Birthday Banners for our twin cousins!

With a name like Georgi, I distinctly remember never seeing my name on the rack of bedroom signs, pens, mugs you name it! These days, with the wide variety of names out there on today's kids, I bet there are a few children that feel the same way. I have made lots of names-crafts as a result. Here are some banners (or bunting) for our cousins. Perhaps they will decorate their rooms with them, or use them when building a fort or playing outside or maybe decorating for their birthdays. I think it's extra special when something has your name on it!

We Wilsons Flip Doll

Finally! I have had this pattern on my to-do list for so many years now! It is a flip doll pattern, purchased from We Wilsons, actually, from her etsy shop. She has many stuffy designs that are really well thought out (I think) and very unique. While she doesn't sell this pattern anymore, I thought it was very straight forward and fun to sew. I wouldn't say it was easy, it was challenging, in a fun way though - not in a rip seams out and curse a blue streak way. I took my time on it (for a change, heeding her advice that it was tricky) and it really paid off. So quirky and cute! I'm tempted to just make the fox as a stand alone doll, he's so awesome! I'm also tempted to try the dragon/knight flip doll, but I'm concerned it might stay on my to do list for 2 years as did this guy!

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2 New A-line Skirts, made to order.

A very patient friend put in an order for 3 A-line skirts for work. She picked the fabric and I made them up. Unfortunately the Christmas Craft Rush interfered and the skirts were delayed terribly. I'm hoping (!) to turn over a new leaf and try to do orders right away instead of allowing them to get derailed by other projects. Wish me luck! The first one I did manage to get out to J before Christmas, a stunning teal corduroy, thin wale, by Robert Kaufman I think, with a bit of stretch. Lovely for a skirt and so vibrant. These 2 are a quilting cotton, Modern Martini by Amy Butler and Rashida Coleman-Hale's linen/cotton blend of a lovely graphic pattern called I Heart Wavy Lines. All terrific picks for the versatile a-line. If you are wondering whether I take orders I do but for now it's A-line skirts only and we're off on holiday soon so I can take orders but they can't be filled until the end of March/early April. I'm really not that reliable ;o)

Our House

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Happy New Year Everyone! Thought I'd share this neat photo. A local photography enthusiast climbed the clay cliff and took some photos of some downtown Whitehorse houses, including ours, and then tweaked them to look like miniature models. I don't know how it's done but I like it!

Finn's Goose is sending some gooses to some bruces!

3 Christmas Gooses - check! The goose stuffie is a really cute project from The Long Thread blog, found here. I made a couple last year too, but forgot to take photos. These photos were taken at 10am in the dark, yes folks, a 6 or 7 hour drive north from our house and you can kiss the arctic circle if you're so inclined. It has been a dark November and December, many of us are looking forward to winter solstice and longer days. There are more photos of gooses and contents of those drawstring bags on my flickr site, but if you are K, you aren't aloud to peek! I've already shown too much but had such fun putting these presents together that I couldn't wait to share. Finn will be excited to see his goose after school today. A few notes on goose-construction, it is really worth it to take the time to hand stitch the beaks first, then machine stitch. I learned this the hard way as my beak was very crooked the first time around (and Finn's goose has the most crooked beak but I'm hoping he won't notice!). I also skipped trying to stuff the skinny feet, it was beyond my patience! I'm impressed with Ellen at the long thread for stuffing those feet!

The 12 Days of Christmas Market

Last chance to stock up for Christmas. We were busy setting up this morning and wow! There are some really lovely things at the Firehall for the next 12 days. I have EVERYTHING there for big and little people. Stop by and take a look - fresh baked goods too (not by me but by many others). So yummy! I was very tempted to stuff my pockets with chocolate and eat it for lunch!

13th Annual Littlest!

13th Annual Littlest!, originally uploaded by Georgi Pearson.

70's Dress redo

So, not only do I sew a pile of lovely things to sell and share with everyone, I also have this terrible need to make something new for me to wear when I do a show! This time around I made a retro 70's McCall's #2008 brown linen dress that was fine but, well, it was brown and, in case you haven't noticed, my fabrics are usually quite bright and quirky. And my good friend T said "you can't wear BROWWWN to the Cranberry!!!". Rightly so. I made dress number 2, a 70's McCall's #2004 with a really fun streets and cars and trucks fabric that was meant to be quilty pants. It is very comfy and nicely fitted, the belt detail across the back is really nice, I cheated and skipped the back zipper - not the smartest, but time was tight and I didn't have one "in stock"!! I think I'll be making another one of these soon! A note to sewists out there, retro patterns may look groovy but man, they really made their lives difficult if you follow the construction instructions. There are faster, smoother techniques in garment making in our modern patterns, so, if you are making a vintage pattern, read it through and if you think you can skip a step or do a step in a different order to make your life easier than do it!

3 vintage wool blankets

I've had these blankets for a few years, hoping to remake them one day into embellished blankets and pillow covers. Finally, that day arrived and they were ready for the Cranberry Fair. All the pillows have new homes and one blanket remains (the pink one). The pillow covers turned out sooo nicely. They are so warm and heavy, really nice to cozy up with. I'll have to keep my eyes open for more wool blankets! The Fair was great fun by the way! Lots of people and lots of beautiful handmade arts and crafts. The Yukon is full of very talented, hard working folks. I'm also thankful that my good friend R was my helper! A month ago I foolishly told her I would be ok and do it alone, luckily she was available to join me when I called her last week! Thanks R! I had a great time and look forward to next year!

The Bits

These are my favourite parts of sewing - the bits and pieces. I've always wanted to show people my garbage piles from the sewing process, how weird is that? Luckily a good friend with a GREAT camera came by the other day and took some photos - click on this one to see the others!