Me Made May attempt 2

After seeing everyone's posts about Me Made May and the challenges they have all set I decided I would try a bit harder to wear some Me Made. And maybe even make some more to wear. It didn't help that when I opened the drawer I realised all my jeans were in the wash after a not great week so it was skirt or dress day. I went with my favourite Anna. Well there is still one I haven't worn but my favourite so far. It was made a while ago and is now a tad big but as it's too cold to wear it alone I had a cream cardigan on hiding the excess fabric.

I bought this fabric from myfabric online when we were in Germany I also bought some similar in another shade which I might make into a skirt. It's a linen look and I love it.

Excuse the picture, I am not the best self picture taker but it does the job. I shall continue to try and uphold the idea of wearing a bit of Me Made throughout the rest of May.

Me Made May

I didn't actually make an official pledge or sign up to Me Made May but I thought I would try and wear some of my Me Made items and partially join in. I am not doing fantastically well as most of my clothes are summery and the weather here has been far from that but we did get a hot few hours on Monday so I wore my recent London stash top. The Lauren top in grey floral.

It's not the most flattering of pictures but I am not big on being photographed at the best of times so a Me Made selfie is not my strong point. It was the first time I have worn the top since I made it and it actually fits a lot better than it would appear in the photo. It's not my most favourite make in the world but it will definitely get worn again when the weather is warmer.

I am hoping the wind tails off and the sun comes out a bit more this week and I can get out some of my other Me Made items.

Have any of you been trying Me Made May?

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! ;)

#SEWYOURSTASH - Are you taking part?

I don't know if any of you are on the same children's sewing group page I am on, but if you are you may have heard of the February #SEWYOURSTASH challenge. We have agreed to try and use up bits from our stash in an effort to sew more and clear out the bits. Some people took pictures of their stash and choose which fabrics to use but I have just been using as I came to it. The Izzy I last put on here was one of my pieces, the skirt on if was left from a dress I made dd when she was still tiny and a dress was less than a half metre. The top was from my Aunt, she sent me a box of her off cuts last year to use up. I have also made this tunic.

It started out as a skirt and then I decided to add a bodice as the fabric is left from a dress I made myself, I thought a tunic matching Mummy might be cute. This are a recent purchase I bought for a Sew Serendipity pattern. Then there was the shirt.

This has been in my stash a while waiting to be a shirt for #1 son. #2 son has a Star Wars Angry Birds shirt made last year around the time I bought these fabrics. I also made his little best buddy a shirt with different Star Wars Angry Birds fabric. There is hardly any of this left now. Next was the Hummingbird hack.

I made the bodice from the pattern and then added a skirt to make the tunic. I used a 1/4mtr of this paisley which I think is a pretty cute fabric. It came in a bundle I bought online while we were still in Germany. It makes her paisley collection up to three pieces. The weather need to be a bit warmer but hopefully spring isn't too far off. The bodice is the last of the pink fro my Aunt. My most recent stash buster though is this set.

The material has again been in my stash since last year. I bought it in Tedox in Gutersloh for 4 euro a metre, I had 1.5mtr to play with. My plan was always to make bedding it just needed to be done rather than planned. There is a pillow case with envelope flap, A cover with a piece of sheet for the backing and some free wadding for the filling. The sheet I think may have been one of mine from the days of a single bed and living at home with Mum and Dad. I had enough left to fashion two curtain ties, they are backed with an off cut of white also from Tedox and have ribbons for the hooks. I didn't have any rings but I shall replace them at some point. I am really pleased I have finally done this. I made both the boys a cover and pillow case while we were in Germany, (one with dinosaurs and a coordinating print also from Tedox and one with dragons and a plain backing from MyFabrics), and this has been on the to do list for a long time.

What's been on your worktable this week?