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!