Vintage Kangaroo Pattern

I made a lovely Kangaroo from a vintage pattern that turned out so cute!  Abby over at whileshenaps shared a scanned copy of this very loved and old pattern book.  I'm part of her awesome design forum on facebook where other artists and soft toy designers get to share things and bounce ideas off of each other.  It's a great group of fellow soft toy designers!

The pattern is quite small, so I enlarged it to 125% using a photocopier.  I wanted to use some thrifted camel hair fabric that I found a couple months ago and knew it would be easier to turn things in side out with a larger scale pattern.

Being such plain fabric I still wanted to have a little "fun" so added heart buttons for the joints.  I like how everything turned out except the wonky unfinished-looking foot pads. 

What I've been up to

The past 3 months I've been designing and sewing soft toys like crazy!  And when I say 3 months it hasn't been 3 solid months...the summer happened in there too which always takes me away from sewing.  Plus I grew a baby, and sewed lots of gifts for people, oh and made dinner most nights and kept a mildly tidy house.  The whole stay-at-home-mom thing and running a small business is no small feat!  As I'm sure some of you can relate.

Also, my non-advertised clothing alterations side of rachelfound has taken off this summer too.  I've had regular and return clients and friends which is awesome!  That's the bread and butter side of my business that keeps me sharp and learning new things and always sewing even if I don't feel like it.  

But the side of my business that keeps me creative and gives me the drive to keep designing is my love of making, designing and sewing soft toys.  I'm gearing up for a Christmas market, so that's what most of my inventory is being "saved" for, but I also am steadily selling toys on Etsy.

To top it all off I'm finishing 2 quilts for my kids this week (epic quilt ranting blog post to come soon!), and I had a sweet baby boy last week, and because of the for mentioned having a child, I forget what else I've been up to!

Anyways, here's a few of the soft toys I've been making: 

 Fox girl made with soft fleece and cotton

 Girl skunk made with faux fur, soft fleece and cotton

 Plaid deer made from a recycled wool sweater and a flannel shirt

 And this hilarious cow I made for a 1 year old birthday girl! (who lives on a dairy farm) the udders make me laugh so much!

Back to School London Style

My sister heads to school in London this September, and I collected a bunch of stationary items to send along.  None of them deemed necessary, but all of them fun!  So of course I needed to make some sort of case to put them in, and the London Tote was born.  I used an upholstery cotton canvas with a zipper that folds over the outside pocket, with straps knotted to some loops on the outside.  Its quite small (11"x 14" when unfolded) but its perfect for when she wants to walk to a quiet spot and write me a letter on the beautiful airmail paper I got for her ;)

mini clip board with sticky notes on it, little note book, air mail paper, highlighters and an array of colorful washi tape.

Cutie Little Bonnets

I'm trying to squeeze in one last bonnet wearing summer for my 2 year old.  By the age of 3 I'm not sure how cute it would be anymore!   So I let her pick out the fabric, and she could hardly wait for me to finish it.  It sews up in about an hour even with a toddler running around "helping".  I used this pattern: little betty it's the second and third I've made, and I love each one! 

the little chickie one for my 2 year old

and this little one for a newborn

The Kimono Dress

Dresses, dresses, I have been sewing dresses.  And for the first time in a long time they are for me!  I was in need of some nice flowey sundresses and decided to make them.  I bought one at the beginning of the summer but haven't worn it because I don't really like it/weird fabric fiber content.

I designed the first dress over half a year ago? And made my first one out of a kimono!  Therefore this dress is nicknamed or called The Kimono Dress.

#1

 This original one has pockets which is nice, but I didn't continue to do that in the other dresses to cut down on bulk.  It's cinched at the waist with a knit belt.

 

 

Kimono Dress #2 is made from my beautiful collection of fabric I brought back from India last year.  I'm happily and finally cutting it up to use! (instead of just looking at it all the time in admiration) 

 Kimono Dress #3 is made from these pants: 

 

These were also brought back from India I wore them as part of an outfit.  To get the most use out of them here, I thought making a dress from them would be most fitting.

Ta Da!

Dress #4 is made from seemingly neutral fabric

Zoomed version:) Perfect for summer!

And to top it all off, my friend kindly encouraged me to get labels made!  Such a simple process and I am thrilled with how they turned out.  Clean and simple.  It beats rubber stamps or drawing with fabric marker which I tired earlier on in my sewing life.

 

Bow Clutch

I wanted to make something special for my friends in England and came up with this simple bow clutch.  I have seen them around on different blogs, but designed my own version.  It took a couple of takes to get the proportions perfect and voila!  I even had the zippers and fabric on hand!

Birthday Sewing Extravaganza

I love sewing for spring and summer birthdays!  Everything is so colorful! I have included ages with each gift and who it was for.  You can use them for your own siblings or friends!  I either used tutorials online, or made up my own designs.

 A Birthday Flower Crown using this tutorial. 

This was for my sister - age 26 :)

 

I enlarged the felt flowers quite a lot to take up more space for an adult size 

head vs. a child's head.  And I added a few mini Moleskines to the card too!

         

A felt birthday card using this tutorial.  

For a friend in England

A polka-dot skirt using this tutorial.

I added a cute pocket in contrast fabric. 

For a neighbor friend, Age - 3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY bunting, my own design using mostly vintage fabric.

A gift for my sister-in-law, Age - 30 something? (he he he)

Delux homemade waffle cone ice cream party.

For my husband, on his 29th birthday!

Last but not least, a dinosaur bow tie, my own design. 

For my nephew - age 4

Paired with finger paint bubble bath its perfect!

Crib Re-Vamp

I found a vintage toy crib out while thrift store shopping last week.  I have passed up others before while out and about but I had immediate vision for this one and got it!

 

before

                                                 

after

 I made a polka-dot mattress with 4 layers of batting

 and 6 covered buttons holding it together

A little bunny pillow too!

...and a green blanket

All of the fabric was from my stash:

 

Red Polka-dots - fabricland brand

Bunny pillow fabric - from a local shop (I don't know the name of the fabric!)

Blanket bunny lining - thrift store treasure

Green blanket fabric - CreativeThursday

Bunting:

Bunting - vintage pillowcase 

Handmade bias tape - fabricland brand

Sleeping bunny:

Made by me!