Clothes Pin Elves

These are pretty much straight out of the 2013 Christmas edition of the Better Homes and Garden's Magazine and we did initially make them in Christmas colours so they were true Christmas elves. And they were naughty! Little Imp woke each morning in December to find them up to some mischief or other.

January just wasn't the same after the tricky Christmas elves had been packed away, so I succumbed and we made 2 more...non-Christmas elves.

Still fun, but not nearly as cheeky;)

Hoggie the Hedgehog

Isn't he cute?!

This is not an original - it is from this website. Very quick to piece together. I think my friend who is a bit of a hedgehog fanatic will be appreciative of this little toy for her baby when it arrives early next year.

I think my Hoggie's prickles are a bit denser than the pattern as I ended up cutting another long row of prickle fleece. Perfect for little baby fingers to grab and explore.  I also added a little jingle bell inside the stuffing for extra sensory fun!

Felt Hair Clip

Little Imp has her daddy's hair.  Straight.  She also has a double crown.  No idea where that came from & no one on either side of the family is owning up to being the genetic culprit (not that a double crown is something you can hide very easily as far as I can tell!)  The up shot of this has many bad hair days already, even in her short life of only two years.

A few friends have started using little clips in their girl's hair and I figured it might be time we try the same to keep Little Imp's hair out of her eyes.   I found some of the silver snap type clips at Spotlight and raided my box of felt for some little scraps to cover the clips.  I'm sure there are other versions of the same type of thing I came up with to make these clips, but this is what resulted after an evening of snip, stitch and glue in front of the TV.

The husband came up with the idea of the leaf outline under the lady bug - he does have his uses!

Basic 'How To'
Essentially you are going to use two pieces of felt to cover the top part of the clip to make it pretty, while leaving the back 'snap' mechanism free to grip onto the hair.

• Using your hair clip as a guide, trace around the clip onto paper allowing an extra 3/4mm or so all the way around.  Cut this paper template out & use it to cut out 2 pieces of felt to the same size. 

• Next you need to cut a small slit into what will become the back piece of felt.  The red line on the paper template below shows roughly where I cut the slit, Snap open the clip and poke the back section of the clip through. 

• Then do whatever you like to decorate the top piece of felt.  Embroidery thread, buttons, more felt, beads.... imagine and sew!  If you're not keen on sewing then I'm sure glue would also work a treat, just leave any big embellishments to be glued on until after you have sewn the felt pieces together!

• Next, position the decorated top piece of felt over the bottom piece of felt, sandwiching the top section of the metal clip in between the felt. Align and then stitch the pieces of felt together.  For the Ladybug clip I used a simple back stitch all the way around & the Button Heart clip I used blanket stitch.  Again, use whatever suits your design.  Glue any big embellishments on (like my ladybug) and you are done.

view of back of clips once sewn together, 'snap' mechanism poking through bottom piece of felt

Making a jumper into a toddler dress

A nip in the air last week led to a morning of swapping over summer for winter clothes.  Long sleeves and pants out of their boxes and short sleeves and dresses into storage.  A moment of purging overtook me as well & I threw items I'd hung onto for far too long into a pile for the Op Shop.  Then I spied a tutorial on a blog titled make it and love it to turn a jumper into a little wee dress, and before I knew it a number of clothes in the Op Shop pile were back in a pile in my craft room awaiting their moment of upcycling.

I started with one very well worn jumper similar to this one in style (forgot to take a picture of the original jumper in my haste to chop and sew it into a new creation).

And after some simple cutting and sewing this is how it turned out. Pretty pleased.  Best of all no actual measuring required, just some eye-judged snips.  My kind of sewing!

Now we need some of the cold weather back so Little Imp can wear it with some tights.

Strip Quilt with free-motion quilting

I finished this little quilt a while back, but kept accidentally deleting the photos I'd taken so its taken me a while to post about it.  The idea is from a Modern Quilting book I bought called Block Party - The Modern Quilting Bee by AH Carlton & K Lejnieks and it was so quick to put together.

My favourite part was the minimal measuring.  You just stitch together  pieces of different widths of fabrics into strips slightly longer than the length you want each block to be.

Then press and square them off along each long end.

And then sew on pieces of the background fabric to the long edges to make up each block, using one or 2 strips in each block.  Then arrange the blocks how you like & sew them all together.  Easy.

I tried my hand at free-motion quilting using a large meandering pattern all over the quilt and it turned out ok.  If you look closely you can see some mistakes, but none too noticeable and once I've washed it a few times I'm sure they will be even less so.  I didn't have the quilting gloves lots of bloggers say are useful in directing the fabric while quilting, but a pair of disposable surgical gloves with roughed finger pads did the trick for me.

Here's a close up of the quilting.

This quilting business is a little more addictive than I ever thought it would be....

The Softie Elephant King

It was a little busy in the lead up to heading to Tasmania last year, but I did get some time in the evenings to have a go making another critter from the Softies book I was given a while back.  'George the Elephant King' was my pick.  I do like making things on a small scale, so I decided not to enlarge the pattern, essentially making George half the recommended size (about 20cm high).

This was my favourite Softie in the book and I was more than happy with how the elephants turned out.  However, regardless of whether my elephants were made with green swirls & spots, or out-and-out floral fabric, it seems that I  instead created Georgina the Elephant Queen...
...or could that be George the Elephant King Queen (!)

I've made a whole herd now, if 7 elephants constitute a herd that is.  Some even with bells in their belly for jingle shaking kiddie fun.  Birthday gifts for little ones in 2012 me thinks.

Fabric covered ideas book

 I'm a visual person.  I like making lists and planning things.  Sometimes I write these down, but more often than not I loose the scrap I've written on. This doesn't help with falling asleep at night, attempting to recall lists and plans somewhere from within my whirring brain.

On a recent op shop expedition for photo frames for Little Imp's room (I'll post about that project some time soon), I came across an unused notebook for 50c that I realised could do the trick.  A new cover to make it mine and I would have a place to jot and store my thoughts and ideas.

I'd had one of the Japanese-y pieces of fabric I bought a while back earmarked for a book cover of some description and a strip of thick linen from an upholstery swatch (also from an op shop) worked perfectly as a coordinating feature.   A very easy project indeed.

Here's how it turned out.

               

  

Basic 'How To'

• Use a hard covered bound book for this project.  To work out how much fabric you need, open the book flat on the fabric and mark leaving an additional 5cm all the way around (to fold over and secure on the inside).  If the fabric has a design you want placed in a particular area on the cover take this into account (e.g. I wanted at least 2 full birds showing).
• Cut the fabric to size using scissors or a quilting cutter.
• Cut a coordinating/ contrasting strip to use as a feature on the front cover.  I used a teal upholstery linen that I frayed by pulling out a few threads along each long edge.
• Work out where you want the coordinting strip placed and pin to secure it to the main fabric.
• Machine stitch the strip to the main fabric using a small straight stitch in your choice of coloured thread along each edge.  I also used my machine to stitch 'OneLittleImp' along the strip for fun.
• Then reposition the open book on the wrong side of the fabric.  Use PVA glue along the inside side edges of the front and back covers and stick the fabric down, pulling it taught across the book and spine as you do so.  Do not use glue on the outside of the covers as it will show through the fabric and ruin the finish.
• Before you glue down the top and bottom edges snip the fabric on either side of the spine to allow the fabric to sit flat when you fold it over.  
• Take care when folding over each of the corners to ensure you get a nice neat point. 
• Use the flat blade of your scissors and a bit of extra glue to poke the thin pieces of fabric left at the top and bottom of the spine into the gap between the book cover and binding.
• Measure and cut 2 pieces of card to stick over the fabric edges on the inside covers at the front and back of your book.
• If you want to add some ribbons as page markers, cut these at approx 1.5 times the length of the book and secure them in place under the card on the front inside cover.

A 'case' for action

We have been using cloth nappies with Little Imp since soon after she was born, and the elastic has now begun to go in the legs.   

That means leaking.

That means more washing.                                                                                                                                                                 One clever hootchie suggested replacing the elastic & the thrifty me thought that was a great idea….until the enthusiasm well and truly wore off and I had only re-elasticised about 6 of the 20 nappies we have. In a moment of clarity I realised I could get brand new ones off ebay for less than $5 each and sew something far more exciting with the time I’d save.  Not exactly environmentally friendly, but at the time it was justification enough for me!

I had seen some ‘pillowcase’ dresses on the internet & used the dimensions from the prudent baby blog to make my first version.  Turns out Little Imp either doesn’t fit their dimensions or has got a bit chubbier than I thought! Decided I needed to come up with my own variation of the pillowcase design.

An even easier crinkly crunchy tag toy

Not necessarily the most difficult part of making a tag toy, but adding a bit more time & fiddliness, is having to turn it right side out after sewing the tags in place (see my blog entry of May 24, 2011).  How could I make this toy even easier to make?  By using a fabric that doesn't fray of course - maybe felt or fleece.

Fleece feels a bit softer to touch and I had some perfect sized scraps of a multicoloured polka dot fleece left over from a blanket mum & I made for Little Imp last year that I thought might just do the trick.

Basic Tutorial:

• cut 2x approx 7inch squares of a fleece fabric
• cut a 4 inch cello square

• place cello in the centre on the wrong side of one fleece square and pin in place (insert pin from  right side of fabric so that you can remove it later) 
• If you want to add a label then sew that in place now onto one of the fleece squares
• match fleece squares wrong sides together (so the cello ends up sandwiched in between) and insert a few pins about 1-2 inches from the edges (this helps to keep the pieces matched while you insert the ribbons)

• cut out your various pieces of ribbon, some long (to double over twice) and others shorter.  Use different widths, textures & colours to add to the sensory input the toy provides.  I decided to also use some matching scraps of fleece to make tags 

• Then double or double over twice each piece of ribbon, tuck it between the fleece squares and pin in place.  Be generous with the pins and even more importantly, make sure you are generous with the amount of ribbon caught between the fleece so that it is well stitched in place when you sew the squares together

• Using a straight stitch, machine stitch the fabric squares together about 0.5 cm from the edge,  removing pins as you go & ensuring you catch all the ribbons

• Then sew a second time around about 1cm from the edge, parallel to the first stitched border to really make sure the ribbons don't come loose

• Sew a small '+' in the centre of the toy to secure the cello (approx 3cmx3cm).  You could use a decorative stitch if you like.  
• Trim the threads, remove the pins (of course), and you are done.

No decent shots of the finished product I'm afraid, just a snap of them as part of the gift bundles for some girls at work.

Alphabet stamps ..... I Like!

Another night of crafting during some Hootchie Hang Time with the girls and after some dinner & bottling of farm grown pears we got down to it.

Ergonomics Bollocks was up to her usual tricks with her power tools and this time (believe it or not) pieces of sticky tape, to build multi-hinged little glass door cabinets to hold all of her beautiful hand made ear rings.
That left Happy & I at the table cutting and sticking and punching and stamping cards.  And that was where the 'I Want' comes into it.  I'd fallen in love with the cute stamped greeting in the card Happy gave me for my birthday a few months ago, but after having the chance to use her alphabet stamps myself I really fell in love with them.  Little wooden blocks, edged with mini rubber letters in a little corrugated cardboard box.  I like!

So I stamped the 'thank you' cards I'd made.
I like!  (if I do say so myself)

Organised...Disaster

 I've been needing some new ribbon for a while, for embellishing cards, making some more taggy baby toys and no doubt many other projects I am yet to think of.  Scouting around Spotlight I chanced upon a whole 3 racks of  clearance ribbons by the spool, only 70c each, so I stocked up.

Looking at the state of my current messy ball of existing ribbons, and with my need for order I decided to fashion a ribbon box to keep these ribbon spools mess free.  I'd seen something along these lines a while back in a craft magazine, but that was much fancier than what I had in mind.  A cardboard takeaway box that I'd been keeping for goodness knows what was finally put to use.  3mm wide spools along one side, 10mm spool along the other and holes made to thread the ribbon through.  A bit of prettiness stuck to the top of the box and hey presto, ribbon box complete!

                            

    

 

..... And then....

.... Disaster Struck.... 

Disaster in the name of Little Imp.  

My fault really, leaving the box within reach, but oh what a tangled mess!

Basic 'How To':

• Find a box that snugly fits all the spools of ribbon you have either in one row or two
• Using a sharp implement poke/cut holes enough to match the number of spools in the box 
• Then poke through the ribbon from the end of spool and place the spools side by side in the box 
• This will leave you with a small piece of each ribbon sticking out each hole ready to unravel without tangle

ps. if you too have a Little Imp you might want to work out a way of securing the lid of your box better than I did first time around!

Finally, the Eye Spy quilt is complete

A friend's little one had an 'eye spy' quilt that looked like so much fun I asked mum to make one for Little Imp.  She agreed, but left it up to me to begin to collect fun bits of fabric to use in the quilt.  It didn't take long for me to become hooked with all the beautiful fabrics I found on line and, with a bit of encouragement from mum, I decided I'd try my hand at piecing together a quilt myself.

The design of the quilt took shape as I gathered all the fabric pieces, and I ended up using a central plain colour square surrounded by 8 coordinating picture fabric squares to make up each block.
The process of working out which part of each fabric would be the most fun to use, and the ordered process of rotary cutting appealed to methodical me, but the part I really enjoyed was playing around with all the fabric squares to create a layout that I was happy to look at.  A layout where adjoining colours worked together and any fabric doubles were far enough apart not to be noticeable.  I spent hours just playing!

One of many trial layouts

 The end result, a 4x4 layout of blocks, quilting around each block in purple and around each central coloured square in matching colour thread.  As you can see, Little Imp isn't quite at the right age just yet to appreciate the 'eye-spy' feature of the quilt.  Oh so interested she was in crawling all over the pieces as I was in the process of trying to design the layout, and then when I wanted a photo of her sitting on the finished product she just kept crawling away!

A Little Pouch

I like tidiness, I like organisation.  I needed a little storage pouch for some of those girly bits that tend to get lost at the bottom of the handbag. Having recently discovered the art of patchworking (the finished quilt will be photographed soon) I decided to incorporate this skill in making the pouch.  I also wanted something that would be water resistant.  This is what I ended up with.

After making this one, I also made a smaller version for one of the Hootchie girls using some gorgeous fabric she had gifted to me from her time spent in Malawi.  Think she might store wayward teabags in hers. 

Basic Tutorial:

1. Cut 11 (2.5x 4.5inch) strips and sew together along long edges (1/4inch seams) to end up with one set of 6 strips (this will become the back of the pouch) and one set of 5 strips (this will become the front).  Play around with different fabrics if you like.
2. Press seams in one direction.
3. Cut 2 pieces of lining fabric  to match the finished size of your strip blocks.  I used a weather proof upholstery fabric (for some water resistance)
4. Stitch small piece of velcro (loop) to top of right side of 5 strip block 
5. Stitch matching small piece of velcro (hook) to top of right side of larger piece of lining fabric
• Beware!  Don't make the mistake I did of sewing sticky velcro using my machine - the needle did not appreciate it!!
6. Stitch each lining piece to its matching size strip blocks, wrong sides together, leaving a small gap to turn right side out
7. Once right side out, press seams well.  You now have the front and back of the pouch made
8. Stitch a 1/4 inch seam all the way around the 2 blocks of fabric to old the folds in place (can use a contrasting thread colour if you like)
9. Pin front and back of pouch together, lining sides facing with velcro at the top.
10. Stitch together along 3 edges to finish pouch.

Crinkly, Crunchy Tag Toy

My take on the popular 'taggy' toys for little ones.

A few prototypes first before I was happy with my version.  Not only loopy tags of different textures to pull and explore, but a crinkly noise inside to go with any exploration of the cloth.  A piece of cello cushioned inside a thin layer of wadding within the outer velvety soft fabric to make it extra enticing for little fingers to explore.  Happy with the end product at last.  So I decided to make up 3 more as gifts for all the newborn baby girls I know.

Basic Tutorial:

• cut 2x 7inch squares of a soft fabric
• cut 4inch cello paper square
• cut 4inch square batting and tear in half to make 2 thinner pieces of batting
• sandwich cello in between batting pieces
• centre this 'sandwich' onto wrong side of one piece of fabric and hand baste to secure
•  on other piece of fabric pin different doubled over ribbon lengths in place (onto right side of fabric with loops pointing inwards).  Vary the textures and also tie knots in some of the ribbons for interest.  Machine stitch in place close to edge (use stretch stitch if using stretchy/knit fabric).
• Machine stitch both fabric squares right sides together, leaving a 1.5inch hole to turn right side out.
• Once turned right side out, straight stitch close to the edge around border, re-securing the ribbons in place and forming a nice neat edge.
• Sew a small 'X' over the cello & batting sandwich using a decorative stitch (don't go fully corner to corner as this makes the toy too stiff).  Easy!