Paris made this with her grandmother when she was “camp” with them this summer. She claims to have sewn it entirely by herself. She said she made the yellow sweater for the bear because his body was a little lopsided. The grandmother-granddaughter team was making a batch of bears for a charity, but Paris decided to keep this one. She even learned how to crochet to make the green scarf.
Handmade all the way. Keep making stuff.
Mumsy is back in the doll making game after a little hiatus. A while ago she made 20 rag dolls for a charity called Rag Dolls 2 Love, Inc from a pattern they provided. This one here is a Christmas gift for the latest grandchild, Oli, and it’s made from the scraps of another project. She’s a crafty crafter! This handmade rag doll is a combination of the charity’s pattern and her memory of a two-sided doll from her childhood.
From the Rag Dolls 2 Love site:
Rag Dolls 2 Love, Inc was started to put a soft cloth doll in the hands of children who live in countries ravaged by war, are orphaned or infected by HIV/ AIDS or traumatized by natural disasters. In the summer of 2003 as I listened to a report of Palestinian children shot during a raid by the Israeli army, and the death of Israeli children in a bus bombing, my frustration and anger spilled over at the loss of so many young lives.
Find out more about Rag Dolls 2 Love, Inc.
We have been thinking about ways to be more involved in the crafter market. One idea we’re working is providing kits and patterns for some simple projects from pillows to apparel. To start in that direction we decided to offer the fabric panels from our Jackpot Pillows to folks that would like to make their own. Of course, you can make whatever you want with these. And for pillows on the cheap, buy just one panel for each and use some plain fabric for the backs.
Some details:
Get them at our Etsy store where you can see all six vintage slot machine icons that are available.
(Click for big)
My mother, Jenny Sigler, made this crocheted and felted purse for my SIL, Kellie. Jenny/Mom crocheted this purse without a pattern, because she is a complete and total risk taker! Then, she felted it by washing it in very hot water. I know nothing about this “felting” but she says the object will shrink by about a third, and that it makes the weave (sorry if that’s the wrong word) of the yarn somewhat obscured. To finish it off she added some grosgrain ribbon to the strap so it wouldn’t stretch out. “Who dares, wins” and I think this purse turned out super-nice.
Eleven year old (almost 12) renaissance man Mars Sigler has embraced a new medium: handmade monster toys. He is calling this product line “Monster Buddies.” The fellow pictured here is named “Marky” and he is the second original, sounds better than “number two,” in a series Master Sigler has dubbed “Locker Buddies.” Toys in the “Locker Buddy” line are small enough to fit into a school locker.
Mars learned his pattern making and sewing skills from his mother, but the creative concepts are all his. Always innovative, Mars opted with “Marky” to put the seams on display, essentially turning the toy inside out, even though the fabric isn’t. The light blue element below the simple line mouth is actually fabric drool.
In an interview today Mars revealed that he intends to produce more “Monster Buddies” and begin selling them in various outlets in the near future. Master Sigler said at this time he has no plans to sell the first two “Monster Buddy” creations.
(See all the images in this Flickr set.)
“I want to tell everybody a true story.” — Gogol Bordello
Here is how we made this first run of Jackpot Pillows. If there’s anything else you want to know just leave your questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. Or maybe someone else will.
I was brainstorming ideas for triplet pillows and the somewhat obvious slot machine motif came to mind. We were tired of trying to get screenprinting to work for us on some other projects and planned to test digitally printed textiles. The long hunt began for just the right style of art.
I found these killer vintage-style slot machine icon illustrations by Roy Konitzer at iStockPhoto. He also has a site at GiantRobot.com. Then I paid for the license that would allow us to use this artwork for commercial purposes. You can read all the gory details about the various licensing fees at iStockPhoto.com, but the bottom line is we paid roughly $80 for enough “credits” to do this and we had a few left over. Of course there are plenty of other sources for art, some free, if you are not going to create it yourself. Vecteezy.com is one such site.
I’m not an illustrator, and I had a very specific vision for these pillows. So, I looked for what I needed and Roy’s illustrations were exactly what I had imagined.
That said, they were multi-colored as you would expect and I wanted something monochrome. Our plan was to make the pillows available in four different colors: red, blue, green, brown. I wanted the images to be monochrome to tone things down a bit and make it easier to coordinate the pillows with the rest of whatever space they would be in. I took the illustrations into Illustrator where I used Live Color to convert all the colors to shades and tints of blues, reds, etc. Not as easy as it sounds, but after much tweaking and experimentation I achieved the desired colors.
This is a very cool technology with few of the limitations of tradition printing, but it’s not cheap. You can even print photographic images on fabrics, or “grounds,” such as cotton twills, sateens, etc. Also interesting is that pattern repeats can be as large as you want, at least in theory. In traditional printing the repeat can’t be longer than the circumference of the printing drum.
I contacted numerous companies that print custom fabric and found that most of them are not that interested in our business, for whatever reason. Sourcing is always painful, but I finally came across a couple companies that were very responsive and helpful. We did test prints of the Jackpot Pillow prints and decided we got the best color and customer service from Digital Textiles Northwest. Their web site may not have a lot of info, but trust me, they will do whatever it takes to get you exactly what you want.
Expect to pay in the vicinity of $40 per yard of printed fabric. It really depends on the ground fabric you choose and of course the company doing the printing. Prices vary widely. Look around.
What a hassle this has been. First we found someone (nearby!) that offered a green pillow that used a “biopolymer” with the brand name Ingeo. The sample we got looked and felt great. We (Mary) started making the pillow covers based on its size. Then, to make a long story short this product suddenly became unavailable, and we couldn’t find another supplier that had it. Eventually, pragmatism reared its head and we decided to use a typical polyfill pillow insert, or form. We’re still looking into sourcing a really green insert and have a couple leads for Ingeo and Kapok inserts. Freddy&Ma use kapok pillow forms from White Lotus. The Freddy&Ma pillow I have is very well made but the insert is a little too flat for my tastes, even for a “decorative” pillow.
As far as sizes and the order of production, my advice is to not produce the cases until you have an inventory of inserts or at least a very reliable, consistent source. If you can find the Ingeo pillow forms they will probably be close to $4 each in some reasonable quantity. We have no direct purchasing experience with kapok goods. From the companies I have talked to I would expect more Ingeo goods to be available from more sources soon.
Another sourcing challenge when you are getting started. We looked at a lot of companies and went with Cruz Label. They were pretty responsive and helpful, and the final product was accurate and high quality. They send a proof or test to be approved before they manufacture the real deal. So, it takes a while, but you’ll get what you want. They’re on the west coast; we’re on the east coast. Ideally we will eventually be able to find someone closer to us.
A basic label is not that expensive, maybe $.25 each, but you’ll probably have to buy at least 500.
We assembled these Jackpot Pillows so that with every jackpot set the three other sides will all be different. Our intent is that people can choose the color, and jackpot triple they want, and we will provide non-matching flipsides for more variety. Mary decided that since the inserts are also washable that we should eschew using zippers. Instead, she hand stitches each pillow closed after inserting the pillow form.
Next time you jump on the couch will you land on a jackpot? That’s up to the last player of the couch slot machine.
Looking back, I get the feeling that more folks had the D-I-Y spirit in the 1970s than in any period since. Even as kids my friends and I were customizing our bikes. You know, choppers with homemade forks, swapping parts from other bikes, etc. Other than the lowrider crowd I can’t think I’ve seen a kid do that since then. Of course, the grown ups were getting down too. Mary’s mom once made a giant set of floor pillows that looked like a massive hamburger. Separate bun pillows, beef patty, lettuce, special sauce(?). Oh yeah, it’s true. I gotta find a pic of that. Anyhow, my mom is still getting down. Her most recent project is a set of baseball-themed school organizers for my son and a purse with a horse motif for my daughter. What the two sets have in common is that Mom went to the thrift store to find some old jeans to use for the fabric. Why? “Because kids like pockets.” I heard that. And that’s especially true when Mema uses pockets to make something original and handmade.
Everybody should be doing stuff like this. Go make something.
We have these pillows for sale at Etsy.
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