Felt Celery

With Saint Patrick's Day coming up on Monday I decided a quick sewing project was in need.
To show my geek pride, I settled on a felt celery pin.

Here is what you need to make it:
My Pattern
1 sheet of green felt
Thread to match
Hand sewing needle
Pinking Sheers
Pin back or Safety Pin
Optional: Freezer Paper

Here is how to make it:

1. Download the PATTERN and print it out.

If that link doesn't work for you, try this Craftsy link!

Source: Felt Celery Pin via Corsetra on Craftsy

For best results print the pattern directly on to freezer paper. 

If you don't have freezer paper that will work in your printer, just trace the pattern pieces on to freezer paper. 

If you don't have any freezer paper, carefully pin the pattern to the felt.

2. Cut out shapes, DO NOT use your good fabric scissors to cut through the paper.
3. Peel off Freezer Paper

Please note pattern has been modified since this example was made up.

 4. Pink the ends of the leaves with Pinking Sheers.

5. Stack pieces from largest to smallest

6. Stab-stitch down the center, then come back filling in the spaces, this is called a Holbein or Blackwork Stitch.

Stab Stitching is done with the needle held at a right angle to the fabric being stitched, unlike running stitches where the needle is woven through the fabrics. The difference becomes noticeable when the fabrics are thick, such as with several layers of felt. the running stitch will have varying distances, but the stab is always the same.

7. Stitch the outer edges, pulling then flush with each other, this will cause the natural curvature seen in real celery. Stab stitch up and then back down.

8. Repeat for other side

9. Stitch halfway between the center and outer edge, creating the channels seen in real celery to form on the back.
10. Repeat for other side.

11. Attach pin to back of celery just bellow the leaves.

12. Wear with your favorite Doctor Shirt.

Also makes a cute addition to any play food set, just omit the pin!

A Wooden Doll in the 18th century style

Some years ago I wanted a wooden doll in the Queen Anne style and contacted a woodcarver through Etsy to create one for me. Then other projects got in the way and I haven't gotten back to her to finish her.

She is missing arms because the upper arms are to be made of cloth.

I had to create a "pattern" for the doll and decided to share it with the world at large. But I have never shared it here!

So here is the PDF that I created with the "pattern" so you can make you very own wooden doll in the 18th century style, and have fun dressing her!

My Very Own Little Ponies

My children were Ponies for Halloween.
The boys settled on their characters of Doctor Whooves and Train Engineer a while back and I purchased the necessary fabric.
Daughter did not want to be rainbow dash but instead alternated between Kitty and Fluttershy. I told her that if she wanted to be a kity she could wear last years costume, but if she wanted me to make something new it would be Fluttershy.

So back to the fabric store I went to pick up her fabric.

I ended up altering the coat pattern I used last year, Simplicity 2745 and the hat pattern Simplicity 1953 became a hood.

For the boy's pattern I added on pocket, splitting the front into two sections as shown on my original drawing. I ended up liking how it looked when finished and they are pleased with the pockets. I also lengthened the coat by 2" from last year, so as to fully cover their little rears and give space for cutie marks. I made the boys coats the same size, 1 is skinny, the other a bit on the short side, they are wearing 1 size difference even though they are 2 years apart.

For my daughters I cut the next size larger from last year and left out the godets. There is still enough flare in the coat for it to look girly and work over skirts. I also added in pockets on the front princess lines.

For the ears I put the kitty ear hat on the table next to a pony figure and drew a new pattern. I placed a rubber band around the pony's head to mark where the hat would sit, in the last pic you can see the pins I used to denote where the ear would be sewn to.

Patterning the manes was my favorite part, I am very proud of how they turned out.
Train Engineer is mostly my own design, and fairly flat so as to fit under the hat.

Doctor Whooves is a three dimensional design to give that spiky look without using stuffing.  I have made spines for my dragons using a similar method. I loved the way these came out! Would work for doing a dragon or dinosaur as well. made putting the fez on a bit tricky though.

Fluttershy as fun seaming through use of darts to fit around the head, it is so sweet and stuffing free.

The cutie marks were done in a variety of ways.

Since the Train engineer is never seen outside of the train cab, we made our own cutie mark, taking the image of the train and letting my son pick the colors. I did change the order of the yellow and black on the wheels for visibility sake, and explained to him why. The Train was drawn on to plain cotton with fabric markers, stitched to a second piece of cotton and turned right side out, the machine appliqued on to the coat.

The hour glass was fleece machine appliqued on to the coat.

The butterflies were fleece hand appliqued on, the antennas and bodies were couched yarn.

I did not finish the pants, and was up till 1 am the morning of finishing the boy's coats. I made a small train hat from Aesthetic Nest (printed 2 to a page to reduce scale) and a small fez. I was punch at this point so I give you the following pictures.

Fluttershy's wings are made in two layers with laters of batting between the fleece to give the wings some structure. I decided to sew them on to the coat. This means she can't wear the coat in the car, but she shouldn't anyways for safety.

Now for some pictures ON the children

 And some pictures on the dress form (which is about 2 sizes too small and doesn't have a head.) Since children are so wiggly, and I am not keen on posting pictures of my children

Last, but definitely NOT least, here are the pattern pieces for Ears, Manes, Tails, Wings and the mini Fez. You will need the original Simplicity hat pattern 1953 for the hood, though you may be able to adapt this to another pattern.
The PDF is one 2.4mb file and includes all 8 patterns (Ears, 3 Manes, 2 tails, Wings and Fez) Feel free to share this link, but do not share the file. It took me quite a bit of time to format it all nicely.

A Valentines Surprise

Or How to make Simple Elegant Lingerie from just two yards of fabric, using just one seam and a hem!

I made this for Valentines day, in just two days, working on it for less than 6 hours total from design to finished. Most of it spent fighting my machine to do a rolled hem!

I am not sharing pictures of me wearing it, as that wouldn't be proper. My dress form is also in storage, so please accept these drawings I made, and forgive my inability to draw feet. After all, it is the costumes that are important!

This is a one-size garment, I am 5’4” with a 33” bust, so you may wish to enlarge the cut out template a bit for larger sizes.

Materials

• 2 yards of fabric: anything slinky. Not suitable for one way prints like stripes, but checks are okay. This is ample fabric and you will likely have leftovers, but it means you can get a large square out of any width up to 60”, and have room for the fabric being cut en evenly at the shop. Consider sheers and opaque, or go for two layers. If using two layers consider making the top layer from a slightly smaller square than the under layer.
• 1 ½ to 2 yards of ribbon 1-2” wide. Length depends on your underbust measurement and how long you want the tie ends to be.
•  Thread to match.
• Any embellishments you may want, beads and appliques would look lovely.

Cutting and Sewing Instructions

1. Cut fabric into a square, this will work with 45 to 50” material, 60” may be too long.
2. Make a paper pattern for the cut out as dimensioned. (Or larger)
3. Cut one corner off as shown, 24” along the sides, the last interior corner rounded off.
4. The back corner will drag on the ground, round it off for a different look.
5. Hem the sides with a rolled hem.
6. If using a single layer of fabric, hem the cut out as well.
7. If doing a double layer, as I did with my sheer fabrics, do not hem the cut out. Instead after hemming the outer square, French seam the interior. Lay both layers wrong sides up, with the top layer on top. Sew around the cut out.
8. Flip the top layer over the seam to the other side of the bottom layer and top stitch around the cut out, making a French seam.
9. Now all that sewing is done, it is time to attach the neck. To do this you need to try it on, pin some ribbon to one corner. Go to a mirror, preferably full length, wrap the garment around you and bring the corners up to your neck pin the other corner to the ribbon where you want it to hang, be sure to check your back view. I used 10.5”. You don’t need to use the ribbon, you could use the left over fabric to make the neck strap, I made a tube out of the fabric. You could also use jewelry chains, braided ribbon, be creative!
10. Last step put the garment on with the finished neck, wrap the ribbon around your under bust you can wear it like this, or sew it to the back opening. You can choose the leave it loose at front or stitch it all the way around.

Other style variations would be to have the neck tie cross over the back and become the torso ties, like this doll version.

Now what to do with the left over cut out?
How about making it into doll versions?
I made 3 quarter scale versions of this garment, here they are shown on some of my dolls and dress forms.

 I decided to have some fun and make each one different.


Left on Red White and You by Tonner is a rounded hem version. The black neck tie is fixed in place, as is the blue waist tie. this will only fit 16" dolls like the Tonner doll it is displayed on.

Center on a display form is a square version with cross over straps, this will fit on the widest variety of bodies.




















 Here I show it on both Piggy and Red, white and You to show how it is adjustable.



 

Right My Fair Piggy by Tonner wears a second square version, with the hems at the same length. this one has neck ties that will adjust to fit different bodies, the waist ties go through loops at the sides so there is adjust-ability there as well.

I also slightly gathered the back a bit, to see how that would affect the drape.

These are now up in my etsy shop. HERE

If you make up one of these in Human or doll size, I would LOVE to hear from you!