sunday stitch vol. 6 - quirky rag doll

This week I tested out another pattern from Let's Sew Together - the quirky rag doll. My fellow TCU Interior Design Grad friend, Katy, needed a special something for her soon to be niece, Posey Tate.

The doll took a surprisinglly long time to make, about 4 hours. The pattern wasn't quite as easy to follow as the Robot that I made a couple of months back. The dress and hair in particular were kind of tricky to follow. I do think I'll make it again, but I'll definitely alter the pattern.

On a related note, if anyone needs any doll yarn mullots, I've got 2 that I can give you a great deal on.

Cute, cute, cute.

And thanks to my embroidery machine, I was able to whip up a monogrammed swaddle blanket as well. The mom to be and auntie to be were thrilled, so I'm a happy lady.

What have you guys been sewing this week?

YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY:

sunday stitch vol. 2 - snuggle bot

sunday stitch vol. 3 - attack of the octopus

sunday stitch vol. 1 - donuts and cowboys and blankets, oh my!

getting crafty: felt doll (with pattern)

yummy chicken salad

Something about summertime makes me a bit, how do you say, laaaaaaaazy in the kitchen. When the leaves begin to turn and temperatures drop in the fall, I'm a power house. But triple digit temps mean that I'm not really bringing it in the cooking department. Eh, such is life.

Enter another delicious and not at all intensive recipe perfect for lazy summer people like me. It's based on the world's best chicken salad in the world, which is obviously from Potbelly.

If you're feeling extra lazy, you can buy a rotisserie chicken and just cut it up. No judgement here. But just in case, I'll tell you how I cook my chicken.

sunday stitch vol. 5 - pencil bag

I like to pretend that I know my way around a sewing machine. I've been using one since I was about 8 years old, after all. There is this one thing, though, that I've never done and kind of hate to admit.

I've never sewn a zipper.

Gasp!

Oh wait, we're talking about sewing. It's not that dramatic.

But alas, it's true. I've been intimidated by zippers for some reason for another. But it's time to be a big girl and figure it out so I can make clutches and pillows and dresses. My crafty friend and former neighbor, Nicole, was sweet enough to drive all the way out to the burbs and teach me her ways.

It was pretty simple. A couple of rectangles of sturdy fabric, a couple of rectangles of felt, thread, and a zipper.

Pin it up.

Quilt a couple of rectangles for stability.

Make a cool chevron pattern because we're cool like that.

And sew in the zipper.

OK, I skipped the photos of the actual zipper step. That's because you need to click here for the full tutorial. Give credit where credit's due. We skipped the gathering part and just sewed 2 rectangles together.

I can see 2 years into my future, sending sweet Henry to Kindergarten with an awesomely color coordinated pencil pouch/lunchbox/backpack combo. The other moms are going to hate me, aren't they. Ah, screw them. These pouches are adorable.

Thanks Nicole for getting me past my irrational fear of zippers.

YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY:

sunday stitch vol. 1 - donuts and cowboys and blankets, oh my!

sunday stitch vol. 2 - snuggle bot

sunday stitch vol. 3 - attack of the octopus

sunday stitch vol. 4 - quickie quilted blanket

tara's house salad dressing

Fact: homemade salad dressing is far superior to store-bought salad dressing.

Fact: I only ever remember this 3 minutes before dinner will be ready.

Fact: This dressing can be made in under 3 minutes.

monogrammed quickie quilted blanket

As I mentioned in the Sunday Stitch a week or so back, I recently finished a quilted blanket for my cousin Raegan and her new hubby, Jake. I love giving handmade things for weddings. The item is slightly less likely to end up in a garage sale in 5 years.

The happy couple got engaged in May and decided in June that they wanted to marry in July. And no, calm down, no shotguns were involved. Well, there were some in the decor (they got married in a beautiful barn) but nobody was wielding them at the groom.

I had already decided when they got engaged that I wanted to make them a quilt, but with only 3 weeks until the wedding, I needed to whip one up in a hurry. This was the perfect project because it's wonderful and personalized and able to be knocked out in a short amount of time. It's a lap sized quilt, so it's big enough to be usable for couch cuddling but small enough to not make you hate your life.

If you've never made a quilt and want to get your feet wet, this is the perfect project to start with.