Scrapbusting Slippers

This month’s theme for the scrapbusting sewalong was “itty bits”, namely lengths of fabric of less than a yard. I managed two already, despite having a really nasty cold which meant that I just wanted to be in bed and not even watching the TV, let alone sewing. I didn’t even make birthday cakes for Robert and me, I was that under the weather.
I did however make Robert’s birthday present (out of remnants of calico and some black bias binding left over from another project). For his inner (and outer) geek:
Not surprisingly he uses them to store and transport his collection of cables and his headphones that he takes to church each week.

I have also been experimenting with making slippers – I bought a pattern in the post-Christmas sales, and despite completely messing up my size selection for my first go I think they are not bad.
Apart from some of the wobbly stitching. And the fact that the fabric is a bit thin. But this will all be corrected next time around. This pair is made from a remnant of a sheet which I had already cut up for making aprons, and a pillow case.
On to February with its Love Challenge!

**** UPDATE ****
Here is another pair of slippers which just made it into January - but not gifted until February 2nd, so I had to wait to include them here. Made of some old jeans, remnant of cotton, and a drawstring bag hastily constructed from an old trouser leg.

Joining in

In an uncharacteristic turn I have signed up to join in a community activity. Admittedly this is an online community activity, not a real life one, but it is definitely pushing my comfort zone. On top of that I have committed to making  things, as per our shared monthly goals and challenges, out of some of the fabric I have stashed around the house – you know, in my sewing corner, in the stationery cupboard (yeah, I know), disguised as household linens, a box in the loft… This month’s goal is to use up some of the smaller scraps, which is going well so far.
I am also determined to actually make some clothing this year – especially as I have  a length of fabric bought specifically to make a skirt, which hasn’t happened yet. I also earmarked a couple of charity shop finds to make dresses for my daughters that really need to happen in time for this summer.
 
Watch this space…

Christmas round-up

This year I thought I might actually post about all the Christmas making I did before next Christmas rolls around and the whole thing becomes irrelevant. Not that it is terribly relevant now, as those people who received handmade gifts know what they look like and those who didn’t probably don’t care. But it makes me feel validated, and offers some kind of justification for working flat out for the last month.
There were:
Christmas-scented decorations -
Fridge Magnets -
Memo Boards -
Pencil Cases, Tea Towels, a Bow Tie, a Cushion and some Bookmarks -

	And apparently I completely failed to photograph (!) the shirt style peg bag I made. Not to mention the awesome superhero cape and mask for Super Cali (and her dad).

So... on to the next year…

Goodbye Christmas, Hello Birthdays.

Just about got all my Christmas present making done (by the skin of my teeth), so now we are back to birthday cakes.
Matthew has had a long standing request in for a robot cake; “not a cake with a robot on it, but a cake in the shape of a robot”. Got it?
So here it is – from inception – Matthew’s sketch (about 11:00 this morning) to completion at about 9:00pm.
There is nothing you cannot do with a lot of chocolate and enough silver sugar spray!

Bit busy

I seem to have been caught out rejoicing over the return to school, and still haven’t achieved anything like as much as I thought I would by now. Apparently weekends are full of family activities, while weekdays are challenging, and full of Robin, even if Piper is at pre-school part time. Christmas? What Christmas? And as for ever finishing off the decorating – well that needs Robert and I to find curtains that we can both live with.
On the plus side we had a lovely cold wet holiday in South Wales, with lots of family.
And my own personal golden moment – watching Matthew do actual sewing for his homework.
My inability to photograph finished projects before they leave the house has struck again, but the objective was to clothe a pirate model (which he had made) using different materials – e.g. soft, strong, waterproof. This is Matthew sewing up the fake leather trousers. We also equipped him with a red t-shirt and a waterproof poncho. It was great.
I also made another phone case, and sent it off to its new home without photographing it.
Now I really am focusing on Christmas (and decorating), honest!

Leaving Home

If only for day. Today my Mum and I are going to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, which means that Robert has be Full-Time Parent for 24 hours.

This of course meant that I had to do every thing I would normally do on or by Saturday by 6pm on Friday so that I could catch my train. But this week, on top of making sure that the children all have sufficient clean clothes and meals available to them while I am out of the house, I had to add making a birthday bag and accessorising a fancy dress costume as Matthew has a party to go to this afternoon.

The plus side of all that drawstring bag making is that I managed to rattle out a couple of stripy drawstring backpacks one afternoon – and I only need one this week!

Having found a bandanna, a shirt, and a belt and sash (for Matthew to choose from) I felt compelled to make him a proper pirate hat using a tutorial I found online. I already had a worn out black vinyl coat ready to cut up, and absolutely no time, so what could be better?

Hopefully Matthew will wear it as gracefully as Rupert the coat-hanger.

Christmas? Done!

Of course, it is not my Christmas that I have finished, just somebody else’s.


That heap of festive fabric I showed you in the last post turned into this:



← Which are actually 50 of these.
The purpose of this was to provide, lighter, re-usable and more durable "Shoe Boxes” for a local organisation called Hopestonia to use to send Christmas presents to the children they help in Estonia.
This was a fairly slow moving project, mainly through procrastination, but also due in part to trying to work out what fabric to use, and how to reduce cost as much as possible. Then my lovely (and now closed) local Salvation Army shop had an unexpected donation of LOTS of Christmas stuff (in May/June) including lots of small remnants of fabric. They gave me everything I needed. All I had to do was launder it, unpicking the existing seams and iron all the fabric.
…And then work out how to cut all the slightly random bits of fabric into fairly consistently sized bags, actually cut them, sew them up, fold and sew again, thread the ribbon, stitch it down and hand them all over!
Now I just have to work out what I am doing about our Christmas.