Midwinter Mobile

January 20, 2013 by mymateriallife

It’s warmed up in the San Francisco Bay area this weekend, but we just came through an unusual cold spell.  You know it’s cold when you see people in coats in the middle of a sunny day in this part of the world.  Anyway, I have a few good things to share with you in this post.  I made the mobile you see above using a wonderful product by Kikkerland Design, their hanging photoclip mobile.  So simple, so elegant, such […]

Categories: Furnishings, Kid Stuff, Paper, Reading Material • Tags: crystal snowflakes, diy mobiles, flensted mobiles, harbin ice and snow festival, kikkerland hanging photoclip mobile

Canvas Drawstring Gift Bag + Pink Elephant Wash Cloth

November 19, 2012 by mymateriallife

This is a gift bag I made for another bath theme baby gift that included one Be Sweet Bamboo knit wash cloth like the one I wrote about here as well as two home-sewn terry cloth elephant wash cloths.  The organic cotton canvas fabric and iron-on patch for the bag came from the same shop, but I purchased them years apart.  That shop, Natural Expressions in Los Gatos, doesn’t sell fabric any longer (they’ve moved locations as well).  But NearSea […]

Categories: Kid Stuff, Sewing • Tags: canvas drawstring gift bag, home-sewn baby wash cloth, iron-on patches

Japanese Eraser Necklaces

November 12, 2012 by mymateriallife

    I recently found this very charming Playmobil necklace on a French language blog via this very interesting Spanish language blog and that led me to raid Samantha’s Playmobil collection so I could make my own necklace.  But even though Samantha hasn’t played with her Playmobil toys in a while, she wasn’t wild about me poking wires in them and I wasn’t really sure how that would work anyway, so I gave up on the idea … until I […]

Categories: Clothing & Accessories, Kid Stuff • Tags: japanese eraser necklaces, silkie necklaces

A Halloween Headscarf Story

October 24, 2012 by mymateriallife

I spotted her in my local cemetery just before the sun went down.  I hadn’t seen a dame with that kind of style since the last time I watched the Turner Classic Movie channel.  There was something so mysterious about her.  Why was she wearing sunglasses?  Where did she get that black rose?  And who (whom?) was she leaving it for?  No doubt about it, she had secrets.  And then she turned around … When I told my husband and […]

Categories: Halloween, Kid Stuff, Other Textiles • Tags: fabric marker, halloween headscarf, silk chemise scarf, thai silks

Spool Knit Monster High Accessories

October 10, 2012 by mymateriallife

Are you familiar with Monster High dolls?  They’re very popular in some circles.  These are the dolls Frankie Stein and Lagoona Blue.  Most Monster High girls are the teenage daughters of famous monsters.  When Samantha told her cousin, Julia, that she was going to be Lagoona Blue for Halloween, Julia said that one of the kids she was a counselor for in summer camp had a mom who actually designed the accessories for Monster High dolls.  I thought that was […]

Categories: Kid Stuff, Knitting • Tags: clover wonder knitter, french knitting, monster high dolls, spool knit doll accessories, spool knitting

Make Your Own Sleeping Bag

September 21, 2012 by mymateriallife

 +  = I always thought it would be pretty tricky to make a sleeping bag.  I figured that the zipper would need to be inserted between the layers of the comforter that I would probably make myself.  I was wrong. The inspiration for this bag came from both 1) impending sleepovers for a girl who had no sleeping bag of her own and 2) the discovery of this $20 twin size comforter at IKEA last spring.  It was so soft, so […]

Categories: Kid Stuff, Sewing • Tags: home sewn sleeping bag

Another Weekend, Another Baby Wash Cloth

September 10, 2012 by mymateriallife

We’re going to have a bumper crop of babies around here very shortly; I attended my second Sunday baby shower in a row yesterday.  I didn’t intend to make anything for this shower gift, but I found some yarn I couldn’t resist while visiting Yarndogs with my friend Susan last week and I thought maybe I’d have enough time to knit what I call a baby lap robe before Sunday and well, you know how that goes.  It was just […]

Categories: Kid Stuff, Knitting • Tags: be sweet bamboo, hand knit baby wash cloth

A Little Wool With Your Kool-Aid?

September 5, 2012 by mymateriallife

This is so much fun and so easy.  I read about dying yarn with Kool-Aid in the book, Kids Knit! Simple Steps to Nifty Projects by Sarah Bradberry.  The thing is, I was sure I could make it work with cotton, so last summer I set about boiling some white Sugar ‘n Cream in Kool-Aid and water and I pretty much ended up with … white cotton.  My college motto was “learn by doing” and I find that I still […]

Categories: Kid Stuff, Knitting • Tags: kool-aid dye

Meet Henri

September 3, 2012 by mymateriallife

He’s a charming little fellow, isn’t he?  I neither intended him to be a) male or b) French, but that’s how he turned out.  I found this project on a blog post that included the beach towel blanket I made last summer. The post was all about cool things to make with towels.  The funny thing is I can’t find it now; maybe it was deleted?  No matter, I searched up “towel kitty” or something like that and easily found […]

Categories: Cats, Embroidery, Kid Stuff, Sewing • Tags: sewing stuffed animals, stuffed scottie dog, terry cat