Money Wise aka Owl Purse

Well...I was supposed to do some supply teaching today, but  Elf son has gone down with temperature and is only interested in listening to stories either read for him or from a CD or films. As I did a whole lot of reading already, he is now enjoying a Star Wars film or two and I am having sudden unscheduled time for crafting; BRILLIANT!

I am possibly really late to this trend, but I do adore owls and as I was thinking of doing something from my own head, I settled for trying to make an owl purse.I know that those buttons look mucky. It's dust and I will take a cotton bud to them. I just could not be bothered to take another picture. You can see that the buttons are from a granny tin in this way!

 I might be the only one wanting to have an owl purse, although my thought was trying to develop something I might be able to sell on craft fairs. There are several variations in my head, so friends and family, you are now warned that you might be gifted with these, if they don't sell. (In case I actually produce a stack of them).Watch this space, the variations might fly this way soon...woo hooo!
 
The purse is zipped along the owls bottom. I won't entertain you with several childish jokes that ran through my head making this opening.

Here is the owl in its entire glory:

I think it would have looked even better had I hand stitched the wings and the forehead bit with embroidery floss. Next time...Have a hooting weekend! Edit: Have a hooting Thursday. Being suddenly at home doing cosy things has thrown my sense of time...

Here are the results of the draw

Of course I should have seen it coming. I could not get Elf son to be my random number generator as he received the eagerly awaited Lego with the mail. He got money for Christmas and had some savings too, which he used to buy a BIG kit of Lego. Ergo, there was no way of extracting him from the kit apart from taking two bites for his dinner and in the end putting him to bed.

So we did it today here are the slips in his hat:

Elf son is picking one of them:

and here is the winner:

Congratulations Pauliina. The goods are going to be sent your way asap.(Yes, it is blood on the paper. I butchered my thumb earlier today and it has kept bleeding all the day. )

 Here is what Elf son crafted to his cousins as Christmas presents. They were a part of an exercise for his fine motor skills, which was easier to "sell" as there was a reason to make these. He likes his twin cousins R&L awfully lot and making gifts for them was a great motivator.

Elf Son's New School Satchel

Just a reminder that you still have time to comment on the previous post to participate in the anniversary giveaway!

After the successful bag making session I moved swiftly to use all the new knowledge by designing a new book bag for my son. This was sort of half planned as a Christmas present as well, but I thought that it did not matter if he would get it as a New Year gift. His old book bag is one of those nylon numbers the schools get their logo printed on and all the kids have the same. There is a cuteness to it, but he is on his second or third of those already. Its velcro has stopped sticking and it has holes in the corners. He is now that much older that he is quite happy to have something different. He had another bag for his morning fruit snack as well. Some days he is carrying four different bags to school.

The satchel looks deceptively similar to my bag, but I honestly made the pattern myself, using my knowledge of "how to make" supplied by Lisa Lam via her book Bag Making Bible. I used Elf son's old satchel as a guide for the size, although I added a bit both to height and width. I had enough of ticking fabric from elf husbands apron left over to line this bag. It has a big pocket, which I hope will be used for newsletters and all the other handouts mummy needs to read...

On the other side we have similar, but lower pocket divided into three smaller compartments ready to hold pencil case and such. I had meant to buy all the hardware for this bag too, but had forgotten the d-rings, so one end of the strap got sewn and another got a strap loop fashioned from the same jeans fabric with a mega buttonhole. I did get the magnetic snaps and strap adjuster.

I 

One of my goals making this bag was to reduce the bag load he is carrying, so I made an elasticated strap to hold his water bottle

and enough space for a new snack bag.

It is a watertight zip-bag made of dark out blind cut-outs. I knew that they would come useful! And to lessen the frustration with the zip, it has a mega pull with his initial in red felt! What's more the bag has been approved by Elf son, phew....(His comment was that it had a pillow inside. I think this is a reference to ticking).
My blogging might suffer a bit as I am heading to the BIG city for the weekend and then having some work...(REAL work, rather than crafting) to do. I shall be back next week though.

I am also eagerly waiting for my birthday present to arrive. Yes, it's my birthday today, but the present is not going to be here before the end of the next week. I will show and tell when it arrives as it is craft related and I am VERY excited!

Blog Anniversary Giveaway and a New Year's Gift

It was my blog's 1st anniversary yesterday! Happy birthday blog!

I am fully aware of the custom of having a little giveaway to celebrate. I don't know if there are any others than my family and a few friends reading this, although the stats show that there are at least occasional visits from places where I don't know anybody. (Obviously the family and friends are welcome to participate). As this is mainly craft and sewing blog the give away is "crafty". I thought that it would be nice to give from my stash and something I have made, so here we go.


The giveaway winner is going to get a rainbow of zips:

















small selection of buttons















 Two Suffolk puff pins















and a pencil case I made

















To participate leave a comment, it does not matter if you have never done so before, you are still welcome! I will draw the winner on Friday the 7th after 3pm GMT, as I am going to use Elf son as my random number selector after he is back from school. Please check if you have won and if so, contact me as the blogger doesn't always give me your email address even if you leave one. GOOD LUCK! 
Now that we have got the giveaway sorted, I can show you a notebook I made as a New Year's gift to my friend and mentor, who is an avid journal writer. We don't exchange Christmas gifts, but I am going to see her next weekend and thought that this would be a nice surprise and a way to say thank-you for mentoring me and being a friend. The colours are not very "me", but are "her". It's always nice to make things for people, because it forces me to colours and designs I would not otherwise use.

I blogged earlier about a notebook I made and there was talk about writing some sort of tutorial for it. Well, I didn't, but maybe I should have, just to use it myself! I could not remember what I did last time, so I needed to figure it out again. Not sure if I did it the same way, but that doesn't matter. I still have not produced a tutorial though...I have to refine my false book binding technique. I really don't have a faintest clue about real bookbinding, so it's all ad libbing it. The printed text is an Einstein quote: "Imagination is more important than knowledge"

I wanted to make the insides inspiring as well, so I added some pictures and decorations here and there

There are fantastic sources for vintage children's craft activities etc on flickr. I can easily lose myself for hours there. It never stops amazing me how generous people are sharing all these goodies with the Internet community. There are several rainy day cutting and pasting activities there which are super cute. Go and check out here and here. The latter has a lot of sets with different vintage themes and is a treasure trove. The pictures are actually lovely enough to frame, if you are missing pictures for your child's room, or indeed for yourself. I used some of them for illustrations printing them to be on the left hand side, where it is more difficult to write.
The whole process of making this notebook was much more painful this time than last time around. I wonder whether it was because I knew I was making this as a gift, whereas the other one started as something for myself.
 

A Bag and a Loose End

   Have a Happy New Year, Dear Readers! 

 Wishing You a Creative 2011 with my last post for 2010

Love from Mama Elf

After the Christmas there was delicious time to use to sew. The countless projects in my mind were all put in an imaginary pot and one was drawn from there as a winner. Make a bag for myself! I had planned this since August, when I visited Marimekko factory outlet during their big summer sales and acquired some materials. I wanted to replace my old Marimekko shoulder bag by something more colourful. As I wanted the bag be rather sturdy, I chose to buy canvas from IKEA for the lining. First I could not get the lining and then the publishing date of Lisa Lam's book "Bag Making Bible" was delayed. I did not plan with the book from the beginning, but saw some pre-reviews and thought that it would be stupid not to wait. And then came Christmas.

I was debating with myself whether to adjust the pattern slightly, make it just a smidgen smaller..but then I thought: for once woman, just do as it says in the book. Follow the instructions and learn. So that is what I did, largely...
I did go with the instructions and I have chosen a white lining, as I am tired of losing things in dark bags. Whether it will look awfully grubby in no time is another question. This is how the bag looks inside. I took the picture during the construction to give you a better idea:

I added the little pocket above the pencil pocket. The owl fabric has been in my draw for a while and I had used some of the fat quarter, so the remains were used very carefully. The pattern included the pocket with zip, but letting the lining encircle the zip was my own idea. I thought it looked really cute and I also added that pull with an owl for the zip.

The other side was meant to have a laptop harness, but I seldom lug my laptop around, so I did not bother. I made a big pocket/divider there instead.

This is my first homemade bag ever to have this much metal hardware on it, adjustable strap and square d- rings for the strap

the twist turn locks on the flap

I am proud of my top stitching here. It was made with special top stitch thread and needle. You probably have known about this for yonks, but I have first recently found out about the possibility to buy this product to re-produce something akin jeans top stitching. I was kicking myself that I did not notice to lengthen the stitch when top stitching the shoulder strap. As you might know I love my sewing machine and one of its lovely features is that it can make up to 6mm long stitches.

In the end I was well pleased with another NEAT product from the hodge-podge seamstress.

The loose end I had was that I showed in last January the beginnings of a crotchet bag. It was finished and this is how it looks:

It's mostly used to house my yarns, but gets an outing once in a while in the summer.

More showing presents while we are sniffy, wobbly and throatachy

She has gone mad you might think....posting several posts a day after leaving the blog occasionally for a month. There is an explanation: Christmas has been spent having my two boys' faces in various shades of gray, sniffing, coughing and sneezing. Until this morning I did brilliantly - not a symptom in sight. Now I have a sore throat and very wobbly limbs. I have my hopes up that a day's rest will work wonders and that I am feeling all shiny and new tomorrow morning. Meanwhile I have been putting up my blog roll, although I must admit that in reality it is longer. These are however the blogs I visit most frequently. I might well add a few, as I notice that I have forgotten some "oh so important ones".
I even had a look at some other designs, but none took my fancy, using the blogger has its limitations, but it's free and free is good in my book.

Here is the apron I made for Elf husband, as he is the bread baker in our family.  Can you see the D-rings for the adjustable strap? They are actually two key rings, which I sent the husband to buy in town before Christmas without telling him what I intended to use them for.

I gave him the River Cottage handbook for Bread, which has been a hit. If you like to make real bread and maybe dream of building a little bread oven in your garden, this is your book. It is the best bread book either of us has ever read. In addition it is really pleasing to hold being "book sized" and hardcover with old fashioned texture to the cover. Should I now add that I like the scent of new books and shoes?

I have to tell you that we have aprons in our house, but I have abused them with bleach and paint and varnish and you name it...This time we keep the nice one(s) for cooking only. (I have the fabric ready to make a new apron for me too).

Pencil Cases

These were really good fun to make, the fun consisting of getting the gist of how they are made, producing them satisfyingly quickly and getting rather neat results. (A novelty for a hodge podge seamstress).  I borrowed the way of making from Flossie Teacakes from her little make-up bag tutorial. When I was leafing through Lisa Lam's "Bag Making Bible"similar instructions were found. I altered (as usual) the pattern to be longer, so the pens would fit. Our nieces and my sister got these. My sister got one of the prototypes, which was too short for a pencil case to use as a make-up bag. The nieces had some pencils and pens thrown in as well.

The zips got added a little pull:

and the lining was another colour. The birds had nice seed pods on green, the orange bag had polkadots on orange and the brown one some nice stripes. The fourth one can be seen here as it was the only picture of the insides which did not shake totally out of focus:

I must admit, that in my eagerness I made a couple of them stiffened first with TWO layers of canvas inside and then just one. Did not work, so don't try. It really needs a proper interfacing. I was SO sure I had some, so I had not got it from the fabric shop, but none could be found, when I came home. This propelled me into a tidying frenzy of my materials and in the last, and very deep draw, of my Victorian chest holding my sewing and crafting materials was the said interfacing hiding! I took it as a bonus that I was forced to use a couple of days exploring the deep, deep guts of my chest of draws...

I put some homemade cosmetics inside my sister's and the teenage niece got hers on the side. My sister got the organic rose-water face water, which I use myself as it is lovely relief in these skin drying times. For the teenage niece I produced a facial cleanser/face water from rosewater and some oils. Nothing too exciting, but a nice gift idea for those who prefer natural products.

A Jester's Hat

This was meant to be a Christmas present for Elf son. In these pictures he is wearing the hat with a balaclava under it as it was really windy that day.

Luckily I constructed it a day before the winter began in the late November. As the snow started to fall for real, I decided to give the hat to Elf son immediately. It was no time before it looked like this around us. ( I am sure you are well tired of snow pictures now, just jump over...)

The hat is made entirely of fleece and I made the pattern myself. It even involved using Pi calculating some of the measurements. I was really proud of this fact, which just reveals my exceptionally bad maths. I took from beginning to finish just a couple of hours, so if you use a pattern, you could be done in an hour.

Making the hat from fleece simplifies the process a lot: it doesn't fray, it gives a little, but not enough to requite stretch stitch and it stays put. All in all very forgiving and an ideal beginner project. If you are a beginner, you are forgiven to think that I am mad. It really is far easier than you might think. Any mistakes or miscalculations are easy to put right without too much of altering.

I have it in my mind to make the pattern available here as a PDF file and write instructions how to make it, if people want to have it. If you have sewn before, you might just need to see my pictures to figure it out. Elf son wanted to have "streamers" in the back, like his hat from Lapland had:

I would have preferred a dark gray with the red, but unfortunately I could not get fleece in that colour. I used new fabrics, but this could easily be made from an old thrifted fleece jumper as the pieces are small. I can see in my mind's eye many a variation from the theme: using one colour, decorated with ribbons and buttons on the bit going around the head, multi coloured...bells anyone? Elf son's hat has been used a lot, as the snow is still on the ground, although it looks as if it is going and this will soon be just a nice memory:,

More Hearts and a Quilt

So now the pressies can be revealed! This is another decoration I made around the heart theme for my sister. It can be hung on a door or wall or between door jambs. It was not made too heavily in Christmas theme as I thought that she might want to use it other times as well. Maybe as a lucky charm around the Valentine's day?

The other sister's baby got his quilt after a looooong wait. As my sister requested a white one, that's what she got. It was not the most inspiring thing to make in my mind and in the beginning I had the idea of hand quilting it...well, that plan was abandoned. It still has the central bits and some of the panels in hand quilting, but the rest is machine work. Basically anything curved was done by hand, because I am rubbish at free motion sewing on machine. I need to practice it more.  It was washed several times to get the required wrinkly look. I embroidered the baby's name and birth date on it, with white. How nice am I? Well, my sister did not even notice the name. I hope she has found it now. As you might expect the pictures of a white quilt are impossible to take, so here is a white wrinkly thing

and here is a hint of the name embroidery, just take it as an extra competition, "who can spot it?"

More gifts to be blogged about and I have already managed two projects after the Christmas despite the fact that every major electrical item seemed to die in this house over the holidays. That is a slight exaggeration; only washing machine, tumble drier, toothbrush, car battery and the coffee grinder. The last one clearly being the worst...luckily we still own the manual old fashioned grinder as well.

Merry Christmas!

Here is my gingerbread house this year. In my book I have cheated as I bought it as a kit from IKEA. Last year I did the same and it collapsed! My homemade one year before the last did the same, although my technique with melted sugar has improved since. I burnt myself only once today instead of having fingertips covered in blisters.

Pre-made kit route was chosen as I cannot bear the thought of going to all the hassle of making the house, which ends up in ruins as soon as I turn my back to it. I think that last year's disaster was due to using far too heavy sweets as decoration and just possibly the air humidity in this country.

We will see how this ends. The pictures are just a way to wish you lovely holidays, if I should not pop back before then. I have an excitable 8-year-old in the house, so entertainment is required. I thing I might even chase a few dust bunnies out of their hiding before Christmas, although that does not count as entertainment.