oh sew wonderful

Tanya Whelan

2011-10-07T04:51:00.001-07:00

Have you seen this book Sew what you love by Tanya Whelan? I had to pre order it ( what a shame it is not out for Christmas) because I know it will just be lovely and while I put this on my wish list, I had to add her beautiful fabric, too, who wouldn't? Have a look at her blog, too. I have made her ruffeled skirt and the tutorial is so easy to follow and my girls love their skirts and I am going to make her easy peasy skirt because K. loves pleats since she got into Cheerleading club at school. I promise photos will follow!

My sister's wedding

2011-09-05T07:54:00.000-07:00

We have been away for a long time. It was my sister's wedding in August and we added our family holiday to that stay, so in total we were away for 5 weeks.
Here are some things I made for the wedding.

This is the quilt I made for my sister and her husband. It is the biggest project I have ever done and I am so glad they liked it. When I started making it, I wasn't too sure how it would work out...especially after my friends disliked some of the fabric I was going to use. I am so glad I kept going, the colours worked beautifully and the different prints make it interesting, at least I think so.
My girls were flower girls and I made their dresses. I bought the fabric at Ikea for £5 per metre, you can't go wrong with that (and if I remember right it was designed by Kath Kidson, but I am not sure anymore). They looked so cute and had a fantastic day.This is our picture for the guest book. I asked my dad to make me a big heart out of thick wire and I tied ivy around it. I then took pictures of all the guests and these will go in the guest book together with their wishes for the happy couple.

One more present for Miss R

2011-07-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

It had to be the Tilda angel. I thought the bathrobe was quite cute and I enjoyed the bit of embroidery (You can clearly see that I am not an expert!). It was quite a time consuming project but great fun. Best of all as, that both teachers liked their gifts and cards.For the piggy one I used an svg images from treasure box design, they do such lovely characters.
I can't believe that K has almost finished her first year in school. They have done so much (and mummy had great fun making costumes) and I am sure these memories will stay with her for a long time 9 even longer if mummy manages to finish the scrapbook).

Teachers' presents

2011-07-18T10:59:00.001-07:00

I have to make presents for six teachers this year. The pre-school teachers are the most difficult, because they have received gifts from us for three years now and I don't want to repeat myself. One of the school teachers was easy, she collects pigs and I found this flying pig in a Tilda book.

The pre-school teachers are getting bracelets like this one
Now I only have to figure out what to do for Miss R and then I am done...mmmh a bag or an angel?

Butterfly costume

2011-07-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

My daughter's class held an "Ugly Bug Ball" and even though we have a perfectly fine bee and ladybird costume she requested a butterfly outfit...but not any old butterfly outfit, it had to have the stages of the butterfly's life in it. Thankfully I remembered a short tutorial for a wrap-around-butterfly-wings-skirt on ikatbag . I didn't have her exact measurements but it worked out all right (ok, the wings turned out a bit too long and that's why you can see the pink skirt when you wrap them around, but it is good enough for me). The skirt worked as the butterfly and cocoon and I made the caterpillar out of felt and used a button for the egg. The evening before the dressing up day she reminded me that she needs antennae, too. So there I was making pink pompoms to attach on a headband. In the morning we had to paint her face, too....the things you do to make your little ones happy. To be honest, I get just as much fun out of making the costumes for her as she gets out of wearing them.

Farbenmix.de

2011-06-12T04:27:00.000-07:00

Just found this fantastic web page. Lots of wonderderful sewing advice and super cute ribbon in the shop. I looked at it in German but I think they have an English version as well. I don't know if I am the last one to find this, but just in case, here is the link
www.farbenmix.de

Fantastic book

2011-06-12T03:59:00.000-07:00

I got this book a while back and finally made something out of it. K. loves her skirt, it is comfy and a little bit like a dressing up skirt ...just right for a little princess. The patterns are easy to follow and there are even some lovely ideas for boys in there. I will have to get some knitted fabric for the t-shirts, they look very comfy.

A bag

2011-06-12T03:52:00.000-07:00

I made this bag for our friends daughter, she seems to like it and uses it as a school bag. Isn't it fun, when the things you made get used and loved. I love making presents, so much more satisfying than just choosing something from the shops...that reminds me, that I should better get back to my sister's wedding gift.

It has been a long time

2011-06-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it really been this long? I think I know the reason...we had the most amazing weather since March, lots of sunshine and hardly any rain = lots of outside play and hardly any sewing + 5th birthday, visit from parents and Holidays and the result is no blogging for months.
But just to show my cousin that I have not been lazy, here is the quilt I made for my sister's godchild. I followed an idea I have seen on Little Birdie Secret's blog, it was so much fun and didn't take ages. And I am working on a couple of surprises for my sister's wedding.
One very important event in the last two weeks: my new sewing machine arrived. It is a Silver Viscount 1050 (really helpful shop and best price I could find) and I love it. I don't know how it compares to the big brands but it seems fantastic value for money. So far it does more than I thought it would and I feel like a kid in a toy shop trying out all the functions it comes with. Isn't it sad that I get excited that I can write by sewing, no mare iron in labels for my girls!

How to make a lion costume

2011-02-11T03:51:00.000-08:00

Mt daughter's school seems to have a dressing up day every week, we had pirate day, people who help us day and this week it was circus day. Pirate day was easy, old shirt, my belt, scarf and a few cardboard accessories. My cricut came in handy, I cut out the Jolly Roger on the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge from white vinyl and stuck it onto black fabric that I had lying around. A bit of face paint and she was done. On the way to school she said:

Mami, I like pirate day...but I would rather be a princess!

People who help us was easy, too. I persuaded her that all the girls would come as nurses (which most of them did) and that a chef would be a good costume. I made her the outfit ages ago, the colours were all her choice! This time she opted out of the face paint, I had suggested a curly moustache, she wanted to be a girl chef. That is ok, too. We used some felt doughnuts and biscuits and a wooden spoon as accessories. Today is circus day and K had decided as soon this day was announced that she wanted to be a lion. We had nothing in the house, so I got to get my sewing machine out...I didn't complain. You might have guessed by now, that I really like dress up days and get a bit carried away.
I had a look on the Internet and then made up my own costume.
We copied the shape of a hood onto orange fabric that was folded right sides together, we added seam allowance and about 3 inches at the bottom.
I sewed these two pieces together and zigzagged the rough edges.
K then ripped brown, orange and beige fabric into strips (we used my scrap bag and found loads, don't try to make them uniform, the rougher the look the better), we used some felt strips, too. I then placed the first line of strips along the seam on the hood and zigzagged them down. The next lines of strips were arranged in a u shape around the first line, about 11/2-2 inches apart. I then cut 4 u shapes out of brown felt for the ears and sewed two together around the round edge, leaving the straight bottom open. I filled them with cut offs and sewed them on between the lines at the front of the hood.
I used some shorter strips of fabric for the fringe and sewed them on along the top front edge of the hood.
I would have sewn this hood onto a brown t-shirt, but we borrowed one from friends, so I used safety pins.
We cut some elastic for the arms and legs, knotted them into a circle and just knotted some strips of fabric on. We used a 3 inch wide and about 24 inch long strip of orange fabric for the tail, before we sewed it together we cut brown, beige and orange fabric into 3 by 6 inch rectangles (roughly) and folded them over to go at one end of the long strip of orange, with the rough edges meeting at the bottom and the fabric lying on top of the long strip). The long strip of orange was folded over lengthwise (now measuring 11/2 by 24 inches). Then I started sewing at the end with the extra fabric (it should be on the inside of the tube). This is a bit tricky, you might have to do this bit by hand if you put in too much fabric. I then sewed along the long side leaving the top open. The next step was to turn the tail around and cut the fabric at the bottom into strips. I attached mine to a brown pair of leggings. You could stuff your tail, but we liked it unstuffed better.
We added some face paint in the morning and this is it.

Promarkers and Lili of the Valley Stamps

2011-01-29T06:13:00.000-08:00

Oh why, oh why do I keep finding new inspirations? I bought a crafting magazine that came with free stamps and enjoyed using them so much that I treated myself to promarkers. They are alcohol based twin tipped markers and they are so wonderful. The colours come out beautifully and they blend so well. I found a web page that sells them cheaper than Letraset themselves. Now I have a new problem...I need more stamps. I have found the perfect web page. Lily of the Valley stamps. The images are so cute, lots of sweet little fairies and girls that I like the most. I now have to decide how much money I am allowed to spend...the have free postage over £25, very tempting.

Brilliant tutorial

2010-12-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

I don't know what it is like in your house but the older the girls get the smaller the parts of their toys seem to get. I was wrapping presents, as you do around this time of year, when I realised that more tiny parts are going to enter our house. We never keep the boxes, so these pieces end up all over the house, I keep finding single Barbie shoes or tops of LEGO flowers everywhere. At that moment the tutorial for the peek-a-boo-bag from Make it perfect popped into my mind. It came together in no time and I think it is just perfect. There will be one bag for each girl under the Christmas tree, or maybe more if I get more time.

Sewing

2010-12-21T08:32:00.000-08:00

I have been sewing a bit, hurrah, but as always I forgot to take pictures. I made two gathered clutches as presents for my daughter's teachers, I followed the fantastic tutorial from Noodlehead. They both like purple, so I used two purple fabrics, one cord and one printed cotton and did two different colourways. It was a bit last minute and I only managed to take a picture on my phone, will see if my husband can help me to get it off the phone.
My sister in law needed to bags for a wedding, she wanted the same one that I made her for her birthday but this time it was dark blue with white dots. It is from the book Making vintage bags, the pattern is straight forward, the hardest bit was to get the people at our coop to enlarge it.

Our first gingerbread house

2010-12-21T08:18:00.000-08:00

This year I have decided to be brave and make a gingerbread house. I followed the recipe in my fvourite baking book, Rachel Allen Bake. The project was split into three stages:baking, assembling, decorating. On Sunday we baked the gingerbread, it looked like quite a lot but we used the rest of the dough for little gingerbread men, trees and hearts. The recipe came with templates (the template for the roof was wrong, but I only noticed that in stage two), you had to cut out the pieces from paper and the from dough, bake them and then give them a trim before cooling. This left us with lovely cut of pieces of gingerbread which had to be tried, we called this quality controle. Monday morning I assembled the house. I used 250g icing sugar and 1egg white, it worked really well. Just before I picked up the big one from school, I got all the decorations out in little jars so that we could get going straight away. Oh the excitement when we got home. We spent an hour decorating, well the little one helped by quality testing the sweets. It was "such fun" (too much Miranda).
I can see that this is going to be a new Christmas tradition. Over the last two weeks, my girls have secretly removed quite a lot of the chocolate buttons and I have caught my husband as well, but I think that is part of the fun of having a gingerbread house.

Crochet is the cure

2010-12-04T10:47:00.000-08:00

I had lost my making mojo a little after the disastrous shopping evening...lets just say, it wasn't an evening for handmade...people bought cheap tacky looking plastic jewellery, pandora style jewelery and bath stuff from Avon...it wasn't only me, there was this beautiful stall with wooden elks and bears, so cheap and so cute, hardly any sales...I had made up my mind that I was only going to buy something, if I had sold something...I just made enough to cover the costs for the table but I had to buy two wooden bear decorations for my girls, I could not leave them there for £1 each. I would have bought more if I had sold more, the next day I was really upset that I didn't get that gorgeous elk.
Anyway, I had lost my making mojo. Just felt that my stuff wasn't good enough and looked rubbish. Quite a down sort of day. I had lots of Lebkuchen and hot chocolate, used my unsold cards for my Christmas post to my family, talked to a friend and slowly felt better.
I needed a pick me up and so I got my crochet stuff out and made a hat from drops design. I crocheted (?) until midnight, I just had to finish the hat. My girls both liked it, well it is pink. The funny thing is that I made it for myself but it fits all of us, 35, 4 and almost 2 years.
My poor girl has fever and is not well but managed to smile anyway.

Love the snow but...

2010-11-30T06:22:00.001-08:00

I was planning to go and sell at a school shopping evening tomorrow. It is snowing here at the moment and this means chaos on the roads. I don't know what it is with England, but people never seem to be prepared. We have about 5cm on the road and schools are already sending children home earlier because mums might not be able to get through with their cars. My friends at home in Germany always laugh in disbelieve when they hear these stories.
I love snow and was really looking forward to it until I realised that this shopping evening tomorrow is not going to happen or is going to be really badly attended...all my work for nothing. Well, I will have lots of homemade gifts this year. And the cards I have made will just be send to family and friends, which will free up some time for some home baked Christmas cookies...there is always a silver lining.
I will dress up warm now, get the sledge out of the garage and pick my girl up from school. After warming up, we will have to build the Micky Mouse Club House gang (no ordinary snowmen in our house), at least that was K's plan this morning.
By he way, there is nothing better than decorating the house for Christmas while the snow is falling, so peaceful, I even put a Christmas CD on. I love this time of year.

To buy an ATG gun or not to buy one?

2010-11-25T00:54:00.000-08:00

I am trying to be sensible here... for the last week I have been looking at pink ATG guns and various blog posts about them. I have found one for £23 with two refills which I think is a good price but do I really need one? Am I making enough cards and will I get enough use out of it or will a small tape roller do?

Help

Ok I just go ahead and get it, my last small tape roller has just run out and cutting tape off a roll and then sticking it on just takes far to long. And anyway, my friend just bought some jewelery from me and I will just reinvest my earnings.
Update: It arrived today, it is so pink and wonderful. I am glad I bought it, cutting double sided tape off the roll just took far too long and I am not the most patient crafter.

Sure Cuts a Lot

2010-11-21T11:32:00.001-08:00

I have just purchased the Sure Cuts a Lot software and it is brilliant. What I love most about it, is that you can position your images and this way, you have a lot less waste. My husband had the right USB cable for me and I could start cutting within seconds of my purchase. I only bought the downloadable version and was sent the license via e-mail, it took less than a minute! The best thing is, that I found a voucher on the internet by putting "craft edge voucher" into google, which saved me 10% of a product that is good value anyway. Don't get me wrong, I love my cricut cartridges and I have great fun using all the lovely images but on days like today, when all I needed was a tall, thin triangle that I could not find on any of my cartridges, this software comes in so handy. If you want to try it, they offer a free demo, which cuts horizontal lines through your images but gives you an idea on how it works go to craft edge it is worth a look.
I am probably the last one to have found this but just in case there is someone else who is looking for svg files, this page is brilliant and every image on there is for free. It takes you to the designers pages and there you can find oodles of images for not a lot of money. I love Treasure box Design, their images are so cute. Every Tuesday they are giving away a new freebie and isn't this bear just the cutest?

Vinyl

2010-11-14T09:33:00.000-08:00

I made some vinyl stickers for my daughter's room. The machine cut through the vinyl like butter. I can see lots of other projects coming along.

Embossing on BigShot with Texture plates

2010-11-14T04:56:00.000-08:00

Oh I have been so naughty and have already used my Christmas present, but I have a good reason for it, I am making Christmas cards and wanted to emboss them. I have been looking at the internet before I ordered my Big Shot and found this tutorial on youtube on how to get your plates to emboss deeper. I have tried it out today and I love it. The embossing seems deeper and crisper.

Some more jewellery

2010-11-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

I managed to make some more necklaces for one of my mum's friends, let's hope she is going to like them.

I love the amber one, I might just keep it,if she doesn't like it.

New toy

2010-11-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

I am so excited, I got a Cricut Expression for my birthday. I have only had it for two days but I can already see a new obsession coming. It is so much fun and you get brilliant results with every cut. (I will have to go to my local craft shop tomorrow and get some more bits and pieces and then I can post my first cards.)
Ok, here they are. I love this machine. I almost cried the other day when it didn't cut properly but I figured out that the knife got loose and that ripped my paper. This could definitely turn into a new obsession. I think that I will start on scrapbooks as my next big project. We have taken so many pictures of the girls but never managed to print them and put them in albums...so this will be my resolution for next year (because I will be busy making more cards before Christmas), make scrapbooks for the girls!
I forgot to mention that I used the Winter Woodland Cricut Cartridge and for the gingerbreadman I used the Paper Doll one.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T10:27:00.000-07:00

One homemade costume for book week at school. It was really easy to do, just cut platic bags into the shapes you want and fuse them with your iron. You need to put baking paper over the plastic before you iron and don't put your iron on too hot. The tail goes off to the side to allow leg room. The picture was taken after a full day at school. The eye patch is a left over from my pirate outfit (I went in to school to read and had to dress up, too).
And here are our Halloween costumes, not home made but still great fun!

Something else I have tried

2010-07-19T13:30:00.000-07:00

I came across the tutorial for rose barrettes from the purl bee and while M. was watching the British GP I started making some, I ended up with 5 pairs...got carried away again I suppose. They have been used for all sorts of games, so a few were missing before I could take a picture. I like the red and green ones best but guess what, surprise, surprise...K. loves the dark pink ones.

Latest craze

2010-07-19T12:49:00.001-07:00

One of my friends got me interested in beaded jewellery and now I am hooked. It is great fun and I can do it in the garden while the girls are playing. I have been making a few things, trying out techniques and buying quite a few beads and findings. It is a bit dangerous because bits and pieces only cost around 99p but it all starts to add up... sewing seems a lot cheaper to me...but the downside is that it is best done inside. So beading for outside and sunny weather and sewing for inside and bad weather (or when I can find a free moment ;-))

A few more things I have made

2010-07-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

I have discovered new sewing feet. I have used my zipper foot before but made piping yesterday, I think that I could get addicted. Today I tried my rolled hem foot for the first time, I can see that it will come in very useful but I need more practise. I made the apron dress from Everyday Chaos again, K. just loved her old dress and when I got pink, rainbow fabric I just had to make an other one (picture will follow, finished the dress after she went to bed).
We are off to Germany in a week and I have been busy making some bags to take with me:

I have been busy

2010-06-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

Apart from building tens, painting faces, dancing to silly German children's songs, doing puppet shows, eating ice cream and playing a lot in the garden, I have been busy sewing.
Some of my friends are expecting or already had babies and I have been busy making baby quilts. It was such fun and I got a bit carried away, the last one had crinkly bits, tags, pockets and different textures...The first one was made following a tutorial by V and Co and went to a little boy, I hope he likes it.

And of course there have been loads of bags again...I think this one might need a little make-over..

Finished Projects

2010-02-07T07:44:00.001-08:00

My cousin recommended the books by Tone Finnanger and since they have arrived, I have been hooked. The projects are so beautiful, lots of bunnies, geese and witches. It is such a lovely book that it would be enough to just sit back and flip through the pages ... but it gets even better when you start sewing. Every project I have made so far has turned out brilliantly and I can only put that down to the superb instructions. I would love to use her lovely fabrics as well, but I could not justify buying new fabric, when I have a big stash at home.

My first project was the small hare. I love the way you sew before you cut , that way you get a very small seam allowance. C immediately adopted it, I think because it looks very similar to her "Hasi". Which led me to project number two, the wall hanging. The purple bunny is supposed to look like "Hasi", at least C. thinks so.

Then I made the tea cosy and was so excited by the way it turned out, that I gave it to my friend before I took a picture.
The last two projects were the little geese, they are so easy and quick to make, that I will certainly make more, they make cute little gifts.

Also Franziska, vielen Dank fuer die tolle Empfehlung.

Easy heart garland

2010-01-21T11:00:00.001-08:00

I found this tutorial yesterday (the colours on Rae's garland are just so beautiful) and had to try it out straight away. I was so pleased with the result, that I had to make an other one straight away. This method is so easy, I can already see variations: flowers, christmas trees, stars, butterflies...oh autumn leaves would be lovely, too. There could be a garland for every season.

It hangs up in our play room/ conservatory. It is quite hard to decorate this room, because I don't want to drill into the frames and sellotape is not strong enough for most decorations...but this felt garland is just perfect. Mmmh, I might make more and hang them along the ceiling...

2010-01-18T04:09:00.000-08:00

K. really wanted a chef's outfit, too. After I made two for my friends children, I thought it was time to make her one. I thought it would be lovely if she could choose her fabric...big mistake. You might not see it on the picture but the pink is neon pink. This outfit could glow in the dark. But I have to admit, she toned it down a bit with the choice of dark purple. C. loves it and even though I am biased... she looks awfully cute in it...especially the two bottom teeth, she is so proud of them.

Latest additions

2010-01-17T10:13:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend we extended our collection of felt food. I took K. shopping to the art and craft shop, which is always very exciting, because we find lots of interesting things that we have to try out. Unfortunately the snow had delayed any deliveries, so they were out of white and baby pink felt, but we found lots of other useful colours. After a quick stop at the fabric shop next door we took our treasures home.
I can never figure out if the two shops belong together or if it is coincidence that they are next door to each other - it is very handy, so I won't complain. Needless to say that I found lovely fabric, which was on sale for £4 a metre, I could not resist.
K. went next door to play and C. went upstairs to have her nap and I went straight to work. I made chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes, a slice of cake, doughnuts and a bag of chips.
I altered the slice of cake a bit. Instead of adding the same top as the bottom, I drew some wobbly lines around the shape (as if icing runs down the cake) and sew that onto the side with my machine, the rest I did by hand following the tutorial. As you can see, it needs some cream on top but that will have to wait until the shop has white felt again.
I must have done something wrong with my doughnuts, they look a bit slim.
The bag of chips contains only two chips at the moment but is already a great hit.
C. loves the cookies, she loves to pretend to eat them and makes munching sounds.
It is such fun and so rewarding, especially when the girls can't wait to get their hands on the food to play with it.
My husband is very close to stopping all this fun because the pieces that we have to pick up at the end of the day are getting a bit much, but a few more won't hurt. Anyway he is travelling for a few days soon, I am sure I can sneak some more food in during that time.

My latest craze

2010-01-09T02:23:00.000-08:00

I have started to make felt food for the girls. I love it! K helped me to stuff the strawberries and took them to pre-school to show her teachers. They are now in her shop and are waiting for more felt items to follow. I will have to buy some more felt, because I only have primary colours at home. Oh I can't wait to stock up the shop.
I added some cut up melon to the collection, so easy two red semi sircles and a greenleaf shaped shape. i only need to get some black thread, because the black felt tip pen doesn't look very nice.
More red and green profects I can think of: apple, tomato...what else? Just thought of one more...peppers.

2009 has been wonderful

2009-12-31T12:50:00.000-08:00

I can't believe this is the end of 2009 already... our first year with C. She is a little ray of sunshine and makes everyone around her smile. K. has turned into such a wonderful character, she is brimming with life, dancing around and brings a touch of magic to our days. The girls can be be hard work, don't get me wrong but every night I go to bed and my heart is full of love for them and I can't wait to see what they will come up with the next day. I thought having one child was brilliant, but seeing the two together and how they start to interact and play together is just the best, there isn't a dull moment in our house.

This has been my first year sewing. I can't believe it took me three months to finally get the sewing machine out of the box, just to discover that it wasn't working, after that was sorted and after I discovered the first crafting blogs I couldn't be stopped. When I look back, I can't believe what I have achieved this year:
- 2 quilts
- loads of clothes for the girls

- loads and loads of bags

- aprons, chef's hats and oven gloves

- hats
- stockings
- a frog
and my pride and joy a Waldorf style doll for C.
pretty good going for the first year.

I even managed to inspire some more friends to start sewing, which is really nice because you can chat about new ideas and order fabric together.

My lovely husband has been very patient and helpful ( especially when I had to finish some projects and he had to look after the children, or last week, when C. looked like she had swallowed a pin and he rushed her to A and E to have her checked (thankfully they couldn't find anything)). He is the love of my life and I can't believe we have only been married for 5 years. it was nice to spend some time in Rome just the two of us. Even though we only had a couple of days, it felt like a mini second honeymoon. Thank you for being you and for putting up with my crazes, with me falling asleep as soon as I hit the sofa and with my mad moments. I love you forever and ever.

2009 has been very good to us and I hope that 2010 will continue in that way. I am sure the girls will bring a lot of joy to our days and we will make lots of new discoveries together (the biggest will be K starting school, but I don't want to think about that yet).

Apron Dress

2009-09-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

This is K's favourite dress and one of my first attempts at sewing. I followed Bridget's tutorial, which was super easy and straight forward. K loves it and if it was up to her, she would wear it every day. Unfortunately I used some very thin/see through cotton. I know better for next time. I will definately make more next year, when summer comes back.
I think we are getting closer to knitting time again, I have to remember to start earlier than last year...by the time I finished my projects it was too warm to wear them.

The perfect week

2009-09-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

M took the week off to spend some time with us and wow did we have fun:

we saw M's parents and his grandma
we went to IKEA (yes I bought some fabric and the wrong part for our shelf - I don't know how I always manage to get something wrong when I go there, I must get so caught up in the whole experience that my brain stops working )
I managed to get some sewing done (yippee)
we went swimming

and we went to the seaside

The day at the seaside couldn't have been better, lovely sunshine, a light breeze and a picnic. K loves the sea and the beach, she danced on the sand and had a swim in the sea. C had fun trying to eat stones and sand, enjoyed crawling on the beach and bathing her feet in the water.

Perfect Tiered Skirt

2009-08-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

After my failure yesterday I have been through my favourite online tutorials and Kuky Ideas posted this one (originally from 3Peas) which is easy to follow and it creates the perfect tiered skirt. It has the perfect twirl and doesn't look like a maternity skirt (M's comment on the skirt that I have made yesterday). I think what was wrong with it, was that the top tier was too narrow and therefore too tight.

The skirt was a success,

K's friend didn't take it off after she unwrapped it...what more can you ask for.

I love making presents for others, I spend a lot of time thinking about the person I create the present for and that helps me feel closer to the person than just going out and buying something. I know some people don't like homemade stuff but so far none of my friends have given any negative feedback.

I forgot to mention the headband it is a tutorial I found on foofangle, I shortened it a bit to fit a three year old.

Getting ready for the Week end

2009-08-28T12:47:00.000-07:00

In our house a GP week end is always pre-booked... M will spend his day in front of the telly watching racing cars. I will hopefully meet up with my fellow GP sufferer and her children and enjoy the day by talking about sewing, showing off new projects and chatting (much more civilized than motor racing I think, although our husbands won't agree).

The only thing is that M has already influenced the girls or how would you interpret this picture?

Oh dear

2009-08-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

I tried to make a tiered skirt today and somehow it didn't turn out the way I wanted. It is going to be a birthday present for K's friend and I want it to be right (I just couldn't give something away that I am not 100% happy with). So out came the seam ripper and I took the first tier off. Somehow I am still not happy, so I will do my calculations again and start all over again. Better to start afresh than piecing something together.
We were in Germany for the last three weeks to see my parents, it was lovely. My dad took K everywhere, she explored the whole village, even spent a couple of days at the local Kindergarten. She made some new friends down the road, called "the boys". She spent all day outside, starting in the morning with a trip with her "shopping partner" (Opa) to the local shop. C grew up so much in the time there, she got two teeth, is crawling and is sitting in a high chair. It feels like she is growing up so much quicker than K did.
I got so much time to relax, read books and meet friends. I even got some time to sew, a quick refashion of a t-shirt for my mum and two hats from the Ottobre 4/2007 magazine. Unfortunately I am better with giving things away than taking pictures but I will get better.

Bags

2009-07-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

I went a bit bag mad in the last few weeks but I think once you have started you can't stop and I have found so many tutorials I want to try.

Just before the holidays started I made five bags for K's pre-school teachers: 4 Market bags and 1 Margaret bag. I thought they would be more useful than flowers, soap or chocolate.

I have been making making bags for my mum and sister as well, they will get a selection and can choose which one they like better. i made a Phoebe, a Margaret and a Wasp bag.

Market skirt finished

2009-07-27T00:21:00.000-07:00

Good morning. I woke up at six this morning and could not go back to sleep, so I got dressed and went downstairs to finish the market skirt (from dana-made-it.com). Apart from a couple of mistakes and a few seams I had to undo it turned out really lovely. I am going upstairs to wake up my little angels and hope that K will like it. I haven't made any skirts for C yet because she is rolling around so much and I think that skirts are not that practical at the moment.
I have just noticed that the pocket is at an angle, will have to rip it up and do it again. Maybe early morning sewing is not the way forward.

Here is the picture. K wanted to wea a hat, she had chicken pox last week and doesn't like the spots. The red fabric I have used was a bargain from IKEA. I found it in the children's section where all the bedding is and it was £4.99 for 3m, what a bargain. The hat is made from a burda pattern ( I think it was in the German burda magazine in April).

Knitting

2009-07-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you have come across Drops Design but it a treasure chest full of free knitting patterns. They are very well written and easy to follow. I love it because it comes in so many languages, which means I can recommend it to my friends in the UK and in Germany.

I have made a super cute cardigan for K. and lots of people commented on it and wanted to know where the pattern was from.

Hello

2009-07-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

I have become quite obsessed with looking at other peoples blogs. I love all the crafty ideas and am completely in awe of all the wonderful ideas that are out there. My daughters have been dressed in so many cute outfits that I have made following free tutorials and patterns (thank you to all these fantastic people who make their ideas freely available).
Recently I even infected a new friend with my sewing bug and after sending her all the links that I have found via e-mail, my husband suggested to just start blogging myself.
I hope one day to create a tutorial as well but until then I will just share what I have made.