A Moment of Feeling Craft Store Famous

I'll be the first to admit there hasn't been a whole lotta crafting going on chez Sew Can Do recently.  Business & family needs have made crafting a lower priority since my fabric shop and dueling toddlers burst onto the scene, but many moons ago I was crafting like crazy.  I used to do a good bit of professional pattern designing for brands and publications back in the day too, like this April Showers Quilt Pattern I created as a freelance designer for Pellon about a decade ago.  I did a number of projects for them and this one was for National Quilting Month (which is March):

I was at my local Hobby Lobby last weekend with my entire entourage of 5 kids & husband, finally getting supplies for some new crafts I'm aiming to tackle soon.  And when I went to grab a package of Wonder-Under I and discovered this very project front & center on it:

 It was a huge surprise to see my creation (and the photo of it I took in my foyer) right there in the notions department at a huge chain store!  This project has been a PDF download on their website for a long time and made the rounds on their social media when I first designed it, but having it on the front of an actual product package felt a little surreal.  

Seeing my little quilt has stood the test of time (being 10yrs+ after it was designed) was really amazing too. 

You can get the free pdf pattern HERE.  If I were making this again I'd probably try doing a pastel version or use some small prints with rain-themed designs like clouds, rain coats, boots, umbrellas...maybe even frogs to really bring out the "April Showers" theme!  If anyone wants to try it, I'd LOVE to see how it turns out:)  

  

Craft Nightmares: Why You Should Never Buy Glitter Vinyl

Despite all the wonderful projects you can make, there are some that just make you want to give up.  Or set them on fire.  Or curse the moment you thought they were a good idea.  My latest experience was all of the above and it was mainly because of a horrible product: glitter vinyl.

I've used glitter cardstock, glitter heat transfer material & glitter adhesive paper in the past and they've all been fine, so it never occurred to me I'd literally be wrestling with the vinyl version.  If I can help someone else avoid experiencing the same nightmare with this post, then I've done my job!

Backstory: I've been doing a lot of cutting projects lately.  My husband is doing his first craft show this weekend, a geek crafts/comic con kind of deal called Oddmall.  We're trying to keep show expenses down so it seemed obvious for me to just make his signage stuff myself.  A heat transfer of his logo turned out great on a t-shirt, so I moved onto his booth sign.     

I thought doing it in glitter black vinyl instead of plain black would make it more interesting, so I grabbed a couple rolls of the new Cricut Glitter Vinyl and a new roll of transfer tape and a foam core board. It looks so simple to do, right?  

Cutting it out was a breeze.  My Cricut Explore machine is the original version from a few years back. I buy my craft gear (I don't get free one from the company to rave about every time a new one comes out), hence the "keepin' it real" post on products here.  I used my big 12x24 mat to make it big enough for our sign & to easily lift it in two sections. Weeding was pretty simple too.  It took minutes.  So far, so good.    

Then I applied the transfer tape.  It wouldn't stick.  At all.  It didn't matter what I did - the vinyl practically repelled it.  I tried some stronger paper transfer tape I had in my stash and the vinyl laughed at that too.  Its sandy surface refused to stick.   

The backside of the paper insert of the vinyl roll mentioned using Strong Grip Transfer Tape.  That was totally unhelpful to find out after I'd already gotten home from the store and opened everything.  Why that key detail isn't mentioned on the outside of the glitter vinyl package is beyond me.  It wouldn't have mattered though, since the store I bought it from didn't even have any Strong Grip rolls available.  Inside the vinyl roll there was a small 12x12 piece of Strong Grip Transfer Tape, but since I was using the entire 4ft vinyl roll, it wasn't going to work on my lettering, just the character smaller shape.



I had to wait until the next morning when another store opened at 10am to try to buy a roll of the Strong Grip.  I applied it and sure enough, it was deja vu - the vinyl wouldn't stick.  I rubbed it on really hard and then bits of it stuck, but for every letter that did, the next wouldn't.  I had to pry them off by hand and stick them onto the tape.  It was madness. Several times they started to stick only to begin ripping the vinyl as I pulled the backing away.  A 30 second job took 30 minutes in reality.

And once I finally got everything onto the tape and was close enough to line it up on my surface it static stuck on fast and firm so there was no way to straighten or reposition it like I normally do.

Pulling the tape off took some serious muscle and once off the tape was all distorted and stretched out.  No way to reuse it for the next line like I'd done time & time again with my usual paper backed transfer tape.  Kind of pricey for such brief use.

Eventually I got the sign done.  The tears aren't super noticeable and my husband is happy he's got a sign, but I can safely say I'd rather cut my entire lawn with a pair of nail scissors than work with glitter vinyl again.  

Maybe not all glitter vinyl is this evil.  I'm sure any kind that is smooth and plastic-y on the surface is probably great, but this stuff and it's textured, hard to grab surface....ugh.  I'm not alone, as I went online for guidance and found countless forums and comments where others bemoaned having the same issue and begging for a solution that actually worked. Apart from not using glitter vinyl, there wasn't any. 

Moral of the story?  If you want to do any easy vinyl project, AVOID the glitter variety.  And if you're in the Toledo area this weekend, you can stop by our booth at the free Oddmall event and see the project that nearly bested me in person;)  

Coming Out of Handmade Retirement & Furry Slippers for Everyone!

I've made a crazy crafting decision this fall: to come out of my self-imposed handmade retirement and start making items for my shop again.  And I'm making fun new things too!



A few years back I was cranking out loads of whimsical hats and costume-y wearables for my Etsy shop, The Green Hedgehog, on a regular basis. 

While having lots of orders was a blessing, and it was awesome to have my creations featured in great places (even on Parenting.com!), it was sucking me dry in the free time & time with my family departments, so I scaled back.  Now, after the time away and my kids getting older, I've been feeling the vibe and am making select designs again.

Fleece Hats by The Green Hedgehog

I've been working on new goodies too, like my Fluffy Furry Monster Slippers.  Some are wild and colorful for pajama-time fun:

Others are more classic furry, like my original chocolate brown Fuzzball Slippers that are ideal for fans of Wookies, brown bears and furry feet:

Or my newest ivory Frozen Fluffy Slippers, that work great for fans of the yeti, polar bears, the 70s fur boot craze or Frozen:

And since nearly everyone likes fluffy faux fur, I'm doing baby, kid and adult sizes (why should just the littlest feet get all the fun?):

They've all got a cosy fleece lining and flip up-or-down cuffs and choice of over-the shoe or non-slip sole style:

And I've still got my costume PDF patterns in the shop for those that like to sew something special for dress-up or Halloween:

Plus my popular year-round daily wear patterns:

I'm excited to be back in the saddle & working on all new designs too.  I'd love for you to check them out and stop by The Green Hedgehog social media and say hi!  

Geek Crafts: My Doctor Who Quilt Adventure

I'm going to start off by saying I am SO not a quilter.  This is literally the third quilt I've ever made in the 7 years I've been sewing.  It may be the last.  I'd be proud to retire on this one though - it's my Doctor Who Quilt!

I made this quilt as a donation for my oldest son's school's fundraising auction.  The school was really stumping for parents to donate cash & goods for this one.  With some pricey remodeling going on at the Sew Can Do house right now, I couldn't afford to donate a typical big ticket item.  I thought about what I could make that might get the auction paddles waving and remembered there were some serious Doctor Who fans amongst the school group.  So my crafty wheels got turning and I put together a design plan for a Whovian-themed quilt.

I got a bunch of fun Doctor Who cotton prints to make my ideal design.  Had to have Daleks and the Tardis:

and not just one or two fabrics either. I wanted this to have the ultimate fan experience so I got lots of designs to coordinate (I actually bought too much - big surprise- so I'm selling the rest in my shop here):

And of course the quilt design itself had to have a Doctor Who vibe, so I did an anvil pattern to look like the Doctor's bow-tie in the main logo and two Tardis prints:

I went with a grey Doctor Who crackle print for my background/filler fabric, so it would add even more geekery, but not take away from the central design or seem to crazy busy:

Since I'm beyond unskilled in quilt design & assembly it made total sense to not use any instructions and just wing it with a general design idea, right? Insert extremely sarcastic tone here.  Yeah, I was a dumbo and despite always telling myself not to do this sort of thing, I tend to do exactly that sort of thing and then wonder why I feel stressed out.  Why do I never learn?!?

I drafted up a general plan on graph paper and mapped out my dimensions and which fabrics went where and calculated like crazy to figure out what I needed and how to cut it all out.  I did a 6 inch square block pattern in a finished lap size of 54 inches wide by 66 inches high.  Perfect for cuddling with while watching the show;)  I labeled each row while I was cutting to keep things straight.  

Things getting real with this quilting business

I did a solid blue back that wrapped around to the front to make a border and did some mitered corners.  This worked well with wrangling my batting in the middle.  I did top stitching around the borders and around the three bow ties.  I didn't have it in me to do more quilting at that point. 

Of course I did have to add a little hand made tag to the back: 

The quilt took what seemed like forever (projects tend to do that when you only work on them a bit at a time because daily life keeps interrupting), but in the end it turned out as I'd imagined it.  The best part was the winning bid was almost $200, so I was proud that my quilt contribution did pretty well.  

Would I want to make a bunch of these?  Um...no.  Am I glad my big kid will be returning to homeschooling in the Fall so we don't have to do stuff like this next year?  Heck yes! Quilting together 80 squares just about sent me over the edge.  I've got mad respect for all the serious quilters out there who love to do this sort of thing.  I did take photos while I worked, so if anyone else wants to be crazy and make one I have the potential to do tutorial for it.  Once I recover from doing the actual project that is;)