Makin' toys for my babes

While Lily was unwell she took to flicking through my 'Softies' sewing book and asking me to make her some of the toys that she found in it. I was happy to do it too, because the process of choosing the toy and the fabrics and the process of helping me to trace the patterns and stuff the toys transformed her briefly from a listless little thing into an excited and happy girl.

The first toy that she chose was "Mabel Monkey" and I took the opportunity to make a second one for Charlie. I was really happy with the way they turned out too. It's a really simple and straightforward pattern.

As soon as "Mabel" was finished, Lily gave her a big cuddle, threw a birthday party for her and then picked up the book again to choose another toy. When I thought about it, I could understand why. When I was a child, if I could have made pictures in a book come to life within a day or two, I would have been all about it too.

I was also pretty happy with her next choice. I have always liked the look of "Polly" and I thought that Lily's choice of fabrics was lots of fun. Again, it was a pretty simple pattern to make and I loved how Polly turned out.

Finally, I have been intending to make Lily a Steiner doll to give her after the birth as a sort of "Big Sister" present. I got my lovely sister-in-law to help me get started quite some time ago and then it sat in my study/studio for a long time... Well, I finally bought the book "Making Waldorf Dolls" a few weeks ago and it gave me to courage to finish the doll.

I have to say that, unlike the softies, this was not an easy project. I found it pretty challenging actually and won't be jumping to make another one for quite a while. My sister-in-law makes these dolls for her business and only charges $145 for each doll (which comes with two complete outfits, including gorgeous hand-knitted cardigans!). Once you consider the considerable cost of the materials that go into making them, plus the time that it takes to put them together, I would have to charge upwards of $500 to even make a profit. I am in awe of her!

That said, in the end I was really happy with how Lil's doll turned out (especially if you look back at my first attempt at making a Steiner doll!) and I am kind of excited to give it to her after Charlie is born.


What do you think of them?

My creative space : Lily's dress

So I haven't actually gotten very far since last week... but at least I have cut out the pieces for one dress.

Lily chose this pink gingham and I am not really a fan and so I am trying to add a bit of detail to it to keep it interesting. I was thinking of adding some ribbon and maybe stencilling a few silver butterflies on it. What do you think?

For more lovely creative spaces, check out Kootoyoo's place.

My creative space: summer dress project

It's warming up and, since she has pretty much grown out of the ones I made her last year, I thought that I'd better start sewing Lily some new dresses. Last week I squeezed in enough time to trace and cut out the pattern (I chose size 3 and now I'm hoping that it's not too big...). Then this morning I got Lily to pick out her favourite fabrics.

She immediately went for the pink gingham, due to her current obsession with pink, and then picked a few fabrics that I only have small amounts of. Finally I was able to steer her in the direction of the cute yellow floral fabric that I bought 3 metres of (on sale). For the smaller bits of fabric, I thought that I would pick up some plain cotton in a complimentary colour and add on some pockets or applique.

Oh... and I had to add Amy Karol's new book into the photo - Bend the rules with fabric. It arrived yesterday and I crazily missed the post and so I ran out to get it from the postbox this morning. So exciting! From the little flip through that I've had so far it looks just as cool as you would expect. I am so excited to get stuck into some projects from within it's pages.

For more creative spaces check out the lovely Kirsty's blog.

Loving : Alabama Stitch Book

I got this book in the mail yesterday morning and managed to wrangle enough snippets of time out of the day to read it cover to cover by nightfall. This was no easy feat, but it really was that good. Natalie Channin has put together a stunning book, filled with beautiful projects that I genuinely wanted to make immediately.

Her style is so appealing to me. She bases all of her projects on recycled t-shirts, which is cool in addition to being sustainable. But most of all I love the detailing that she incorporates into all of the projects - the beading, the stenciling and, especially, the reverse applique, which I had never seen before.


I really really want to make this skirt. In fact, I found myself dreaming about it all night last night.


These journals are gorgeous too. They would make great Christmas presents, wouldn't they?

Is anyone else starting to get worried about Christmas?

No? Just me?

Image credits: from the book, but specifically borrowed from the editor's site.

I must say, Melanie Falick has a bit of a magic touch with craft books. Every book of hers that I have seen is utterly gorgeous.

Sunday

On Sunday we went along to the 2nd birthday party of one of Lily's friends, E. I made a little doll (based on Emily's - Inside a Black Apple - pattern) and a batch of cinnamon scrolls (recipe below). I was feeling all proud of myself for bringing along homemade goodies, but totally undid it all by gorging myself on the scrolls. I really have no self-control around cinnamon!


Lily had such a good time. The sun was shining and so we spend the morning outside on the grass. E got a trampoline for her birthday and Lily spent most of the party jumping on it. They also had bubbles, which are always a hit.


It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning.

What did you do on the weekend?


(Bread machine) Cinnamon Scrolls*



Ingredients:
2 teaspoons yeast
3&1/3 cups flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup soymilk
3 tablespoons water
1 egg or 2 tablespoons soy yogurt
1/4 cup margarine

For the filling:
1/4 cup walnuts (ground)
1/4 cup margarine (melted)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
(You could also add 1/4 cup raisins/sultanas, or some finely chopped apple)

Icing:
1/4 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons soymilk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Instructions:
Add of the main ingredients into your bread machine (yeast first) and put it on (pizza) dough mode. When it is done, remove the dough from the machine and knead it for about 5-10 minutes. Let it rest for another 10 minutes and then roll it out into a even rectangle (about 37x25cms). Combine the filling ingredients together in a small bowl, mixing well, and then spread it evenly across the surface of your dough.

Roll the dough starting at one of the long edges and tuck in the edges when you are done. You should have a roll that is about 30 cms long (give or take). Slice your roll into about 12 slices (of about 2.5 cms wide) and place them on a pre-greased oven tray.

Cover the tray with a tea towel and leave in a warm, dry place for about 45 minutes to rise. Then bake in a pre-heated oven at around 175 C (350 F?) for about 18-20 minutes (or longer if you have an older oven). [Remove when starting to brown on top].

Drizzle the buns with the vanilla icing and then eat while still warm and gooey.

(If you have any left over then store in an air tight container in the fridge, but be sure to warm them up a little before eating them. They are nowhere near as yummy when cold.)

*If you don't have a bread machine then you might want to try Anna's recipe over here.

My creative space : bibs for a baby

A friend of mine had a baby yesterday and so I thought that I would make him (the munchkin) a couple of bibs. Because you can never have enough bibs, can you?

The bib fabric is cut out of some cute sheets that I found in an op shop.

(In the background is some new fabric that I got from Kelani. I love it so much that I may never be able to cut into it...)

Pop over to Kirsty's place to see other creative spaces.

Lily's monster

Yesterday morning Lily asked to 'read' one of my sewing books - 'Softies'. (She calls it "Mama bear" because it has a big picture of a softie called Mama bear on the back cover and it resembles the mama bear that I made her last year before we went to Vanuatu - from the pattern in the book.) She took it over to the couch and began to flick through it. After a little while she paused on the picture of 'Lucy's Monster' and said:

"Mama, I want a monster. Can you make me a monster?"

As it happened, I could. We already had all the materials in the house and so I complied. Fortunately, it was a pretty easy pattern and didn't take too long.

Once it was finished, she gave it some very big cuddles and proceeded to carry it around everywhere.

A little goodness

How nice is it to receive a package in the mail? Especially when it is full of goodness.

I have been drooling over most of the stuff in Leslie's Etsy shop for months and months now and when she announced a 30% sale I decided that my time had come. First I got a little packet of stamps for Lily (& I) to play with and then I selected a modest little selection of cute fabric.

When it all arrived (this morning! Who knew they delivered on a Saturday?) I was so happy with what I had chosen. I just love the feel of the linen blends and those elephants are just so incredibly cute.

The only trouble that I face now is in deciding what to do with it...

P.S. Leslie is closing up her shop (to move home to Canada) and is now having a 40% off sale on most of her products. So pop over there for a look around if you like lovely fabric. (She also has a lovely blog).

Merry Christmas

I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas (or Hanuka, or other special family time...). Ours was great, but also a little intense.



In the lead-up to Christmas I set myself too much work - sewing lots of presents (like the clutches pictured above - from Bend the Rules Sewing); printing canvas for wrapping paper (also pictured); baking and wrapping gingerbread; and cooking more food than would fit in our fridge.


On Christmas Eve, we hosted drinks for 30 people (my Mum's family). The photos above are of the calm before the storm (so to speak). It was so lovely to see everyone and Lily loved having her cousins over the play with (and to exchange gifts with). Also everyone came loaded down with food and drinks, and we had many hands to help with the clean up at the end. However, this was only the beginning...


On Christmas morning we hosted breakfast for 9. We sat outside in the sun and it was a beautiful morning - lots of fresh fruit (mangoes and cherries always make me think of Christmas); mushrooms on toast, muffins, and (of course) coffee. More gifts were exchanged, but by now Lily was getting tired and said "Goodbye everyone" and lead me off to a quiet place where she could feed to sleep.
During her nap, more cleaning and cooking was done by all... and then we hosted a lunch for 11 (some of my Dad and my Sister-in-law's families). We had enough food for 20, at least, and it was a lovely long lingering lunch. Still more gifts were exchanged, more beautiful fruit, chocolates and coffee was consumed, and still more cleaning was done by many helping hands.

At 6:30pm we finished off the last load of dishes and then quickly made a couple of roast vegetables salads & a fruit platter and drove out to P's parents place for the Mega-family dinner. There were at least 50 people at P's parents' place and yet more gifts were exchanged... We asked Lily if she wanted to open her presents. "No," was her firm reply. Instead she wanted to play outside with her cousins. (We ended up having to open about half of Lily's gifts this morning - on her behalf - It was crazy-talk.)

We got home at 10:15pm, exhausted.

It was truly lovely to catch up with all of our families and to share food & gifts with the people that we love. However, it was also pretty overwhelming to see (and host) so many people in such a short space of time. If only we could spread Christmas out over a few weeks...

A smock for Lily

Here is my latest smock creation. The pocket is from a small piece of vintage fabric that I am in love with. I had to reduce the pattern to 95% in order to get a better fit on Lily.



Excuse the photos. A certain little person was in no mood for being photographed (there is a first for everything, I guess).

"Could you walk towards me, Lily?"
"No. Open sandpit."



"OK. Could you give me a smile?"
"No."



"No smile?"
"No. Sad face."



"OK. Show me another sad face."
"No. No sad face. No smile."



...

"Do you like your new smock Lily?"
"Yes."



Thank goodness for small mercies!

A smock for Maddie

I just love smocks. I think that they are one of the cutest, and most practical, items of clothing out there. So I thought that I would make a few this year as Christmas present for some of the small people in my life.

This one is for Maddie. I hope that she likes it and gets it REALLY dirty!



The pattern is from the fabulous Bend the Rules Sewing book. Oh how I love this book.

A space to sew

OK, next up is my sewing space.



This is still a bit of a work in progress. I found this great sewing organiser thing-y at the secondhand shop some time back and it was previously holding a good portion of my sewing stuff. However, it sits on the ground and it far too attractive to a certain little person - and so my thread etc ends up all over the floor and in a big tangled mess. For the moment, therefore, I have decided to remove all the tempting things from this little cabinet and to take the opportunity to fix it up a little.



In the meantime I borrowed one of Lily's little bookshelves and put it up on a chest-of-draws (out of little person reach) and arranged my stuff in there. The nice thing about this is that I have also been able to fit in some of my favourite bits of fabric (the rest of which live in the linen closet) and some of my growing collection of craft books. The 'inspiration board' was hanging on the wall behind this little shelf and so now it needs to a new home next-door...

Felt makin'

I have finally kicked back into gear and started work on making Lily and her cousin's felt food for Christmas. You might remember that I made a tomato some time back. Well, now I have finished a carrot (and another one is almost done) and I am close to finishing a corn (which is currently serving nicely as a pin cushion...).



The thing is that I simply cannot believe how much work these little things are. There is so much detail to sew and it is taking me forever. Perhaps I just need a little more practice...

Of course it doesn't help that I have become completely obsessed with the idea of making toadstools in the meantime. There are some great free tutorials available online! I just had to start making one of them to satisfy my new-found obsession. I'll post some picture when I've got a nice little group of them growing on my desk.

Fortunately Lily is quite fond of hanging out in my sewing room/study while I do all this makin'. To facilitate this I made her a felt board to play with on a low table.




Though, of course, she would rather be sewing on my machine!

On my desk...

On my desk this Wednesday: Three new books (received for my birthday) - Printing by hand (So inspiring! I just want to go out and stock up on printing supplies and get started NOW), Drawing from Life (Haven't really gotten into this one yet) & Eat, Drink & Be Vegan (Oh So Good. Must cook everything that I have seen so far and probably will); A pocket for another 'vintage' apron (I am thinking of putting it on a chocolate brown apron with a cream waistband & tie - what do you think?); some fabric and patterns laid out to make a couple of mini tote bags for Christmas; the beginnings of an 'artsy clutch' also for Christmas (yes, it is from the same fabrics as my last apron - I really like the combination and I had just a little of each left over); and poor Mamma bear's apron still waiting to be completed (sorry little bear!).

More desks here.

On my desk... apron

On my desk this week is a "vintage" apron that I am making for myself. Yes, I know that it is very "Suzy Homemaker" as my friend Brooke would say. However, what exactly is wrong with being a homemaker? Any negative connotations are purely the result of us totally disrespecting jobs that are typically done by women.

Anyway... the pattern is from Bend the rules sewing. I want to make almost every one of the 30 projects in this book. If only I had the time. It is driving me crazy...

More desks here.

On my desk...

On my desk today is Lily's almost completed Mamma Bear, our ancient iBook, and my new favourite toy - an Ipod touch (a surprise gift from P - isn't he lovely?).



Mamma Bear still needs her apron (which is waiting at home) and still needs to have her little arms stuffed. I did the stuffing in the car on the way to Sydney and didn't quite bring enough with me...

More on my desks here.

A holiday wardrobe

If only my packing was as simple...