Catnap Dress Contest: Miranda's Parade of White Cats

Next up is Miranda's Catnap entry. Miranda is extra early for the new extended deadline, February 21st! Don't forget to catch the deets here! Check out the amazingness Miranda has created once again!!

Miranda Harp

1) Tell us about your dress - which fabric and pattern did you use? Did you make any alterations?
This is the Emery pattern by Christine Haynes. I love a fitted bodice with set-in sleeves, and this one fits very well. The little back neck darts really help the fit. As far as alterations go, I pleated the skirt instead of gathering it to fit the bodice. The dress is made from the Kitty Dreams print in Cranberry - the deep dark reds and purples with splashes of lavender and tomato red .... check out the orange bobble trim I found to go with it!

2) What obstacles, if any, did you have to overcome for this challenge?
Every single time I sat down to sew, I had a little helper. Every single time. So you know what I did? I sewed her her very own skirt.

3) How many other cat clothes do you already own? Can there be too many? 
I have at least three other dresses with cat prints. As soon as I thought that maybe that was enough, the Catnap collection came into the store... I don't have any other clothes for my cats, although sometimes Rilke wears a necktie.

4) Do you have cats? How many and what are their names? Do they like your cat dress?
I have two cats, named Rilke and Juniper. Rilke is a seven year old boy cat, and he is definitely my familiar. He is a huge snuggly beast. The only time he leaves my side is when I'm sewing and that's when Juniper takes over.

 

Juniper is a five year old huntress whose favorite things are chasing bugs and things that smell bad. They love my cat dress - they just think it needs two more white cats on it to be perfect.

5) How do you keep cat hair off your handmade garments?

I do a terrible job of that. I do love my Lilly brush!

6) Why should you win the Catnap Dress contest?

I am really into crazy print dresses - I know I'm going to wear this one all the time! Thanks, Lizzy!

Catnap Dress Contest: Jaime's Cat-Assisted Catnap dress

Here at Fancy Tiger Crafts, we have all been sewing furiously for the past couple of weeks since Lizzy House announced her Catnap dress contest. I mean cats and clothes, who doesn't want to win this?! A lot of us are entering so this week we will feature the contest entries of Fancy Tiger Crafts staff and instructors. Check out the rules and details here if you'd like to participate!

Jaime Jennings

Tell us about your dress - which fabric and pattern did you use? Did you make any alterations?

I made the Miz Mozelle dress by Jamie Christina and used the Cattitude print in Cloud as my main fabric with Cat Mint in Raspberry as a contrast fabric. I didn't alter the pattern - I've made this before and it fits me great so I knew it would be good for this contest. I didn't want to take any chances with trying out a new pattern on a contest time crunch! Also, I love that this pattern lets me use two fabrics and I love making my own bias tape, weird right?

What obstacles, if any, did you have to overcome for this challenge?
Teaching cats to sew. I thought it'd be cool if my cats helped me sew my dress, but it was harder than I thought. They really have to work together to get the pedal working while sewing.

Lucy, left and Looper, right work together to hem Jaime's dress

How many other cat clothes do you already own? Can there be too many? 
Well, in addition to numerous cat items, I had already sewn up a Scout Tee out of Cattitude in Raspberry so this is my second Catnap garment in less than a month...it's a dangerous road. Luckily, I don't think you can have too many cat items in your wardrobe.

Do you have cats? How many and what are their names? Do they like your cat dress?
Yes, I have two cats, Looper and Lucy. Looper is a black male who is 16 years old. He likes laying in front of the fire or in patches of sunshine. Lucy is a black and white female who hates vacuums, mops and cleaning in general. They like my dress a lot, and are now inspired to sew their own Catnap cat accessories.

How do you keep cat hair off your handmade garments?
Its a constant battle that is won with lint removers in every drawer of every room.

Why should you win the Catnap Dress contest?
My dress coordinates very nicely with my cats for optimal appeal.

Jaime's Feather Quilt

--jaime

I fell in love with this quilt when I first saw it debuted by Anna Maria Horner at Quilt Market in Spring of 2012. In August of 2012 we had the amazing opportunity to host Ms. Horner here at Fancy Tiger Crafts for some workshops, of course, we asked her if she could teach the feather quilt. She was thrilled and all my dreams came true when I took her class for the amazing feather block that she designed. I only made one block in class, but it was the start of a new quilt that I was very excited about.

If you read the blog, you know I sew a lot of garments and quilts are fewer and farther between. I love using quilts on my bed so I almost exclusively make queen-sized quilts which take some time. In this case, a year and a half, but it was oh-so worth it.

This quilt is almost all from Anna Maria Horner's Field Study collection which had just come out when Ms. Horner visited us in Denver. I used Kona Cotton in Ash for the background color. The quilt took me so long that I ended up cutting Ash from three different bolts over the course of a year and you can see the different dye lots in the quilt. I don't mind, though, I think it adds some movement and character (but lesson learned: fabrics have dye lots, too!).

Each feather block is made up of 9 pieces of fabric. The "feather" pieces are cut from strip-pieced yardage, which actually went quite fast to make up. This is the most intense piecing I have ever done. I ended up developing an assembly line system which made it go faster and I used some downtime over the holidays to really dig in and finish it.

As with all my queen sized quilts, I sent this one off to be quilted. I used our local quilter, Jason Spicknall of Secret Stash Quilting. He did such an amazing job on this quilt and I love it. His simple ruler lines reflect the feathers in a way that compliments the design and does not detract from the feathers themselves. Perfect.

For the back and binding I used fabric from Anna's current collection, Dowry. I love love love the back of this quilt. The print is so amazing, I didn't do any additional piecing on the back. We have the full line of Dowry in stock now, if you're inspired to make your own feather quilt. This Feather Bed Quilt pattern is available for free here.

I love this quilt and am really proud of my accomplishment!

Cat Nap: Craft Up Some Cattitude!

Oh boy its finally here! Lizzy House's latest collection Cat Nap has arrived. It's almost like this collection was speaking directly to Fancy Tiger's soul. With smiling cats, mischievous mice, dancing butterflies and all around adorableness Cat Nap has won our hearts! We can't wait to craft up new shirts, dresses, bags, and quilts with Cat Nap. According to Amber, you can never have too many cat dresses. There are 3 perfectly suited color stories available. Per usual, these prints compliment her Pearl Bracelets fabrics--don't worry we still have some in stock that coordinate perfectly! 

We have some lovely inspiration for you from Lizzy herself. Check out what she has been sewing with Cat Nap. 

"Catnap draws from my Scandinavian roots, my love of home, cats, and napping. In my small apartment, I follow the sun through the day as it shifts from room to room. You don't have to love cats to love a good catnap."

-Lizzy House

Loony for Laurels

--Jaime

Amber and I are loony for Laurels and now we are total twinsies in our terrific tops and distinct dresses. The Laurel pattern is the newest pattern from sewing superstar Sarai Mitnick of Colette Patterns. It can be sewn up as a top or dress - it is a simple shift-dress design that is easy to sew and perfect to embellish. We've only had this pattern in for a couple of weeks, but Amber and I have already each made a top and dress!

 

My top is made from a Japanese print that I have been hording for a while now. I used our natural linen bias tape to trim my top and I love it. This was an easy top to sew and only took me 3 hours start to finish for my first one. The Laurel features bust and back darts so it has a nice fitted look despite its simplicity. I already have more fabric cut for my next Laurel top. I can't wait to make this sleeveless as well for summertime funtimes!

Amber is crazy for cats so she made a sweet cat shirt that features cats in baskets with butterflies and yarn. Perfect. The Laurel's simple design is made to show off bold prints so if you have some cat fabric just waiting for the right pattern, the wait is over. A black bias binding lets the cats pop for maximum cat-action.

Next we took on Laurel dresses. The Laurel dress is a shift-style dress with half length sleeve that features a zipper closure in the back. I chose a Lizzy House Constellations Twinkle Twinkle print for mine and Amber chose a bold Japanese graphic linen print for hers. For my dress, I used a pale purple shot cotton as a contrasting bias trim while Amber chose to go with black for her dress. They turned out great--Laurels 4-ever!

We hope to see you all take on the Laurel this upcoming spring and summer. We can't wait to see how you embellish yours... pockets, collars, ruffles, oh my!

New Fabric Collections from Japan are Here!

Echino + Nani Iro + Melody Miller + Heather Ross = Yay!

We finally unpacked it all and can't take the magic of our newest fabrics! 

Melody Miller's Ruby Star sheeting is here! These stunning prints on lightweight linen/cotton are large scale and make super fantastic bags and skirts and curtains and more. Below, see each of the fabrics with the whole print from selvedge to selvedge. They are 62" wide!

We've been anticipating and planning for the new Echino line since we got a peak at quilt market. We've got a major crush on Etsuko Furuya. Those animals in fancy frames? They're destined to be sewn up into hot bags and skirts.

Naomi Ito's newest Nani Iro fabrics are pretty dang dreamy. Printed on a soft double gauze, they'll be great for dresses and blouses.

Heather Ross's newest line, Nursery Versery, has cute storybook characters for little ones, with adorable illustrations of the itsy-bitsy spider, little piggies and mice.

Plus, we have even more super-cute Japanese prints for all your adorable to the max projects!

Happy sewing!

Crafting With Cat Hair is the Coolest! plus Cat-tastic Blog Giveaways!

If there is one thing we've learned from living a crafty lifestyle, it's that cats and crafting go hand in hand. Crafters love cats and cats sure do love their crafters. (Deets on the giveaways at the end of the post!)

Egon is my very handsome and very hairy cat. Like many long haired cats, Egon has a tendency to shed giant tumbleweeds of soft fluffy down on a daily basis--something not every cat owner might appreciate. A handspinner or knitter, on the other hand, sees the lighter-than-air fluffballs floating by and thinks, "that's softer than angora, warmer than wool and it's from the tidiest animal I know!"

...and so after a recent cat-brushing sesh with Egon I sat down at my spinning wheel and spun up a peachy 2-ply fingering weight yarn from my beloved kitten. Then I began knitting a little friend for him.

Egon is a huge fan of his mini-self!

You can make one too! Our new Minikitti knitting pattern is available here.
(Details at the bottom of this post on how you can win a copy now and be the first to knit it!)

If spinning and knitting aren't your forte, but you have feline friends, you will definitely want to pick up the new book, Crafting With Cat Hair. This amazing book covers the best ways to collect and prepare your cat's hair for awesome felting projects, like a felted cat cameo pin, or a miniature needlefelted kitty friend!

If you love cats as much as we do, leave a comment here by December 15th at 5pm PST and we will choose six winners at random to receive a free copy of the Minikitti knitting pattern and a cat-related prize (it won't be the Crafting with Cat Hair book, but it will be good) courtesy of Random House! Winners will be announced here on December 18th. Thanks for visiting!

Thanks, Sew Mama Sew, for coordinating Giveaway Day 2011! 

And the winners are...

redgrackle

Amy

Renee G

Susan

sarah

kdevor

If you are a winner and you have not received an email from us, please send us an email with your mailing address so we can send you your prize! fancytiger@gmail.com