Since this is a craft blog I thought I’d cross post a paragraph or two from my other blog since it’s pertains to the craftyness… ness… *ahem*
… godmother crocheted for me when they brought me home from the hospital as a newborn. In fact the requisite baby blankie every child has, and makes threadbare, is a baby blankie I now use as a throw (as in blanket, not “Here, catch this ball of cotton!”). It’s just a simple quilt blanket, the perfect size for a baby born on a little South Pacific Island, but it’s special enough that my mother put it in storage before I got so attached to it to the point where I would have made it threadbare. She knew what it would have meant for me to have it when I was older, because she knew what it meant to the person who made it, see my godmother hand stitched every single square. Something, in a society where we tend to take things like blankets for granted, most people don’t really understand what it means to make something like that by hand.
Knitters, crocheters, and sewers have a saying that “I knit/crochet/sew every single stitch with love”, as someone who does all three, and as corny as that that saying is, I understand what it means. So even though I never grew up knowing what she looked like, or knowing the sound of her voice, I still know who my godmother is. Because I have her hand stitched baby blanket she made, her hand crocheted baby clothes she made, her hand crocheted “baby’s first x-mas ornament” she made…
Going along those maudlin lines, I never really get why people would prefer store bought baby stuff (blankets, clothes, toys), or just stuff/presents in general, instead of handmade items (items not stuff, hah!). I hate the fact that people will automatically assume the handmade items (hah!) are cheaper and that store bought stuff is better because they’re expensive. Or they think the sentiment of “It’s a better presents because I made it with love” is somehow an excuse for “I’m actually a cheap bastard so I made this macaroni elephant instead, that and I have a ungodly urge to kick in your face”.
First of all, in most cases handmade items are in no way cheaper then store bought ones. Do they have any idea about how much money actually goes into buying those supposedly cheap things? Good yarn if freakin’ expensive! So is nice fabric, not to mention the patterns, and the actual thought process that goes into making a handmade quilt, sweater, bag, dress, hat, scarf, hell even doggy doodoo takes some thought to make (and a pooping dog is a perfect complement to those thought).
When someone makes something for someone else they’re usually thinking about that perfect something for that someone (… or something like that…). My point it that its something individually made just for that person (you ungrateful macaroni elephants!!!). Plus, tell me if you can find these things in a gift shop: crochet spermies with condom pocket, crochet Sandman Helms (eee do want!), knitted tangible something to worship (hint: its a monster :D), a Giant Knit Squid Hat, an awesome Nintendo NES Plushie, or um… this thing in all its freaky cuteness!
… Well maybe the Nintendo if and when they get around to it >_> I’d still prefer the handmade one (so neener neener neener).
Side Notes (Bottom Notes? So You Actually Read Everything Till The End Notes?
The Softies Kit and Book by Theresa Laskey
First off what's the diff? Both have some of the same projects, both have instructions on individual projects, both have basic embroidery how-to's and both come with patterns, but that's about it.
There are 25 projects in the book and 15 projects in the kit, only 5 are the same in both. Two of the projects they have in common are Treeling and the Cake. One of the cutest softies in the kit is the Hambone, and one of the cutest in the book is the Ms. Tea Bag.
Biggest difference between the two is that the kit is a... kit o_o; Meaning it already comes with embroidery floss, needle, and felt to make your first ever softie :D, the pattern cards are nice and handy for the on the go projects, and everything fits in a nice box. The book, on the other hand, has 10 more patterns then the kit, 20 of which aren't seen in the kit. They have a lot of super cute ones like the Lonely Dollop (buy it and find out XD) and the trio of teeth (sweet, crowned, and cavity). The photos in both are great, making you totally prepared to potentially come across three softies in your dentist office or spot a furry softie floating by under a cluster of balloons.
I found the directions to be very straight forward and easy to understand. The patterns are all labeled clearly and are a no brainier to figure out. The only problem I really had was with the kit, I would of liked to have the kit be about a project other then one that's already in the book, but that's just a personal thing.
If you've never made a softie and are looking for something to start you off with the kit might be the thing for you, if you're looking for some inspiration and lots of ideas the book might be ideal. Then if you've become totally obsessed like me, just buy both :D The extra pattern cards make a perfect means to spread your crafty/softie obsession to friends.
So I had bought The Softies Kit 
a little over a week ago at my local Jo Ann's store (yay for coupons) and decided to try out a softie. The kit came with 2 pieces of felt, a pink and a white, matching embroidery floss, an embroidery needle, patterns, an instruction booklet, and project cards. The first project you'll see when you open up the box is a simple pink Party Cake; the felt and floss are pink, so if you use that expensive education your parents have paid for you'll come to the realization that the Party Cake is your first project :3 (or was that just me?). Anyway, I opened up my box, took out all the felt pieces, embroidery floss, needle, and Party Cake pattern pieces and quickly got to work cutting the felt and separating the floss.
One of the things I had planned to do was changing the whipped cream and using a different technique that I found online, where you ask? I have no idea ._. I just remember it being in Japanese so I just saved the pictures and lost the address ^^; The pictures didn't show anything about stuffing it, but it was looking kind of flat to me so I added some polyfill anyway, only it was making the flaps all fuzzy, and as we all know fuzzy whipped cream is either really old or you seriously need to take some cooking classes. Alas, I had to resort to gluing the flaps down with some fabric glue x_x I feel so much like a cheat now lol, a satisfied cheat, but a cheat nonetheless :D.
If you noticed that my cake looks a little different from the one on the project card you A. just read the sentence above the picture (yay!), B. didn't notice till I pointed it out (tsk tsk tsk), or C. noticed the little bead thingies on top of the cake (how observant you are \o/).
Well, when I was getting ready to sew the whipped cream to the top of the cake I realized that I had no cute-little-red-mini-pompom (;_;) and I couldn't just leave the cream all lonely on top so I decided to go back to the crafts store (on another day, since I'm lazy :3) and buy a little bag of cute-little-red-mini-pompoms just like what's on the project card. So I waited a week for my 40% off coupons to arrive in my e-mail, because I can never resist using those coupons, and headed back to Jo Ann's for said cute pompoms. On the way to the craft section I passed the beads section and thought I could use those little seed beads for "sprinkles" on my cake, while looking around I decided to just use a larger glass bead instead of a cute pompom, after all I was armed with a coupon (yay coupons \o/) and using a 40% Off coupon on 99¢ PomPoms would push me over the edge from frugal shopper (D: sporadic frugality?) to penny pinching crazy lady, something I don't plan on being till I have some children I can embarrass :3.
And after sewing the top on and adding the beads I finished my first ever softie (yay me! \o/). Now what to do with it? XD I think I'll send it to a friend :3
Also, sorry about the dim pictures, I was planning on having a cute little vignette type photograph, having a tea set with the cup and saucer as well as the sugar bowl and creamer. By the time I was ready to photograph the sun was on its way down and I couldn't find any of my cups and saucers (lost in the abyss that is the garage), so I just went ahead and took the photographs, ah well. I did get to use one of my moms saucers :D the rest of the set is somewhere in the garage though lol.
