Wednesday 29 July 2009

sweet dreams of the 50s

My first craft love was making clothes (for Barbie in the early years and then i moved on to myself!). I don't do so much anymore so decided to make myself some cute pjs for going on holiday!

I used really light cotton for airy-ness and made a cute 50s style "onesie" with a tailored corset top and blousey culotte-type bottom, using this pattern:

I LOVE it...you feel so "pin-up-y" in the style of the 50s posters! Plus it took an hour to sew up! score!!!

Sunday 26 July 2009

patchwork passport

so i'm sure i've mentioned before that my mother is difficult to get gifts for...she doesn't want anything...and never does. If you buy her something, you get told off...really! So it's her birthday coming up and it's been tough this year to think of what to make that she will actually be able to use.
While hoking out my passport, in its sparkly pink cover, I remembered how much mamma loves travelling and holidays and so I immediately decided to make her a passport holder! (her passport is as usual flaunting itself all round Europe, cover-less and totally nakey...gasp!)
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Instructions
I joined 30 squares (each 6cm x 6cm) and then cut the finished piece down to 22cm x 16.5cm which is 2cm wider, all the way round the size of my opened passport.
Iron some interfacing on the back for stiffness!
There is my undressed passport getting in on some artistic photography action..."go put your cover back on you shameless pamphlet!!"

Cut a piece of the same size (22cm x 16.5cm) and attach two side pockets for the stiff cover to slip into...its a good idea to use clear pvc for the right-hand pocket so that you don't have to keep removing it from the cover during the infuriatingly invasive airport security procedures (they make me hate travelling!).

Place the two pieces right-sides-together and sew right round outside using a 1cm seam allowance, not forgetting to leave a gap for turning. Turn ride-side-out and topstitch around the outside edge using a 1cm seam allowance.

Your new improved and appropriately modest passport should fit snuggly inside.

I love the patterns of these materials...these were all from friend of my mother, who donated her scrap basket to me!! haha...it was fantastic, i was delighted!!

Now get travelling!! This one's on its way to you mamma!!! xxx
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Now i'm thinking of a new one for me...with embroidered maps...or national symbols...a little eiffel tower would be fun...oooOOoo i could make a bunch of them, each one themed for a different country that i'm travelling to, and then just swap them round each holiday!!! OOO!!


True to form...i decided to make one for me too!!

In NI we are allowed to claim dual citizenship with Britain and Ireland so I have two passports...

...this one is clearly for my Irish one!

Friday 24 July 2009

flowers for poog

With all these sew-y posts SuperD was being neglected!
So this one is for him...these are the flowers he carved for my sister...i love them, so happy!!

Wednesday 15 July 2009

gorgeous golf supplies!

hello from sunny Saint Georges de Didonne!! (at least, i hope it is sunny, since i'm writing this on 10 July and will schedule it to magically post on 15 when i hope i will be sunning myself on the beach in a blaze of rainbow colours!!)
speaking of rainbow colours...i was trudging round the supermarket in a mood yesterday because SuperD decided that we needed more food in the house or something equally boring and unnecessary, and demanded that we go shopping on the way home from work - seriously cutting into my craft time! - when my eye caught sight of a ray of rainbow sunshine in the sports aisle. (no i have no idea what i was doing there either...i was clearly lost!)
A packet of training golf balls, rainbow coloured lightweight foam with a suede-like furry surface!!!! I was in love!!! I think they were like £1 or something!!! (aaah..sigh of thrifty ecstasy)
So of course i ran home, called my poog from the lovely gingerbelle jewellery, and told her i had some supplies for a holiday necklace but needed some jewellery making advice!!!
i ADORE this necklace...i bet it will even float when i am swimming...FUN!!!

Friday 10 July 2009

baby's first shooooes!!

We've just have a birth in the family, a new second cousin! This calls for a crafty pressie! There are millions of tutorials on the web for baby shoes, but to my mind this tutorial is one of the cutest...and the easiest!! I sewed up these little babies in 40mins!!!
I rustled up a little sliding box while watching a movie with poog and D last night...it was quite an involving movie and there was no way i was leaving to go get a ruler to measure the dimensions...hence the dimensions of the plastic sleeve are a little "off"...hmm, oh well!

What a privilege it is...to give a girl her first pair of shoes!! yay!!


Monday 6 July 2009

washing wanderlust

Ok the title is a bit rubbish...since i think "wanderlϋst" is a german word and thus would begin with a "VVVander-" sound...o well nevermind, lets move on...
This is also a bit of a cheaty re-post of a previous craft but, it's for me so i don't care...cheating is the new black.
As mentioned previously, we are soon to embark on our summer travels and living in close proximity with a lot of other happy campers on the campsites of Europe, we need to dress up the less glamourous parts of life....like laundry!!!
This one is for me obviously! A bit of deja-vu (spelling?) but i made my corset and knickers a bit larger as befits the big sister version!!



This one is for SuperD...haha!


I wish he did wear pants like these...they're hilarious!


re-run the organisational fun!

This is a bit of a cheaty repeat post of the same pattern of craft, but i was getting jealous of my mamma's one and getting really frustrated with the mountains of crumpled, but very important, pieces of paper and reminder notes that are stuffed into my handbag...time to make another organiser wrap!!!
I used little hand carved eraser stamps to decorate the material to look like the blog background, because i'm too thrifty (cheap) to buy the proper stamp-making-resin-stuff.

Try to ignore the fact that the bias binding on the left is not the correct shade of green...i only noticed that once it had been sewn on...i was distracted by a really exciting audio-book that was playing (try not to cringe, please)

"ahhhhh"...this what i say when i can locate my ringing mobile phone in my huge handbag with ease...as opposed to emptying the entire crumpled contents onto the ground and scrabbling around through the papers...."ahhh...contentment, thy name is organisation".

polka dot bikini...bag!

Well we are soon to leave the little houseofspoon and head out on our happy holiday travels. This means that a selection of the 5,000,000 bikinis that i own, have to come too. Other years they have been stored in a plastic bag which is stuffed into one of the lockers in the camper, which attempts to escape and strangle me everytime i open the locker door...not this year though!!!
I have decided to get organised and pick 20 bikinis to go in this neat storage bag....yes, 20 bikinis fit into this bag...they're pretty small....you know, "itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny"....hey it's the holidays....and noone knows me there!!!


ooo don't worry little bikini friends, i'll wear you alright...i won't be wearing anything else for the entire holiday!

Thursday 2 July 2009

toadstool tidy

My mum loves mushrooms and toadstools (not the real ones!) and i have definitely got this from her. They are so happy looking and i love them as motifs etc.
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I wanted to make a big mushroom pin cushion and craft desk tidy and i found a pattern on this blog. I made a few wee changes making the cap a lid, and left the stalk (cut-off yop bottle!) hollow for storing empty spools etc. It just looks so neat and clean here...
Because, this is how it usually looks!!