Simple felty foods #2

Last week I shared with you some pictures of the felt food toys I had been making for my little girl for Christmas.  Since then I've been going free-style and making the patterns up for the food as I go along.  It seemed a little daunting to begin with, but once I'd figured out how to make the basic shapes in 3D I was flying along.  Here's my progress so far...

 

 

The sausages were made with rectangles of pink felt rolled into tubes and simply whip-stitched along the length to hold in place.  The tube was then stuffed and both ends were drawn in, the strings were knotted off and then taken back through the sausage with a needle.  This helps hide loose ends and I also think it makes stuffed toys stronger and less likely to come apart.  The penne pasta was made in a similar way, instead of stuffing the ends were cut at angles and left open.

 

 The mushrooms were a bit harder to master.  Probably not helped by the fact they're not entirely made of felt, but I just couldn't resist using up this scrap of fabric.  It just shouted "mushrooms" at me!  The stalks were pretty simple (sewn inside out and then turned right way around and stuffed.)  The tops are made from two circles of fabric.  The top fabric had a diameter of approx 2cm more than the bottom, which I then drew in and turned under a small seam allowance as I sewed the two together.  The mushroom gills are embroidered on with a simple back stitch.

 I just love these little prawns!  They were a lot simpler to make than they look... I am thinking of doing a mini tutorial for them though, as they may need a few photos to help with the explaination.

 

 
These tea bags aren't the most realistic looking, but I really wanted to add a little colour and fun.  I really have a thing for sequins, use them wherever and whenever I can!  Thinking of doing a mini tutorial for these too as I'd really like to share with you how I have sewn the strings in safetly and securely... Nothing worse than a toy that is a choking hazard, or one that falls appart on Christmas morning!

Are you making Christmas gifts this year?  Leave me a link in the comments below, I'd love to see what you've been making too.

Next on the agenda for me... a roast chicken I think, eep!

Simple felty foods

Earlier in the year I posted about the felt sandwich toy I made for my daughter's second Birthday.  It proved to not only be a hit with my daughter, but has become one of my most viewed blog posts, so I thought I would share with you my plans for some more felty food toys I'm making my little one for Christmas.

 

I had this idea to make lots of bits and pieces for a kind of shop/market for my little girl.  So far I have been warming up by stitching some simple felt foods mainly from existing patterns which I've saved from old craft magazines.

 

 

Techniques so far have included sewing 3D cylinders, circles which are drawn in and stuffed (similar to making a Suffolk puffs,) and also tubes and cone shapes, both with drawn in ends.

 

 

OK so these strawberries aren't entirely felt, but they were so simple to make!

 

 

The carrots were made using the same kind of technique as the strawberries.

 

 

I particularly like this simplified version of a jammy dodger, from an old Mollie makes magazine.

 

 I do love sewing with felt, it's both easy and satisfying.  None of that stressing over fraying seams and lots of quick and easy whipstitching!  I've already made some felty sausages and bacon since taking these photos and have plenty more foodie makes planned, which I hope to share with you over the next few weeks.

 

Are you planning a handmade Christmas this year?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garden embroidery

Today I am finishing off a garden themed embroidery that I have been working on for a little while now.  She is to sit in a little rectangular frame I jazzed up (or jazzed down, as it was turquoise with a picture of FOUR TROUTS, (yes as in the fish,) and is now trusty old cream!)  Hopefully she will help to brighten the walls of my living room on this grey day...

 

I am missing all the sunshine already.  Standing on one leg, stretched out with tinfoil in my hands, trying desperately to reflect some light into these photos... Oh the glamour!

 

 

P.S. Don't tell anyone, but I've been watering my plants all summer with water from washing up bowls, not a posh watering can!  Happy Sunday all x 

 

Hot make for the cold months!

Hello!  I have been absent from my blog for a while now, lots of making going on, but a lack of blogging.  As the time passes, it's been harder and harder to get back into the swing of things! 

 

I thought I would come back with an easy sewing project ready for the cooler weather, that you could also make as a Christmas gift.  *Gasp!* It may be a little premature, but it is already on my mind, and if you are making gifts this year, you need to be planning ahead!

 

Before I show you my make, here's a little catch up...

 

 

During late summer/ early autumn I have: 

1. Finished my double quilt. I'm not entirely happy with it, but it is such a load off my mind.    That is ALL of the FOUR jumbo unfinished blanket projects I started the year with, done and dusted (I must be mad!) 
2. Sewn a mish mash patch work curtain for my back door, readying the house for the cold weather.
3. Preserved what can only be described as THE bumper crop of plums.  Jam, chutney, pies, sauce and bags and bags of frozen plums to see us through the year.
4. Been doing more jam making with blackberries and lots of lovely chutneys from the crops in our garden.
5. Sewn a few smaller projects.
6. Had my car in the garage three times, argh!
7. Sorted wood, kindling, coal, chimney sweep in prep for fire lighting.
8. Enjoyed a mini beak to Cromer in Norfolk and a mini break to Sheffield.
9. Been drowning in free apples.
10. Painted our bathroom (only two rooms to go whoop!)
11. Crocheting a blanket for my little girl's bed.

There's probably more, but that's just off the top of my head.  Here's my little sewing project...



 

Winter Warmer How-To

Mini hot water bottle cover

 

This cute little hot water bottle cover was so simple to make! 
And best of all, if you're making it for yourself or as gift,
you can customise it as much as you like!

 

 

You will need:

 

A small hot water bottle

Cereal box for template

A pen to mark card and a fabric pen

Two large pieces of felt in hot pink and light pink

Sewing needle

Scissors

Pins

Sewing thread in hot pink and brown (to match felt and another to match your patch)

Embroidery thread in blue

Sew on/ iron on embroidered patch

 

How to:

 

1.  Draw around your hot water bottle onto the cardboard, leaving a 1.25cm border.  Leave a wider space around the neck of the hot water bottle, as in the photo below. 

 

 

2. Use the cardboard template you made to create two templates for the back of the hot water bottle cover.  (See photo below as a guide to where to place envelope opening.)  Remember to leave approx 1cm overlap for the two back pieces.

 

 

3.  Draw around templates onto both colours of felt and cut out pieces.

 

4.  Pin and sew together light and hot pink pieces using backstitch or running stitch and hot pink thread, leaving 0.25cm seam allowance around the pieces.

 

5. Sew on embroidered patch. I used brown cotton so the stitches were invisible.

 

6.  Draw on words with fabric pen.  I used couching embroidery for the lettering.  (Basically couching is attaching one thicker thread by using lots of little stitches and a smaller thread.)  I used three strands of blue embroidery thread and couched over it with the same hot pink thread I used to backstich the pattern pieces together. 

 

If you're not sure about couching, a simple back stitch or a split stitch would certainly do the job.

 

7.  Blanket stitch the two edges which will form the envelope opening.

 

8.  Pin all the pieces together, making sure that the right sides are facing out and blanket stitch around the whole cover.

 

 

9.  Fold back envelope opening and insert hot water bottle.

 

 

 

 Taah-Daah!

 

The colours really do sing sing.  The pink and blue make your eyes go a little crazy don't you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Lavender Blue

 

 

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green.

When I am king, dilly, dilly, you shall be queen.

Who told you so, dilly, dilly, who told you so?

'Twas my own heart, dilly, dilly, that told me so...

A while back I mentioned to my mum that I would like to get hold of some Lavender...  I had forgotten every word about it til this weekend gone, when my mum pulled a whole bin liner of Lavender from the boot of her car!  Never one to turn down a freebie am I!  My other half, bless him, helped me trim out all the wooden bits, til we were left with a huge pile of stems for drying...

 

 

If you would like to try drying Lavender at home, pick the Lavender just as they open, and dry on open trays or by hanging in small bunches.

 

 

I have already started to take the flower tops off my Lavender as they dry, because it was falling all over my kitchen floor and I have no room!  I seem to be getting a lot more than I expected, just look at all these blue/purple sweet smelling nuggets! 

 

 

 Fingers crossed the lavender dries OK, as I am looking forward to some Lavender makes :o)

 

 

 

Marmalade The Cat

 

I picked up this cute little papier mache cat from my local craft and collectors fair on Friday.  I was instantly drawn to the bright summery colours and glossy finish.  We have named him Marmalade...  Unfortunately he has already suffered a chipped ear at the hands of my two year old, but he is very happy sitting on top of the book case with the co ordinating enamel teapots :o)

Sunny Happy Summer Crochet

I was awake early this morning and the sun is streaming through my window.  I have been painting and redecorating my bedroom since the weekend, and as it is currently clutter free (it's all piled up in the spare room atm,) I thought I would take this opportunity to (finally) share with you my finished crochet bedspread.

 

She has not yet been washed or blocked, but here she is in all her colourful splendour...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you are all enjoying the summer sunshine :o)

 

 

 

 

 

Love is all you need...

Hello, apologies its been such a long time since my last post.  The reason behind this is my daughter and her naps... or lack or them.  The terrible twos have hit and now I am no longer getting my window of crafting time.  I swear there are not enough hours in the day! 

 

I finally got to do some sewing at the weekend and was feeling inspired by a "HOME" picture I had seen ages ago by Dottie Angel, with a doily for the O in HOME (sorry I can't seem to find the original photo anywhere, but it was very similar to this image.) So I donned a floaty skirt to get me in the vintage sewing zone and set to work...

 

 

I have had this old picture frame (which I saved from the dustbin/freebie) knocking around for ages, and all the fabrics were either thrifted or from my scraps box.  The letters were all machine sewn on and I hand stitched the doily on around all the twirly whirly hoops with contrasting pink thread.  (It took a very long time!)

 

 

I also hand sewed this little hanging heart, to sit alongside the picture frame.

 

 

I even gave cross stitch a go for the first time in about twenty years.  It really was quite therapeutic! 

 

 

Slowly our little housie is becoming more and more homely... 

 

 

Happy little housie, happy little me :o)

 

 

 

Light relief

...From that crochet itch

 

So I came to the end of my last crochet project... (which I know I have not yet shared on my blog as I've not gotten around to tidying said space, and such a large project requires quite a large proportion of tidiness in said room.  I have been feeling rather poorly for the past couple of weeks (nothing serious, just one cold rolling into the next, into the next...) and as I type, my little one (also poorly) has fallen asleep next to me in the double bed.  I am not personally one for napping in the day, but I am now mighty glad I got that blanket finished as I have been snuggling under it a lot this past week.  I will share pictures soon, I just kinda haven't gotten around to it.)

 

So anyway, I came to the end of my last crochet project and was like, "So what do I do now, huh?!"  I have this amazing idea tumbling over in my head for an awesome new "dream" blanket, but it still requires some thought on colour combinations and vitally, the purchase of new yarns.  So while that idea is developing I needed a crochet project to provide light relief from my crochet addiction.  Two whole days of no crochet was like cold turkey for me, I watched far too many episodes of CSI (with both eyes for a change) and my hook hand kept wanting to twitch.

 

I knew I had six balls of Sirdar Calico in my stash, in a kind of  "mucky" pale orange (shade: 714 for anyone who just needs this yarn in their life.)  The Calico is very soft to the touch and has a lovely light feel to it, a nice light weight yarn which is 60% cotton 40% acrylic, so great for a light summer throw.  Also great to crochet with this time of year without making you sweat profusely.

 

So I just set to work with my orange yarn and the other colours (also from my stash) got chucked in along the way.  The only bits of deep thinking that went on were "I want to make this different to anything I have done so far" and, "I don't want this to look like a carrot."

 

The other yarns are: Cream; Sirdar Snuggly baby bamboo DK (80% bamboo, 20% wool,) Blue; Rico Essentials cotton DK (100% cotton,) and Green; Emu Cotton DK (100% cotton.)

 

I didn't want to granny square it, as I've been granny squaring it to death for what feels like the past zillion months, so I went for stripes.  I also didn't want to go to big, as I have gotten a little fed up with huge projects looming over me like a big grey cloud.  

 

I started late on Saturday evening (please don't turn out like a carrot, please don't turn out like a carrot,) and this is how its coming along so far:

 

 

I am just using basic stitches of double crochet, chain stitch and slip stitch.  The stitches just fall into a repeating pattern, which alternates every two rows to create little windows or butterflies.  This is a good project for a beginner or an intermediate, wanting to try something new.

 

 

Fairly simple design, but creates a lovely patterned fabric.  I may have to do this in a solid colour somewhere down the line, as I think the pattern is even more prominent where its just done in orange. 

 

Easy-pearly-peasy stitches, but taxing enough to require a little concentration for pattern placement (I've had to pull back a few rows when getting cocky and not paying attention!)  Satisfying enough, to feel like I'm learning something completely new. 

 

I think I will never stop being amazed by the range of stuff you can do with crochet!

 

Dolly Dress a Day

Hooray!

I've done it!  ...I've finally finished making and even wrapped all my daughters Birthday presents ready for the weekend!  This is the second of two gifts I've been working on for my soon to be two year old daughter. (Wow, where have the last two years gone?!)

 

Meet Matilda;

 

 

How do you do?  Oops where are my clothes?!

 

The doll is based on a pattern from a book called, Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love, by Hillary Lang.  (I have just discovered she also has an awesome blog: http://www.weewonderfuls.com/ check it out!) 

 

I kept the doll pattern the same as in the book, using cotton instead of felt for the body, simply because the only felt I had that was large enough was totally the wrong colour (bright pink felt makes for one sunburnt looking doll!)  Also keeping the legs skin coloured rather than patterned as in the book...  This was because I wanted to change the dress pattern for the doll.  The original doll had a fixed dress and I wanted to make the dress removable and make several dresses, to help expand on play themes.

 

So far I have managed to make Matilda three outfits...

 

 

A floaty, casual day dress. 

(Check out the actual fully functioning patch pocket with cupcake detail- so cute!  The little cupcake, which I bought here, was the insipration for the whole doll really.)

 

 

A smart evening dress.

 

 

And a boom boom pow, beach dress!  (Couldn't resist adding the pom pom trim!)

 

 

The dress in the book was made from two pieces of fabric the same size, sewn together, then the neckline gathered once on the doll and then the bottom was sewn up either side of the legs.  I simply made the back panel slightly wider (allowing for two extra seams) and split it into two pieces, with a small piece of velcro for fastening.  I then did a simple running stitch along the neckline, pulled threads to gather material to desired length, tied off ends and hand stitched neat trims along the top edge.

 

If I were to make another dress, I would probably make the arm holes slightly larger, as I think my daughter will need help to thread the arms through the sleeves.  I got quite whizzy by the time I was on the third dress, but left it there as I am feeling quite poorly now after having had a cold, followed by too much sunshine at the weekend and terrible heat exhastion and now a terrible chesty cough.  I could really do with a rest... does this mean I can start a new project this evening?!

 

...I have also finished my latest crochet blanket, but need to give my bedroom a good tidy before taking photos of the finished item for my blog.  This has left me at a complete loss of what to do with any spare time I would have previously spent crocheting.  I have no "go-to" project, that I can pick up and put down when I have a spare 15 minutes. 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and fit in a little making with all the sunshine. Happy summer everyone!

Soft sandwiches & felty fillings

I have been rather quiet this past week.  The reason for that is that my daughters second birthday is fast approaching.  As always I have bitten off more than I can chew with the making of presents (along with shopping, party food, my partners Birthday also this week, possibly two Birthday cakes, I feel quite stressed!)  When will I learn to start making sooner and not make things so complicated?! (probably never as I like to be busy and with me, the more complicated the better... no sympathy here then!)

 

This is the first of two toys I've been making her.  Some of her favourite toys are her plastic food things, so I wanted to add and expand on this play by making a soft sandwich.  I am hoping it will encourage more interactive play, talking about fillings, choosing different combinations, stacking the layers and probably a lot of bringing mummy different sandwiches.

 

 

I have seen some toys similar to this available that are made from wood, but when I saw the price I was like, HOW MUCH?!  Present buying gets so expensive and I refuse to spend loads on something I know full well I can make from bits and pieces in my stash.  While my kid is young and I can get away with it, I will!  I don't really see how such small hands are supposed to pick up a chunky wooden sandwich anyway, without it falling to pieces... leading to frustrated toddler tantrum! 

 

I really enjoyed working with the felt for a change (with the exception of the bread being cotton, the slice of ham was made from pink corduroy and the egg yolks a piece of nylon.)  It was nice easy sewing and the simple embroidery details were also fun to do.

 

 

The felt was limiting only in the fact that it is impossible to make sandwich fillings such as tuna and egg mayonnaise... I think however it is probably impossible to make these with anything other than actual tuna or egg!

 

 

I didn't use any patterns when making this project, as it was all fairly 2D, so everything was drawn out freehand.  This project was all hand sewn, with the exception of a quick whizz around the sewing machine on the cucumber and tomato, before hand stitching them... As I'm typing this, I realised I still have a little making to do as I've forgotten to make lettuce, DOH!

 

 

Chicken salad sandwich? ...Don't mind if I do!

 

 

A giant Scooby-Snack also looks quite good!

 

I am also working on a second present for my daughter this week, which is a doll with (hopefully) two or more dresses.  I have all the pattern pieces cut out so far, so fingers crossed I get it put together in time!  What have you been making?  I would love hear about your current projects.

 

Giant Doilies...

...Become Lubly Squishy Cushions

 

Just a quick post from me today, as I have spent the last two hours making two slices of cucumber.  (Alrighty then!) ...and much of last night was spent making a slice of ham from fabric.  Did you know it is actually much easier to make fabric look like cheese than it is ham?!  You learn something new every day!

 

...My daughters second Birthday is fast approaching and I am in present making mode!  Hopefully I will have some nice pictures later in the week, where it will all become a little clearer.

 

For now, here are a few pictures of the giant doily cushions I've been working on:

 

 

For some reason this doily seemed to take twice as long to attach to the backing fabric.  I wanted to take my time and do it by hand, to make sure it was on securely and in case I change my mind somewhere down the line and want to take it off again.  I also find that running doilies through the sewing machine can kind of drag the doily and distort the overall shape and appearance.  Not so important maybe with a small doily, if its a millimetre out here and there, but when you add all those millimetres up and scale up the doily, that is potential wonky doily disaster!

 

 

 

 

 

This is the back of the blue doily cushion (I forgot to take a picture of the back of the other one oops!)  I've finished the backs with buttons, as I get fed up with basic envelope cushions opening every time someone leans on them. 

 

 

So, this is how my sofa is looking now... just a couple more cushions to make for the left of the sofa.  (Really hard to photograph a corner sofa well, without getting all other crap in the room in shot.)

 

If you're paying attention, you might notice in the photo above the tree fabric I got recently for my Birthday.

 

So really two cushions is three cushions...

 

 

The blue crochet flowers were some random ones I made when wanting to crochet a flower blanket.  I quickly changed my mind though as I really struggled with the pattern and decided that there just weren't enough hours in the day to complete it (each flower took as long as eight squares to make.)

 

OK so my quick post today was not so quick hey?! Lolzer!!