Rainbows

I had a bit of panic this time last week, having finished making the storysack and gnome which I had made as presents for a friend's children I realised I was about to start the mad season for family birthdays.  One of my siblings has four children, one had a birthday last Saturday the other three are in May in the middle of which my youngest also has a birthday.  Last year I didn't manage to make much for my youngest as I was too busy making two little cardigans for my twin nephews who were born last year.  I really wanted to make something for them for their first birthday but having to make two meant it needed to be something quick and easy.  Their mother is a child minder and having two older siblings makes it hard to come up with anything they won't already have, unless I make it that is.  I mulled over various small knitting projects that I could make including one for a knitted ball that I remembered reading about somewhere but I hadn't bookmarked or pinned it.  A search came up with something much better, a quicker project which used materials I already had, a rainbow felt ball.   Had I knitted something I would have had to buy more yarn, not that much of a hardship but it would take up time that I didn't really have.

I cut out the pieces using the seven colours of the rainbow, remembering the mnemonic Richard Of York Gave Battles in Vain for the seven colours, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.  I needed an eighth colour and chose a brown shade to sit between the red and the indigo.

A long time ago I acquired a bag of odds bits of embroidery thread at a home ed meet up which I had held onto through several decluttering missions as I felt they would come in useful some day, this was their time.  This was a great project for picking up and putting down when I had a few moments the seams were short and could be sewn in a few minutes, the most time consuming bit was untangling the threads from the messy ball they had become in their bag!

Two quick and easy presents for one year old twins!

I used this tutorial which helpfully includes a template for you to print out.  I used buttonhole stitch to sew the eight big pieces together and blanket stitch to sew the two end pieces on, there is a difference between these stitches as I discovered when looking them both up a while ago!

I embroidered their initials on one of the end pieces, I am not sure if they are possessive about their toys but just incase they are.....

I whipped up a couple of pairs of slouchy/pajama type trousers and a play cape for the older two and posted the whole lot off on Saturday I little late for the first of the birthdays but hey, at least they are all sorted now.  I felt like a whirling dervish last week.  Now I can get on with the sewing that is languishing on the back of a chair in the living room with its pins stuck in ready to catch you as you walk past.........oh and my youngest's birthday presents of course!

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On, head on over to see what others have been making...

Gnome

Last week I shared a birthday present I made for a friend's son, his sibling has a birthday the day after so I needed to get a present made for him too.  Their birthdays are at the end of this month but they came to visit last week, I thought it would be better to have them made by then so I didn't have to post them.  When I am working towards a deadline I always think I have all the time in the world when in reality I never have, I am not the only one am I?  It was a few days before that I realised I had a lot of sewing still to do and not many hours to complete it in.  I did get it made, just, I finished at 3 on the day they were coming they arrived half an hour later!  I had decided on a waldorf doll, one which has the clothes sown on, some call these toddler dolls, I thought it would be a quick one to make.  In the end it was, quick that is, but there were moments when I thought I was running out of time.   The head was made in the traditional waldorf style, this doll has an extra long neck piece which is the main body.

You sew the arm and legs onto the 'sausage' of the body.  I sewed a ribbon round the middle to give it a waist and hide my gathering!

The hands and feet are square pieces of material stuffed and made into balls.  The arms and legs are gathered and sewn onto the hands and feet.

The arms are a rectangular piece of material with a hole cut in the top, it is gathered and sewn round the neck.  The legs and body are another rectangle with a slit cut part way to make the legs, all sewn up and gathered at the waist.

Initially I was going to make this into a little boy doll, complete with hair.  Hair takes a very long time to get right, time was not something I had, so I thought about a hat.

I added a ribbon to the hat too.

When I put it on he was very definitely a gnome and didn't need any hair at all...........

He was hard to wrap up and give away, I hope his recipient likes him.  There is something about him that suggests fun and perhaps a little bit of mischief...............?

I used several books for inspiration and guidance,  for making the head I referred to The Nature Corner this has the best tutorial and pictures, for inspiration Toymaking with Children and for guidance and sizes I used the Doll in a Jumpsuit tutorial from The Children's Year.

I am joining in with Nicole over at Frontier Dreams for Keep Calm Craft On, head on over to see what others have been making and creating.......

Capes

My children love to tie blankets round their necks and pretend to be all manner of different characters, but most of our blankets are big and they end up tripping on the edges and they come undone and fall off.  Ages ago I shared a picture of some purchases from my local haberdashers which I had been able to visit on my own, the luxury of time meant I could choose carefully what I wanted.  The satiny material I used to make capes. They have been worn a lot already.

They are simple design based on a circle.  To ensure I bought the right amount of material I measured  my children from the neck to a point that I wanted the cape to hang to.  This gave me the radius of my circle which I doubled to make the diameter.  I folded my material in four (in half, then half again) and using a pencil on a piece of string, the length of my radius, as a large compass I drew a quarter of a circle.  If you are using satin material, as I was, make sure you pin the folded material together to prevent slipping.  Keeping it pinned I cut it out and then cut out a quarter piece.  I pinned the two pieces wrong sides together with two pieces of ribbon at appropriate places and sewed all but a short section of the cape.  I turned it the right way out through the small section and hand sewed that up.  A quick easy reversible cape!

If you were feeling inclined and the section is big enough you could make a hat with the piece you cut out....

Princess

My youngest has been asking me for ages to make her a princess hat and cloak a la a picture she showed me in one of her books.  She was very specific about what she wanted it had to be the same, down to the patterns on the material.  I was very touched and proud that she asked me to make it for her rather than her assuming we would just go out and buy it.  I gently informed her that we may not be able to buy the exact same material but we could go and look in the haberdashers to see what they had.  In the mean time I remembered that a while ago I had bought a few pieces of material from a friend who is emigrating, they were all suitable for making princess capes and I had bought them with that in mind.  She chose the piece of organza type material with sparkly bits.  We still needed something to make the hat or Hennin to give it its correct title.  She thought going round the haberdashers to choose her material was wonderful she spent quite a while deciding what she wanted and eventually chose some gold satin material which was, as she informed me, most suitable for princesses!

I made the hat by cutting a piece the shape of a quarter of a circle. I drew this on the material by holding a pencil on a piece of string at the corner, making a large drawing compass.  The radius was approx 15 inches/38cm.  In order for the hat to stand up, so to speak, I also used a stiffening material I went for the iron on type which in sewing speak is fusible interfacing.  I cut the interfacing slightly smaller than the material so that I could fold the seams to sew them more easily.  I sewed the two seams up and added two small pieces of the organza material to make the veil, although these are a token veil as they would not cover her face.

The cloak I made by sewing a hem round the bottom and a seam at the top for the elastic.  Once I had threaded the elastic through and sewn it together I also stitched the cloak together just at the top.  Whilst I was sewing the seam at the top I discovered something new on my sewing machine.  I bought my machine for £5, fifteen years ago from someone I was working with at the time.  It had been originally purchased in the Middle East the only 'instructions' with it are a small booklet with pictures only no words at all.  I am a self taught sewer, still at a basic level of sewing, so much of what I have learnt has been along the way often by trial and error, I am sure some of the things I do would have an experienced seamstress spluttering.  I have made a couple of items from this lovely book and the author talks about machine back stitching at the the beginning and end of each seam, I had no idea if my machine could do this so I had always done this by hand.  Whilst consulting my highly detailed instructions to remind myself how to place the bobbin, it has been a while....., when I realised that one of the pictures was showing you how to back stitch.  So I gave it a go and it worked, whey hey something new to my repertoire and less time fiddling about doing it by hand.

I was lucky enough to have some time in the haberdasher this week on my own, such a luxury, I could chose what I wanted in peace and take my time.  My children don't spend their time pulling all the ribbons off the shelves of fiddling with the buttons but after a few minutes in the shop they are usually asking when are we going.  So I had time to choose some material to make some Christmas presents for the children, I will reveal all another time.......

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm and Craft On.