Here’s a little felt shamrock tutorial for you. It’s a super quick project that there’s still time to make, even though St. Patrick’s day is only a couple days away. I used a felted wool sweater as my material because I have an abundant supply but any felt will work. You can sew or glue it to a pin or hair clip and you won’t be without your bit o’ green on the big day.

Here’s a template for you. My shamrock measured just about 1 5/8 inches wide.

Start by cutting out a shamrock and three hearts from 2 colors of felt.

Place a heart shape on one of the leaves and stitch it down.

Sew remaining hearts on.

Using embroidery thread, embroider a few french knots in the center, if you’d like. I used gold because what St. Patty’s Day is complete without a few gold coins sized for a tiny leprechaun?

I cut out a second shamrock and sewed the 2 together. This gave my shamrock a little more stability, especially that skinny little stem, and hid the knots from my stitching on the top.

I used hot glue to attach it to an alligator clip that I’d partially covered with grosgrain ribbon.

It’s perfect for my little leprechaun!

It’s a cute and super quick project. You could even whip up a hair clip or two on Saturday morning while the rest of your family is just waking up, as I did with my heart clips on Valentine’s Day. There’s no excuse not to have something green!

3/14/12 Update: You can sew these too! Pattern can be found here.

Meet Hungry Bunny, Pretty Bunny, Woodland Bunny and Love Bunny! These cute little egg-shaped bunnies are my latest creations. They’ve arrived just in time for Easter and these four are already available in my shop. I’m imagining them decorating springtime tables, getting nestled into lucky kids’ Easter baskets or even being hidden alongside real eggs in an Easter Egg hunt. How fun would it be to find one of these snugly friends in the grass?

I’m working on putting together the pattern for them so that you crafty people can make your own. It’ll be available in my shop very soon so you’ll have plenty of time to make some for Easter. I’d love some feedback, though, since I haven’t put a pattern together in a long time. Are you interested in looking over my pattern for clarity and making  your own bunny? Leave me a comment by Sunday at noon Pacific Time and I’ll choose 3 people to send my pattern to free of charge. The pattern is now available and can be found in my shop.

I used this simple free pattern here. It’s just 2 triangles and it came together really quickly, even with a 4 year old helping to cut the pattern pieces. The neat thing is that the bird is almost perfectly round so we’ve been having fun playing “throw and catch,” as Sairshe calls it. It’s pretty nice to catch a soft, squishy ball of cashmere in your hand!

Then we moved on to a bigger friend. A bright pink bunny who’s just a little early for Easter.

Sairshe sewed about half the bunny’s body herself and I’m so impressed! Her stitches are remarkably even and there are only a few places I had to go back and reinforce. Even though she sewed it herself she’s been great at sharing it with her sister, at least until we make a second one.

Here they’re eagerly awaiting pancakes.

I’ve also been making a ton of springy wool and cashmere flower clips that will show up in my shop soon.

When I first started selling things on Etsy, nearly 2 years ago, I was focusing on selling hats for babies.  My hats are still a big part of what I sell but I’ve added new items such as the water bottle covers,  coin purses and french press cozies.  Suddenly having Mama in my business name didn’t  fit my entire line of products.

I realized something was wrong when I became hesitant to tell people my business name because I felt it gave the wrong impression about my products.  I didn’t want to be identified by just being someone’s mama and I didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea that I only made things for kids.

I thought about my name for several months before I made a decision and found myself being gradually more uncomfortable with my name.  I had already made hundreds of sales and had a fairly established following both on etsy and locally but I finally made the decision to change my name and, in a way, start over.

So why Sesame Seed Designs?

Practically:

• It’s not product specific and allows me to grow my product lines without moving outside the scope of my name.
• When I imagine it on tags on my products, I can imagine it on items for men, women and children and it works on them all.

Personally:

• If you’ve read my previous blog posts, you know that I refer to my daughter as Sesame (the story is here) so it’s a bit of an homage to her.  Like the story behind her Sesame nickname, the name Sesame Seed Designs is a reminder that big things all start small. I had no expectations when I first listed a few items on etsy but wholesale requests started coming in after only a few weeks and my sales have steadily increased in the last 2 years.

It wasn’t as hard as I’d imagined to get buyers to find me at my new site and I’m really excited and happy to have a name that I love and that can grow with me!  I had some fabulous people help me out- Erin from EdUB Graphic Designs created my fantastic new logo.  She listened to what I wanted and quickly came up with a logo that I love!  Mark and Jennie from Angelic Touch Designs did the work of converting my old website to this new easy-to-use, WordPress one.  They did really fantastic work and were super pleasant to work with.

Changing my name to something that really fits me feels really good and I only wish I had done it sooner! I don’t push my etsy products on you lovely blog readers very often so I’ll get back to my crafty ways next time.

I’ve been working on several custom orders lately and have been really enjoying them. I like the challenge of making new designs but even more, I like taking customer’s ideas and turning them into something pretty!

Sometimes it’s hard to find the time to do things for myself but I try to squeeze it in. Sesame loves her Klean Kanteen water bottle and I finally made her a felted wool cover of her own. I feel bad that I made so many covers for other kids before she finally got one but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

I’m also working on some new products for my shop and the festivals I’ll be doing this summer. For the latest news and updates on the things I’ve been working on, subscribe to my newsletter! You’ll also get some exclusive discounts and offers and now, if you sign up by the end of the month, you’ll be eligible to win a cute, cozy coffee sleeve! I’ll randomly choose one subscriber who’ll win a coffee sleeve of my choice.

Adding to my feeling of being an official business, Etsy picked one of my baby hats made from a green recycled sweater to grace its front page on Earth Day. I’m in a screen shot mood so here’s a picture of that.

Why not start in my own backyard?’ I do wage war on dandelions each spring but when it comes down to it, it’s hard for the scientist in me to not admire these tough little plants. with their long roots and hardy seeds that disperse far across the yard with the slightest breeze, they seem perfectly evolved to take over the neighborhood.

Then there are the flowers- bright yellow sunbursts. They deserve a little admiration.

Crabapple trees are blooming down the street.

And a neighbor has these cute, tiny blue flowers filling their yard.

I love seeing the beautiful trilliums appear in the forest. I love that their color varies from white

to pale pink

to deep purple.

All of the images are of coin purses/pouches made from recycled wool and cashmere sweaters. Some are available in my etsy shop now and the rest will be added soon.

I’m inspired to go create some more. Where do you find inspiration?

1. The weather has been nuts. It’s spring-like one day and hailing the next. It’s confusing but we still manage to get outside and enjoy the sun, even if it is a bit chilly.


(Why yes, that is my clapotis you see in the bottom of the stroller. The bright rainbow blanket was crocheted my one of sesame’s many great-aunts. We rarely leave the house without something handmade.)

2. We all got the flu. Thankfully not the puking kind, but the fever,chills, lay on the couch and feel like you’re going to die kind. Oh, and it lasted forever. I’d feel better and think I was getting over it when suddenly the 102 degree fever would come back. We freaked out about Sesame’s temp of 105 and took her to the doctor but there was nothing they could do so we came home and slept for a week. The only nice part was that my busybody toddler finally snuggled with me.
3. My mom came to visit and Sesame called her grandma for the 1st time (well, technically “gam-pa” but we knew what she meant) and it was nice to see them have so much fun together. The hysterical toddler screaming “GAM-PA” through her tears as we drove away from the airport was heartbreaking though. She is no longer welcome on trips to the airport to drop off visitors.
4. I made a ton of cashmere hats and I’m getting them all listed in my etsy shop. they’re made from recycled sweaters and have cute springtime designs on them. Just in time for Easter!



5. Sesame decided she was done sleeping in a crib and decided that the best way to tell us was to fling herself over the edge in the middle of the night. Thankfully her only injury was a bit of rug-burn on her cheek. We got a toddler bed the same weekend and she loves it and sleeps really well in it, though the actual putting her to bed part is nightmarish.
6. I’ve been knitting and finished a pair of socks but don’t have any pictures yet. You’ll just have to trust me that they’re gorgeous.
7. I made an awesome find at Title Wave, the bookstore that sells library cast-offs. All these relatively current knitting magazines for $1 each! That’s the best $5 I’ve spent in a long time.



8. Mike and have planned an awesome garden for this summer and have started planting some cool stuff. I’ll share it all with you as soon as I get some pictures. We’ve stopped being members of our CSA, even though we love it and it’ll be sad to not be supporting Laura, “our” farmer anymore. I hope she understands. It’s just too much money right now so we’re going to grow a bunch of our own veggies this summer. I’m really excited!

I feel like I need a day off from my life. Do you ever feel like that?’ I have so much to do, and it’s generally fun stuff (thankfully!) but I still need a break so that I can get to the other mostly fun stuff that I need to finish. There’s Mike’s cardigan that has been in the almost finished stage for much too long, Sesame’s little pants that just need cuffs knit, her birthday pillow that just needs a few seams sewn (almost 6 months after said birthday!) and other, not so fun things piling up on my to-do list. So what have I been doing?’ Making stuff for my etsy shop like a mad woman.

Big etsy news! A celebrity bought a bunch of stuff from my shop! Me! Selling to a celebrity! And a big, super well known, celeb. If I said the name, you would all know him/her. For the sake or privacy, I won’t share who it is. Yet. The bad part was that it was a custom order, so the whole time I was sewing, I knew they were going to be for a celebrity. Man, was I a perfectionist! I think the coffee sleeves that were bought are going to go up on this celeb’s website. If/when they do, I will share with you then. If you’re totally dying to know right this second (as I would be), send me an email and maybe I’ll tell you.

I’m sewing a ton of custom orders like crazy (like these water bottle covers I’m showing you for lack of better pictures for this post) and am trying to build up inventory for Crafty Wonderland in a few weeks. Man, this business stuff it exhausting. But necessary as I don’t make much money at my part-time job and the car just needed almost $500 worth of fixing and sesame constantly needs new clothes and on and on life goes. All I need is a little time to knit. And maybe someone who can translate toddler-ese for me.