So much for sewing up the Sewing trip stash!

In fact the only fabric I have sewn from my trip is the grey floral. I tried out the top from Lauren's Learn to Sew book. I found it slightly more fitted but very similar to a Sorbetto top to sew up. Minus the front pleat. But it's a good quick summer top sew.

I have also finished my fourth Anna dress. Spring has sprung with this pretty fabric from Prettiful Crafts and Fabrics on Facebook and Ebay. They also have their own website www.prettiful-fabrics.co.uk. They are both lovely ladies and the fabric always arrives in very good time.

  The blanket my daughter has been after for a while. I finally sat down and sewed it up for her. The fleece backing was a 2e blanket when we were in Germany. Tinkerbell is old from Rooftop Fabrics who you can visit from the link, they are also on Facebook. Rachel is another lovely lady who sometimes adds a bit of chocolate or a bag of jellies in your order. ;)

The dress was a quick sew in an afternoon nap session, the fabric came in a bundle I bought from a seller destashing on Facebook. It's slightly marked but this was a mock up to see how it came out. She loves it so that was a bonus and being seconds fabric she can get as mucky playing in the garden as she likes. 

 I really liked the way the pattern turned out so I remade it in this beautiful summer Art Gallery fabric which was also in the destash bundle. I made a nappy cover too with the left overs. Now we just need the sun to shine.

I still have the rest of the shopping trip stash to be getting on with and rather a lot of other fabric and beads to keep me busy over Easter while the children are busy with their games.

But it's off to the kitchen now, I have been instructed we NEED to make jam window biscuits. They might be ready for a cup of tea if I hurry.

Until next time.

Knit and Stitch

My friend bought us tickets to Knit and Stitch at Olympia in London. We drove down and my husband took the children for a day out with family while we went for a girls day out.

The show was busy but we had a lovely morning mooching about the stands, potting most of the Sewing Bee contestants and snapping up the odd bargain.

After stopping for a tea break we decided that we would make a slight alteration to the afternoons activities and take a stroll to Goldhawk Rd which we had both heard so much about.

It was only a few minutes walk and was nice to get some fresh air. We found one side of the road was a little samey and not really to our taste but the other side had lots of lovely shops and fabrics.

The feather fabric was from the show and the bias and yellow polka dots from Goldhawk Rd. The blue and white are magazine freebies that were all washed on the same day.

The tape measures I think will be a skirt and the grey floral a top for Summer. The yellow is actually to go with an off cut and make a skirt for dd. I also bought some other feathers for my Mum but for some reason they are not pictured. Neither is the bead stash I picked up at the show.

It was a lovely day out, we followed off the shopping trip with a sandwich in a cafe and an evaluation of our day.

We have plans to go back for a day out sometime, possibly even spend the night and go to see a show.

I will share some of the make from my days haul with you soon.

Craft with kids - the follow up.

So after my last post where we had baked, painted stuck and sewn I was wondering what this morning was going to bring by way of requests from my son. It was actually earlier than I had hoped for but not as complicated as I expected. It was around twenty past nine when I was still trying to catch up with myself when he asked me 'Mummy what are we going to do today like we did sewing and baking and our Easter egg cups?'. My initial response was along the lines of I don't know yet let me finish the job I am doing and we will think of something. Cue frantic brainstorming of something not too complicated yet still lots of fun.

We went for chicks. We have some of the funky foam you can pick up at Hobbycraft among other places and with the addition of some feathers and googly eyes we had two snazzy Easter chicks.

The writing at the top of the page was from Chinese night at Beavers. They wrote their names using a Chinese alphabet someone brought in. The chicks could I think have done with some feet in hindsight but at 2 and 4 we were happy with the results.

Tomorrow preschool is in the morning so I might get a crafting reprieve from my son. Or at least have time to plan something for the afternoon. The sun has been out this morning while there is still a chill in the air the weather is definitely looking up. We spent a happy 10 minutes bouncing on the balcony in the sunshine after having a story and a snack. It's almost like having a playschool in our own living room at times.

Crafts with kids.

On Sunday we were struck down with chicken pox and on searching for pox I also found nits. The nits were firmly evicted. We all had a dose of shampoo to be on the safe side and they were gone. The pox on the other hand were just beginning and are still very much with us.

This meant that we couldn't visit our usual Tuesday morning playgroup in the village up the road and we decided to have a craft session at home. (There is always a craft activity at playgroup, on our last visit it was noisy shakers). We decided to go with an Easter themed activity ad made Easter egg holders. My 4 year old loved it and my 2 year old loves paint and sticking so she had fun too.

It didn't take too long so they were bored and it had a satisfying thing to handle at the end. As we are stuck in at the moment other than school runs with the pox still contagious I thought we could do another craft today. I asked my son what he would like to do and he said 'sewing Mummy on your machine'. I had a little brainstorm and came up with bunting, easy and effective. He only had to do straight lines. He choose the fabric and said it was for his big brother at school. We cut out the letters and I sewed them on for him and then he made the triangles and sewed on the bias tape. Luckily I have a button controlled nachine so it was a case of press the needle down button, press backwards, press the green for go button, stop, stop, quick stop, press the scissors. We had a lot of fun and his brother loves it. 

I am a little wary of offering a craft tomorrow morning. We have had two baking days in the last two weeks. I shall try and think of something over night to offer rather than asking for ideas! ;)