another monkey done

they really do go pretty fast

The dragon is done, the slug part of the snail is done. Mid-kid agrees that snaps for the snail shell will be cool because it will let him switch between slug and snail. Head still needs to be sewn on the cat.

sock monkeys

started. Easier than I thought.

Progress

The cat's head and feet are sewn together, but I still have to make a chest stripe for the front of the body and add a nose and mouth (and whiskers? still not sure about that).

I was able to stop by the dollar store on Wednesday and get some socks for sock monkeys - polka dots. They should be fun.

At the fabric store, with encouragement

My daughter went with me today. She picked out some black and some white "poodle" fleece for her pillowcase; I think it will make a nice kitty. We got some red fleece for the snail shell for the mid-kids, plus so much more...

The dragon is about halfway done, I think. His head is sewn together and I'm stitching a mouth. I've also misplaced one of the spike pieces, but I can make another one if I absolutely have to.

A blue dragon

Last night I sewed up one of the back spine pieces of the dragon and cut out his face, tail, and body. Hopefully tomorrow after soccer we can get to the fabric store so the pre-teen can pick out colors for her cat and we can get red and a brighter blue for the mid-kid's snail.

Progress on the scarf

Nearly done with the scarf I started for my mom for last Christmas. Yay!

Edit- Here is the pre-teen modeling the scarf:

All it really needs is a nice button to be a "ring" on the daughter-finger.

Since I had the camera out, she wanted me to take a picture of the Egyptian mask she sculpted out of clay for a social studies project, here:

and here:


She's SO artistic; the mask is quite stunning.

I didn't make it back to the fabric store, but I did stop by Michael's before dinner. I got a black T-shirt for TMOTH to work on for my brother for Christmas, and some variegated pencils that the mid-kid really really wants, and some paint for the post-Thanksgiving Christmas ornament decorating extravaganza. All good, especially the pencils. We looked for them a week or two ago and didn't find them; I'm really glad I could get them for him.

The seduction of the fabric store

It all starts so innocently. I need a spool of lavender thread to finish the scarf I started for my mom for LAST Christmas, and some fabric to make the poofy animal pillowcases. So, I go to Jo-Anne while the pre-teen is at soccer practice.

Well, I find the lavender thread, and a couple of nice blues with thread to match that should make for a nice dragon. Of course the cutting table is right next to the remnant box so I wind up with (and this is from memory):
1. a shiny remnant that might (or might not) work for the lining of the wings of the dragon
2. a piece of black sparkly felt
3. a piece of plaid cotton
4. a piece of cream-colored fleece
5. eight sample squares (for 25 cents each!!!) of upholstery fabric
6. and probably more.

If I didn't have to get back to soccer practice, no telling what I might've wound up with. The worst part is, I hope to go back tomorrow night with the tween to pick out fabric for her pillowcase.

Designing kids

I started sketching out some designs this evening for some poofy animal pillowcases, since the commercial poofy animal pillowcases appear to be poorly made and are kind of creepy into the bargain. The first one was for a brontosaurus. My 8-year old son promptly drew a much better brontosaurus while my 11-year old daughter decided it should be a dragon and worked on a design. I'll post photos/diagrams at a later date. The brontosaurus will be a simple little stuffed guy.