Mini Doll with LED

I made another miniature doll, and with this one I incorporated the soft circuit ideas that I have been working on.  The doll has a little backpack that acts as the battery holder (conductive threads sewn on the insides of the pouch make up the contacts for the battery.)  The conductive threads then run along the sleeves of the doll to her hands.  One holds the LED in place.  The other is on the other hand and acts as a switch when the hand comes in contact with the LED.

Miniature Doll

 I was inspired by this book: Felt Wee Folk at Michael's and decided to make a miniature doll myself. 

 Here's a close up

And this is for scale.  She is 3" tall.

New Purse

My beloved old purse (which my Mom brought me from Peru) has died.  The strap came loose, and even after I restitched it, other seams in the bottom started to go.  So it was time to make a new one.

This is the interior pocket

This is the external pocket

 I also had an old back pack that fell apart about the same time.  So a took the zippers, straps, and buckles from that to add to my purse. The fabric all came from my fabric bin.  I didn't really like the drawstring closure on the original purse, so I put a zipper in the new one, and made the front pocket bigger.  The bottom is made from vinyl so I don't have to worry so much about where I set it down--I can just wipe if off.

And here is the finished purse. 

Belize 2012

My husband and I went to Belize last week.  It was an amazing trip.  I chronicled it all in a journal, which I translated to my computer, complete with photos and all.  But I couldn't figure out how to transfer all the work I did from the Word document to the blog--and didn't want to insert all the photos all over.  So I published it as a PDF and it is available HERE.

Aniomagic Sparkle Headband

My first techno-textile project is a success! I bought a Sparkle kit from Aniomagic. So I made a headband with the Sparkle and four LEDs that came in the kit. And when I hooked up the battery they started blinking! The Sparkle is programmable via the website--but I haven't played with that yet.

Camera Cover

The new camera I got for Christmas needed a cover to protect it when I stuff it in my purse, etc. So I made one from some purple fleece. As I was figuring it out I thought it needed a decoration. I made a pattern from construction paper first--to make sure it would fit the camera. Then I drew the pattern on the back side of the fabric, and used pins to mark where it would be so I could embroider the body and place the appliqued wings. I made the wings by sewing with pink embroidery thread over organza backed with a Pellon stabilizer, and then carefully cut them out.
I ran into a snag in the documentation of the final product--since it is impossible to take a photo of the camera in its own case! So this is what it looks like, the strap comes out the openings on the side.

Easter Eggs

The kids and I decorated Easter eggs yesterday. Of course I made it more complicated than it needed to be--but they had fun. My daughter was telling me about watching the Reading Rainbow episode about Rechenka's Eggs. I remembered watching it before, and we had tried using crayon resist on eggs before without much success. But I thought, what if we had some of those wax pens?
And then I thought, well maybe I could make some? So I hunted on the internet and found something similar. Not as much info on wax pens as some other stuff. I cut apart a cat food can with a pair of tin snips. Folded the metal up and screwed it to a dowel for a handle.
I used bits of crayon for my wax. I didn't have as much control with the melted wax as I thought I would. It ran all over the eggs. I think spouts in my handmade pens were too big. The idea is to put a wax design on the egg, dip it in the dye, let it dry, put more wax on the egg, dip it in the dye--etc.

Below are my eggs after their final dye bath but before I chipped the wax off.
And here is the final result. This is the one that worked out the best. The others looked a bit random.