Here Comes the Rain Again...

Rain Boots - Rain Cloud Serving Board - Umbrella - Rain Coat

The rain is finally back in Portland. I spent this rainy weekend breaking in our new Waffle Maker with the husband (we have dubbed the weekend "Waffle Fest 2013"). I've also been virtual shopping for new rain gear (and some gear that's just cute and rain themed!).

What kinds of things are you window shopping for with the change in seasons?

DIY Cloud + Lightning Brooch

The rain is back here in Portland, and I am LOVING the Fall weather. We've even had some thunderstorms so far this year (which is very rare here). It inspired me to make this cute little felt brooch (a perfect craft for a rainy afternoon!).

To make this felt brooch you will need:

Grey felt
Yellow felt
scissors
needle
pin back
cotton ball or small amount of polyester fiber fill
thread (colors of your choice)
cloud template (I used the one from my rain cloud brooch)
fabric glue or hot glue (optional)

I started by cutting out my shapes and choosing some thread. I made some templates out of index cards, you can use my cloud template or easily make your own. I free handed my lightning bolt pattern onto my felt (its basically a zigzag line that comes to a point). I like a really bright yellow with matching thread for the contrast it gave my final project, you can definitely use lighter colors if you prefer.

I wanted my lightning bolt to have a little more heft so I doubled the layers and used a blanket stitch to sew them together. Blanket stitch is great because it seems to smooth out the edges of your final shape (which is really useful with felt pieces that can be quite fuzzy around the edge).

Next, I placed my lightning bolt onto one of my clouds and moved it around to decide just where I wanted it placed. Once you decide, you can sandwich the other piece of grey felt on top and get your needle threaded to sew your clouds together.

I decided to give my cloud a silver lining (ha! I do in fact, love this weather!) and thought a backstitch would look cute all the way around. You can do another blanket stitch, or get even fancier with something else if you like, I'm not the boss of you and your crafts :)

Once you get a little over halfway around your cloud, I usually start adding some stuffing in to make sure I can get all the way into the ends. For this I just used a cotton ball, but if you have polyester fiber fill laying around you can use that instead. Continue sewing and adding cotton until your cloud is fully stuffed and you have stitched the entire way around. Tie off your string and weave in the ends if you feel it necessary. Finish your brooch by attaching a pin back onto the back of your cloud (you can use fabric glue, hot glue, or stitch the pin back onto the back of your cloud).

Above you can see a detail of my silver lining stitching. I used a metallic thread because I like things that are sparkly, but you could easily substitute a plain grey or silver colored thread without the sparkly filaments.

Tada! Has the weather inspired you to make anything super cute lately? I'd love to hear about it!

Don't forget to follow The Craftinomicon on your favorite social media platforms so you don't miss out on any crafty goodness!



Silver Metallic thread for this post was provided by Kreinik Threads. I was not compensated in any other way for this post and all opinions are my own.

Rain Cloud Mobile

I just found out that not only is my cousin having a bouncing baby boy this Summer, but my brother and his wife will be having a boy as well! SO it seems it's raining men in our family right now! In honor of our new little men, I made this cute rain cloud mobile (you could make it far more pink for the little ladies)!

To make your own rain cloud mobile you will need:

Felt sheets in various colors
Scissors
String and/or Ribbon
batting or cotton balls to stuff the cloud
Embroidery floss and needle for finishing stitches
Rain Cloud Mobile template (at bottom of this post)
Any additional extras you want to add, go nuts!

Start by tracing your template onto your felt and cutting out all of your shapes. As this is a 3 dimensional project, I cut out 2 of each shape so they could be attached and all sides will look equally pretty, or handsome in this case :) You could easily make one side of your cloud white and the other gray or even black (it can even be an early teaching tool about the weather!).

You can cut out each rain drop once, or if you are like me, cut out a couple extras so you have more than 3 total drops. I decided to go with a mainly blue color scheme here and add in extra colors for some interest. I have to admit though, I think this would look great hanging by one of my windows and I might do an ombre rain drop scheme for that (probably orange)-- babies shouldn't have all the fun, right?

I used a no stitch heat and bond material on my raindrops so I could easily iron them together with a piece of string in between (the heat and bond was on one drop of each pair). I blanket stitched around each drop to add extra color, but it also hides a multitude of sins as far as how nicely each drop was cut out and matched up. If you do a lot of little felt projects, I highly recommend learning the blanket stitch. I found a great tutorial here.

My final assembled mobile looks like this:

It is now making it's way to Wisconsin to rain some love down on a cute little baby boy :)

The template for anyone wanting to make their own version of this:

Rain Cloud Brooch Pattern

I was looking through some of my old projects the other day and decided that this little guy really didn't get the love he deserved. Sure, it's a rain cloud, but it's a cute little rain cloud, right? These are super easy to make, can be customized with lots of different things, and if you don't like hand sewing, just bust out the glue gun!


Here is my cloud pattern if you don't feel like drawing out your own:

The final measurements of my cloud, when stuffed are about 2.5" wide and 1.5" tall.

To make your own cute little rain cloud brooch, cut out 2 of your cloud pattern from the felt color of your choice and sew or glue them together on the edges, filling with a little batting or a cotton ball so it's squishy and soft. I used silver jewelry chain to make my "rain" and added a little blue glass bead to one of my chains. I used a little hot glue to secure the chains in place on the inside of my felt cloud pieces.

Then, I hand stitched a pin back to the back of my cloud to secure it. You could use hot glue, or some other kind of glue if you'd prefer, but not many glues work well for both fabric and metal, so you may find it loosens over time and needs to be glued back on at some point. A few stitches really help make a permanent connection, and most pin backs you will find in the craft stores have a few holes in them to make sewing them onto fabrics pretty easy.

Rain theme contest on Spoonflower.com

I love fabrics of all kinds, but I especially love one of a kind fabrics! Cue Spoonflower.com and the magic they help everyday people like you and me create! For those of you unfamiliar with spoonflower, it is a website where you can upload your own designs and create your own fabric. You can even upload photographs and turn them into fabrics for your own special projects. For one of a kind designs, the prices are also very reasonable, and you can order as much or as little as you like!

This week on Spoonflower.com, the contest theme is rain, and I just so happen to have a design in the contest. If you like it as much as I do, go and vote now! You can vote for as many patterns as you like, and don't need to be a member to vote. There are some very cute designs I am up against too. To vote in this week's contest just go here.