Craft Sunday
This week… I’ll be sewing up a storm. Come by anytime after 1.30.
The Genial Hearth
I’ve just put the kettle on, join me for a cuppa and a chat.Archive for Craft
Sheep Cake
Bilby's 2nd Birthday cake
I’ve been watching Bilby peruse the Cake
After some discussion with Paddington (we decided it needed to be related to a nursery rhyme) and some more looking at the books, I decided to try for “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. I based it on the Poodle in one of them, but that is white… so I rolled the marshmallows in cocoa (I decided not to make my own marshmallow and colour it black:-) ). And after Puggle’s Tipper Truck, I was keen that it didn’t involve too many different sorts of lollies:-) (We still have some lollies left over from that!)
Basically, I googled for sheep images, chose one and used that as a template. Cut out the cake, iced it and attached marshmallows rolled in cocoa for the wool. I then finished off with some licorice to outline the face, and to be the feet. Pretty simple (simple enough that I did it once the extended family had arrived to celebrate:-) ) But pretty effective in the end:-)
Handmade Christmas
I love the idea of a handmade Christmas (well, handmade for all gift-giving in general:-) ) I realise this is probably not going happen this year…
But PrairiePoppins had a fabulous post today, (which I have linked to in the sidebar—but I thought was too good to keep just for people who actually visit the site!) In it, she explains how her family goes about planning for a handmade Christmas—and she includes a whole range of ideas and suggestions! If you ever think about making gifts you should check this out (and if you have any ideas that she hasn’t included, feel free to suggest them here!)
Cloak
This is a very simple cloak. I even used the selvedge of the material to save hemming the front (of course, you could easily hem this for a better finish:-)
Measure the child’s height, from shoulder to floor. You will need this measurement (and allow for seam allowance and a big hem—depending on the child’s age) plus 30 centimetres. I used drill (112 cms wide), but really, any cotton fabric that suits you is fine.
For a five year old you will need:
140 cms drill (112 cms wide)
thread to match
2 metres decorative ribbon or braid (this will depend on where you intend to place it)
1 large button
Straighten the ends of the fabric. Cut 30 centimetres off. This will be the hood. For a five year old I didn’t use the full width of the fabric, so I ended up with a pieces 30 x 84. Fold this in half (30 x 42), right sides together. Sew down one of the longer edges and finish the seam (zig zag or overlock). Hem the opposite edge.
With the other piece (for the five year old, who was 90 cms, I used a piece 112 x110), sew a gathering stitch across one end. It will be easier if you do each half separately (as in, sew from one edge to the middle, then from the middle to the opposite edge). Gather each of these to 27 cms (to match the bottom of your hood). Pin each half to the bottom edge of the hood (right sides together) and sew. Finish this seam the same way you did the other.
Hem the bottom edge with a small hem.
With your decorative ribbon or braid, make a loop large enough to go easily around the button. sew this to your cloak at the point where the hood joins.
Use the remainder of the ribbon or braid to decorate the cloak. (If you are going to use it near the bottom edge, you will need to do your final hem first. I chose not to, so that when the large hem was let down, it shouldn’t be too obvious.)
Sew on the button.
Hem to the correct length. I did this by hand, but remembered later that my sewing machine has a blind hem—I’ll try this for the next one. This was a very popular gift, truly a success:-) I’m already making another, and I suspect there will be a few more in the next few years:-)
(If you try making a cloak using these instructions, feel free to ask questions in the comments if anything doesn’t make sense! I’d like them to be useable so that next time I’m making it, I can follow them too:-) )
Craft Sunday
This Sunday!
We appear to be recovered!
It should be a nice day!
1.30 onwards… Not sure what I’ll be doing, but I’ll find something!
Hope to see some of you:-)
Cakes
Paddington very kindly pointed this link out to me… Some marvellous options there:-) Redbraids? I’m looking at you with number 2, and especially number 7!
I’m not sure whether I’ll show these to Puggle:-) He’s already chosen a cake for his next birthday…
Craft Sunday
Is on again this Sunday. If I get to Spotlight I’ll be making a pouch bag, but I have my doubts. I’ll find something to do:-)
Just a note that July’s Craft Sunday will be postponed till the 27th.
Lap Rug
Some time ago (probably about 10 years:-( ), about a week before my mother’s birthday (in August), I saw on one of those home shows a fabulous looking laprug, made of polar fleece with appliquéd autumn leaves. It looked great, fairly simple, and I was quite sure that mum would like it. So I went ahead and got the material (with a few alterations) and began. I didn’t actually expect to get it done in time for her birthday, but I figured it wouldn’t take me too much longer.
Of course, mum’s birthday is near the end of winter. So shortly afterwards it became too hot to manage polar fleece, so I put it away again. And only remembered to get to it about a week before her next birthday. That continued for a few years:-(
A couple of years ago we were given a polar fleece bunny rug. The construction technique looked like it might be a better solution than appliqué for the leaves (less than half the sewing!)
A couple of weeks ago, in preparation for Craft Sunday, I went looking for material. I quickly decided that I really needed to sort through my stash, which I did. I got rid of a certain amount, but it seemed obvious to me that I needed to get rid of more—and the best option for that was to finish sewing mum’s lap rug (3 metres of polar fleece takes up quite a bit of space!)
And now it’s done:-) I managed to complete it while mum and dad were away, and I’ve just delivered it to their place… it’s out of the house:-)
It’s made of two squares of green polar fleece (1.5m). Onto the wrong side of one of them, I sewed a selection of pairs of coloured leaves (just a straight stitch). I cut through from the right side to remove the green from inside each leaf. I then sewed the two green squares right sides together leaving a gap, turned them right side out and top-stitched. I sewed around the outside of each leaf again (through all layers this time) and then finally cut out the green on the other side. It means that both sides are the same, and (aside from where the seams are) it’s two layers thick across the whole thing.
Most satisfactory:-)
Craft Sunday
… is this Sunday.
As usual, you’re welcome to come by from about 1.30 either with craft or conversation:-)
I’m thinking a good task for this month is to make Bilby an apron:-) (And possibly a new one for Puggle, that is a better design:-) )
Hope to see you there:-)
Tipper Truck
Last year, a couple of weeks before his birthday, Puggle chose his cake. At the same time, he chose his cake for this year! And he has continued to be consistant in his choice (he’d flick through the cake book, and identify the Tipper Truck as “the cake I’m going to have for my fourth birthday”).
So he did:-)
The instructions were from the Children’s Birthday Cake Book
Productive:-)
There is definitely a side benefit to not having my machine, and only being able to use a borrowed one:-)
I can’t work on any of ‘my’ stuff on the computer, so I have to find other things to do… and I always have a long list of things I’m doing:-) So I’m actually achieving quite a few other things:-) I’ve cut out Paddington’s Christmas present (it’s not late! He had to choose the material! But I did say I’d have it done by Easter:-) ) I’m also getting on with the crafting ironing that has been holding up a major project for a while… I’d like to get that done by the end of this week (it’s pretty time consuming), so I can get the project finished by the week after Easter (I should get a fair amount of hand-sewing time over the long weekend, so I want to be prepped for it:-) )
Nappy Wipes
As part of my switch to fully cloth, I finally got around to making these nappy wipes. I’ve yet to use them, but I’m hoping they work well. Each one is half a face washer (towelling) backed with flannelette (for a softer touch). I simply overlocked the two pieces together. Pretty straightforward, although it did get a little fiddly when sewing through the corners of some of the face washers… the overlocker didn’t like that number of layers.
I’m astounded at how taken with them Puggle is. He’s been playing with them all day! Using them to make patterns and hats… lots of fun:-) I did let him choose the flannelette patterns…
I’m beginning to experiment with nappy wipe solution. All being well, I’ll be sorted by the time the current packet of disposables runs out:-)
Crafty Blog
I’ve come across the Angry Chicken blog a few times, but earlier this week was one too many and I had to peruse at length. So many delightful crafty posts! I know I’ve linked to some of her toy posts in the past, but here are a collection of other links I don’t want to forget!
Puppet Theatre
Pot mitts
Portable Puppet Theatre
Freezer paper stencilling
Christmas Braid recipe
Pumpkin Muffins
Little Books
and the post that started it, Cakes in a Jar
I’m also really inspired by some of the clothing she’s sewn for her girls… Such a pity she doesn’t have a boy—I can’t see any of those dresses going down well for Puggle:-) I have a shirt for Paddington, but then I’d like to do more sewing for the kids:-) I guess Puggle does need a new apron, he loves the one he got for the Christmas before last, and it’s had a fair amount of use:-)
Craft Sunday Dates
The next Craft Sunday will be on Saturday February 16th—that’s this coming Saturday (I’m doing a class that is on Sunday afternoons in February).
I’m not sure what I’ll be doing, but possibly something involving an overlocker…
The dates for the rest of the year are
Sunday 16 March
Sunday 20 April
Sunday 18 May
Sunday 15 June
Sunday 20 July (Christmas in July, I’ll be beginning my Christmas Crafting in earnest.)
Sunday 17 August
Sunday 21 September
Sunday 19 October
Sunday 16 November
Sunday 21 December (although, I may decide to move this to the previous week, just so that it’s not quite so close to Christmas!)
Montessori Monday—Moveable Alphabet
I made these ages ago, about the same time I made the Sandpaper Letters. I used the same font/size for the letters for both. For the Moveable Alphabet though, I arranged the letters on three pages to print out (one for the vowels, two for the consonants). I then printed the vowels onto blue paper and the consonants onto red. (I decided to just use paper rather than stiff card, as they’re unlikely to be used by a large number of children, and it is quite easy to make replacements if some start to look a bit tatty). I chose to do twenty of each vowel, and eight of the consonants. Then there was much cutting out!
The final stage was making the trays. In the end I used the lids of two shoe boxes, and made dividers. That took a bit of fiddling to ensure sufficient room for each letter. Once they were in place, I glued one of each letter into the bottom of its space, so that there would be no difficulty in putting them away.
It was a once again a fairly straightforward project… there was a lot of cutting out, but that was a fairly mindless (and portable!) task, which made it quite easy to get through.
by A. A. Milne
by Andrew Lang
