Bunny, Dalmatian and Owl!

I've been at it again! I'm working my way through the Misfits book, one by one. You might remember, all the Misfits are made from recycled clothes that people have given me. When I get them, I sit and chop the seams out and take the buttons off - this leaves me with material that's ready to go (or should I say, ready to sew!). The only colour I'm seriously lacking is black - there's only so much of your own clothes you can justify chopping up! Have made a mental note to raid the charity shop for black t-shirts.

To give you an idea of comparative sizes, here's a piccie of all three creations together:

 The Owl? Was a pair of men's brown trousers! The Bunny? Was a red jumper and a patterned orange t-shirt. The dalmatian? Was a cream fleece. The spots on the dalmatian were painted on with black Dylon fabric paint. This paint takes a while to dry and to make it permanent, you have to iron it. This will be my first opportunity to use my Christmas present too: a mini craft iron with a spade tip! Had I thought about it of course, I could have painted the spots on the fleece before I cut the pieces out but hey-ho, I live and learn!

Ideally, instead of using googly eyes, I would like to use old buttons but at the moment my stash of buttons is very meagre! The bunny and the dalmatian noses are both recycled buttons tho!

Shep's spotty fleece jumper!

When we were last on holiday in Cornwall we stumbled across some spotty fleece which we fell in love with. We only bought half a metre each with the view to perhaps making a dog bed each. My fleece is red with white spots and my friends is purple with white spots. It was only after we got home that I realised that half a metre just wasn't going to cut the mustard! Now yes of course, I could still have made a bed had I joined bits together.....or traded my dog in for a smaller model! Then my mind turned to what else I could make with it. It wasn't long before I stumbled upon the idea of making a fleece jumper for him! Poor lad! I already had an offcut of plain red fleece, so if I could combine the two, the finished article should look very smart.

Luckily, I found a Simplicity pattern (9520) for large dog coats on eBay and the best thing is, there are 6/7 different styles you can make, so it's real value for money. I've never used an actual pattern before of the tissue paper kind, so it was a bit of a learning curve! I quickly realised that once I'd looked at the pattern, trying to fold it back in the manor in which it arrived, was nearly impossible and required at the very least, a degree in origami!

Once I'd cut out the relevant pattern pieces, it was all too evident that half a metre of fleece was not wide enough to take the largest pattern piece. Not to worry I thought, all I need to do is to make the back piece in two halves and to join them together. Yes it would mean there was a join down the back but if I lined up the spots, it shouldn't look like it wasn't meant to be there!

It took me a while to engage brain but once I had, I was really pleased I managed to work out how to put the sleeves and the neck in. I did manage to break a needle tho as I attempted to use the method of placing the pins at right angles to the direction of sewing. I had read somewhere that this was the best method as you don't need to remove the pins as you go, you just sew over them. I was a little sceptical and fearful! I couldn't stop myself from slowing down as a needle approached but even then, I managed to break a needle clean off. Needless to say, I won't be trying that again anytime soon!

So here is my little man in his new fleece jumper....poor Shep!

Apron strings!

I had a special request for a Christmas pressie. Please can you make me an apron....with flowers on! In my efforts to oblige, off we trundled around the local fabric store. I had researched fabrics online but am not brave enough (yet!) to order fabric this way, purely because I can't 'feel' the fabric and am worried I'm gonna buy the wrong thickness etc! Luckily, there was one flowery fabric that I thought would do the job admirably. It wasn't cheap tho and as I'd already decided to line the apron too with calico, I had to justify the cost; which I did by telling myself that I could make another apron out of the leftovers!

For the neck straps on this apron, I used two D-rings; this allows for the neck strap to be adjustable. I was gonna make all the straps out of the patterned material but I didn't in the end - only because I'd have had to have been extremely careful where I cut the strips from if I were to have any hope of having enough material left to make another one! I had both of the sizes of herringbone tape in cream anyway, which matches well. Choosing which colour cotton to sew it in was a little more tricky! In the end I plumped for a brown.

I was a little disappointed with my pocket on the front. Don't ask me how but it was a little smaller than I'd envisaged, so I wasn't able to sew down the middle of the pocket to divide it in two......so instead it looks more like a marsupial pouch! To reinforce the top corners, I decided to sew a square in each, which I think is decorative and practical!

I have a Cath Kidston apron that I was given as a Christmas pressie years ago and I absolutely love wearing it. I only hope that this apron is very special to it's owner too!

Chicken creation

Here's another creation from the Misfits book. I do enjoy making these little characters.

Normally, I draw around the template, pin two pieces of the material together and then cut around the lines I've drawn....then i try and machine sew them. Because the t-shirt material is so fluid (for want of a better word!), it is so difficult to sew....it stretches and moves as you sew, so it's almost impossible to sew along the lines without frequently lifting up the foot to re-align things. Had a bolt of lightening strike me, not sure where it came from but it was as if my solitary brain cell had suddenly woken up! Instead of cutting the templates out, why not just pin the recycled t-shirt material together and then sew it, BEFORE you cut it out. This made an amazing difference. It was easy to sew and turn the material and I had none of the problems I had before. RESULT!

The other thing I learnt when making said chicken? His head is made of two pieces of white felt. When turning felt the right way around....you need to leave way more than you think to be able to turn it through so as not to stretch the felt.

See, even this old bird can learn new things! Only trouble is, I am so old my brain doesn't have a very good memory....I believe they call it goldfish bowl syndrome!

Reindeer friends

You may remember a while ago, we made a 'prototype' reindeer (the red and white one in the photo!) with the pattern from Crafts Beautiful magazine. We just loved the pattern and wanted to treat ourselves by making a reindeer each, out of very special fabric. I went for yellow flowery materials and my friend went for more modern pinks.....I think this represents the age difference between us both... a mere 17yrs!

My sewing machine is a seasoned traveller now! If anyone has ever carried a sewing machine any distance, you will know that they get heavier and heavier the further you carrier it! So I invested in my troll! A little lightweight foldable trolley with wheels that has been invaluable, especially as I have only one fully functioning hand (had a operation on it recently). The only trouble with sewing somewhere other than home is that you need to think ahead and take everything that you might need, with you. As we'd chopped out the pattern pieces already, I left the material at home....you can guess what I needed? I had cut two body pieces out the same, instead of reversing one.....so back home I trudged - which was just as well, as i'd left the buttons at home too!
 

It's amazing how different the reindeers look in the different materials. We also stuffed these reindeers more than the 'prototype' and we're not sure whether that improved them or not! Stuffing them more certainly made it more difficult to put the buttons and the eyes on, as the needle almost got lost in the depths of the body! And who ate all the pies? The yellow one! He's definitely porkier than the other two but hey, his mummy loves him!

Christmas cake marathon!

We've been busy making one
large Christmas cake into four individual Christmas cakes!  Apparently, the cake I made last year was a little too alcoholic, so this year, I only added brandy every fortnight, instead of every week! Last years cake was a more traditional design with a santa on, so we wanted something a bit more modern this year. We saw a similar design to this on a google search and we thought we'd give it a go. I don't think we'd appreciated how many stars we would have to cut out! Patience, patience and more patience - especially when we were handling the very delicate snowflakes!

Being as I have not long had my arm out of plaster, I couldn't do any of the rolling out, so I amused myself making this little creation!  It a sort of snow-bird?  He's only about 4cm tall and he is rather cute!