See and Sew: A Sewing Book For Children, By Tina Davis Book Review

Wow, it's been a while since I've been here. I just haven't been motivated as of late, but now that I will be making Christmas presents this year, I decided there's no better time to jump back in to craft blogging.

So last year I started working on a doll wardrobe for two people and their two dolls. I got halfway through the list of clothes I wanted to make before time ran out and then I stopped working on it completely. :-( So I've decided to work on the wardrobes again, and now I have four more dolls added to the madness. Fun! I'm also adding in some extras as well. So I want to document my work here as well as on my doll blog.

Now I want to try to do some hand-sewing with these doll clothes because I could get more control and details in the clothes, but I wanted to get a book on hand-sewing, and when I found See and Sew by Tina Davis I jumped at it after reading the reviews of adults finding this book helpful in hand-sewing as well as kids. I got it about two days ago and finally read through it today. Here's what I thought.

The one thing that caught my attention was the bright colors on the cover and the cute vintage art. I loved that the book was hardback as well, it added to that vintage feel, but I kind of wish that I had gotten the spiral-bound book. In fact I believe I bought the last hardback book on Amazon.com. When I first got the book and saw how big it was, I loved it and wanted to get the other two books by Tina Davis, one for cooking and one for gardening. But now I'm not so sure if I will do that, even for the cute vintage pictures.

The book has 7 chapters on actual sewing, the dos and don'ts, the techniques, etc. This is all for hand-sewing, by the way. In the first couple of chapters it teaches how to get ready for sewing by setting up a sewing basket or box, how to sew safely with techniques and when to get an adult involved if the person reading the book is a child, and how to begin with how long of thread to use and how to knot the thread. There are detailed illustrations to show how to do all of this.

The next two chapters talk about basic sewing and embroidery stitches. You will learn how to baste, sew  basic stitches, and hemming stitches, and decorative stitches. There are illustrations showing how to do each stitch with detailed explanations on how to do each as well as showing some alternatives for the stitches.

The next chapter is about how to sew on a button. I found this chapter pretty helpful as it taught how to sew on a shank button and how to sew on a non-shank button. It also teaches how to sew on snaps and hook and eyes, though this part is not really that detailed, but the pictures give you an idea of it.

After all the project pages, there is a chapter on finishes and trims. You will learn how to make pom-poms, tassels, and monograms on your finished projects. The pom-poms and tassels have a little more detail and description about them than the monogram section.

There are ten sewing projects in the book and one project on sewing on cards. Most of the projects are more for fun, at least in my opinion. Most are functional, but a lot made from felt and fleece because this a beginning sewing book and those two fabrics don't ravel. So for a child or beginner, this projects are perfect for them, but for someone a little more advanced or someone who wants to use different fabric, these projects may not be for you and you will want to try another book.

So what did I find wrong about this book? Well first of all, a lot of the information you can find in this book you can find either online or in a more detailed sewing book. So while the book is charming, if you are just looking for techniques to teach your child or you are learning on your own, then I would suggest just looking elsewhere.

The book keeps suggesting to have the patterns printed out on a copier. The thing about this that bothers me is that if you have the hardback like I do, you will have to force the book open to get it copied, possibly ruining the spine of the book.  Another thing is that in order to do the projects you have to go get the pattern copied and you have to size it up as well. I would have preferred if the book would have taught how to design your own patterns with measurements and using pictures as guide. I guess technically you could still do that, but this just kind of irritated me. Another thing that irritated me was that some of the stitches she says do for the projects she didn't teach in the book, so you'd have to look them up anyway. Again, a little irritating.

So what are my final thoughts on the book? A very cute book with tons of cute graphics, but the information is easily found elsewhere and for free. If you are just looking for techniques, go that route. However, if you like vintage and craft books, then this book would be a cute addition to your collection.  The projects aren't all that great either, that is if you are looking for something a little more fun or functional to make. However using felt or fleece is a great fabric to start with so if you just want sewing practice, then these projects are perfect for you.

I don't know if I will get the other books by Davis. I do like the look of them, but I have read they are really about the same, basic projects you can't really use and not really the information you'd need for the subject matter. I love craft books, but I think this will be the last one I get in the series, still thinking about it. If I do get the others I will of course come and do a review on it.

And on that note I am off to start planning out the doll clothes I will be making. I will be updating here again soon about what I'm doing. Take care until then, bye for now.

Michelle

Most Expensive Gingerbread House

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Wow, I’ve forgotten how I blog.  I wanted to make this quick post to try to clean up some things I’d been meaning to do and never gotten to, since I have to take my computer in to be cleaned soon.  It’s been doing the annoying turn off thing because it’s been overheating and diving into my computer to do it myself really seems daunting when you see you have to take the WHOLE THING APART.    I’ve got it working ok as long as I have a fan blowing on it.  Let me fill you in on something, it’s 33 degrees outside, my room is the coldest room in the house in the winter, my fan is right next to me blowing, and I’m wearing my jacket with the hood up.  In short, I do this for you. 

So around Christmas time I did a search for dollhouses because I was on the search for different ways to set up one, when I came across this interesting article about a gingerbread house made to look like a dollhouse basically.  It was located in Gothenburg, Sweden and basically instead of making your generic gingerbread house the person decided to show the inside of the house as well as the expansive grounds, and all of it, you guessed it, is edible.  Pretty neat right?  It’s 50 cm, a little over 19 and a half inches tall.  And why is it considered the most expensive gingerbread house?  In Sweden the house costs 35,000 SEK, or close to 3,000 Euro, if it were that price today it would cost us American peeps roughly $3963.90.  A bit pricey for a cookie house, for me at least. 

But isn’t it pretty?  You can get some closer views of the inside here.  For food it is pretty detailed.  This all got me to thinking about how I would create a gingerbread dollhouse for actual dolls to reside in.  For one thing I think the house above is missing a gingerbread staple, candies.  I think it would have made it look more like a gingerbread house and not just a brown house covered in snow, kwim?

Then I started thinking, would I make it for 1/12th or 1/6th.  Now I would prefer 1/6th, but 1/12th seems like it would be easier to work with on a project like this, thinking size-wise and and all.  Maybe if I have a kid some day I will entertain this thought again and have them share in the fun of making it with me.  But I just had to show you guys this and try to bring some life back to the blog.  Still not back yet. I have a ton to do.  My emails are backed up again thanks to my computer, and so many other things are being pushed back. If you have emailed me I will get back to you.  Sorry about the super delay.

And that’s about it for this post. I will talk to you lovely people later.  Be good until then, by for now.

Wishing it wasn’t so cold in her room,
Michelle

Hey Guys Guess What?

No, seriously.  I started the day, no the weekend off on a good foot.  I have been trying to clear out my email so I will know when I get comments on my blog as well as knowing when people email me.  I currently have over 2000 emails lurking in my inbox and delete box that has to be cleared before the space is considered mine again.  So I figured a goal for the weekend, besides getting my crafty area clear was to empty the email box.  Crafty area got cleaned, yay!  Email box, still sadly packed full of so much stuff!!!  And there is stuff I want to read and the rest is annoying notices about things I no longer care about or don’t want to know.  Ugh!  So I am rooting through all that, and I planned to get it done in an hour or two.  Umm yeah, about that.

Seriously.  On Saturday cleaning took a while, then I started on the email…and then I got bored so I hit some chatrooms that bored me some more so I just read some Tumblr blogs to find out what happened to a beloved blog that was closed down and that lead me to some interesting places.  Yeah, that email inbox didn’t have a chance.  But I decided to do it tomorrow (today).  Yeah that’s until I learned while cleaning and watching tv that QVC was going to have 24 hours of Christmas stuff all day Sunday. What?  I LOVE Christmas, and we don’t do a lot of decorating here, and I just love seeing the stuff that’s out there.  I so plan to decorate for holidays and seasons when I get my own place.  And Christmas I am going all out.  LOL!  I’m more for the interior decorations than exterior because I’ll see it more than the stuff outside, and yes I am selfish it’s all for me.

But I figured I could listen to QVC while cleaning my email.  Worked for a while until I suddenly remembered things I wanted to look up, so of course I did.  Then I had to join a new forum dealing around some personal stuff going on in my life to see how other people deal with it, and well of course I had to post, and then I had to read a few posts, and then I hit email for a few more minutes, but then my sister wanted to purchase a doll so of course I had to enable her to do that with a picture search, then the Extreme Home Makeover came on that was based in my city, so I had to watch that, then more QVC, then…well I think you get the idea.  So umm, yeah email cleaning was a bust.  I have so many emails I need to answer and get to but they are hidden in notices and emails about something on sale I don’t really want or need.  LOL!  Tomorrow I will do it.  I will only have my email open, put on some tunes, and take those emails out one page at a time.  By tomorrow night I hope to have all those emails taken care, emails needing responses answered, and a clean email box.  Yeahhhh!!!  No distractions.  I can do it…right?  Right!  Then I will hit my next to do that I’ve still not gotten to…you guys know what it is.  *sigh*  I’m such a bad blog owner as of late.  Sorry guys.  But yeah, tomorrow is another day.    I’ll update you tomorrow on my success of owning the email inbox, I’ll update you on my Bitty Bitsu that has finally told me her name, and I’ll let you know what doll my sister is getting.    Ok, talk to you lovelies later.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Giving the Internet the Evil-Eye,
Michelle

Happy Autumnal Equinox!!!

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So that’s a wrap on summer 2011.  And I couldn’t be happier!!!  Sure we’ll still have some summer layover weather but other than that it is cool temps for the rest of the year!!!  *does the happy dance*  So I want to wish you all a Happy Autumnal Equinox and Happy First Day of Autumn!  I hope you did something awesome today and managed to stay cool seeing that the date is the only thing that makes me think of Autumn today, well that and the rain.

So what are you all doing today?  Me?  Well I don’t plan on doing much, but I do plan to finally clean up my craft area and finish work on Estelle/Estella…working name for my Bitty Bitsu…a doll for those of you non-doll fans.  I wanted to give her hair time to set, I am trying something unique with her since she doesn’t have a wig and came to me bald.  I think the layers are done.  Now it’s time to do her face-up, which I am nervous about.  Granted I won’t have to do the dreaded eyes, I hate doing eyes, because she has acrylic eyes, but still I want to give her a soft childlike glow and feel so I am worried I will make her to adult looking.  Fingers crossed I’ll get it right.  Then I am going to work on some outfits for her and my Monster High Frankie Stein, if they work up right I will be reproducing some for sale.  So fingers crossed tight for that too. 

And that’s about it for this post.  I am off to have some crafty fun!    Hope your day is awesome times infinity and beyond.  Talk to you lovelies next time.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Lazily day-dreaming of fall colors on trees and crisp fall air,
Michelle

Script Frenzy 2011, that’s a wrap!

Yes ladies and gentleman, with mere hours to spare, I finished my first Script Frenzy!  It was fun.  I wasn’t stressed about it like I usually am with NaNoWriMo, which is changing and that upsets me some, but that is another story.  But yeah, done done and more done.  Anddd out of it I got 21 episodes written out.  So did I finish writing them all?  Yeah right.  LOLLL!!!  But it’s a dent and the story is quickly coming together for me.  I think working on the story brought it back to life for me and I think I’ll be able to knock out the rest fairly easy…if I sit my butt down and do it.  Then take the pictures, and then upload it and I’ll be done with that story and can move on to my next one.  Pretty cool.

Well now I am off to try to write out some scheduling for May.  Everything I planned to do in April didn’t happen because I had that “I’ll get to it” mentality and never did.  So next month is going to be planned.  I have a lot to prepare for.  If you want to keep up with any of that stuff feel free to hope on over to The Mouse Pad, that I’ve chosen to be more of a craft/lifestyle blog and just keep The House of Mouse my doll and toy related blog.  Oh speaking of dolls, I got two dolls yesterday that I want to show you guys.  They are Target exclusives and I wanted them both for characters in my new doll story I will be doing.  I got them now because they are exclusives, will be gone soon, and are so cool.  I’ll try to take a picture of them later.  I want to find a good light source so you can see an interesting comparison.  Ok, gonna go.  Hope you all have a wonderful last day of April.  Remember about your rabbits in the morning.    Bye for now. 

Loves ya,
Mouse

What have I been up to lately?

Well, not much.  I’m kind of going through this weird nervous spell.  Last Saturday my city was hit hard by a tornado and my county, city, and state was just left in a state of turmoil.  So many people lost loved ones. One woman put her children in a closet to keep them safe and the tornado hit her house and killed her three boys and then her daughter died yesterday.  Stories are still coming in about how people lost so much and it skipped my area of town altogether.  All my friends were safe as well, and I just feel so bad for everyone hit.  I wish no one was hit by the tornado.  I wish that all those who lost their lives were still here with us.  I’ve got to get off that topic now.  It’s just so sad and then to think you were just a street away from it being you, well yeah it shocks you.  So let’s change topic, shall we?  Sweetness. 
So my sister bought some doll heads for her Volks and Obitsu dolls and as a trade I volunteered to root some of her heads.  On is done as of today.  Going to start on the next one in the next couple of days.  I want to work on a Liv doll wig I started a couple of weeks ago.    But here are some pictures of the doll head I completed.

Sorry for the crap pictures.  My camera seems to be slowly dying a slow painful death.  But until I can get a new one I’ll have to make do.  So the colors here are like a neon orange and blue color mix.  Did you know orange and blue are complimentary colors?  My sister has originally started the rooting of this doll, but then the Volks body she was working with broke.  Well I have figured out how to fix it, so hopefully there will be a finished picture of this gal soon.
But that’s all I’ve been working on as of late.  I have been wanting to work on amigurumi patterns, but I can’t figure out how to make what I want to make.  I have an idea, but then I will have a problem when it comes to the eyes.  I might have to crochet them too since I don’t have safe eyes and I want to make my stuff kid safe from toddler on up.  But since I won’t be selling the actual items but the patterns then I guess I could just get some eyes for the pattern as a suggestion.  I’ll have to look into that.  I want to get some Suncatcher Eyes so badly.  I think a purchase from them is in my near future.  And I’m also thinking about making some sewn stuffed animal patterns as well.  I have some ideas in mind for special animals and items.  Stay tuned for that. 
More posts to come about how I’ve been doing and what I’ve been doing.  I’ve had a non-busy/busy week.  I’ll explain in the next post.  Bye for now. 

Loves ya,
Mouse

Matte spray is not created equal.

So I am working on a face-up of a doll started back in during Dizzy’s Place days.  It’s a My Scene Chelsea and well, it’s going ok-ish except for one problem, the matte spray I am using is more satin than matte.    If you are going to sell a matte spray then make sure it’s matte.

The spray I am using is the Krylon Matte Finish spray.  It dries quickly, outside you don’t smell the odor when you spray, and it has it’s own built in way of keeping the nozzle clean.  You can start working on it again after about 10 minutes of drying and depending on if you followed the directions there is minimal to zero tackiness.  It’s awesome except for the fact that it makes it look like the doll is sweating like crazy.    I am hoping that maybe it just needs to dry fully over night, but something tells me that isn’t the case.  I settled on that one because everything else was glossy at the store I was buying it from.  I might have to try Hobby Lobby for another spray.  I was looking for the ones suggested in the Monster High tutorial I showed you guys a few posts back.  I didn’t want to get MSC since I’d have to wait on shipping and I wanted to try some stuff now.    Oh well, I will see how it looks in the morning and decide what to do then.  The layers are helping with the face up, but she looks like summer is here and thriving and I don’t like that.  I’ll update you on her look tomorrow.

Also I am working on rerooting a Liv doll wig.  I cut out the hair, which had to be the easiest hair to remove.  Since it’s done with the loop rooting method, all you have to do is loosen up and pull out a root or two from the part or thatch and then cut the hair short as possible the you can pull out each row easily from the inside of the wig to remove the little bits.  I flipped the cap inside out and just scratched the little hairs off with my nail.  Was done in no time.  So now I have a cap ready to go.  I also decided to prep my hair by cutting it into the length I wanted.  I’ve had this pink Volks hair I won off of Ebay for years now and decided it was time to use it.  It was so hard to make that first cut but once I did the rest went smoothly and now I have 4 bunches of hair ready to be rooted.  Can’t wait to get started on that tomorrow too.  It feels nice to be crafting with dolls again.  I missed it.  I’ll have pictures tomorrow for you to see of my current status.  Until then be good.   Bye for now.

Loves ya,
Mouse

Partly Cloudy

Hey guys!  So I wanted to pop on and say hi and tell you a bit about my morning.  Ok, so I live in a military town.  And what some of you may not know about military town living is that you have to put up with military games.  So if the info I got was right, it seems we had some marines visiting us this past weekend and the military base had military games going on.  Now at any given time you will hear or see results of the military doing practice.  You hear booming, you hear the machine guns, you feel your house shaking, you see glass panes bending back and forth from the pressure of bombs dropping.  And that, like I said, is on any given day.  But during military games?  OMGGGGGG!!!  The other day the house was shaking non-stop and vibrating from the bombs they were dropping.  And it wasn’t every few minutes either.  It was a constant drop of bombs for a good couple of minutes.  Well that was about as bad as it got this weekend, but they still had bombing throughout the past couple of days.  And if there is one thing one of my dogs hates more than anything, it’s loud unexplained booms.  Oh heck, he hates loud explained booms too.  This lead to a rather interesting morning for me.