Super Sekrit Project

A certain someone had a birthday yesterday.  I spent the afternoon running up  few little bits and pieces for her before watching her almost explode with excitement whilst opening her presents later!

I started of with a set of pouches.  All cotton, they have a button fastening and a tiny bit of lace trim for prettiness.

The colours were chosen as they happen to be favoured by the birthday girl.  Making to pouches was fun, but I felt something more was needed.  So I decided on a few things to put in the pouches.

I ran up a tissue pack cover out of the gingham scraps and tucked that into the largest bag.

This is a nail file case, made to match the pouches again. I put this in the middle pouch. I love making matched things! Though the last gift doesn't match...

A Captain America key ring.  Partly to match the amazing cushion made for her by another friend and partly because I like making key rings!  This was tucked into the smallest pouch and I think was a happy surprise!

This is going to be my only post this week, as I'm off home for a few days tomorrow.  I'll try and make next weeks posts longer to make up for my lack of writing this week!

Hearts

I was given a kit on how to make lavender heart sachets for Christmas and a few weeks ago I finally got round to making them up!

They have a linen front and a plain cotton back.  The kit provided everything even the bows cam pre-made and just needed stitching on!

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 I think I could do with practising shapes a little more but other than that I'm quite happy with them!  They are now making my clothing cupboard a sweeter smelling place!

As we're on the subject of hearts though, check out this rare knitted thing I made!

I gave it to my husband for valentines day and he's kind enough to tell me it's wonderful.  The pattern was free from The Making Spot and nice and easy for a beginner knitter like me to follow!

For now though a very important pattern has finally made it to me from customs and I need to devote all my energy to doing the best possible job on it! 

I'll be back later in the week with a doll and an apron or two to share...

Fur Tabard

Rose has recently taken to wearing armour.  It's not a lot and it's as much for warmth as anything (fun fact, fleece cloaks do not do enough aginst bitterly cold wind chill).  However up until very recently she's been borrowing Caled's armour, only when Caled and Rose appear at the same time that means there isn't enough armour to go around...  So I made her some!

This is her tabard, the  outside is fake fur (imitation poodle I believe) and it's lined with green cotton (because that's that I had to hand at the time).  Please excuse the slight randomness of this photo.  It was meant to be the one showing just the lining.  However, blogger is having a temper tantrum and refusing to let me upload the photo of just the tabard.

I've been wanting a bandage bandolier for a while now.  Thing is, the colours you can buy them in seem to be limited to brown and black.  Not really what I had in mind.  So I founs the very last scraps of the green faux suede I made Roses orginal kit out of and ran up one of my own!

It's fastened with a green cotton ribbon, that I think I picked up as part of a charity shop bundle!

Next week I have some little heart things to show and some of my christmas makes.  I've been sewing shirts this week, but I don't want to put them on here until their intended wearer has hold of them!

It's all about the bags!

Yesterday was Mothers Day and naturally a good opportunity to send my mother a little something!  A friend suggested a shopping bag and it seemed like the very thing so I dived into my stash to find some mum friendly fabric.

And there I hit a slight snag, as I didn't have a single piece big enough in colours my mum likes (we have very different colour preferences).  So I made a patchwork creation!

 I embroidered the patch on a scrap of green linen.  The brighter red is faux wool, the darker red is cotton drill.  The plaid is a soft brushed cotton and the handles are also cotton.

 The back has a smidge of yellow at the top, mostly to be different to the front!  The dimensions are loosely based on a reusable shopping bag I already own and love.

It's lined with a slightly different yellow cotton and red cotton.  I'm pleased to report that Mum likes it and has decided it will be a work bag as she doesn't want to spoil it by carrying shopping in it.

Cthulu Hoodie

Slightly early post due to the fact we're off on a little trip tomorrow until Saturday!  I've made a few of these now (what does it say about my friends that they all want to be cthulu?!), but as this is the neatest one to date I thought it could be the one I shared with the world!

These are ridiculously easy to make.  I took the pattern from an old fleece jumper of mine for the body.  Once I'd made the body I added a pocket to the front (on this version anyway).

The hood is huge.  I know you can fit two people's heads inside it and I reckon three wouldn't be out of the question!  It's a kind of bulging at the back shape, which is much easier to see when someone is inside it, sorry!

I then added the appliqued wiggly bit to the hood and stitched a load of 'tentacles' onto the hood edge.

A couple of toy safety eyes later and ta-daa!  One eldritch horror in hoodie form!

Have a lovely weekend, I'm off to Wales.  Next week I shall show you a few more bags (yes I'm still into making bags) and a bandage bandolier!

New Blanket

It's all about the blankets in this house at this time of year!  I do wish it would hurry up and become spring properly (I can hear the garden calling and I have a little green house that needs setting up), but until then I do at least have a lovely new blanket to snuggle under.

 As you can see, I totally failed to get pictures before this blanket got put into action!  The squares are from various fat quarters I have picked up here and there with plans for a new blanket.

The sashing it around the blocks is a printed cotton that we picked up in London last year.  I originally had plans to make it into a skirt for dancing, but it was the perfect choice for this quilt instead!

I have been reading a fair few quilting blogs recently and I came across this method of finishing the quilt by tieing it and I wanted to try it out!  It takes a lot longer than stitching in the ditch machine quilting.  Or maybe that's just because I do my hand sewing in front of the tv?

As it's eventual destination is the pile of camping blankets it's backed with a thickish cotton wadding and beige fleece.  I do not like beige as a colour usually, but for this blanket it was the perfect choice.

In the mean time we now have a lovely bedspread and I need to get on and tidy the bedroom to match the quilt!

Little Things

Dear me, it has been a while hasn't it?  Life got a bit hectic round here and more than a little stressful at times, coupled with an unusual number of colds meaning there's been little time for blogging. 

Still, here I am again!  Today I am going to show you some little pouches I have made whilst I continue sorting through all my makes, working out what I've not put on here yet!

This is a little drawstring pouch I ran up for Eirlys out of her leftover dress fabric.  It might become an IC meal bag, it might never be used by her, it might become part of her regular kit.  I don't know really, I just hard an urge to make it! The outside is embroidered taffeta and the inside yellow satin.  The ribbon is satin and all the stuff came from my stash.

 This is a coin purse that I got in a free kit with my Mollie Makes magazine.  I was really pleased as I've been wanting to try making one for ages!  Turns out that I am no very good at them as the making involves more gluing than sewing.  Glue and I do not mix, so after a lot of swearing and stuck together fingers I called it done but I'm not overly impressed with the result.  Still, at least now I know coin purses aren't for me!

I made just about everyone I know a zip bag for a Christmas present this year and in doing so I made myself sad because I wanted one, but I just didn't have the time in December to make it!  So, to celebrate some good news this week I ran this one up!  It originally had fawn coloured velvet ric-rac trim where the brown trim is, but I didn't like how it looked, so I unpicked it and tried again and I'm much happier with the result!

It's made with green taffeta (I love taffeta..), which is scraps from my birthday steampunk skirt, brown trim which I think is left overs from my gold victorian ballgown and a little bit of a very lovely lace that I believe was part of a birthday present one year!  The inside is lined with brown lining fabric, scraps from something!

Next week I have my newest (and prettiest) pacthwork quilt to show off and some of the things I made as Christmas presents.  Until then, have a lovely weekend!