattern writer in the world. I couldn't follow a pattern until I made Effie & Ollie the elephants. I learned SO much from that pattern. I love her style, her wit, her ideas, her fabric, her blog, her photos, her recipes, her studio...she inspires me in everything she does.

There are so many of her patterns I have yet to try...

And so many fabrics too...

So of course I follow her on Twitter. So she tweeted that she would be at Material Girls for a meet & greet on May 13th. I got there early. Really I did. But only cause I thought she said 5, not 6.

And I brought miss Claira pig- my most prized sewing accomplishment. She was so very difficult, but so very worth it! And Heather loved her.

And- while waiting at the fabric store for her to arrive, all the gals at the fabric shop were stunned by my pig. One lady even asked if she could take a photo of me and my pig. They didn't have one made up to showcase because she looked too hard. Yep. I like me a challenge.

And you can't tell at all- but she is 5 1/2 months pregnant! (Heather, not the pig.)

Congrats Heather! Keep writing patterns! And designing fabric! And challenging me to be a better sewer!

P.S. I had her sign this pattern...

Then I made a lil butterfly with the new bamboo felt I've been itching to try out. It's sooo soft.

I love all the little details.

little miss...

...piggy, that has taken me all week to finish.

I made my first one, and then immediately made this one. I am not a perfectionist, but this pattern requires perfection. So here she is in all her satiny glory...

That's right, I made her out of baby pink satin. Told you I was crazy... The photo on the front of the pattern shows the girl pig made out of a fuzzy soft fabric. I want a cuddly pig just like in the picture! I can't find anything like it anywhere, (except for flannel, and I didn't want flannel) so I decided to go with satin- still soft and cuddly. Kinda hard to sew with though.

Look how cute those tiny straps are, crossed in the back!

(don't mind the pins, I can't for the life of me find my snaps so I can finish her dress.)

My first attempt. Not so bad, but not what I expected out of myself. Hence number 2. And she is so not finished. I have not made clothes for her yet, or sewn her eyes on, or finished sewing her snout on...

I also made this gorgeous blanket for my future babies- I got the fabric forever ago, just for this kind of blanket. Once I learned how to make them, I couldn't wait to get this done!

( I kinda want a bigger one for me...and while I'm at it, I also kind of want a baby.)