Sunshine on the wall...

I saw something like this somewhere on the inter-webs but I don't remember where, it was basically a load of circles strung together, simple but effective. Anyway, there is a blank wall in my studio that has been crying out for something but I haven't yet found the right thing, I was hoping for a fun print, I'm not sure what, I will know when I see it.

So I made this as a temporary measure, just circles in yellow and gold, some are stamped with inspirational words the sewn together, it is very cheery on a dull day.

Chewbacca storage tin - tutorial

This is a completely no sew project and pretty easy to do. This is not one of the projects from the Star Wars Craft Book but was inspired from the book. The book has a tissue box wookie but that wouldn't work for us because the boxes are a different shape here so we took the idea and applied it somewhere else. This tutorial doesn't give measurements because it all depends on the size of tin you use, it is more of a how-to!

Supplies:

Faux fur

felt in brown, white, silver/grey, red

empty storage tin (dull any sharp edges before starting)

goggly eyes

black button

all purpose glue

ruler

cutter/scissors

Cut a piece of fur the same height as the tin and long enough to wrap all the way around but with a small overlap. Glue it to the tin.

If your tin had a lid then cut a circle of fur out which is slightly bigger than your lid, glue it in place.

Prepare the face. Cut two circles of white felt out that a twice the size of you goggly eyes, glue the eyes to them.

Cut an oval of red felt out for the mouth and a second oval in white, the white one should be a little smaller then the red. Cut the white piece in half in a ziggy-zaggy way to make the teeth and glue in place. Use a black button for the nose, then glue all the face parts to the tin.

To make the belt cut a piece of brown felt, make sue it will fit around the tin at an angle, decide the width by looking at your tin to see if the proportions look right. Cut a second strip, the same length but one third of the width. Now cut some blocks in grey felt. Again, just eye-ball it.

Place the grey pieces on the widest brown strip and glue in place, then glue the thinner brown strip on top.

Finish off by gluing the strip to the tin, the top back so that it is loose around the front.

Use the tin to store your Star Wars characters so that your mommy doesn't step on them!

For more tutorials, check out the tutorial page HERE.

Thank you pouch...

One of the yochien moms, Eri-san has been super kind and helpful the last couple of years so I wanted to make her a little thank you gift. She makes her own soap and is into the handmade scene so I figured she would be happy with something I had made.

My first project got off on the wrong foot and I messed it up big time so had to have a re-think, I had a piece of fabric with embroidery samples sitting around, I had just been practising different stitches with nothing in mind for the final piece so I used that to make the outer part of the pouch.

Opened flat so you can see all the stitches.

I used bias tape on the raw edges and selected one of the fancy stitches on my machine, I quite like the effect, I have never thought of sewing it on like that before. With wider tape I could use a larger variety of  stitches, I will try and remember for next time.

Looking for a pixie friend?

A friend asked make a pixie for her friends new baby and well, long story short, I ended up with twins! So one has gone off to live in New York and the other is looking to be adopted, would you like her to come and live with you? You will need to pop over to my Etsy store sort out her 'adoption' if you prefer to make your own pixie, I have a pattern available too.

Birthday wishes.....

It was a significant birthday for the lovely Jacqui of Mee a Bee yesterday so I decided to stitch her up, well stitch up her logo, it is the first time I tried this techinique and it turned out really cute, think it helps that she has a cute logo though. 

So, Happy Birthday Jac! Hope you had a lovely day.

Only one more week and I will be 'in my forties', can't say that I like the sound of that.

Spooky Spell Book - tutorial...

This was one of those projects that I started off thinking we could get done in a couple of hours but we ermmm got a bit carried away and it took the best part of a week. Although it took us a while to finish it I think it is important for kids to work on longer lasting projects and to see it through to the end, so much these days has an emphasis of just getting things done and finished as soon as possible. So here you are, how to make your own spell book...

You will need a thick piece of card, we used a packing box that something had been delivered in so it already had the spine folded, if you are starting with a piece of plain card then score the middle, make the spine about 2cm / 1" wide. You will also need some plain paper. We used the Ikea paper that comes on a roll, cut the paper so it is a bit smaller than the card.

Make a strong cup of tea or coffee and one for yourself if you like. Screw the paper up then flatten it out so it is nicely creased.

 Paint the paper with tea or coffee, we weren't sure which would look better, after experimenting with each sheet, blobbing the tea bag up and down on the paper then giving it a wash of coffee gave the best results, remember to turn the paper over and do the other side. I forgot to take a photo of the next step, but whilst the paper is still wet, tear the edges to get that nice ragged effect, the paper will tear better one way than the other. Leave to dry.

Now to work on the cover. Take some kitchen foil and squish it into long worm shapes then shape these to make the letters for the front of the book.

Stick the letters in place with glue, add a few fancy swirls or other decorations. Allow to dry.

Using wallpaper paste (we used the shoji glue watered down) cover the front of the book with white kitchen towels, make sure all the letters are well covered. Allow to dry.

We painted it with acyclic paints and to get the old brown look we mixed two shades of brown and black in the palette to didn't mix the paints together completely, take care around the letters and make sure you have them all completely covered with paint. You need to paint the rest of the book too, we did the inside as well.

Once the paint was dry we got the gold pearl paint and put a tiny bit on the sponge the just touched it along the raised parts of the letters, I showed Ebi-kun how to do it with the first letter and he did the rest - just remember less is more!

As I imagine this is going to used quite a bit in role playing I decided to give it a coat of varnish too. Ebi-kun gets a bit heavy handed with the varnish so I did that bit.

We then spent lots of time writing the spells, most of them we wrote together, first we would think of a theme for the spell and write that as the last line and then go to the start to make up the spell, I don't think we will any prizes for our poetry but there were a lot of giggles along the way. Once the spells were written I sewed the paged through the spine using embroidery thread.

 Finished off the pages with some stamps, glitter pen and stickers.

We are both really impressed on how this turned out and it was worth taking the extra time to make it, now we have to make a cauldron.....

 

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A new shirt....

I have a love-hate relationship with sewing clothes and I would have to say that the majority of sewing disasters have been clothes related, so I was pretty chuffed that I managed to make a new shirt, from scratch and I didn't even have to unpick any seams! I had a shirt that I have worn to death, you know, one of those shirts that fits just so and feels really comfy, anyway, it had died beyond repair so I sat for THREE nights unpicking the seams so that I could use it to make a pattern. The original had a collar but I chose not to bother and just have a simple neck line and I went all out with cute buttons instead.

It looks better on with a belt as the fabric is lighter than the fabric of the original shirt.

And the sleeves look a bit funny in the picture but when there are arms in them they are kind of puffy. Now I have a pattern that I know works I can make variations of the same shirt, maybe with some of the lovely Echino prints.

On another note, Ebi-kun had to go for a vaccination yesterday, one that he had missed for some reason, I think we were in the UK. Anyway, he was really good, no tears but later in the day he got a dodgy tum and he said he felt a bit strange, he was the same this morning so he is off yochien today, so much for my first full week to work! We have a got a pile of crafts-we-want-to-try so I think we will be doing some today and I will see if I can bribe him to help me sort out the pantry, that will teach him to be sick lol!

Lego box books...

I have been playing around with more book making ideas, I couldn't let all Ebi-kun's Lego boxes go to waste so I chopped up the pieces I wanted to save and recycled the other bits, this is the test book I made, I am sure there will be more to come...

I did this at night so there was no point taking photos of the process, I will have to do one during the day so I can make a tutorial for it.

A new robot....

I made Ebi-kun a robot using Jodie's Disco-Bot pattern, turned out super cute, the fabric I used has a bit of sparkle to it so it looks super-cool! I made a second one to save for a Christmas present, Oh yes, aren't I organised? I will probably forget where I put it come Christmas lol.

How To Make A Neck Cooler....

When I was in town the other day I noticed that every man and his dog was either wearing or buying a neck cooler, my husband has been using one at work that he was given at one of the many expo's he has to go to and said that it is great. So, I had a look in Loft and Tokyu hands and decided that I could make one for a fifth of the price. I went to the bento section and found the gel packs, I got a pocket sized one and the long one shown, they were both around the ¥200 mark.

At home I made the first neck cooler using a double gauze scarf I had picked up in the ¥100 shop, for the second one I made I just used some double gauze out of my stash. Double gauze is great in the hot weather but you could use cotton instead.

First lay your fabric/scarf right side down and place your gel pack in the centre at the bottom of the scarf.

Pull the fabric up so it covers the gel pack.

Then roll the whole thing over one time. 

Cut along the top edge, you will need to hem it so cut it with a cm or two to spare. If you are using fabric then hem the bottom edge before cutting the top edge.

Fold over and hem the raw edge, if you are using fabric not a scarf you will need to hem the other edges too. Put the gel pack back into the centre of the fabric and pull the fabric from the bottom, over the gel pack to cover it, this will become the pocket.

Place a pin each side if the gel pack, remove the gel pack and sew straight lines where the pins are placed. Now you have a pocket, chill your gel pack then pop it in the pocket, pull the flap over, you could add a button or velcro if you like but when I tried it out it didn't really need it (maybe useful on a kids version) and tie it round your neck.

Now you can go out looking and feeling cool!

A new style of bag...

Not my usual style of bag making but I wanted to try out a new technique. Although it is very simple is style it was actually quite a faff to get it all aligned 'just so'. The main part of the bag is made from a thick fuzzy type of felt, it is lovely to stroke and lined with a polka dot print. I was really happy with how it turned out, I need to get some more of the felt so that I can tweak the design a bit.

I think sewing is one of those arts that one will never completely master, there is always a new or old technique to learn and new materials to try out which in one of the reasons I love sewing and am addicted to buying new sewing books...

Spider webs

Those of you who have been with me a while might remember the wooden thingy, it resides in the living room and comes out quite often with a basket of elastic bands. This time I gave Ebi-kun a ball of yarn and left him to see what he would come up with, spider webs, that is what.

testing, testing 1,2,3....

I was trying to think of something to use my bag of scraps with and came up with this little rattle but I needed to test it for size.

So, when T-kun came to visit, I set him to work....

hahaha babies are brilliant.

Just look at how much hair T-kun has! 

It used to stick straight up but I think gravity is starting to win.

That is number 8 in the challenge done.

Challenge item number 7

A new camera pouch made with scraps.

I might make more of these for the shop.

I have a couple more things made but I can't show you yet, birthday presents, 

I need to wait until the lucky person has received it.