While I was at uni, most of my mornings were spent running out the door for the early bus – if I was really lucky, I’d have a piece of toast in my hand as I ran, but it wasn’t often. As such, I usually scraped my hair back into a quick ponytail or bun as I went down the hill. On the days I was a little ahead of schedule, I’d pull it back into a quick braid at the bus stop. Basically whatever was quickest won.

Now that I’ve got a little more time (to actually brush it properly if nothing else), I’ve gone back to pinning back the front à la Dr. Quinn - except not as pretty, because come on, no one has hair like this woman.

Anyways, doing this has taught me two very important things:

1) Bethany has pilfered an awful lot of my hair clips over the years; and

2) the ones I have left have an awful tendency to go missing without a dedicated place to put them.

And so began a session of my favourite kind of crafting: problem solving craft. And because I’ve rambled on enough, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Today’s WIP Wednesday comes courtesy of Hannah and, I have to say, this is my favourite WIP to date.

I had a Hannah day today: movies, drawing, lots of running around senseless and having fun. But today also included Hannah’s first ever sewing lesson. And I’d like to point out that it was all her idea.

After having asked me if I’d show her how to make something on the sewing machine, we decided to make a dress for Bear. I found this a little disconcerting as I’ve been referring to Bear as a ‘he’ for the past six years, but hey, if Bear wants a dress, a dress he got.

Hannah designed the dress (with a few simplifying pointers from me)…

Picked the fabric (asking Bear’s opinion, of course)…

Cut out the pieces…

Ran it through the sewing machine…

Hand sewed on the press stud (oddly enough, this was the part she had the most difficulty with)…

Then, rather proud of herself, tried it on for size…

And I think Bear was quite pleased with the result. Doesn’t she (apparently) look pretty?

(please ignore the mess, Hannah and I have great fun on our days, but we also leave a fair amount of debris in our wake)

So what do you think? A worthy and impressive WiP if you ask me. Not to mention a far more ambitious first sewing project than my own.

Care to join us for WiP Wednesday? Post about your current wip and be sure to come back and share your link with us!

And ta-da! A new tote bag for mum to stash her x-rays in.

We recently received news that the daughter of one of my mother’s best friends is having a baby – very happy news! Last night, mum came in and, quite enthusiastically, said “We should make something for Katherine’s baby.”

I just looked at her and waited. Finally I had to prompt her, “…we?”

“Yes,” she said. “I had the idea, now you make it.” Well it’s kind of hard to argue with that kind of frankness.

In light of my already crazy wip list, I decided to go for a simple patchwork cot quilt. Since we don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy, I tried to go with pastels, but soon learnt that I don’t have a whole lot of pastel in my stash. In fact, I have a whole heap of blue, a whole heap of pink and very little in the way of green or yellow. I think I made it work, however. What do you think?

It’s all from my stash except for the lime dots that I picked up from Spotlight this morning for the backing.

So this is my WiP for this week – completed photos to follow!

Remember my super secret mystery project? Well it has now been handed over to the recipient, so I can reveal it’s true identity… a NintendoDS case.

(Please excuse the crinkly background, I really should have ironed the backdrop)

I noticed that Renae needed a case for her DS and thought the only thing to do would be to make her one myself – besides, I love little mini projects. It seemed to be a big hit – she seemed very excited to get a handmade gift, which made me think if I’ve ever actually made her a gift before (Renae?). And, then, what I was going to be making next… (and no, Renae, you can’t make suggestions).

The case isn’t quite green (which I know is her favourite), but it’s such a pretty aqua colour, and I’ve been hoarding the fabric for a while now – I’ve used a small amount on something else, but can’t remember what.

It seems to fit my DS okay… maybe I’ll have to make another one for myself.

So what do you think? Did anyone guess something like this from the clues?

I started on a little mystery project, and thought I’d share some photos – the final project will be revealed once the recipient has it, though I am accepting guesses.

Clues:

It’s a stash project – all materials, including the big shiny button, were all salvaged from my supply cupboard. Which was a good thing, since I decided to start said mystery project at about 11pm, and I wasn’t about to go to the shops.

Here’s everything (except cotton thread) used. Six pieces of printed cotton, one piece of natural cotton quilt wadding, and a big shiny button. It probably took longer to decide what button to use than to make the entire project.

Ahhh… it has padding of some description.

It has a button hole, one that I had to do myself cause the pretty button, the one I finally decided on, was (of course) too big to go in my button-hole foot.

If you can guess it from those vague clues, you will have definitely earned a cookie.

I almost forgot to come back and post the finished embroidery I did. But here it is. For the most part, I’m pretty happy with it – though if I were to do it again, I’d probably do the line of grass in green.

Pattern by: Heartfelt

I plugged my camera into my computer today and found all these pictures that I had forgotten about. Amongst them were some projects that I’d started but not posted about…

Firstly, in June I got to go to my first ever school play! I was very excited to go see Wendy’s daughter, Emily, in her school production of Oliver! And everyone who’s in play should have flowers, right? Well… in my head they should. And since I had limited funds, I decided the only thing to do would be to make some.

A lot of the credit has to go to Alex, who walked me through the process – turns out that origami is not my strong point. But I was pretty happy with the end product. And I had a lovely time talking to the kind grandma outside the play about what kind of flowers they were!

Next project…

Renae and I are making the same project; should be a piece of cake for her and a little more challenging for me. Still it’s very cute and should make a nice birthday present for Bethany (not that you’re likely to read this blog, Beth, but if you are – GO AWAY! CLOSE YOUR EYES!)

I’ve made great headway into the project… I’ve drawn on the template. Oh well, it’s on the list.