February crafting

9. 12 fish for Josh (I'll have to ask him for a photo sometime) as part of a skills swap (he's helping me with my business card design). These should have been simple enough but ended up being a bitch. I hand sewed about half because the thickness of material was making my machine very unhappy. I didn't mind the handsewing though as I was watching Dexter at the time.

10. Doily Lion applique top for Ivy. Inspiration from here and here. Mostly handsewing! (and watching Dexter..). I'm really pleased with it!

11. Oversized 'Greetings Coaster' for Kwojo as a late Christmas present. 100% handsewn (more Dexter...), with a some of our words to live by on: Wild and Free, and, Have Fun & Grow. I really like this. And I LOVE hand sewing words.

12. A needle book for Julia, also a late Christmas present. Very quick and satisfying to sew up! Machine sewn, as this is the point where I finished season 7 of Dexter.

13. A snowdrop fairy to match our crocus fairy from last year. I like crafts that reflect the seasons, and it's especially nice when that is coming out of Winter and into Spring. Lovely to see the snowdrops and crocuses popping up around the parks and farm, so we bought some for our garden too. All handsewn (but no Dexter).

14. A doll for Leyla's 2nd birthday, in blue as that's her favourite colour. An improvement on Ivy's doll in a few ways, like no puckering of fabric around the neck. I also attempted shaping the head properly (rather than just stuffing it), but when the instructions say that the wool needs to really hard, it turns out they were right. So, the face is a bit flat and big, but it's ok. I quite like how the hair came out, tried to make it curly and wild like Leyla's.

15. Amber and silver pendant for myself. This may look simple enough in design, but I spent five weeks (3 hours per week in class) working on this, and at least five hours of that was spent filing to get the bezel to be the right shape for the stone. So much filing! I was very, very please to finish this. Also, this stone was given to me by my cousin for my 18th birthday, when I was doing a jewellery course the first time around. So, it feels great to have finally made something with it! Definitely for myself. This is actually the back, where I was more lazy about filing to get the right shape to fit the stone, so it's a bit sloppy. The front is much neater, honest!

16. Batik style card for my Dad's birthday, using layers of wax and ink and water colours. It came out nicely. I forgot to take a photo.

January, February and March crafting

January

A fabric box (which currently houses Ivy's kitcheny toys. The pretty fabric softens the uggliness of all that plastic) from this tutorial thanks to Pinterest! When I read through the tutorial I was nievly optimistic on how quick it would be, thinking I could do it during one nap time. Didn't help that my interfacing isn't fusible so after trying to fuse it and nothing happening I had to use bondaweb too, which added a whole extra step. Anyway, I love it!

A skirt for Steph for Christmas (whoops. BUT, how nice to receive gifts in the middle of grey and drizzly January, it's almost like I planned it!). From this tutorial, also thanks to Pinterest. I don't have any photos though as I was just glad to have finished the damn thing having started it in early December (this is often how I feel about sewing projects by the end!). I had to make a lot of adaptations to the original pattern as I didn't have enough of one fabric and didn't want the elastic exposed like in the pattern.

Three birthday cards. A crossword style, things-you-like card for my Mum. A painted dinosaur card that says "Happy birthday Sophisaurs" for Sophie. And a painted lobster card for Jake (the only one I took a photo of).

An appliqué bird t-shirt for my cousin's daughter, Nina, for Christmas. I finished her twin sister, Aya's, before Christmas but there wasn't a rush as they were all in Brazil. The wing of the bird and ear of the elephant are flap-able :)

February

Elephant wall hanging for my Dad's birthday. I did this in one long afternoon and evening the day before his birthday, even though I'd been planning it for months! Another one of those projects I underestimate how long it will take.



Hot air balloon appliqué top for Ivy. I'm really happy with the design, but the stitching is a bit dodgy as the top is stretchy and I must have been stretching it when I was sewing so it's turned out a bit wobbly, especially around the basket of the balloon. The balloon is also a bit too big for the t-shirt so when it's on it's not clear what it actually is.



March

Emmelie's birthday skirt (also a circle skirt), two months late!



Robot appliqué top for Ivy. I gave her a choice of t-shirts, and a choice of fabrics and this is the combination she chose :) (ugh crappy photo)



Crocus fairy from Steiner playgroup.



I have also been working on: Crochet slippers for me, crochet bear hat for Ivy, purple dress for Ivy, family photo album.

The Daddy-Daughter scarf

This week I made Ivy a mini scarf to keep her neck cozy and warm in the freezing temperatures we have had. It matches Kwojo's scarf, because Ivy enjoyed his so much, but hers has two hidden buttons to keep it in place.

Crochet

I'm learning to crochet. Someone showed me one of the stitches last Tuesday, and it took me ages and a lot of focus (I'm not used to using my brain...) to get my head around it. Then I found an online, free, crochet school...



It's pretty comprehensive and she explains everything. I actually understand what I'm doing rather than just doing what I've been shown to do.

I'm only on lesson 6, out of a current 20 (but there are more to come), but I'm impatient so I've already started a pattern. I'm making Ivy these baby booties. I made one according to the pattern and it is teeny tiny, like newborn size (the pattern says 6-12 months! Ha!). So I'm making some changes to the pattern to make it bigger, which is tricky.

I'm hooked (sorry!).