Koalabirds Coloring Book coming soon! Yesssss!

So I decided, maybe last week, that I'm going to slowly put together a Koalabirds coloring book! (I can hear all the Koalabirds fans squealing with joy right now! Yay!) Well, it'll be Koalabirds and Friends, because I like to draw other critters, too. :)

I realized that I can fairly easily take about 15 minutes each day and draw a simple picture, ink it, erase the pencil (hee), and add it to the pile. When the pile gets x pages big (30? 40? I haven't decided), I'll scan it all in, configure it with technology, and create a whole nice big printed coloring book for YOU!

Here are the first few pages!

It's been fun to draw the first thing/scene that pops into my head, and keep it simple. How lovely that coloring books are a) simple and b) black and white! It plays right into a strength of mine, that is, quick line drawings. Well, mostly quick. One of the drawings I got into and took a bunch more time, but it was super fun!

That drawing, the Bakery Bunnies, is up in my shop as a FREEBIE download! So go and get it and color all those little pastries just how you like! :)

Actually, if you're reading this in the newsletter, the best would be to tell your friends to get it . . . because my freebies are also a not-so-secret way for me to collect emails for the newsletter and grow my audience! A growing audience of course leads to more overall art success for Dorothy, and we all want that, right? (RIGHT?! LOL) I'm certainly more motivated to make stuff, the more people tell me they appreciate it, heh heh.

Anyway, I'll make the printed coloring book sometime in early 2024!

Toasty and Snowy 2, OR, The book, the book, the book!

Hi! I may have forgotten to mention that I've started in on my next children's book! Despite some fans clamoring for more Koalabirds (if you haven't gotten your copy yet, GO RIGHT AHEAD!), the next adventure of our favorite owl duo has been simmering for quite some time. So, for whatever the cosmic reasons behind my creativity, I've decided now is the time to make it!

Just a quick pic of two pages I drew yesterday!

SO MUCH MORE info and process and fun after the jump!! CLICK! :D

Dinosaurs and Unicorns in Space!!

Here we have a simple raglan top I made for E. The print shows dinosaurs and unicorns in space, and really, what could be better than that? She loves it!

Otherwise, I've been busy hosting Thanksgiving, making and eating pies, painting some of my kitchen cupboards blue, reading a ton, and working on my next book! More on this next time!

Upcycled jeans and NEW top for C!

I made a long-overdue top for C., which she had picked out the fabrics for a while ago. Actually, she was going to sew it herself, but then lost interest. It's OK, I don't mind making it! ^_^

Then my jeans ripped (that's gardening for you . . . and keeping jeans for years and years and years, I mean I guess they do wear out someday . . .) so I decided to turn them into a pair of jeans for C!

First, the top. A straightforward sew from a pattern (Moto Maxx from Love Notions), although I did have to lengthen the cuffs because that cat fabric on the sleeves was a bit too short. And I fussy-cut the shoulders to feature the characters she wanted. :) I took a spare owl from the forest friends fabric and appliqued it on the front. Claire calls it the Cosmic Owl, which I love!

Then the pants! I cut my jeans up and saved the legs and back pockets. I took a pair of C's pants that fit her well (with room to grow) and laid it out to trace onto each leg of the jeans. You shove one leg into the other, with the inside out, and this gives you a "pattern piece" shape to trace. Really I winged it because the "tube" of the jeans leg was already sewn. Anyway, I erred on too big and cut my two legs.

I pinned the pockets on the front, at a nice pockety angle I thought she could easily get her hand in without spilling the contents. When I sewed these on I DID bend my needle in a totally crazy laughable way, so the lesson is, go slow on jeans material, AND don't try to get the presser foot over too much bulk, even if you're using a 100/16 needle!

Anyway, then I sewed up the rise by turning one leg right side out, and again, putting it inside the other, all lined up, right-sides-together. Typically I HATE using this method for pants, but it's unavoidable when the legs are already sewn up!! (My usual procedure is to do the rise ONLY, reinforce/top stitch, then do the legs from one ankle all the way up and over to the other. Even if a pattern says to do the leg-in-leg shove [not the technical term], I do my way instead. Because sometimes following directions doesn't matter and you can do whatever you want!)

Once I had most-of-a-pair-of-pants, I trimmed the top to some semblance of regular pants (more on this later). Then I needed a waistband!

With C's waist measurement, I fit my band to the fabric I had, which turned out to be about 28" by 8". I wanted a nice fat yoga waistband she could fold down if needed. I wanted it to be roomy, because when all the fabric is folded over, and then (maybe) folded again, it does get a little smaller/tighter.

Then I worked some sewing magic and had a waistband! (no magic, just boring to describe if you know how to make a waistband. I could be on the Great British Sewing Show technical challenge if the instructions said, "make a knit waistband". I got that, EASY!! Not that that show exists, but I'd watch it if it did.)

I only basted the waistband on in case I needed to alter things after she tried it on. And I DID need to! The pants were really baggy because I had left so much room in the rise. That's OK! I eyeballed what I needed to do, and took them back to the machine. I cut off about 2" height all around the top, and reattached the waistband permanently.

Pro tip: knit waistbands like these NEED TO BE TOPSTITCHED/REINFORCED (stitching the hem down to the pants), or else the seam WILL get all holey and start falling apart. At least, my kids somehow move around so this always happens. But if you topstitch the seam down, your life will be trouble-free. (Maybe not in every respect, but your pants won't fall apart.)

She tried them on again and they were STILL very roomy, so I accordion-folded over a section of the waistband to make it tighter, and zigzag-stitched it in a baste-y way I can easily take out again later. Now they fit her fine and she even wore them to karate, no problem. When the band gets too tight, I can take out the stitching for bonus room!

I think she'll wear these pants for quite a while! She looks so cute in them, because to me, she looks like me. She's wearing my pants! :) She's wearing them in the top photo with the new shirt, too!

How to make a garden gate for free!

I recently decided that my new veggie bed, with its simple low chicken wire fencing, needs a garden gate! I was able to make one for free, out of an upcycled picture frame I found in a free pile! Read on! (click for full detail!)

My new gate is not a fancy gate, my posts might become a bit wobbly, but all in all it makes me very happy and definitely does the job! I love the look of creative, cozy homemade non-standard, colorful stuff in the yard! The gate itself, with the mesh, hinges, and latch, looks AWESOME.

If you want to do this, too, you may of course decide to hang your picture-frame gate on some pleasingly straight 4x4 or other posts, and that would be lovely as well. I think my posts match the rest of the fencing! :)

Some areas of the (mix-and-match) surrounding fencing need some tighter mesh overlaid, since the holes are plenty big enough for chipmunks to get in. But, I'll get there before the spring!

I'm going to add a lot of pinwheels, too, to scare critters away. Thanks for the tip, Sana! ;)

Is anyone else already thinking of what you'll plant next Spring? For me, sugar snap peas and Sungold cherry tomatoes are a MUST, and I haven't decided on anything else. I'm more than happy to let the girls plant whatever they want. Let me know your 2024 ideas in the comments!