It's a boy!

Yay! It's a boy! I have finally made my beautiful bouncing baby boy....Rhino! It's taken me, all told, probably only a long afternoon. I have had it on my mind to make one ever since finishing my aardvark, I wanted to make him super chunky and about ready to playfully charge at any moment! I have made the pattern myself completely from scratch and Reggie (Hubby chose the name) is made from a super soft powder blue jersey. His tummy and feet are made from a striped polycotton and he has felt to reinforce his ears to make them stick up, plus PVC pellets to give him some weight in those stumpy legs of his. His legs have been attached with covered buttons that I also made to match his tummy. He is so dumpy and cute and I just love him to bits!!!

Reggie the Rhino (named by my hubby) ready to stomp, charge and rumble around in the garden.

Reggie and Milliepops the aardvark, my first cuddly.

New top-from simplicity pattern

Just before we went away I ordered a new pattern for some really simple tops. It's one basic blouse pattern with different ways of decorating them. I have two tops in mind, a combination of the yellow top but with sleeves in white and blue print and then the orange top C in a dark blue seersucker. Ill let you know how I get on.

Started just after lunch and was finished before dinner time! Can't believe it! Im so happy with how it came out. I decided to cut out the size 12 pattern, because let's face it I'm not going to get any smaller! However the 12 was very generous and so I have taken it in at the side, also at the back and didn't bother with the button closure as it its right over my head anyway.  Very very pleased with myself.

Attempting stripes and re-upholstry!

We have just completed changing our front top room from a storage room into a bedroom for guests and a crafty room for me, 2 years since moving in! We had some wicker furniture my In laws had given us when we moved in and we wanted to re-upholster it to match the look of the new room (blue, white and wood) the furniture is in great nick, but the original fabric was out of date and made the room feel dark, so when we were in the lake district we came across this fabric shop called Textures in Keswick. they had some really nice blue and red ticking that we thought would go great in the new room. so when we got home, I drew around the old cushions and cut out some paper patterns, and made new covers. The bottom cushion was the hardest trying the get the band not to go squiffy round the cushion etc. I also had to make sure for the sake of my very symmetric loving husband that all the stripes lined up (nightmare!) BUT I managed it, so it looks great from the front...(and no I am not showing you the back!!! It's at the back for a reason!) Here are the before and after shots.

Upcycled mens shirt

Saw this idea on another blog Cotton and Curls (I have already done something like this that I wore at uni-Will try and dig it out at some point to show you) I bought a mens shirt from a charity shop, cut off the arms, laid out an existing tank top over the shirt and cut round it, being a little generous to take into account seam allowance etc. I unpicked the collar and kept the part that the actual collar is sewn to before it attached to the rest of the shirt and fashioned my own small collar. Clipped the corners when making the arm holes to ensure they laid flat. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome, it's perfect for a relaxed summer day (which we are quite lacking at the mo in England!)

Holiday!

 Last weekend we had a wedding up in Scotland so we decided to make a holiday of it, and do some walking and camping in the Lake District on the way back. Look who came along in her new wooly jumper to keep her warm!

Meet my new machine! Janome QL

Ok-so it has been ages since I have posted anything new, my laptop charger blew up and so I have had to wait to use my hubby's laptop. Plus I have been so been so carried away with the making I forgot to blog it. So I have finally collected the pictures of what I have been up to and will now endeavour to post them all for you. First ever so exciting thing that happened was....school broke up and I got my VERY early birthday present ( I am like the Queen you see!) My mother in Law bought me a brand new sewing machine! My husband had done all the research ( and now knows lots about sewing machines :-) and decided this was the best machine for me, as it had plenty of decorative stitches and according the he reviews was very reliable, plus its great for quilting which I have been dabbling in since Christmas. I absolutely love it, and have been sewing ever since it arrived! It sews really smoothly unlike some other machines I tried that seemed to munch at the fabric rather than feed it through, and it has some really neat functions like a needle threader and an automatic thread cutter. It also has a function that moves the needle to the up or down position (depending on how you have set it) overtime you stop, which is really helpful when sewing something with corners, means you don't have to us the hand wheel to raise or lower the needle. Also inspired my Pinterest (love that site!) I made a pincushion to go on the machine to put needles in instead of just throwing them down on the side when I'm sewing. NEAT!

DCI-padded covered books

We had our hird Dream Create Inspire craft morning lat saturday and we had 12 people come! we were all making the padded notes books inspired by the Mollie Makes post a while back. They turned out really well and everyone was pleased with the results. pictures will follow shortly. Here is mine.....

Nellies new summer outfit!

Summer, should be around the corner and so I decided that Nellie would need some new clothes so that she can keep cool, and enjoy the sunshine! I used some shirt wheight denim for the shorts and a light wheight cotton for the top, these were made from off cuts from a secret project which I can't publish yet......watch this space!

How to make elderflower cordial

After getting in after a busy day at school yesterday and realising I had a very busy weekend ahead of me, I decided that there was no time like the present and I had better get on and make my elderflower cordial otherwise all the flowers may be gone by the weekend and the heavey rain we have been forcast. So out I went and collected the flowers and decided to blog it so that you can have a go too. It is so so easy and straightforward and so satisfying once it's done. A delicious drink for the summer, and extra bottles can be frozen and used at a later date.

These are the ingredients you will need. Three (yes three!) bags of sugar, 62g of citric acid, which you can get from either a chemist or behind the customer service counter in Wilkinsons!	First you need to collect the elderflower, try not to pick anything too close to the road as it can collect the fumes etc Cut the heads off so all the stalks that make the flower are still intact otherwise you end up with lots of bits. You will need one full carrier bag.
Put all the sugar and citric acid into a bucket-any will do so long as it is clean.	Add 6 pints of water and give it a good stir.
Nest, tip in all the flowers, don't worry about the bugs and bits, we will strain them out later.	Give it a good stir, and squash it all down.
Then cover it over and leave it for 24 hours to soak, stirring occcasionally. Try to scoop up all the suagr etc that may settle at the bottom.	After 24 hours, scoop out all the gunk into another container (or if  you have one, get another clean bucket) Don't get rid of the gunky flowers, they will be squeezed later.
Here is the gunky flowers, you can squeese these out into the container with the juice in and then chuck them away.	Right, this is my makeshift strainer, find one old tea towel, preferably one used to polish glass....that type. Put the tea towel into a seive and then rest the seive over the bucket. then using a jug you can scoop out the liquid and pour it through your makeshift strainer. You may need to remove a build up of flowers every now and then to keep it flowing.
Here some of the finished golden liquid!	Finally you can bottle it up.
TA DA!!! It usually makes around 3 1/2 litres. Have a go and let me know how you get on!

DCI-materials list

Next DCI is on the 14th of July 10am to 1pm
If you are new and want to come along (we love new faces!) you can find us on the map here or alternatively its Kingsgate Community Church, 2 Staplee way, PE1 4YT.

So we will be making:
Padded note book cover (with optional handle)

Materials list:You will need an A5 notebook with a spine of more than 1 cm
a patterned fabric for the cover (enough to generously wrap around the book)
Plain fabric for the inside (27cx37cm roughly (more not less)
Wadding (27cx37cm roughly (more not less)

Sewing machine if you have one (really don't worry if not we can share!)
Matching thread
Pencil/black marker
Fabric scissors
Tracing paper or greaseproof paper to make the paper patterns with

Really looking forward to it! Email me if you have any questions, or leave a post! (Ive not had anyone leave me a post yet...so please feel free!)

My Little mousey!



I just couldn't resist making one of the little mice from Mollie Makes. I downloaded the pattern, but it doesn't come with instructions so I have had to work out how to put it together and I have to say I am very pleased with the result! I was intrigued to see that they suggested that you back the fabric with a thin iron on interfacing, it made the fabric easier to work with, especially as I was hand stitching (which I love doing!). I'm sure more mice will be moving in soon.....





Cutting out the pattern pieces.





Carefully handwashing the fabrics for her dress...couldn't decide which fabric to use!



Finished mousey and little handmade pinifore



Finished mouse! We decided to name her nellie....due to her large ears. I will put a little tuck in them next time to stop them looking so huge!



Best magazine ever!

Oh my goodness! I so so so want this magazine!!! I was browsing in Hobby Craft (I could spend a day in there and not get bored...only bankrupt!) and found this magazine Mollie Makes , its only on it 15th issue or something, but its a cute little A5 issue, with yummy pictures and fantastic little projects. I would love a subscription to this for a birthday.....or Christmas.....You get free templates and patterns from here on their website which you can download from their website , unfortunately not with instructions so you do  need a little "where with all" to work out how to put some of them together unless you have the mag. I fully intend to make the little clothed mice! How cute are they???!!!! They are designed by Jenny Dixon and you can see her blog here

Dream Create Inspire craft morning-Cushions

This saturday, I met with 3 friends in a side room at church for our 3rd DCI (Dream  create inspire) craft morning. We meet in a side room at church and have a line of tables down the middle, anyone who has one brings a sewing machine, music on kettle boiling, and then we start making stuff! Our project this morning was to make cushion covers as after session 1 and 2 people decided they needed more practice sewing in straight lines! I showed the gilrs how to make a very basic paper pattern (not at all the proffesional way-but quick and simple) and then we cracked on making our covers. Below are some pictures of us working and then everybodys finished cushions! Usually there is more of us, but people are away at the mo.....

Hannah's V&A cushion, a makeover for the orginal red one.

Kerries Finished cushion made using swatches sent from John lewis, so it now matches her lounge!

DIY-Macrame-para cord braclet tutorial

Its funny how things go around and around. I used to make friendship bracelets all the time as a kid, complicated multicoloured, zig zag bracelets. It's seems now that ll that is back with a modern twist of "para cording". I love these bracelets and they are so so simple to make! The only problem would be finding the metal bits of the gems to go in the middle, but I presume somewhere like hobby craft would sell these parts, ideally it would be so cool to make them yourself. I found them on this blog and they have a picture tutorial that you can follow step by step. They don't require a clasp it's all done with  knots and so it's adjustable. I think they would a really sweet bracelet for the summer, especially in these candy colours. Perhaps i'll have a go this weekend....