Once upon a time there was a girl who came to be know as a Maker of Things Varied and Wonderful.  All sorts of curious things did this girl create–hats and pastries, monsters and all manner of fantastic beasts.   One day it was suggested that perhaps the Maker of Things should share her adventures and secret knowledge with the world.  Acknowledging a desire to share her learnings and accomplishments, the girl set forth to pen her adventures for the edification of all.  Here begins her epic tales of craftery.

So I am Jefita (he-fee-tuh), the Maker of Things and this is my endeavor to document the various things I work on.  Primarily I design and produce my own stuffed animals these days, but these tales don’t just cover my professional ventures.   I am also an artist, dabble in millinery and clothing,  started a noob garden, and work on making tasty things to eat.   From time to time I come up with other random projects to tackle, like breeding fish.

I was going to spend some time telling you about myself, but then I decided you can figure it out as I go along.  Also, you can go check out the About page.

Now you may join me in my adventures!

I’m going to start this out with some sew-along geek-tastic plush goodness, but there was an unfortunate incident involving the meeting of my knuckle and the cheese grater last night.  So, while I sulk for a couple of days, you can brush up on your sewing skills if you would like to follow along.

Since many of the projects I tackle involve sewing, I’m going to cover some sewing basics.  Conveniently, I already have pre-grater-incident pictures to illustrate.  These are the simple stitches that I use all the time.  I am demonstrating all these on some craft felt, which is super cheap and readily available at craft and fabric stores, but you could use most any fabric scraps.

1. Running Stitch – Usually this is used if you want to join two pieces of fabric with the stitches on the inside so they don’t show.  It can also be used decoratively to add patterns to the fabric.  Even though this is the most basic sewing stitch, I actually don’t use it all that much.  Still, good to know.

2. Whip Stitch – I use this a lot.  It is a good stitch for fabrics that don’t ravel or fray like felt or fleece.  Because most of what I sew is felt and I like my stitches to show, this is a very handy stitch.

3. Back Stitch – This is really just a decorative stitch.  I use it to add details to my work.  You can basically “draw” on your project with it.  It is suitable for all fabric types.

Stay tuned to find out what I will be making with these skills!  I hate guessing games, but I love surprises so I’m not going to tell you yet.  If guessing is your thing, here’s a hint:  it’s not an animal, person or monster and if you have any sort of geek heart it will make you go squee!.

Deploying surprise in five… four…