Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day folks! Rich and I didn't really celebrate this year as we were stranded at an airport Monday and Tuesday, so didn't feel much like celebrating on actual Valentines Day - but we do have some plans on Saturday.

Although, I did come home to a "Snarky Valentines" swap package from a swap I recently did on Craftster and it was pretty great. First up is this snarky handmade garland with some conservation hearts.

I also got this cute handmade card (which I'm thinking I may frame) and some "conversation heart" jelly beans!

I've been trying to do Facebook/Instagram posts of Mia for each holiday/season, as we'd been trapped away from home in the days leading up to valentines I didn't have time to make/buy anything - but then this snarky garland arrived just in time!

I hope you all had a lovely Valentines regardless of what you did (or didn't do!).

Woodland Creatures Swap

At the end of last year I had pretty much lost interest in doing swaps on Craftster as pretty much none interested me! However, this year there's been a bunch of different swaps I've wanted to do. The most recent package I've completed, that has now been received by my partner was for a Woodland Creature Swap.

I made my partner an adorable hoop, the cross stitch design is another from Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. The pattern is called "Quilters Love Fall" and I  thought it was a very woodland design - even if the main woodland creature is a human.

I also made a bunch of pouches, because I'm pretty into making pouches right now and I want to use all the fabric (and there's a lot that needs using!).

First up is this little flowery zipper purse. The outside fabric and zipper pull were both fabric-a-brac finds. The wee pocket is made from fabric-a-brac fabric too, its made from the scraps of my well composed dress.

This adorable ribbon was part of the wrapping on a present Alicia sent me, Alicia uses the best ribbon which I hoard in the hope I will get around to using in  craft projects. I actually used some for this project so hurrah!

Finally my partner said she likes bunnies so I lined this purse with bunny fabric that I bought from Fabric Destash Central - I only bought a small amount of fabric, so it was perfect for lining.

The second purse is made from fabric that may be familiar, I picked this up at a recent fabric swap. I picked the fabric up for the sole purpose of using in this swap and I actually used it, rather than letter in hang out in my "cave" for no reason.

This purse is also fully lined with fabric I received in a swap shortly after we moved into the house, so I've had it for a year - so its not too bad in terms of hoarding. Right?

I also made a third drawstring pouch that I didn't take a separate photo of, but it's made from some cute mushroom print fabric I also got from fabric destash central and trimmed with more of Alicia's ribbon. The drawstring itself is ribbon that I've had forever!

So that's it, another swap package! I have to say I was pretty happy with the cross stitch and all the pouches. I love sewing them right now - who wants one?

Make a Purse and fill it swap

Here's yet another swap I did recently, this one was through Craftster - I'm kind of on a "swap/craft kick" at the moment, which is a good place to be! Although I am doing less garment sewing - I need to fit this as soon as I'm fully recovered!

Anyway back to the current swap - like the title says - the basic idea of this swap is to make a bag/purse/tote/whatever and fill it. For some weird reason I'm always had a bit of a fear of making bags, I  don't know why. I have made plenty of simple totes but nothing more complex.

I wanted to do this swap for two reasons, firstly make a bag more complex than a tote and secondly use up some of my fabric stash. I primarily sew garments and so most of my fabric should REALLY be at least 1.5 metres, however, I got into the habit last year of buying smaller lengths of fabric from an online Facebook group, Usually because the fabric was so cute I HAD to have it!! But theswn as a garment sewer I never really used these smaller lengths - I mean if its less than a metre I can at least make something for one of my friends kids or my niece or nephew, however, what am I even DOING with fat quarters?

I was really happy with the things I made for the swap and I managed to smash (a little) of the little bits of fabric in my stash and concur my bag making fear.

This swap required a bag to be made for your swap  partner as well as three small items for inside the bag, when I received my partners questionnaire it said she wanted a messenger bag (yikes) and that she liked bright colours (YES! I had that part covered!).

THE BAG

 Look guys!! I made a bag and its actually pretty awesome! I got the instructions for this from "Love Sewing Australia" which has now apparently shut up shop (but there is still a UK version I think), the instructions for the bag were in Issue 9 if anyone is interested.

The outside fabric was bought from this Facebook group,  I bought about a metre and always meant to buy some other fabric to go with it as have it as a "feature" fabric on a garment, but that never happened. I'm happy it never happened now because it makes an AMAZING bag!

I added a front pocket in the same fabric, I didn't make too much effort to match the pattern as the pattern is kind of crazy. Plus I figure you don't want the pocket of your bag too hidden, right?

I lined the inside of the bag with some purple cotton from Arthur Toye Fabrics (RIP) and added another pocket as well - because bags need pockets! As you've realised by now, I really loved this bag and it was genuiely hard to sent it off to its new home. But that's ok, because I can make more.

COIN PURSE

One of the other things my partner said she would like in this swap was a coin purse - so I decided to make one. I had a flick through some craft books and dug through my stash and found a good pattern and some fantastic fabric,

I decided to make this change purse from Sew Retro which is a book I bought from a second hand store when we were in Oregon last year. My version is kind of deeper that the version in the book (I would recommend this book by the way, its a fun mix of history and fabrics). As my partner liked colours I chose this AMAZING bright star fabric I picked  up at a swap literally years ago. The other light blue star fabric is from fabric-a-brac and I've used it before here, I also decided to use this glitter ric rac which is also from fabric-a-brac and I used it previously here.

This was a pretty simple project, taken to the next level with both stars and glitter!

CRAFT SUPPLY ROLL

Another thing I wanted to make for the bag was a "craft supply roll" - I guess kind of like one of those jewellery rolls that some people take traveling but for craft stuff for projects on the go (or for when you are going to a crafternoon at a friends house).

I found what I was looking for in a book I've had for YEARS, I think I might have got it from Borders Books when it still existed. If anyone is interested this is The Crafter Culture Handbook and it includes instructions for a crafty tool pack - or craft supply roll as I like to call it! The next step was to choose some suitably bright fabrics.

You've seen three of these already, the neon arrow fabric was given to me by my friend Emma and the unicorn fabric (how good is that fabric) was from the same Facebook group I bought the main bag fabric on.

When I had cut out all the different pieces of fabric, this one was actually pretty easy to sew together. I included a few little crafty bits and pieces for my swap partner in the finished craft roll.

Here's a final shot of the craft supply roll all rolled up, the ribbon is from a pack of ribbons I bought years ago from Warehouse Stationary.

SNACK POUCH

The final, and probably least interesting thing I made for this swap was a snack pouch. There's not too much to be said for the pouch, its a drawstring pouch.

However, as it is a snack pouch, it needed appropriate food related fabric! I used a fat quarter I had bought from Pete's Emporium in Porirua at some point. This fabric is SO CUTE! Which is why I guess I felt the need to buy it, even though there was only a fat quarter - I'm glad I've finally put it to good use.

Well that's all for this swap, I do have a few others "on the boil" so to speak, here's to "smashing the fabric stash" in 2016.

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 2015!

Hello All and Happy Halloween!! I hope you all have some kind of creepy fun times planned today. I've going out to lunch with my lovely club friends in theme and then a few of us are heading to Tretham for the Pet Festival, apparently there is a costume competition for pets. I'm pretty excited about that.

Anyways I thought I'd share a post today of the things I received from Vany craft ninja for our Halloween swap this year.

Due to the cost of postage and well, LIFE being busy we decided to cut down our number of swap days from 13 days to a week. Still a week of Halloween is still a pretty great time!

DAY ONE

This is day one's package, which I was really puzzled by, I mean what could be in HERE! One big box and a bunch of pod shaped packages?

The big package was these Hello Kitty kinder surprises - Vany told me about these ages ago. I was so happy to have a box of my own.

But guess what was in all the pod shaped packages? A bunch more Kinder Surprise capsules, fulled with Hello Kitties.

This little dude was  also  in one of the capsules, he's a Natoons character.

This package was so much fun to open, who doesn't love a package made up of a heap of tiny packages.  Also so much Kitty - yah!

DAY TWO

Day two came in its very own box with three wrapped packages inside - two small ones  and one big one. What was in the smaller packages?

 Inside the first small package with this this cute Hello Kitty skeleton patch - I LOVE the wee bow.

The second little package was this ADORABLE My Melody ghost patch - its one of the cutest things ever. I love it.

What was in the big package? My favourite German chocolate - so delicious!

DAY THREE 

On day three I found a note from Vany that I had totally missed previously! This is our third year of swapping at Halloween times, hard to believe!

 Here's the package for day three - what's inside?

Something to reflect my love of lavender and visiting lavender farms! Some really beautiful soap! She also made these two cute scent sachets filled with lavender - skully bird and bunny.

DAY FOUR

 Day four was a day of craft supplies that included a DIY felt bird kit, very cool shark ruler, cross-stitch phone charm and creepy cute patch.

DAY FIVE

Day five was a cross-stitch day and included this awesome "What we do in the Shadows" cross-stitch.

DAY SIX

Day six was a day for all thing tea related! I received a box of tea, complete with a skeleton dressed as a bunny and a little plate for putting used tea bags on. I have a bunch of teas from Germany to try now!

DAY SEVEN

Vany has made me SO MANY amazing things over the year, but this was really next level. I don't know how she got so many things I love into one item (and also how she new my current bunny slippers were totally past it).

 That's right people, she made me zombie bunny slippers and in case you were wondering, the nose is a tiny skull.

The bottom of the slippers says "zombunny"  obviously! So amazing!

Well that's it for my Halloween swap package from Vany - pretty amazing right? I'm excited for next year already!