More Crafting

I have been on a role this week with my crafting, creating two more nature journal covers for some little friends who I know will love them.

I also completed this bunting for my little neice Maya.

Stenciling and Car bags

Today was a crafting day for us, as the mood strikes one must run with it...

I bought this cute fabric the other day with the idea that I wanted to make Charlie a car bag, I've been keeping my eye our and this was perfect. I made the bag (below) from a pattern my good friend Jo made up, quite simple and hard to stuff up (however I proven that theory wrong of course). But upon first glance Charlie now has a very cute bag to keep his cars in.

With the left overs I made a "Mini" car bag to give as a gift (with a car in it) to Charlie's little friend Craig.

My sister Janine and fmy riend Kylie have both inspired me to give stenciling a go, so as I had some fabric paint "fixture" in my draw I thought we'd have a go today. Eli made his hand into a tree, and wants to make it into a bag. Noah did and elephant and his name and I made it into a nature journal cover (sorry Kylie, totally stealing your idea, but it was SUCH a good one, just borrowing it...) Photo yet to come, he was too busy using it to take a photo.

I did these trees, and some Ginko leaves which I picked the other day and photocopied and made a stencil out of (love my ginko), also did some butter flies and flowers. I plan to make Journal covers out of these as gifts for...whoever!!! I had so much fun doing this. Now all I need to do is stitch around each stencil with embroidery thread and whip them up on the sewing machine and I'll be done..hahahahahaha, sounds so simple, but who knows when my next crafting day will arrive!!! To be continued...

New Shoe Laces

How cute is Noah, Charlie needed shoelaces for these shoe (which were once Josh's) so Noah went about crocheting him some. I love em...so does Charlie. Good on you Noah.

Charlie saying thank you by sitting on Noah's head. As you do.

Needle Felting

Kylie introduced my to this wonderful craft last Monday. I heard much about it but never quite understood it. However seeing it done simply inspired me to pick up a needle and create.
This cute little bird was my first creation, not bad for a beginner (I do tend to have beginners luck with these things though, unfortunately my second bird looked slightly more gumbo than this).

Josh created a beautiful mushroom (will post a photo of course). He was more addicted to this than I was in the end.

Charlotte helped me make some balls and flowers for the hanging bird I made s we could give it to her mum. Noah had a crack at it too and did very well creating himself a little person. A few needles lost there lives in the process though, so once we reinvest in some more needle felting will have to take a back seat. Oh well it will give me time to make Charlie some nappies.

New Gruds for a Cute Baby

This is Charlie's preferred position when playing with his toys. He does the same playing with cars and anything really, so long as he can sit in it.
Chuckles was in desperate need of some warm gruds for winter, and of course I couldn't justify buying them, I could however justify buying fabric to make them. I had a Japanese pattern for overalls/pants to try out that Janine gave me. A lot of patterns don't allow for "big bottomed babies" (cloth nappies) these days. Thankfully this one did, it was perfecto.
I found this cute silhouette print with bears and deer and fishing rods etc on it, I loved it, so I matched it with some toasty warm polar fleece so that my very adventurous baby can crawl around outside and stay warm (mostly)

I let the boys choose the fabric for his other pair of pants . They choose this cute little cartoon cowboy print which I lined with flannelet. He looks so spunky.

It was so nice spending a day sewing, very indulgent but it had to be done. I did also manage to get potato and leek soup made for lunch (with help from Noah) and we made pizza for dinner and even squeezed in a walk. What a wonderful relaxing day. I really needed it to recharge my batteries.

I'm Dying.......Tie Dying that is, of course

This is the kind of dying we always enjoy...every couple of years we do a new batch of tie dye shirts for the boys and cousins.First we got busy with the rubber bands, the boys put in loads of thought and got really creative tieing.

Next we mixed up our blue and green dyes and filled our trusty sauce bottles ready for squirting.

We then hit the back yard to make a wonderful mess (lucky the grass was already green).

It's so exciting making things change colour. The boys loved this bit too, the sauce bottle are an easy way for the boys to use the dyes without having to touch them.

Even more exciting was what we found when we removed the rubber bands...I love it (I just wish the over the counter dyes stayed this vibrant). They loved seeing what designs turned out like, what worked well and what didn't.

We love our 2010 "Ocean and Earth" series of Tie Dyed shirts.

Very Exclusive...Limited edition, only 8 were made. lol

More new Spunky Trunks

These are so so cute, an other Aunty Janine creation...

Love em, the baby's not too bad either.

New hat for Chuckles

WOW, I can't can't believe how well this turned out, I have completely impressed myself senseless. Great pattern (make it perfect, thanks j9 for sourcing this for me) love it love it love it and not too difficult either. Managed to make most of it in the time it took Danny and the boys to watch Transformers2 (I would rather make a hat). Looks like everyone will be getting new hats this summer...weather they like it or not!!! WOOHOO

Butterfly

We were reading about butterflies and such and I thought we'd set ourselves to a bit of a project which involved the design and construction of an anatomically correct butterfly.

Noah Charlotte and Eli drew up pattern, pinned them to fabric and cut out wings thorax abdomen and head (legs are still to come). Josh made some antenna's by platting wool.

I sewed all the bits together and then they all had a go at stuffing them. The thing is with this butterfly we made it so it attached together with Velcro, buttons, studs and ties so that you can take it apart and put all the bits back together again...very clever I thought. the kids picked the fabric too. Charlotte loved doing it so much she asked if we could make something every time she came over.

Nature Study Journals

I have been meaning to make these felt pouches for ages for the boys to cart around their nature study journals and pencils. They were a bit of a practice run, so will probably re doe them at some point. For now, they love em though, so happy to leave them at that.

Bandana Bibs

Thank You Aunty Janine for these awesome bandanna bibs you made for Charlie.

Very cute, I love em.

Embroidered Felt Booties for Charlie

These are my third attempt at booties for Charlie, the first ones I liked but they didn't fit him, the second were good and wears all the time. These are made from wool felt and hand embroidered (very randomly and not very expertly mind you). I Think they are very cute and can't wait for him to wear them. Might yet add a ribbon as I had to with the second pair to help keep them on. Cute shoes for my cute baby

xxoo

Sunday, Sewingday, New Pants and Skirt day

I haven't had a sewing day like this for ages. I finished a wrap skirt (not pictured) that has been awaiting completion for about 6 months now, I'd originally made it for summer, so now it's ready ready for the next summer. I'd bought this fabric (pictured) for a winter skirt and began to fear it would become nothing more than a relic in my fabric box, but the going was good and I was feeling inspired, so I dug out a trusty old simple A-line skirt pattern and set to work. After a few miscalculations and failures to fit it correctly, this is what I came up with. The tie I saw lying on the floor from when the boy had been playing "knights" (ties are used for many a dress up in our house, very much a multi-use item), I thought "Hey that kinda goes", and having made Tie Shorts in the past I reckoned I'd give it a whirl. I kinda like it.

My big blister Janine had given me this cowboy fabric ages ago because I was wanting to make Eli a pair of pants, again they have been sitting around cut, but un-sewn for about six months. I was so glad to finish them and He just loves them. I just hope he can keep the knees in tact for another two weeks so he can wear them to Granny's 90th birthday party...feeling hopeful.

Eli, the man of many "spunky trunks".

Felting

Our friends came to visit today to venture into the land of felting. Noah was the only one interested (sunny outdoors was calling the others)

Noah designed a beautiful piece, but as felting tends to take quite some time, it remains unfinished. End result yet to be seen.

Our Felting space

Noah's felting hands

I will post photos of the finished product when it arrises.

Eli's learns to knit April 09

After months of nagging his mother to teach him to knit, Eli finally succeeded in his quest. I felt I was ready to step up to the challenge of teaching this 5 yo to knit.

As I found myself with plenty of time on my hands to sit and help (due my excessive state of pregnancy), we set to task in April 2009.

I was so impressed at how quickly Eli took to the needles, I shouldn't have underestimated him. He was so determined, and in true Eli style once his mind is set on a task there is no stopping him. By the end of a very intense lesson he had created what are the beginnings of a beautiful woolen scarf. .

Completion of which still remains undetermined...keep you posted on that, maybe next winter

Drawing Aliens

Noah and Eli found a patch of sunshine to conjure up some aliens.