I made a chicken!

I am so psyched about this! I've always loved these chicken doorstops and thought they'd be a great way to make something 'recycled'.

Well I've made one all by myself. I got the instructions from A Greener Christmas by Sheherazade Goldsmith. Although fixing the head on seemed really complex, so I'm going to look for easier instructions if I make another one.

My version isn't really big enough to be a doorstop, it's more of a large ornament. You were supposed to make the print out 200%, but I couldn't figure out how to do that, so mine is half size I guess - I'm not really sure about all this enlarging patterns business at the moment. Perhaps one of you can enlighten me.

This gift will be for DD's best friend who is chicken mad. DD and I love cats, her friend loves chickens, so there you go - the perfect pressie, I hope.

I'm a bit worried because they are a family who buy things and love spending money in the shops, so I'm not sure how well received it will be. Maybe they'll think it is cheap crap, but I guess I need to get over that and give it unconditionally.

I've stuffed it with a bag of lentils, so it has a great feel factor to it!
Have you ever given a hand made pressie and just known the other person has thought it's a load of rubbish because you didn't 'buy' it?

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.