I’m back…

My poor blog has been so neglected recently as I was getting my stock ready for my first craft fair yesterday.

My sewing area (dining table!) has been overflowing with everything I’ve made over the past few weeks as I’ve checked to make sure linings are sewn up, eyes sewn on and everything is perfect.

I would like to say hello to anyone arriving here after picking up one of my business cards – hello!  I also want to say thank you to Pagette for the lovely email I woke up to this morning :)  I’m so glad my little owl has a good home, I was very attached to him and almost didn’t take him to sell!

 

 

For anyone who wants to come and see me again I will be selling at the East Grinstead Victorian themed Christmas shopping day on 20th December, outside the lovely Threadneedles.  If you didn’t pop by yesterday here is what you missed:

I managed to sell quite a lot, and had several enquiries about custom orders (I will do a separate post on this).  I had a lot of fun and it was a lovely feeling knowing people were actually willing to part with their money because they liked something I made.

It was also Dylan’s 4th birthday on Friday – where does the time go?!

So his facial expressions haven’t changed!  He was Joseph in the Pre-school nativity today but was not impressed about me tying a piece of gingham to his head with piping cord this morning!

 

 

And just because she’s cute, a picture of Daisy modelling a flower hairclip.

Some things I would like for Christmas: An exercise in extreme window shopping!

Books…

Fabric…

     

Furniture & accessories…

 

This is slightly addictive… more to follow!

My family…

I’ve been meaning to write more about my family and what we get up to, so here we go…

My husband and I on our wedding day in 2008.  We met at school and were friends long before we started a relationship.  We have packed a lot into our almost-5yrs-together: having our son, getting engaged, buying a flat together, having our daughter and getting married.  Tim is a carpenter and I used to work in e-commerce, but have been made redundant twice in the past 2yrs.

Dylan will be 4 in December.  He’s really tall for his age and is very clever.  He loves cooking, especially baking biscuits.  Dylan’s favourite things are his scooter, cuddly Duckie, going to the skatepark, making things, going to preschool and playing with his little sister.  He has lots of friends and is a gorgeous little boy.

 

Daisy is just 2 and is a proper little madam!  Her talking is fantastic and she has a big personality.  Daisy loves playing with her dollies, drawing, eating, Peppa Pig, cuddles, handbags and chocolate.  She has mad scarecrow hair and refuses to keep it tied up!  Her favourite saying at the moment is ‘Mummyyyy… boys have willies!’ – aaaaaah!

New things!

 

My blog has had a little makeover - I was bored of pink and flowery!

 

First of all, I made my little Daisy some pj bottoms.  They are nice and baggy, and made of gorgeous floral flannel.  They match the dress of the dolly I made a few weeks ago.  The pj bottoms were so easy, I used this tutorial.  I plan on making a few more pairs for her, and some for her big brother when I get some more boyish flannel.

 

 

I've been looking at making soft toys for a while now, this is a mini version of what will hopefully be my first pattern.  Arthur the owl is made from felt, but I plan on using cotton or fleece for the bigger version.  I love him!

 

Also during my felt-adventures I whipped up a couple of Christmas decorations.  A christmas tree with red french knot baubles and a sad gingerbread man!  He just needs a little loop on his head and he's done.

 

Another bag, this time using some Amy Butler upholstery fabric and a floral cotton for the lining.  I decorated this one with some white ric-rac and buttons.  I made a thinner-than-usual strap for this one, I think I prefer it to the wider one.

I've got a whole load of bag pieces waiting to be assembled so will hopefully have some more pics up after the weekend.

 

 

 

 

I’ve been taking some more pictures of some of the things I’m  going to be selling.

I hope people will buy things, and I hope it doesn’t rain…

 

 

 

  

Scrap buster flowers

I've just made up a couple of fabric flowers to use up some of my huge bag of scraps, a few hundred more and I might have reached the bottom of the bag!

What is it about fabric scraps that makes you unable to throw them away?!  I save even the smallest pieces and think mine are multiplying every time I take my eye off the bag!

 

From this pile of scraps…                                  … to these pretty flowers!

I'm going to stitch some brooch findings on the back.

I also found some pictures on my camera of  'A Coat for a Boat' at the Knitting and Stitching show at the Alexandra Palace in October.  It's amazing!!

Recent makes

Since my last update I've been attempting some papery-type things for my stall:

Gift boxes and notebooks:

I've made some Christmas themed ones too but couldn't be bothered to get them out to take a picture of!

The boxes are made using simple origami, they take a couple of minutes but they look so cute (well I think so anyway!)

These are all made using Papermania papers, Regency and Blueberry Hill.  Embellishments were random things I found in my stash.

 
Close up of a gift box.

I've also made a few new bags, but this was the only one out to take a picture of.  Will take some of the rest over the next couple of days.  The outer fabric of this bag was a pair of my jeans, the flower is removable (on a brooch back) and the lining is cool!

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

I made the flower using 2 fabric yo-yos and a ladybird button.  It looks orange in the picture but thats because I never think to take photos during the day, so if my pictures are odd colours I do apologise!

All of my bags have a little silver star to the left of the pocket inside seeing as I haven't made myself any tags yet.

 

 
I've made a few drawstring bags and keyrings (pics to come) and have been working on my very own soft toy pattern, I hope to make up the first one this week :)

All is on track for the 6th December, I just hope people want to buy my things.

P.S. Please leave me a comment to say you've been and had a peek and let me know what you think of my creations!