Mowgli Flag Plush Sign

I made this awesome flag for my all-time fave company Mowgli Surf run by my boyfriend Alex. Plush signs are one of my favorite things to make. They make me think of all of those amazing animal themed plush wall hangings from my childhood that for some reason fell out of style. If I ever have a moment to do something about it you bet I'll bring them back!

This plush flag is based off of a patch design I also did for Mowgli that embodies fun in the sun but with the colors switched around so the background wasn't black. Check out the process below!

Dyed sweatshirt fleece all ready to be cut out:

For the letters I size them on the computer and them print and cut them out. If they are too large I just tape them together.

Fun cutout fabric detail with the sweatshirt fleece. I find that this is the best fabric to work with because it has a bit more body and also doesn't fray.

For the background I used a jade linen fabric that I found, didn't even have to dye it! I cut out the shape and sewed it together with a back piece and a layer of batting which I then turned inside out...

Next I placed all of the cut out fleece letters and shapes to be sewn on

Detail of the placed shapes:

And then I got to sewing!

Look at me go!

Here's the final version hanging in the Mowgli booth at Agenda Las Vegas!

Whatever Lab

I got commissioned to do another quilted flag by the significant other of one of the people I made the Future Hits flag for! Formerly the Kite Collective, Whatever Lab is the name of a project by a teaching artist that works on facilitating creative projects to draw attention to the senses and the outdoor.

Below is my sketch of the flag and then follow the progress below that! I cut the text out of white jersey and machine stitched the edges. Each shape I cut out, sewed, turned inside out, and top stitched all over the flag filling it in piece by piece. Once the front was done I cut out the top section, layered the front, back, and quilt filling and then sewed it all together with tabs on the back to hang.

Mixed Fabric Mini Quilt

I was recently inspired by a men's sock ad in a magazine (weird).  I have been milling over making another quilt for some time but that ad just pushed me over the edge.  I made a mini quilt because who am I kidding that queen quilt took over my life and ain't nobody got time for that.

I wanted to use a mix of fabrics to make the quilt look like it was taken or reused from other garments, to give it that quintessential 'heirloom' look and feel.  I incorporated the classic quilting cotton as well as linen and wool in a variety of colors all of which I just happened to have in my fabric storage room (yes, it's a whole room now).  In the photo below I was in the beginning stages of placing the quilt squares and figuring out which ones to put where next & trying super hard to keep Teeny off the table so she didn't mess up my arrangement... challenges!

Some in progress shots of 2 of the squares that made it to the finished quilt.  I made a bunch of squares that didn't fit visually and they got canned (so sad).  Better luck next time squares!

Here's the quilt squares all arranged and ready to be sewn together!  Now that the creative thinking part of the process was over it was time to do some mindless sewing, yay!

Sewing one of the columns together:

Shazam, just like that the whole quilt top was sewn together.  I also cut out the batting and quilt back ready to go for some quilt magic.

A back image of the quilt top of all of the sewing and serging I did for each square, good times.

Then I quilted the 3 layers with vertical lines along the columns in the square seams with invisible thread (it's seriously invisible try threading a machine with it, lol).

Phew, now that the stress of sewing quilting lines was over I sewed the quilt binding to the edges and hand stitched it to the back.  I used a tiny quilt binding because the quilt is so busy it only needed a simple border.

And, done!  Here you can see the front and quilted back of the quilt.

Feast your eyes!  The full finished quilt!!

Here it is on the bed, it just blends right in.  Clearly it was meant to be.

Writing this blog post felt like telling a bedtime story.  Having a children's book explaining how to make a quilt would be awesome, just saying.  I would've loved someone to read that to me at bedtime as a kid, I'd be dreaming about clouds of puffy batting!

Future Hits Flags

Okay, I know.  Enough with the flags.  This will be my last flag post for a while.  When I was at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago a member of the Chicago based band Future Hits saw my flags and told me it was exactly what they were looking for as a sign for the band.  I was happy to oblige with a custom flag order.  Future Hits makes educational kid friendly songs.  They imbed creativity and culture into the classroom with fuzzy, poppy tunes that have spelling words, literacy themes, and social emotional learning outcomes engrained in the lyrics.  Give them a listen!

He wanted the flags to emulate the practice paper you use when learning to write.  He also wanted to have the letters written in cursive since cursive is being left in the dust and he wants to bring it back to the spotlight!  I really had to step up my cursive game since I probably haven't written in cursive since 5th grade when we were required to write papers by hand in cursive (kill me).  And signing your name doesn't count.

A really fun element that he wanted to add to the flags was to make the consonants and the vowels different colors so you could tell them apart and even by just looking at the flag you are LEARNING!! I made them all different shapes and sizes so they looked more mix and match-y and playful.  I even made a 'space' flag to avoid confusion with letter spacing since futurehits is not a word.  I even made it a different color so it would look different and also to not confuse it with a consonant/vowel because it is neither.

I added tabs on the flags so they would be able to easily hang them up and take them down for a show. It also makes them hang really even and looks like the flags could connect which I like a lot.

Total win! I can't wait for them to hang them up for their next show!  I hope they send me a picture.

Nautical Flag A-Z

I made some new flags.  Last time when I made flags for the Renegade Craft Fair Chicago everyone kept asking me what letters the flags stood for.  And while some of them were the correct letters, others I just made up because they looked cool.  This time I focused more on making actual letters so people could get their initials or spell out things but also tried to use a variety of colors instead of sticking with the original nautical flag colors.  They will be available at New York Comic Con October 11-14 at booth # 3211 in The BLOCK.

I also got some tags to use on the backs:

There are a LOT of flags and I attached a tag to each onto say what letter it stood for.

They look pretty sweet all stacked up, makes me think of The Princess and the Pea and makes me wish I were tiny so I could take a nap atop all of the flags.

I did a little print out drawing to show all of the letters and what they stand for because people were also asking me this a lot and I had to stall as I awkwardly looked it up on my phone every time.

What would your name look like spelled out?

Sewn Concentric Circle Tutorial

As you probably saw in my last post I made a bunch of super neat quilted flags.  Some of said flags were made with sewn concentric circles.  Sewing perfect circles can be tricky especially is you have no idea where to start.  Look no further for I am going to give you a tutorial for making these layered sewn circles!

The best part about making these circles is that you can layer up as many as you want with whatever fabric you want making them easily customizable!

Start with your base fabric which will be the outermost circle.  You can use an already finished garment to repurpose or a new piece of fabric, the possibilities are endless!!

Cut a smaller piece of fabric in the same color big enough to fit whatever size circle you want to make with about an inch and a half on the edges.  Fold the fabric in half side to side (press the folded center with your finger & unfold) and then top to bottom (repeat) This will give you the exact center of your cut piece.

Draw a circle using a compass for that perfect circle (you have the center so you know exactly where to place your compass point).  Remember: the closest to perfect you draw the circle will make it that much easier to achieve a finished perfect circle.  I like to serge along the edge of the circle to make sure it won't fray during construction or in the future.

Place the cut and serged circle on top of your original fabric.  You can do the fold trick on the original fabric to make sure you place it exactly in the center.  Head over to your sewing machine and sew right along the circle line all the way around.

When you're done cut out the middle of the circle 1/4" from the sewn edge using a rotary blade or a scissors.

Using a sharp pair of scissors (all of your scissors should be sharp you crafty sewer!) cut slits all the way around the 1/4" edge to minimize pulling when you rotate the circle (you'll see).  The closer to the seam the better, but make sure not to cut your perfectly sewn seam!

Now the fun part! Turn the sewn circle underneath the original fabric to create that finished circle seam.  Try to get it as close to the sewn edge as possible and press.

Look at you sewing awesome circles!  That wasn't so bad was it?

If you're doing more than one circle, repeat the process you just did in another color (I did yellow).  Set aside your first sewn circle and cut out the same 2 pieces again.  Make sure your new original piece (yellow) is big enough with extra room to sit underneath your first circle (red).

Draw your circle on your smaller cut piece (yellow) any diameter smaller than the circle you drew on the first circle (red) and serge the edge.

Place the circle in the center of the larger piece and sew around the circle edge.  Cut the inside of the circle out and snip the seam allowance and then turn and press the circle.  (I know you didn't have to read the directions again because you just did this!)

Now you have your big circle and your little circle!  Cut a smaller piece of fabric to fit inside your smaller circle, don't forget to leave extra room!

Place the fabric piece inside the small circle and top stitch on the edge all the way around.

Then place your larger circle on top of your finished smaller circle and top stitch again.  Make sure it's exactly in the center or the circles will look wonky.

You're done!! Finish the edges of the sewn piece however you like and stand back to marvel at your hard work completed!  Now... make another!!

Did I miss something?  Ask your question in the comments below!  Thanks!