My first 'failure'

I'm so disappointed about this. I bought a kit to make a fairy cake trinket box for DD. I thought it looked very cute and if she didn't like it, here was one mama who would put it to good use!

See the pic on the left of how the kit should look? Looks great doesn't it? The lid comes off and kids can store their precious treasures away from preying eyes.

Well I've had a harsh lesson in reality. Sewing kits are llike MFI flatpacked furniture. They look great on the shop floor, put together by experts, but get yours home and you can guarantee bits won't have been machined off properly, edges won't align or there will be something missing.

There was some thread missing, but that wasn't the end of the world. What WAS the end of the world to me, however, was that the bloomin' thing doesn't fit properly.

I have followed the instructions, but it's clear that the top will never fit on the base; not in a million years and not even with the gentle persuasion of my daughter's 'deft fingers' as she calls them - too many Enid Blyton books!

So here it is; I quite like the lame dogs in life - the animal with the croked head, the ones with broken paws, the ones with nibbled ears, but for some reason I don't find this enduring at all; I just find it a complete disappointment.

And because I'm a beginner, I wouldn't know where to start to sort things out.....

MP4 case

Ok, I admit it; I'm very proud of this.

It's hopelessly 'wrong'; the ribbon is sewn on diagonally (it got caught on the back by the machine and I didn't realise) and the front flap isn't really long enough, but hey, I created an MP4 case out of a piece of felt and some old pyjamas I found in the charity shop.

As DD's MP4 is her pride and joy I hope she will be pleased with this. The PJs were great with their high heeled shoes and handbags on them.

I kind of followed instructions on Made by Petchy's blog - she has a lovely tutorial with great photos. I wasn't brave enough to leave a hole for the headphones lead at this stage - lining up a buttonhole seemed very daunting; but DD rarely uses headphones; she just has the MP4 on the table and listens to it through the speaker.

Petchy shares some lovely free Patterns and tutorials, so go along and have a browse at her lovely creations.

Wahee! A doll for tiny tears

This is my doll!

I had her when I was about 5 and now she belongs to DD. Tiny tears went through everything with me; I told her all my secrets and she shared hers too.

She shared a secret with me the other day, which was that DD wanted some new dolls clothes for Christmas. My trusty friends at Cloth Kits were having a 'seconds' sale and I bought the dress material with instructions. There is a tiny flaw in the material, but hey, who's looking?

Making the dress was much harder than I thought - just how do you sew anything other than a straight line? The sleeves are a bit of a squeeze and the neckline has an intriguing ruched effect, plus there was a part of the instructions missing - not cool for a beginner. But I have to say the quality of the material is awesome; it was like some kind of shipping sail material; I could have made a parachute out of it and was a real treat to work with.

As a retro; throw-back-to-the-seventies pattern I think this dress is wonderful. I might get brave one day and make one for myself LOL! I'm not sure what DD will make of it, she's going through a 'trendy' phase, so she might just laugh it away out of sight ....

Cloth kits eh? Talk about a trip down memory lane ...

Christmas faeries

Here are a couple of fairies I made from pipe cleaners, wooden beads, some embroidery thread and ribbon.

Ok, so they originally came in a kit (forgive me, I'm a beginner) but I know you could knock these up out of scraps in no time at all and I feel I could now as well.

They cost next to nothing to make and DD loves fairies, so I think these will go down a treat! In addition, Santa Claus isn't visiting her this year (she is having a crisis of faith) and she has asked the fairies to bring her presents instead...

Violet Posy's Thrifty Christmas!

I just found a marvellous and timely post over at Violet Posy.

Liz is holding a 'Thrifty Christmas' theme which is for everyone to swap ideas of cheap thrifty Christmas presents to make for family and friends.

She realises money is tight for many people so thought it would be great to make nice, simple heartfelt gifts.

What better way to do this than to pool ideas?!

She's offered to host a ‘Thrifty Christmas’ Carnival from the 9-12th November. That gives people a month to get ideas together and write posts and then gives other bloggers time to make the gifts.

So have a think, any crafts, recipes, cards, sweets anything you make for family or friends and would like to share with other bloggers.

Grab the code from the LHS of her home page to get the Thrifty Christmas Badge!

A sad felt cat

Oh dear, he does look sad, but as my daughter tends to fall in love with 'lame dogs' perhaps this felt cat is just the ticket.

This is my first attempt at appliquéing and doing whatever else it's called (the eyes, whiskers and mouth - embroidery is it?)

But I do think this felt cat is rather cute. He's very well behaved and just needs some loving and the odd bit of food. Occasionally he'll purr, but he prefers to look sad (I think he's an attention grabber, personally, so don't fall for it too much)

His tummy has sheeps wool in it and he's made from wool felt. And he was the most 'cat like' colour I had.

Hmmmm.

Lavender bags

I've done nothing on the crafting front for ages, (so much for the new years resolution of making loads of stuff and holding a table sale around now!!) but have made up my mind that this Yule all of DD's presents will be home made.

This terrifies me and it's a HUGE challenge because me and the needle and thread are still not best of friends!

I decided to start with something I hoped would be simple. DD loves lavender and we have dried some this year from the garden, so I made this set of three small lavender bags. As she was up to 2am reading, perhaps these will help her sleep for longer too!

I've made the following list of ideas and would love some suggestions from you - DD is eight and loves animals (especially cats) reading and fairies. I can do very basic sewing and just about knit plain stitch - I can't crotchet, can't draw or paint and you won't catch me making cross stitch!

Here's my list. Note, I'm not intending on making it all, I'm just brainstorning LOL! Thanks to some of the wonderful ladies over on Green Parent, I have some great suggestions:

• I collected some small flat pebbles on our last holiday and am going to write words on them so she can use them for 'divination' - she loves using my angel cards, so these will be her own version. I'm wondering what to write on a pebble with - any ideas?
• Morsbag with appliqued cat or flowers on it; have got a kit from cloth kits as a standby ;)
  
• Will make some tiny containers from old decorated egg boxes and put organic sweets and chocs in them
• She's started sewing, so was going to make her a pincushion
• MP4 case
• bath bombs
• lip gloss
• couple of fairies to hang from her bedroom ceiling
  
• felt cat
• Some kind of trinket case for her to keep her 'treasures'
• Pen pot from decorated tin can
• clothes for her babies and barbie-type dolls
• She loves the idea of perfume and deodorant, so will make something from essential oils
• Set of juggling balls or bean bags
• Would love, love, love to make a doll - again have a it from cloth kits, but really scared to get started.
  

If you've got any experience of making these and have tutorials, pics or inspiration for me, PLEASE share, I need all the help I can get (although I'm rather proud of my lavender bags and they are all hand sewn!).

Remember I'm a total novice, so nothing too complex.
Would love links to your own blogs too, so I can gather ideas. (I'm good at gathering ideas, not so good at grounding them ;) )