Wednesday 21 December 2011

Dribblicious

When our boy was teething like a teething thing with his first two teeth, he was perfectly dribblicious. We’re talking two bibs and a soaked carseat before we even start the engine.
And I am appalled at how expensive bibs are - £10 a pop? You must be joking. So. To capitalise on a new-found love of snaps, and to overcome my fear of topstitch, I made some bandana-style dribblebibben in jersey, cotton drill, and jersey-and-cotton drill.

Offending teeth clearly visible in toothy grin.
Tutorial here.
Nice. Turns out he’s dried up the drool for pegs 3, 4 and 5.

Tuesday 6 December 2011

These were initially made as an advent calendar – a mammoth thing that hangs down the length of our hall. The sacks, however, work really well as gift sacks or table favours so I’ve made a few extras since.
Each sack shows a British woodland Christmas scene. Many of the animals, like the woodpecker and the stag beetle, can be found in our London garden andmost are based on photographs that my wife has taken at home or on holidays:


swap fish for tinsel...
Although we’ve yet to see a hedgehog wearing a hat:

These are fantastically portable (an emerging theme of mine), and great for using up oddments of scraps. I'll post a tutorial in the next day or so.

Update: The tutorial for the sacks has been posted at The Sewing Directory (worth a good poke about while you're there) and I'm lazy enough to send you over there, rather than faff about with Google docs. Besides, I know that as soon as I open the file I'll find hundreds of things to improve. So here it is in its imperfect glory: http://www.thesewingdirectory.co.uk/small-gift-sacks/

Christmas countdown

 
Actually, Christmas started for me about three weeks ago when I dug this out from my WIP bag.


It’s a feltworks kit from Dimensions that I’ve been pecking at for the last couple of years. I think it will take a few more to be honest.

Although I’m up to the fun bit now – these little felt tokens are useless, and fiddly, and some of them are not even that pretty but there is something about them that is oddly satisfying
sparkly!

And I’ve even managed not to leave the floor scattered with beans and sequins (otherwise known as choke hazards). Needless to say, its not quite as portable as my usual handsewing projects...