Baby bootee's

My Mum hosted a sewing fair fun day today to raise money for Target ovarian cancer, she asked if I could make some things for her to sell, obviously I said yes, I love sewing, of course I would.

I found this cute little pattern for these really basic, hand sewn, felt bootee's, they are a scandinavian design, but I decided instead of embroidering a scandinavian pattern onto them, to English them up a bit with a simple design that would be loved worldwide.

I started with some cream felt and I embroidered some cute little fluttering butterflies onto each foot.

Next up was a pink pair, these ones I decided to embroider with some flowers blowing in the wind.

My dad took this picture for me, so sorry for the rubbish lighting and colouring!

Then I decided I wanted to change it up a little, I have a pair of espadrilles and was thinking what a simple pattern that would be to re-create into a tiny baby size, so next up I drew out my own pattern pieces, cut them out, and embroidered some little hearts onto them and created my very own baby boottee's.

I was a little worried as I had made the pattern up myself that they might not be a realistic size, but luckily my friend came round with her 6month baby and we tried them on her, and they fitted like a glove.

I also cut out the pattern for some green ones, but I didn't have any fleece that went with the green for lining them, so I have sent them to my mum to finish, i'll put a pic of them finished when she does it. Here is all three together.

Food glorious food

Ooh when in Sweden do as the Swede's do, and make chocolate balls. So so easy, no cooking involved, just mixing. I used my hand blender, but you can use a whisk or just by hand if you're strong and patient. Here's the recipe:

150g butter
1dl Brown sugar
3tbsp cocoa powder
3-4dl wholewheat porridge oats
3tbsp cold coffee

Blend it all together and put in the fridge to harden slightly, then roll it into balls of whatever size you fancy and then roll each ball into some coconut flakes, or I'm going to try mushed hazelnuts next time because I think that sounds like a delicious option. And voila after being refrigerated a while longer, they are ready to munch on, and taste great, enjoy.

Flowery purse

I decided to make myself a purse because I had just found the perfect fabric for it. It is so pretty, it's an old set of curtains, it did feel a shame to cut them up, but I'll get plenty of use from the material. I searched for ages to find a good pattern but couldn't find one that I liked, but a tip I did pick up was to use a bank card as a template so that you get the sizing right. I wanted a zip for coins and a zip for card and somewhere to put notes. It's funny when you have an idea in your head that you can't find anywhere, I often find that, so it's really handy now that I've started sewing, I can make whatever I want, and don't have to make compromises any more.

The buttons are just for show, I bought some tine magnets and have sewn them into the fabric under the buttons, so it clips shut. I decided I wasn't ready to fiddle about with those magnetic poppers yet so opted for just plain magnets, it's a cheat way to get the same result.

A couple of little treats

My sister loved my mum's pin cushion and said she wanted one, but she doesn't sew, so I decided to make her a little cushion for her teddy bear. I decided I wanted to have a little go at patchwork, and thought the two would be perfect together.

I think I need to practice on my centring when embroidering, lucky Tilly the bear won't mind that it's not perfect, but I'm happy with my first patchwork item. It was quite easy so will definitely do more of that in the future, and try different designs.

I also made a temporary pin cushion for myself, I want to make myself a really nice posh one eventually, but for now, while I'm scrunched up living in this tiny caravan, this one is perfect.

Another hat

Yes, another hat! They went down a treat at Christmas, and my sister asked for another one, or two. So I have made her one so far, I actually made it a little while ago, but didn't finish it off properly until just recently. I made it really quickly but then the longer it sat here, the warmer it was getting in England so I just decided she can take it home with her after her visit in May, if she doesn't want to wear it yet, she'll have it ready for next winter, and I'll make her another one by then, so she'll have plenty to choose from.

So She said she still wanted it stripey, but she had no preference on colours, so I chose yellow to brighten up her winter and slate grey, and then I added some cute little butterfly buttons fluttering around on it.

Thrifty bag for thrifty shopping

Ooh I love this bag I made the other day, As I said before I get all of my material from the second hand shop, old curtains or sheets, or if I'm lucky, actual whole pieces of unused material. Well I had this material, you will probably recognise it from one of the pots and the bibs, and decided to make a bag from it, a bag to use when I'm material shopping, I decided, just in case I didn't make it sturdy enough it would only carry light material, so less likely to brake. But it's amazing, I'm really happy with it, I even did padded handles to make it comfier to carry. My Mum asked if she had shown me how to make this style of bag, so I said no, I had looked at a couple of existing bags and just guessed how it would be made, she said how clever I was hehe, I really don't feel like it's difficult to make anything!

A gift from the heart

It was my friends birthday yesterday, she lives in Germany so I had to think ahead as to what I might give and send in time for her special day. I had just been looking at idea's on the Internet for future projects a few days before and I had come across these pretty little fabric heart magnets and the idea of them popped back in to my head, this was what I would make, simple, but meaningful and very pretty. I went to the second hand shop to see what fabric I could find, obviously I had fabric I could have used, but her favourite colour is Blue and I don't have any of that, so had to go buy some. The ones I had seen online were just plain but made of floral material, but I decided to make them more personal to embroider something on to them.

The mushroom pillow

I'm trying to make a selection of cushions ready for our new house, I started with the Guinea themed one, that was my first attempt embroidering, and a bit of a funny design, and I loved embroidering so much I thought I'd do another. I want all the cushions to bring the outside in because they'll all be scattered on a window seat, so I decided on this design, it's a little mythical, but I like to imagine that these people, the mushroom king and the fairy are really living in the forest under the mushrooms.

Pots

You can never have too many pots for bits and bobs. As we are a bit limited for space at the moment, I made some pots to help organise my bits and pieces. Again when I eventually get my sewing area in the new house I'm going to have loads of these pots hanging from the wall with everything in like buttons, threads, silks etc.. I love the easy design of them, they're so quick and easy.

Symaskin cover

So after making the typewriter cover, it got me thinking about my sewing machine. I know I don't take it anywhere, and probably never will, but the cover for it has to sit somewhere, and it's so ugly, I thought, why not make it look pretty and always have it on display. So that's what I did, I made a really pretty cover for my sewing machine cover, and when I eventually have my craft area I'll have it on display on a shelf.

A side view to show that the curtains hang, the cushion is squishy and the dress floats.

This is the sewing machine fairy, she makes whatever I desire. And I'm sure she'll be popping up in more of my designs.

Bibidy Bib

Another friend of mine had a baby back in November and on a recent visit to them she was saying how they had just started using bibs because she has a lot of dribble now. Her only problem was that they only had 3 that had been given to them, so I suggested that I go away and make some for her out of old fabric that I had.

She was using those triangle ones that seem to be all the fashion at the moment and I'm not a fan. I hate to see people follow the latest trends, and I feel that those triangular ones look more like a fashion accessory than a bib for a baby, and why does a baby need an accessory? They don't, they need a bib that looks like a bib and that makes them look like a baby instead of some cool older person keeping up an image. I hate the way fashions work, someone has something and then all of a sudden everyone else is wearing the exact same thing and then no one is original. Ok rant over with, sorry about that.

So I looked up some different patterns on line and this is the design I came up with, as modelled by my beautiful assistant Molly.

This the back, I decided to do long ties so that it wouldn't get too small too quickly.

 This one is made of an old tea towel

This one is an old babies duvet cover

And this one I think looks a bit funny, it's supposed to resemble a flower, maybe it needed some extra petals on? Each petal has a letter of her name.

And it's reversible too, and still says her name. And is also made from an old tea towel and a table cloth, what's better for soaking up liquid lol

Skrivmaskin cover

My Swedish love got his old typewriter out and put it in to our unfinished house and was worried about it getting all dusty and asked if I could fashion him some sort of cover for it, he said he wanted it to be elasticated around the bottom to seal it a little better but that I was free to make it look howerever I wanted. Well his favourite colours are green and brown, and he's very minimalistic with his designs so I went to the second hand shop to see what I could find, and this is what I made:

Look at his horrible old desk that he loves with it's bit's of paint all over it! I'm not sure that this is really a good picture of it, but I guess you get the general idea of how it looks.

What i'm really loving about sewing is that you realy can easily just make anything you can think of, just measure and allow for seams and off you go!

Nålkudde

Well i've been a busy bee lately, so much so that i've jumped so far ahead with my new sewing skills and i've not had time to update here. So it was my mum's birthday in March, just before mine and as I said she is a massive sewing buff, but would you believe she didn't have a pin cushion!! So I decided to make her one just to help with practising my sewing skills.

As I live in Sweden, I decided to make one side English and one side Swedish, and here's what I came up with:

Learning Embroidery

My mum and dad came for a visit in Feb and my mum and I had some crafty sessions, she is very handy with a needle and thread and I want to learn her skills. I finally decided to try out embroidery after putting it off for so long. I always wanted to try it but thought it would be such a slow process and that it might be a bit fddly and difficult. But it's the complete opposite. I decided to embroider to a cushion cover so flicking though my book of ideas I came across a picture of a rabbit sitting up, but i noticed that if i changed it slightly I could make it look like my beloved guinea pigs. It was so easy to do, and it didn't take to long either, and the end product is really cute, i'm really happy with it and can't wait to put in into our new house.

Snuggly Snood

I made this just before christmas, but I wasn't happy with it, the wool is so chunky, i'd made it too long and the combination meant it didn't fit into my coat. After some consideration, I unravelled the whole piece and started again. Now it fits perfectly. I also added a patch of fleece where my mouth sits as the fluff from the wool kept going in my mouth and it also makes it a little extra warm on those really cold days out on the snowmobile.