Craftastic Weekend Project: Cafe Curtain Apron

Here is a quick and easy sewing project--an adorable apron made from cute Japanese cafe curtain fabric.

What you'll need:
3/4 yard cafe curtain fabric
2 yards ribbon

1) Start by trimming off the extra material along both the top and bottom of your cafe curtain fabric. Cut along the fabric's pretty scalloped border--it is finished in a way that won't unravel.



2) Prepare the sides of your apron to be hemmed. Fold the raw edge in 1/4" on the wrong side of the fabric and iron, and then fold in again and iron. Pin.

3) Stitch the side hems.

4) Thread your ribbon through the curtain rod holes at the top of your new cafe curtain apron.

Adorable! These are some of the cute cafe curtain fabrics we have in right now.

If you are feeling more advanced you can make your apron ties out of a coordinating fabric and add cute pockets, too! You'll just need 1/2 yard of another fabric.


Happy sewing!

Better Know A Crafter: Morgan Miller

Morgan dropped in to Fancy Tiger Crafts the other day with the most adorable tote embroidered with a Sublime Stitching chihuahua pattern. We loved it and asked her to be one of our featured crafters. She brought in an armload of totally sweet embroidered goodies that she has been stitching away on. I'm loving the vampire-werewolf-mummy dishcloth, lady!

Morgan Miller

1) Tell us a little about yourself.
I am 26 and a commercial photographer here in Denver. I have always loved DIY projects and my parents did lots of crafts when I was growing up. It is just a wonderful, rewarding creative outlet. I love to embroider! I am really into embroidering canvas bags, dish towels and aprons or pretty much anything that I can get my hands on.


2) Tell us about your projects.
I've made some embroidered bags for myself and friends. I have also embroidered some dish towels and an apron my mom made me. It was so simple, I just found some plain canvas bags and some flour sack dish towels, ironed on some Sublime Stitching patterns, put the fabric in an embroidery hoop and started stitching away. You need an embroidery needle and some embroidery floss (you know the stuff you used to make friendship bracelets with.) Once you've got those you can get started. The hardest part is picking the colors of floss to use.


3) How did you learn to embroider?
I started about a month ago and I have been self taught for the most part. I learned a few stitches off of Sublime Stitching's website. I am excited to learn more stitches--there are so many!

4) What is your favorite animal?
That is a tough one because I have so many...probably my dog Pax. He is my best friend.

Thanks Morgan! Happy stitching!

New! Sashiko Japanese Embroidery Supplies!

We are loving sashiko. This Japanese style of embroidery is simple and sleek with it's geometric patterns and architectural faceted look. We are now carrying many designs of the printed cloth patterns ready for stitching, tons of colors of the sashiko embroider floss, and several kits that include all you need to get started with this sweet craft.



And if you are not ready to tackle learning sashiko on your own, check out our Sashiko Pillow class.

Better Know A Crafter: Alicya Tebo

Alicya is one of our craft night regulars and an amazing knitter. She just finished knitting some really great mittens inspired by the Twilight movie (which I admit has been a pretty hot topic at craft night) out of super soft Baby Alpaca Chunky. We photographed Alicya at our favorite neighborhood ice cream shop, Sweet Action Ice Cream.

Alicya Tebo

1) Tell us a little about yourself.
I am a photography student at the Art Institute of Colorado. I am almost always knitting or taking photographs of knitting related things. I love fusing my knitting with my photography.


2) Tell us about the project you've made.
I made Bella's knitted mittens from the Twilight movie. The original mittens are by Ruth Cross, I used the base of Marielle Henault's pattern that I found off Ravelry and mixed it up a bit with a different stitch for the palms to make it more like Ruth Cross' mittens.


3) How did you learn to knit?
My sister taught me how to knit left handed three times. It wasn't until my friend Kathleen taught me while we were playing Dead Rising that it really stuck.

4) What is your favorite animal?
Dinosaurs, kittens, binturongs, bunnies, owls, unicorns.

Thanks Alicya! And thanks Sweet Action Ice Cream! We love you!

New! Sublime Stitching Kits and Journal!

New from Sublime Stitching--two kits and one adorable journal by Jenny Hart.

Embroider your own set of crafty greeting cards with the Sublime Stitching Stitchable Stationary kit. It includes embroidery needles, colorful floss, and six cards preprinted with greetings, birds, nesting dolls and more. Everything you need for extra special handcrafted greetings.


The new Sublime Stitching Baby Bib Embroidery Kit has everything you need to make two super adorable bibs for the cutest baby in town, including six reusable iron on patterns, two bibs, an embroidery needle and colorful embroidery floss, plus easy to follow illustrated instructions.


Also new from Jenny Hart--this cute journal for crafty folks. Or the horse lovers out there. We happen to be both, as you may know, so we think it is the bees knees. Or the knobby foals knees.

Norwood Fiber Farm Trip (Pt 3): Piñon Wood Ranch

Our next stop on the fiber farm tour is Piñon Wood Ranch, where our friends Peg and Woody breed Shetland sheep and have a herd of alpacas. They raise all their animals for fiber, which Peg hand spins into luscious yarns. We have some of her pretty beaded alpaca handspun here at Fancy Tiger.

It was shearing day for the alpacas. They were a little nervous but still pretty curious about me and my camera.

This little fawn guy was 9 months old and ready for his first shearing. Here he is before and after.

We visited at the perfect time to see all the new baby Shetland lambs. Wewent into their stall and they climbed all over us, nibbling our shoes and coatsleeves and hair.

There was one little lamb that stole our heart, Diamond Lil. May I introduce the cutest lamb of all time?

Diamond Lil is the youngest of triplets. There wasn't enough milk for all the babies so Lil has to be bottle fed. She loves her human friends and likes to follow them around like a little puppy. She is the cuddliest!

Diamond Lil really loves to frolick.

For more photos of our trip check out our Flickr page!

Norwood Fiber Farm Trip (Part 1) Buckhorn Gardens

Norwood Fiber Farm Trip (Part 2) Cute Angora Goats

Norwood Fiber Farm Trip (Pt 2): Walkabout Ranch

The first fiber farm we visited in Norwood was Walkabout Ranch, where it was shearing day for the Angora goats. Our friends Jeannie and Howard Davis keep the adorable, friendly goats for their soft mohair fiber.

The little guys were very curious. The bravest goat of the herd became friends with Jaime, and shared a goat kiss with her.

The unsheared goats were really interested in what was going on in the barn, where shearing time was happening.

The shearer, Sunny, specializes in shearing small flocks of fiber animals. He is known in Colorado and surrounding states for his care while shearing the animals.

The ranch is also home to Cara, an Anatolian Shepherd who lives with and guards the goats. Cara was separated from her herd while they were getting sheared. She watched and worried while she couldn't be with them.

This is Cara when she got her herd back. She was literally jumping for joy.

Jeannie and Howard also raise buckskin Tennessee Walking horses. When the last goat had been sheared and the clippers had been turned off the horses decided it was safe to come back from the pasture.

They were the sweetest horses I've ever met. I got so much horse nuzzling action, it was out of control. This is Buddy and little Sheila giving me soft horse kisses.

Stay tuned for part 3, our trip to see alpaca and Shetland lambs at Piñon Wood Ranch. It gets even cuter!

Norwood Fiber Farm Trip (Part 3) Shetland Lambs and Alpaca

Norwood Fiber Farm Trip (Part 1) Buckhorn Gardens