Halloween Swap - Days Five & Six

I've decided to blog about days five and six of the swap package, as one of these days included stuff I bought rather than made.

First up is day five, which consisted of more patchwork, it seems to be a bit of a theme this year. I  decided to make two oven mitts - one is creepy themed and the other is not. First the non-creepy one.

Once Vany told me she really liked glasses, so this glasses fabric was the starting point. The polka dot fabric was given to me by Emi before she went overseas and the other fabric was  left over from a skirt I made my niece Sophiia a couple of years ago.

The oven mitts are pretty simple, cut our nine squares of fabric, sew them together and then add some batting and a backing.

The second oven mitt I made was more creepy with fabric scraps from my Meg dress and Monster Mash Dress. The other skull fabric I recieved in a swap a while back, but I only got a half a metre and as the sewing I do is mostly dress-making I didn't have a chance to use it.

Here's the final product, hopefully Vany will get some use out of these, even if the sewing isn't perfect. I'm still struggling a bit with the precision required for quilting projects - I'm not the most precise sewist.

Next is day six - which is a day of bought supplies, rather than handmade items.  This package included this sewing themed fabric, so patches (they are little bat devils), a skull notebook, some bia binding and a pencil with a "mace" eraser.

Well that's ALMOST it, only one more Halloween swap package to go!

Halloween Swap - Day Four

If you guys have been following my blog for a while you will know that a swap package from me is not complete unless it contains some kind of cross-stitch. I've cross-stitched for years and years but in the last five years or so I've become  really impressed with all the cross-stitch patterns on esty. There are so many cool indie artists (including Rich of course) sharing their designs with the world.

You can get a cross-stitch pattern for pretty much ANYTHING you want and there are a tonne of great horror themed ones, which kind of left me stumped as to what I wanted to make.

However, for some reason this Freddy Krueger design was calling my name, I love the original Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddy is such an iconic horror character.

 I'm not too sure what else to say about this one - I hope that Vany likes it! I kind of wanted to keep it.

Also I included this cute lazer cut necklace with the day four package - because you always need to include a fun extra or two! I can't believe I'm over half way through blogging about my Halloween package makes already, only three more days to go.

Halloween Swap - Day Three

When I was going through my stash picking out all the "creepy" fabric to get some inspiration for Vany's package I realised I had a lot of smaller pieces of fabric that was lying around from past projects. I decided that all this fabric needed to be put to good use, in some kind of patchwork project.

I had a look through my craft and sewing books and decided to make a "friendship scarf" from Sew La Tea Do.

I started by cutting out the squares for the scarf and yes, there is still MORE fabric left over from my Meg Dress as well as some scraps from my kawaii high tea outfit.

I backed the scarf with more fabric that was used in my kawaii high tea outfit. Once I sewed it all up the scarf was complete! I'm not sure it will be that useful in the German winter, but I hope Vany can use it in Autumn.

Also for an item of clothing, even a scarf, its good to include an action shot. Kuromi volunteered for the job.

I also added a couple of extras here - in the form of some sugar skulls! First up is a little hand warmer. I used to love these things in the Korean winter, it doesn't really get cold enough here in Wellington to use them, but I am sure Vany will appreciate it in the German winter.

Seen as I was already including one sugar skull extra, I figured I may include another when I found this fun tin with lollies in it, I wanted one of these for myself too - but I managed to resist.

Halloween Swap 2015 - Day Two

Onto day two of the Halloween package I made up for Vany this year. Sometimes when I'm sewing or crafting I find the little things are the most difficult. As in I can whip up a shift dress, but making a little purse makes me want to throw things. For day two of the swap I made a little purse and I really wanted to throw things!!

I found the pattern and instructions for this purse from a sewing mag I found in a local bookstore.

The magazine included all the materials to make the purse, but I switched up the fabric and used some more of my Meg dress fabric for the outside of the purse.

Sure it doesn't look so difficult, but it ended up being a total nightmare. Thankfully the final result was pretty rad.

I also made a simple tote from this fabric for day two's package, but I forgot to take photos of the finished tote - whoops!

I also added a couple of extras to this package, these zombie socks (another Pete's Emporium purchase) and these little wooden skulls.

Here's all the day two goodies packaged up ready to go - I really hope Vany likes the wee purse I made, it certainly was a challenge.

Halloween Swap 2015 - Day One

If you have followed by blog for a while you will know about my annual Halloween swap with Vany AKA the craft ninja. I'm usually pretty good at posting photos of the things Vany gives me (because they are always mind-blowing) but I'm usually less good at sharing what I made/sent.

I decided this year I would change all that and actually make an effort to record what I made for Vany (WHAATTT??). First up are these embroidery hoop storage thingees. That's what you officially call them. I didn't make this idea up at all, I remember seeing a tutorial for it and I was sure I pinned it to pintrest, but I can't find it anywhere.

Anyway this type of storage really appealed to me, because when I am sewing I am always losing the "little things" like snaps and hooks and eyes. I thought these hoops would be a good place to store things like that.

Hopefully Vany finds them useful for storage and fun too. The first hoop I made was from this zombie themed fabric I bought from our local craft store, Made Marion Craft.

The polka dot fabric was given to me by my friend Emi before she moved overseas, I've only had a small amount of this, nothing big enough for dress making but perfect for a wee project like this.

The first step was to make a little pocket from the zombie, I  just eyeballed it to get the size right.

Then just get rid of the excess fabric and you've got a cute pocket, hoopla, storage type thing.

Of course I couldn't send this away to Vany without any sewing treats! I  included these snaps  I picked up at an op shop and these shiny bats and spiders from Pete's Emporium.

I also added some ric rac for hanging, because ric rac is the best. I liked the first one I made so much, I decided to make another. This time with the left over fabric from my Meg dress (this has been sitting around for a while, I just couldn't let go of the scraps). I'm not even sure where the black fabric came from!

I had to add some sewing treats to this one too, some self covering buttons and these creepy little dudes.

Here's the hoops "in action" on the door handle of my craft room - I'm sure they would look cool hung together on a wall.

I also decided to send this fabric along with day one as an extra, its also from Made Marion Craft.

That's day one complete! I almost forgot, this year we decided to "only" do seven days rather than 13. Day one down - six more to go.