better late than never!

I'm a bit late in getting my October makes post up but better late than never! Here's what I made:

When I made the baby quilt for Jo's neighbours, I wasn't very happy with the dinosaur. I felt it was a bit difficult to see his body details because of the fabric I'd chosen. I made another one in a plain fabric and, when I showed the abandoned one to Jo, she said she loved it. So, I framed it with an embroidery hoop and gave it to her. Can you see what I mean about the fabric? All those stars and blue spots with the lines in between them are on the fabric, not part of the dinosaur! Anyway, she now has this on her wall and is very happy with him, stars and all!

Douglas and I took a dealing with a pair of kitchen chairs and a kitchen table which I wanted to make use of in our kitchen. They had belonged to Douglas's mum and really needed updated so that's what we did. Douglas removed all the old varnish and cleaned them up and then painted them that gorgeous blue colour. I then covered the seat pads and made seat cushions to go on top all with the fabric that was left over from when I covered our dining room chairs - shown here. That is the fabric all used up so for £20, I made 8 chair pads and 5 seat cushions. Has to be the best bargain ever!!

My credit card holder finally gave up the ghost. As I'd made it in 2012, that's hardly surprising. In fact, it's amazing that it lasted that long! This is the post from way back then where I showed when I made it for the first time.

I reduced the amount of pockets as I don't carry as many cards these days. Still works beautifully!

Lastly, I made myself a new bag. This is the Bestie Bag from Blackbird Fabrics. I am so happy with it. I used the same denim I had used to make the Mia bag to take on holiday and lined it with the same fabric too. There's still some denim left and a wee bit of the lining fabric. I wonder what I'll think of to make with them next??

So, that's October's makes squeezed in just before the end of November. I wonder how long it'll take me to post my November makes??

piano topper and more holiday sewing

Jo asked me if I could make a topper for the piano which is now at her house. She told me to do whatever I fancied and this was what I came up with. It never ceases to amaze me what you can make out of scraps of fabric!

Jo loved it and here it is on the top of the piano. I love that tiger lamp! 🐯

Next it was more holiday sewing for me. Another couple of blouses using McCall's 5359.

I worked hard to get Emily's cardigan finished. With arthritis in some of my fingers, it's not always easy to knit but I knew I had to get it done and I did. Like Isla's one I showed earlier, it's going to be huge on Emily but that's the way they like their cardigans so who am I to argue?

Next I made myself a bag to take as my handbag on the plane. I wanted one with a zip, with pockets inside and out and the inside had to be big enough to take my iPad. I used the Mia Messenger Bag pattern from Blackbird Fabrics. I am really pleased with how it turned out. It was hard to take good photos of it but here it is:

The zip:

An inside pocket for my iPad:

and another sipped inside pocket perfect for passports.

Next I amused myself by making us luggage tags on my embroidery machine. These are for our suitcases:

On the back we have our names on them.

I made two like this for our bags for inside the plane. Obviously, Douglas's has his name on his! I made his blue - I can't find it right now to take a photo of it! I think he's already attached it to his bag!

I also decided to make the girls their Christmas ornaments just in case Canada Post goes on strike again this winter like they did last year! I'm very happy with these!

Last, I made myself a spec case for my sunglasses. I don't think it even took me half an hour to make but it will be well used!

So that's all my holiday sewing done. We head out on the 8th until the end of July. It will be wonderful to see Debbie and the girls again. It's nearly 4 years since they left and I miss them sooooo much. See you when we get home!

pinafore dress, skirts and sewing bags

I'd made myself a pinafore dress earlier this year and my daughter, Jo, loved it so much she asked me if i'd make one for her. So I did. The pattern is the Mildred pinafore from SewgirlintheUK. It's a very easy make and is very comfortable to wear. I can see myself making more of these!

The front with its kangaroo pocket ...

... and the back with its patch pockets.

Next I made some summer skirts for my granddaughters, Emily and Isla.

These are Isla's ...

... and these are Emily's. I had so little of the purple spot fabric that I had to join pieces together to make the pockets and used some ribbon to cover the seams as the spots didn't line up!

I made some oven gloves for my daughter, Debbie.

Then I made a couple of work bags for both girls to hold their sewing bits and pieces. I used my embroidery machine to appliqué their intitials on the outsides.

Needless to say, I lined them with their favourite colours! Pink for Isla ...

... and purple - lilac really - for Emily.

Those were the things I made in May and June. Still got a few months' worth to go before I catch up with myself!

November's makes

Not nearly as many makes this month but a couple of the things I made took considerable thinking and figuring out! The first was my tree wallhanging. I saw the idea on this youtube video. I liked the idea of it but I didn't have the ruler that was needed to make it. I went searching for it and, to my dismay, could only find it on US sites. Not too bad but it cost something like £15 and the postage was something like £16! Good grief!

Now, I'm the first to admit that I have a LOT of quilting rulers but, if you use them all, why is that a bad thing? It's not! So, I dug through my collection and, sure enough, there was one with the same angles but mine was much shorter. No worries, said I to myself. You're a Maths teacher - or was! - and can figure it out for yourself! So I did. It took me a good few days and a good few attempts to get it right but I did it. This was my prototype:

And this is the final wallhanging. I *LOVE* it!

I was so pleased with it that I hung it up right away in the hall where it will stay until the decorations come down after Christmas.

The next thing I made was the head of a hobby horse for Isla's Christmas.

It's been sent on its journey to Canada with the instructions for mummy (and daddy) for how to finish it off. No way could I include the piece of wood for Isla to be able to ride it!

The pattern I used is this one. I made it for both my girls for Christmas 2000. Yes, they were grown-ups (aged 20 and 18) at the time but they loved them!

I made some more drawstring bags for the girls. Two have been sent already and the other two will go when there's room in a box!

Next, I wanted to make the girlies' dollies a cape each. I didn't have a pattern but had a look on Pinterest and found one I thought might work. The next day, when I looked at what I had downloaded, I realised I only had the front and the hood so back I went to find the pattern for the back. Well, imagine my hilarity when the back pattern had "cape for Barbie" written on it! Well, that wouldn't fit Grace by any stretch of the imagination!

So that started a good few days' worth of work trying to figure out how to make a cape that would fit Grace and, more to the point, would go over her hair! I eventually managed it - quite a few prototypes were made and discarded. Anyway, here are the finished capes. Grace loves them and she's positive Emily's and Isla's dollies will love them too!

The last thing I had to make before the Christmas box was sent to Canada was the girls' ornaments for their tree. This design is one I got from Embroidery Library shown here. It was made in grey felt on the pattern but I didn't have any grey so I used white instead. To be honest, I think it looks much better in white!

When Joanna saw them she threatened to steal them so I made one for her too!

There are other things I've made this month that can't be shown until later in the year so that'll do for now!

in the month of May

I didn't think I would have much to post this month but it turns out I was wrong. There is a LOT to post about so let's make a start.

First of all, this is what I made this month:

Dresses for Emily and Isla. These are the Kitty dress from Puperita. I used bias binding around the neck and armholes rather than lining them and didn't use piping. They're fab!

Fronts:

Backs:

I decided I needed to do something with the wee squares I had in my "fussy cutting" box so I made (some of) them into square-in-a-square blocks. They all finish at 8½" so, if I decide to make something with all of them, they will fit together nicely - at least by size! I'm sot so sure they fit together nicely by colour!

I had to add a blue stripe into these ones to make them the same size. I think they turned out really well!

Debbie asked me to make another navy blue spotty mask for her. Apparently, a pen had leaked in her bag and her navy spotty mask took the brunt of it. An easy job to make a new one for her.

She asked me if I'd make a mask for Emily. She'll need to wear one soon and, because of her ears (hearing aids) she can't wear ones where the elastic goes around her ears. I had to figure out a way to get the elastic to go around the back of her head. Hopefully it'll work! I made one for Isla as well - no way could I make one for Emily and not make one for Isla!

I tried it on the teddies to see what I thought.

How the elastic works at the back.

Debbie also asked me to make a couple of shopping bags for the girls. Another easy job!

The dresses, masks and shopping bags are on their way to Canada as I type. Hopefully everything will fit!

After all that sewing, I decided I needed to do some scrap management. I had already taken the turquoise/jade box down when I took this photo but you can see how messy and full the scrap boxes are.

I decided to cut things into 2½" strips so that's what I did. I now have a full (messy!) box full of 2½" strips but the other boxes look much better. I deliberately didn't do the plain coloured boxes - more often than not, I need bigger pieces of these so I've left those full and messy!

Joanna and I had birthdays in the middle of the month - happy birthday to us! - and this was a surprise gift that she got for me! Button tubes!

I had a LOT of fun filling them.

Then I divided them into baskets ...

... made labels and put them on my shelves. This makes me so happy! Thanks again, Jo. What a great birthday present!

Lastly, I was finally tidying away all the bits of paper I used when making my Supernova quilt. As I was putting them all into the folder, I found this:

Oh. My. Goodness. This pre-dates even the Photoshop file (dated 2012) that I had found in my needlecraft folder on my computer and used to make the quilt. Can you read what it says at the bottom? Oh. My. Goodness! What a great idea! So I gathered some Christmas 2½" squares ...

... some white squares and bits to make the HSTs (half-square triangles).

Made the HSTs and divided them into 4 piles - one for each quarter of the hanging.

Divided it all into parts for each quarter.

And before I knew it, I had the top left quarter made. So cool!

I've already got some of the next quarter made and I'm so happy with the way it's turning out. A great way to use up 304 x 2½" squares of Christmas fabrics, 30 x 4½" squares of Christmas fabrics, 60 x 2½" squares of white fabric and 30 x 4½" squares of white fabric. The only things I had to cut were the 4½" squares of white fabric. All the rest were already cut so it was an easy job to gather all the bits. Now I just need to get it sewn. Happy days!

That was a busy month of May!