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

A treat for myself

I don’t usually make things for myself. But this fabric seemed perfect for my wardrobe. It has brown and grey and blue, which are colors I wear often. Then I met someone at HipStitch who had a cute little bag and when I asked her where she got the pattern, she told me it was The Buttercup Bag.

I made a few changes cuz after feeling how the interfacing felt against the lining, I decided to skip the magnetic snap. It felt too heavy for such a cute little bag. I might make this again with a zipper closure…

Mine! All mine! I'm not sharing this one!

Lining

Pattern: Made by Rae’s Buttercup Bag
Fabric: Amy Butler’s Lotus Faded China in Olive/Geisha Fans for exterior and pocket, Lotus Faded China in Linen/ Full Moon Polka Dot for interior
Music to sew by: Vitas’ Blessed Guru, over and over because I like it that much

Again, my second pic is huge. I really feel stupid because I can’t fix it. Also, the pic is dark…I’ll have to take another one tomorrow but I wanted to get this post up now. I love this bag!!!

Another Sample

I’m calling this the Ie Bag. “Ie” is one Japanese word for “house.” There are others but this one seems to fit best here. It’s much smaller than the Kali bag, at only 6 1/2 x 8 in. I used coarse Japanese linen and a random Japanese cotton fabric from Kokka.

Home Sweet Home

Lining

Music to sew by: Gorillaz, esp Dare

And again, I hate WordPress. WHY is it making every second pic on here BIGGER?!?!

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?

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!

Cowboy Apron

Yet another gift! (I’m the model.)

Cowboy apron

Fabric: Alexander Henry’s Red Star Rider
Pattern: modified “Psychedelic Squares” project from A is For Apron

Sew, Mama, Sew! December Giveaway: seasonal bag

It’s time for the December Giveaway, hosted by Sew, Mama, Sew!.

I thought I would keep with the seasonal theme and make a little bag with some colorful, Christmas-y fabrics.

Comment today and you just might win this!

December Giveaway Drawstring bag

Closeup of Michael Miller fabric

Lining for Drawstring Bag

I’m also throwing in a little surprise gift to the lucky winner! And since there have been so many blogs signing up, we’ve been asked to let this Give-Away run til Friday. Woohoo!

Note: Winner will be chosen at random. I ship continental US only. Please remember this ends midnight (Mountain time, US) on Friday! LittlestCatHead will help choose the winner by choosing a number.

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

The Midnight Oil

I’m frantically trying to finish presents before my husband takes his final business trip to Prague this year. He leaves the 9th of December and I absolutely MUST have all the presents completed for Prague friends by then.

I did some seasonal crafts with LittlestCatHead today but mostly I worked on presies. I am so proud of the way my Amy Butler In-Town Smart Handbag turned out! I used the Calaveras line from Alexander Henry for the exterior and some generic bright pink fabric for the lining. I am giving this to the mom of LittlestCatHead’s dearest friend in Prague. She loves funky stuff and I think she’ll dig the skulls.

I also got a load of new fabrics in the post yesterday. Woohoo! Hours of fun! I love the Kitty Kristmas the best and I whipped up a little stocking out of it with a lining. The lining was a bit frustrating so I don’t think I’ll do a full lining for subsequent stockings. Perhaps just a partial one so it will look pretty with the top turned down.

Wish me luck! I have more presents to sew!

Fabric: see above
Pattern: see above (hee!)

Cat nip

Fabric inspection

 

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