Not the best photo, but it's late so the light quality is pretty awful right now. First batch of birthday bunting for Little Miss C is complete. So is her birthday dress. Many things still to complete before Friday though... For those interested in the details: material from my stash (probably from St Albans market originally), bias binding for the tape and the triangles cut with my new pinking shears. Start to finish - 50 minutes. ... read more
Preparing for a birthday…
There's quite a major birthday here next week. A very special little girl will be celebrating her first birthday and being the girly girl that she already is I know I've got to pull all the stops out. There are gifts still being made, a party to plan and decorations to be completed. The latter was where I turned my attentions today; cutting out triangles that will hopefully soon form bunting. All the material comes from my stash (which strangely seems to have a lot of blue in it) and the only new purchase was the bias binding that Ii'm using to string it all together. I just hope ... read more
Bags for little ladies
When going to a little girl's first birthday party you certainly can't arrive empty handed. When the birthday girl also has a slightly older sister then two gifts are required so as not to give mum and dad a headache later on. Therefore A, and older sister B, were both the recipients of these lovely little bags, each containing a new bit of bedtime reading. Both bags were made with fabric from my stash with the girls' initials added in felt. Not difficult to make, although sewing round the curved edges of the letter B made me realise just how little time I've recently ... read more
A dress for Jemima
Do you remember this little lady? I'm delighted to be able to tell you that she's no longer sat in the cupboard in her underwear, but instead has a very pretty dress to wear. In fact, the exact dress that my version of Jemima had when I was a little girl. Talking to Mum, she has no recollection of Jemima having any clothes other than the dress. This Jemima should have a more varied wardrobe, just as long as I can find the time to complete everything before Little Miss C's fast approaching birthday. I have a long list of sewing projects to complete before her birthday - so long in fact that ... read more
Clothkits Sunhat
The Clothkits catalogue can be a dangerous place, especially when you have a little girl who seems to like girly stuff as much as Little Miss C does. Today's sunshine made me even more determined to spend some time with my sewing machine to ensure that she actually had a sunhat and amazingly I actually did make the time to do so! I bought the kit for this hat a while back, along with a matching sundress kit which is next on my to do list. I think it's turned out really well, especially since I managed to do all the sewing just in the time that Little Miss C had her ... read more
A gifted sewing purse
I was incredibly lucky with Christmas gifts this year - thank you everyone - but special mention has to go to one amazing handmade gift that I received from my wonderfully talented mum. She made me this beautiful sewing purse. Both sides are embroidered (mainly done during the many hours she has recently spent in hospital waiting rooms) and not only is there a zipped compartment in the middle (which was filled with sewing goodies) but there are also flaps on either side to provide space for pins and needles. And as if this all wasn't amazing enough, she also managed to make an identical ... read more
Autumn Clean
You hear of people having a Spring Clean, but I think I'm currently in the middle of an Autumn Clean instead! I've got a strange desire to tidy, clean and sort things at the moment. No idea why as it is very unlike me. One area that has got a lot of attention lately are my sewing and knitting stashes. They'd got a bit out of control lately with piles of yarn, fabric and threads all threatening to fall off shelves whenever I went looking for something. Some lovely (cheap) storage boxes from Wilkos helped and certainly look much better on my shelves than the precarious ... read more
Crafting for baby
Real progress has been made here now that I've got a little bit of "me" time again. The Ten in the Bed cross-stitch that I started back at the beginning of February (nearly eight months ago!) is finally finished. Well, I say finished, the sewing part is finished. I still need to wash it, mount it and frame it though before it can be hung on the wall in Little Miss C's nursery. I just hope that it won't be another eight months before this happens! This is the view that I have most evenings now that the sewing is complete. There's still a long ... read more
Getting back to “normal”
Little Miss C is eight weeks old today. Eight weeks! Where has the time gone. From a small baby who came into the house and did little more than sleep, eat and fill her nappy, I am instead looking down at a bigger baby playing on her play mat, making noises, hitting the toys hung above her and occasionally breaking into a smile too. The transformation has been amazing and it seems that every day there is some small change that we can marvel over.Now that we're both getting used to each other we're learning to live with each other pretty well. I'm incredibly lucky as she's not a ... read more
Black and white…
That's all that's left to be done on my nursery cross stitch project - the black and the white bits. Unfortunately though there is quite a bit of both!I've finished the white section of what is the folded over white sheet on the bed, but there's the whole pillow are that also needs to be white, and then I need to start on all the black outlining. Not only do all the toys in the bed need their features adding, but each square on the patchwork blanket also needs defining with a black outline. It may take a while... ... read more