Crab Apple Designs

Sewing the Vinyl, Wrecking My Home

Crab Apple Designs — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 03:06:00 +0000

A year and a half after moving back to Austin, I have finally begun *seriously* sewing again. The glorious stack of glitter vinyl I've owned for years is unpacked and getting hacked to bits.

After a few failed attempts at making phone cozies from vinyl, 1 tall drink, near tears - I googled "sewing with vinyl." Lots of good advice, why did I wait so long?!?

I chose the method of wax paper on top AND bottom of the fabric. Sigh, sigh, sigh, relief, relief, relief. For your entertainment, see the before (hideous twisted deformed thing), middle (wax paper just on top) and after - which you can see here.

These are a special little batch of geekery for an upcoming event: Tribe's Indie Comic Art Show. Thanks to Thrillist for giving us a little love today.

On the dark side, it seems our kitty may have snorted up a bit of something from the pile of sewing and crafty goodness. We are experiencing sneezing fits.

Our living room is wrecked by my heart is full. Of glitter vinyl goodness.

Free July 4 Coloring Page

Crab Apple Designs — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:11:00 +0000

Enjoy!

An Easter Gift for You!

Crab Apple Designs — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:52:00 +0000

Hello Friends! Would you like a full page sized pdf of this Easter Bunny coloring sheet?

All you need to do is "like" my page Crab Apple Designs on Facebook and send me a message with your email address that you did it. I will email you the full sized pdf of this drawing I did over the weekend.

<3 Melissa

Visit to Lego Land

Crab Apple Designs — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 04:22:00 +0000

Recently I had the thrill of a visit to Lego Land! It was an abbreviated visit, but still. LEGOS!

Here are some of the Lego-licious views:

We scored excellent souvenirs from the Lego shop. Here are some of the goodies:

Now I have some inspiration for new Lego crafts. Coming soon... xoxo

Rainbow Love

Crab Apple Designs — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 14:10:00 +0000

Yesterday I freaked out over this page from a 1980 Flash comic. Gorgeous. Maybe you can do something crafty with it?

I especially love this era of Flash because the superhero's name is the same as my husband. Not "Flash" but "Barry," hee hee.

A delish rainbow treasury including my recycled paint sample coasters by rockpilewest.

At night I have been working on a rainbow granny square afghan. My first!

More rainbow themed goodness from Etsy Treasuries here.

I also have stuff tagged "rainbow" in my shop:

Fortune Cookie Zip Pouch

Crab Apple Designs — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:23:00 +0000

If you know me, you know I get my best ideas in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. Today, the latest idea came to me in the form of a Facebook post by Present and Correct. They linked to this super cool fortune cookie coin purse on Diana Eng.

I decided to try one of my own!

This is rather impractical as a good coin purse, but it is still cute.

I didn't have a little sew on snap, so I had to improvise with a hook and eye.

I Googled for a tutorial, but there was none such thing out there! So I looked at tutorials on how to make fortune cookies and just fiddled around to make the zipper work. The zipper is tricky, but felt is pretty forgiving. I plan to try again with a snap and the benefit of some experience.

Geekly Weekly: Who’s The Man?

Crab Apple Designs — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:57:00 +0000

Geekly Weekly: Who's The Man?

Yay, thanks Tracey Knits!

SHORT stories – The Deep – PES

Crab Apple Designs — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:47:00 +0000

This is sooo cool! I have watched it 3 times... I wish it could be my screensaver!

Some Cool Things

Crab Apple Designs — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:40:00 +0000

There are so many cool things to share!

Lots of exciting things are happening in the Crab Apple world.

In December, we had the opportunity to have a table at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar. We showcased vintage kid book and comic book journals, buttons, and mirrors.

This month, loads of journals will be part of the grand opening of the 114 boutique in Smithville, Texas. Here is a preview of some notebooks that were specially made for the 114 opening.

The very popular Black ABC poster cards are now available as a set of post cards. Hooray!

During the post holiday slow time, I had the chance to go through some boxes of paper ephemera. I thought I would share a few of the goodies. Enjoy!

Talking Carl Doll Tutorial

Crab Apple Designs — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:02:00 +0000

Talking Carl Stuffed Doll or Plushie Tutorial

Materials:
2 pieces of 18 inch x 18 inch red felt
1 piece of 18 inch x 18 inch gray felt
black and white felt scraps for eyes
thread
paper for pattern drawing
stuffing

Draw pattern on paper.

Draw a half-inch seam allowance around the outside of the body of your sketch. I used a red line.

Cut out pattern along red line.

Fold the pattern in half to make sure it is symmetrical.

Draw arms, eyes, pupils, and mouth patterns. I used the "big mouth" version of Talking Carl.

Cut out the patterns for the body parts. One boo-boo.... It should say "x4" on the arms.

Cut out the body and body parts from the paper pattern.

This is what you should have so far:

Now, make the gray mouth by following the sketch on the front body pattern and adding a 1/2 inch seam allowance around the mouth. I used chalk to draw on the "wrong" side of the felt.

Cut out the mouth, allowing for the seam allowance.

Cut out the mouth "dangley part" out of red felt and pin it onto the gray mouth "opening." Pin and stitch.

Trace the mouth shape (not with seam allowance) on the wrong side of the body front with chalk.

Cut a slit in the middle of where the mouth will be.

Continue cutting along the chalk line to make the opening for the mouth. Match up the right side of the mouth under the right side of the body front (mouth opening) and PIN it really carefully. Make sure there is plenty of seam allowance under the mouth opening. Stitch on the right (top side) through both pieces, close to the edge of the red felt.

This is what it looks like when you're done:

And here is what the back looks like:

Cut out, pin, and stich arms, leaving straight edge open. Stuff the arms.

Pin white eye pieces together. Stitch, leaving a 1 inch gap. Turn and stuff.

Figure out where you want the pupils to be on the eyeballs...

Pin stuffed arms facing inward on the right side of the body front.

Tack the arms down with a few stitches close to the edge. Put right sides of the 2 body pieces together and sew around the body, leaving a 3 inch opening at the bottom on the straight edge of one of the feet.

Clip curves and snip corner between the legs.

Turn the body right side out, using a chopstick to poke out corners.

Now Carl will look like this:

Using white thread, stitch the bottoms of each stuffed eyeball closed. Then use a whipstitch to sew the eyes to the rounded corners of the top of the head.

Using black thread, sew the felt pupil pieces to the white eyeballs. I made mine looking up. Then pin the seam allowance down on the opening of the body to prevent stretching of the felt while you stuff the body.

Stuff the body full of toy stuffing.

When the body feels nice and full, use red thread to whipstitch the bottom opening closed.

Ta-da!!