FaveCrafts

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Meet and Make: Anshu Jain

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Today’s Meet and Make designer is Anshu Jain. Anshu is an engineer by day and a crafter/seamstress during the wee hours of the morning. She has restless fingers, which means that it’s very difficult for her to not sew/make things. She
loves to sew for little girls and is looking forward to sharing this process once her daughter grows up. In the meantime she talks about sewing on her blog, Blooms And Bugs.

Ready to meet Anshu?

10 Fun Facts About Anshu Jain

  1. I have been sewing for over three years now (if you don’t count childhood sewing), part of it professionally…but I learned to make buttonholes with my machine last month (Feb 2012). Yay! better late than never. If you haven’t done it yet, seriously try it. Your (sewing) life will never be the same.
  2. I’m really afraid of the pins. Its my worst nightmare to leave a pin in a finished garment and have them poke the child wearing it.
  3. I went to the best engineering school in India. Ironically, that’s where I realized I am not made for engineering.
  4. I started sewing on a non-electric sewing machine. It was a really clunky, super basic machine but it sewed.
  5. I lost all my bags the first time we traveled to US. I still remember sitting at the airport after a 28 hour journey. Hungry, tired and almost incredulous that all 4 of our bags disappeared during the journey. Fortunately the airline located them one by one.
  6. I wore a lot of clothes I made when I was a child…some of them made my mom cringe, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
  7. I don’t eat after 6:00 pm. I started doing it for religious reasons but now I feel that its essential for my overall health.
  8. I was really addicted to sewing even as a child. I would cut and sew anything that I could lay my hands on. It meant sewing with Burlap, plastic bags, paper and fabric of course (which came from questionable sources). My mom would often find perfectly fine clothes cut up and sewn into something unrecognizable. I think we can safely say that I’m a mixed media seamstress.
  9. My best fabric shopping place is Old Navy. Seriously, where else can you find nice/soft cotton knits for less than a dollar?
  10. I like rain. Ok, Scratch that. I love rain. The part where I was born and raised is really hot so rain is considered refreshing and very welcome.

Here’s Anshu’s Project:

Spring Rain Mobile

Materials:

  • Felt squares in the following colors:
  • White, Pink (raspberry), Blue, Green, Yellow
  • Batting or fiberfill
  • Upholstery thread, or plastic thread
  • Template

Instructions:

1. Cut out the template out on paper.

2. Place two layers of felt, one over the other, and use the template to draw the cloud pattern on the felt.

3. Cut both layers.

4. Sew both layers together, leaving a small gap at the bottom.

5. Lightly fill the cloud structure with fiberfill. Sew the opening shut.

6. Cut out the drops using the pattern. I cut out 4 in each color, but had some left over.

7. Thread a needle with upholstery thread. Thread through the tip of the drop and tie a knot. Now thread through the tip of another drop and tie another knot about 2-3 inch apart. Repeat for the third drop.

8. Sew this drop garland to the bottom left corner (or side) of the cloud. Thread the needle a couple of times here to reinforce the stitch at this point. Now bring out the needle about 1 inch to the right of the point where you attached the garland.

9. Thread two drops this time from top to bottom. Tie a knot after the second drop. Repeat steps 7, 8, and 9 to attach two more rows of drops

10. Thread a loop on the top of the cloud twice to hang the mobile. Its ready to be admired. Rain rain come my way!

FaveCrafts Blog Giveaway Contest

GIVEAWAY
We are giving away a prize a day every day here on our FaveCrafts blog for National Craft Month. It is so easy to enter. Just go to our Project of the Day post and comment to enter! You have 31 chances to win and a new special prize each day. Tune in every day to see if you are the winner!

Cool2Craft and FaveCrafts Giveaway: Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner

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Have you heard about FaveCrafts’ recent partnership with Cool2Craft?

We’re so excited to work with Tiffany Windsor and the entire team.  From recycled projects to paper crafts, Cool2Craft has so many great ideas for crafters.  Best of all, you don’t have to be an expert to follow the tutorials.  If you’re interested in learning more about Cool2Craft, check out their company profile on FaveCrafts and be sure to sign up for the Cool2Craft weekly newsletter.

Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner

And that’s not all!  FaveCrafts and Cool2Craft are giving away a Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner!  This is a great tool for anyone who loves to craft.

It’s a particularly great for scrapbookers because you can easily duplicate old photos and keepsakes.  When I was younger, I went through a major scrapbooking phase.  It was a pre-scanner era, so I would either have to make my mom take me to a store with a copy machine or cut up old photos.  As a lazy tween, I didn’t care at all about saving anything.  This led to the destruction of so many irreplaceable photographs that I otherwise would have saved for generations.

Don’t let this happen to you!  Enter to win a Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner – the winner will be chose on January 30 and revealed LIVE on Cool2Craft’s live broadcast on January 31.

To learn more about this high tech yet easy to use scanner, check out this Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner Video.

Enter this contest now!

Live Love: 6 Crafty iPhone Apps

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I just received an iPhone for my birthday and I’m pretty excited by all the possibilities this little box offers. (In other words, I can check email and surf the web without leaving my bed!) While browsing the apps stores, I have happily discovered many apps that would be good for crafters.

5 Crafty iPhone Apps

  1. EverNote (Free)- While not specifically designed for crafters per say, Evernote is nonetheless a valuable tool to organize your crafty life. As you go about your day, you can use Evernote to make a note, snap a photo, clip a web page and more.  These various notes are organized and easily accessible on your mobile or desktop. Evernote even makes text in a image searchable.
  2. Stitchminder (Free)- Developed by Paul Mietz Egli of Quilt2Go, this knitting app tracks your progress on a project with 4 customizable counters: rows completed, pattern row, increase and decrease. As you work, you tap your counter (which can play a sound if you like.) This information is stored whenever you close the app or accept a call. Very helpful!
  3. Knitminder (Free-$2.99)- Knitminder is the upgraded version of stitchminder. You can try Knitminder Lite for free, which allows you to track up to 4 knitting projects, patterns and yarns. Knitminder full gives you unlimited knitting organization.
  4. Quick and Easy Quilt Block Tool ($3.99)- Designed by C&T Publishing, this quilt application includes 102 of the most-popular pieced blocks in 5 sizes each, with design details and construction diagrams. This tool is a great reference guide for quilters, including piecing diagrams, cutting instructions, yardage requirements and more,
  5. Etsy Shop Tools ($.99)- For those crafters with an Etsy shop, Etsy Shop Tools is a way to track and organize your Etsy shop, including viewing shop hearts, customer feedback and more. Wit the iPhone app, shop owners can do the same things on their mobiles and do some other neat things such as take a virtual portfolio of their shop with them to show clients and update their shop with new items from the iPhone.
  6. Easy Stitch (&2.99)- Designed by Technical Made Easy, Easy Stitch provides step-by-step instructions for crochet, knitting and embroidery stitches. The app also includes yarn weights, conversion charts and a sample of patterns.  Everything can be accessed offline.

Etsy Pick: Abstract Felt Mobiles

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I have returned from a fantastic two week holiday in Indiana, Chicago and very briefly Milwaukee, where my eldest sister now lives. I must say, Milwaukee is a pretty cool city with its unique houses (no track homes there!) and Alterra Coffee offering a fantastic selection of tea. We were there for the Kite Festival and ice carving on New Year’s Day. Only Milwaukeeans (as I will call them) would fly kites in below freezing weather on top of big sheets of ice.

Speaking of things that dance in the wind (how do you like that segueway?), I’m completely in love with the idea of decorating with mobiles. Now that the boyfriend and I are moving house, I’m definitely on the lookout for cute mobiles. Most of all, I want a porch from which to hang several, unique handmade mobiles. I have this dream of sitting in a rocking chair on a porch, sipping tea and admiring my mobiles. It’s the simple things really. Although on the other side of “the pond” (my side when I’m in Dublin), British crafter Lupin makes the most amazing Abstract Felt Mobiles. She does ship internationally and you can even custom order one with your favorite colors.

Check out Lupin’s main Etsy shop here.

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