Welcome Autumn and Winter

I haven't done a lot of sewing in the past few weeks, I've been fulfilling my other passion (op shopping) instead.

This is Autumn the hedgehog, named as I finished her on the last day of autumn and her spines reminded me of the autumn leaves behind her. The pattern suggested using yarn for her spines, and it did look great in the book, but I though it would take forever to do. Poor Autumn has been waiting weeks for me to work out what I wanted to do with her spines. The inspiration for the raggy spines came from some magazines I picked up from op shops with patterns for dolls with rag hair. They still took many nights to put on, but the effort was well worth it. I just need to work out if I want to trim her spines or leave them looking scruffy.

As I mentioned op shopping has become my other passion lately. I love having a poke around and not knowing what you will find. I'm always on the look out for fabrics I can use. Last week at my favourite local op shop you could fill a bag with fabric for $1, these are the fabrics I picked up. Most are furnishing samples, the patterns and colours on them are fantastic. I've just joined a bag sewing club so I'm sure I'll use some of these fabrics for bags.

One of my other great finds lately was this doona cover for $2. Firstly I saw all the small animals on the reverse, which I thought I could use some to applique onto a bag for my son to take to creche. I was lucky enough to also find a huge piece of cord fabric which goes nicely with the colours on the doona, which I will use to make the bag.

Then when looked at the other side I saw this gorgeous squirrel. I'm planning to make it into a quilt/blanket for my son. Not sure yet what I'll back it with, I'll either use polar fleece or put a cotton backing with wadding in between.

Sofites

Here are some of the softies I've been making lately.

My son has named this one Red Man. I then made Green Man for a friend's little boy as he liked Red Man so much. I made a blue one for another friend, but forgot to photograph that one before I gave it away. I'd hoped to get a photo of all three together but forgot.






This elephant I made from an old pillowcase, my son suggested a pink elephant and I thought this suede like fabric was appropriate for an elephant. The pillowcase had some detailing on it which I managed to line up around her middle.




This taggy toy was for a friend's newborn son. I got the idea of using different textured fabrics after someone mentioned babies like different textures, I added the ribbons as we all know how much babies love tags!!





This car I made as a present for our friends' wedding. I was actually pretty impressed with how it turned out as I made up the pattern myself. I've seen some gorgeous ones on other blogs and will attempt one like those one day.




This is a doll I made for a Softie swap on Essential Baby, I hope she is enjoying her new home.



At the moment I also have a rag doll and a hedgehog on the go. The hedgehog needs her spines sewn on and I know it is going to take a while so I keep putting it off.

Doorstops

Here are some great doorstops I've made. They are so easy and really quick, I still need to make a few more for the hallway and the bathroom.

This is for my son's bedroom.

I used a spare pillowcase for this one, the pattern on it almost matches our curtains!

I've seen other doorstops at markets that I also want to try, shaped as handbags or rectangle blocks with decorations on top.

Happy Mothers Day

Here are some pictures of the presents I made for my mum for Mothers Day.

A teacup pincushion

Felt gingerbread men and some chocolate candles, the candles I found at Spotlight. The gingerbread men were fun and easy to make, I'm sure I'll make some more.

I wasn't too happy with the first one I made, I sandwiched some wadding between the two layers of felt, but as you could still see the wadding between the felt and I had used pinking shears to cut it out, it reminded me of a person shaped Oreo. At least I now know how to make a felt Oreo :) I'm much happier with how I've made these ones.

Start of my blog

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while, so now I've done it!! I'm a SAHM to my darling 2.5 yr old. In order to help maintain my sanity I figured I needed to have a hobby, so I've taken to sewing again. Lately I've been obsessed with making softies, and have been making many as presents over the past few months.

I'm hoping that having this blog will encourage me to finish projects and not have a pile of half completed items.