my paper crane has done it again and come up with something totally cool and original

How to make a beautiful doll with walnuts? The response in the Laura´s blog.

¿Cómo podrías hacer una preciosa muñeca con nueces? La respuesta en el blog de Laura.

for the geek in all of us

laptop bag

knitted ibook

Doll stories has a visual chronology of how her fantastic dolls are put together here and here.

Threadbanger has published The Top 10 Geekiest Yarn Creations on the Web

The nintendo controller case which we featured here previously came in at number 2 and the Katamari hat featured here was also on the list. Other crafty geekery mentioned included the Atari 2600 and TV, by jackrabbit (see pic) and Space Invaders Socks from knitty.com.

via pencil roving

Am loving the crazy and marvelous monsters over at cotton monster. Jennifer is a puppet, quilt and monster maker from Balimore, she has an online shop, selling her creatures (way too cheaply I think!) - they are currently all sold out.

All cotton monsters are made of old recycled sheets, blankets and p.j.’s. Bringing new life to discarded linens of comfort. Each one is hand made with love by Jennifer, without a pattern, so no two are exactly alike. Reach your hand deep into your monster’s mouth to hide treasures, protect secrets, or to amuse your buddies. Its bulging eyes and long arms await a new home.

some rather gorgeous plushies at plush-o-holic - with fabulous big sleepy eyes.

so many wonderful, strange and cute entries in the softie awards. Entries are now closed - can’t wait to see the winners. [::flickr pool ::softie central check more images and story at treehugger]

Image: Mr Fishy

Image: Naomi

Image: Shane cushion

Just in time for Easter, Betz has shared a tutorial for these super adorable cashmere bunnies!

work in progress plush brain by my paper crane

Shell at sacred heart arts makes these wonderful stuffed cloth drawings and has some really great collage too.

And Florence, whose work I am slightly obsessed with, from Windbag and thunder continues to astound me with her fabulous flying star toys.

designed by Regina from monster crochet

pattern available on crochet me.

Sometimes it is good to try a longer term project with children in a few small segments of time. In three or four one hour settings, most of my 56 students, ages 6 and up made these little creatures of their own design. Few of them had done any handsewing before and yet after the initial few falters, embraced the process with zeal! One boy told his mother at the end of the hour that he was going to sew all of his own clothes from that point on. Pretty ambitious for age 7. The process was pretty simple. They drew their monster on paper first. They drew it a second time on a piece of mid weight canvas about 18 inches by 12 inches large.Using acrylic paint and a wet brush, they painted the front of the monster. The next hour was spent by cutting out the front of the monster close to the edge of the design and tracing it onto another piece of canvas. They then painted the back of the monsters and embellished the fronts if they wanted to with scraps of material, strong glue, sewn on buttons, puffy paint, and other bits of collected items.

The next 2 hours were spent using tapestry needles (they are blunt and don’t hurt little fingers as quickly as other needles) and colorful embroidery floss. I used the floss at full strand, doubled and knotted at the end.

They then stuffed the creatures with poly fluff and finished sewing them up. The entire collection will be hung for a month at our local library children’s room, which is fitting, as such hard work deserves to be recognized!

Laurie of Old School Acres has written a great post on wool vs. acrylic felt. She includes photos of various types of felt sewn together and includes a bunch of useful links.

What an excellent idea “The Softie Awards”….get creating people. Great range of categories and judges!

The Softie Awards are open to softie-makers/designers worldwide. All entries must be original designs and handmade by the entrant. PHOTOS OF SOFTIES ARE REQUIRED FOR ENTRY, YOU DO NOT NEED TO SEND THE ACTUAL TOY.

For the purposes of this contest, a ’softie’ is defined as a handmade plush toy that is stuffed. Softies may be sewn, knitted, or crocheted, and can be any size. Please note, there are a couple categories that do not require something stuffed, ie the Best Cozy and Best Functional categories are slightly different.

You must be 18 years or older to enter, or you must obtain the consent of a parent or guardian. The Softie Awards participants must consent to the use of his or her name and photo of their softie on the Softies Central/The Softie Awards web site and in any and all media.

Deadlines: All entries must be posted to the flickr group, The Softie Awards by March 9th, 2007.

Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

Hmmm I see a cozy in my future….

I mentioned Australian toy artist Florence Forrest before. But I couldn’t help needing to mention her fabulous folk art toys. The beautiful Pimmie Parrots, inspired by mexican folk art and coastal birds which is a project uniting our imaginative lives to our environment.

More of Florences work can be found at the umbrella collective, the lil and tom project, and work in progress images can be seen at her flickr stream.

Gorgeous distinguished elegant egg, at while she naps.

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall :
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall :
All the kings horses and all the kings men :
couldn’t put Humpty together again.

[Humpty Dumpty was the name of a canon in the 1640's in England, that fell when the brick wall it was on collapsed and it could not be resurrected by the army. Read all about it at wikipedia.]

One of my favorite crafts topics are the toys and paper things. For that reason, i love this papertoy from Eloisa López. Download here(the face) and here(the body).

De toda la temática “craft”, lo que más me gusta son los muñecos y las cosas de papel. Por esta razón me gustó tanto descubrir esta muñeca de papel de Eloisa López. Además, puedes bajarla y formarla si pinchas aquí (cara) y aquí (el cuerpo).

make this fabulous funny hat for yourself or a friend

Advice from Cassi of Bella dia.

“One thing that I’ve learned with sewing is that an iron is your best friend. If something needs hemming or blind stitching I always iron the seam first so I have a nice straight fold to work with. Also when I’m making bags, I just press the heck out of them - it really helps to give it a professional look. Another huge helper is interfacing; I wasn’t familiar with using it when I first started sewing but as I got more experience I could really see what a huge difference it made in my finished pieces. Experiment with a variety of weights and you’ll see how much interfacing can change the appearance of your project and it will also give fragile and thin fabrics the support they need.”

read the rest of this interview with Cassi by Natalie Zee over at Make.