LittlestCatHead’s Creation

LittlestCatHead has been taking a screenprinting class on Sundays for a few weeks. She’s thoroughly enjoying it. Her print is of a cat. Of course. She printed two cats in different colors on some muslin. I added some fabric scraps and turned it into a pillowcase. She loves it!

I can haz pillowcase?

Print close-up

Fair Prep

I’m making stock for the craft fair at a local gem/mineral shop. Space is free so I thought, why not?!

Didn’t have much time today so I only made two things. Both of these have outer shells of Japanese linen. I like the embroidered flower on the teal one! (Speaking of embroidery, I taught LittlestCatHead to do a French knot today and she did it perfectly! She also free-hands embroidery. No pattern for this girl!)

For Craft Fair

Beads from the 1800s

Lining

Linen with embroidery

Close up

My favorite little extra touch of ribbon

Lining

And now for something completely different. A Raja with a huge head.

Perspective

I made the skirt LittlestCatHead is wearing. But I mainly wanted to show you what Raja likes doing most: lying on his Mama.

Raja Mama

Ketchup

I have been avoiding this blog. I have been sewing but avoiding writing up the things I’ve done. I don’t even have pictures of most of the things I’ve made lately. I seem to be in a space where I want to CREATE, not CATALOGUE. Ya know?

But here I am again. I’ll try to get back into the swing of things.

First, a gratuitous cat photo. Of course, right? I AM MrsCAThead, after all.

Let Sleeping Cats Lie

I had to lift the duvet cover to get the photo. Raja likes to burrow underneath blankets, rugs…he’s nuts!

Now for some things that actually got photographed!

Here’s a bag I made for our god-daughter in Prague:

Gift for V

And here she is with MrCatHead:

MrCatHead with V

I made some easy-peasy tissue packets using a pattern in my newest purchase, Sew What! Bags:

Tissue Pack for LittlestCatHead

Tissue Pack to match K's purse

Some sleeping pouches like the ones I sell on etsy except these are bigger to fit the felt animals:

Larger sleeping pouches

A little zipper pouch LittlestCatHead claimed, lying on top of a pattern for a purse I’m making:

Zippered Pouch

I LOVE that fabric on the left. It’s my absolute favorite. It’s Erin McMorris’ Park Slope and it’s been hard to find online. Good luck locating it!

And finally, here’s my extremely messy workspace. It’s loaded with stuff I am working on and stuff I WANT to get working on:

Cluttered workspace

Ghosts of projects past

I finally took photos of my creations and resized and cropped them. This is NOT my favorite thing to do. It takes me hours because I’m not that computer savvy.

Ok. Here goes…and go easy on me, people. I just started sewing in October of this year!

The very first thing I made was a tote bag for myself. Jennifer at Hip Stitch helped me out with the fabric selection and also the making of the bag. In short, I took a class.

Simple Tote Bag

Simple Tote lining

Pattern: Don’t really know what pattern we used in the class
Fabric: I’ll have to check with the shop because I can’t remember off-hand which designer’s this is (I’m hopeless!)

Next up, I made one of Amy Butler’s Stash and Dash bags for LittlestCatHead. She keeps her Pokemon deck in it for League.

This was my first attempt at using both a zipper and interfacing. I had some trouble with the zipper and lining. Even with the zipper foot on my machine, I still couldn’t get close enough to the zipper on the ends. The next time I made one of these, I hand-sewed the bits the machine couldn’t get to. Oh and why oh why not just make the bag a size zippers come in so we don’t have to shorten them?

Stash and Dash

Since I felt confident I could replicate the Simple Tote I learned to make in class, I decided to make some as Christmas gifts for LittlestCatHead’s friends back in Prague. I added a pocket to the front and filled each pocket with a felt animal I made using that Book of all Books, The Cute Book. I cut out some of the fabric used for each bag and stitched it to the front of each animal. Cute!

Simple Tote with pocket and felt friend

No more peeking, felt friends. Show yourselves!

Lining of child's tote

Lining of child's tote

Not happy with the zipper on my first Stash and Dash bag, I tried again. This time, I used a bigger pattern with a handle. Ugh, that interfacing was not fun. I did get better at the zipper although it still doesn’t look quite the way I’d like.

Since this was a gift, I wanted it to be practical so I added a little pocket on the inside.

Stash and Dash, take two

Pocket and lining

After this bag, I wanted to try something without interfacing and a zipper. I had ordered some Amy Butler patterns so I picked one which look fun: In Town Bags, specifically the Drawstring Purse.

I love this pattern! It’s so easy and you can embellish each purse as your own style dictates. It’s a lot of fun to make.

When LittlestCatHead saw me making this, she immediately claimed it as her own. Note: these wash so well! Out of the dryer and a little ironing and they look as if they’d just been sewn.

LittlestCatHead's Drawstring Bag

Lining for LittlestCatHead's drawstring bag

She liked the bag and uses it frequently but asked for a bag with longer handles. Possible a backpack. I found such a pattern in Lotta-Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing. Note: after making a few of these, I wish they were sturdier. You get some fraying on the casing from tightening and untightening the drawstrings.

Mermaid Backpack

I’ll post the rest of my projects in random order since I don’t remember which came first.

LittlestCatHead’s friends all liked her bags so I let them choose which fabrics and which pattern they’d like. Here are the results:

Backpack for Momtastic's G1

Backpack for Momtastic's G2

I just love this fabric:

Back of G2's backpack

A's Drawstring Purse

Lining of A's Drawstring Purse

Gratuitous Fabric Cat photo

The cats have to have something special, don’t they? Raja aka Fabric Cat ripped up the filling from a hair-repellant pillow so I covered it with some owl fabric in flannel. (I mentioned this in an earlier post, right?) Oh my, how that cat loves flannel!

Kitty on the cat pillow

Did you notice the skirt Kitty is wearing? LittlestCatHead has one to match.

Child's skirt

Ruffle on flannel pajama pants

LittlestCatHead got to Trick-or-Treat for the very first time this year. (We moved overseas when she was 13 months old) She wanted us to go as Egyptian goddesses. She was Bastet and I was Hathor. The gold lame wasn’t as difficult to work with as I had feared. LittlestCatHead was encouraged to glue on her “jewels” in a design of her own but she quickly grew tired of that. She told me her plan and had me finish gluing for her. My collar is the one underneath.

Collars for Egyptian goddesses

Trick-or-Treat bag

Lining for Trick-or-Treat bag

Here is the Kitty Tunnel I told you about in an earlier post. See how it just sort of lies there? Oh well…It’s still pretty! And I’m sure my step-daughter’s cat will love it.

Kitty Tunnel

Fabric Cat approves

Lining of kitty tunnel

Mini bag from scraps and using binding as drawstring

Next up is the No Cash Wallet from Amy Karol’s Bend-the-Rules Sewing. I enlarged the pattern, as suggested on the flickr group, and still it was too small. I will try again though cuz I like this book and LOVE her angry chickenblog.

No Cash Wallet, literally

No Cash Wallet, open

Little Purple Guy

Little Purple Guy with matching zipper pouch

Zipper pouch lining

Gifts for various children we know:

Christmas tote with frog fabric

Monkey with sleeping pouch (to go with tote)

Sleeping pouch gifts

Felt whale and sewing card

Smart Handbag gift

Smart Handbag closeup

Smart Handbag closeup

Tiny stocking gift

Tiny stocking closeup

Ok. I think you’re just about caught up with what MrsCatHead has made since getting this machine:

The Machine

Somehow I missed getting photos of a jumper and a fleece poncho I made for LittlestCatHead and the lounge pants I made at a Hip Stitch class. Also, I have a drawstring purse hanging up at Hip Stitch and I forgot to photograph it.

Just a few more photos and then I’m going to sleep!

New fabrics:

Possibilities

The Stash

Since this blog is called CatHead Creations, I can’t pass up a chance to show how fabrics on the bed affect our Bengal, Raja.

Fabric Cat

Snuggly

Spot the kitty

Still hidden

Happy Thanksgiving!

The cats are in heaven today. I gave them giblet gravy with bits of turkey from the cutting board. One is in a, ahem, catatonic state. The other is blissed out and sleeping on the bed. Spoiled kitties!

The humans are sated. We had our turkey, gravy, stuffing with apples and walnuts, and roasted cauliflower au gratin. There are plenty of leftovers for the freezer. We’re all about to slump onto the couch and watch The Wizard of Oz. Did that come on television every Thanksgiving when you were a child? That’s a notable childhood memory of mine…perhaps I’m dating myself here! Yikes!

So…I created today but nothing with fabric. It was all food, baby!

Meow!

I just finished making a kitty tunnel from the Amy Butler book In Stitches. Um, it doesn’t quite stand as well as it does in her lovely photo. But still, I figure it can be turned inside out and used as a soft kitty bed.

I made it for my step-daughter who, upon our urging and recommendation, is getting a Bengal in a few weeks. We adore our Bengal, Raja. In that video, he was just a sweet little kitten…now he’s an imp who is as big as our 13-yr old tabby!

Oh and I’m sorry Momtastic. I’m going to have to bring treats on our weekly sewing lounge visit. I am sewing each day but not getting around to blogging. How about some pumpkin bread?

Fabric: misc. sales rack at Hancock Fabrics
Pattern: see above

Create Daily challenge

My friend, Momtastic, has challenged me to create something every day for a year. I don’t know if I can quite manage that but I’ll try.

We widened the parameters to include cooking, being inspired and anything related to creating. That will help in those days in which we’re ill or busy or otherwise feeling uncreative.

Today, I decided to finish a project I have been putting off for some time. Our cats, particularly the Bengal, like to chew on the fluff that covers those hair-repellant cat pillows. I bought some cute fabric with little owls at JoAnn’s, thinking I’d just cover the pillow we have. Of course, I never got around to it. So I finally finished that off and it looks adorable. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good picture so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Fabric: JoAnn’s sales rack of flannel pieces (did I mention how much the Bengal likes flannel?)
Pattern: simple envelope-pillowcase design

Cat nip

Fabric inspection

 

My Bengal, Raja, enjoys romping on fabrics fresh from the dryer. His favorite is flannel but any fabric will do.