Rainbow Cupcake Living World Dome Cover

I just finished up a new custom dome cover for a customer from my Etsy shop!   

It's a cupcake with rainbow sides, a chocolate cake layer, pink icing, sprinkles, and a giant pink strawberry!  I went all out  :P

I must say, I am really loving it.

It kind of puts all my other dome covers in shadow.

Here's a close up of the strawberry on the top.  I even embroidered seeds on the berry, and the leaves have an indented center line.

Oh, and I rolled up little strips of fleece to make sprinkles!

The rainbow sides are super fun, huh?  I had my work cut out sewing strips of fleece together to make those.  

I think custom dome covers are really fun to make.  I'll miss it when school starts and I won't have as much time to make these anymore. 

I hope the customer likes this new dome cover.  It's really quite spectacular!

Have a great day!

Woolly Owl Hat Finished

I came across a really fantastic, super cute crochet owl hat tutorial by Kat Goldin.  It's free too!  If you love to crochet, you should really check it out.  The tutorial is well-made and easy to follow.

 This is the owl hat that I finished in the newborn size.  I used Lion Brand Cotton-Ease yarn in Seaspray and Lime.  The yarn is a cotton and acrylic mix.  It's pretty soft, but I think pure cotton would have been softer.  However, the colours were perfect for what I wanted.

This is the photo from the tutorial.  I LOVE that changing purple colour (and those cheeks)!  I also love that the eyes are not white.  It seems like every owl pattern out there uses white.  I like that the grey kind of blends in with the purple a little. 

So I opted to make the eyes green.  Why not  :)  It's less stark than white! 

 This makes it look like an owl sitting on a branch!  Cool, huh?

I like everything about this tutorial and the finished owl hat.  Love, love, LOVE it!  :)  Thanks, Kat Goldin!

Happy crocheting!

Fuzzy Crochet Baby Bear Hat With Ear Flaps

I've been eyeing PDF tutorials on Etsy for a while now.  In particular, I really liked this one of a brown bear hat with ear flaps.  However, being the cheapskate that I am, I opted to look for a free tutorial instead.  

I wasn't able to find an exact tutorial for it, but I did find a tutorial for a very cute newborn baby hat with earflaps.  Other sizes are also available on that website.

I had some Baby Boucle yarn kicking around so I used that to get the fuzzy effect.  It makes the "magic loop" at the start harder, but it still works.

Instead of the crabstitch edging that they have in the tutorial, I did a single crochet as the edging because I wanted a braided look.  It looks really good, but I'm not sure if it added too much length to the height of the hat.  I'll guess I'll find out when I put it onto the baby.

 For the ears, I did the magic loop with 10 dc, but instead of joining the circle, I ch 3, turn, and 2 dc in each dc. Then I ch 1, turn, and sc decrease intermittently so that the ears curl inwards.  Then turn and continue to sc decrease until the gap is filled.

With the Baby Boucle yarn it doesn't have to be exact because you can't see all the separate stitches well.  Do the same for the other ear.  Finish off and tie the two loose ends together, then stuff into the ear.

Then pin onto the hat approximately centered with the ear flaps near the top of the hat.  Attach with a hidden stitch (needle and thread).

I have a limited number of dolls capable of modeling this hat for you to see... so, um, you get the white gorilla.  Hopefully your child will look better than this  :P

Happy Crocheting!

A New Hedgehog Plush Toy

After my trial run with the little hedgehog pair, I decided to try again with a slightly bigger version. I want it something that I could scale up easily to make a BIG one.  Here's what I came up with.

 It's a little hedgehog in the "splat" position!

 See his little arms and legs splayed out?

 It must be a hot day!

 SPLAT!

 This is what it looks like from underneath.  I sewed the arms and legs on securely in this position.  I considered leaving them able to reposition, but this seemed much better.

 He's about palm size.

 Here he is with his little hedgehog friends!

 Ta da!

 They're good buds.

 *Smooch!*

 I am very happy with how this little doll turned out.  He is stuffed with fleece scraps so he is not soft and squishy.  He's actually kind of firm.  His limbs and ears are soft though.

The upside is that he's super cute.  The downside is that he's super hard to make.

Since I probably won't be making more, I made him extra awesome.  I even painted a little blush onto him with real blush powder!

He's my own little special friend.  I hope Poggy won't be jealous  :P

Have a happy day!

Little Hedgehog Plush Dolls

Love hedgehogs?  Now you can sew yourself a whole herd of them!  I just finished a new PDF tutorial to make these two little cuties.

You can make one little boy hedgehog

and one little girl hedgehog.

How can you resist?

Get the PDF in my shop or custom order your own set here.  They're perfect as a present for a hedgehog-loving friend, as a wedding gift, or as something really cute to decorate your space with.  They're only about 3 x 2.25 inches in size.  They could even be made into wedding cake toppers!

Get yours now!

Enjoy!

The Little Ruffian

Yesterday, when I went to take a nap...

I discovered that my bed had been taken over.

A little ruffian demanded food and drink.

He scoffed at my offer of water on a teaspoon.

But heartily ate of the food I had.

 When the food ran out, the ruffian grew restless.

 And ran off into the night.  To what strange places will he travel next?  I do not know, but wish him well.

 (Have a happy day!)

Donate Your Hair To Charity

I went for a hair cut and told the hair dresser I wanted to go from having long hair to short hair.

She started to run her fingers through my hair and said it was such a shame to cut off all that beautiful hair.  She didn't want to waste it.  She told me about how I could donate my hair to charity, and asked if I wanted to do that.

 I thought it was a great idea.

She tied my hair into four ponytails, I had a moment to re-think about my decision of lopping my hair all off, and then snip-snip-snip!  My hair was gone.

 It was very strange to see my hair lying on the table.  Kind of eerie...

She told me about a charity organization called Locks of Love.  They make wigs for children in USA and Canada. Children wigs have to be specially made since the adult sizes don't fit children very well.

So I packaged up my hair, and it's in an envelope ready to send off!  It's kind of weird to think of someone else wearing my hair around...but there are children with cancer, alopecia, burn wounds, and other hair loss conditions that will benefit.  It's a good thing.

The hair dresser said that it takes almost 5 people's hair in order to make one wig, so they definitely need a lot of donations.

Wanna donate hair too?
Please visit the website to read about the specifications.  For instance, donated hair has to be a minimum of 10 inches for it to be accepted.  Hair that is less than 10 inches will be sold to create more funding for making the charity wigs.

One hair cutting place that is affiliated with this program is Great Clips.  I haven't been there before so I'm not sure if they will mail the hair for you or not, but it's an easy process to mail it yourself too.

Here are some other programs where you can donate your hair:

Pantene Beautiful Lengths Program - hair only has to be 8 inches to be accepted, and it cannot be bleached. Read here for the donation requirements.

Eva and Co Wigs Hair Donation Program - hair must be a minimum of 8 inches in length

You can visit the Canadian Cancer Society to see other places that you can donate your hair locally.

If you're going to cut your hair short, you might as well help someone at the same time!  It's not like you'll need the cut-off hair anymore, but someone else could sure use it!

Have a great day!