These are the goodies for tomorrow’s book launch party for Let’s Sew Together and I think everything is pretty sweet! The glitter tote from Hello Apparel and gold pillar earrings from Lisa Leonard, an accessory (either a necklace or earrings) from Burdees, a necklace making kit from Treehouse Kid & Craft, fabric bundles from Ann Kelle. and fabric markers and other kid craft things from Oriental Trading Company (and not pictured will be a handmade bar of soap from SQ Apothecary). Some things vary slightly from bag to bag, but I think you get the gist of how awesome everything is. We are celebrating the book after all, so bring your book or purchase one there and go home with one of these great gift bags (only while supplies last!). There will be a limited number of copies at the party for purchase (20 to be exact), so come early to snag one, or, if you’d prefer to play it safe, remember that you local Barnes & Noble now have them in stock, as does Amazon.  There will be cookies, music by Me & Mr. Cassidy, and lots of mingling, so I hope you’re able to come and join us! The girls are pretty excited about it, but I’m sure they’ll be super shy once Saturday comes, and I’ll be shy and chatty all rolled into one!

When: Saturday, May 31st, 5-7pm
Where: Oh, Hello Friend Shop
122 N. Harbor Blvd., #103
Fullerton, CA 92832

RSVP for the event here (no cost or ticket necessary, but just want to keep a mental note of how many people to expect) and if you want to order my book, you can do so here. Thank you for the support you’ve given already, it really means so much! xoxo

Rosy Posy Flower Felt Clip

Supplies:
Rosy Posy Flower Template
Various scraps of felt (acrylic or wool)
Scissors
Embroidery needle
Coordinating embroidery floss
Snap clips (I used 1″ ones, can find some here)

Directions:
1. Using the template, cut out all your flower pieces. It’s also easy to just go for it and cut without the template.

2. Layer all but one of the large flower pieces on top of each other (from largest to smallest), and with your needle and embroidery floss, hand sew on X on the center to join all the pieces together. Pull the thread taut and knot on the back of the flower, so that the felt will bunch up to give it the “flowery” effect.
3. Fold the leaves together, place the bottom half of one leaf sandwiched into the other, proceed to use a running stitch to stitch around the perimeter of both leaves.
4. Center your clip on the remaining flower felt piece (this the back piece of the flower), cut a tiny slit to put your snap clip through. Insert tongue of snap clip and snap clip close. Place bottom portion of the leaves on top, layer on flower, and then with a running stitch around the perimeter of the flower, join together the back felt piece and the main flower together. You could also use different types of clips with the flowers; French barrettes can easily be glued onto the back. The template attached is for a larger sized flower, but you can most certainly enlarge or shrink to make larger or smaller flowers. If you have a baby with not very much hair, instead of a clip, sandwich elastic where the snap clip would be.

Who’s been around since my etsy shop days and I used to sell these clips? See this listing so long ago with a baby True. I finally have a pattern for you and instructions, so now you can make your own.  I loved making and selling these flower clips (and my crowns and dolls), but once baby Soul and Glow got added into the family, there was no time to sew for shop purposes. My felt flowers and other felt creations, along with  sewing is what started this blog, and it’s been a completely fun and unexpected journey ever since.

I hope you have fun making these flowers. If you want to see other floral things I have been making lately, follow me on instagram (@cakiesblog) or just check #cakiesflowers. I’m also excited to be going to Singapore to share my love for felt floral making!

on true: shirt, molo kids (a few season ago). polkadot overalls (so cute!), target.

I started this blog to document my sewing and my wool felt flowers I used to make for local shops and my etsy shop, so it’s fun to go back to it. I am so happy to share that I will be heading to Singapore this summer, and teaming up with Bloesem to teach a creative workshop on felt flower making. It will be a fun time of creating, learning, and sharing ideas with other creative people. Irene has put together a list of awesome workshops and I wish I could take many of them (like this rope making vessel class), so I’m honored to be part of this. If you’re in Singapore (or happen to be there during this time), I hope you’re able to join us for the class! You can get more info about my class here, as well as the other Bloesem classes that are offered.

I’m also ready for all your suggestions of things to see, eat, shop, and do in Singapore too, so ready, set, go…

This is my dining room (this is what it looks like now), but you wouldn’t have recognized it for the 8 months that it was my sewing/writing room. It was an insane mess, plain crazy! If you came to my house, you would have to see this mess as you passed from the front door to the rest of the house. The girls pretty much stayed out of the area (there were needles and pins everywhere!) and things were just so scattered, but it made total sense to me. That’s all that matters, right?!

This is the behind the scenes stuff. If you finally have the book in your hands, and see all the pretty pictures, this is the mess behind it. I was drawing, making patterns, testing patterns, cutting, recutting, ironing, sewing, and doing it all over and over again. I watched many historical documentaries and seasons 1-3 of Nikita during my book sewing and writing process.

Actually, this space was looking pretty neat when it was taken as there were times this room was way worse than you see here. Looking at this brings back so many memories and feelings of this time. It feels great to actually have it out in the world now, and I’m so thankful for all your support. There’s so much I want to keep sharing about the whole process. I kept it a secret for such a long time, so it feels good to finally tell the stories behind it. I’ll probably share bits of book things once a week for a bit, so don’t mind the storytelling. If you have any questions for me regarding it, leave them here. I can work on answering them in future book posts.

Don’t forget I have a giveaway going on where you can win a dollhouse pillow and a $100 gift certificate to the shop of your choice (as long as they sell gift certificates). If you do get a book, please share it on Instagram (or any other place), I’d love to see it (tag me @cakiesblog and #letssewtogether). It’s so surreal to see it in someone else’s hands and it puts a big smile on my face.

Take more peeks at the book here at Made, and another wonderful post (with a project) from Parents.

P.S. If you’re wondering where we ate our meals, we ate at the breakfast table in the kitchen.

Brave’s love for Spider-Man started a few years ago, and I thought it was just going to be a phase, but it’s only grown even more. I made her the Spider-Man doll a few Christmases ago (see here), and every time a special occasion rolls around, everyone loads her up with more Spider-Man things like this mask and lots of little Spidey things. Ben’s cousin also gave her four volumes of Spider-Man comics several months back, and that just changed her life. She knows all about Peter Parker, and because he wears the same things in the comic, she tends to wear the same things all the time too, particularly those blue striped Misha Lulu pants. They’re worn so much that the pockets in the back tore off, and Karen was kind enough to send her another pair.

A month or so ago, we were passing by a comic store and saw a poster for a Spider-Girl and that just blew her away, another life changing moment. She didn’t know that there was a Spider-Girl (nor did I), and she had so many questions about her that we had too look her up online to get more info. Then this past week, Brave looked up at Ben and said, “Papi, do I scrunch my nose when I talk? Because Spider-Man scrunches his nose, so I want to too.” The spidey influence has led her to always be wearing red or blue (or both), prefer shorts and pants over dresses, and want to climb walls. She knows that last one is not allowed though.

I asked Brave, “Why do you like Spider-Man so much?” She replied, “Because he’s cool, climbs walls, and he’s brave.”

This Spider-Man thing is very unique to her and I think it’s really endearing how much she loves this red and blue masked hero. The other girls like him too, but not as much as Brave. It’s amazing to watch your children grow into their own unique selves. I think by nature since True’s the oldest, the younger girls would copy and like what True likes, but with Spider-Man, it’s the first thing that Brave latched onto on her own. It set her apart, and it’s this cute quirky thing that’s all Brave. Sometimes we still see the girls doing something just because True does it, but we tell them, “You don’t always have to follow True, you are own special person and it’s okay to be different.” And everyday we see how they are becoming their own special person.

Brave wanted to get a poster at the store, but I thought it would be cute to make our own. I had her get in her Spider-Man costume (hers is Target from a few years ago when we did this Halloween story) and do her best Spidey poses. We took a picture in front a plain white background, I brightened the color up in Photoshop, and saved it to the poster size I wanted. We went to our local copy center to get it printed and there you have it, we had our own Spider-Man poster. This oversized print cost $22, which is more than a store bought poster, but we get to make this special for her, so it’s worth it.

I started off the first letter on the poster, and I let her complete the rest. She made a couple mistakes, but they blended right into the web. She’s Spider-Girl, so we cut out an image from the Spider-Man pose doll box that she saved and attached that on. After she did the lettering, the other girls joined in on the coloring. I helped get the web started, taught them how to do it, they finished the rest, and added a whole bunch of spiders for good measure. Now, she has her very own special Spider-Man and Spider-Girl poster. We put it up next to her bed and it’s very clear which side of the room is hers, you probably saw a glimpse of it in this post.

True’s now asking to make her own She-ra poster, so I guess that’s the next super hero on the project making agenda. As the girls get older and into cartoon characters, we’ve learned how to incorporate our love for handmade things mixed in with regular store bought toys they love so much, both mom and children end up quite happy with the result.

This post is sponsored by Target. More Spider-Man, More Amazing: Blur the lines of fantasy and reality with your favorite superheroes at Target. Thank you for your continuous support of this space and the collaborations I choose to be a part of. 

HOLLA! It’s finally May 20th! Oh, I’ve been only waiting for this day for, like, two years! The book process is long (I’ll share more about it tomorrow Thursday, sorry we got busy celebrating by relaxing), but I’m finally excited to announce that Let’s Sew Together is officially out! If you’ve pre-ordered it, you should get it within the next couple of days (or maybe today!), and hopefully it will start popping up in your local bookstores too.

I’m so thankful for my talented friends who made this video possible. The song is “Let’s Make Magic” by Hope Leigh (Me & Mr. Cassidy) and made especially for the book trailer (it’s just so perfect!) and you can purchase the song here. The video is done by my friend Lou Casas (Cakeflix Films) and he did a wonderful job capturing the “magic” I wanted to share. It’s so much fun to create with your kids and that’s what I want to encourage others to do. The outcome doesn’t have to be perfect, but it’s all about spending time together and having fun.

If you’re in Southern California and are free on Saturday, May 31st between 5-7pm, we are having a book release party at the Oh, Hello Friend shop in Fullerton. I would love to be able to celebrate with you in person if you can make it!