ABC

My Christmas present for lovely Cara is her name - not in lights - but soft furnishing!

 Made from this beautiful vintage fabric won from eBay - I hope she likes it!

Sanderson Afternoon Tea and Gifts!

The annual girls' afternoon tea this year was at the wonderful Sanderson Hotel. 

We treated ourselves to their Mad Hatters Tea with a glass of bubbly and swapped gifts. 

It was hard to decide which was the most delicious treat...

...probably just spending some precious time with such good friends!

The perfect start to the Christmas festivities.

And gifts for the girls all ready - recognise the ribbon?!

The Curiosity Project

I wanted to do this last year but was too slow off the mark and missed the deadline - The Curiosity Project is a wonderful blog about all things lovely and at Christmas links people together with just a paragraph to create and swap a perfect box of goodies. 

You can spend up to £20 and fill it with homemade treasures, vintage finds or the perfect gift. You then post your box to your Curiosity Project person. I'd been so enthralled with collecting the right bits for the box I needed to send off I'd forgotten I would get one, so when it turned up on Saturday, Christmas had arrived early!

After taking off the lid of the pretty box I was met by an Alice in Wonderland style welcome and a bunch of lovely gifts wrapped in brown paper and green ribbons. Each parcel had a tag with a curious quote.

Inside was a mix of new and old, handmade and found. I love my new handmade mouse pin cushion and beautiful ceramic button, but the biggest surprise was the Russian Doll Carafe that I have loved for sometime and my Curious friend had seen on my pinterest board!

The effort and care taken to put together such a curious and delightful box was overwhelming and really made my day. I only hope that my box brings half of the smiles mine gave me.

Stockings for Sale!

I have 6 lovely Christmas stockings for sale. Each is unique, made with a patchwork of beautiful fabrics. The stockings are padded and finished with hand embroidery details and a giant roc-rac hoop to be hung ready for gifts!

Countdown to Christmas

Another Advent Calendar done and dusted. Hope it becomes full of lovely treats.

First Craft Sale

So Saturday it was finally here - my first ever craft sale! After all these months of sewing and preparing and worrying there was nothing else for it but to put my stall together and hope for the best.

The day started with several diversions - back and forth across the river - until we got there just in time to set up before doors opened. 

Luckily my wonderful friend Nina came along to help with sales (she can talk...!), give some moral support and gossip!

It turned out that the eye masks and bird decorations were a big hit!

I was very proud of my stamped bags with my logo - made almost overnight by The English Stamp Company.

  Although I didn't sell out - I made a few pennies and have a much better idea what sells and what doesn't for any sales in the future! Watch this space.

All Creatures Great and Small

The latest addition to my craft sale stock are a selection of animals and birds!

I made rabbits in sleeping bags, whales and bird decorations.

Bye Bye Baby!

So a sad day - i'm selling off baby stuff, including the moses basket. I bought this from a NCT pre-loved sale (after much elbowing!) and recovered it with a patchwork of lovely neutral fabrics and both my babes have spent many restful nights tucked in it. Its now been outgrown so I'm hoping someone else will find good use for it!

Count down to Christmas

I've gone for a contemporary approach to my advent calendars with no obvious Christmas-y fabrics but lots of gorgeous designs and colours.

The first has a red and white polka dot background with pockets made from red, white and blue Scandinavian folk inspired fabric pockets, the numbers are made with felt.

This calendar has another Scandinivain inspired fabric as its backing with matching and complementing pockets - picking out the gorgeous bright colours.

This is a very girly calendar with  beautiful bird in a hedgerow fabric to form the background. Fabrics for the pockets include two Liberty prints and the numbers are made from soft pink felt.

The final calendar uses more boy friendly fabrics. The super soft green flannel sets off the pockets which includes the irresistible Rascal Rockets!

Super Finn!

As Finn is finally getting into dressing up we went for a superhero costume for his 3rd birthday. Super Finn's super powers are still to manifest themselves!

I used templates from Martha Stewarts website for the the thunderbolt and 'F' and guidelines for the cape. I used polysatin from the wonderful Rolls n Reams in Lewisham as it had just the right swish. Having successfully used Bondaweb for the first time on the cape, I bought a plain top from H&M and added Super Finn's insignia to the front.

The mask is made in the same way as the super heroes and animal masks I made previously.  I designed my own shape and added a miniature thunderbolt and 'F' to finish it off.

Finn just needs to be able to fly now!

Not scared now - honest!

Nearly a year after making Finn an dinosaur costume he finally plucked up the courage to wear it!

He needs a bit more practice to control his tail but his roar is pretty good!

Animal Magic

As promised - animal masks for the girls.

You might just be able to tell from the photos, these have padded sections making the masks 3D and soft to wear!

Finn enjoyed modelling each one - the lion being his favourite!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

I've decided on a Superhero theme this year Finn and his NCT boy buddies for their third birthdays. So I've created Batman, Spiderman and Captain America masks made from felt. I'm in the planning stage for Finn's outfit so watch out for Super Finn to be revealed in October. Lets hope he likes it more that the dinosaur costume I made him last year and he's still too wary to wear!

Don't worry - I've not forgotten the girls - they're coming next!

Christmas comes early

We may be having beautiful weather and a much needed Indian summer but i've just finished off my first Christmas item. These four stockings are for Nina and her family, I hope you-know-who decides they've been good this year and leaves some lovely treats on 25th December! 

They are lined with blue fabric and padded with soft wadding. Each top and toe is a mix of beautiful Scandinivan Folk fabric in a mix of blue and red. The loops are made from red giant ric rac and each side is finished with a row of blue, red and white hand stitching in pearl cotton.

The final touch are the matching name tags. Backed in the blue and red gingham and with a layer of wadding the names are embroidered in red pearl.

Each stocking is unique and I'm planning to create more using the same fabrics as well as other combinations for my craft stall sale in November.