Softies for Mirabel appeal

Four lovely friends and I have been meeting semi-regularly for some months, and doing significant amounts of "after hours" sewing to produce a final tally of 18 softies for the Mirabel appeal. Hopefully each of these little ones will be finding their perfect human match sometime in December and brining a smile and a cuddle to some of the children supported by the Mirabel Foundation.

Thank you to Petrea, Annette, Jackie and Kris for being inspired, super crafty and taking up the challenge with me - it was heaps of fun.

I will post photos of each toy and details of who made them on the Flickr website sometime today. I also have to get them down to the post office quick smart!

Thanks also to Pip and Meet me at Mikes for this little piece of crafting for charity brilliance.

My Place and Yours: thats different, thats nice, thats unusual

Nothing like the challenge of taking a step back and unravelling what it is that is odd about your place, especially when those odd things are just normal to you (because you live there, right?).

Anyway, enough of the confusing dialogue. Like Toni, I have a switch that does nothing. The powerpoint next to this switch is ordinary, very handy for ironing in the kitchen, but the switch on the left does naught. I have lived in this house for three years and probably for at least the first year I thought that this switch was the power for the dishwasher, which is underneath the bench nearby. But then one day I ran the dishwasher and forgot to flip the switch on, and there went that theory.

I also have a bathroom mirror in which you can't see your head. We have the pokiest and stupidest bathroom/shower/toilet combination, so the fact that there are windows where your head should be in the mirror doesn't really surprise me. We installed an Ikea shaving mirror for all important facial related activities in the bathroom....


For a good dose of hilarity I do recommend that you head on over to Mikes and check out some other contributions.

Creative Space - the pleasure and the pain

I have been busy experimenting the last few days. These two are what I have been up to.

My little red friend there was a pleasure to make, he just worked, straight out. He looks great and I had a lovely feeling of satisfaction after finishing him. I might make him a bit larger next time.

The blue bear creature was a PAIN. I wanted to make something that was a good cuddly size for a kid, and not have to sew limbs on (this is my lease favourite thing about softies - the arms and legs, arrrgh!), so I made a figure of eight shaped pattern. So far so good. The face was my real problem with this dude. I had a bit of human like face on it, kind of like the face here, but also with green hair. I then sewed it together with the wrong sides facing, so had to pull it all apart again, then sewed it correctly and stuffed it, but I just hated the face, and I picked up the seam ripper and just ripped it right off. I then made the current face and spent ages deciding how to arrange it - how far up the face? how far apart the eyes? eyes close to nose or separate? Ahhh, the decisions! Last night I pulled the filling out and sewed on the face and ears with much difficulty, but much patience. He's OK now, just a very frustrating experience.

For more creative spaces, head on over to Kirsty!

Here....Kitty, Kitty

I finished Kitty from the Kirsten Doran kit. I made him mostly black (despite the nice fabrics in the pack) because I was feeling in a black cat mood considering Friday 13th and Halloween happening within a few weeks of each other (yes, I have been working on this small project for a while). Isn't he just adorable? I really do love him.

And so does the small one it seems. The little boy spied Kitty sitting on my sewing table after she was finished, and immediately claimed it as his own. He talks to it, goes to bed with it (forsaking the usual favourite of Maisy Mouse!!), and even toted it around to his friend's place yesterday.

I wanted to photograph Kitty today, and there he was, relaxing on the end of my son's bed. Miaow!

My creative space

My work table is a mess today. There are several things in this pile that are in various stages of completion.

I have some fabric with pheonix's and flowers on it.

To be made into this skirt.

I also bought a Kirsten Doran "kitty" kit from the Finders Keepers Markets a few weekends ago. He's still half finished and the honest truth why is that I can't be bothered changing the cotton in my machine from white to black...pathetic I know!

For more creative spaces, go on over to Kirsty.

Getting skirty

An evening of cutting and piecing together on Monday and an afternoon of zippers, trim and finishing on Tuesday produced me a new skirt.

I used the Madison skirt pattern from Little Bird Patterns. Its a very simple skirt to make, and its very comfy around the waist as it doesn't have elastic or a tight waist band or anything. I also really like that the skirt is a bit longer than average, that suits my style. I even wore it out to the movies last night.

The one thing I am dissatisfied with the facing around the waist as its not interfaced (so thin and floppy), the instructions seem to indicate that you just zig-zag (or overlock) the raw edges (no neat hem), and it shifts around and rides up when you put the skirt on and adjust it on your waist. I had to tuck the facing in to make myself neat! Must fix that with a few little stitches, especially along the side seam on the other side to the zipper. For some dyslexic reason only known to myself I made it in the large size, which is definitely not my size, and had to take in a whopping 14cm from the waist and side seam, but at least I could custom fit it, better too big than too small!

I have plans to make some more of these in the very near future.

Pre-shrinking

I went for the second time to get a 15cm black zipper. No luck. So I compensated by purchasing some cotton fabric, and zippers in other colours. I am going to make clothing for myself for the first time in at least 10 years, maybe a bit more.

Today its a bit of a scorcher in Brisbane. I had these washed and dried in no time! Don't you love that?

Girl sewing

I don't get to do much girl sewing. You know, with soft pinks and flower prints and all that. Well, I had a go today at making a bag for a little girl I know. I just made up the pattern (well, strictly I didn't even use a pattern), it was a bit of a brain teaser deciding which way to sew everything together so that the lining, the exterior and the handles were all in the right place when I turned it the right way out. One of the handles ended up with a twist in it, but I don't think the three year old recipient will mind...

I also made some felt covered hair clips to go with.

Zipperless

Have a pattern, have pre-washed fabric, have sewing machine and enthusiasm, large chain sewing supplies store is understocked in black zippers of the appropriate size. Grrr.

A Lucky Winner!

I won this lovely package of goodies last week! I happen to be a follower of Ellie from Petalplum, Danielle from Craft Laboratory and their joint venture Selvedge House. So I had a good chance at their random pick of a blog follower to win a giveaway prize, and I won indeed.

Inside red tissue paper and brown string was a beautiful deep red drawstring bag, and inside the bag were two pieces of hand printed fabric, one red "Pear Shaped" and one dark natural "The Potter's Daughter" (which is especially cute with little pottery pieces printed all over), a fabric covered mirror (for my handbag!) and a fabric badge, and a lovely little handwritten thank you card. It was more than I ever expected, beautifully presented and totally lovely and touching. It made me feel all warm inside. Thanks ladies, I will certainly be letting you know when I have used the fabric in a little project.

Ready to get cooking

The little boy wanted an apron, so Mummy made him one. My little model had a hard time sitting still and smiling for the camera though.

I had a lovely little scrap of green Ikea fabric with hippos on it, so made a rather large contrasting pocket. He will definitely be able to store Maisy mouse in there (his favourite toy) while he is cooking. Might get Grandma to test the apron out in the coming week while she is visiting...

Am I crazy?

Hello! Its been about a week since I had time to do a blog post. A few small projects are bubbling away on my dining room table, but nothing enough to really post about.

I went to Ikea on Sunday (hm, bad idea I hear you say?). Well, I don't have any time during the week right now and I needed sheets and Ikea have 100% cotton ones that don't cost the earth.

Anyway, I went past the fabric section and pulled out a massive square of this Gunilla fabric from the "off cuts" box. I secretly think they just put pieces in the box to tempt folk like me who are browsing through with kid/s in tow and the whole self-serve fabric thing is in the too hard basket.

I want to do two things with it. I am going to try and attempt some long cushions for the couch. That's OK. And I want to make a skirt. That is kind of odd because its heavy weight fabric, more for furnishings rather than clothes. I'll be the lady with the cushion cover skirt....

I'll keep you posted.