group photo

Finally... the group photo of the mermaids heading up to Queensland for Hope Softies. Packed in like sardines, and looking very colourful all together. For those that are curious, the pattern is from Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love. I did change the instructions slightly to accommodate sewing with felt, and that in turn cut down my sewing time quiet significantly- a big bonus when sewing in bulk. Goodbye lovely Mermaidens, I do hope you all find wonderful homes! 

passing it on

Let me take you back to the late 80's, I was in primary school. It would have been a hot December evening and the school hall in our little country town was packed with noisy children and parents ready to watch the end of year presentation night. I knew in advance that I was recieving the award for my class, and I was ever hopeful that the prize would be a voucher for 'Angus & Robertson'. They had done that in previous years, and I was eager to recieve the same. As the night wore on, my name was eventually called out. I couldn't have been more excited- the award for 'outstanding progress' also came with the $20 book voucher!
I probably had to wait a month or so before spending the voucher, as we lived in a very remote town and travelling to a bigger shopping center was not something we did very often. The waiting seemed to make the eventual trip, seem even more exciting.

Lovable Mini-Dolls was the book I carefully chose after making a quick bee-line to the craft/sewing section. It was one purchase I would never regret. This book was the one that I poured hours and hours of time into as a child and it helped develop my love for sewing and handicrafts.
I remember making all sorts of bugs, critters, birds, animals and people. None of which I have kept, most (or all) were gifted to friends.

Recently Grace has been showing an interest in sewing toys after watching me put together the mermaids. I pulled this book out to show her today, and instantly she was charmed. She picked out her first project, and while Jude napped we sewed together.

It felt so good, passing on a book, but more importantly passing on the skill that goes with it.

She listened intently, and to my surprise stitched away with ease. If the thread fell out of the needle, she licked the end of it and carefully threaded it back in, then continued on. "It doesn't matter if it's a bit messy to me Mum, because I am keeping it, and I don't mind... I will try my best though" she excitedly chattered as she mastered her new skill. "Now I can knit and sew!"

I stitched the face on for her, as she thought that might be a bit challenging for day one of sewing, but she stitched around all the edges and had a good go at stuffing it. We didn't get around to the hat or flowers bit, but she wasn't fussed.

It was the perfect project for a quiet Sunday afternoon, and time well spent with my precious big girl.
Love you Grace x

kids clothes :: day 1

Here's my first completed item of kids clothing, sewn last night and embroidered on this morning. This is part of Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge. Wow, try saying that really fast with your mouth stuffed full of biscuits. Could be messy.

Anyway, back to the shirt. This one is a baby gift and the pattern is from Ottobre 3/2010. Its the Savanni Voile tunic. Such a sweet pattern, and I am so glad it comes in Maeve's size. You will probably see more of these soon.

I like...

The sun was lovely and warm on the front steps this morning. A very inviting place to sit and finish off my latest embroidery. Jude sleeping, Maeve making cakes in the sandpit and me stitching. Rare quiet moments like this need to be seized while they last... I am slowly learning.

This is another one of Grace's drawings. Very special because it was one of the first sentences she wrote on her own (without copying it out of a book), that I happened to find lying around the house. The girls would love a pet. Unfortunately right now (and I can see for a very long time to come) three children is more than enough for me to cope with. So sorry kids, pets are just going to have to wait.

 

I have put together some photos for those of you that wanted to see how I attached the linen to the canvas. 

1. Use a cheap art canvas to cover with your embroidery
2. Lay your fabric over the canvas taking care to position it so it looks balanced. Stick a few pins in to hold it in place.
3. Flip it over and start stitching the sides together at the back. You will need a very long piece of strong thread, and may even need to join it a few times if it runs out. If the edge of the fabric is raw it will fray easily. Just turn it under a centimeter or two so you are stitching through two layers. That should make it strong enough. You need to make sure you fabric is pulled firm so it sits nice on the front of the canvas. Mine looks like I have pulled it too tight, but my linen was super soft and needed to be pulled into place.
4. When your sides are done, fold the top and bottom piece of fabric towards each other taking care to fold your corners nicely so they sit flat without looking bulky.
5. Pin the corners in place and stitch the top and bottom edges together in the same way you stitched the sides.
6. The back of your canvas should look something like this. The dog one I did last week was way messier, but hey...no one will ever know! 
7. Then if you like you can put some thread across the back so it can be hung on the wall. I cant explain exactly how I did this...goes something like this though: Knot doubled thread to one edge then knot it on the opposite edge, so it is fairly tight not loose. Take it back to the other side and repeat process so its quiet a few strands thick. Then knot along the thread to hold them all together. 

And you're done!

(edited to say: alternatively, get yourself a staple gun and save yourself half the hassle. Thanks to my wise friend Lissa for the advice!)

dog and blog

Remember this post? I surprised myself and actually turned that super cool drawing of Graces into an embroidery! She loves it. I love it. In fact, we all love it. If you don’t have any kids artworks to be inspired by, maybe you could try this one from Loobylu, or this one (pattern here) from Geninne’s Art blog. They are both pretty cool, and on my ‘to do list’.

And thanks for being patient with my blog. My hubby and I have put on our nerd hats this week and delved into the world of HTML. We really don’t have much idea what we are doing, so the blog has taken on some weird and wonderful looks as of late. Sorry if you happened to stop by at one of the ‘weird’ times. I think we are finally happy with the layout.

holidays

I cant believe how much I am enjoying the school holidays. Especially considering two of the children have been unwell. No mad scrambles in the mornings or me loosing my patience over children being slow to eat breakfast, put on their shoes, do up their seat belts. Not to mention trying to decide what to put in the lunchbox. It's been so nice. Given me a chance to catch my breath one again. I have been trying a few new projects like embroidery which have been incredibly relaxing too. Having a go at turning some of Grace's drawing into embroidery's we can hang on the walls. She is very pleased that her artworks are being copied onto fabric, and watching with great intent to see the finished project. This morning we sat out the back in the sun, I watched the kids play and stitched away. We shared morning tea together and chatted and laughed over bowls of mandarins and tasty biscuits. It's so special being able to relax together as a family and enjoy each others company and silly jokes.

playtime

Izzy and Lucy

The dolls are finally finished: dresses, boots and all.

They have been such a fun project, but incredibly time consuming.

Lets just say I have the greatest respect for all the wonderful doll makers out there.

So many hours of sewing and deciding on fabrics ect,

but most importantly trying to create a doll that a child will fall in love with

and want to play with over and over again.

I am now dreaming up other outfit for these girls:

knitted cardigans

smocked top

chambray pants...

and the list goes on!

pretty faces

Thanks for all your encouragement with the dolls!

They have come along quite nicely are are now just about finished.

I couldn't wait for them to be finished before I showed the girls,

they absolutely love them and gave them names straight away.

Say hello to Izzy (formerly know as Sara, then Judy), Maeve's doll (of course).

 and Lucy, Grace's doll.

I found it so hard finding the right wool for their hair and choosing the colours for their facial features.

But in the end I am happy with how they turned out.

I wasnt sure about the colour of Lucy's hair, and was ready to redo her hair the same as Izzy's.

But as soon as I showed her to Grace, she fell in love and wouldn't let me change a thing.

The dolls are made made from a natural linen,

filled with wool stuffing.

Their hair is mohair.

We have been away for Easter (photo's are from mum and dad's house).

I finished off most of the sewing there, including their dresses yesterday.

I will update with more photos soon.

Now all that's left is to sew their leather boots!

Some of you asked about the pattern for the dolls:

Mum made a kit doll for my sister (back in the 90's?) and the girls just love to play with her when we go to visit.
Mum still had the pattern pieces (without instructions) so I based the dolls on that. 

I am glad they love their new dolls as much as the original!

This is the original doll Mum made. 

Sorry about the dark photos, but we left at night and I didnt get around to day light photos.

 Check out those puffed sleeves!

The girls love her dress, so I copied the pattern for that too.

Will be back with more photos soon...

1am

Excuse the bad lighting in the photo's... it is only 1am.

I have entered the wonderful world of doll making which is surprisingly fun,

but incredibly (crazily) time consuming.

We have a birthday coming up, and I thought leaving myself a week to make these would be ample time.

However I am coming to terms with the fact that the dolls may be bald.

They do have the prettiest of petticoats and bloomers, that must count for something?

I am still trying to work out why I spent tonight making their underwear when I should have finished embroidering their faces and giving them hair. 

I never seem to be able to complete a task in logical order.

And incase you are feeling peckish at this hour of the morning,

here is a photo of the birthday cupcakes that went into school today yesterday.

I managed to overdose on butter cream icing, and spent the day feeling rather poorly.

Lets hope I can make it to bed before the next hour passes.

pink

This singlet is one I decorated for my youngest girl a few months back.
I have had the lace butterfly sitting in the stash for years now, so it was nice to finally put it to use. I also did a bit of beading over the butterfly and around the arm holes to pretty it up.
It's nice to have some hand sewing like this to do while watching a movie, feels like you are being slightly productive at the same time as being entertained.

The skirt was one I made up for a little friend of Maeve's.
No pattern here. Just guessed by using Maeve's measurements and it fitted well.
(thanks Libby for the fabric!)

And for some more pink love, head over to this post on Katherine's blog.

fish tee

Another brought tee that I appliqued on.
This time Grace's request was for a fish, and here is the end result.
I was going to start it yesterday while the littlest two slept, but Grace wanted me to sew at night so that she could come and find it on the table in the morning and get a surprise.
And her enthusiasm this morning when she awoke to find her new tee was just adorable!
I remember the same excitement from when I was younger, coming out for breakfast to find a finished garment mum had been sewing on the table. I was always in awe at what she could create while I slept. How lovely it is to be able to recreate those memories for my children!

handmade gifts

I always love to give something handmade to the girls for their birthdays. This year we brought Grace some beautiful Lyra metallic drawing pencils, so I made the case for them to go in. I blanket stitched around the mushrooms, which turned out rather messy, but still passable.

The other thing she has been asking for is a baby carrier for her dolls. This one I whizzed up the night before, and it turned out great. Can't beat the combo of red, white and denim!

home

Sorry for the big break in blogging, but we are home now and all rested up. Such a great holiday! Even the girls didn't want to come home and when we pulled in the driveway, Maeve got rather distressed and said 'no, no, no...holiday!'. She didn't want to get out of her seat.

The only bit of crafting I did all holidays was to sew these monkeys for the girls. Thanks to my friend Ansia for the link and inspiration!

The only thing I changed was to shrink the pattern to 75%. It made a very nice sized monkey.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and new year.

little bear

Back in my infant and primary school years I use to be mad about hand sewing. For some reason I thought 'hand made' items were literally something sewn or made entirely by hand- no sewing machines please! I wanted to make and sell my hand made things even back then, but started out by making them for friends. 

I remember finding a book in the school library that was full of patterns for miniature bears. One look at that book and I was completely hooked! This little bear was one I pieced together from fake fur that I clipped right back. Even his tiny arms and legs move. I am pretty sure I made him for mum.

I wish I had photos of all the other ones I made. Some I even sewed tiny outfits for and made them beaded necklaces. In the bottom photo he is sitting on Grace's tiny hand, so you can picture his size. I would guess I made him in about yr4-5. I do have a small selection of other soft toys I made as a child, so hopefully I can get some more photos up soon. 

mini quilt #2

Here is the other mini quilt I made for Grace's dolls...I think it was for her 3rd birthday. This one I actually hand quilted, which took a lot longer but I was far more satisfied with the end result. All the fabric is from my growing collection of vintage fabrics, sheets and such. I also painted up my old dolls cot to go with the bedding as part of her present. There is also a mattress to match for both the quilt sets that you can't see in the photos.

magnet swap

I just took part in my first swap over at Crafty Mamas. The challenge was to make a magnet with something on it that represented the start of winter. Lucky me got to swap with the very creative Melissa, and here's what I received.

A beautiful needle felted flower, and a gorgeous little gnome...which is very appropriate considering what most my friends call me!

Some very sweet little cupcakes- yum yum.

And the cutest little bee finger puppets complete with rhyme to sing along with! My girls totally love these! So thank you very much Melissa, for making my first swap so enjoyable.

The start of winter for me reminds me to eat up my citrus. Its usually in season and high in Vitamin C to help keep the winter nastys at bay. So here is what I sent to Melissa.

Four little citrus magnets, a lemon zip up case (that I was going to hand embroider around, but got lazy and did on the machine), a lemon tea towel and lime lip balm.

Here are the magnets that I hand stitched.

And a close up of the lime, because it was my favorite.

4 years later...

...they are finally finished, and presented to their rightful owner! I started these towels for Luke's mum 4 (or 5?) years ago for mothers day. I guessed at the time I would have had them finished in a couple of week, but how wrong I was! I had no idea how long cross stitch can take. Anyway, I got bored of them after a while, and they were hidden in the deepest darkest corners of my sewing room waiting for their time to come. When my sister came to stay in the new year, she was doing a little cross stitch, which inspired me to pull this out and finish it off. I also have a set of towel for my mum which are yet to be started...at this rate she will be doing well to receive them by 2012!