Showing posts with label Sewing and Craft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sewing and Craft. Show all posts

Friday, April 19, 2013

What We've Been Sewing

We've been making some cool stuff round here lately. 

Kees is stoked with his new bag, made out of a chook food sack and some herringbone tape. He "stayed up late" till 8 o'clock sewing with me. ;0) It makes for a great, durable all-purpose or swimming bag.


I spent a few nights going cross-eyed sewing this little cutie from a lovely library book of French-ish designs. (I can look up the name if you want.) Thanks for the linen, Nanny. See, I did use it!
 

Some rockin' monster men...
 

... a groovy happy cushion....


...and some cute summer jarmies from an op-shopped cot sheet.





Nanny's Quilt

Dear Nanny,

Thank you so much for the beautiful quilt you made Matt and me. It is absolutely gorgeous - a true work of art. Thank you for all the time and effort you have put into it. This quilt will be a treasured family heirloom for years to come.

Love from us xoxoxo






Tuesday, April 9, 2013

I Made a Lampshade

 Yonks ago, I saw this project in a Real Living mag. It stuck in my mind as something I'd like to make one day, so I'd always kept my eye out for lamp shade frames when op shopping. My lucky day came when a friend had a garage sale and her Mum sold me the perfect frame for five bucks. All I had to do was choose some yarn from my hand-me-down stash, and get weaving! Jane would be so happy she no longer had to abide my naked light bulbs. All good things come to those who wait...

The inspiration
I got by with a little help from my friends ;0)
And 'twas done!



Let there be light!
Actually, I was just thinking, a way you could probably cheat with this, is to use a plant hanging basket frame. I might do this for those naked bulbs in the hallway!

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Dinosaur Style

We've been walking the dinosaur round here lately, with dino embellishments aplenty. It makes Jimmy wear things he wouldn't wear before. Yesss. Win to Mummy!





Gifts for Sweet Nieces

I love to sew things for little girls, but my lovely nieces have loads of gorgeous clothes already. So, after some thought, I made them some bunting with their names on. I loved working with all that 
pink, blue and purple!




I hope you like them, little ladies!

Actually, speaking of my brother...he's just been to the Baftas and is now heading to the Oscars. 
Good luck, David!!



Saturday, April 21, 2012

A Teensy Bit of Sewing

Now that I'm a home educating Mum, I have found that my evenings are strangely taken up by preparation. Trawling the internet for ideas, preparing activities, pre-reading topics so I can actually have some idea of what I'm talking about, creating topic cards ... I haven't been doing much sewing or anything, that's for sure. However, at the moment, we are cruising along with our unit and I seem to have done most of the work, sooo... just a teeny tiny bit of sewing has been done.


A hanky bag for little snotty noses (and big ones)


and a new cushion inspired by some lime chenille I nabbed at the op shop after yoga.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Baby Bunting










I know bunting's only bunting and you really don't need all these photos of it, but I get a bit excited about making pretty things for girl babies!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Fresh Flannelette

I just love the smell of freshly-washed flannelette sheets that have been flapping about on a sunny washing line. They smell so good. For me, that cottony smell always reminds me of my Oma. When we used to sleep at her house as children, Oma would make up the trundle bed next to hers, with clean flannelette sheets so tight and smooth that when you slid between them you felt like you could hardly move. I loved it. We never bothered with top sheets at home, just a doona, so it was something special to have the bed made up all nice and neat at Oma's house. Fancy.



Speaking of flannelette, I thought I'd share a frugal homemaker's tip with you: if your old sheets are getting thin in the middle, snip them in half lengthwise and hem those raw-snipped edges. These will be your new outer length hems. Then sew the two original outer length hems together to form your new sheet centre seam. Good as new!







I wanted to share a few memories of us kids at Oma and Opa's house when we were little, especially for our family in Holland, who faithfully check my blog each day. (Sorry I've been slack!)

I used to love playing with her box of curlers.










Lunch was always an anticipated event with our favourites being "Oma's Soup", "Oma's Chicken" or Chinese takeaway. That's David and baby Ben down there.














And here we are in one of those dorky family photos everyone has, in front of the "bush house". Oma's house has hardly changed since then. I think you would remember that Oma and Opa built it themselves, bit by bit. They lived in a tent for the first year or so, then one room, then gradually the little house came together and it's still standing, solid as ever.


I'm having trouble with this post. Not sure what to write. There is so much I could say about Oma and Opa and all their stories, but I think I'll save that for another day. For now, I'll just be content to enjoy that flannelette smell!

Monday, October 24, 2011

"Flyaway Katie" Unit

This unit was inspired by one of our favourite stories, "Flyaway Katie", about a little girl who is feeling a little bit grey, so she gets all dressed up and flies into a bright painting, where she hangs out with fantastical birds for the afternoon. We did art; I really enjoyed exploring the artist's technique with watercolour, stickers, collage, pens and pencils. This was a worthwhile activity which held the attention of both boys, so that I was able to make my own picture too. Joy!






The next thing we made were some wings, like Katie's.



They were fun to make and the children played with them for a little while but I'm afraid they're destined to become home decor.
Some phonetic awareness...
and an attempt at dyed eggs, which didn't quite work...
but still tasted good.
Creating bright felted stones was also a happy way to spend half an hour and Jimmy and Kees liked these. I always find felting a little bit tricky but imperfection's okay. ;0)
Like Katie, we brightened up ourselves too!




And made some birdie friends. Cause you know I like to do these sort of things.





Wishing you bright, joyful colour today!