Sock animals

After the little owl came home from Canberra the kids were continuously bugging me to make more sock animals.

On the first day of school holidays I could avoid it no more.

I dragged out my stupid sock creatures book and printed out my owl, sausage dog and baby zilla patterns. I have been hoarding socks for a little while and found some striped beauties at target this week. I thought they would be perfect for a sock monkey. There are lots of tutorials online but I purchased a pattern from squiggly monkey.

I set us up on the kitchen table with my little girls sewing machine and our bag of socks.

The little boy chose a dog like creature from the book and the little girl designed her own cat.

I took turns doing a little bit of each animal and got them to help me with tasks along the way.

Most of the construction is done by hand. The sock fabric is very forgiving and the quickest seams of running stitch seem to be fine. Not sure how well they will last after a little bit of love though.

The dog was named Jump and am really pleased with how he turned out.

The cat is called pounce. He is not as cool as the dog but she designed him and even did the face embroidery herself.

So in its own way, this one is more special.

They wanted to make sausage dogs next and a baby zilla for daddy. I wanted to make a sock monkey but after a few hours I had enough. Maybe another day we will spend another morning making more sock animals.

sewing for F day

My little boy started school this year and it has required me to make a few things for him.

We made a library bag and a nap pillow.  Pacman was the theme of choice.

Then last week we had our first dress up day.  It was F day.  They had to be a F’n something.

When you have to think about it, there aren’t a lot of things to dress up as beginning with F.  It is a stupid letter.

All the little girls were not surprisingly Fairys.  There were a few firemen, footballers and a flower.  I also came across a Flight engineer.  But my little boy was the best frog there.  Well ok, he was the only frog!

I was inspired by this little mans frog costume.

I traced a beanie on some polar fleece for the hat and added some stuffed eyes on top.  The hat was a hit.  He wore it constantly for a few days after I made it – including to bed.

And the next night too!

The top was a cheapy with some of the hat fabric on the front for the belly to make it match.

The hands and flippers were made from sturdy felt.  It feels like felt but it is stiff like cardboard.  I put some elastic on the back that he could slip his palms into.  It is a clever idea as it allowed him to still use his hands.

I was pretty proud of myself with this costume.  I had a great time putting it together and he loved wearing it.

Little people

I bought the kids some of these wooden dolls ages ago. We painted them together and they were played with a lot. But slowly they have started going AWOL. Occasionally they turn up under the couch or in a bookshelf.

I decided to get some more from goose grease and I noticed that she had these great checker sets for sale.

The postage was a little but steep (including the board) so I decided that I could make my own set and just got the dolls from her.

I made black ninjas for one team

and after some discussion, the other team are little girls.

I  used acrylic paint that I bought from an art shop.  It was a simple student set of 10 tubes.  They could probably do with a coat of varnish too, but I really couldn’t be bothered.

There are 4 extras each for “king me”.

The board was a lucky find at the local market for $5. I just noticed it. I am sure if I was actually looking for one I would never have found it.

The kids like playing checkers with them.  But the game doesn’t last long as the little boy invariably starts losing. Then the pieces are generally taken from the board to participate in battles around the house.

At least they are being played with.

3rd present done

This is Larry the Lion.  Larry is for my youngest nephew that will be turning 1 shortly.

Larry turned out really good.  Not perfect though.  I was definitely rushing as he had to be finished today.

I sewed his paw pads on backwards on 3 of the feet.

This made making the toes a little more difficult.

The ears are wrong too. But in my defence I didn’t understand the instructions – a picture may have been useful.

I got the ears wrong the monkey funky friend I made ages ago too.

Larry is for a 1 year old and he isn’t going to notice those things.

two more birthday toys

I have a few more kids birthdays coming up this month. So far I have completed 2 of the 3 required gifts.
The ooshka is for my little girls best friend. I made the tie around the neck a little longer so it could be tied in a bow. But no matter how I tie it, it never looks neat.

The other is a funky friend gecko for my nephew. He is a little obsessed with numbers and football, so I tried to incorporate this theme into a toy.

The number, like a football jersey is his age and I used good Queenslander colours - maroon (State of origin) and red (QLD reds).

This pattern is pretty cool and very simple to make. It can also be adapted to be used as a heat pack too.

time for a fashion parade

I have been pretty quiet on my blog lately but I have been sewing up a storm.

These ooshkas were nice and quick to make for a few birthdays that we had last week.  This is another project hat I picked up at SIT this year.  I bought a few extra faces and they will be great for a few more birthdays that are coming up soon.

I am still on  my dress making kick.  And I promised last time I wouldn’t take  photos with my phone in my bedroom mirror.  So tried to take one with the good camera in the bathroom mirror.

       

 

Not Successful. Then I thought “stuff it” and grabbed the tripod and took the camera out the back and held a “self timer” photo shoot!!

Ok, I have recently made three dresses.  The first two are collette patterns crepe and parfait.  This is a new to me pattern company.  And even though the patterns are slightly on the expensive side they are well worth it.  The instructions are very well written and are in a booklet form.

I thought that crepe was going to be my all time favourite pattern.  I modified the sleeves and adjusted the back a little.  It is a backwards wrap dress with a waist tie and pockets.  The construction is beautiful but the fit on me is a little off – mind you looking at the photos – its not as bad as I thought it was.

Fabric is Moda Oliver & S City Weekend.

Possibly the main reason that I am “just” happy with crepe is that I am extastic about parfait. (The sun came out and the next photos aren’t as good!)

This dress has turned out fantastic and the fit is just perfect.  I modified the button tab straps by omitting the button tab bit and just sewing them as straps.

Next time I would sew the zip to the top of the dress under the arm to make it easier to get in and out of (probably not big deal if you had done the button tab straps) and maybe made it slightly longer.

The fabric is slightly darker than what these photos show and is a navy and aqua. It is from the Denise Schmidt joann range.

The third dress is from Lisette - the Traveller pattern.

Lisette patterns are by Liesel Gibson -basically Simplicity distributed adult Oliver & S patterns.

Karen (And so, I sew) just made the Lisette portfolio tunic which looks fantastic.  They are also very well written and very flattering.

I made my dress a size smaller than what was recommended for my measurements. The finished garmet t seemed to have a lot of ease and I wanted it a little more form fitting.

I think it looks better with a belt – but because I lowered the waist slightly, the elastic belt rides up.  Maybe I just need a wider belt.  Or maybe I should make a sash.

 

Fabric for the top half is basic spotlight cotton and the bottom is Amy Butler Twilight Peony.

The next dress that I am going to make is pretty much the same as this  last one.  I am going to use a different pattern (a Project Runway one)  and  I am going to use darker winter colours.

Even though it was nice and sunny out by my pool it is still too cold up here to wear these.  Bring on Summer!!!

 

 

have a ball

This was one of the things I wanted to make for this christmas.  I mentioned it a few posts ago. Have a ball from Crochet Today Magazine Nov/Dec 2009.

Basically it is 12 pentagons joined to form a lacy ball.  You blow up a balloon inside and starch it.

I have been playing with different starch techniques and decided that I was going to use a mixture of PVA glue and water.  I wasn’t really sure how well the sugar syrup would go in storage and was concerned about bugs.

But once I got the balloon in there it was discovered that it was a cool little bouncy ball.  It has been kicked from one end of the house to the other dozens of times.  It is quite a good “inside” ball, not heavy or hard.

So I am pretty happy with the end result.  Instead of being a delicate decoration only to be looked at each year it has become a fun holiday toy .  The balloon will continue to need to be  replaced, but it will be fun putting different colours inside.

I will pack it away with the tree at the end of the season and bring it out again next year for some more fun.

on the list

I have heaps of christmas crafting to do.  Not lots of things, but a few big things that need to be finished to give as gifts.

This little puppy dog was not on the list of things to make.  Susie and I went halves in the kit which made two of them.  We got it at the last craft show we went to.

It was a Japanese pattern but it did include a set of english instructions.

 

 

He was kind of fun even though a little bit fiddly.  He has a peg inside him so his front paws can hold on to things.

I lurve making toys

I have gone off making quilts.  I have a few still in progress and one that I am dying to make.  But I am not really interested in making any more.  Unfortunately,  I have enough.  Every bed and couch in this house has two and we just don’t have the space in the closet to hoard any more.

At sew it together I got a copy of kinder girls from Jodie in my goodie bag.  I have been wanting to make one of these for ages, but just didn’t becuase I made 2 of the wee wonderfuls kit/cloe/louise aka Jack and Jill.

The kids don’t NEED anymore toys that they don’t play with.  Then at SIT the girls were playing with ernst.  He is such a cute little toy.  I thought that maybe I should just make one for me.

I got in touch with Jodie and bought Ernst and a few more patterns off her.  Now I am on a toy making binge.

Ernst is done, though he is getting a little cold.  I am waiting for fabric for his shell.  I was too impatient to wait to buy felt to make him from and used polar fleece instead.  I am surprised and extremely pleased with how well he turned out.  It is a great pattern.

The knider boy and girl patterns are ready to be cut and am just waiting on some felt from winterwood for their hair.

While all of this waiting was happening I made “woobie” which I picked up as a kit from the last craft show.  He is for my new nephew due in september.  He is a pattern from Happy Little Souls but I can’t find him on their website.

I have also made a ‘practice’ pink owl and a blue bat.  I am going to make a mobile of these ( owls from craft schmaft) for the new baby too.

The kids like using the other sock for them to sleep in.

It took me a lot of hunting to find the perfect socks.  In the end pumpkin patch had the best range of colours, with no “no skid” soles and no writing or pictures on them.

I had forgotten how much I love making toys.  When the kids stopped playing with stuffed toys, I stopped making them. Silly really.

Makin’ Christmas Presents

I didn’t have any intentions of making any christmas presents this year.  But I guess I couldn’t help myself.

I made the kids (and cousins, and friends) some story blocks.  I found a set on etsy and after doing a little google search, found a few other blogs with similar themes.  Basically they are a wooden block with pictures on the sides.  The kids roll the blocks and make up a story about the pictures that they see.

The blocks that I found online used lots of different ideas for the pictures.Some had used scrapbook stamps, hand drawn or painted pictures or pictures cut from thrifted books.

I took the easy route and downloaded clipart from the Microsoft site.  This was so easy and I was spoiled for choice about what to put on the blocks.  I made a huge table of 1 inch sqaures in a Microsoft word document and inserted a picture into each cell.  Then when I printed the page out the lines were already there to cut the pictures to the right size.

The blocks were plain wooden 1in blocks and I got them from Eton Press (NZ).  I painted them white with some craft paint I had lying around.

To attach the pictures to the blocks I used modge podge.  I found lots of good instructions and ideas from the blog modge podge rocks.  I used the gloss which may not have been the best idea, because the blocks stick together even after they are dry.

To package them all up I made simple drawstring bags. On the front I appliqued some fabric which I had printed some instructions on.

It was a really easy project but it took me forever to make them all.  I mean weeks.  I could only do bits at a time, then had to wait for each coat to dry.  And I made about 6 sets and I did them in batches.  They turned out really good, but I don’t think they are going to last because if they keep sticking together the pictures will eventually pull off.

I also made the kids some playmats.  My sister asked me to make one for her boy (the same as I made her first son last year). So when I was searching for the same panels I came across some other really cool ones. I got them from bugfabric and they were $10USD each. My boy has the railroad on one side and the construction site on the other.  He crawled into bed with me the other morning and was using it as a blanket – very cute.

For my little girl there was a pretty pink panel that had shops and pink paved roads.

I used some cotton that I had put aside to make a dress out of as the back and made a simple quillow for her.

She loves quilts and pillows (how lucky am I!!) and my sister bought her a pack of tinkerbell fairies for Christmas. They have a great time in the pink town.