Thursday, December 20, 2012

Every little girl deserves a doll

Logan has a little friend who he loves very much. She is the daughter of our very close friends Aaron and Waikura. Little Ava is 5 months younger than Logan and he adores her. Its quite clear whenever the two play together that she loves him too.

When our daughter was born early on 31 August this year Ava's parents were absolutely wonderful. They lookd after Logan for us for three days and even brought us dinner on those days when we got home from the hospital. I've been wanting to do something for them as a little thankyou so I decided to make their girls a little gift for christmas.

I've made Ava a little rag doll. I didn't play with dolls much when I was a little girl but i do remember having a couple of very special ones that i loved alot.

Shayne-Lee is older and clearly a very loving big sister to Ava. At Shayne-Lee's age i loved hair clips. mainly for their usefullness at keeping my fringe out of my eyes. So i figured i would make her a few different ones. She has stunning long dark hair so i chose colours that a - she'll like and b - will compliment her hair.

big bow
picot butterfly

sweet flower

All together now.



 For the doll i came up with this:

Rag doll sitting on the couch

Face close up


 I used some saftey toy eyes and red thread for her face. Ive deliberatly put a half smile there so as she grows and plays she can use her imagination for the emotions. For the hair i spent a few day hand stitching it strand by strand.

I may just do a post later on about exactly how i made the doll. I plan to make my son and daughter their own dolls soon so will take some progress shots of those as i make them.


Family of Washcloths

So this year i decided to make presents for my family rather than buying. This was A- to save money and B- beacause its nice to receive handmade gifts over anything bought, it just means more.

So i worked out a budget of what we would ordinarily spend at christmas time on our parents. It worked out at around $30 each and that gave me a total of $120! Thats just crazy! We definately couldn't afford that. I decided that i wanted to make some washcloths for them all. You can never have to many washcloths. Lets face it, you buy those soft, fluffy flannels in the shop and then after a few washes and a little use they just dont feel as soft anymore. So you either throw them out, or they still in the back of the airing cupboard gathering dust. If you're anything like me they windup being used as dishcloths in the kitchen.

Next i had to decide on the type of yarn to use. A friend offered me a good deal on some merino bamboo 50/50, but with Mum being allergic to wool that just wouldnt work. I wanted my washcloths to feel like a little bit of luxury for everyone. After hunting the internet for cotton yarns and finding none in the right colours or in my price range i was starting to despair for my oh so lovely idea. Then someone in my craft group suggested i use pure bamboo. So i looked again for yarn and found a place on trademe selling 50g skeins of 100% bamboo in some amazing colours and most definately in my price range! YAY! So $50 later and a few hours of crocheting and voila. All out parents had lovely luxurious washcloths.




Mums

Dads
Mother in laws

Father in laws





I'm really pleased with how they all turned out, the colours are just stunning. The best bit is that there's plenty of each colour left over so I can make a few for me! I had a small mishap with mums mostly red one as somehow it went wonky! I think i must have calculated my stitches wrong, but i didnt notice till after i'd finished it. Luckily for me my mum loves things that are unique!

So all we spent on others this year was the $50 it cost to get the yarn and have it posted out to us. I've made a few things for friends daughters too and those just used up fabrics and yarns already in my stash. oh and a little of my time too.

Coming up...the gifts for the girls.

Christmas is just around the corner

With Christmas on the horizon and very little money in our bank account, being that we only have my partners retail income, i decided that this year i would try to make as many of our presents as possible. And so I've spent the last two weeks crafting up a storm. I even took advantage of the kids napping at the same time to whip out my sewing machine and whip up a couple of sewn presents. Having an extremely curious toddler i really don't get the chance to use my sewing machine much, but i really do enjoy it when i do sew. And this particular project was quite lovely

So this is how my list started,

Mum - red or purple
Dad - green maybe two shades?
Robyn - purple or blue
Ian - blue..again maybe two shades.

Then once I'd started making the parents gifts i suddenly thought..oh gosh Logan needs to have something to give to little Ava...oh I'll need to make something for Shayne-Lee too, can't forget Ava's big sister.. and then a friend said she was making something for Logan so i thought oh crap i haven't got her girl anything so suddenly i had three extra gifts on my list to make. A week and a bit out from Christmas and I'm making more things?!

I must be crazy..oh wait, yes, we knew that already.

Luckily yesterday all gifts were completed and my in laws have even received theirs already. We had an early Xmas lunch at their house this week as they'll be heading up the country to visit other family on Christmas. We had a BBQ and Logan had a great time running around the garden and following the cats as they wandered past. He even had his very first pavlova, a very kiwi tradition..he loved it and it looked so yummy..shame I'm allergic to eggs!

So as the in laws have received their gifts I'll tell you what i made them.... Facecloths! Yummy, scrummy 100% bamboo facecloths. Oh the yarn is just so soft and divine to use and the colours were really rather stunning too. These facecloths feel like pure luxury too.
                                           Poppa Ian's cloths stacked.
                                         Poppa Ian's cloths spread out.

 So for Poppa Ian's cloths i did a pretty simple granny square in one colour then edged it with three rounds of single crochet stitches in the contrasting colour. So simple and yet looks fantastic!


                                            Nanna Robyn's cloths stacked
                                          Nanna Robyn's spread out

So again i used the granny stitch only this time i went from the corner rather than centre and again the contrasting border. Don't they look lovely?!

I've made several washcloths now i lots of colours so I'm sure I'll do another post show casing them all together. but that will have to wait till after Christmas when everyone has received their gifts! Can't have them reading my blog and spoiling their surprises now can we. :)

All my lovely handmade gifts will get their own posts too but again, not till after Christmas!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Time to stop crafting for everyone else! :)

I realised this week that i've spent the last few months mostly crafting for others. The kids and other family members. So half way through my final washcloth for my Dad i popped down my crochet hook and whipped out the sewing machine. Project custom dress began. I started off with a gorgeous wee dress i got from the local opshop for just $5! Only problem was its length and lack of straps. I'll be honest here I hate my knees. Thanks to my excema theyre dry and covered in scars so i hide them. This summer though it's clearly going to be too hot for trousers and i only have one pair of shorts. I dont do strapless tops or dresses, cause quite frankly my boobs are too big in my opinion. you'd think big boobs would hold dresses up...not in my case!
In the beginning there was a dress... When it came to the fabric to add to the length i wanted something bright and summery. I had two perfect fabrics. A gorgeous red with flowers and a lovely green with little we flowers and cherries. I honestly have spent three days staring at the fabric asking myself which one i like best...there is no answer. i love them both soo much.
I cut six two inch wide strips of the fabric each 29inches long, four red and two green and sewed them together. Red, green, red. The dress has a seam on each side, so to make the custom a little more natural looking I sewed each 29inch strip of the three end on end. With the seams lined up with the dress seams i pinned a bucket load of pinns to them and sewed around them bottome of the dress. Lots of ironing happend during this procces to keep all the seams nice a crisp. Things just look so much tidier that way!
once fabric was sewn on i then went around the bottom with and iron and pressed the raw edge inwards to tidy up the base of the dress. I went over the hem with a zig zag stich, from a distance it cant be seen but if you look closely its visable. I think the zig zag hemm just gives it that little extra something special. Break the mold, use some different stiches on your hems. if your really brave (or crazy) use a contrasting thread for that extra bold look. The straps were destined to be a bit fiddely. I'm currently breastfeeding my second child and will be for the forseeable future. I'm aiming for at least till shes one, but will see what she wants. if she wants longer he can have longer. Breast feeding is that little bit of calm in the maddness that is life. :) So i needed straps that would undo, allowing easy access. What better that recycling that old nursing bra i can't wear cause the fabric sets of my excema...seriously excema on the boob is NOT pleasant!!
The little nursing access clips i lined up just at the edge of the wee ruffle, so unless you're really looking for them you dont really notice them. Alot of expletives were uttered as i attached the straps...i stabbed my finger several times. Thankfully the kids were asleep so no chance of Mr 20 months reapeating mummies naughty words! phew. So with the straps attached i tried it on and its perfect!
Voila! I absolutely love my dress now!! Its perfect! Straps to avoid embarassing mishaps and allow easy acess for breastfeeding my girl, and pretty fabric for that splash of colour and extra length! It wonderful as a long skirt too, cause the straps tuck away, so i can dress it up with a smart collared shirt aswell. I'm off out to do the kids christmas shopping tomorrow with my mum. I'm hoping the weather will stay lovely so i can show off my new dress!!