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?

Sew much love - Send a little love Swap - The Great Reveal

Some of you may already be familiar with Mad About Bags blog and her recently organised swap.

If not head over and check out her blog using the link above. I took part in the swap, it's been a long time since I took part in a swap with being in Germany but I thought it would be fun to have a go at this one. I was paired up with the very lovely Pat from Pats Patch. We spent a few weeks sending long emails about our lives and likes and began to get a feel for one another.

My parcel arrived the week before we were opening them and was sitting in the kitchen on the side staring at me asking to be opened all that time but I was good. I don't get that much personal post anymore, it's usually for one or other of the children so this was special.

On Saturday I had three very eager faces watching me when I said I was going to open my parcel. I was very impressed with my oldest when I offered to let him open one of the tempting packets he said "No Mummy it's your present I want you to open it".

My first finds were two postcards with recipes on. And this intriguing box. I left that for later and delved a little deeper. The love hearts were spotted quickly by three keen sets of eyes. The little note book is all handmade with a little tag book marker inside. There was also a set of coasters, red with hearts and three more wrapped gifts. 

As you can see my swap partner had already gone well above the guidelines for the swap. Which were 5 items, something edible, something red, something handmade and a heart. I was feeling very spoiled. I let the two younger children open one of the red packets each saving the white flat packet and the red box for myself. 

 The children found a packet of chocolate hearts and a packet of chocolate lady birds in their parcels and my flat gift was a set of two mats and two coasters of a lovely red thick felt with heart motifs. I left the red box until last. The embellishment was also a brooch. But it was the contents of the box that surprised me most.

I knew Pat had been making fabric lavender hearts for her sisters cafe so I had half expected to receive one as it fitted in so well with the theme. There was also a pin cushion you can see in the box. 

The reverse of the pin cushion was a beautiful cross stitch, not only this but a pair of embroidery scissors with another small needle/pin cushion attached and a pretty felt needle book with an unpicker holder and unpicker and some pretty pins inside, all finished off with the same pretty cross stitch.

There had been so much thought and detail put into the swap I was completely overwhelmed and felt very emotional. A complete stranger in all but a few emails and some blogging had created for me the most amazing package which went far above and beyond the outlines of the swap.

I am sorry to say the package I sent was nowhere near as impressive, I had a little help from my 4 year old when choosing things to put in. He choose the red candle for something red and he also choose the socks which are not pictured here. They were purple thermal socks as Pat does a lot of photography and we thought they would help keep her toes warm when out walking in the cold weather. The heart mat or pot holder was fun to make but the bias binding was not fun to sew on, I unpicked it once and it still looked a little bodged in places. :( 

The chocolate heart looked so pretty when I saw it on the shelf in the shop. 

I made these with some glass beads I had. I thought the colours were lovely. I was pleased with the finished item hearts but not too red and valentines like. 

And the red candle my son choose. Pat said when it arrived the scent of the candle had infused the socks too. So as you can see not quite the literal box of delights I received but a fun swap.

I really enjoyed this swap and look forward to taking part in many more, hopefully at a time when there are no broken legs, sickness bugs or other ailments striking our household.

Happy Half Term Everyone.

A cup of tea and a trip to Belarus.

I haven't been up to much recently. My son had his cast taken off last Friday and has been finding it tough to get used to walking again, he is getting there but at only 4 it's a lot to cope with.

We haven't been out too much while he has been readjusting. We went to Toddler Group yesterday in one of the villages and then this morning we decided to try out a new Playgroup. It is held in a church community center and both the smalls enjoyed it. We did a bit of painting, a bit of singing, playing and a snack. I think we shall probably go back again. Next to the hall is a coffee shop. It was one of those places you wish you had known about before. Reasonable prices, friendly staff, tables to eat at and soft chairs for relaxing in, the piece de resistance though was the children's play corner. Absolute genius. We shall definitely be going back there. :)

As I have nothing very exciting to show you I thought instead I would share this picture of a Victorian doll. It is completely hand made by my Mum. It is going to live in Belarus with my friend and daughter's Godmothers other Goddaughter. 

She has a cape, an apron, a dress, a petticoat, an underskirt and her body itself is bloomers and a vest, shoes, hat and earrings, Her hair is all done by hand. Hours of work and patience. I remember the first of these dolls that she made when I was a child, I have one, my sister has one and lots were made for charity to raise money for the children's ward I was on as a child. Since then she has also made them for my nieces and I made one for GCSE textiles. The pattern has been well used but is still going strong as you can see.

Happy Wednesday everyone.