see the bead work?
and hand sewn appliques?
It took me many MANY hours to design, cut, layout, and hand sew Kid's stocking. This is probably my favorite artistic accomplishment. I mean lets face it... it is totally badass!I have two and a half weeks to do something similar for Baby... or I'm one of those moms... you know who don't love their second kid as much as their first. You know those moms... like your mom... okay maybe just mine.
This is what I've got so far...
25 comments:
You clearly love your first kid more than I love my first kid, because he has one of these:
http://www.potterybarn.com/products/p609/index.cfm?pkey=caccfrehol
Lovingly embroidered with his name by a woman in China. I did pay extra for that. I think.
LOL, Deb...
"It took me many MANY hours to design, cut, layout, and hand sew Kid's stocking. "
Many hours? The Brooklyn Bridge was built quicker. I definitely measure that project in months, if not years...
But it is a thing of beauty.
Lovingly embroidered with his name by a woman in China. I did pay extra for that. I think.
LOL, Deb! A mother after my own heart.
Mrs. F, Ruby's stocking is gorgeous! You are totally bad ass. I was very lucky for our stockings. One of Chris's high school teachers made stockings for us as a wedding present. When Tori was born, she made a stocking for her as well, to match ours. Unfortunately, by the time Libby was born she had passed away.
Libby didn't get her own handmade stocking until last year or the year before when my MIL took pity on me and made her one. You can see the pictures of them on our flickr account (link on Chris's blog, because I'm too lazy to do it here)
I definitely measure that project in months, if not years...
And you have given yourself two stinking weeks for Baby's? What a crappy mother. :) But at least she won't have to do with a dollar store monstrosity like Libby did. Until she was old enough to ask me why her stocking wasn't as pretty as the rest of ours. Didn't we love her too? Felt horrible!!
"Many hours? The Brooklyn Bridge was built quicker. I definitely measure that project in months, if not years..."
Oh JESUS... umm... you are one to talk Mr Nine Month Bathroom Remodel!
It didn't take me years.. I just did the bead work the following year when I thought it needed more umph!
nice try at getting back at me for the POTs (thanks Deb!).. you should know by now not to even try!
Deb
that is the stocking I have! Of course I got those when I was living with someone else.. which I've always thought was kind of tacky so it is next on my list to replace.
not the stocking itself being tacky Deb.. the sentiment!
oh you can do it!
I made FIVE. Yes, FIVE...
last year. In two weeks. And I had a 3 month-old, and was barely sleeping. I vaguely remember staying up REALLY late one or two nights...it's all a blur really.
I will say, I do not have the same *immaculate* attention to detail that you have. And they are all different colors with different pictures on them, so it was probably a LOT easier for me. And, I never use patterns, sometimes I'll throw it together with a glue gun if I have to. *AND* I was not blogging last year, which means I MUST'VE had more free time(...haha. "free" time. what's that.)
Anyway, you can do it! Or you can go buy baby one of those really nice pb ones. :)
michelline,
god... the non-matching stocking is the kind of thing that would eat me up! That is exactly my kind of anal...
And by pb, I mean pottery barn
Katieo,
5?! That's a lot of work no matter how you're doing it!
Right now I'm just stalling since I haven't thought of the design and I'm not looking forward to cutting out all nine letters of her name in that same swoopy font! Four big letters is much easier than nine small ones! And the beading will absolutely be done next year when Baby is less of a freak (hopefully).. I do not have time for that now! I'm debating doing an entirely different design.. or just a subtle variation on Kid's. I still have all the patterns I made for Kid's so if I do a tree again it will be much faster....
"I'm debating doing an entirely different design.."
That's what I would do! It's more unique and might relieve some of the pressure. You'd only have to make it look kind of like the other one. (Like similar fabric or something.) I think you could do baby's name in cursive or a different font, or different medium altogether. Just my opinion of course, but they're different girls, the stocking can totally reflect that.
different font... that might be the ticket! Maybe if I used pom pom fringe (who doesn't love that?) instead of the buttons and beading that part would be so much faster. This is my weekend mission!
You could do a snowman instead of a tree--not too complicated. 3 white circles--and then just a few details--hat, carrot nose, some buttons. I like the idea of the same overall look but slightly different. Nice work on Ruby's! I have faith--you can pull it off. And you don't have to perfect it this year--she isn't old enough to notice that yet. Add to it next year, maybe.
Everyone in my family has these hand crocheted stockings with our names and little snow men on them made by my grandmother.
I started crocheting E's stocking like... 2 months ago. It's still not done. I still have to do the snowflake top part and crochet and applique the snowman and his name on it.
I'm thinking this year he just gets a big crocheted red stocking with two white stripes on it.
Ruby's stocking is absolutely lovely. And yes to the pom-pom fringe.
eileen,
yeah I was thinking of maybe doing a snowman. I had made a felt pillow for a friend with a snowman and it was pretty easy... but maybe not too feminine... I'll have to lay it out.
nutmeg,
yes I think doing the stocking in stages is acceptible. Like eileen mentioned they aren't going to notice. I'm just going to focus on the felt pieces... I have no idea how old your little one is... but the thought of having needles and whatnot out is a nightmare with Baby!
I have one of those mums! first kids, pics, pics, pics, me second kid.. "ah I think your in the background somewhere in this one"... make the stocking ;0)
I'm totally jealous! Really wonderful work.
Katieo, I'm still in awe of the Halloween costumes you made for your boys.
shirls,
thankfully since we got a MUCH better digital camera with the arrival of Baby she will never be able to say we took less pics!
But I hear you there are whole albums for my brother.. and like one pic a year for me!
Soap box girl,
I'm with you Katieo definitely downplays her craftiness!
What a gorgeous stocking! Maybe you can make one for my kids:)
Kenady,
according to Mr F you'd have to wait several years for that! ;)
De-lurking to answer your anxiety query about Christmas trees and grabby kiddos...as this seemed like the best comment section in which to answer. Here's my best advice: Last year, I bought a crazy-heavy cast iron tree stand at Home Depot. Then I took some 4" wide gold satiny ribbon (leftover from some wedding decorations I think), looped it through the handle of a 40 lb tub of (new) kitty litter that I'd tucked behind the tree, and tied the ribbon very tightly to the upper 1/3 of the tree trunk. Just to be Martha Stewart about it, I then took the free ends and used them to tie big festive bows on the ends of branches. Since it was a long-needle tree (Scotch pine, I think), it was bushy enough to hide the kitty litter tub. And since I am (obviously) pretty classy, I threw a pillow case that sort of matched the color of our living room walls over the logos on the tub to further cammoflage. This made me VERY confident that neither child could purposefully or inadvertently pull the tree over.
As for all the lovely fragile ornaments I've spent years collecting, they were relegate to the top 1/2 of the tree. Everything within arm's reach was made of wood or other non-breakables. This year, with a curious nearly-4-yr-old AND Madame Destructo (aka "I can do anything big brother can do, only more clumsily and with even more enthusiasm") to worry about, I think I may leave the most fragile lovelies in the ornament boxes.
Hope this helps!
PS Angie pointed me to your blog, and I've been loving it for weeks! You know me as her insanely over-ambitious wedding-cake maker, for which help on your part, I'm eternally grateful. :-)
mommytime,
hey! Very helpful... and in fact I have that same tree stand so I'm halfway there! I was thinking of making a bunch of felt ornaments and swedish gingerbread cookie ornaments (yeah.. insane I know) but we'll see how it goes. Kid NEVER messed with the tree so having Baby around is a whole new experience. All our ornaments are glass.. and I don't even think I'm bringing them up since Kid will get upset when she sees them and can't decorate with them. It's looking like a pioneer christmas is in order!
Love the felt and gingerbread ideas, if there's really time. Some other ideas: my SIL sent me lovely pinecones that she'd sprinkled with snowy glitter and cinnamon oil; popcorn strings always look nice; try this link http://www.jz-rose.com/christmas_store/category/CHR-BSO for some nice die-cut ornaments made of very heavy cardboard. We have several of the sets, and they look very Victorian on the tree (much nicer than they seem in the pics) and have lasted years. Also, much easier than another craft project that will hold up Baby's stocking...
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