Crafting with the kids
The boys love making, actually, in reality the love the ‘idea’ of making, their attention spans being that of goldfish. But with the added incentive of one newly decorated bedroom and the other soon to be done we came up idea of making a cushion each. And if I say so myself, a brilliant idea! It took a whole morning which is a lifetime of concentration for them. They drew their designs out on paper, spent ages trawling through my fabrics, had a little break while I ironed and cut out, then spent a good hour and half sewing!
There were quite a few injurys…
but the whole point is that they did really enjoy it, they have produced something they are proud of, 1 is finished, the other, well, it might need another pair of hands if it ever wants to see the light of day, however you have to grab your moments and for a crafty mum who comes from a long line of crafty mums, who has subsequently broken the line by producing 2 non crafty boys – this is success!
Actually I think I may have over sold myself a bit there. My mosaic bowl. I love it, but its very, erm, homemade is a polite way of describing it I think. I got a couple of books out of the library and it seemed pretty straight forward. It wasn’t. I have a new respect for tilers and mosaicers (?) I don’t know if I had the right stuff, the man ant B & Q said it would do the job, or if its just me but I couldn’t get the consistency right or smooth it. In my defence some of the pieces were 15mm thick, some 2mm, but that is the point, its made from pieces we found on a fabulous holiday in Scotland from the beach at the edge of our cottage. So long I don’t put anything in it, or let the kids touch it, or let any sunlight get near it it should last the year out!
Finally for now, my lamp. Started 3 years ago and made from scraps of frabric and ribbon, I love it, nuff said!
Actual craft work going on!
Yes, while this may seem to have become a randomly posted blog for the Scotish tourist board, over the past couple of months I have been crafting, and at a pace too I’ll have you know. To list:
- a crochet cardigan for me
- a crochet baby blanket for soon to be parents
- A sewn top for me, that fits
- a mosaic bowl from shards found at Loch Fyne
- I’ve decorated Toms new bedroom (the old guest room/work room, in fact I could dedicate a whole post to where I have secretred all my bits over the house…) and the decoration includes decorated waredrobe doors and 3 fab picture frames that I will share
- I’ve finally finished the lamp that I have been coveringfor the past 3 years and it looks fab
- I made up the 4 patchworked seat pads from the fabric swap over on Ali’s blog.
Now for pictures. Starting with my fabulous cardie. The pattern is a lionbrand pattern, click for a link, using 7 balls of Twilleys freedom gorgeous. I love this pattern, it is easy to follow and I love the way you crochet it in one piece and the gorgous yoke type neckline. I was a bit worried that it was going to be too tight, I did keep checking it, but with blocking it fits beautifully. The only change I made was to make the sleeves a bit longer and the cardie one row longer before the side splits. I am so happy with this, it was easy to do, I did it all on our 10 day holiday the other week at Gower, bits here and there, the beach, round our fire… and I love the colour, its just perfect!
When we got back I was browsing some favourite blogs and saw this on Gone to Earth. A link to make a fab little summer top called sorbetto from Colettes pattern blog. Well I’d finished my crochet and it said easy, which it needs to be as my sewing skills aren’t very good. Well I can highly recommend this pattern too! You print it off in about 25 pages, stick them all together, then cut out your size and follow the instructions. The only thing I would say, as indeed she recommends is to print the 4″ square first to make sure you are printing at the correct size, I had to adjust my printer settings to get it right. The instructions are really clear, especially the binding ones, I’ve never know how to finish off binding and have always sort of muddled it till it looks ok, the way she says is great, it works and is easy. Before I made it i checked out her link to to see what others had done. I liked the front pleat inverted so I changed that, and I used 3 buttons to both hold the pleat down a little so it fitted better, also for decoration. I used an old duvet bought from a charity shops years ago (with the aim of making some pajama bottoms, I will) so all it cost was the binding and the buttons. It is so nice to make things that work out and fit and you actually like when finished. I do have to state that this is not a common occurence, but when it happens – bliss!
More pics in the next few days, all this blogging is making me light headed!
