Fun designs for cool kids!

For those who have a "special little girl" in your life, you must look at these fun dresses for babies and toddlers. They are darn cute!

These little dresses consist of a skirt sewn onto a onesie. They are a simple way to add some character to a plain onesie. 

A fun part about making these dresses comes right at the start - picking out the fabric!

Shown above and below are a very sweet deer print and a Halloween print that I bought from my neighborhood fabric store. I also have some vintage prints in my fabric piles and will be experimenting with some of those very soon.

You can find these and other designs at my new Etsy store at www.figgypuddingandpie.etsy.com.

I have lots of great ideas for little girls, but am currently lacking fun designs for little boys. Does anybody out there have any suggestions? I'm on the look out!

Ciao for now,

Figgy

Fall Is Here!

My favorite crafty season is here, Fall! The time has come to get cracking on some Halloween crafts. So get ready, I can be a bit ridiculous during Halloween and especially during the holidays.

For the past week or so my brain has been working overtime trying to come up with some great Halloween items for Urban Creatures and my up and coming project Figgy Pudding. For Urban Creatures we decided to create some Halloween-themed bracelets.

Below we have incorporated some felted beads with our strands of recycled knit fabrics.

We found these great bat charms sometime ago. Until now we haven't been able to come up with a way to add them to our mix. With the recent vampire craze this bracelet can definitely be worn after Halloween as well.

Today I went out to Fabric Depot. For those of you that do not live here in PDX, Fabric Depot is an awesome warehouse full of fabrics usually at discounted prices. Lucky for me, today was 30% off everything!!

My mission at the Fabric Depot was Halloween fabric for some baby clothes and accessories for Figgy Pudding. What do you think of my choices? I love 'em.

Once I got home I went to work on my pumpkin pin cushions. I was inspired by heirloom tomatoes and then realized if I do these in orange they make the perfect little pumpkin. Who doesn't need a seasonal pin cushion! This will be my first item added to my Figgy Pudding Etsy store.

Check it out at www.figgypuddingandpie.etsy.com!

Ciao for now,
Figgy

Report

So, I tried my new felting tool and I wasn't too impressed. After two stabs, all three needles broke! I wonder if they skimp on the quality of needles that come with the tool. I replaced the needles with ones I already owned. They did just fine.

After all of this I am still using my one needle sans tool. By holding the needle on its own I have more control and the force of stabbing is much greater.

Oh well! Lesson learned.

Ciao for now,
Figgy

New Crafting Tool

I'm so excited! Today I found a new needle-felting tool. As shown below, it is a pen style. I really think this will come in handy for my needle-felted jewelry.  

Usually, for a small project, I use just one needle. What's special about this tool is that it has 3 needles in a small amount of space. The felted beads should become firmer in a shorter amount of time because of its triple power.  

Now, I must go try it out.

Ciao for now,

Figgy

Needle Felting - It's Like Magic

Well, after many weeks of sunshine and warm weather in the Pacific Northwest, it's beginning to feel a little bit like fall - my favorite season!

I'd like to talk about one of my favorite crafts - needle felting.

Needle felting is the process of felting wool rovings with specialized barbed needles (shown below).  The needle is stabbed into the wool to bind the fibers together. The more you stab, the more dense your creation becomes. It is very exciting to see your desired shape start to take form. It's like magic!

Warning - You are more than likely going to stab yourself, so be careful! My little fingers start to resemble Swiss cheese when I needle felt. But no worries because it only hurts for a few seconds;)

My favorite things to make with needle felting are animals. Pictured below is a mobile my friend and business partner Carla and I made. She needed a mobile for her little girl's nursery so we thought we would add one of my felted creations into the mobile.

Jewelry can also be made with needle felting. I have incorporated felted beads into our Urban Creatures bracelets. The felted beads give the bracelet added texture and a very modern aesthetic.

This type of crafting is enjoyable because you can complete projects quickly and in a stylish fashion - and currently I'm making bracelets of this type (in different colors and styles) to put in our store, which can be found at www.urbancreatures.etsy.com.

Ciao for now,

Figgy