The Last Five

Any regular reader will know that I have been working on the Oliver and S 'Little Things to Sew' Cover-to-Cover Challenge set by Bartacks and Singletracks.  Well today is the final day for submissions and I have finished my last five!

First up a set of three bear hand mitts - made in brown corduroy and designed for use in my daughter's puppet theatre.  I used the smallest size mitt for the father bear and then scaled them down to make the mother and child.  I added eye-lashes for the mother, but otherwise size is the only difference between them.  They fit my five-year old's hand just right.

 

I made a circus themed messy-kid's bib using iron-on vinyl and bias binding trim.  This was a simple make but did challenge me with making bias binding go around curves!  We don;t have a baby in the family at present so this will go in the 'gifts to give' collection.

This messenger bag was made in another piece of corduroy - using the green (my girl's favourite colour) as an accent, and with brown straps.  I interfaced the corduroy but it would have been better with more stiffness.

It is a small bag, and if I made it again I would be tempted to add snaps or velcro to hold the flaps down.  A simple and enjoyable pattern to make!

These juggling balls were made with remnants of corduroy (spot the originals above) for my husband's recent birthday.  They were great to sew and not at all fiddly - even in the smallest size.  I gathered up a handful wheat (from the farm's silo) and wrapped it in cling-film and placed these inside each ball, along will some poly-fill.  They are a nice weight to juggle.  I have used the matching bag pattern to make storage for my knitting and card games - so will need to make another for these!

My final sew was a cupcake carrier, using the bento box carrier pattern.  I was inspired by the fabric and used a plastic box I already had as a base, and then adapted the pattern to fit.  Unfortunately it doesn't fit as comfortably as I had hoped, but it does work.  I'll have to try it out sometime soon!

Just to summarize my efforts in the Cover-to-Cover Challenge here is a mosaic of my projects.

1. DSC_0109, 2. DSC_0104, 3. DSC_0111, 4. DSC_0115, 5. DSC_0140, 6. DSC_1201, 7. DSC_0070, 8. DSC_0059, 9. DSC_0056, 10. DSC_0639, 11. DSC_0164, 12. DSC_2213, 13. DSC_2139, 14. DSC_2120, 15. DSC_2112, 16. DSC_2122, 17. DSC_1987, 18. DSC_1645, 19. DSC_1219, 20. DSC_0164

I made 19 items!! Yes there are two puppet theatres there but I did only count them once - and the hat and explorer vest share an image, so I have repeated that one.  These are also items 91, 92, 93, 94 and 95 in my O+S count.

Many of the items have already been very well used, including the backpack, theatres and costumes.  But the favourite is definitely the tutu - worn at least five times a week!  When considering that we live on a farm it has seen more action than even I imagined.

A Sewing Catch-Up

I have been very slack and not blogged for over a month now... so here's a catch-up on some of the projects I have been working on for the Bartacks and Singletracks' 'Oliver + S: Little Things to Sew' challenge.

Firstly I made my niece a bear carrier for her 3rd birthday.

To make it easier for her to use independently I added elastic to the straps.  This was quite fiddly but I think it works.

The two bears are brothers - and both have been loved lots!

Here she is enjoying her present alongside our K - with a bear carrier I made a year ago.

Next up is a baby jaguar costume for K, incorporating both the 'cosy hood' and the 'art smock'.

 

I wanted to make the smock as a neutral costume that would work with other hoods (should they be needed) and I'm super pleased with how easily it sewed up.  I used cotton homespun from Spotlight and made no adaptations to the patterns apart from omitting the pockets.

For the hood I added a front facing of fake fur to the same homespun, as well as making the outer ear pieces from the same.  I used the same pattern a few years ago to make a 'kiwi head' and knew how great it is for costumes.

K's favourite part of the whole ensemble is the tail!  Just a length of the homespun with some fur sewn on the end, attached to a elastic waistband.  Very simple!

The latest item I have completed has been a pair of mittens made from two layers of fabric.  On the outer I used a scrap of waterproof fabric and I lined it with some polar-fleece.  Although I followed the idea from Froo and Boo, I added a separate binding strip between the layers that could hold the elastic.  I sewed it to the outer layer, threaded it with elastic, then inserted the whole inner and edged the bottoms together.

I used a microtex needle to try to keep the mittens as waterproof as possible (small hole = less leaks?) and there is still some more of winter that might provide the opportunity to try them out.

These projects are numbers 87, 88, 89 and 90 in my O+S count and numbers 11, 12, 13 and 14 in my LTTS challenge!  Progress is intermittent, but happening!

I am working on a few more projects from this book, hoping to finish them by the end of this month.  My sewing room is undergoing renovations  at present (very slowly), so craft is mainly in the form of knitting.  And maybe some gardening and chicken watching!

More Buttercups

A while ago I made a simple Buttercup bag from Rae Hoekstra's free pattern (here).  I've used it heaps and love most things about it.  Recently I needed to make two bags as gifts so took out the Buttercup pattern and added about 1 1/2" depth to it.
 

I added the depth to both the outer (lower) panel and the lining.  It worked out fantastically and was the only change I needed to make.

Both bags are made from Essex linen/cotton.  The grey bag is lined with a DSQuilts print while the tan bag has a Lecien print.

They were quick and easy bags to make and I was excited about giving them away until I was told that another gift had been organised.

Never mind .... I now have two lovely bags in my gift-giving stash... always a handy thing.  I'm sure they won't stay unused for long!

Exploring the waves

Last week we had a few days away - we went down to Cromwell and then further south to visit my family.  We had lovely weather and it was a good chance for K to explore new and familiar places. 
It was a great opportunity to give her one of her birthday presents, just a little early, an explorer vest and matching hat!

The fabric is the same tan coloured drill, with small animals embroidered on it, that I used last autumn to make K a music box dress.  I had originally planned to make the vest in red, but the image of a fisherman stirred in my mind!

I lined the vest in a light blue print with kites and used bias binding left over from the nurse's uniform I made recently to edge the armholes.

The pattern for both the vest and the hat are from Oliver + S 'Little Things To Sew' (again!) and they work so well together that I'm surprised I hadn't thought of it earlier!

I took these pictures with K standing on the back of her Pop's boat - but be reassured the boat was on land.  Unfortunately we caught no fish on our exploration of Lake Dunstan but K is imagining how big the one that never even bit our hook was...

Here she is with her Pop out on the boat - wearing a very safe vest instead!  Love the hat inside the hoodie look!

Next time... maybe... the fish will come home with us!

Two more items for my tally in the 'Cover to cover' challenge from 'Bartacks and Singletracks' (numbers 8 and 9) and numbers 83 and 84 in my O+S count!

 

Little Houses

My daughter K has a great preschool and although she's only been there a year she will miss it when she goes off to school soon.  So just as we did for her Playcentre, we've made a gift for them...

Yes - the little houses from my favourite book (as mentioned in the last few posts, repeatedly!)  Oliver + S Little Things to Sew - in case you forgot!

Mine do look quite different as I chose bright colours - but I still like how they look - well except for the over-large door on the house above!

 

I got extra creative for the blue 'shed' as the tractor was the only wheeled item I could find in my fabric stash.  A shed should work well for farm kids anyway.

Preschool has a large mat with roads and house on it, so these will add a extra dimension to the children's play.  I hope they can use them!

And more houses from a while back I haven't shared yet...

Back at Christmas time Santa made some houses for K using the 'Storybook Lane' panels by Kelly Le Creel.  Now Santa did two silly things - he forgot to purchase the pattern to go with them, and then he forgot about Liesl's awesome houses in LTTS.

Santa made these using Kelly's basic pattern (here) but adapted some to open up.  They look good, but could have been so much better!  It took Santa a while to work out how to do the finger puppets - but he made them work very well - they can both stand on their own and be used as a puppet, having an internal 'hole'.  A LOT of work for Santa.

There are many more puppets but I couldn't find them to photograph today - off on their own adventure!  I also have another background piece that can be used with the puppets.

The foam houses are number 7 in my 'Cover to cover' challenge from Bartacks and Singletracks and number 82 in my O+S count!

 

Who would like to come and play at our house?

Three, Four, Five...

I've been making some progress... but only on one of my goals!

I want to make as many things as possible from the fantastic 'Oliver + S Little Things to Sew' book by Liesl Gibson.  I started slowly with two puppet theatres and one backpack, but have upped my game by sharing three more today!

Firstly some bags (not for juggling balls)...

These are considerably smaller because we needed them to hold some card games, like 'Uno'.  The fabric is by Riley Blake, 'Pieces of Hope'. 

K is great at Uno and we've been having lots of family fun with it recently.

This one is much larger, being only marginally smaller than the pattern and has a future secret purpose in mind!  Love the lamb fabric.  :-)

18" dolls are not easily found in New Zealand (I've hunted) so I adapted the Doll's Tea Party Dress for our 11" Gotz darling.  I scanned the pattern pieces and reduced them by 75% (with some fiddling for seam allowances).  This is still a bit big so next time I will try about 60%.  In order to avoid fiddly hems and seam finishes I fully lined the skirt piece and it becomes reversible!

I had already made K a hooded cape about two years ago, and it is well used for imaginative play.  So I needed a new adaption - I made it smaller!

The pattern dimensions have been halved, i.e. if one part was 10" long, I made it 5".  I was not terribly accurate in my measuring and did not play with seam allowances, just made narrower seams.  The only issue was fitting in the centre piece to the sides of the hood, it could have been 1" longer.  It worked!

The doll is a fantastic knitted one from a pattern by AK Traditions.  She is about 19" tall, with particularly long legs, and is very cuddly.  Most of K's dolls have over-large heads so it was a bit tricky finding a doll to fit the cape.

I hope my adaptations are allowable in the 'Bartacks and Singletracks' 'Little Things to Sew - Cover to Cover Challenge'.  A lot of thinking and planning was involved!

These are numbers 78, 79 and 80 ( bags counted together) in my great O+S count.

I also must mention that I have finished another two items (bias trim apron and tutu) but these have been hidden as upcoming birthday presents.

How are you going on your challenges??  Doesn't time fly when you are having fun?

Catching Up!

I've been working on a variety of projects over the last week - but feel I haven't accomplished anything significant.  So here is a catch-up post of my 'smaller' projects....

Little butterflies made from a pattern in Lori Holt's 'Quilty Fun'.  I used charm squares of 'Marmalade' for this and have plans to make it into a larger projects using some of the other 'Quilty Fun' blocks.

A cigar box covered in Heather Ross's 'Nursery Versery'.  I used some batting to pad it out and stuck the fabric on with a mix of double sided tape and PVA glue.  K really needed a place to store her hair ties - so now we know where they should be!  The inside is covered in cream coloured paper.

I found a pile of cigar boxes at a garage sale recently and they have great possibilities as the wood is light, but solid and there is no residual smell.

A 'find it' bag made with plastic insects, made for a friend's birthday.  We also made one with dinosaurs, but the hardest part of both was finding the actual names to add to the list on the back of the bag!

Lots to do!

Lots of gardening... this is a shot of my herb garden and vegetable boxes.  Last week we took out a 2 metre tall camellia (bare spot at front right where K's rake is) and there are still some conifers to go before we square this part off.  The bricks are still being worked on... plenty to do there!

O+S class picnic blouse and hopscotch skirt

And this is a very proud K, with her trophy for leading her pet lamb at last year's local show.  We have only just received the trophy so lots of showing off is happening!

O+S Roller Skate dress with 'Tiny Tea Leaves' cardigan

This is what she looked like with her lamb last October - just to prove she wears Oliver + S most days!

I'm hoping you are all having more success at completing things than me!