Sewing for a litte miss 4

One of my friend's daughters is turning 4 and I had a long list of things that I had in mind to make for her. She loves dressing up, bags, jewellery etc and in the past I've made her necklaces and bracelets so I thought this year I'd come up with something different. In the end I decided on following the Lazy Day's skirt tutorial on the Oliver + S blog. Melissa from Day to Day recently featured a 5 day Lazy Days skirt sew along and I loved seeing what everyone else had made. I wanted to use some broderie anglaise fabric that I bought an end of roll from Spotlight last year, so decided to make a two tier skirt so that there was a lining fabric for all those little eyelets.

Jai was a bit of unsure of modelling this for a photo, he was happy to test it for me earlier to check the waist but got a bit shy when I asked him to pose for a photo (sorry darling!)

I've been eyeying off the Bow purse pattern from Ottobre 3/2008 ever since I saw it and thought that it would be perfect for this little miss and found some fabrics that would compliment the skirt as well.

I then made a heart yo-yo hair clip to match and added in a couple of extra hair clips as well.

In the end I couldn't leave it without any jewellery so made a little sterling silver charm bracelet as well.

It was lovely to see her open it, she squealed with delight at each new item she found beneath the wrapping. I think that is the best part of giving a handmade gift.

I fell in love with the skirt so much that I have another one the same almost finished for my little miss as well!

Natalie
xx

Better late than never........

I'm very late with this post, my oldest son Jordan turned 9 on May 27! He had a wonderful day with opening presents in the morning, a good day at school and then dinner with all our family at his favourite restaurant, Red Rock Noodle bar - he does like noodles, but he's more a fan of the indoor playground and video games they have there lol! Jai wanted to make something to give to him as his present and we decided to make him a teddy. He went through my teddy patterns and picked out the shape he wanted and then the fur he liked best from my stash. He was a great helper in helping me trace the pattern onto the fabric, passed me the pins, and sat beside me patiently while I sewed it up. He then carefully started to push the stuffing in (he got a bit bored with this so said that I could finish it off for him!)
He then helped me picked another pattern and some different fabric to make one that Cheriese could give to Jordan.
Jordan just adores these - he even said they were better than ones from the shop as they were made just for him awwww

These were just simple teddy shapes that I found searching google images, and then just cut two and sewed them right side together leaving a gap for turning them the right way. I still have to make another one for Jai as he wanted to keep the one we'd made for Jordan, but I promised to make him one of his own. We went off to Spotlight for some more fur and I told him he could pick whichever one he wanted. Typically he picked one of the more dearer ones at $40 per metre. Luckily I only needed about 4ocms. So stay tuned for a blog post about a fluffy rainbow teddy soon ;)

Jordan asked for a Star Wars cake for his party. I used a Christmas bell shaped cookie cutter for Darth Vader's head, and used it as my chocolate mold. The star wars sign is also chocolate, and then I used icing to decorate them. The cake is chocolate, filled with chocolate cream and covered in chocolate ganache (Jordan is as much as a chocoholic as I am!).


Speaking of birthdays, it was one of my friend's daughters birthday a couple of weeks ago. She was turning 2 and I had no idea what to buy for her, seeing as she has 2 older siblings already I figured she'd have enough generic toys to play with. I decided to make her a cloth doll, and used the One Red Robin pattern "Happy Chibi Girl" I had ordered from Crafty Mamas a month or so ago. Here's my version:

and I popped some hairclips in for her as well:



Cheriese grabbed her while I was stuffing her and didn't not want to let her go! She just kept hugging her and kissing her, I just had to take some photos. So I think there'll be another Happy Chibi Doll to make soon ;)

Natalie
xx

My hairbows

I started making hairbows ;late last year, just a couple to start off with and then (like most crafty things) I found myself addicted and had so many ideas running around my head. So then started buying up ribbon like a mad woman! I made a whole lot up for my market last October and they were really popular. Since then I've been trying to get a nice collection together to put up on my webstore and to take to future markets, but I keep giving them away as gifts to friends, or they end up in Miss Cheriese's hair. I know she hardly HAS any hair, but I found these teeny tiny snap clips that hold onto the slightest wisp of hair. They just look so darn cute on her!

So I figured I'd better gather up those that I have left so I can show them off:

small, dainty bows:
bigger, bold bows:
Too cute modeled shot:
There's quite a few that didn't make the photo, I think there are some in Miss C's jewellery box and some more scattered around the house.....

I am also going to putting the hairbows and my children's jewellery under a new label too, but have to double check that the name I've chosen is available and then talk DH into letting me register it ;)

I have a market stall at a fundraiser in March - I'm going to be amongst the "big boys" for this one, ie Tupperware, enjo, nutrimetrics etc. So I have to get a lot more made up for then.

Natalie
xx