Zwirnstern

I owe you more than one post, but first and foremost: Happy New Year to all readers and thanks for checking in!

To show you at least one – even if teeny tiny – sewing project, here’s this year’s christmas craft:

I made the angels from wool felt I had left over from the advent calendar my husband and I made for the kids this year. Unlike felt you get in most craft supply stores this is made from real wool and quite sturdy. It came in beautiful colours, there also was yellow, green, dark brown, purple… just wait for the advent-calendar-post (at the rate I’m going now, I think it’ll be up in July).

Anyway, the hard thing was to actually cut the felt – I used nail scissors. Everything else is rather self-explanatory, each angel is made from two parts joined together by a couple stitches. I used contrasting thread and kept a sling for hanging the angel. I love how they turned out (and that they were quick to make). They make for a lovely addition to any present and they fit in a small envelope – so you could add them to your christmas cards as well!

Here’s what one looks like in a tree:

Now it might just be time to put it away and store it safely until December. Here’s hoping I’ll get around to posting a little earlier than that.

Katrin

The day before yesterday I posted this picture on facebook:

and asked people what it was. I got some nice (and some funny) comments. Most people obviously believe us to be in need of laptop/tablet cases . That’s not what this is, though. This project was inspired by Sewing for boys, which I recently bought. And it is a gift to a little boy just turned big brother:

I figured new brothers need presents, too, and new parents something to occupy them with  – enter the “to-go-artist”. It houses crayons, paper and has room to slip in a book, scissors, sharpeners or whatever the artist needs!

I added some leftover elephant fabric on the front and back and put my sewing machines fancy stitches to work:

Instead of velcro for the closing, I used a button – oldfashioned, but working nonetheless and not as likely to get caught in something.

Wouldn’t you want one? I would!

Katrin

PS: Little sister got something, too:

… gonna throw flowers! Which is customary in Germany for a wedding. The wedding was that of my husband’s cousin and our children had the pleasure of being in charge of the throwing together with their second cousin. (That chart is very helpful, indeed!)

I had planned to make a dress for my daughter. When I heard about the flower girl part, I jumped at the opportunity to make coordinated dresses for both girls and a shirt and tie for my son. I adapted Ottobre-patterns for the dresses. One of the girls is about to be 3 years old and her dress looks like this:

It has a twirly skirt and two underskirts, one from cotton and one from tulle. And it looks much better in person!

The other little girl is a little over two and wore this dress:

It’s made from the same fabric as the other one, but the skirt is different – straight and gathered at the waist. And it had to have a petticoat. I figured that a petticoat on a two-year old was not going to stay where it was supposed to be, so I sewed the musselin and tulle layers to an elastic wide waistband and that onto a onesie. It looks a bit like a tutu:

And it makes the dress all nice and puffy – better to be seen from below:

And last but not least, I also made a shirt and tie for my son. What’s noticeable is that he let me make his tie from leftover fabric from the dresses (he usually doesn’t really like pinkish colours) and has even worn it again since the wedding.

You know what I’d love to have? A dressform for kids – it would have to be adjustable, though…

Anyway, enough for tonight – do you like coordinating clothes on children?

Katrin

… as in birthday present and ikea-hack! Come to think of it, there has been a lamp shade a while back, but let’s not count beans, agreed?

Anyway, for my little girl’s (she’s not all that little anymore – include mother’s sigh here, please) second birthday I took this:

and turned it into this:

The entire project was pretty straight forward: I took the chairs slipcover (the part you can easily take off and wash) apart and used part of it to make my new version. I skipped the little head cushion – I think it gets in the way of the chair’s otherwise clear lines – and since my daughter isn’t that tall, her head wouldn’t reach up to it anyway.

I originally intended to leave the chairs supporting fabric as it was, but then didn’t like the plain beige polyethylene. So I used that as a template and made a similar version from the cotton fabric I’d also picked up at Ikea. This will probably be a lot less durable but I figured I can just exchange it when it gets worn. I wouldn’t do this with an adult’s chair, though, for safety reasons. I love the chairs backside the way it looks now:

What do you think?

Have a great summer!

Katrin

… and an approved technique, and this is what you get:

It’s a pillow for a little girl with her name applied. I have applied names before to little shopping bags – never to pillow cases, though. And I decided to take the chance and try something new: Instead of forming the name letter by letter, I made a template using a handwriting font (called GinoSchoolSkript). I typed the name in a very large scale, then exported it to .pdf, imported that to GIMP and selected the entire text by colour. GIMP has a tool to enlarge the selection, which I did (here’s to my husband who has all these amazing computer skills). That done, all I had to do was print out my mirrored template, trace it onto the paper backing of a Heat ‘n Bond sheet and fuse that to the back of the polka dot fabric I wanted to use for the applique. I cut out the letters, removed the paper backing and fused the first letter and the rest of the name to the front of the pillow case and zig-zagged around it.

I got the idea for the little ladybug from here and made it from plain brown and red polka dot fabric.

What I am particularily proud of, though, is the back side:

The pillow case has a covered zipper. To be able to add the orange edging, I sewed it between the my backside and a small strip of fabric and then folded that over. Sewing a covered zipper is dead easy, actually, and it makes for such a clean look – love it! You should be able to get zippers for pillow cases and such by the yard in most fabric stores.

Sewing the pillow together wasn’t much of a challenge, I added the edging on the sides just like I did on the zipper.

I like the way the lettering came out; I think it’s perfect for a little girl – playful, yet a little elegant.

Have a great weekend!

Katrin

PS: Sorry for not posting my daughter’s birthday present – didn’t get around to take pictures yet.