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

Collaboration, baby!

Momtastic and I are teaming up to create a line of outfits and co-ordinating bags for tweens. I made a sample of a bag in a style I’m thinking of using for the line. (Line is as yet un-named. We’re still thinking!)

I’m calling this the “Kali” bag style…for now, at least.

Kali

Kali lining

Kali bottom closeup

Pattern: my own design
Fabric: Alexander Henry and Kaffe Fassett and some random fuschia stuff from Jo Ann’s
Music to sew by: The Decemberists newest album, last track (My Fave!)

PS-I have no idea why the second pic is larger than the rest…I resized them all and messed with code…but alas, I’m not savvy enough to fix it. Just deal, okay?

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

Easter Basket

I took a class at my favorite hangout HipStitch in order to make this Easter basket for LittlestCatHead. It’s filled with goodies: a roll-up pencil case (in that sparkly elephant fabric), a bendy bunny (courtesty of Walgreens’ seasonal aisle), a felt zombunnee (and his innocent victim), a worry doll in a sleeping pouch, a zipper pouch in Japanese linen, an Easter pillow for her favorite stuffed animal Kitty, and some of her favorite chocolates.

Easter Basket

Zombunnee's eyes are red with blood lust!

Please excuse my messy desk

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

Seams to Me…

DD and I were at Barnes & Noble yesterday for an American Girl event and…well, I bought myself an early Christmas present: Anna Maria Horner’s Seams to Me.

I wanted to do every single project in this book but chose the Bo Peep skirt for little girls (or boys, what the heck, right?). It turned out so cute! (You have to squeal that last word to get the full effect)

Fabric: front and back panels are Erin McMorris’ Park Slope line, side panels are Robert Kaufman’s Another Iota, ruffles are Jackie Shapiro/Moe 3 (can’t find link online), and the ruffle trims are ZipaDeeZoo (Lyndhurst Studio)
Pattern: see above

Note: picture must come later. I realized that MrCatHead has the cord that links the camera to the computer…and he is on a business trip out of the country!

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

Kawaii

The Cute Book byAranzi Aronzo is one of my very favorite craft books. The felt animals are all adorable. Der! It’s not called the CUTE book for nothin’! Each project is within a beginner’s ability to create and the book itself is kawaii. It’s little and the spine opens easily for copying patterns on your printer/copier.

Today, I changed the monkey pattern around a bit and created a Little Purple Guy. I’m still thinking about what I want to do with him. Maybe I should make him a little pouch or sleeping bag and give him as a gift. Or sell him in my etsy shop.

Pattern: see above
Fabric: felt and embroidery floss

Screaming yellow flannel pants

LittlestCatHead, my lovely nearly10-year-old daughter, adores the color yellow. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone can wear yellow and look good but somehow she manages.

Fabric: screaming yellow flannel purchased at Hip Stitch
Pattern: M5744, McCall’s Easy Endless Options

I shortened the legs and added bright fuschia rickrack. I’m such an amateur and making the rickrack match up on the cuffs was a bit of a pain. The true test will be the state of these pants when they are run through the washer and dryer. We’ll see…