Tuesday 28 May 2013

Leafy Craft

We've been doing some Autumn crafting around here....



 Some leaf crowns.






This one we do every year. I think we started when Chloe was around 2. It's pressed leaves, stuck to clear  contact. Then we stick the contact to the front door. We do it in Spring too , but with pressed flowers. I think I'm going to try and make Chloe a flower pressing kit for her birthday this year!


Are you enjoying some Autumn craft? Or Spring craft?

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Blueberry Tea Please.





Eva has a little cold at the moment, so we are taking it easy. Yesterday we had a little tea party in the beautiful autumn sunshine. She picked blueberry tea...and Mummy had coffee of course ;)

Weekending.

 Pancakes with caramelized pear
 Markets

 Beautiful crystal for sale
 ANZAC monument
 Planes
 Sculptures on the beach



More of a Sunday post than a weekending post! We decided to get out in the sunshine and check out some second hand markets. Then we discovered a display of sculptures down on the beach! That last one (Big Fish) was actually done by students at Chloe's school!

Hope you enjoyed the weather on the weekend =)

Saturday 18 May 2013

Awesome Printables Around...

I've come across so many adorable free printables lately that I thought I'd share some of my favourites.

Disney alphabet printables. on spoonful.com. These are so cute! Each letter has a Disney character! I've printed out the letters for my girls names, but I really want to do the whole alphabet!

Adorable games and activities for littlies from busylittlebugs.com.au. There's a star match game, ladybug number match, bumblebee size order. Just so many to choose from!

Papercoterie.com has these beautiful quotes. Perfect for framing and putting on the wall! I especially love the "Hello Sunshine"!

This one is in Norwegian, but you can translate or just print the pics! They are beautiful sewing cards. I haven't printed these yet because I need to get some nice thick card so they last a bit longer!
p.s. I'm a little in love with this blog in general!

This very clever lady has turned famous artworks into colouring pages! I love this idea! Perfect excuse to take a trip to your local art gallery and do some colouring in as an activity when you get home!

Well I hope these will keep you busy for awhile! Some great quick fun for a lazy Sunday!

(None of these are my own, so huge kudos to the very talented people that created all of the above printables! Share the love :)


Betty Doll

Chloe has been to a lot of birthday parties lately. And by a lot I mean 6 in 4 weeks. Some were double whammies, two parties in one day. Exhausting.
When the first birthday party of the year came round, it was for a little girl. I asked Chloe what she wanted to give as a gift.
"Ummmmm.... I want you to make a doll Mummy."
So a doll it was.
I've tried a few doll patterns over the years.
The first one I tried was the black apple doll on the Martha Stewart website. I made a few as gifts for others as well as one for Chloe. It was a great pattern, but I wanted something a little bigger. So I decided to draft myself up a pattern. Very rough but thought I'd give it a go.
Well it was perfect! I even hand sewed on each individual strand of yarn hair!




Each doll I've done I've changed her hair. Now I use felt and just change the style depending on the child I'm giving it to. Her facial features have also developed. I am terrible at embroidery so now I draw the faces on with sharpies. I can get much more detail into them now.

I don't know where that name came from "Betty Doll". But for some reason it seems to suit her. I've made a few of these now... I think I'm up to number 6?
So I've scanned a copy of the pattern I made for you to use! It's very rough, and doesn't include seam allowance. You don't have to add a seam allowance, it just means that your doll will be a little smaller. The bigger the seam allowance, the bigger the doll!

I don't have any step by step pictures, but I'll try to explain best I can!

Cut out the pattern pieces. I used some calico, but you can use anything you want.

Get 2 pieces of felt and cut out a design for the hair using the head piece as a template, it can be a bob, pigtails, bun etc.

Cut out where the face will be on one piece of the felt. Have a look at some of the dolls I've made to get an idea of what I mean!

Attach the hair to the face, along the neckline on the back and around the fringe on the front. The cotton needs to be the same colour as the felt as you will be able to see this.

Attach the head pieces to the body pieces.

Take 2 arm pieces, sew together and turn right side out. Repeat with the other two arm pieces.

Do the same with the leg pieces.

Stuff the arms and legs with polyfill.

Pin the arms sandwiched between the body pieces.

Leaving a gap at the bottom, sew around the body pieces and hair making sure to not catch the arms in any side seams except where you are attaching them.

Turn right side out.

You should now have an empty doll with arms (stuffed) but no legs.

Stuff the hair and body.

Pin the legs to the bottom of the doll, turning the raw edge of the gap in as you pin.

Carefully sew up the hole in the bottom with the legs in place. I managed to squeeze it through my machine, but you can hand sew this gap if you prefer.

Draw or sew on a face.

Make your doll some clothes!

Done! Clear as mud?? Hope so! This is my first go, so if you have any questions (which I'm sure you will, what with the awesome instructions :/) please don't hesitate to ask!!


Tuesday 14 May 2013

New Routine


Been a bit quiet on here of late! Eva, my youngest, has just dropped her day sleep :O so there is a lot less time to do much of anything really! I haven't sewn in a week and a half and it's killing me. I do have a few already finished projects that I will be posting soon and hopefully a little pattern and mini tutorial to go with it.

We've been enjoying the cooler weather the past two weeks though. Except last week when Eva and I got caught in a hail storm on the school run....by caught in I mean literally. We walk every day to and from school so we were outside when it started . Let's say it was a little scary and a little painful.

Hope you're enjoying the in-between season which ever hemisphere you are in =)