Day 307 - A birthday card

A birthday card for a friend whose 40th we are celebrating today.

Day 302 - Beetles and butterflies bag.

Juliet has gone off to another birthday party. There is nothing like a time constraint to get me going, so I made a little bag for the birthday girl this morning.

I chose these fabric scraps. Butterflies and beetles.

And just made a simple, lined rectangle bag. To save time making straps, and because the colours suited so well, I used these shoelaces as bag straps. I also did something I have never done before and instead of tucking in the lining and outer fabric at the top I folded the lining out to the outside and sewed it down so that some of the lining is showing, giving the bag a nice contrast.

Day 278 - Doggie Pjs

This is my second last pair of Christmas pjs. How cute are these dogs? I found this fabric in an op shop a few months ago. I love them. These are for Dylan.

And here is a photo of a very cool visitor who came right up to our front door and snuggled up to our door mat this week. It was very exciting!

Day 276 - Note book.

Tomorrow is the last day of school before our 6 week break, and I have everyone home today with a couple of sick kids. A lot of Christmas movies have been watched and now we have Chrissy songs blaring too.

The gorgeous bath bombs I made last week for Juliet's teacher did not fare well in the 42 degree heat so they ended up going a bit warped and look a bit sad. I couldn't bring myself to make the same thing twice so today I made her something else.

A notebook and fabric cover with green patchwork.

Front.

Inside.

 Back.

She is also getting some of this delicious Christmas bark (melted white chocolate and crushed candy canes).

I also re-did mum's family tree and I'm much happier with it. The leaves were too dominant in the last one.

Hope you are all well and not as exhausted as I feel.

Day 274 - More Pj's

Here is another of the Christmas PJs I am making for presents for the kids this year. These are for my Little 3 year old Aidan. I used a transfer for the top and the rest of this scrap of satin fabric with skulls for the boxer shorts which I also used to make pjs for his older brother.

Day 270 - Paper gift bags using old magazine pages

Life is pretty crazy in this house at the moment, hence my very short post yesterday. It was a very hot day again, and the Prep students put on their super cute nativity play and we had a picnic dinner at school. We had to cobble together an angel's outfit for Juliet at short notice, and our electricity supply has been problematic due to mice getting in the wall and chewing the wires.

Anyway I will just share a couple of photos of how gorgeous my little angel looked yesterday. The top part of her outfit is made out of a piece of fabric cut from the bottom of my wedding dress before I wore it (a small train that practical me didn't want) and you will recognise the head piece from my Christmas cards with rosettes from my deb dress attached to a gold sequined garter made for a joke many years ago.

I was up and making these at 7 this morning for a party at school for Liam and a playgroup party for the littlies.

And finally, today I have used some old magazines with lovely prints on them to make some paper gift bags which are going to be used as treat bags for Juliet's birthday party tomorrow.

Here are the pages.

And the bags, which came out looking quite lovely. I made them by pulling apart a gift bag we had at home and simplifying the design a little.

Day 268 - A family tree

Today I made a family tree for my Mum for Christmas.

First I printed out all of the photos of her grandchildren (6) onto printable fabric.

I made a little bunting by cutting up some of an old doily.

And I found a tree branch out in the bush. I may change it later if I find something I like more.

I sewed little pockets with each face using felt at the back and put a little stuffing inside before sewing it closed. I then put some stones inside a tin to hold up the tree and covered the tin with fabric.

Day 267 - Girl's PJs. Refashioning a refashion.

Back on  Day 56 I refashioned one of my favourite wardrobe items from a tunic into a skirt. As a skirt I just haven't been able to come up with the same love I had for it as a tunic/dress, so today I decided to use it to make some pj's which are a Christmas present for my daughter Juliet.



The skirt.

These spare bits will be used another day - loving these buttons.

I added a transfer I know she'll love to a plain pink t-shirt.

And here are the pjs. I'm loving the 'tunic' all over again and I know she will too.

Day 265 - Tree decorating.

Today we made some tree decorations. I made some with the kids faces on them using printable fabric and gluing it onto cardboard from a cereal box.

Juliet and Liam made these.

And we all hung them up on our tree. We are using a tree from our garden as a Christmas tree this year. We didn't really like this tree in our garden so we thought we would cut it and use it as this year's tree.

Day 264 - Christmas cards - part 2

I made lots of cards today. This is the first time I've ever used my sewing machine to make my cards. It was fun and I got to try out a few new stitches on my machine. I'm happy with how they turned out.

Day 263 - Nativity Christmas Cards - part 1

Every year I make my own Christmas cards starting with a photo as a base. It all began when I got my dog Ernie back in 2000, and it's always been a lot of fun (for me). But now that we have 2 dogs and 4 kids it's ridiculously difficult to get a photo of them all looking in the one direction. I just have to take what I can get.

This year I decided to do a bit of a nativity scene. I'm not at all religious so it's more of a traditional thing for me and I thought it would be fun.

Costumes were prepared.

Aidan is my angel. One of my old shirts got taken in at the sides and some wings sewn onto the back.

Then a halo was made.

 Joseph was created with a hat I bought many years ago on Zanzibar, and a table napkin.

Mary was created with a doily, an old sheet and a tie from a pair of cut off jeans.

Sheep were made using stuffing from an old pillow which I glued to some old dog costumes.

It's impossible to get Dylan to stay still for more than 30 seconds at a time, so the bed idea quickly went out the window when he tried to launch himself from the bassinet.

See what I mean. Never work with animals or children!!! How about both. Yikes. Cards will be made tomorrow.

Day 261 - Handmade gift tags

Handmade gift tags are cute and original. Here's how I made mine.

Cut out the cardboard into whatever shape you like and add a circle sticker.

Punch a hole in the middle of your sticker.

Add some decorative tape. Too easy!

I made some more using the front of the envelope from my Peppermint magazine subscription because I liked the pretty paper.

 

These are Christmas ones.

Make some to why don't you? It doesn't get any easier than this. I'll be back tomorrow.