In which I sew some gifts for children

It appears my sewing mojo has returned with a little bunny hop...

I made this little rabbit puppet for a one-year old. Unusually, I made it from a pattern, found in this book by Ellen Luckett Baker of The Long Thread blog. I loved making it, though it took ages and hand-sewing those arms in with two rounds of running stich and an overlock stitch took the longest of all! Still, I'd gladly make another one. It's just so lovely.

Goodbye little bunny - this one has already left for its new home.

I also made some name bunting for a friend's new little boy. I was inspired by Mary Emmens' name bunting, but made it up myself as I went along. To stop the letters fraying and to give them more structure, I used bondaweb. The back (unseen) is leftover blue sheeting from my play house project. The front is a mixture of new, old and very old fabrics (in fact the 'N' is from a dress I wore as a girl!). It has a sort of sky/moon theme to it. I'd love to make some for my boys too. Yet another thing to add to the I-meant-to-make-it-but-I'll-never-get-around-to-it list!

And lastly, for a special little girl turning three, I made her a birthday crown. She has a lot of inner princess, so I hope it suits! It has medium-weight interfacing inside for structure, as well as upholstery-weight fabrics (gosh I do love that pink spot). I thought about adding beads to the points to make it a bit more regal, but she has a little sister (she of the bunny-gift above) and I didn't want to make the crown too tempting to a one-year-old's mouth!

So there we go. I'm heading back to my sewing corner now to work on some UFOs (unfinished objects) for, shock horror, our house! It's lovely making gifts but it's a real treat to sew something we can keep.

Sew a play house

I made the boys a play house! It fits snugly over our kitchen table. You should see them play in it, it's so funny!

 

Here it is all open. Imagine two sweet little boys peaking out at you, grinning wildly! It's a good picture, trust me. I'd show it to you, but I keep the boys' faces off of here. The play house is plain on the back and sides but the front has a window and door, complete with velcro-ed tiebacks to hold both open.

Want to know how to make one? Here's a run through... Thrift yourself a duvet cover. Pop it on your table 'frame' and see if it fits. Mine was fine front to back, but came up short on the two narrower ends. All I did was cut the cover open on three sides (two longer, one shorter) so that it became a very long rectangle, popped it on the table again and cut it back down to size.

Making sure it was the wrong way up, I used pins to mark the corners and follow the line down the legs, sewed this line up, then cut off the excess. When you look at the excess on the un-cut sheet, it looks like big triangles of spare fabric where each table leg lies. Darn I should have taken photos! But it was a make-it-up-as-I-go-along project and I was only in 'mum' mode, not 'blogger' mode.

Pop the boxy sheet back on your table, wrong-side up. (I did this each time I sewed up a leg-line, before cutting the excess, just to make sure I wasn't measuring it wrong!) Then use a felt-tip and tape measure to mark where you want your window and door, and cut. I let my three-year-old loose with the felt-tip. He thought he was helping(!). Cut out your window & door. Then fold over a 1/4-1/2in hem for each, still wrong-side up, and sew. I pinked into the corners to stop them puckering too much, and double-stitched there too.

Measure out the size of curtains and door you want. Cut out (had to be yellow for us - the Little One's favourite) and hem all around before sewing in place over your door and window. Embellish as you like. I have a felt '2' (The Little One's favourite number - he has favourites for everything!). If I had time or girls (!) I might have made some felt flowerpots on a windowsill or something.

Then, to save time and fabric, I used the selvedge ends of the yellow fabric (as they wouldn't need hemming) to make tie-backs. I turned over each end, sewed one end to the sheet fabric, covered it with a little square of sewn-on velcro, then added the matching velcro square to the other end. Ta-da!

It's a good project for a beginner as you don't have to worry about it looking perfect: it's just for playing; there's a lot of make-it-up-as-you-go; a bit of fraying and mis-shape is fine.

Design flaw - yes, they hang out of the window a bit and I am waiting for their weight to rip it (maybe I should have reinforced the bottom edge?) The Tiny One tries to climb through it. It's not quite the you-play-so-I-can-get-on-with-stuff house I hoped - I have to keep a beady eye on that window! - but not far off. They have such fun. And the best thing is, I don't have an extra playhouse and frame to store and then find room to put up. My table's there already, I just pull the chairs back, take the little folded house out and go.

Action shot below!

 

(Ps Found my inspiration here)

Victory dance!

Every Friday Fabricworm (big online American fabric retailer) run a giveaway on their blog. You should enter.

I nearly always enter. I don't know why. I never win anything. I mean, not school raffles, not the lottery (!), nothing in between. Nothing.

I won!!

Properly shocked. And the weird thing is, it was the only time I've ever entered a fabric giveaway that I really, really wanted to win.

It arrived from America last week. I laid it all out on my windowsill to show you (but even on a windowsill there's not much natural light around). The elephant prints are, I think, Daiwabo Japan Fabric, Tip Top Elephant Walk. I'm not sure about the rest. Mostly I love the yellows. And the elephants. Oh, the elephants.

But what do I do with it? Fabric I love needs to go to special projects. Fabric that's free can be used on any old project. Fabric that's won (and I never win anything) should go on extra-special projects. Decisions, decisions. Answers on a postcard please...