Sew Craft N Bead
Sewing, Crafting, Beading and More!
Custom Washable Face masks
I could not have imagined years ago that my fabric hoarding will soon payoff. Seems like every year I purchase some type of fabric I see when browsing the fabric store. I can’t help but to grab some cool printed fabrics.
Now with the COVID-19 outbreak, everyone needs face masks to help protect themselves from potentially getting affected. Plus, many states have mandated that people must wear masks when out in public, especially if you can’t maintain social distancing of 6 feet.
I was hesitant at first to make face masks, but I started out making a few for my husband, since he is essential personnel at work. I made three different styles for securing the masks, such as ties, elastic around ears or elastoc around head. Plus, in order to prevent fogging when wearing protective glasses or glasses in general, I sew a metal nose piece on the masks so you can adjust/form it to the bridge of your nose for security.
As you can see from my above picture, I made options for four different sizes for everyone to choose from and displayed how the three different securing styles I offer for the face masks look. By the way, when the pandemic first broke out, it was difficult to find elastic! I had quite a bit of elastic stashed away over the years, but I did end up ordering elastic on ebay that took a couple of weeks to arrive. I wanted to make sure I had enough on hand to make masks for people.
Below are the fabrics I have hoarded over the years, that I ended up numbering to make it easier for everyone to order and select their fabric choices:
I know, I have a lot of fabric choices… these are only the cotton fabrics that I have. I literally have a variety of other types of fabric in my craftroom. You can say, my craftroom is like a mini sewing and craft store…
Here are some example of face masks I have made the past month:
I am currently still making face masks, so if you are interested in purchasing your own custom face mask(s), you can contact me on my Facebook page, Etsy Shop or order right here from my shop website.
Thank you for stopping by!
Two-Headed Dragon Plush: Barf and Belch
I made a two-headed dragon, specifically Barf and Belch from How to Train Your Dragon. When I took on the challenge to create the two-headed dragon for someone, I had no idea how I was going to make it. I must have searched everywhere to find a pattern that can assist me with making a two headed dragon. To my surprise, there was nothing… That means I need to figure it out on my own.
Just like how I made the Standing Night and Light Fury Dragon Plushies here, I modified Patchlins Reindeer pattern for the body and modified SewDesuNe floppy dragon pattern for the head to create this two-headed dragon. Designing the split in the neck for the two heads was a slight challenge, I had to visually look at other two-headed dragon plushies to get an idea. I took a chance and I modified the body pattern by splitting the neck and extending it in length and width. Next I cut two square pieces of fabric and used that for the inner neck. I sewed everything and tweeked as I sewed and tada it came out better than I thought. Haha. I am making it sound so easy, but in reality it took a few tries before I got the two headed neck to look right.
I have to mention, some of my creativity credit goes to the wonderful people that request custom plushies, it really pushes the boundaries of my skills. Without request or challenges, I do not know if my creative mind would take me to some of the final plushies I create. Thank you!
Want to see how the dragon turned out? Below are photos of the finished Two-Headed Dragon plush:
Want your own Two-Headed Dragon? You can either request one through my Contact page or you can visit my Etsy Shop.
Thanks for stopping by!
Custom Plush Characters: Zombie, Werewolf and Alien
I had the opportunity make a new children book author’s characters come to life in plush form. I love sewing projects where I get to be super creative. This author first came to me back in July 2017 to create a zombie character she wrote a book about. I just realized that I never wrote a post about it last year. I can’t believe I forgot! No worries, I will share the zombie plush I made last year and the newer characters she requested this year.
Lets start out by going back in time to July 2018. The new children’s book author came to me requesting a custom plush of her zombie character. She sent me multiple sketches of the zombie and this is when we brain stormed ideas of how I was going to make it into plush form. She first asked if I could make it posable where it can stand up or sit down. I informed her that I’ve never attempted a posable plush before so I would have to research on how to make it. We later came to a consensus that I will make the plush sitting down instead. She loved how I made the wolf plush I create and sale on my Etsy shop (here). Going off that, I started drafting the Zombie.
Here is the work in progress pictures I messaged her:
You can see from the photos above that I had to do a lot of machine embroidery, but it was well worth it. I made two of these zombies for her. Below is the final look for the zombie:
I am super proud of myself on how this zombie turned out. The author loved how the zombie turned out. The only issue was it did take me a while to create the zombies. 😔 On a good note, the author was very patient and understanding, plus she was happy to receive the zombies before her book reading that was scheduled in October.
Now fast forward to present (2019). The author invented two more characters, an alien and a werewolf, that she wanted in plush form. She contacted me again, but this time she invisioned a simpler shape for the plush form she wanted for the characters. I love the shape idea she came up with that I might make some more plushies in this shape. 😜
Here are the pictures of how the werewolf, alien, and zombie plushies came out in a more similar shape:
Aren’t they all adorable?! I had so much fun creating these for the author. 😁
Thanks for stopping by!
How To Train Your Dragon: Baby Night Light Fury Dragon Plushies
I was so excited to see the new How To Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World movie. It was a fantastic movie, and I was super excited to see the ending of the film. If you haven’t seen the movie, I am sorry, but I must divulge the news about what I saw at the end of the movie. There were baby night light fury dragons! When I saw these cuties, I knew I had to create plushies of them.
If you saw my past posts of the Laying Down (here) and Standing (here) versions of the Night and Light Fury Plushies I made, I figured I would make the babies in the laying down style but mini version. I had to make more modifications to the patterns since the babies have pieces of each of their parents.
Note: I modified Sew Desu Ne Kirin base pattern to create these plushies. She creates amazing patterns, and they are easy to follow or adjust them to create something great! You can get Sew Desu Ne sewing patterns on her Etsy shop (here) or you can get some of her free patterns on her website (here).
Now for the best part, pictures of the babies!
I couldn’t help myself, but I had to take family pictures of the Standing and Laying Down Night and Light Fury Dragons with the babies! Here are the family portraits:
Standing Night and Light Fury plush dragons with the Night Light Fury Baby plush dragons.
Laying Down Night and Light Fury plush dragons with the Night Light Fury Baby plush dragons.
Aren’t the family portraits adorable?!
Thank you for stopping by!
Want your own dragons to snuggle with? Visit my Shop for current stock or my Etsy shop. Want a custom item, you can request through my Contact page.
Lemon Fox Custom Plush
I had the opportunity to create an adorable custom fox plushie. A mother wanted to give her daughter a custom plushie for her birthday. Her daughter drew a picture of her character “Lemon Fox.”
Drawing by Lemon Fox Studio, you can see here Instagram here.
Here is the sketch I made to show the style plush I was going to sew. She approved the design.
I modified Teacuplion’s Raichu pattern to create this plush. You can get the pattern here: TeacupLion Etsy. TeacupLion has amazing plush patterns. She is one of my favorite plushie designers.
Here is how the Lemon Fox turned out in plush form:
Isn’t the Lemon Fox adorable?!
Thanks for stopping by!
Want your very own custom plush? Request a custom plush through my Etsy Shop here: SewCraftNbead Etsy
Polar Christmas: Plushie Style
Here I go again, conducting my yearly tradition I do: handmade Christmas gifts for the family. Last year I made these fantastic Reindeer and decor crates for Christmas, here, which were a big hit with the family. This year I was adamant I was going to outdo last year gifts, but there was a big hiccup this year with my plans. I ended up traveling most of the year for work. Traveling squashed my grand handmade gift ideas to the ground. Ok, it didn’t do that much damage. All this means is I have a shorter amount of time to create my gifts this year. I will have to resort to making something smaller this holiday season — no biggy.
What kind of handmade gifts do I want to make this year? Good question. Needs to be small, cute and Christmas themed. I like sewing animals so I want to make an animal that I can easily and quickly create. Oh, I know! How about a polar bear?! Even better, I can use my embroidery program and machine to stitch out the face details and paw prints plus make my embroidery machine half sew the plush for me. Hehe. This would save me a lot of time! For those of you that might not know, I am going to create my own In-The-Hoop (ITH) embroidery plush. 
More than a year ago, I made an ITH Husky Plush, here. This husky plush is what inspired the small polar bear plush idea.
Here is a short video of my embroidery machine stitching out some of the polar bear details:
I love my large Husqvarna Viking metal hoop I got for Christmas last year from my in-laws. This large metal embroidery hoop lets me make four polar bear heads at once and four bodies in a separate hooping, which saves me so much time! If I did not have this large metal hoop, then I would only be able to complete one or two at a time. Technically, I could use one of my other big hoops I have, but the metal hoops are easier to set up than the traditional embroidery hoops.
Like I mentioned before, I had to travel quite a bit this year for work. To prevent procrastination and reduce stress I decided that for my final work trip down to Florida I should pack the unfinished polar bears with me on my work adventure.
Below are photos of me working on the polar bears in my hotel room:
Below are all the polar bears stuffed but still need to be sewn together:
I don’t think Florida weather is ideal for Polar Bears but I think they enjoyed the relaxing beach scenery from my hotel room, I know I did. Hehe. Here is a photo of the gorgeous view:
They even had nice chairs on the balcony to enjoy the view. I may have sat outside a few times hand sewing the polar bears together. 
I am so happy I decided to bring the polar bears with me on my work trip to finish most of the polar bears. Here is 25 complete polar bears I made:
Aren’t they cute?
With the little extra time I had left before Christmas, I wanted to add a little extra touch with the polar bears. Can you guess what that was?
If you guessed classic Coca-Cola, you would be right. The idea came to me when I saw the Coca-Cola commercials showing the polar bears sharing a coke with each other. It was like a light bulb on my head went off at that moment, hey, you need to find the classic glass bottles of coke to add with your polar bears. The coca-cola was the small detail needed to add that extra adorable touch. Hopefully, when family members open the gifts, they will get it. Haha. Oh, I also tied a nice small ribbon around their necks to add the extra Christmas touch. 
My hubby loved the idea, but he wanted to add his little detail to the gift idea. He decided it would be awesome for family members who are 21 years + should get a tiny little bottle of crown royal to spike there drink. Haha. For the young ones that can’t have alcohol, we gave them two glass bottles of coke to be fair. 😉
All in all, these polar bears and added details were the highlight of my Christmas especially when everyone thought they were so cute and thoughtful. 😀 I love making cute handmade Christmas gifts and I am already planning next years Christmas gifts. 😉 Haha. To be honest, I already started planning 2020 Christmas too. 😂
Almost forgot. Here are more polar bear pictures with ribbons around their necks:
Merry Christmas everyone! Cheers!
Thanks for stopping by!
How to Train Your Dragon: Standing Night & Light Fury Plushies
I had a special request to create a standing Night and Light fury plushie. I originally made laying down Night and Light Fury plush, here. I loved how both or those plushies came out! I knew one day I wanted to try to make a standing version, but I wasn’t sure when I would do it. Until now. 😁
I really had to get my thinking cap out. How did I want to make the standing version? Is there a pattern already in existence that I can use for the body? I knew I was going to stick with the same head style as the laying down Night and Light Fury plushies… Just like before, I combed through all the patterns I have to see what I can find. No point making a new pattern if there is another pattern out there I can modify to make the desired look I want. Makes sense, right?
After I searched through all the patterns I had, I found the perfect pattern I can modify to create the standing body shape I wanted for Night and Light Fury. Remember the Reindeer I made last year for Christmas for my family, here, I used that body. (Reindeer Pattern was made by Patchlins, you can get the pattern here if you like it.) This pattern was perfect, well not the length of the legs though… I made a Light Fury with the original leg length and it didn’t look right to me. My husband liked it, but I had to make another one with shorter legs to make sure. Guess what, I loved the shorter one better. Hehe. Husband, on the other hand, still liked the taller Light Fury. I even had to send pictures to my older sister who loves How to Train Your Dragon to see which one she likes better. Here are the pictures I sent:
Guess which one she choose?
She loved the shorter one. Hehe. Win for me. 😁
Let me know what you think, shorter or taller version better?
I did not make a tall version of Night Fury, since I liked the short version more.
Here are pictures of the standing Night and Light Fury Dragons:
So cute!!
Thanks for stopping by!
Want your own, check out my Etsy shop in the link below:
Custom Fox Plush
I had the opportunity to create an adorable custom fox plush for someone. Instead of the usual burnt orange and black color or gray and black color I use for my foxes, they wanted a brown, light blue and tan color fox. They also requested the eyes to be like my werewolf/husky plush. Easy peasy.
I drew a mockup to make sure they would like the color choices. Using my excellent Note 8 phone and stylest, I was able to sketch on top of my burnt orange fox picture on my phone to visually show them what the custom fox would look like. Here is the sketch:
They approved the design! Off to sewing, I went.
The hardest part about making this fox was aligning the wolf eyes for the fox. Don’t want it too high or too low or else it will make the fox look weird. After making a few adjustments, I was able to get everything aligned the way I wanted.
If you are wondering, I use Teacuplion’s Fox sewing pattern to make this fox. You can get it here if you want to make your cute fox. 😁
Do you want to see how the fox turned out?
Precious!
I loved how this custom fox turned out. I am inspired to create different types of foxes, like sewing a variety of colors or variations. Hehe. We shall see, it all depends on how much time I will have.
Thanks for stopping by!
How to Train Your Dragon: Stormfly Plushie
I received a special request to create a Stormfly dragon plush from How to Train Your Dragon movie. It is very fitting since I did make a night and light fury dragon plushies a few months ago. Plus, I love dragons so creating Stormfly was a definite must for me. Hehe.
I love sewing and creating, but the hardest part is figuring out if I need to make my sewing pattern or use an existing model to form the plush. For the Stormfly plush, it was hard to find good patterns that fit my vision of how I wanted the plush to look. I know with the night and light fury dragon plushies I used Sew Desu Ne’s Kirin pattern as a base and used the wings from her night fury pattern to help create the plushie look I wanted, which was in a laying down position. Unfortunately, the laying down position, in my mind, would not work very well for a Stormfly plushie. Stormfly has hind legs and wings as arms while night and light fury has front and back legs and wings. Trust me; it would look weird. Here are sketches I drew so you can see what I saw if I was to use the same pattern for Stormfly:
I know my drawings aren’t the best, but they do help me visualize. I like taking pictures of finished plushies I made, or I will screenshot a picture on my phone of a finished plushie from a pattern that I might want to buy or already have purchased so I can sketch on top of it with details or change colors to make sure it will look good. Most of the time I find the perfect pattern that will work, but there are times when I sketch it doesn’t seem right, so I search for another pattern. If I can’t find any patterns that I can modify, then I start designing my own sewing pattern. Why make a new pattern and spend so much time making it while someone else has created a pattern that will work? Right? Of course, I give credit to the designer of the pattern and link to their website and/or shop where you can buy the pattern.
After searching through patterns I have on hand, I found the perfect pattern! I decided to use Sew Desu Ne’s Floppy Dragon Plush pattern.
I saw the pictures of the different Floppy Dragons, and I just knew it had the shape/style I was looking for to make the Stormfly dragon plush. Here is a sketch I created to see if it would indeed work:
Yes, perfect! Now to sewing, well after I modified the pattern a little bit to make the desired look I want. Hehe.
Want to see how Stormfly turned out? Of course, you do! Here you go:
Adorable!
If you do decide to make your own dragon using Sew Desu Ne’s Floppy pattern, note that I did not add poly pellets for weights since I decided to hand sew the legs to be in the standing position I liked. When I initially finished it, the floppy dragon didn’t suit well for the look I was going for. The floppy look might look good for a different dragon but not Stormfly, in my opinion. Btw, Sew Desu Ne offers many patterns that are fantastic! She provides various types of free patterns on her website, here, plus she also sells some patterns on her Etsy shop, here. I have almost all her patterns since they are constructed beautifully. She is an amazing plushie designer!
Thanks for stopping by!
Don’t worry, if you don’t feel like making your own plushie, I definitely can. 😉
Browse through my Shop page for current stock of handmade items, special request an item through my Contact page, or check out my Etsy Shop for more options:
Small Projects: Embroidering & Hemming
When I returned from my two-week work trip, I had a couple of small and easy projects that required my assistance. One, my co-worker asked me if I could embroider numbers on thirteen youth baseball caps and three adult caps for the little league he coaches. Second, my husband just bought two new pairs of jeans that needed hemming. Sounds like manageable projects for me to complete. Hehe.
Baseball Caps
I was really excited about embroidering the numbers on the baseball caps since this gave me the opportunity to use my Husqvarna Viking small metal hoop. If you don’t know, the metal hoops that Husqvarna Viking make are super versatile and handy for embroidery projects, like this one I am doing!
The metal hoops come with four magnets that are used to hold down stabilizer and fabric still on the metal hoop. Makes it easier for odd shape items you are trying to embroider which can’t be easily done using a standard embroidery hoop.
My biggest struggle with embroidering numbers on the back of baseball caps was trying to align the caps perfectly on the hoop so it can stitch out numbers straight. Caps are stiff on the front so getting them to lay straight or not bunching up was difficult. Once I accomplished a few caps I was able to hoop them quicker.
In these pictures, most would probably think the stitch out location of this number is good, but for me, I had to redo this one since I figured it would look better closer to the middle seam.
I know I have said in past posts that I would try to be better at taking photos of my progress, well let’s say I am still epically failing at remembering to take pictures. Sorry. But, I did manage to snap a video of my embroidery machine stitching out the number 10 on one of the hats which you can see how I had to place the caps on the metal hoop. 🙂
When I had to embroider two numbers on the caps, it was even more challenging to make sure the numbers stitched out in the right spot. Luckily, the metal hoops have notches on the hoop to help me align easier plus it comes with a grid guide.
Easy peasy.
Hemming Jeans
My last little project was hemming my husband’s new pair of jeans. Unfortunately, my husband has a hard time finding jeans that can fit him lengthwise. He has to get jeans that are 40W, but shortest length we can find in stores are 30L, on rare occasions 28L (which I still have to hem a little). In his defense, he has a longer torso but shorter legs. I think he is happy I can hem his jeans for him. 😉
You can see in the pictures above; I rolled the jeans up to the length desired for my husband. I used a zipper foot to place the foot right next to the hemline and put the needle all the way to the left, this way we can keep the original jean hem. In the video below, you can see how I sewed next to the jean hem.
After I stitched next to the jean hemline, I used my serger machine to cut off the excess material/overlock stitched the edge. The overlock stitch will help prevent fraying, but if you don’t have a serger, you can cut off the excess and use a zig-zag stitch on your sewing machine to prevent fraying. Below is a picture of the serged edge on the jeans.
After I serged the edge, I flipped the hem and used an iron to press the hemline of the jeans so it won’t turn out. Note, sometimes when I wash my husband’s jeans, I usually have to push or iron down the hemline.
In the picture below, you can see how it looks when you hem jeans with the original hem.
Pretty awesome. From a distance, you would never know I hemmed the jeans, but when you take a closer look you can tell, but who is going to look close up to see your jeans hemline? Not many people? Anyways, my husband is a happy camper and is ready to wear his newly hemmed jeans. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
Items For Sale
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Night Light Dragon Family Plush Bundle
$150.00
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Night & Light Dragon Plush Bundle
$85.00
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Baby Night Light Fury Dragon Plush Bundle
$75.00
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Green Long Dragon Plush
$50.00
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Tiled Blue Garden Clay Planter Small
$50.00
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Tiled Gray Garden Clay Planter
$50.00
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Custom Color Werewolf Plush
$46.00
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Custom Color Husky Plush
$46.00
