The Turtle Moves

Patterned Penguin

Hello there!

I made this charming chap today. Isn't he cute?

The pattern came from a lovely web-site, The Purl-Bee Penguin where they generously allow you to download pattern and instructions for free. And very clear, comprehensive instructions they are, too. I made this little fellow in about 2 hours this morning, and he's destined for my gorgeous grandson's collection of cuddlies, because the penguin seems to be the favoured creature du jour for him.

I was alerted to the web-site by my discerning and talented daughter who is always concerned that I should have enough to do in my retirement! No, actually  it's just that she wastes hours looking at lovely gorgeous things on-line when she should be writing her best-selling novel and when she finds something irresistible she shares it with us all.

So now I pass it on to you. Go on, make yourself a penguin or two! Perhaps you could go along with the interior decorating trend of having little bird decorations and make them in different colours. A row of technicolour penguins along the mantlepiece - you know you want to.

Retro Cuddlies

Hello folks,

While I was trawling E-Bay for soft toy patterns several months ago, I came across some kits from the late 70s. I couldn't leave these potential chaps languishing in the virtual auctionhouse so I made my very small (but successful) bids, and so they've been waiting in my workroom for me to bring them to life. This week, having finished with the mega craft-fair/Christmas lights/doing stuff for an ungrateful populace things which filled my time in November I thought I'd better clear the decks of this year's projects. So I made a Clothkits Giraffe and Pocket Doll and these splendid 1970's vintage Microkits of an Owl and a baby Hedgehog.

I have to say that sewing the back and front of the Owl together was the biggest leap of faith in the patternmaker's art that I have yet undertaken - it was very difficult to picture the final reverse 3-D effect. But it worked!

These chaps are not going to any craft fair stall - they're probably quite rare by now - and they've cheered me up after a week of feeling a bit wrong-footed. So hopefully my lovely grandchildren will tell me I've Done Good.      

Now to prepare for Christmas. My fabulous family are gathering here this year, so it's time to get out the decorations and put batteries in the singing Santas (splendid grandson can't have grown out of the fun of creating Noise in the Hall, surely?)

Have a lovely festive season y'all.

By the way, this blogging is being accompanied by the sound of the Incredible String Band - My Lovely Husband has brought a tranche of our beloved vinyl down from the attic to convert it to CD and i-player versions. If you haven't encountered this wonderful music and invention, can I suggest you check out three recordings: the eponymous first LP; the 5,000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion; and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. On Elektra Records if I remember rightly.

This is what we were doing in the Sixties - and I was there, and I can remember it. Peace, friends.

 

 

 

The Creel Thing

Hello again. I'm afraid I have been seriously side-tracked by Doll's House Stuff this past couple of weeks. If you remember, back when I first tried needle-felting, I made some twelfth-scale dogs for my doll's house and others. So you already know that I'm slightly daft, and spend my time in worrying ways.

  Well, just lately I decided that the miniature people in my life needed a holiday, so I finally got around to putting together the beach hut kit I've had sitting in a cupboard for a year. After getting the boring stuff out of the way (painting the walls, putting the thing together, persuading my dear husband to make reinforcing struts for the roof so it can be lifted on and off safely) it is at last time for the FUN STUFF - making accessories. Oh how I love an excuse to play with Fimo! First of all, though, I made this lobster creel. A little piece of Balsa wood for the base, two hoops of willow from my garden, a bit of fiddly micro-macrame and voila! What do you think? If you want to know the scale, the pretend green glass fishing float in the foreground is an ordinary small glass marble. The lovely rowing boat in the background was made by a splendid chap at forgetmenot miniatures. I will paint a name on her prow just as soon as I decide on one. Next thing to make will be some flowers to put in tubs on the verandah of the beach hut. I'll let you know how it goes.

In other news, the cherry tree that seeded itself in our garden has finally grown big enough to have a huge crop of cherries this year. And they taste as good as they look.

We're picking them and eating them as fast as we can, but I guess the blackbirds will get a share as well. It seems only fair, as it was probably a blackbird that planted the cherry stone in the first place.

Quick! Get me a cuddley!

There's an easy sewing pattern from Simplicity (I've had it for a while, so I don't know if it's still available) with two-piece patterns for a dog, rabbit and bear. The original pattern pieces are HUGE - slightly bigger than A5 - so I took them down to our local "print/stationery" shop and got them reduced on the photocopier. The resulting animals are still larger than I would reckon the average baby would cope with as a "doodoo", or security blanket. They're about 15" high - so not pocket-sized. Anyway, the pattern is easy to make up and gives a good shaping on all the animals, so I think I will go down to the photocopy shop and get it reduced by half again. I made these guys out of cotton terry-towelling (the pink and white chaps) which was really easy to work with except for the sewing machine foot tending to pick up a terry loop and pull it along. This didn't matter too much because the generally loopy look of the whole fabric covers a multitude of sins. The bear is made from a 100% polyester "suede" fabric, which looks and feels fabulously soft and cuddly, but it does not accept a sewing needle very easily, so the embroidery for the nose and eyes was very difficult - hence the bear having more of a round  - "oh goodness that'll do" - type nose, rather than the traditional triangular satin-stitch effort on the other two. Still - they're nice and friendly and they've kept me away from bad-tempered knitting!

Little Stripey Mice

When I was getting a Bunting Kit for my lovely daughter last month from Clothkits, I picked up a kit for these little stripey mice. They were a good way to get back into the sewing habit, and will probably be easy enough to reproduce if I decide that every windowsill needs mice! In fact they were an excellent distraction from pesky knitting, miserable weather, a not-very-well husband and the big bloated post-Christmas indulgence feeling. Go find yourselves a bit of cheery material and make something frivolous! It was also an easy lead-in to making some soft toys - pictures to come in the next post.