The Katie dress



 

As previously mentioned I am a great admirer of the Sew like my Mom blog and when googling images for doll dress patterns (after lots of requests from Emily) one came up from her blog I knew that the search was over and that I would make her Katie dress.

 

 

The pattern and instructions were so easy to follow and it came together really quickly.  I have had this flower fabric sitting in my stash for AGES.  It was one of those purchases that I had no idea what to do with but knew it would come in useful someday.  I'm so pleased with how it has turned out and even if I say so myself it looks so cute.  This was such a satisfying make with its simplicity although I probably should have shortened the dress by an inch to fit the doll better.

 

If I make this again the only thing I might do differently is to overlock the bottom of the bodice and the seam of the skirt just to make it a little bit more durable for a three year old (well Emily at least!) 

 

The length doesn't look quite so long when dolly is sitting up!

 

For once I am quite happy to include a close up photo showing the detail

 The Zip back definitely helps Emily to put it on the doll although I may have been a bit hasty in making this as now she is suggesting lots of other things that I could make for dolly!

 

Tinkerbell activity bag

This last week we have had my sister and niece come to visit us from Derby.  To get here they had five hours on the train (a train journey that long with a three year old? I think my sister deserves a medal!) To try and help the journey go a little quicker I made my niece an activity bag filled with sticker & colouring books, crayons and an eye-spy game.

Both my niece and my daughter Emily love Tinkerbell and I picked up this great fabric in the sales at Mandors (an AMAZING fabric store in Glasgow). I just made a simple tote with boxed corners and added a snap fastener to the lining.  I was a bit worried that I had added it too close to the top but thankfully the sewing machine was still able to get round it to do the top stitching.  Since getting the bag I don't think it has left my niece's side, it even had to go next to her bed while she was staying here.  As a side note it was very interesting trying to get two three years olds to go to sleep in the same room; they were having a nursery rhyme sing off at one point!

Below is a picture of the eye-spy game.  I just used some images from google and put it together in Microsoft Publisher.  To be honest if I had spent more time on it it could have been a lot neater but it was still well received.  This could also be laminated so that you could use it again with a white board marker and cloth.

Sweet dreams for dolly

Um, so I haven't posted anything in ages, nothing at all this year in fact.  Sorry about that.  We have moved again.  We are still in Helensburgh but have moved from the in-laws to our own place.  Still renting sadly but we hope to be able to buy somewhere later this year.  It's really nice having our own space again and I now have my own dedicated sewing table which is heaven.  I will post pictures of that soon.

I can hardly believe it but my daughter turned three last week.  Where has the time gone?  Was it really three years ago that I was getting a London rush hour bus, in Labour, and having to stand as still no one would give up their seat?!!!   This year she really got the whole present and birthday thing which was quite amusing.  As usual I wanted to give her something that I had made and whilst we were in Ikea a while back I came across a Dolls bed for sale so the decision made itself to make a quilt for the bed.

This is my first completed quilt (am I allowed to be proud of that considering it is just doll size?) and I definitely took an easy option by using a Moda Candy Pack.  This one is called Marmalade. I took an even easier route by simply stitching them together in blocks.  The surrounding fabric is by Jenean Morrison and part of the Silent Cinema range.  To quilt it I just stitched a simple chevron design (I had initial ideas of making a chevron quilt but thought that for my first one I should really keep it simple).

Back of the completed quilt

Sweet dreams

 

As you can see Dolly finds it very comfortable (I also used a bit of foam and some old pj's to make her a mattress and pillow).  It proved a popular present and dolly gets put into and out of bed constantly.

Night Owls

This is another Christmas make.  I wanted to make some PJ cases for my daughter and niece.  Originally I had in mind that I wanted to make them a rabbit one but I couldn't get my head around the construction and I got to the stage where I only had a week left to go so I changed it to owls instead and I'm really glad I did. 

 

This was such an easy make (hence being able to make the two in the last week before Christmas.)  Firstly I drew an owl shape on some squared Pattern paper (I love that stuff; not sure if it is what I am meant to use but I find it really helpful) and drew out where I wanted the owl features to be.  I then used tracing paper to trace out the features and half the shape plus seam allowance so that I could add a zip vertically down the middle of the back.

 

The eyes, eyelashes, nose and feet were all simply cut freehand out of felt.  Actually that's not true, I used a pot lid to make the circles for the eyes, I wish I could cut that neatly freehand.  The material used for it's tummy are scraps of cotton I had in my stash but I do know that the top one is a Michael Miller print.  the eyes nose and feet were just stitched on with a straight stitch and then I used a  zig zag stitch for the tummy and added two zig zag lines for the wings.  

 

I had some lovely satin in my stash to use for a lining so in putting it together I first sewed the zip to the two back pieces of the outer fabric and lining, then stitched the front piece of the lining to the back lining right sides together.  Finally I pinned the front of the owl to the back right sides together, sewed around leaving a little gap to pull it the right side out and then stitched the gap.  I left the gap under the foot as it seemed the least noticeable place.

 

The girls love them and Pj's have been taken out and put in them non stop ever since.

 

I did have one disaster moment; when sewing the zips I managed to break the sewing machine needle!  I've never done that before and am still not exactly sure what happened.  However the lovely woman at the haberdashery store around the corner from me (literally a two minute walk; how luck am I?!!) had plenty in and saved the day.

The Citron shawl

You will be pleased to know that I got a  new camera for Christmas so hopefully you should start seeing better photos on this blog soon!

Anyway back in September I started a shawl for my sister in laws Christmas present blogged about here . I'm so pleased (read relieved) that I managed to finish it in time and she was really happy to get it.  Here is a picture, not a great one, of the finished shawl.

 

It was quite an easy knit from this Knitty.com pattern and I love the crinkly effect on the different sections.

Happy Christmas

I hope you are having a fantastic day and enjoying spending time with those you love or remembering good times with people who can't be with us.  I have had a lovely day with the English half of the family and Emily and her cousin have played together, waited patiently for their presents (apart from Santa stockings we don't open any here until after the Queen's speech.) and tried everything on their plates. We have eaten loads of food and are all now crashed out on the sofa chatting and watching TV.  What family traditions have you followed today?

One of my 'duties' at Christmas is to fold the napkins for the table. This is always my time to sit and remember my Gran who always used to challenge me to make them different each year. I'd like to think she would have been impressed with me this year as I turned them into Elf boots.

 

Aren't they cute! I followed this Video on Video Jug by the sprightly Luigi.

I'm pleased to say that all my handmade presents have been really well received and I shall start blogging about them tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of your Christmas day.

xx

All things santa

No creative bits to show you at the mo but just wanted to share some pics.  Helensburgh is holding a Winter Festival this weekend.  There has been a lovely farmers market with local (and a couple of European) food and craft stalls, a Santa's grotto and free face painting for the kids.  Today saw their annual Santa dash and at the last minute yesterday I decided to enter the family 2k walk part of it with Emily.  Below is us looking daft.  It was a lot of fun and Emily is very proud of her first ever medal.

 

Yep They got the 300+ Santa's to dance Gangam style?!

One of the things that has impressed me is the emphasis on buying local.  They have a competition on where if you can visit all the local independent shops and get a stamp you can enter a competition to win £500.  So good to see that they are trying to keep local independents afloat when so many are closing down, for instance this year the town has seen a clothing store close that had been open since the 60's and a hardware store that had been trading for 100 years.