Sniff, sniff atchiooo....!

 Ok, I am a bad blogger, if you have an award for it, just send this way. First we went on summer holidays and then all the school starting business took me by surprise. It is as if it never had happened before; the search for shoes, the PE kit, the sandshoes...and the whole thing getting back to the routine was as if I had never tried it. Now that everything should be smooth and running I went and got a bad case of cold. I told this virus when I felt it coming that a) I don't do colds and b) September was certainly not the time! The virus was not impressed and I have been languishing in my bed the best part of the last week and am still not OK. I am up and doing things, but the batteries are not quite charged yet.
 My crafting has come to a halt too, because of all the above mentioned, so I will show you a couple of things I managed to squeeze in during the holidays.

I had seen on the net a nice idea for an "extra draining board". I am apologising, because I cannot remember at all, where this might have been, just telling you that this was not my original idea. Of course you can use any towel for the job, but this one is a dedicated one and I got to cram some delicious fabrics in it. In this way I can see them every day in my kitchen. The back is made of an old handtowel, which I did not use any more.

We were visiting my family in Finland and my sister S had just given birth to a little baby boy H. I was talking to her about baby clothes before I went (or actually even thought about going) and she was saying that she needed a few more pieces, so this is what I made. It is all made from thrifted cotton sweaters and t-shirts. The only new thing is the buttons.

The little niece L, who got the rag doll in February had also her second birthday. This time I had not had any time to prepare as our decision to go was made two days before the departure. Luckily Grandma had a great project, which I could help with! She had dug up my sister A's old doll's bed and bought a baby doll. Now the bed needed bedding, which was sweetly made out of little L's dad's aka my brother's old baby cot sheets.

That was the present as Grandma had imagined, but us being two to dream up things, we did not leave it at that. I thought that the baby needed a change of clothing

Then I thought that if the little baby was invited to a party, it would not suffice to wear PJs or rompers, so I made a dress and a shirt.

And while I was sewing all this Grandma was busy with knitting. I would have never stretched to those mini-socks and very much doubt that I could have been bothered making a cardi either had it been only me...

I had a closer look at the packet where we had liberated the doll from (I hate those ties all the toys are strangulated with in order to stay in posh boxes with see-through fronts) and noticed that the baby was a bathable one. So of course we had to provide her with a bath towel.

Yes, the binding doesn't bear close inspection. At this point Grandma's machine and I were not on friendly terms. The simplest piece in our collection did take most effort. And just because I had time in my hands I had to make a little shoulder bag for the dolly's clothes.

It was very well received present indeed and the most pleased were the BIG BROTHERS! It was so funny to see how they were changing the baby doll's clothes. So there you are, my summer crafting and nothing really achieved in this month. I have so very many projects waiting that I have decided that I am NOT allowed to buy a new project before I have made a sizeable hole into my supplies. Buying is only allowed if I need something to finish one of the pre-planned projects.


I must say to my own defence that I did re-decorate my workroom and tidied all the work related draws and shelves, so it feels really lovely to get to work now!