cyan’s first sewing projects ... and hello! (it’s been a while!)

Firstly - hello! It has been a while, 9 months to be precise (exactly - to the day today!) since I last posted here. It’s been a crazy busy 9 months that’s for sure.. I had no time for blogging, sadly. We worked hard, partied, got married; and I’ve been dying to blog about it all! So hopefully I can set some time aside soon to do just that, and catch up with what everyone else has been up to in the world of blogs...

Back to today’s post.. Cyan (my crafty 6 year old daughter) has been wanting to learn to sew, so for Christmas my mum made her up a starter sewing basket kit; and my sister Tressa, who is the other seamstress of the family, put together a collection of fabrics for her.

Cyan’s first project idea was for a cuddly toy, we made a start on cutting out the pieces last weekend and I’ll be sure to post on that when it’s done...

Cut to today - Cyan was home from school recovering from a nasty cough, and my mum came over to watch her while I was at work.

Mum had promised Cyan when she gave her the sewing kit that she would help Cyan to make her own needle case and pincushion, so that is what they did today...



She embroidered her initial herself “in chain stitch” she told me proudly :)

Cyan’s sewing on the pincushion base..



Her needles nestled in their new case..



Not bad at all for her very first “proper” sewing project!

seam binding crafty ribbons challenge

I took part in another Crafty Ribbons challenge recently, after missing out lots of challenges since the Fun in the Sun challenge I did last year, for which I made a mini beach bag and some mini ribbon notebooks.

The challenge this time was to find new and different ways of using Seam Binding Ribbon..



My first thought was to try weaving it, so I made a woven panel using four different seam binding colours. I backed it with cotton with ironed-on interfacing, ironing the horizontal ends first to keep the ribbons in place while I wove the vertical ribbons through, then ironed the whole panel to fix them all.



This panel became the back of a little purse, with a handle plaited from three colours of seam binding..



And a seam binding ribbon which ties in a bow to keep the purse closed..



I had two ideas for beaded necklaces to make with the seam binding, the first did not work out, but I was very happy with this one, which is simply some wooden beads knotted onto a coordinated colour of seam binding, with a closure made using another smaller wooden bead, and a knotted loop..

wizard play.. cloaks, wands and spells

Harry Potter is the new favourite in our house, the kids watched a couple of the films recently and have been running around playing wizards ever since!

They were off school on half term break this week so I offered to make them black cloaks to enhance their play, they love to dress up! I also suggested they decorate a couple of chopsticks for their wands, and made up a couple of blank ‘spell books’ for them to fill with their own spells..



The cloaks were made from two squares of the black fabric I used for Oli’s pirate dalek party flags last year – I had a lot left over!

I used the full fabric width, so just two hems needed, top and bottom, with a wider hem at the top to make a collar. I then ran the top through my sewing machine on the longest stitch and pulled the threads to gather it.



They each picked out a button from my stash, to fasten the cloaks. It only took me a couple of hours to make them, a quick and easy sewing project!

They decorated their chopstick wands with marker pens, metallic paint and glitter glue! The spell books I made by folding white printer paper in half with a black card cover. The kids then busied themselves coming up with their own spells..



A few spells from Oliver (7):



How to make a storm come
to make a storm come you need to mix 8 newt tails 1 fang of a cobra 8 great white shark fins or if you are scared you might lose your fingers then just 5.

How to turn parrots into dragons



Spell to Defeat dragons
Any spell you want as long as it fires the flames or the dragon away from you.

How to turn yourself into a dragon
to turn yourself into a dragon you have to drink something very special it is called the dragon personaliser and before you drink it you say how long you want it to last.



Some spells from Cyan (5):



how to electricute wizards (wizzs!)



how to make a lots of rain come down



how to make people little



how to turn parrots into dragons

They really cracked me up with some of their spell descriptions! and they have had so much fun playing wizards this week!

I’m going to get these two little wizards to work their magic tomorrow morning by picking my giveaway winners out of a hat! Last chance to enter, comments left on the giveaway post before we do the draw tomorrow morning will be in the draw!

mini bag, notebooks and other yummy gifts

I made more mini notebooks last week, as a little thank you gift for Oliver’s teacher and teaching assistants. They are the same as the crafty ribbons mini notebooks I made, in that they have perforated pages and are stitch-bound; the covers are a little different in style – I wanted them to be personal, and I thought rather than Oliver drawing cards for his teachers I could use his drawings as the cover of the notebooks, they will be reminded of him every time they write a note! He wrote a little thank you to each teacher on the first page of their notebook.



Oliver drew some lovely little birds (he loves birds). He drew a blue-tit, a cockatiel and a robin. I added polka-dot fabric behind his drawings, which was fixed onto the card cover with bondaweb, then the drawings were trimmed to fit and stuck in place with double-sided tape, then I machine-stitched around the edges. We also bought some yummy dark chocolate mint truffles (we can testify to the yumminess as we shared a box at home too!) and used a green (school colour) gingham ribbon to tie each notebook with the choc box.



I also made another little bag like the crafty ribbons mini beach bag I made, this one was a birthday gift for one of Cyan’s friends. We gave her a play dough ice cream set (a bargain buy – I bought a few to use for gifts over the summer) so I used the ice-cream Fun in the Sun ribbon I had from the Crafty Ribbons challenge. Cyan made another of her cute little bracelets – it has become a habit making bracelets for her friends birthdays.



I was going to make another mini ribbon notebook to match.. but time was short.. and I remembered we had some mini princess colouring books left over which I made to go in party bags for Cyan’s birthday last year. They were covered with cute scrapbook prints and the cupcake one went nicely with the ice-cream bag!

craftshare 2010 at sew can do ~ felt pocket party bags

Today I am a guest poster over at Sew Can Do as part of CraftShare 2010. My post is about using felt to make pockets on party bags, please hop over and read it here..

mini notebooks ~ fun in the sun crafty ribbons

I made these little notebooks for my second part of the Crafty Ribbons Fun in the Sun challenge, using various Fun in the Sun ribbons along with some other ribbons from my stash to cover the fronts of these little notebooks. I was going to make a couple of different ones.. I got a bit carried away working out cute ribbon combos and ended up making five!









The first was made to match the mini beach bag I made..





I made these books from mixed pastel coloured printer paper, with covers from offcuts of cardstock. I stitched them on my sewing machine to bind them. I also ran the inner pages through the machine with no thread first – to perforate the sheets – this means pages can be torn out if required. My inspiration for these notebooks came from Camille over at the Mother*Lode who made some cute little books for her kids to doodle in.



As an afterthought I added some really cute little 3D sticker embellishments and little puffy gingham hearts from my stash, which coordinated perfectly with all the ribbons. I used Mod Podge to stick the ribbons and embellishments, on reflection it was maybe not the best thing to stick the ribbons, but I just bought it recently and have been dying to try it out on something!

Oliver has been drooling over these today as I was finishing them off – so I have promised to make up some more for him and Cyan in a larger size which they can use for doodle pads.. Oliver’s favourite is (predictably) the goldfish version, I can't decide which is my favourite – they all turned out so cute!

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mini beach bag ~ fun in the sun crafty ribbons

I made this mini beach bag for the Crafty Ribbons Fun in the Sun challenge. I used turquoise and white gingham for the main part of the bag and a multi-colour pastel plaid cotton for the front pocket – it is trimmed with one of the Fun in the Sun ribbons which has beachy things on it. I used blue deckchair stripe grosgrain ribbon for handles, which I bought from their fabulous site craftyribbons.com – my new favourite source for ribbons.



This bag is gusseted (I have been wanting to try out a gusseted bag) and lined with the gingham. It is interfaced for strength and stability. I used the same method of double-folding and double-stitching the top hem and handles as for the party bags I make – this makes them really strong and durable.







Here is the selection of Fun in the Sun ribbons I received for the challenge:



I used some shells from my beach treasures for props!

Now I'm off to finish my other projects for the challenge..

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