My first sewing alteration

My life is hectic at the moment, to put it mildly. So all my crafty stuff is on hold until the middle of February when my life should resume its regular pace and I'll be back on the blog.

However, I rather surpassed my self this week. I had to do a kind of alterations job. Alterations and sewing are not my forte but it was an emergency. Dd had been invited to a farm for the afternoon and she needed suitable attire - wellies and waterproofs to be exact.

She tried on her waterproofs and despite being the right age on the label, I think they were made for a midget child. She has a slim waist, but these were ridiculous - I wonder if they were a second.

Anyway, she couldn't get the waistband on. They were elasticated and we had half an hour before we had to leave. The other day she sorted through her wardrobe and found an old swimming costume which had a hole in it. I found my trusty quick-unpick, got into the waistband of the trousers, cut the elastic and cut a piece from the swimming costume (nice stretchy fabric) to sew in as an extension.

I was so nervous! I felt like I was back at school sitting an exam, but you know what? I did it! I was terrified the cut elastic would whip back into the waistband and I would lose it forever!
It wasn't the prettiest of jobs, but it was functional. And Dd had a great time at the farm. She was covered in you-know-what when she came home, so I'm pleased I felt the fear and got on with the sewing job :)

A felt ball

Wahee, I made a ball! I've been wanting to make one of these for about 6 years; can you believe that? But every time I've thought about it, I've never been able to work out how to sew together the six sections.

After a bit of internet browsing and putting my grey matter to work, I finally came up with my first effort. I'm so pleased with it, but am seeing a 'felt 'n' blanket stitch' theme to my work! I have to say I love working with felt. It gets a bit annoying sometimes because it likes to fray if you get the needle too near the edge, but there is something so comforting about felt and of course, I don't need to do all that hemming malarky.

This ball appeals wildly to my inner child. I ended up falling asleep with it in my hand on the day I made it LOL! It's stuffed with carded sheeps wool, so has great tactile and warming appeal. I'm going to continue with some felt projects this month to practise my sewing skills and then perhaps try something completely different during February. This gives me a decent run at trying something before I decide how much I enjoy doing it.

The ball cost a minimal amount again - a bit of felt and around 20gms of wool. It took 2 hours and my inspiration came from "Feltcraft" by Petra Berger

Darling daughter has just seen it and asked me what I'm going to call it. "Call it?" I exclaimed, "but it's a ball!". After a huge berating and 'how would you like it if you were just called 'lady'' style conversation, she has now named him Rollabout, which I think is an astonishingly cute name.

A little wool doll

I was looking for something to do yesterday evening, but didn't want to get started on a big project (by that I mean anything longer than an hour and a half :D ) so I made a little doll from some offcuts of wool. She makes me laugh - her arms are rather rotund and I think they look like boobs instead. Perhaps she is a breastfeeding mama doll LOL!

Still, I think she is cute, but how on earth you get a good tight pair of arms, hands and head I don't know - she seems to be sprawling out all over the place. The ones in the pictures were neat little things who clearly ate all their vegetables. I think mine prefers chocolate ;)

She took about half an hour to make and I had to use my toes to press down on the threads while I tied them, so it was good exercise too. The cost of making one of these is next to nothing.

The inspiration came from "Felt craft" by Petra Berger (which is a bit odd as there is no felt on here, but there we go........) I made a little boy from some pure cotton yarn this morning and he is a bit slimmer, but his head and hands still bulk out. Without getting myself four hands I don't know how people make these things so neat!

My goodies

I've decided to spend up to £20 each month so that I can build up some craft supplies. I've always denied myself this money in the past, preferring to spend it on 'necessities'.

Recently, however, I've been trying to define 'necessity' to myself, as well as trying to find true meaning and purpose in my life. I don't need a 'life's purpose' as such, but I do feel the need for more in my life that brings me love, meaning, happiness and joy.

I figured that budgeting money for doing crafts each month was an essential part of this process. It also gives the message to the Universe that I'm serious about this, so bring some more artistic streaks to my fingers and heart please!

Anyway, this morning two lovely packages arrived. I was so excited! The first was from Sarah at Paper and String. This woman knows how to wrap a parcel; I felt like I had received a present all for myself. Just look at it; all beautifully wrapped in tissue paper with a hand written note of thanks for my order:

Inside were three pieces of felt in beautiful pastel colours for making some blossom fairies. I had two packs of buttons; one gingham, one polka dots which I'll use to adorning lavender bags. There were three types of pretty ribbon; again these will be used for lavender bags and then the part I am most excited about - a make-your-own felt owl! I feel like a giddy child and am so looking forward to making my cute owl. Just look at him; isn't he the cutest fella you've ever seen?


I also had a parcel from eBay; I'll reveal the contents of it in another post.

She liked her fish!

Darling daughter loved her fish! She isn't the gushy type; things seem to reach her on a deeper level, but she's already named him, is waiting for his friend to arrive and has started playing with him :)

I've just had a package arrive from the fabulous Paper and string site and I can't wait to open it. But I'm going to savour the moment and will write again to share the contents of my little package with you ;)

A felt fish; complete with gusset no less!

I've just finished my second item! I can't believe how quickly I am creating these lovely beasts. My beloved daughter has been asking me for a felt fish for several weeks after seeing one in an old book of mine.

I was given a bag of my old childhood books from my Mother, and in there was the "Ladybird book of sewing", still inscribed with an old school friend's name from way back when! Darling daughter set eyes on the fish and has been desperate for one ever since.

Well, since she made me a certificate last night for sewing the valentine hearts, I decided my cheering committee deserved a reward of her own, and here he is! He even has a gusset, which I'm really proud of LOL!

Like the hearts, he took me 1 hour 20 minutes to make and the cost of materials (felt, embroidery thread, tracing paper and carded sheeps wool) was probably about 50p

I can't wait to see little one's face tomorrow when she gets to meet her fishy friend! He's already had a repair job done to his bottom because he kinda burst open when I put the stuffing in, but I think he has recovered already ;)

My first crafty thing - red felt hearts for Valentine's Day

Ok, here it is, my very first toe dip into the hedonistic lands of crafting!

I'm not good at making decisions, and for the past 4 days have spent HOURS on the internet surfing some amazing, and I mean amazing blogs. I can't wait to start compiling my links list on here. There are some talented people out creating all sorts of beautiful items and I'm so wanting to join them! Trouble is, I want to do everything, and I want to do it NOW.

I recognise that my new years resolution of ripping off my 'crap at crafting' label is much more than that. It's going to teach me patience (I have none of that), persistence and looking at the finer details. I'm afraid I tend to skimp over things, so this is going to be a fabulous discipline for me and hopefully I'll have a few lovely things to show for it at the end of the year.

Anyway, back to the plot. My first item is three red felt hearts. I choose these because I had all the ingredients, plus I figured they wouldn't be too difficult to make or take too long (I'm not going to push the patience thing on my first item!) They are lightly stuffed with carded sheeps wool and are joined together by a gold thread. Each heart is sewn up with blanket stitch, which is one of the few (well one of two actually!) stitches I can do.

It cost me a few pence to put together - about 1/4 piece of felt, a small handful of wool, embroidery thread and the gold thread. I would estimate it cost about 50p in materials. It took me 1 hour 20 minutes to make and my inspiration came from "All Year Round: A calendar of celebrations" by Ann Druit and friends.

If I were to change anything, I would try and figure out a better way of attaching the hearts together. At the moment they can slip up and down the gold thread, plus it looks a bit messy on the back. I'm really pleased with the hearts themselves, but not the way they are fixed together. At the moment though, I'm not sure how to improve this.........