Sewing Room Clean Up!!

Today my sewing room got a very very long overdue clean-out! I don't usually let it get this bad but I've been very slack with tidying up after myself lately. I didn't even realise how bad it was until I started having trouble moving my chair around because there was so much stuff on the floor! Another dead giveaway was the mountains of stuff that kept falling off my desk while I was sitting there sewing.

I'm pretty embarrassed by this picture! I'm posting it to make my 'after' picture look more impressive =p

And the 'after' picture! Everything is back in its place, I can find things, I can move my chair around without getting tangled up in piles of clipped threads, and I can walk barefoot without the fear of being stabbed by stray pins on the floor! I also set my garment rack up again so my dresses and skirts can hang neatly instead of being tossed in the corner.

I'm back!!!

After almost 6 whole months of nothing I've decided I need to start using this blog again! I don't actually have anything to talk about at the moment since i'm in the middle of at least 3 WIP's so I'll just post some pictures =p

Stella's funky monkey coin quilt

Ella's ticker tape quilt

And Jaydee's quilt

Crayon Rolls

I got a new sewing machine this weekend (which I am absolutely IN LOVE with!!) and my very first project was these crayon roll-ups. I've made three so far - one for Ella, one for my nephew Lachlan and one for my nephew Jordan. They were so much fun to make, I've been trying to think of someone else who'd like one just so I have an excuse to make more =p I was thinking of making one for Jayden but he is still very much in the 'crayons are fun to eat!' stage.


This one is Ella's. This is the first one I made and it's my favourite so far! The pink fabric that I used for the back is a heavyweight canvas type fabric so it's nice and sturdy. I bought that fabric in a fat quarter and I'm amazed at how long it's lasted. This is my 3rd sewing project with it and I still have some left.

All rolled up!
This one is for Jordan. The fabric that I used for this is leftover from when my sister made curtains for Lachlan and Jordan's playroom so Jordan's crayon roll will match the playroom curtains =p

I haven't bought any crayons yet so some of Ella's pencils are filling in for me for the time being.

This one is Lachlan's, and again the fabric is leftover from my sister making curtains. I think those curtains are in Lachlan's bedroom. When my sister gave me her fabric scraps I don't think she was expecting to get it back in another form lol.

Cross Stitch

It's been a while since I've made anything worth posting about so today I'm posting pictures of something made by someone else, my wonderfully talented Granny! She made this for Jayden when he was born and she has made one for each of her grandchildren, all with different designs (and all equally as cute as this one!)

Sandbox Makeover

Hello! It's been a while... Today I bring to you my sandbox makeover!

We bought a sandbox a few years ago and Ella used to love it, but then when we moved houses we emptied all the sand out of it and never refilled it. For the last 1.5 years it's been leaning against our back fence in pieces and the weather had damaged it quite a bit, taken off all the varnish and left awful marks all over it. Anyways, the other day I got this brilliant idea to turn it into a little play area for Jayden for the summer. I already had a tin of bright blue paint that was leftover from another project, then I got some foam alphabet squares ($15 from the Reject Shop for a huge pack of them) and put them in the bottom so that he has something soft to sit on when he is playing outside.

This is the 'before' picture. Nasty!!

And this is the 'after' picture. When I was picturing it in my head I wasn't sure if the colour of the paint would 'go' with the foam squares colours, but I think it turned out perfectly :)

I originally intended it to be for Jayden but Ella seems to like it too =p Jayden wouldn't sit still for a photo but Ella was happy to pose.

Our backyard gets the full sun for most of the day so there's not really any shady areas to put it, but I think that I can rig up something using the clothesline and a large blanket or sheet that will provide a bit of cover.

Fabric Markers

My sister got me some fabric markers from Spotlight today and I have some calico pieces here that I've cut out ready to make into bags. Ella and I are going to have some fun when she gets home from school this afternoon!! =D There's a nice bright red and green in the box so I think I might get her to do some Christmas themed pictures and she can give them to family as Christmas gifts. I'm way too excited about this lol. It's only just gone 11am and she doesn't finish school until 3pm so I have 4 hours to wait!

I might see if I can find some cheap plain white t-shirts too and she can make herself some new clothes =D So many possibilities!

Christmas Stockings

M for Macie and S for Stella :) These are little Christmas tree decorations I made for my twin nieces. I'm going to do one more pink one for Ella, then 4 blue ones for Jayden, Lachie, Jordan and Caleb. That's all the kids in our family (all the little ones anyway!)

And this is a stocking I made for Jayden. It's not very big so I doubt much will fit inside it, but it's cute!

I have a feeling the every post from now until the end of December is going to be Christmas related =p While looking through old craft magazines last night I found a tutorial for some gorgeous sequined baubles so I'm going to give those a go soon!

Christmas Countdown Calendar

I have been very busy working on my first Christmas project for the year - an advent/countdown calendar =D I'm so so pleased with how it turned out. It's definitely not perfect and there's lots of things I could have done better, but I'm pleased because it's without a doubt the most time consuming thing I've ever attempted and I managed to stick with it without getting bored and giving up. I was too impatient to wait to get my sewing machine off my sister so the entire thing is handstitched. I'd say I spent around 6-8 hours on it in total, spread over 3 nights.



The little pockets are made out of felt and are blanket-stitched around the edges. The measuring, cutting and blanket stitching took up the majority of the 6-8 hours!



E for Ella. There's also a J for Jayden but you can't see it in this picture. Each of the pockets has a little embellishment on it except one in every row, which I'm going to put numbers on



As you can see, there's one pocket missing lol. I ran out of embroidery thread halfway through blanket stitching the edges so I'll have to get some more thread before I can finish it. The background piece is unbleached calico which is nice and thick and it's doubled for extra strength. The border around the edge is made from scraps of Christmas printed fabric leftover from a Christmas dress that my mum made for Ella a few years ago. The scraps were really small so I had to cut them into strips and then join them all together, then I made it into binding and stitched it to the edges. If I had been patient and waited for the sewing machine it would have taken me 5 minutes maximum to do the binding but I'm not a patient person so instead I sat there for over an hour handstitching it!

All I need to do now is get some more green thread to finish off the missing pocket, stitch the numbers onto the blank pockets (which I probably should have done BEFORE attaching them to the calico) and then find a way to re-enforce the top of it so I can hang it up somewhere without it folding itself in half. Oh yes, and I need to buy something to put in the pockets =p I was going to do the traditional chocolates, but over here the temperature gets mighty high in December and they'll no doubt melt so I'm thinking a small wrapped lolly or something.

I'm also really pleased because I managed to do the whole thing using materials that I already had and didn't have to buy anything for it (except green thread which I'll need to get). For most of it I ended up having EXACTLY enough for what I needed.

A few of Ella's latest drawings

Not exactly craft or sewing related, but I'm posting these because they're so cute!

Little Red Riding Hood

Ariel with Flounder and Sebastion

Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer

Does making things in Photoshop count as being creative? If so, here's what I've made this week =p