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What to call this thing. Hmm. It's an apron. It's a bonnet. It's an aprett? A bonron? It's ... retro? funky? ugly?
I found it at a church rummage sale, and once I figured out what the buttons were for I just had to buy it. It cost a whole quarter and I think it's made from an old sheet. The brim? It becomes pockets. Oh, so handy.
I found this dishtowel at a thrift store. I love it , for so many reasons. For want of better phraseology, BARBERSHOP ROCKS.
This is the strangest barbershop I've ever seen/heard:
The one in the white dress is vintage '70s, made for me by Elizabeth Waldron, God rest her soul. What a woman she was. The nakie one and her twin were found at a yard sale. I crocheted the yellow and orange dress on the one, and then for Christmas found the tiny ones at Hobby Lobby and did three for gifts.
My mother made this doll for me when I was small. I'm sorry TypePad won't let me rotate the photo. See it properly on my Flickr page here and here.
She is missing her bonnet and shoes, and I think she had a pinafore, too. But Mom recently called me to say she found the pattern in a drawer in her sewing room! So in future I can make her a few new items. I'll be happy when Hillary's new doll patterns come out so I can make Holly some friends.
I'm not the only one who had this doll. When I was looking for the pattern on-line last year I found this. Kristin has been on my bloglines ever since. I love reading about her husband The Farmer and their sheep. I always think of that farmer from the Babe movie. Excuse me while I go sing that song.
I own so many quilted pieces from my mom, but my latest favorite is this one she gave my daughter for her dolls:
It fits perfectly on the little vintage doll bed I gave her for Christmas. Pictures of that project in a future post, hopefully.
If you like quilting, check out the month of quilts going on at Sew, Mama, Sew!
I may be the last person in the craft world to actually sit down and do some embroidery, but that doesn't mean I haven't been paying attention. There are dozens of books and patterns out there that are incredibly cute and clever. New and vintage, and even free.
I have gone so far as to put some floss and needles into my carry-it-around bag. Haven't added the fabric and hoop yet, so it's just inspiration-en-tote right now. (aside: I shop like that, too. Pick things up, hold them, continue shopping, wander back and replace them if they don't "feel" right. But not at the grocery store. And I hate when people leave orphans in the aisles, especially at the grocery store. I do make an effort to replace items from whence they came if I decide not to purchase.)
One handy item I haven't seen anyone talk about is the iron-on transfer pencil. Like these here. I actually own one of these, but haven't used it yet to be honest. But I think it would be the bee's knees. Have you used one? Does it work?
Stay tuned for some photos of vintage items I've picked up thrifting.
Could I use the word item more?
Once you have your triangle pattern (see previous post) the rest is relatively clear sailing.
To punch your circles, you may want to turn your punch over so you can see what you're punching:
This can help you line up the design on your paper, or just save paper by getting your punches closer together:
I don't bother with the tracing and scoring of lines, I just use my template to fold around. You can do this for two sides:
For the third side, you need to remove the template and just use the existing folds as your guides. This is something like having a seam allowance, but not. If you know what I mean. Whatever. You need to get the template out of the way.
Now you just have to do this nineteen more times. That's twenty in all, four of each of your five papers.
Now it is a matter of gluing. For scrapbook paper, a gluestick works just fine.
Now is the time to tie a knot and add a loop for hanging. One on top and bottom each, if you like. But I opted not to for this particular ball. Ok, ok, I FORGOT. *sigh* You really need to do that before you glue it completely together. Or you can punch a hole in one of the ribs later, but I think it looks nicer hanging from the center.
I did get it finished, and it looks nice and I'm happy with it. So is my daughter - she thinks it's for her! Well, maybe it is. After all, she worked so hard to find a coordinating outfit... gee, I'm lucky!
I tried to find this online, and couldn't come up with clear directions and pictures together, so here's my attempt at explaining the construction of a card ball. And de-mystifying the trick of getting an equilateral triangle inside a circle is maybe the best part.
For my project I didn't use actual card stock, just scrapbook paper. I
chose five different but coordinating prints. I also used a 1 7/8"
circle punch, a glue stick, and took my lead from
HellomynameisHeather's Paper Globes.
I have to say, all that cutting of templates, pre-scoring your fold
lines and using special glue, etc. in her directions is not for me. I
mean, sure, if I was going to be published in ME's Home Companion, but
for Stay.See.Make.Do. the motto is Make.Do. - not
Make.Perfect.and.Make.Self.Crazy. (I think a lot of the Crazy would
come from the fumes from the E6000 glue she recommends. No offense
meant to Heather, I'm sure. Her stuff does rock.)
Start by making your template. You need a circle and a triangle. Heather kindly gives you a pattern to trace and/or cut out so that you can have an equilateral triangle that fits perfectly inside the circle. But that only works if you use her circles. Because I am lazy and did not want to cut twenty circles by hand after tracing hers, I decided to use a punch.
Having taken higher maths in college, I figured something in my trig/calc/geom/diff history would enable me to find the exact measurements to put an equilateral triangle inside a circle. This is a triangle and a circle, folks. My preschooler could tell me that much, so how tough could it be? Well, I struggled for five minutes with fractions (who chose a 1 and 7/8 punch?) and cross-multiplication (she's got two circles/triangles on her instructions) and pi (well, it is a circle after all) and realized that not only had most of my higher maths filtered out of my brain over the past (gasp!) 15 years, but that none of it was actually necessary. I put down my pencil and decided to rely on my much sharper origami skills.
Punch a circle out of scrap paper and fold it in half. Then match the fold lines and fold in half the other way to give yourself the center point.
Now here is the magic: fold one edge of the circle so that it touches the center point. Any edge anywhere on the circle will do.
Keep that fold, and do it again starting the next fold at the point of the fold you just made. Bring the edge to the center point. Okay, so I don't know how to explain it; look at the picture, please:
Do it one more time and...
There you have one nearly perfect equilateral triangle inside your circle.
****I should point out here that it looks like there is a big hole/space in the center (above) but that is only because the flaps are not lying down completely flat. When flat, there should only be about enough space to poke a tack through the center.****
No math, no stress.
My next post will be the rest of the construction of the paper ball. But if you can't wait, I'm sure you can figure it out from Heather's pdf (linked above).
Ta Ta!
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