plush team

so i forgot to mention (in the excitement of the show acceptance) that i've also become part of the etsy plush street team. which is a great group of plush makers! there's the blog, flickr gallery, and an etsy shop!

right now i've been working on make 34 frowny-faced, coal stocking stuffers! i've found the photofabric for labels i've been looking everywhere for so i made new labels and yea, coal! hopefully they're not to sad... it's supposed to be a good joke! i'm also brainstorming for both the street team's halloween contest AND softie central's holiday plush contest...


going home for the weekend, watch my brother play football and give him his birthday hot dog plush. probably going to take my sewing machine along with me...

oh also! naomi at the glitter workshop put up some photos of the frenchies on dispay in her shop!

craftacular!

so it's official that my first craft fair will be the glitter workshop's craftacular in madison! i have a HUGE list of ideas for the show, holiday stuff, display tactics, plush improvements, etc. so i'm WAY excited!

also, i'll be putting up some of the new, holiday plush i make for sale in the etsy shop so they'll be available beyond the craftacular! I'M SO EXCITED!

(and slightly nervous... i better get STARTED SOON!).

birthdays!

so in the next month i think i have 4 or 5 birthday presents to make! yow!

anyway this is the first. some all american food for my all american brother. he turns 18 tomorrow! but i won't be able to give this to him until the weekend. i hope he's not a poor lost bread blog reader or else this is totally giving it away. but i think it's safe to assume he's not into this, or at least not yet.

i've decided that fleece is so much nicer than felt! at least it feels better to work with because it's so soft, but it doesn't hold boxy shapes as well as felt does. also i decided i'm not very excited about using safety eyes. i've got a plan to break out the gocco again but for printing sheets upon sheets of eyes instead of faces straight onto the fabric i'm going to be sewing. this way i'll have my flexibility with the expressions of the plush... i'm afraid they're getting too dull.

steeping

i successfully dropped off the goods for the glitter workshop this morning, after a quick trip to joanns to return (hassle free!) that dumb circle puncher that didn't even punch a single piece of paper let alone felt... and bought a bunch of safety eyes instead...

and i realized that although i've been making plush like mad, i haven't really made any for my friends/family as gifts! so, i finally got around to making adam his very own plush, custom designed (although i'm definitely going to take the design and make some more, with slight alterations!!!):




it's a cassette tape if it isn't obvious, although i hope it is. it' a little rough around the edges, but i think that gives it character! especially as a handmade gift... i'm excited about making more, the possibilities are endless! almost. this one is made out of fleece which is actually the first fleece plush i've ever made! it was a little nicer to work with than felt, not so easily pill'ed and such. plus it's really, really soft. i also embroidered a little 1/1 on the top of it, (one of one), so i'm afraid this tape quite hard to find.

curly photoshoot

well well well welllll i spent thirty minutes darting around the park with three teddy bears in my arms in attempt to find a secluded, pretty area. i really dislike being watched when i take photos, especially ones where i have to pose teddy bears! even though they're really cute. maybe it's a phobia.... (i just wrote write-up about spider phobias for my neurosis class and how they used exposure therapy by continuously showing "spider-anxious" individuals videotapes of spiders... SO that means i just need someone to go with me when i take photos and critically stare at me, or worse, at what i'm taking photos of).

ok...........





also i spent like the WHOLE day sewing these great little guys for the glitter workshop, despite a few frustrating moments.... but really sewing is making me work so much on my patience which is good because i think i've always been really impatient and hurried. so it makes me slow down or else if i don't things won't turn out like i want them. and i'm also learning a lot from my mistakes (corn i know but i am), so each time i mess something up i make a memo to not do it again! hey! yea! i'm getting bloggier and bloggier.

or maybe it's because i've been at the union for 2 hours now in the same room as where they're projecting the badger football game and i've caught some unknown, contagious social disorder.

new friends, curly ones

so yesterday i spent the evening working on three little curly bears. i got this amazing dirty blonde curly faux fur fabric at joanns last week and i hardly used 1/4 of it to make these guys so (hoping there's a positive response) there will probably be more of them to come!

there are photos of the other two bears on my flickr site (link on the right side bar list thing). i apologize they're so blurry! i took them in a rush this morning but i plan to go on an entire photo shoot with the bears sometime this weekend!

pretty pain

there she is!

also, notice anything new? pretty and at the top of this page perhaps? yep! i made a new banner yesterday with a sample of a provencal fabric design.

still need to make some new labels sometime this weekend probably. hopefully i'll have some good news tomorrow!

night!

monsieur celebrity

just discovered that the blog softiescentral featured monsieur croque monsieur! it's tiny, but it's the first publicity i know of! exciting!

Blushing Brioche

so I finally got around to finalizing the brioche design and getting a few done. this is one of 5 that i made, they're all pretty much the same of course. i'm still working on the pain au raisin, i was waiting to get purple thread to sew raisins on and i finally got some this weekend.... so soon, soon. i also made a baguette this weekend :



i don't know if i should be calling it a baguette though because it's about 4-5 inches thick and, tops, 2.5 feet long... whereas real baguettes are only a few centimeters thick and up to a meter long. but that's alright, real baguettes don't have faces either i suppose.

at the same trip to joann's that i bought purple thread i also bought a sticker maker. it has this crank on the side and so you literally crank out stickers, i haven't had a chance to give it a go yet but there'll definitely be an update on that!

the next few weeks should be exciting i hope!

blog blog blog, blog. blog.

1% milkfat

since classes have started (last tuesday) i really haven't had much time for sewing. i managed to finish shanalogic's order of croissants but they've been sitting in my room for almost 4 days now just waiting to be mailed (addressed and everything!). so once i get those out i'll feel somewhat accomplished. but basically all my sewing and crafting is on hold until i can find time! i just hope i do find time!

i have a brioche and pain au raisin in the second round of designing. i've got their patterns and instructions i just need to actually start making them with the adjustments since the first round. i'm really excited about both of them though, especially the brioche! i keep writing about them but it probably doesn't look like i've made any progress but my goal of this coming weekend is to at least get one fantastic batch of brioches out of it!

really, they're cute. until i get a photo of my rendition, imagine these guys :



with faces!

what's cookin?

so i've been really bad about writing anything here lately.

i'm already buried in classes and it's not even been 3 days yet. but i have lots of hopes and plans (and support!) which make me confident that there are many more croissants to be made!

in the meantime, i've been working on an order of croissants for shanalogic. i currently have 6 done, a few more and some berets and they should be good to go by this weekend! until then :



i also got more screens and bulbs from feltcafe so i will be very BUSY and hopefully have a very FULL etsy shop VERY soon!