His 'n' hers

Two cuddle owls in progress today.

A "his" version:

And a "hers" version:

These take so much polyfill that I ground to a halt with my making yesterday and I had to go out for fresh supplies today.

My boy is totally smitten with his, he said "Mum, you can make anything!".  Well, I do try...

Scraps: all things to all people

I'm softie making this weekend - one made to order for a friend, and one for my little mister because he's been begging me to make him an owl "just like I made for Scarlett".

Mostly I make these kind of things out my stash and scrap bag.  Finding little bits of suitably co-ordinating fabrics and of just the right sizes is part of the fun of making softies this way.  I like the way I have to look at colours and really notice their hues, and decide things like "this blue matches nicely, but this one is the wrong shade altogether."  You stop and realise that sometimes blue is not just blue, and yellow is not just yellow, and so forth.

But the mister saw something entirely different when I brought the scrap bag up onto the back deck for sorting through.  He stopped his scootering to make a closer inspection of play possibilities.

At first he fiddled with winding bits around his feet...

...then he discovered that superhero like wrist ties were really the way to go. 

So far these bits of fabric have also been police handcuffs, a collar for a toy dog, flames of a fire and probably another dozen things I haven't been privy to over the weekend.

Lucky I have a big bag of scraps to suit everybodies purposes!

Slicing

After a lovely breakfast out on Sunday morning the family inevitably ended up in Avid Reader bookshop down in West End.  While my husband did the required reading to the little one in the kids book section (I can no longer get comfortable down on the floor to do that!) I had no other excuse not to wander off to the craft section and see what was new.

I ended up browsing through the new sewing book by Nicole Mallalieu - You Sew Girl!  A host of great projects and lovely photos were between the covers of this lovely book, and also a great section about sewing techniques and equipment.  Call me a nerd but I really like reading about those kind of things in sewing books (not all of them include them though) as I always learn something new or see how I do things the same or different to other sewers.  Nicole was writing about how much she used her rotary cutter to cut out patterns.  This had never occured to me before, I'm a bit scared of the good old rotary cutter, I do all my cutting with scissors.  I do have a cutter though and have used it for limited straight line cutting a few times.  I really thought of it as a quilting tool, not a dressmaking tool.

So this week I tried it out - using plenty of pressure on the cutter and pressing directly down as recommended by Nicole in her book I attempted cutting out the curved shapes of a softie pattern.  And it worked, it worked really well.  An exciting revelation in my sewing room, faster and smoother than using scissors, and only a little bit scary.  Although I have to find a surface to use it that is not down on the floor because as I mentioned already, I've got a problem with the floor at the moment!

My creative space: Production line

This week has been all about baking and hardly at all about sewing.  My husband's birthday necessitated a chocolate mud cake early in the week.  Then some batches of muffins and a fruit loaf later I was up to a double batch of chocolate chip cookies today.

Why?  Baking for the Red Hill Kindergarten Fair this weekend. 

After lunch the little man and I set up a cookie production line.



Yummy, buttery, sugary batter...

Teaspoonfuls ready for baking



Ten minutes later - warm, buttery, chocolatey goodness...

That's what fifty chocolate chip cookies look like in a pile.



All packaged up ready for sale.



But don't worry, the double batch means there is plenty left over for the family.  I'm not going to all that effort just to give them all away!

Recipe was straight off the packet of chocolate chips:

125g butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup castor sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 egg

1 1/2 cups SR flour

3/4 cup choc chips

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. 

Add vanilla essence and egg, mix well. 

Add flour until all combined, lastly add chocolate chips.

Drop teaspoonfuls onto baking paper lined trays, leaving space for spreading. 

Bake in moderate oven for 10-15 minutes. 

Place on wire rack to cool.

Makes approx. 30

Sharing over here today!

Friday shop update

I've finally had time to add two more garments to the shop. 

The apple top has been a few weeks in the making (sooo many other things to do!), the wrap dress I made some time ago and just decided to list it.  Both are size 2, actually my most popular size funnily enough.  I've been battling non-stop windy weather and dull winter lighting in an effort just to take the photos - this shop caper can be time consuming! 



Red apple reversible cross back top - size 2

Vintage fabric reverse of apple cross back top - size 2



Garden party wrap dress - size 2



Garden party wrap dress - size 2

Blanket stitch

I've discovered a new passion lately - making baby blankets.

It all started when I made one for the silent auction for the kindergarten fair.  I really enjoyed the evenings sitting and stitching the binding by hand in front of the heater and the television (knitters and crocheters I'm sure you can relate). 

 I was really sorry to give it away in the end, I love those fabrics (more Denyse Schmidt fabric love over here, and here).

So I got to and made another.  I had the patchwork top in my stash (made from a doona cover I had as a kid) and teamed it with pink flanelette and white binding (keeping it on the shelf at the moment in case I want to own something pink in 8 weeks).

Right now I'm on blanket number three.  I attacked some vintage sheets, hopefully a more uni-sex yellow and blue combination.  I'm making my way through the sewing of the binding - I even took it along to swimming lessons this morning...crafting in public...gasp!

Playing along with creative spaces today.

Found

One crocheted rainbow granny square blanket.

Soft and snuggly.

Perfect baby size.

Perfect lap size.

Just showing it off so you can admire it too!

Coconut ice

I've just completed my first custom order for my shop.  I had a request to make a dress like this:

...but in a size six and with no doily feature.

I had the same main fabric to work with, but none left of the darker pink of the sleeves, so I went for white and pink florals on the sleeves and a white hem ruffle instead.

After talking baking for the kindergarten fair with the kindy mums in the morning all I could think about when sewing this pink and white creation was...coconut ice.  Strange, I've never even made coconut ice!  Its kind of appropriate though as this dress and another will be shortly winging their way to mid-summer in the UK.

Painting progress

A lovely day spent outdoors today - both painting and sewing. 

The red paint is as fabulous as expected, two coats on and I think one more tomorrow will complete the job.  I really wanted to use a roller for a smooth finish but the one I had was just rolling really unevenly and leaving fluff everywhere so I gave up and used a brush instead.

In between coats of paint I had a little go at making a cover for my change mat.  The patterned vinyl on it is hideous with a capital H.  I don't know why I didn't cover it last time it was in use!  I made some very dodgy calculations, cut my fabric too small, had to add on a couple of strips of extra fabric to make it big enough again and then after all that its still a very tight fit.  I plan to make two more so I'll have to re-think my maths.

It was too nice of a day to get myself in a twist about these little things.  I just enjoyed being outside in the gorgeous winter sun.



Swapping pins for paintbrushes

Hello there!  I've been busy getting a bit nesty over here at Maika.  So busy I kind of dropped the ball on blogging for over a week while my headspace was crammed full of other thoughts and ideas.  I've been spending too much time on Etsy and Ebay, handstitching binding on baby blankets, thinking about sprucing up five year old baby equipment by sewing pram liners and change mat covers, getting increasingly pre-occupied by my own aches and pains and the increasing effort to get through the day to day, what's to come in about eight weeks as this pregnancy draws to an end....as I said, too many thoughts.

My project of the moment is a spot of furniture rejuvenation.  I've been washing down, taping edges, undercoating with primer...

...and I am super excited to start using this cherry red paint tomorrow.  The colour spot on the tin doesn't do it justice, cherry red is not the right description, its a fabulous bright red.  No pinks or blues around here at the moment.  At the moment, anyway.