Week 21 of Craft Project: Half a house

I've been busy, busy, busy this week trying to finish Jacob's birthday present.  I'm making him a felt playhouse.  I made one for the first time at the end of last year - as a present for my friend's children but I hadn't got around to making one for my own kids yet.  It's a big project so this week I have been working on getting all the sides done.  I finally got them all finished tonight.  Here's a bit of a sneak peak before they are all sewn together to make a proper house (please excuse the quality of the photos  - the flash made the colours look a bit different to what they actually are!)...

The front of the playhouse

The door at the front of the playhouse opens and shuts and the letterbox can be opened to post letters through.

Side one of the playhouse

 

Side two of the playhouse

 The curtains on the windows open and shut as well - sewing the curtains for both the sides was a whole evenings work!

 

The back of the playhouse

All the pieces of fruit are attached by velcro and can be removed - lots of fun!

I have to get the playhouse finished by Thursday as that's when Jacob's birthday is.  I'm on track so far - fingers crossed I got it all done in time ;)

 

Week 20 of Craft project a week: Little bird pants and top

This week's project was a little top and pants set for Esme made out of some cute bird corduroy I picked up a while ago.  Now that I've made it I'm not sure that I'm that keen on the fabric or the pattern.  I adjusted the pattern a bit as it's meant to have a zip but I'm not a big fan of zips!  So buttons it was. I do like the pattern for the pants though and will probably make her some more using the same pattern.  The top is a little big for Esme still but I much prefer to have things bigger as she grows so quickly these days! 

Flared pants made with bird corduroy.

The pinafore top - with a matching pocket. 

What do you think - success or not? 

Week 19 of Craft project a week: Tie-dyed goodness and a trade

My lovely friend from Makeya very generously agreed to tie-dye some material for me to use.  I sent her literally metres of material and she dyed it all just beautifully.   I'm really looking forward to creating lots of pretty things from it all!  In return for her dyeing all this material I agreed to make a shirred dress for her little girl (I don't think making a dress is enough payment for all this amazing work though - I'll have to think of some other way to repay her ;)) 

I love the soft pastel colours in this tie-dyed dress

I love shirring and have made a few dresses for Esme using this method before.  This dress was so much fun to make.  This was my friend's choice of dyed fabric and it's just turned out beautifully.  I love the soft pastel colours in this. I'm not so great with making clothes to measure when I don't have a model to try it on so I hope this fits ok!  I made some shoulder tie straps so that it was a little more adjustable than usual ;) 

More suck pads for slings - cute little owls! 

I've also made a couple of suck pads to sell this weekend too - I love getting new orders and making things for others! 

Week 18 of craft project: Slippers for Mum

I left this week's project to the last minute and so Sunday evening found me frantically sewing, trying desperately to get these slippers finished!  I think I conceded defeat around 11.30pm when the bias binding got the better of me (have I ever mentioned how much I hate bias binding?!)  However I came back to these slippers during the week and finished them easily (amazing how much easier things are to do when it's not so late at night!)

 Funky floral slippers

These slippers were a special gift for mum for Mother's Day (luckily I was organised enough to be sewing them a week ahead of time and not the night before!!)  I love the bright orange colours of these slippers - I'm not so good at coordinating fabric but I think these three fabrics work really well together.