This blog was started in the first instance so that I could keep track of the things that I had been making. My first posts away back in 2007 had very little by way of what was going on in my life but instead featured recipes and tutorials on very simple projects. One of these days I’ll make a page which links to every tutorial and recipe I’ve ever posted – that’s what all the grown-up bloggers do

Anyway, what I was trying to get at is that over the last couple of years this space has moved away from the creativity to be honest. I can probably pinpoint that to when we started preparing to open the shop and every minute of my day was wrapped up with either parenting or the business. Now that we no longer have that concern I really have no excuse – except, there’s always an excuse isn’t there? There’s always something more important to be done.

This Christmas I was determined that it would be a time of serene family togetherness. We were going to stay around the house, eat together and laze around watching classic films and being generally creative – this year, it actually worked!

So – here is the first photo of hopefully my next finished project. It’s a quilt top which I’m going to make for Nairn’s birthday in March. The idea came directly from Pinterest and was made by Pippa who has an Etsy shop here. Check her out, she’s crazy talented.

Posted under for the kids, sewing

Loyal readers may remember recent posts from me where I first began the process of increasing our household cushion quotient (now up by 800%) and the subsequent post about my super awesome day learning how to screenprint. I used the large panel to create a HUGE 60cm cushion with a piped edging and a zippered closure – words cannot do justice to my pride.

Despite managing a craft café and devising many of the workshops that we ran, I missed out on doing a great many of them and Jenny‘s piped and zipped cushion cover was one I always had my eye on (incidentally she makes and sells supercute cushions here. Luckily I had her wee voice in my head running me through all the steps! The only difference was that Jenny would usually hide the zip behind the piping and I decided to put mine right across the centre back of the cushion.

Doing it this way really worked out for me and I’d be delighted to write up a wee tutorial if anyone is interested. I might even write up a tutorial anyway, just for the thrills!

I deliberately cut the fabric on the bias to make the piping, knowing that it would give me that nice little ‘barber pole’ effect on the edging – I could have got away with cutting on the warp or weft but to be frank my sewing skills aren’t all that and a bag of potato chips. I wasn’t that confident about getting the stripes straight! Look at my lovely corner.

I hear the die hard amongst you asking how the title of the post links to the content. Well! This is why – this is a photo taken mid afternoon of my cushion collection.

This was cropped to all heck simply to retain the colour and sharpness as we have moved to the house with the worst light ever for taking photographs. It’s really bugging me actually. I tried to take a photo in my wee studio earlier and the colour was all blown out thanks to the pale blue blinds. Bob took a photo in the living room and had to use a 10 second exposure to get the shot. We have a huge window in there and combined with the massive brown leather sofas all the light disappears. I know that there is probably some kind of photographic remedy but since Bob is the photography guru of the house and he can’t work with it I’m losing hope. Mind you, I have been eyeing up the Manual Overdrive course on Capturing Childhood ran by two marvellous bloggers Kat1 and Kat2. Perhaps that would be a worthwhile investment!

So! How do you cope when you try to do things and are thwarted by circumstances outwith your control?

Posted under sewing

You guys know that I worship at the altar of KitschyCoo, so when she asked last week for volunteers to test her new pattern for kiddies underpants I was all over that bad boy.

Amanda’s kids are almost exactly the same age as my middle two – Jamie is about 5 months older than Nairn and Maia is only two weeks younger than Erica – and so we have loads in common when it comes to the kids. Amanda commented a while back that underwear in the UK is poorly designed and sized to the extent that she was becoming frustrated with how uncomfortable Jamie & Maia were in pants and I wholeheartedly related to that. I have to say I completely agree and I’d go as far as to say that poor fitting underwear is why Nairn is staying at nursery this year instead of going to school!

Amanda sent over the pattern, I picked up some cute fabric from Mandors in Glasgow and set out to work. The pattern is extremely easy – the body of the pants is one piece with attached waistband & legbands – but my sewing machine didn’t cope terribly well with stretchy knit fabric so I think I’ll rely on my overlocker next time I make these. I ran up a pair in each size:

Erica (they do fit, she’s just a fidget!)

Nairn

I much prefer the style of these over the almost bikini-style girls’ underwear on sale, especially since Erica has a wee pot belly and healthy thighs. These are so much more comfortable for her and are saving her from the dual perils of the builder’s bum and the wedgie. Nairn is currently going through an “I want to be exactly the same as my brother” phase and has steadfastedly refused to wear his new pants since I made them because they’re not like Findlay’s. Ah well. You can’t please them all

Posted under sewing

So after discovering that I had something ridiculous like 12000 unread posts in bloglines I – for the first time in four years – marked all as read to start again. Woe is me! Before doing this I looked at any blogs that I hadn’t made a concerted effort to check and unsubscribed from them (mostly big American ones with thousands of readers) but this means that if I haven’t commented on your blog lately, I haven’t read it and I’m sorry. I’ll make an effort to keep up this time!

Anyway, one of the benefits of cutting out the deadwood is that I’ve actually been able to keep up with my favourite blogs and I’ve recently discovered a new one that I think my sewing friends are going to love. Zoe (who actually reminds me a lot of Melissa from All Buttoned Up) is participating in “Me-made-May” which does as it says on the tin – participants are going to spend the month of May clad in clothing they’ve made themselves. Which I think you’ll agree is quite an audacious feat and one which I am green with envy over. Can I just show you some of Zoe’s stuff?

Click on the image to go to Zoe’s blog post about it.

So I’ve decided now that the Business Plan of doom is finished and I have a Bona Fide Fashion Design Graduate working for me that I have no excuse anymore. It’s time I made my first garment for me. Bearing in mind that I’m a bigger lass (UK16 on top and UK16-18 on the bottom) have any of you got recommendations for flattering dress patterns that I could attempt?

I have fallen in love with Zoe’s bird blouse, made from this pattern which was in Burda 01/2008. I can’t seem to work out how to buy back editions on the Burda website, I can’t locate this edition on eBay and nobody on twitter has a copy to lend me. Can any of you lovely lot help me?

Posted under recommendations, sewing

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all well and happy this fabulous Friday. Isn’t it a glorious day? I may or may not have had a little too much sugar this morning. Combine that with GREAT! EXCITEMENT! as Bob & I are getting a night off parenting tonight and perhaps you could forgive the gratuitous use of exclamation marks. Bob’s wonderful parents have volunteered to take the three youngest tonight while Findlay goes to his Dad’s, so we’re actually going to spend some time together that doesn’t involve housework. What a novel idea! Have you got anything fun planned for the weekend?

So – the title of my blog post today is artistically challenged because I really am. It’s not even funny, I am the most cack-handed wannabe artist that I know. I wanted to do art for Standard Grade – which is the Scottish equivalent to GCSE – and the art teacher pretty much laughed me out of the room. I can’t draw to save myself, I don’t have the techniques for painting but I am so keen! I’ve been trying to create faces for the little dolls I’ve been making and I just can’t seem to do it.

These are the new dolls – four girls and a boy (I’m going to put together a tutorial for the boy doll at some point soon, promise!). They’ve been sewn up and finished for almost a week and are sitting on my sewing chair just waiting for their faces. As a reminder, this is the dolly I’d made for Elise:

And I wasn’t thrilled by the face. I ended up repainting the eyes more than once because I felt they just weren’t quite what I’d expected. It sounds like such a simple thing doesn’t it, to draw an eye? But I’m a big believer in the power and mystique of eyes, and I want these dollies to be loved and cherished so it’s important to me that the eyes are enchanting, beautiful and not at all frightening. So I shall plough on with drawing eyes until I think I’ve found an eye that works. Wish me luck!

Posted under for the kids, sewing

I mentioned recently that I’ve lost my crafting mojo and I think these might just snap me out of it. I’ve been making loads of these fabric corsage brooches, initially for my button swap but subsequently as I realised they’re a fabulous way to use up scraps while making something of use. I’ve already made a little one for Erica’s winter coat and I think I’ll have a few up for sale in my Folksy shop over the next few days. What do you think?

Posted under general crafty updates

I actually made this over a month ago believe it or not, but I can’t get a photograph of her wearing it because she wears it so often it’s never clean! Using this pattern I made this pinafore-come-smock for Erica as you can see. Now – I had a few problems with this which I’ll share.

1. This is a vintage US pattern. Both vintage and US sized items usually run small for my kids and this pattern was no exception. It fit Alicia’s daughter at almost a 2T size but was so neat on Erica I had to add snaps to the straps to fasten them instead of tying.

2. I thought the smocket looked really cute in the illustrative pictures but when Erica tried it on I didn’t love it. It’s about 3 inches too long in the front, and the back criss-crosses at such a height that she can’t wear it without leggings/tights and a top underneath.

On the plus side, it’s so easy to put together that the things which annoyed me could simply be remedied by raising the hem, lengthening the straps and adding some width. I made it with cream babycord on one side and a polkadot cotton on the other which worked really well. One I’ll definitely attempt again

Posted under sewing

After my prototype, I’ve been playing about with the design of my changing pad a little because it seems to be morphing into a large-ish bag rather than a small thing you can pop into your bag. Hmm.

I made another one last week with a snap closure this time so the mat can be folded in four and snapped closed. It’s a lot smaller than the prototype but still too bulky for my liking. The problem is that the bulk is caused by the padding in the mat which was the big selling point for me. I’ve been using mine everywhere, including putting it on a sofa in a cafe so Greer could lie on it comfortably and nap while I had a cuppa but I’m used to lugging a massive bag around with me and adding this hasn’t been a massive ordeal. For your average new parent I can imagine this being a cumbersome nuisance which wouldn’t get used and I need to change that before I start selling these bad boys.

I’ve got one tester lined up and I’m sending another version to a friend who is about to have a baby so hopefully I can iron out the niggles that are irritating me. This one is pretty lush if I do say so myself, but I will NEVER AGAIN attempt to sew fleece to a non-stretchy fabric. What a nightmare!

Posted under for the kids, sewing

So I’m getting a bit more confident with this making stuff without a pattern malarkey, and decided to make Greer a dress. Not just any dress, you understand – a reversible dress that could realistically be worn either way.

Everything was going great guns – I had sewn each side of the dress, pinned the two sides together and sewn around the arms, straps and chest leaving only the hem to be sewn. I pinned the hem together leaving a gap to turn my dress inside out, sewed the hems together, turned the dress and discovered I’d constructed some kind of moebius ring. I still have no idea what I did wrong but after an hour of tantrumming I cut my losses, pinned and sewed the hem from the right side. It’s left me with a hem that isn’t quite as perfect as I’d have liked but for a first effort I’m pretty happy!

What do you think? I reckon Greer likes it (although it is still a little big!)

Kaufman side:

Babycord side:

Greer:

Posted under for the kids, sewing

As I’m sure I have mentioned before, Bob was diagnosed with severe dyslexia earlier this year and I’ve been trying to find ways to help him with his particular issues. Specifically, Bob’s dyslexia manifests itself in processing – you could give him a list of six things to do and by the time he’s done the second, he’ll have forgotten the rest. This makes things like going shopping great fun because unless it’s written down he will remember maybe four things out of a list of ten. So! I got him a diary and notebook, knowing that he’d only use them if there was a way to keep them together.

It’s just a very simple sleeve with a pouch on each side to accommodate the A6-sized diary and notebook, with snap closures. It’s small enough that it’s not an encumberance and big enough to do what he needs it to do. He seemed pretty pleased with it but whether it gets used is another thing entirely

It just dawned on me too that I hadn’t mentioned the other new additions to the house. Our cat, Sia, had a litter of kittens (underneath Nairn’s bed, ugh) on Erica’s birthday. This is the only kitten left that we haven’t secured a home for yet, and he’s been named Horatio. I always wanted a ginger cat I could name Titian but I was heartily overruled by the kids.

On a final note, Bob and I had a big conversation last night about ethics and cheating. What spurred this on? Well, in this photo Bob is embroiled in a water fight with approximately ten kids…

…standing behind a 7ft+ wall with an umbrella and a hose. Ah well, Findlay seemed to enjoy it.

Posted under family, sewing