These Three Little Handkerchiefs are Ready for Summer Adventures

As you may remember, I recently picked up 3 cute, lace-edged handkerchiefs and an travel-themed embroidery pattern that caught my eye at the Duck Store. Now, get ready for the finished product! I decided to keep them simple by not trying to put too many colors of thread on one handkerchief. Instead, I chose one color for each, so that there would be variety of colors, but none of them would be too "busy" on their own. I also made each one represent a different destination.

Paris

Rome

Agra, India. The third luggage label in the pattern said "Tokyo" but I am pretty sure the Taj Mahal is not in Japan, haha.

The Paris one is my favorite. What do you think? I have also started on the tote bag, which I will show you soon!

-Baby Cat

Baby Cat's Next Project

The closer I get to summer, the deeper I go into crazy "I want to knit/crochet/sew/build every project I see" mode. I think this is mostly do to the promise of having slightly more free time than I do as a full-time student. I'm also dreaming of having a little corner in my and Boyfriend Cat's new house to set up my sewing machine and my new dress form.

The fact that I am having more difficulty than usual resisting new projects will explain the new one I just picked up. I was at the Creative Duck searching for doll dress ingredients for the doll I am making for the Multnomah County Fair, and I noticed the cutest little embroidery patterns sitting tucked in a basket in the corner. They had a bunch of different themes, from beach babes to camping. My favorite one was the travel one, because summer also makes me want to go exploring.

This is what the pattern envelope looks like.

Here are all the cute pictures I can embroider from this pattern!

Now I hardly ever embroider. I like the way it looks and it is kind of fun, but I never know what to do with it when I am done. A girl only needs so many cross stitch wall hangings, no matter how pretty they are. And if I can't get excited about the finished product, I usually just don't finish it. Most of my embroidery projects are hanging out in the bottom of my sewing basket for this very reason. So what makes this embroidery project different?

Well, I thought of all those unfinished projects and told myself I couldn't have the new pattern unless I found something cute and useful on which to embroider it. That way I would be more excited about the project and more likely to finish it. Later, when I was at Hirons, I found these adorable handkerchiefs!

The only problem is these are way too pretty to blow your nose on.

I love the lace around the edges, and I think they would be just perfect with a little embroidery to jazz them up. If the handkerchiefs go well and I don't get too sick of embroidery, I think it would be fun to try all the travel pictures on a tote bag or something. What do you think?

-Baby Cat

Flower Barrettes for Spring

Last week, Hirons was out of headbands! For those of you who don't know, Hirons is a local Eugene pharmacy that sells anything you could possibly want. The first time I ever went there, it was to get cold medicine and I left with a random assortment of makeup and Hello Kitty stuff, but no medicine! Now it's where I get my headbands, but this time they didn't have any, so I thought I would try barrettes instead. I made one with pink flowers, one with blue flowers, and one with a red butterfly (also from Hirons).

 

Pink acrylic flowers on vintage pink lace 

Practicing my smile like Momma Cat asked.

Blue acrylic flowers on vintage pink lace 

Still practicing...

Red plastic "gemstone" butterfly of vintage pink lace

...too sleepy to smile

As usual, these will all be appearing on Etsy one by one over the next few days. I will also have more things made from Hirons treasures to show you soon.

Hirons is a magical place!

-Baby Cat

Start off your spring with a bit of sparkle!

Coming soon to a Laughing Cat Etsy shop near you...

New vintage lace headbands with acrylic flowers just in time for spring!

Pink vintage lace with pink acrylic flowers

Pink vintage lace with blue acrylic flowers

Spring is almost upon us. With flowers popping up everywhere on campus and a few rare but wonderful days of sun in Eugene, it's all this little cat can think about! That's why, in the midst of studying for finals, I had to whip up a few spring inspired headbands. They are similar to the ones I did for Valentine's day, with vintage lace and flexible headbands for those of you who are tired of having your poor little skull squeezed to death by evil, rigid headbands (I know I am). What gives these a springtime twist is the translucent pink and blue acrylic flowers from Joann's. The colors and the way they catch the sun just says "spring" to me! Perfect for an Easter picnic or spring vacation, these headbands will give any outfit springtime sparkle!

Dreaming of flowers and sunshine,

Baby Cat

Romantic Vintage Lace Headbands

These headbands are inspired by, though very different from the some of ones I have seen at Camp Hollyhock. I love how they take fabric and lace scraps, flowers and bows to make their beautiful, one-of-a-kind headbands.

 I have also been trying to make better use of cute hair accessories since I cut my hair even shorter a couple of weeks ago. This gave me the idea of designing my own headbands.

The base is a plastic headband covered with some beautiful vintage lace Plushy gave me and decorated with hot pink felt hearts and buttons. I only made two for starters, but I loved making them and am really happy with the way that they turned out, so if you love them too I would gladly make more! These two will be on Etsy soon if anyone wants one for Valentine's Day. In the absence of a suitable manikin, I am modeling them for you.

Love,

-Baby Cat


Pink Lace with Flowers
   

White Lace with a Bow 
  

Lovely Lace, a Tough Decision, and Back-to School

I just finished another project from my "Crochet So Fine" book. This one is a delicate lace tank top and I love the way it came out. I made it to sell at the holiday bazaar that Momma Cat and I do every year but when I put it on to model it for the blog it ended up fitting me so well that I am tempted to keep it. (Momma Cat thinks I should). My problem is that I have a very bad habit of keeping everything that I like, which not only leaves me without much to sell, but I also find that if I only sell the things I don't like, no one else likes or wants to buy them either!

Front View of the Lace Top

Back View

So now I am back in my apartment at school getting ready for the first week of classes and the top is awaiting its fate in my room back at Momma Cat's House. It's a tough decision. On one hand, it would be nice to earn some money for my work since I don't have much right now. On the other hand, I'm not sure I would find anything that I liked better for the same amount of money that I would get from selling it. Maybe I should just make another in a different color and sell that one? I have thought that if I stop making clothes in my size I won't be tempted to keep them, but that wouldn't really help any of the other girls who are the same size as I am! I don't know, what do my commenters think?

-Baby Cat