Quilting Retreat at a Franciscan Monastery

Around this time last year we were traveling in New England. We were having one of those rare vacations, where two of our children and our granddaughter were able to join us. Now that we're empty nesters, we grab at any opportunity to spend time with the kiddos!

When the kids were growing up, we liked to stay in interesting places when we traveled.

How to Make an American Boy Doll

Recently, I was shopping for a little boy doll for my granddaughter, and had a difficult time finding one. There just aren't too many to choose from. My granddaughter loves her one and only boy doll, and thought he should have a brother. I agreed.

I felt a little sad that there were so few dolls available for our little boys to identify with. After all, our boys enjoy imaginative play just as much as our girls, and they can benefit from having a "little buddy" to hang out with.

On a recent trip to a thrift store, I found an Our Generation doll for only three dollars, so I decided to purchase it to turn into a boy doll. Our Generation dolls are inexpensive eighteen inch dolls to begin with, and this one had badly damaged hair, so I didn't feel too badly about altering it. I'm not sure I would use an expensive American Girl doll to make into a boy, unless I found one second hand and in poor condition.

To start the makeover, I chopped off most of the hair to get it out of the way.

Next, I cleaned the doll well. First, I used rubbing alcohol on the face and arms and legs; then I used acetone nail polish remover to scrub away some of the doll's lip and cheek color. I did not remove all the color -- I just toned it down a bit. You may find you need to scrub quite a bit to remove the color. Your doll will still look pretty, but I haven't seen a little boy who wasn't pretty, so I didn't worry too much.

Using a fine paint brush, I used acrylic paint to color in heavier, more "masculine" looking eyebrows. Don't worry if you mess up. You can always wipe it off and try again. Next time, I may try drawing in the eyebrows using a brown micron pen. You may want to add a few freckles while you've got the pen or paintbrush out.

I then washed the hair. I would recommend washing your doll's hair before painting the eyebrows, so you won't have to worry about messing them up. I used a blow dryer on low, and tried to shape the hair in the direction I wanted it to fall. You will need to work with the original doll's part, or risk exposing widely spaced hair plugs, if your doll's hair is rooted.

The hair was then trimmed a little more with scissors, then cut using hair clippers and a one inch attachment. I wanted to give the doll bangs, but since the original doll did not have bangs, the hair did not want to fall forward, no matter how much I tried to coax it with the blow dryer.

For a cute "little boy" tee shirt, I found this sweet little preemie size onesie from a thrift store, and cut the bottom off. The baseball is a plastic candy egg from the Dollar Tree.

So easy!

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How to Make a Lace Owl Applique

For this project, I thought I would combine the popular lace trend and the popular owl trend, to create a pretty clothing applique. I thought it would be subtle, but stunning to add a lace owl applique to a vintage lace dress.  Adding it to the vintage dress makes it feel a little bit romantic and a little bit spooky.

This applique would look just as good (maybe better!) if applied to a tee-shirt or even a canvas bag.

The Beach House Studio Reveal

Are you ready for the 2015 House Revivals craft room reveal? Okay, maybe not "the big reveal", but the "this is where we are now, and where we'll probably stay until my schedule frees up in, ohhhhhh, I don't know, January 2016 maybe?"

At the beginning of the year, this attic was a big overwhelming mess.

How We're Turning Our Attic into a Creative Studio

Progress on turning our beach house attic into a studio continues, albeit slowly. It seems like work and social obligations (and back to back colds and flues) have conspired to keep us in the city and away from our beach house for the last month.

On top of that, I misplaced the cord to transfer photos from my camera to my laptop (I finally gave up and ordered a new cord), and my cell phone broke, so I wasn't able to access attic progress pictures from the last visit, so I am waaaaaaay behind in updating you lovely readers!

As you can see, contents of boxes are still being disgorged, and transferred into plastic containers. Where did all that stuff come from? My husband just shakes his head, and mutters something that sounds like "hoarders".

Going through it all has seemed a bit overwhelming at times, but at least we can see the floor finally! I had to stop progress at this point, to order more containers. (Actually, that was just an excuse to leave the attic and go for a walk on the beach.)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this little dress, packed away with some sewing supplies. This was supposed to be part of my daughter's first grade wardrobe. I loved making her these simple jumpers -- so easy to whip up!  All this dress needed was to have two buttons sewn on. Sigh....

I remember that we moved shortly after the school year started, for my husband's job, then were transferred again almost immediately, and the little dress was lost in the shuffle. By the time I was able to unpack it, my daughter had outgrown it. Now, she's nearly thirty and has her own little girl, Summer Rose. I guess I should just get busy and sew those buttons on so Summer can wear it, right?

Here is a reminder of how the attic looked in February. Click here to read more of that story!

I've enjoyed going through stuff, and organizing. Lots of organizing supplies have come from the Dollar Tree, which I will share more about in a future post. To see a list of craft supplies I always buy from the Dollar Tree, click here.

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Making Flowers With a Vintage Flower Loom

My husband bought me several vintage flower looms from our local beach town thrift shop.  I couldn't be more pleased. He knows me well. What might seem like a "cheap" gesture to some, feels pretty romantic to me.

I will take vintage flower looms over diamonds any day of the week!  For years, I ogled vintage yarn flowers, so when we ran across these looms, I batted my eyelashes and said "pretty please". Could I have bought my own looms? Yes, but we were on a "date" (yes, we date at the thrift store sometimes), and I knew allowing him to buy me something he knew would make me happy would make him happy.

There were five looms. One was a "Bloom Loom", three were Studio Twelve Flower Looms, and one had no brand name printed on it.

One was even packaged with a faded old spool of green jute.

One was only fifty cents!

I'm having fun experimenting with different materials. Here, I used poly-twine on the Bloom Loom. What a fun way to make bows for gift giving!

You can use regular yarn to weave your flowers, too!

It is super easy to weave the flowers.

Simply wrap the yarn around opposite pegs, working your way around the loom. Here, I gave each set of pegs three wraps for a fuller flower. To finish them off, use a large craft needle to back stitch the petals together near the center, using the tail of the yarn.

Here is how the back of the flower looks, after the center has been back stitched (hint: back stitch the center while it's still on the loom, or you will have a big mess).

I love the idea of using the flowers for gift giving.  Years ago, I made a bunch of gift bags from the legs of old jeans. It made the Christmas gift wrapping marathons go a little easier, and we were able to use the same bags year after year. I think I will dig those out this year, and tie them up with bits of yarn and yarn flowers!

This is a terrific stash busting project!  All you knitters and crocheters out there have loads and loads of partial skeins leftover from projects. How about making a big pile of flowers and attaching them together to create a scarf?

A word of warning: Making these flowers is addicting. You may find yourself saying "just one more" over and over again!

Have you made flowers on a loom?  Do you have a vintage loom? A new one? What kinds of materials have you used?

Cool Things to Make With Vintage Sewing Patterns

Remember when I shared about all those gorgeous vintage patterns I found at the local Goodwill? Now I'm sharing tons of awesome craft ideas using vintage sewing patterns!

I love the idea of re-using old patterns for new projects -- the graphics and illustrations are so gorgeous! As a word of caution, if you are planning to make copies of your pattern, check the copyright first. Many pattern envelopes and illustrations were copyrighted, and quite a few of the vintage patterns have had their copyrights renewed, so you will want to do your research before making copies. Here is an article about copyright law and crafting.

MontclairMade on Etsy, has these adorable gift tags. So. Stinking. Cute.

I love these pattern weights made from heavy washers and decoupaged paper from Pin and Paper.

Use old patterns to organize your sewing space, like these from Cathe Holden, Just Something I Made.

Use a pattern envelope to decorate a tote bag, like this one from georgiapeachez on Etsy.

Have a lazer cutter? Make pins to give as gifts, like these from Red Revival. Image from Poppytalk.

Use the tissue to wrap a gift! I also use the tissue inside gift bags and boxes. Heather Bullard

Use the tissue patterns to cover a lampshade. BHG

Use the illustrations in an art journal, like this one from Sandra Pearce.

Use the patterns for wallpaper! Image from Meet Me at Mikes.

You will want to check for copyright before doing this, but isn't this tote bag from the Tom Kat Studio darling?

I'm so excited about all these fun ideas for using my vintage pattern haul! Which projects would you do? Help me decide! Click here to check out more of the amazing vintage patterns found at our local Goodwill!

You might also like this post about making jewelry from fabric scraps.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to House Revivals in the sidebar, so you won't miss the fun projects we have planned. Find us on Facebook, too, so you can catch all the "in between" stuff, and see what I'm working on daily on Instagram. Feel free to link today's project to your favorite social media sites.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Vintage Sewing Patterns!

I don't often share thrift store hauls here on the blog, but I am doing the happy dance right now about my latest big find!  I have always loved vintage sewing patterns and pick them up whenever I find them cheap, so I was tickled to find several dozen patterns at the Goodwill recently. Most of them were ninety-nine cents for a two-pack, then another 50% off, so I got most of them for a quarter each!

I'm pretty excited about using these in mixed-media art and in craft projects, as well.  Seriously, though, the fashion illustrations are just so gorgeous, I think vintage patterns are just perfect just as they are!

Have you ever crafted with vintage patterns? What did you make?

I am busily looking up copyright information on my patterns. Some of the envelopes or illustrations seem to be under copyright, but others have fallen out of copyright. Copyrights are not usually a problem for crafting using an original pattern or envelope, but can be an issue if you are planning to make copies of the copyrighted portions of the pattern. For more information about copyright for crafters, click here.

I am loving the white boots this gal is sporting with her "above the knee" skirt!  Looking at the culottes makes me want a pair. We had to wear culottes in gym at my parochial school in the eighties, and even though I pretended to hate them, they were actually super comfy -- and since they had to hit right at the knee, nobody ever worried whether their thighs looked fat. They were wide enough at the bottom to catch a cooling breeze, too! This was kind of a big deal in Arizona where I went to school. Of course, our culottes had modesty flaps, front an back, but those flaps worked great for fanning ourselves after a run. Who knew a sewing pattern from the sixties could make me nostalgic for the eighties?

I am itching to do something with all these patterns!  What would you make?  Would you keep them as they are and use them to sew vintage style clothing?

Would you cut the patterns up and use them for a home decor project or a mixed media project? Let me know in the comments!