This guy may look fearsome, but he's really a soft, huggable softie just perfect for all those little pirates in your life! He's got an open mouth full of felt teeth. In fact, his mouth is a soft pocket so you can reach your hand inside and the shark will gobble up your treasures! My…
Archives for April 2012
Lovey Dovey: A New PDF Pattern
Josephine is 16 months old now and just starting to walk. With her increasing independence, including the ability to climb the stairs (!), comes a heightened need for security. This means lots of hugs and check-ins with me and with her sisters (and a fair bit of wrestling and climbing on top of them when…
Bird in Flight: A Free Pattern and Tutorial
I posted a tutorial to make this little felt bird in flight a year ago today. With just a few scraps of felt and a bit of time you can make one of these little birds, or maybe a few. I used double-sided fusible web to add some scraps of vintage quilting cotton to this…
Softies For Sale Series: Selling Art Toys
A few weeks ago I put the following question on Twitter: “What is your biggest source of income?”. Almost everyone in my Twitter community are designers or crafters of some kind and I got all sorts of replies and a terrific discussion ensued (I love Twitter for that). Selling handmade items at craft fairs and selling…
Homemade Gefilte Fish
The Passover Seder is this Friday night. I'm cooking all kinds of traditional foods including matzoh ball soup, sweet and sour brisket, macaroons (dipped in chocolate ganache!), and homemade gefilte fish. My kids and I are featured in an article in today's Boston Herald about people who make their own gefilte fish. You can watch…
Caterpillar and Butterfly: A Reversible Toy!
Once I started thinking about reversible toys I couldn't stop! The next most obvious transformation, after the chick and egg, was a caterpillar and butterfly. So here we go! I present you with this happy green caterpillar that you can turn inside out and it reverses to a butterfly! Like the chick and egg, this…