Here's the start of the Christmas Crafting!

I'm going to start with one of my favourite gifts.  I used this tutorial to make this cushion.

It's very carefully made with no pink whatsoever as it was made for Ruthwhoisnotablogger who has an allergy to pink.

I used cotton, velvet, satin and poly cotton to make it and backed it with an owl print cotton.

It got a very happy reaction so I think I picked the right gift!

Happy Christmas!

Have a lovely day!

Have a bathroom selfie of me at my work Christmas party!

Odds and Ends

No new sewing today, just a few random pics of things I've been up to in the past few weeks.

 Making some of these for a Christmas party at work.

Turning this

Into this...

And then into this

Drinking these with friends
 

And eating way more of these than is good for me!

Peppermint creams in case you hadn't guessed...

And Back

Here I am again.  Firstly, a huge, huge thank-you to all my friends for looking after me.  I have been very well cared for (and fed copious amounts of ice cream and cake).  I've also spent time with family and generally been sorting myself out.

Doesn't mean I stopped crafting though.  Sadly, most of what I've made has been Christmas presents so I still can't show you. 

I have however, run up a new bag for a friends little person to take to nursery. 

It's a very simple drawstring rucksack, designed to a spare set of clothes and the ever popular nursery A5 diary.

Mummy and Daddy choose the pale blue print and asked for pink accents.  The lace around the name was my idea - I couldn't resist it as a finishing touch!

My favourite part of this is that the name tab is actually a tiny pocket, so when my wee one is a bit bigger she can transport her special treasures in there.  It's all cotton and washable and so should last well!

Next week I'll be around on Monday and Thursday as normal, though Monday is likely to be another random update.  After that though, I can show you all my Christmas makes, at last!

Hiatus

My Grandmother (Granny Joyce who I don't think I've mentioned on here before), passed away last week.

I'm struggling a bit right now and so there will be no blog for another fortnight, whilst I spend time with family.

I also want to say a very big thank-you, to everyone who has been looking after me for the last week.  I love you all and I'm so lucky to have such good friends. 

Look after yourselves. x

Err...

So, I've got a couple of blogging issues right now.  Issue one, I have misplaced my camera, which makes taking photos awkward.  Issue two, I can't show a lot of my projects!  I'm either making kit that's for an ic meal or I'm frantically sewing Christmas presents.  Which obviously I can't show!

So, have the one photo I have of Hattie's long cloak!

It's a good old McCalls 4139!  Only, I drafted a mandarin collar to go on it, because I use it underneath the white fur capelet.  It's lovely and warm as it's purple fleece.

I have no idea what I'll blog about on Thursday, so be prepared for something a bit random!

New Cloak Style

So, I made this for Wizard Fluidity and then totally forgot to take pictures of her in it!  So have dodgy pictures of me instead!

It's made of blue fleece and I used this tutorial

 Whilst I agree it could be made in an hour, this took me a bit longer.  Mostly because, as larp kit, I wanted it a bit sturdier.  So I've over locked all the seams and I hand stitched the collar seam down, so it would be less annoying on a long days larp.

It's knee length (as per Fluidity's instructions) and has a sliver clasp.  It was a fun sew and I'd definitely make it again!

Have a great weekend!

Introducing Humact Terciel

Who I made a surcoat/tabard thing for!

It's royal blue cotton drill with silver satin bias binding. 

The pattern is made up though based on a character of Garth Nix.  It has side slits to the waist for movement and an oddly bell shaped sleeve.

I embroidered a key on each sleeve, again as a nod to the character it's based off.

Not a lot else to say about this I think!  New cloak style to show on Thursday!

Introducing Warden Reid

Yes, we're back to larp kit!  Here's a tabard I made for a friend playing a justice warden.

 The tabard has a front slit which is bias bound as is the neck hole.  The symbol is one he sent to me and is appliqued on in white felt.

Not a lot else to say about this one!  I'm sorry I don't have more pictures, I didn't seem to get any good ones.

DI Craft Swap - Woodland Theme

I participated in my first ever craft swap!  It was so much fun I've already signed up for the next one! 

This swap is organised by the lovely Hannah who blogs at Dainty and Ivory.  Septembers theme was Woodland and as I spend a lot of time running around in the local woodland it seemed like an appropriate time to sign up!

I was sending to Gayle of Pink Robot and it was so much fun to come up with what to send!  I already read her  blog and so I knew that like me Gayle loves to sew.  So I found the sweetest woodland print fat quarter and ran up a needle book, scissor fob and pincushion.

The fob is a miniature version of the pincushion.  I used some of my new rayon embroidery thread to embroider the words on the needle case and the buttons were in my button box.  I thought they were the most perfect match!

 

For my bought gift I found a woodland themed notebook and a pack of woodland stickers.  I loved wrapping everything up and then posting it off to Gayle!

Meanwhile, wonderful Gemma from Lipstick and Lashes sent to me and she spoilt me totally!  Last week was a very rough week and my wonderful parcel was a bright spot to cheer me up!

Everything in the parcel is lovely, but I think the best bit is the kind words in the lovely notelet Gemma sent me!  That said I am wearing the gorgeous thistle necklace now (I've not really taken it off since it arrived), the tin is on my coffee table, waiting for the perfect filling to go inside it, my gorgeous hand made hedgehog (who I adore!) is on the lounge door where I can see him as I work and I am bedecked in the floral crown!

The tea light holders have gone to join my table of candle holders, the tea lights themselves long gone. Last but not least, the tartan fabric has gone to join my stash whilst I think up the perfect thing to make from it!  The possibilities are endless and I am paralysed by indecision right now...

Aren't I the luckiest person?  If you are interested in craft swaps then I really recommend popping over to Dainty and Ivory to sign up! I think the current sign up is open until the 15th. I can't wait to find out who I'm sending to next!

Introducing Koia!

Oh look, I am here after all!  Things have (thankfully) calmed down.

So, here's a tunic I made for Tribeswoman Koia.

Made to my usual style, but  with added side gores rather than slits.

It's brown cotton and a pretty orangey brown trim.

 The trim was tricky to get round the neck but I eventually got it to a point where I was happy enough with it.

Next week a warden and a humact I think...

Transfer T-Shirt

I took a quick break this weekend and made myself a t-shirt!  Mainly so I could finally play with my book of iron on transfers.

As you can see I put one transfer on the sleeve and one on the front. they're lines of celtic knots.  Ironing them on was a faff (I might have damaged my table, oops...) but I really like the effect.

 The fabric is some more of my dark grey t-shirting (nearly but not quite run out of that!

If I'm going to be honest, the t-shirt is a little tight, but still wearable.  I think this will end up as a work top because then I won't worry when it gets messy!

So, there you go.  As a quick heads up, life has been a bit meh here lately, so I'm not overly sure if there will be a post on Thursday.

Smarties Cake

Nothing sewn today, instead check out this cake I made for my step-daughters birthday!

It's a basic victoria sponge, covered in chocolate buttercream.  I then squashed chocolate fingers into the sides of the cake and arranged smarties on the top (no pinks ones as pink is not cool apparently).

I'm still pleased with how it turned out!  Also, in case you were wondering this is what the contents of six tubes of smarties sorted by colour look like.

Winter Coat

With the nights drawing in and the temperature dropping it was time for Small Bean to have a new coat.

Coats for babies need to be 3 things - washable, easy to put on and take off and big enough to grow into without being too big!

With this in mind, fleece was the obvious choice and measuring was done carefully to make sure it was the right size.  As back fleece was what I had to hand, we went with a slightly punk/goth/emo look.

Please excuse the randomness of these pics.  Small Bean didn't want to model, she wanted to crawl and be fed pink wafer biscuits (she was out of luck there, I didn't have any in).

But as you can see, it's a knee length, overlocked fleece coat.  The overlocking was done in white to relieve the blackness and it has a hood and three buttons.

The sleeves currently need to be rolled up a little and it's baggy, but with any luck this merely means she won't grow out of it until the spring!