filling in the blanks of Christmas 2014

Filling in some of the "blanks" I made for Christmas presents.

Joanna's scarf being blocked to make it lie flat. I know my table is 54" wide so that must be the length of the scarf too as it fitted right on there.

I made a pair of pyjamas for Douglas - well, just the bottoms, really as he wears ordinary tee-shirts on the top half! The pattern for these is so old, it's almost disintegrating! LOL

A couple of pouches for Joanna to carry tissues etc. in her handbag. (I also made her a pair of oven gloves but, for some reason, I don't have a photo of those. Joanna? Can you send me a photo, please?)

A nightie for my mum. I asked her today if she'd worn it yet. She told me that she was going to keep it "for good". I'm not really sure what she meant by that but I just nodded my head and smiled.

This wasn't really a present but I realised I hadn't shown a photo of Joanna's finished dress so here it is. She wore it on Christmas day and it was beautiful!

I'm now in the process of trying to tidy the sewing room - it's amazing the stuff that got dumped in there over Christmas. When I've got that done, I have a lot of dressmaking I'd let to get on with. Santa brought me a LOT of fabric and patterns and I'm itching to get on with them.

Tilly and her present

I decided this morning that I really needed to get the presents wrapped so I opened the wardrobe where they were "hidden" to get them out. Tilly was right there with me and dragged out something she thought she should get to play with.

There was no way she was giving this up without a fight so it's just as well it's her present!

I did eventually get it away from her by promising she'd get it on Thursday. She was very disappointed that she wasn't allowed to play with it today! LOL

I don't know if I'll be posting again before Christmas so I'll take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope you have as wonderful a time as Tilly's going to have with her new toy! :oD

peg stars

Today I (finally) got around to making some peg stars. I bought the pegs for these about a month ago - if not longer!!

First of all I started with some clothes pegs - wooden ones.

I separated them all from their little metal bits.

Then I chose 16 pieces - 8 pegs needed for each star.

I glued them in pairs, back to back with hot glue. On one of the pairs, I glued in a piece of ribbon for a hanger for the star.

Then I glued 4 of the pairs at the centre and the other 4 pairs in the spaces between those 4. It's not as complicated as I've made it sound, honest!

This is what you end up with. A peg star - or it could be a peg snowflake, I suppose!

I had so much fun making the first one, I made another two.

Did you notice the hole that appeared in the piece of plastic I was using to protect my cutting board? That's what happens when hot glue meets plastic! Good job it wasn't my fingers! I've done that before and it's not funny. Hot glue is HOT!!

a snowy banister

I've been busy sewing this week but can't show you any of it as they're all "blanks" for Christmas and the recipients read this blog and I don't want them to know what I've been doing.

What I can show is our banister. I saw this idea on Pinterest here and thought it was so much fun. So I dug out some wadding (batting) and pinned it around the banister then wrapped some tinsel around that and then added some toys.

I had tried adding some other toys but the banister is really steep and the toys which weren't sitting upright looked like they were going nose first down a very slippery slope! LOL

I had a wee helper who was watching me intently as I added the toys.

I suspect that I'll need to keep an eye on her or she'll have those toys down from there. In fact, now that I look a bit more closely at the top reindeer, he looks decidedly closer to the edge of the banister than he was when I fixed him on. I wonder who did that? Tilly?? Was that you? Don't try to deny it!! :oD

the dress, the tree, the trainset and Tilly

I finished my dress at the weekend. It's really hard to get decent photos so this will have to do! You can just see the wee triangle that I added to the V-neckline to lift it up a bit. I prefer not to have any cleavage showing and this solves that problem. ;o)

I found some buttons in my (huge) collection which went well with the dress. I initially started looking through the reds and pinks but the green ones blend in really well. At least I think they do!

We put up our tree yesterday. Actually, that's not quite true. Douglas put it up on Saturday whilst I was making our evening meal. I burst out laughing when I saw it!

Then, later in the evening, he decided it looked a bit bare so he added some more branches! LOL

You might notice something strange going on underneath the tree. It was my suggestion that he put up some of his trainset underneath it. I won't tell you how much fun he's had putting it together! ;o)

Here's the tree in all its glory.

You can just see the trainset and some of the wee houses he's put down on the carpet. It's not finished yet but he's still having fun playing with it! :o)

It was quite sunny when we were decorating the tree yesterday afternoon and Tilly was very interested in the reflections from the miniature disco ball decorations! Isn't she funny? :oD

scarves, scraps and dresses

A few things to catch up on around here. First, I knitted myself this scarf back in September. The pattern is from here. Today's the first day it's been cold enough to wear it! Our weather is being weird!

I'm now in the process of knitting one for Joanna. Hers is already a good bit longer than mine. I really should ask her if it's long enough yet!

This is my third incarnation of the Cressida skirt. Previous versions are here and here. It's a really dark navy with a light blue pinstripe. It's just as comfy as the other two I've made.

Last week, we went out to the craft & patchwork shop along the coast from us. I only ever buy things from their sale boxes. I love the feeling that I'm getting a bargain! Here are some Christmas scraps.

And some "normal" scraps.

And some fat quarter bargains.

I don't have any definite plans for these at the moment but I'm fine with that. I'll just admire them then put them away in the appropriate piles until it's time to use them! :oD

I decided I needed to do a trial run of the dress for Joanna so I cut it out of a (wildly) green sheet.

I didn't have enough to the green to make the sleeves so they were made with a pink sheet. I didn't think it would be easy for Joanna to pin herself into the dress to test the fit so I used some pink buttons. It's a shame the green is so wild because it really does make a nice dress.

Today I got a dress for myself cut out. It's going to be the same dress as I made in July (blogged about here) which fits me so well.

I also got the "real" dress cut out for Joanna but didn't get any photos of that. Hopefully, because I've made both of the dresses before, they'll go together quickly because I have a few "blanks" I need to make before Christmas so I really should be getting on with those!

Ooops, I did it again!

Every time I make things in production line fashion, I tell myself "Next time, do them 2 at a time at the most". Why don't I ever listen to myself??

Yesterday I decided to make some of the bags I cut out months ago. So, I piled them on the sewing table and selected a few to make. Did I say "a few"?? When I counted them, there were 12 of them altogether. Did I put 10 of them back? Of course I didn't! *sigh* Here they are in progress.

I hope to get all 12 of them finished tomorrow. It should be a wee bit easier to get them done as we don't look after Tilly on a Wednesday. What did she do this week that I laughed out loud at? She only dragged a beautifully rolled up piece of wadding (batting) off the shelf and started chewing it.

Luckily she let go of it quite quickly. It's now safely re-rolled and on top of the shelf unit. About 7 feet off the ground so she shouldn't be able to get it! Hopefully! :oD

Tilly & the pompom and my second Cressida skirt

Joanna started a new job yesterday so we're now looking after Tilly for a few hours when she's at work. Mostly, Tilly lets you do what you want to do as long as you pay her some attention and give her hugs and cuddles and a few doggy treats.

This afternoon I was in the sewing room and had just stopped her diving into the bin (again) to get out some fabric to chew when she ran off. I (stupidly) assumed she'd gone downstairs to annoy/play with Douglas. I thought nothing of it when she reappeared within minutes to try the bin-diving thing again.

I then decided to take the dressmaking dummy into our bedroom to take a photo of my new Cressida skirt which I'd made at the weekend. I walked in carrying the dummy and burst out laughing when I saw this on the carpet.

Then I saw this on the bed and laughed some more.

What is it? A chewed up silver pompom. this is what it once looked like!

Tilly tried to assure me it hadn't been her who had chewed the pompom. Butter wouldn't melt and all that!

Then she started trying to chew me.

Nothing like a good chew on a cardigan sleeve to make your day fabulous! :oD

I did finally manage to get the photo of my new Cressida skirt.

It's in black corduroy and I love it! I have another couple on the go - one for me and one for Joanna. I'm making them both at the same time which is making it seem like they're taking twice as long but I hope to get them both finished tomorrow. Unless, of course, the pompom-chewer has other ideas! :oD

Brontë, bow ties and zebra problems

I wore my new Brontë top today and I'm really pleased with it. It fits me really well - yay!! The quality of the photo isn't great but you get the idea, I'm sure!

I had to make 3 more bow ties for the choir I sing in. I have very detailed instructions in my notebook of how I make these so it didn't take me long at all to get them done.

Remember the zebra fabric I dyed during the summer? Well, I admitted to myself that I probably wouldn't wear it so I offered to make Joanna a dress with it and she cheerily accepted. I finally started pinning the pattern on to the fabric this afternoon.

I didn't get far before I came across a "problem" with the fabric. The pattern I was going to use was McCall's 6696, view B - the short-sleeved version shown as a line-drawing on the left side of the pattern.

The "problem" is that the zebra pattern is quite big so, on the bodice, where do I put the zebras? There are 2 darts - a bust dart and a waist dart. So, the chances are, a zebra would be pinched in the bust dart - ouch :oD - or in the waist dart - more ouches! Or he/she would be looking at the nippular area or his/her backend would be right on the tip of the nippular area.

Joanna and I have discussed the zebra-nippular problems and are now thinking that a skirt would be a better option for this fabric. I think that will be a lot less problematic - for zebras and nippular areas alike! :oD

Cressida and Brontë

I've been doing some dressmaking in the last few days. First of all I made the Cressida skirt pattern from Jennifer Lauren on Etsy here. I was worried that it wouldn't fit me but it does. And I love it!

Now, I never, ever wear my tops tucked into my skirts or trousers but I did with this skirt. It sits beautifully with or without a belt. And, another favourite thing for me ... it has pockets!

I can see myself making a few more Cressida skirts in the not too distant future!

I'd seen the Brontë top on a few blogs in the past few months and, whilst I admired it, I wasn't sure it was something I'd wear. I saw it again when I was buying the Cressida skirt pattern and, after a few days thinking about it, went back and got it - here. I picked up a remnant of knitted fabric from my local fabric shop for £4 so I decided to have a go. I finished it this afternoon after it got too dark to take any decent photos so this is the best I could do.

I'm not overly fond of sewing with knitted fabrics but this went together really quickly and I didn't have any problems with it. I might have to go and buy some more knitted fabrics to have a few more of these on hand. I bet they'd go perfectly with my new skirts! :oD