work in progress...

Ah, yes, another bad photo! This is a pattern from This Tiny Existence which I was eager to attempt - although it might defeat me yet. Let's just say it took a loooong time to do all this backstitch, and I'm thinking it's going to take even longer to fill it all in. Will give a progress report soon...

napkins

Another bad pic, but I think these came out rather well - for my friend Amanda's birthday in (ahem) April. Another lovely pattern from one of my favourite blogs, Chez Beeper Bebe.

prints charming skirt

Well, this is rapidly turning out to be the blog of bad photography - the curse of the time-poor! But I wanted to post about this skirt which I just finished last night... I bought a pack of Prints Charming offcuts from Kelani at the craft show (hmmm, craft show - actually, there were too many teddy bears, beads and scrapbooking stuff for it to be completely fab) and I then followed the fantastic instructions on this great blog, as well as the pattern-making instructions in Sew What Skirts which are very easy and produce really good patterns. The fabric pack had some great bits in pink and blue but in the end I decided to stick with these three colours - I'm thinking I might wear this to work so I didn't want it to be too loud (I already get comments when I wear red tights to work...). Just did the hem and the waistband with bias binding and it fits so well it doesn't need a top fastener.
I've lost my crafting mojo of late so this was a welcome return to form, and finished quickly enough to give me the satisfaction of a finished project - yay! I think this method has possibilities for using small bits of other beautiful fabric too...

Froggy

Well, Saskia asked and asked for a frog, and for a small person with a gnat-like attention span to ask for something more than once, over the space of a few days, this was significant. So what could I do but make her a frog? I had no frog pattern and couldn't find one online, so I kind of made this one up. And I think he's pretty darn good! I'll pop a free pattern up for him as soon as my scanner goes off the fritz. I like his little splayed legs, and his happy face. Saskia tells me that his tummy has 'watermelon pips' on it.

Cute!

For the last three years, I've made a softie for Meet Me At Mikes 'Softies For Mirabel' - a lovely idea to support the children of the Mirabel Foundation. Earlier this year, Pip Lincolne reported that Vogue Japan had featured some of the softies in a little video - including one of mine! The little girl in the red dress is my softie. See the video here (sorry - couldn't work out how to embed it properly).

Teddy bear

This bear was based on a picture I saw in a magazine (can't remember where) - I couldn't shake the picture and thought making him for a friend's new baby boy would be a good way to get him out of my system. I used some grey wool suit fabric and some Japanese fabric with pigs on it and I was pleased with how he worked - the face was exactly as I had intended, which doesn't always happen.

Foxy 40th

So, this was the first cab off the rank in my 'year of homemade presents' - well, my sister was technically first (and I made her a little make-up roll from this tutorial), but family have to be a little more forgiving about homemade presents, and making things for your friends carries a higher risk. Some people think it's sweet to get something homemade, others just think you're being cheap. But I think this went down well! It was a fox for my foxy friend Laila, who turned 40 way back in January. I adapted it from Pip Lincolne's pattern for her 'Fox in the Bed' quilt from her book Sew La Tea Do - it was pretty easy to make and I did it all in less than a day (but cheated a bit - there's no zip in the back of the cushion).

so...

...I've decided to start a blog. Mainly because I want a place to record all the crafty stuff I do - I make lots of clothes and toys for my daughter, presents for other people and their kids, and even some clothes for myself (although they don't tend to turn out that great - working on that). I also crochet and I've started to do some embroidery, and some quilting (turning into my mother!). And this year, our first on a mortgage, we're trying to save money, so I've decided to try and make everyone's birthday presents this year. And I have a full-time job. When you make stuff and give it away, and you're busy and in a hurry most of the time, you barely remember to take a picture, let alone post it somewhere. So I wanted this to be a place where I can record what I make (it appeals to the latent archivist in me).

I have to say up front - I don't think I'm an especially original crafter. The internet is full of people way more creative and clever than me, and I'm hugely inspired by all the wonderful stuff out there that people post on their blogs and generously share their expertise. I make lots of things based on tutorials I find online - I'm not especially precise or perfectionist about the things I make, but I'm productive!

I also need to stress that this is a new kind of writing for me. I write - a lot - in my day job, but its not personal like I think blogging needs to be. There are a lot of great bloggers out there and I don't think I'll be challenging them for supremacy anytime soon. But this is not about perfection, its about creating a little space for me to document the things I make. Starting now.