Gran Jam

I can hear you saying to yourself..Who or what the heck is Gran Jam? Well..she is a 'Shopkin' , My 9 year old granddaughter asked for Shopkins for her birthday. I took a look at the Shopkins website and hoooboy there are SOOOOO many of these little figurines - they are anthropomorphized things you can shop for (there are also Petkins..wee animal items) There are oranges and apricots and hair dryers and cookies and donuts and wheelbarrows..you get the picture...they are currently on series 4...

Gran Jam is a jam jar...with granny glasses and a gingham hat... 
"Gran Jam watches over all of Shopville. She spreads love and slathers affection on the Shopkins, sweetening their lives with her kind words."

I could not find a Gran Jam in the store...so..I made one! Drafted the pattern one day at lunch. She is made of two different green fleece materials, purple gingham and a white felt face with pink felt glasses..I think she turned out pretty cute!

DGD was pretty impressed with her new Shopkin...said she was going to take it to school and set it on her desk..not sure how that will work out, but it made me glad that she likes it!

I even made a tag...

I had DGD sew the arms on..which lead to more sewing and crafting...

She wanted me to make a blue bird with red wings...

while she finished off a beaded necklace

and a landscape

She learned a whole bunch of new skills - threading a self threading needle (the ones with just an eye will come later), how to knot off when done with stitching, how to sew on a button, how to do a running stitch and the applique stitch (not very invisible..but hey...gotta start somewhere!) She did everything on the landscape except the initial knots on the thread..

Rainy Saturday...

So Cal is getting some much needed water...and I did some more sewing!

Made this reversible toy for DGD...almost thought it was going to be a WOMBAT (Waste of Material, Batting And Time)...but DH says its cute and I guess it works well enough..

One side is a caterpillar (made with some scraps of the leftover lime green fleece!)

Turn it inside out and voila...a butterfly...with sparkly wings  - I put gold netting over the fleece..which made the wings much stiffer than I expected..but they do have some shine to them. Thinner fleece for the wings would also have helped..but I only had medium weight fleece in a big enough piece to make the wings.

Also sewed up this panel I got from the donations table at Retreat..its a growth chart...I backed it with the leftover lime green fleece from the Christmas Tree Skirt...and used the cardboard tube of a dry cleaning pants hanger for hanging - didn't want it to be wood or metal....