Practising for Halloween

My big girl wants to be a bat this year so we have been practising the face painting today. I have followed a tutorial by the brilliant Lisa Joy Young again. I need to make some wings in the next few days. She has gone through her wardrobe and found some leggings and a t-shirt that will be perfect, nothing better than team work!
I have found a super tutorial for bat wings here.

Face Painting

I have a new craze! Seems like I find something new every sew season. This summer it was face painting. I only wanted to look up how to do Butterflies and ended up hooked. Lisa Joy Young is brilliant and I keep looking at her you tube channel all the time. My oldest child is already so fed up, that we had to come to an agreement, she can paint my face, if I am allowed paint hers. I did a face painting day at my little girl's pre-school and took all my face paints to Germany with me.

I like the quick results and that you just wipe it off and can start again. I have been trying out Halloween ideas and can't wait!

Baby Toy

I made one more of these today. We will see our friends in a couple of days and they had a little girl quite recently. She already has a big sister, so it is quite hard to find something that they haven't already got...out comes my sewing machine. I found this tutorial at thelongthread but changed it a little. I added ribbon for hair and goose feathers at the bottom, the beak is faux leather, the feet have Hama beads in them for texture (not rice because you can't wash rice), the wings have baby wipes packaging in them for the crinkly sound and the tummy is made from fleece. I hope she likes it.

National Quilt Championchips

My friend and I went to the National Quilt Championships on Friday. Wow, we thought that we had come a long way in our short time that we have been sewing but when we saw those quilts, we realised that there is still a mountain to climb. The quilts were amazing, the amount of detail and work that went into them was breathtaking.
We went along a spent some time looking for fabric and buying some, too, who could resist. We both agreed that if we won the lottery, a lot of that money would go towards fabric. Or a trip to the States, why is fabric over there so much cheaper? I could not get myself to spend £12 a meter for fabric. The problem is that it wouldn't end there, I would have to by the rest of the line, too and then we are talking loads more. And to be honest, I think fat quarters are too small. I like big projects and a fat quarter is never big enough.
Oh Moda fabrics, one day I will feel rich and careless and just buy you, but just for now, I admire you from afar and think about a super special project, to justify that expense.... my new lounger in the guestroom really needs a quilt on top, it looks very naked.

Autobahn

My girls love Kraftwerk, I put this totally down to my husband. Each one of them has a favourite song, the little one likes "We are the Robots" and the big ones loves "Autobahn". When I came along this fantastic tutorial by prudent baby today, I knew exactly what to do. I had an old "Autobahn" T-shirt in my stash and within 30 minutes my big girl had a dress. We are now waiting for the "We are the Robots" T-shirt to make it's way into my stash.

Olympic birthday party

Just thought I share my ideas for an Olympic birthday party. My older daughter turned 6 in May and living in GB she got hooked on the idea of the Olympics. Unfortunately the weather was really bad, so we had to do it inside. We had 12 children and split them three teams. When they arrived they had to create their team flags and find a name for their team. We then paraded through the house, following the Olympic torch. The children were shown the seven activities:

1. medal forge: I baked gingerbread medals the day before (simple circles with a small hole at the top) and the children had free range over the decorations.
2. Olympic hats: I had cut our party hats in Olympic colours with my cricut (free svg file here on svgcuts) and the children got to stick stickers on and colour them (no glue because too messy)
3. kangaroo jump: keep feet together and jump as far as you can, three goes, add points
4. beanbag toss: throw beanbags in different sized buckets, three goes, add points
5. dream trampoline on the Wii (we were going to use the trampoline in the garden)
6. star jumps: count how many star jumps you can make
7. hula hoop: count how many rotations you manage

The children circulated at their own pace, that's why we had so many stations. They noted their results down on their score sheets (here is the free font for the London Olympics). After they finished their activities, I added all the scores and divided the results for each team by the amount of team members). After our picnic we had the medal ceremony, each team member got a rosette and a party bag. Party bags had a book, GB flag, party blower and their own gingerbread medal in them.
We didn't have a big cake but lots of little cupcakes, it was a lot less mess this way. They were really tiny, only two teaspoons of dough in each.

I made something new

Not that I haven't been making things, but I finally managed to take some pictures before I posted it. It is my godmother's 60th birthday and even though we usually just wish each other a happy birthday, this called for an exception. She is a big fan of cranes and butterflies. My mum is hosting her party and the theme is, guess what, cranes and butterflies. While my mum was over for a visit, we folded loads of Origami cranes, mostly in blue, because that is my aunt's favourite colour. After my mum had left, I remembered that I had seen this tutorial on sew mama sew, I loved the font but thought that it looked too involved and I can't get hold of freezer paper. I then had a look at this tutorial and combined both. I was really pleased with my result, even though I had to open quite a few seams again. I hope she likes it, too.

Tanya Whelan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.