Ellie Bag (Christmas 2011 Backlog!)

I made this nearly 6 months ago, but I wanted to blog it. And am still on a blogging roll from last week. I made this Elephant handbag for Jemima for Christmas last year. She is from Hillary Lang's book which is as awesome as can be.

Ellie bag is very sweet, but she doesn't hold much more than a few lip balms (which is all a 5 year old girl needs anyway!)

I discovered I love sewing with faux fur even if the fibers end up everywhere!

Hot Diggety Dog!

I started making Christmas presents for the kids in June. So organised, and very unusual really. This Sausage Roller from Craft Schmaft was the first project that I started, but I only finished it last night. If I had all the materials at hand, I think I could have made it in a few nights watching TV, but it took me a while to accumulate everything I needed. As is the Craft Schmaft way, it is surprisingly easy to get a nice result. I'm glad this little pup is staying in the family.

I made him for Eve thinking that she would be walking by Christmas, which in June, seemed so bizarre somehow. But yes, she is indeed toddling about and has been for about 3 weeks or so. On Day 3 of full time walking, she tripped (on flat ground) and hit her head so hard she actually passed out for 30 seconds. Terrifying! But she made a quick and full recovery, and we were given the all clear by the medicos 4 hours later. It wasn't the first, and I know it probably won't be the last time we end up in the Emergency Department with one of our children, so I try enjoy each incident free day to the fullest!

++On the day of her spill++

Hello, world.

Little Eve with her "Fleur" from OneGirlDesignwks Christmas 2010

Pink baby oobee

Yellow baby oobee

Hi Blog!

I'm sorry to say it has been a while since I posted! As punishment, blogger won't allow me to move my images around. Fair enough.

I did some sewing (weeks ago now)!

I won the baby oobee pattern in a giveaway from Leslie (One girl blog) and bought 2 of her baby oobee fabric packs to make my girls one each. Eve will get hers when she turns O N E in a few weeks, and Jemima will have to wait until Christmas. Jemima can't wait! (My latest strategy is to make the kids their gifts in front of them so that they will be excited to get their handmade-by-me items: a little manipulative, I know. ha!)

I love Leslie's work a lot. I bought Eve a "fleur" for Christmas last year and the fabrics are so cute. And her quilts inspired the quilt I made for Eve before she was born.

Jemima's is the pink one- yes that is a liberty quilt, lucky oobee!

Eve is likely to just chew on hers for a while, but oobee will be sure to get awesome cuddles as well.

Thanks Leslie for the freebie! I will make heaps of these in the future I am sure!

Some Christmas makey

Dolly pre nose job.

Despite being eternally distracted by my computer, I have managed a fair bit of craft for Christmas in the last few weeks.

Another cute little owl from my trusty Craft Schmaft pattern. (I think I have made about 6 of these now!)

Some applique singlets and fabric hair bows from this tutorial. I have never done the applique singlet thing before. It is such a quick gratifying little project, I think I will have to do some more soon!

A flower crown which I sort of made up as I went along. (Jemima is sporting a lovely black eye that she got by walking into a pole on the school run last week. Nice.)

And I repaired Evie's doll, but now I am more than half way through its replacement, and I don't know which one to keep. The nose job turned out not too bad. I will have to give her to someone very special if she doesn't stay with us. I have a little girl in mind.

Only a couple of days to go!

Purple Giveaway- closed

I have become completely sidetracked by my button tin.

Jemima and I were making button hair clips yesterday and I noticed afresh just how many cute tiny vintage buttons are in my possession. So I spent nearly 2 hours trying to nut out a simple felt hair clip design to showcase them. Now, the end result (pictured on black clips above) is not really all that original... how true it is that there are no new ideas... or is it just there are no new ideas in my head? I glue gunned the whole lot together and it seems pretty secure. If you really yank at it it will come apart, but so will pretty much any hair clip I reckon.

After going back and forth between, "is it cute or crap?", I decided that I like it and have been wearing a cream coloured one like so:

I thought maybe you would like one too? So I put together this little package (containing 2 purple felt flowers, with yellow mini buttons and grey leaves and a pair of purple rose earrings) pictured atop this post for a little giveaway. Open to anyone, anywhere.

EDITED: Der. I knew I was tired today- The giveaway ends NEXT Friday as in the 19th of November. Entries close Thursday the 18th at midnight my time. My original post said it ended today (the 12th)- not so!

Little Pretties

I made these hair accessories on Saturday night for a 6 year old birthday girl. I have a soft spot for this little lady as she wrote my son the sweetest love letter* a few weeks ago. Again, my friendly glue gun helped me out. Also very helpful was this tutorial from one of my favourite blogs, A Beautiful Mess.

A big thank you too to Michelle of Leni and Rose for the giveaway I won. I am loving my covered button hair tie kits very much! And I will be sure to use my blue fabric at some stage in a crafty adventure.

* Dear Caleb, Thank you for calling me a princess. It makes me feel good. And you are a prince.

Loving doily craft

The recipient of this gift, Megan, has safely received her goodies, so I can safely blog without ruining her surprise.

I was inspired to make an artsy clutch in these fabrics (from Bend the Rules Sewing) because I loved my placemats so much (!) I had intended to put the doily closer to the button when the bag is closed, but my addled brain couldn't handle the simple mental gymnastics to get it on there before I sewed the bag together. It still worked out OK though.

I popped in some felt bunting (inspired by Ruby Ellen's Cakies blog) and some hair clips. I bought the clips and the roses from this etsy shop and used the old glue gun to attach them.

I have some of the felt bunting hanging up at my house and it is so cheerful.

Thanks Megan for joining in my Pay it Forward!

I am doing pretty well (I am now 30 weeks along) but my main pregnancy niggle is extreme fatigue which is why I have been a bit absent! But I hope to pop into my blog again soon to show you some other things I have been working on... and maybe finally participate in a meme?

Op shop chic

I am now officially up to date with my wedding presents! I haven't sent these to the recipients yet, so hopefully they don't check my blog too often... I am a now or never sort of blogger I guess!

Op shopped doilies on black cotton drill with Ikea backing fabric = place mats. I quite like them myself.

It is good to see the sun out today. I ended up with a "mini flu"* this week, spending all of yesterday in bed listening to the rain- which would have been lovely if it wasn't for feeling completely shattered! I think I am on the mend today- at least I am out of bed and am thinking about doing my hair. Both good signs of improvement.

* I refuse to call it the flu as I went to the trouble of having a flu shot a few months ago

Just one wedding behind

I went to another lovely wedding on the weekend and brought a gift, but not for the current bride and groom- for a bride and groom who got married about a month or two ago.

This project first appeared here. Four placemats and coasters made from mostly recycled materials and scraps. I quite like the way they came together, and could really do with some placemats for our place. I'm not very good at making the same thing over again in quick succession, so I know it won't be for a while.

So now to think up a present for the bride and groom of more recent times...

In a galaxy far far away...

I am a little out of the habit of posting at the moment, evidently!

This is a present I made for Caleb for Christmas. Back when I was painting the dolls for Jemima's Christmas present, Caleb wanted a set of his own. He is right into Star Wars at the moment, so I drew my inspiration from there. Chewie is my absolute favourite of the set.

Here they are already looking well loved with Luke Skywalker sporting some battle wounds from a pencil or 2.

Fresh off the sewing machine!

Another one of these from Sparkle Power! Probably a long tunic rather than a dress. Not for Jemima, but for a little friend who turned 2 recently. The fabric was given to me last year some time, and I quite like those tiny swans. For the sleeves, I used left overs from the jedi robe, and the buttons are probably at least a couple of decades old, and are a perfect match in my opinion.

Dress ups and pondering

I have been hard at work crafting away, trying to be organised for Christmas. It is verrrrry hard keeping a handmade present under wraps. I usually like to do a big "look what I made! ta da!" on completion of an item. So this secret squirrel business is pretty challenging. I can't even do my ta da! here in blog land for the literate among my recipients might have their surprise spoiled.

But this I can show you... Caleb asked for a "hoodie dress" a little while ago, and once I had surmised he meant Jedi robe, I did a quick google search and found this tutorial. I want this to be a surprise so I couldn't get him to lay on the fabric to get my measurements, so I used my simple servant dress pattern and added the hood and cut and hemmed down the front and added a little velcro attachment. I still need to hem it. I took a sneaky measurement to help in this- I want it to be good to go from unwrapping, not fussing with hemming it on Christmas morning. I hope it fits!

And this is not Christmas craft, and I am also not sure how I feel about it....

I found the veil that came with my second hand wedding dress in a big closet cleanout on Tuesday. I didn't wear it on my wedding day, but the sales assistant gave it to me anyway since she had no use for it. The kids spied it, and both had a go at trying to wear it, but because it was on a hair comb it wouldn't stay put. So I chopped off one of the layers and sewed it to a yellow headband we had lying around and then to cover my shabby hand sewing, sewed some flowers I had made with no purpose in mind, on top. When I finished it, Jemima said in her usual fashion, "I am not wearing that!", but about half an hour later put it on and didn't take it off for about 2 hours. There have been a lot of weddings to attend in her short life, and she is all about the "bride". She even has pretend weddings during her "rest time", that of course have no suggestion of a groom. When I ask her who she married at her wedding, she looks at me blankly or says "Uncle Tim and Aunty Kate."

It's quite funny because I was never "all about the bride". 8 years ago when I was the bride, I was looking forward to being married, but didn't really want to have the "wedding". I don't like being the centre of attention, and it's something that you really can't avoid on your wedding day! But I did want to mark the occasion with a celebration with lots of family and friends, and our service was certainly that. For our reception we had an afternoon tea in a hall in the adjoining retirement village which was just right for us.

I don't want to encourage Jemima to be focussed on her wedding day, but in the end, she equates being a bride with being a princess, a ballerina, a robot or a fairy, so into the dress up box goes the veil!

Pretty trinkets

On Sunday we also celebrated my new sister-in-law's birthday! I gave her the black pretties from the little selection above. The cream and purple rose earrings have secret recipients for this Christmas-which-is-fast-approaching!

I have blogged the earrings before I think (yes here!), and the hair clips are an idea I lifted from Heart of Light. I can't remember how I found these headbands, but aren't they pretty? I bought this one a little while ago, and can't figure out whether I should keep it or give it as a present. She makes the clips now too.

In other news, I took Caleb to "big school" orientation today. Oh he is ready, but there will be tears come February (mine.) I am a massive sook when it comes to an "end of an era", a "new beginning", or just being a proud mum of my "big" little boy in his new green floppy hat.

*sigh*

Today I gave my mum a bag

I wasn't going to blog this today, but for some reason blogger wasn't letting me upload certain photos from iphoto, so I just took what I could get! Anyways, on with the post!

It was my mum's and sister-in-law's birthday lunch today and mum had asked me to make her a bag. I made Dad a man bag for Christmas last year (and I am pleased to report he uses it daily and it hasn't fallen apart. Hooray!). So it was her turn for a Bek-made bag.

I was determined to make it completely from the stash because I have plenty of fabric and was sure it was possible. As a result, I used contrasting rather than matching thread, and didn't have enough lining for the handles. There is an error in the pattern so I underestimated how much fabric I needed.

It is the "Everyday Tote" from Heather Ross' book Weekend Sewing. (Errata here if you are planning to make one.) The pocket I made using this tutorial.

It is huge and so very green, which gave me the old "handmade gift anxiety", but mum seemed to really like it. I like it too. I would love a light denim one with two gathered pockets on the front and a mini floral 30s reproduction fabric lining (not that I have thought about it or anything). But I won't be making anything for myself for a while with Christmas around the bend.

It looks a little like I am giving you all the bird here, but I am most certainly not!

Present for a Preschooler

I seem to know a lot of little boys who are turning 3 at the moment. And this is the present of choice.

I bought some alphabet flash cards from Yellow Mums that I had seen over at Sparkle Power. And made the drawstring bag from Heather Ross' book "Weekend Sewing" which is a great drawstring tutorial I must say.

I bought a big pack of cardstock from officeworks and resisted the temptation to buy a laminator.

I know these cards will probably get trashed, but hopefully the little guy will have fun in the process. As part of the gift I have offered to replace any cards that get ruined or lost. Like a free drinks refill.

(Sorry I accidently posted this before I was finished. All done now.)

Not-so-russian dolls

I'm feeling rather organised because I have nearly finished my first bit of Christmas craft.

I bought a 5 piece unpainted babushka doll from Russian Treasures at the stitches and craft show. I had been umming and ahhhing about what to paint on them, and in the end I just thought, "oh just do it," and this is what I came up with last weekend.

I like the concept of my work, but the execution is a little weak. It's really hard painting around bends! I have no doubt Jemima will love it. She is always playing with this set which is less than half the size so members of the family are forever going missing!

I still need to gloss it up a little. I want it to be super shiny, but the varnish stuff I have is matte finish. Hmm do I make another purchase, or do I just make do?

This will be a gift for Jemima, but Caleb saw me working on it and wants a set too, so I might be making an online purchase in the near future.

Home Sweet Home

Ralph Blue and Pinky Ralphette celebrity lookalikes are to be gifted to one of Caleb's little friends tomorrow at her birthday party. When I made them, the gift didn't feel complete and I started designing a little house for them to live in. Then I saw this tutorial at The Long Thread via Whip up and I just made that. Because it is adorable! (Warning, if you make it, I think there is an error in the instructions when it comes to sewing the lining and flap/roof on. I ended up putting it together using the instructions for these.)

During construction I started thinking... does having so much inspiration and generously provided tutes and patterns actually make me less creative? It is a big help as a beginning sewist to have all these tutes, as with each one comes more confidence and new skills, and hopefully in the end give me the ability to be more creative. Something I am mulling over.

I am a bit blue today as my man has just left this sunny day to go to Paris for work. He will then be traveling to Amsterdam, before coming home in 2 weeks time. We will be OK, but it is much nicer when he is around. Looking forward to him coming back already!

My new favourite gifts to give

The artsy clutch was my old favourite go-to girly gift, but I made 2 of these "Cute as a button vintage clutch" (es) in a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. I love this pattern. It's sooo easy to make, and so quick!

These are presents, and I want to keep them, but I always take that as a good sign!

I also bought some jewelry making supplies from Supplies You Need and have made up some rose earrings, using my trusty glue gun. I'd seen these done at Grosgrain and Trey and Lucy. Green rose earrings modeled here by Old MacDonald (from a falling apart Golden Book I bought yesterday at the Oppy).

Edited to add: In my haste to post I didn't mention that the clutch pattern was from the Meet me at mikes book!

In over my crafty head?

So... I have left this...

won't see this on Apartment Therapy.. hahaha

To work on this...

Which is supposed to work out like this. There is absolutely nothing at all wrong with the tutorial. It is a great idea and I love it, which is why I set to work on one (a single bed size or thereabouts) for my brother and his wife-to-be.

But right now I am feeling a bit out of my depth.

I ran out of quilting pins about a third of the way into basting- and they were $20 a pack or something, so I didn't fancy buying another couple of packets, especially when it is highly unlikely I will ever quilt anything of this size again (based on current enjoyment levels). So my regular pins are scratching viciously at my arms like a nasty cat whenever I turn the quilt around in the machine... and my lines look ridiculous as I am pushing more fabric through my machine than I ever have before making them all wonky like.

Exhale.

I feel a bit better now. Thanks.

Happy Birthday Keristofa

Well, hello.

Today is Chris' birthday. Happy Birthday honey!

We had a roast dinner and a delicious Vienetta to celebrate and wore personalised party hats. Yeehaw!

We each made him a card and Caleb and I had a special present to give that we worked on together. Last week Caleb was experimenting with mixing colours, and I thought the end result looked cool. So I scanned in his paintings and went to Snapfish online and ordered a collage poster. It happened to be on sale at the time and including postage cost about $15. Not bad I thought.

The frame is one from Ikea that I had lying about (we have them breeding in this place) and the poster size wasn't quite right. I was determined to make some kind of matte without having to buy anything new. This one is made out of a manilla folder and some fabric, using masking tape and my sewing machine. I am still into yellow in my home decorating. Tis so cheery.

Oh, and he got a Wii. I have to say, it is a LOT of fun.