My big boy

My little big boy is starting kindy this week!! Funny to think that I announced being pregnant with him, on this blog all those years ago..

He needs a basic bag for kindy to hold a spare change of clothes, and a piece of fruit, so I made him this little drawstring backpack -

This is with a spare t-shirt & pants inside -

It's the perfect size for a 2-4 year old, and easy for them to open & shut.. It took me a couple of hours to sew, but most of that was the applique (exacerbated by my machine constantly skipping stitches & breaking the thread!! Methinks it needs the timing adjusted..). But it was dead easy and very simple, and does the job perfectly! I hope he like it...

Here's the tutorial link on Pinterest!

Instant organisation

Pillowcase + large embroidery hoop + small hook = laundry bag!!

Our laundry is in a smallish cupboard in the kitchen, which doesn't have room for a big laundry hamper/basket/thingy (ok, so if the thing that you carry your clean washing around in is the basket, what is the thing you toss your dirty washing in called in your house??), and I'm trying to curb my delightful children's habit of tossing their used clothes all over the floor, so this now hangs on the back of their bedroom door for them to pop their washing into!!

Because it isn't sewn into the hoop you can just drop it into the machine at the same time if it is getting musty, and you can replace it with any pillowcase!

And the best bit is that it took all of one minute to make, awesome.

(from this Pin)

not known for my punctuality...

Christmas!!!

yeah, i know, it's march... minor detail.

anyway, in a yarn sampler box i got ages ago there was 12 grams of 2ply alpaca. what are you supposed to do with 12g of anything?! what are you supposed to do with 2ply?!

turns out the answer is bookmarks.

crocheted butterfly bookmarks even.

cos we all know that reading is the ultimate in cool, especially reading books long enough to require bookmarking, and crochet has always been known for it's total chic, so the two together is pretty much a flawless combo.

so i ended up making 5 of these wee knick-knacks as gifts for various people! (i think they're pretty cute actually- but hey, i like long books & crochet)

still had some yarn left over too.. who would have thought that 12g of 2ply could go so far?!

(gold star to anyone who can name the book in that photo without googling!)

on a less successful front, the (compulsory) advent fair biscuit debacle.

stained glass window biscuits = fail.

they overflowed & stuck to the baking paper... and tasted pretty blah too.

i bet martha's snow cap cookies never turned out like this either-

note for future- bake sales are NOT my forte. At. All.

and on an equally successful front- how to make an actually quite cool bag look meh in one simple photographic step-

i made it for my 12 year old step-daughter for xmas - it's a Pleated Purse from this tutorial - and she loved it!! managing to please a 12 year old girl is quite a challenge sometimes, so yay ;-)

and cos i'm a total sucker, when i saw gingerbread house kits in the supermarket i HAD to have one for lexi-

needless to say she had a fantastic time decorating it with her daddy on xmas eve :-)

and with me she made simple paper decorations for our tree!

fun times :-)

i wonder if i can get the jump on easter....

my big girl....

my little big girl has just started nursery!
(to anyone else it's kindy, but where she is going kindy is for 4-7 year olds)

and naturally that came with a list of requirements!

first- a bag to hold a change of clothes and a piece of fruit to share-
i used this pleated purse pattern (which is much more grown-up looking in the fabrics they have used! and umm with decent interfacing..) & used some denim left over from the kids pants, lined with some rainbow cotton i was gifted ages ago :-)
i mean, steiner kindy -> rainbow fabric, what could be more fitting? ;-)
and it has a pocket inside for all those little mysterious essentials-

i also made a little PUL wetbag to hold clothes in case of accidents/mud! i nicked the concept from the incredible talented leanne, who made wetbags like this ages ago - it has a loop of elastic sewn into one of the seams, which works like a hair-tie, and is much faster & easier than drawstrings or zips!

and finally she needed some indoor shoes, so again, steiner kindy -> felted slippers!
from this-
to this-
heh heh heh... (i want some now!)

so now she's all kitted out & good to go!
(and everything from my stash!)

little black bag

my first attempt at a bag...
using the fabulous Tiny Happy shoulder bag tutorial!
It's got a cherry red lining & two internal pockets.. it completely doesn't comply with my 'sew from stash' mission, except for the button. The button is proudly from stash ;-)
I'm not usually a bag person, but i'm pretty happy with this!