soft turtle

A couple of years ago I bought a little pattern for a turtle pincushion off of etsy when I was looking for some fabric. My making time has really dwindled recently — I have to focus more on drawing right now. When my son was a baby, the only things I could make easily near him were knitting and hand-sewing. Having a sewing machine, pins and iron out was too much trouble. Now, it's opposite. I don't have the time to knit, and if I have a spare hour in the week to make something I need it to be efficient. I need a machine! Anyway, I tried out this turtle for a birthday present. I used muslin lining instead of interfacing to keep it soft, and I used velvet for the body (which is really hard to keep straight, but feels nice). My auggie, who is now 3 1/2 and whose interests are: trucks, cars, emergency vehicles, lego (and now skateboards) surprised me by asking for one of these. He's asked 4 times. It's partly the velvet, I think. I was going to use one of his dad's old shirts instead of the flower fabric, but he really wants the flowers, so I'll try to do another one if I can soon.

Shadow Puppets

This is a good gloomy-day activity, especially when it's getting dark earlier: shadow puppets. There is a printable template here for these super-lovely polar bear and musk-ox puppets by Orange Moon Toys.

We're going to make them this afternoon, so I'll see if I can do a better image, but for now this is via Martha Stewart vis pinterest. You could do a version of the Donkey in the Lion's Skin (see below) by Aesop — the Muskox in the Polar Bear Skin?

If you prefer to buy some pre made puppets (no shame in that) then you can find some gorgeous ones here.

Also this week: Aesop's Fables as told by Mitsumasa Anno and non-stop nature walks.

How to make a real kite, too

One of our most popular posts is How to make a mini kite, but it looks like some of you are looking to make a general sort of kite (the kind you fly in sky).

We have directions for a real kite, too, here. The original directions for making a kite are on the dust jacket of our first book, Windy.

Softy Pigs (Miyako Kanamori: Part 3)

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How to Make a Pompom Character Part 2 (Hallowe'en Edition)

When we experimenting with pompom-making techniques for our workshop at Word on the Street last month, we came across this technique at Bella Dia which does not require a pompom maker. Although we didn't end up using the technique, we did have a happy accident while making it: if you don't cut through all the yarn at the end (see the link and this will make sense) you can make a squid, octopus...or a ghost! Perfect for Hallowe'en.

How to Make a Pom Pom Character Part 1

Thanks to our friend Roger for pointing out that vancouverisawesome did a little feature on Foggy for our Word on the Street appearance.

This has prompted us to finally put up our pom pom instructions.

We'll try to put up some photo instructions, but in the meantime, there is quite a good tutorial here.

We have some Hallowe'en pom pom ideas here (see part 2).

Sock fish

Miyako Kanamori: Part 1


Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-off Socks and Gloves by Miyako Kanamori is a very good book! (Phew...out of breath from that last sentence.) As you might guess from its descriptive title, this book gives you patterns for making little softies from socks (mostly long socks) and gloves. The patterns are quite simple and you can use a machine or hand sewing for the projects. This is a good book for your bookshelf; it has a lot of easy, fun projects.


One little note: most of the patterns involve a pair of gloves or a pair of socks, and they need to be in fairly good condition (toes and heels are often part of the pattern), so this won't help you use old socks. However, all you need is a pack of work socks and you're off. The gloves in the book are mostly rough work/gardening gloves, which you can find in Vancouver for about $2, so that's quite economical.

Anyway, we'd like to show a couple of projects from the book, beginning with sock fish. These fish were not the very cutest project, but they are very simple, quick, and they only use one sock (and they are great for baby socks, which often lose their mate and remain in good condition even after wear).

Kanamori's fish has a button eye and uses a sock with a contrasting colour for the toe, which looks very cute. However, we didn't have any socks like that, so we tried adding a little blanket stitching to separate the head from the body (and to make a little fin). Because these are for babies, we stitched on felt eyes which are safer.

How to make a mini kite

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How to make a kite

It's time to think about an activity for the weekend...how can we not have done kites yet! We have a link to Windy's original instructions for making a real kite below. If you are the type who prefers to play indoors (or it's rainy where you are), we'll add a little set of directions for making a little paper kite for your favourite toy, or for your own diorama, on Sunday morning.

Let's start with a proper kite (PDF). There are 2 pages to this PDF.

The original directions for making a kite are on the dust jacket of our first book, Windy.