Hello everyone, I hope you are all well.  I haven't blogged for a while properly due to several viruses knocking us out here :-(  I had a day off work a couple of weeks back only to wake with a lovely flu/sickness like virus which made me stay in bed for 2 days - I don't think I have ever had to do that in my whole life.  Then Mr Sweetpea got it , all over half term week - great timing :-)  Little Sweetpea has also had to be on antibiotics due to a chest infection which made her feel really unwell for 3 weeks.  The joys of winter :-)

This week I thought I was share you what I created out of all those pieces I had hidden in my sock drawer some time ago :-)


I recently treated myself to Helen Phillips book, Simply Sewn Gifts and just had to make some of these cute little rabbits for the Sweetpea girls.  If you don't know Helen then pop over to her gorgeous blog.  There is also a link to her book below.


I was a bit worried about creating these as I am very new to sewing but then I thought, nothing ventured, nothing gained and gave it a go :-)  I contacted Helen a few times whilst creating these bunnies and she was so lovely and helpful (thanks Helen :-)).


I cut out all the pieces from some Linen trousers that I had worn whilst I was pregnant with Little Sweetpea and sewed them together ..... Each rabbit had different coloured ears so we knew whose was whose :-)


The book said to sew the legs to the side of the body (I may have interpreted it wrong though lol).  This would be great for an ornamental rabbit but I hoped these would be well loved so I took the legs off and sewed them in to the body instead so they were floppy legs :-)   I felt rather bad doing this to poor bunny!

I then created their litttle faces and tried to make them some girly clothes.  Helen's book does have a lovely dungaree pattern but I wanted more girly outfits for them.  This was harder said than done by a novice like myself so I ended up creating a skirt and very unflattering dress :-)  (oohh don't you just love family life, trying to type this blog and middle Sweetpea manages to knock hot chocolate all over the dining table and the laptop - and breath - no wonder writing a blog takes me so long - gggrrrr).


Luckily Nanny Casey is a good knitter so she created them some cute little cardigans, the pattern can be found here  (I found this via the lovely blogger Millefeuilles :-))


So after lots of sneaky sewing whilst the children were finally all in bed the girl Sweetpeas opened these bunnies on Christmas morning.  They are loved very much indeed which makes my heart swell with pride and joy :-)


Little Sweetpea takes hers to bed every night and then Millie/Bunny/Jessica (her name changes every now and again) comes down stairs every morning.


She even gets to go out on trips to places like Music Hayhem (as little Sweetpea calls it, it is really called Music Mayhem - a kiddies music group little Sweetpea goes to).

I am so glad I pushed my insecurities and tried to make these bunnies, they came out way better than I thought they would :-) 

Thanks for all your helpful comments on my last post re the crochet urge, I am now picking colours and will blog as soon as some wool arrives :-)

Now this blog post comes after chatting to a friend some time ago about a skirt I made little Sweetpea.  I promised to do her a photo tutorial of it but as always it has taken me some time to get around to doing this.  I made this skirt back in August - how does time fly that fast! 

I saw this lovely skirt design on Patch Fabrics site and just had to buy the fabric to make Sweetpea one - she is still in love with ladybirds so she loves this skirt.

So here we go.  You will need some fabric of your choice, 1 1/2 meters of ribbon and 1 1/2 meters of ric-rac.

First measure the length you would like the skirt to be and add 2 " to that for the seams.  Lay out your fabric - you will be using the whole width of the fabric selvedge to selvedge (this is the part of the fabric where the manufacturer prints the fabric info on).  Measure the length you want the skirt to be and cut along there.


Now get some lovely ribbon and pin it along the bottom edge of the fabric on the reverse side.


Now sew along the top of this ribbon all the way along to fix it to the skirt.


Now you need to fold the ribbon back over so it faces the right side of the fabric - didn't take a photo sorry :-(  Your sewing will be along the bottom edge of the ribbon now.  Sew along the new top of the ribbon, this will lock in the edge of the fabric and stop any fraying.

Now sew the ric-rac into place, I popped it a couple of inches about the ribbon but you can pick where you want it.  It may be an idea to pop it in place with a few dots of fabric glue to make it easier to sew.


Now fold the fabric in half so that the right sides are facing in (e.g. your pretty pattern is not showing on the outside anymore) and pin along the selvedge.  Your ribbon should be along the bottom on the inside.  Sew along the pinned area with roughly a 1/2 inch seam - make sure you sew so that no selvedge is showing.


Now make sure your seem is open to make for a neater finish (it isn't the end of the world if you forget though :-)).  Now for the waist.  Keeping the skirt facing wrong side out fold over the top edge 1/2 inch.


Fold it over again 7/8 inch (or just over 1/2 inch in English :-))  This will seal in the edge again to stop fraying and make a nice hidden area for your elastic.  I iron my seams into place to make it easier to sew.


Now sew along the bottom edge of this seam but leave an area where you will be threading your elastic through.


This is where you will thread the elastic through.  Now measure your child's waist and take off a couple of cm's for the elastic measurement - I always test the length whilst it is on her too (be careful to avoid bungee episodes though :-)).  Now pop a safety pin on the end of your elastic and feed it through the the hole and around the seam.  I pin the other end to the skirt too so I don't end up taking the elastic all the way through and out again :-)


Now whilst doing all this remember to keep an eye on the future owner of this gorgeous skirt, if not you may find this sort of thing happens .....


Yogurt everywhere, apparently she became suddenly hungry and helped herself !


When you have threaded the elastic through sew it together and then sew the hole shut - yey one new skirt!

Thank you for all your lovely birthday wishes for Sweetpea, I will give her a kiss from each of you (any excuse to smother her with kisses :-)).

Little Sweetpea was very lucky to get such a lot of wonderful presents, she was also overjoyed (and so was I) that she also received some gorgeous hand-made presents.  I made her a little nature satchel bag for her to put all the wet leaves, conkers and pine cones she finds in :-)


Here she is modelling her bag, I think she is in love with the little ladybird.  I was going to put a bumble bee on it, as if it was flying away from the flower, but Little Sweetpea had other ideas :-)


She has already been using it on our walks and many treasures have been put into it.  Would you like a closer look ........



Here is her little pet ladybird scurrying off ...  oohh and one of those cute little labels that I used on my sisters heart.

I appliqued a flower onto the bag flap ....


My friend told me not to just stick with a running stitch when making things so I tried out another stitch for the strap, really happy I did ....


I  lined the bag to protect the linen from all those soggy leaves .....


I embroidered her name along the front .....


And here is a full frontal shot :-)  I was really happy with how this turned out especially as it is my first bag.  I made some funny mistakes on the way like thinking I could sew the strap on the reverse and then turn it inside out - hhhmmm never going to happen.  You have to turn everything inside out to sew it together and then pull it all through, I sewed along the top of the bag but then had a flap of lining, flap of outside fabric and the lid flap lol :-)  You learn from experience !

The bag is made of 100% linen and lined with oil-cloth.  With linen being £25 a meter I decided to buy a large pair of linen trousers from a charity shop and recycled them, the oilcloth is from a tablecloth that was too big for the table - I do love a bit of up-cycling :-)


Little Sweetpea also got a lovely hand-made necklace which was created by my wonderful friend Lorraine.  Here it is modelled by my one eyed childhood Bunny.


Ohhh I do love this , so many lovely glass beads, Little Sweetpea is having to keep a close eye on this one so that I don't wear it :-)


She also made the cutest little bracelet which is the perfect size for Little Sweetpeas tiny wrists.  Love love love those polymer clay beads.


And look what we have here, a gorgeous little ladybird brooch just for Sweetpea, this will be popped on her coat or bag.  This was made by my fab mate Helen from Bears Footprints.

Oohhh how I love having creative friends.  It is so nice that we are all inspiring each other to create such lovely things and it is even better that we are giving the kiddies hand-made gifts - there is something so heart warming about it :-)  xxx

Yey I finally chose a sewing machine to buy with my birthday money (my birthday was back in March!).  A lovely friend lent me her Janome machine around March time but I thought it best I gave it back now :-)  I looked around on the internet and found this fab Janome which was only £10 more than the basic model but seems to have loads of extras on it.


I got the manual out and threaded it up - ooh that was slightly daunting as it was a bit different to how you thread up my friends Janome.


I worked out how to wind the bobbin and pull the thread up from it.  Love this see-through bobbin case :-)  Then I just had to pluck the courage up to actually use it lol.  So a few days later I made these cute little curtains for the kiddies new playhouse in the garden - well I say it is the kiddies but I love it as much as them!  The machine sounds lovely whirring away.


I remember having an old garden shed that my sister and I played in when I was little and I used to love pulling the curtains shut in there.  I got the fabric from e-bay and it was only £3.50 per meter and about £1.50 postage.  I was hoping to use some up--cycled material but couldn't find any big enough or that I was brave enough to cut into.


I like the look of the gathering at the top - I saw the idea of adding an extra sewn line at the top in a book to make it look prettier.


They can now shut their little curtains and be all cozy inside.


I was on a roll then so finally, after many, many years made this cross-stitch pattern into a cushion.  I started this when eldest Sweetpea as in my tummy and then finished the pattern a couple of years back.  He is now 11 so I thought it a little childish for his wall but he still loves the design (probably because I was making it when he was kicking away in me :-)) so I thought a cushion would be a nice idea.


Here is the back of it - loving the green spotty material.


And of course I had to add some of that special ribbon!



oohh look what else I got free with my new sewing machine, loads of gorgeous thread.  They looked so scrummy that I had to pop them in my new glass jar - I found this jar in Wilkinsons for £5 - I knew I would find a use for it :-)  It now sits on top of my dresser looking very pretty with all those lovely coloured threads in it.