Felt Food

For E's new kitchen I made her some felt food to go in her stocking at Christmas.

Eggs
I cut out 2 circles from white felt and 1 smaller circle from yellow felt. I used my sewing machine to sew the yellow circle onto one of the white circles. I then stuffed a bit of cotton wool inbetween the two white circles and sewed them together one of top of each other.
I bought some plastic eggs that open from ebay so that E can crack her own eggs and fry them up in her frying pan!

Tea Bags
I cut out 2 tea bag shapes from white felt and sewed them together one on top of another leaving the top section open. I then filled the bag with green tea, slipped a length of ribbon in the top and then sewed it closed. I also cut 2 little squares in various different colours for the tags and sewed them together, enclosing the other end of the ribbon inside.
I made a simpe felt box for holding the teabags by cutting out a quick square box shape and then sewing all the edges shut.
They go perfectly with E's singing teapot and cups!

Jelly Fish Baby Body

Ella really loved playing with the button on the elephant top that I made her, so thought she'd enjoy a top with even more going on that she can play with.

I cut out 2 pieces of material for the jelly fish body, turned them right sides facing, sewed round the shapes leaving the bottom section open. I then turned it the right way out.

I inserted a piece of thicker material in the middle so that the outer material won't go baggy like it did a bit with the elephant top I did. You can use anything really. I used a bit of old Ikea blind that we've got left over!

I then got 2 coordinating colours of ribbon, folded them in half and tucked them into the open body of the jelly fish. I then sewed round the entire body and sewed on some buttons for the eyes.

Ella likes to play with the buttons and the dangly legs!

Elephant Baby Top

Happy New Year everyone! Sorry for the sporadic positing, but then I don't have a lot of time with a 7 month old baby on my hands!!

I made this body for Ella using my new sewing machine that my mum bought me for Christmas ... thanks mummy!!

I basically free-handed an elephant onto a scrap piece of fabric that I had lying around and then sewed it to a body that I'd already bought. I used a simple single stitch to stitch it into place first and then I used an appliqué stitch over the top of that. I then sewed on a button as the eye.

Here's my beautifu Ella modelling it!

Canvas Art

Whipped up a little present for my good friend Tim for his birthday and his lovely new flat ... so here it is for the blog world:

I saw a similar canvas behind Heston Blumenthal on one of his programmes and decided to steal the idea. I chose a nice font off Word, painted the canvas yellow, traced on the letters and then painted them on in black.

I sealed it with a protective covering so that it can hang in the kitchen and not be bothered by the moisture, but ... depending on where he wants a quote like this ... he could also hang it in the bedroom ;-)

Fingerprint Babygro

My friend Claire has just had a little baby boy called Luca, which means I have been busy making a little something to send her.

This babygro is painted straight on in black fabric paint and is meant to look like a thumb print with "one of a kind" written underneath.

Materials used:

babygro
black fabric paint
thumb print stolen from Google images printed out to required size
paintbrush

I slipped the printed image into the babygro and basically just painted over it ... simple as that!

I then sealed the paint by covering the babygro in a tea towel and ironing over it and then washed it.

Money Origami

I was invited to a wedding last week and the bride and groom asked for money rather than  gifts. So, instead of just putting some boring old money in an envelope, I decided to get my creative juices flowing!

I googled "money origami" and decided on trying to fold some Euros into a bride, groom and heart.

€10 wedding dress
€10 heart
€20 trousers
€20 shirt and tie

I followed the instructions I found here and this is what I came up with:

€10 wedding dress

€10 heart

Light in a Jar!

I made these for my friend Thomas' birthday to scatter around his garden and patio.

Supplies:

• Glass jar with swing-top lid (can get them at Ikea or any DIY store in the jam-making section near the gardening bits and bobs!)
• Frosted glass spray (I got mine off ebay)
• Glue
• Solar lights for the garden

First I disassembled the solar lights. They were on a cane to stick in the ground and I just unscrewed the top of the light.

Tape off the top of the jar with masking tape and add newspaper so the paint won't go everywhere.

Lightly spray the frosted glass in even layers into the jar directly.

Glue the solar panel section to the inside of the lid (the lid has been left without frosted glass so it can charge up properly).

Let it charge up in the sun and then enjoy it in the evening - easy peasey!

It emits a really nice soft light that looks like you have a slice of moon trapped in your jar! Will have to make some for my garden too!

Necklace T-Shirt

I made this t-shirt for my future sister-in-law's birthday and here's how I did it...

I started off with a t-shirt, black fabric paint, a paintbrush, a pen, thread and a pink ribbon

I used the tip of the paintbrush dipped in the fabric paint to do the beads on the smaller necklace and the end of a pen for the bigger beads.

I dipped the implements in the ink and stamped them on. I then ironed over them to seal them.

To finish the t-shirt off, I sewed on a ribbon to give it a little pop of colour.

I hope she likes it!

The ribbon is just attached with a little bit of thread so it can be easily removed

Baby T-Shirt with Tie

This is the final t-shirt I'm making for my friend's baby due this month.

I got a cheap onesie from H&M and had material left over from making my cork message boards

Here's how I did it:

Draw out tie shape on slightly stiffer material to make it easier to sew the material onto the onesie (I used some left over material from our blinds upstairs)

Cut out tie knot and tie pieces separately

Cut material slightly larger than the pieces, fold it round the templates making nice sharp edges and glue it at the back

Sew tie onto the onesie using lockstitch

I used ribbon I had lying around (who am I kidding, it was neatly wrapped up in one of my boxes on my craft shelf!!) for making a pair of braces and sewed them directly onto the onesie leaving a little gap where I threaded on a metal washer and then carried on sewing so the ring is on the ribbon but can be turned round.

Can't decide which one is my favourite yet - anyone have any opinions??

Cork Message Boards

No office would be complete without a notice board you can pin important things to!
I decided to use circular cork mats from Ikea that are designed for putting hot pots and pans on.
I covered each mat in a different blue coloured fabric by cutting the fabric slightly larger than the mat and stapling the material to the back so it was taut all the way round.

I then just stuck them to the wall with double-sided velcro.

Guitar Baby T-Shirt

I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought that I could recreate it with some black and brown fabric paint.

I washed the t-shirt and ironed it first so there wouldn't be any shrinkage.

I then basically free-handed the image really lightly in pencil, put a piece of card in the t-shirt between the two layers of material so there wouldn't be any bleeding through and then just painted the guitar on!
I used masking tape to mark off where the frets go so they would stay white.

Once it had dried, I covered it in a tea towel and ironed it to seal the image in.

The dad of the baby this is for is a guitar player, so should hopefully like it!

Oh, I've also got a t-shirt for age 4-6 months so that the poor newborn doesn't always get its arm pulled out to be played as a guitar!

Top Gun Aviators Baby T-Shirt

My friend is expecting her baby boy next month, so I thought I'd get on top of issues and make the little bambino some t-shirts!

First up is the Top Gun special!
I had some t-shirt transfer paper lying around from somewhere and printed out an image of aviator sunglasses I found on Google images on this special paper.

The tools needed: transfer paper with image printed on, t-shirt, baking paper, scissors, iron!

First I washed the t-shirt so there would be no shrinking once the print was on.
I then ironed it and followed the instructions on the transfer paper:

• Print image
• Cut out image
• Put face up on t-shirt
• Iron with greaseproof paper for a matt finish or silicon paper for a shiny finish (I used some Backpapier - baking paper) which we had on hand and can confirm that that turns the image into a matt finish
• Let the print cool
• Re-iron with the paper in between the image and the iron
• Rewash
• Re-iron
• Done!

I'm actually considering making myself one, I love it so much!!

Here's the image printed on the special paper and cut out ready to go

With baking paper on ready to iron the transfer

The finished product!