What Autumn tastes like

I've made this more times than I can count in the past few weeks.  Well, not quite, but rather alot. When you're frying bacon, toasting pine nuts and roasting sweet potatoes all at the same time, your house smells insane.  Add baby spinach and a home-made garlic and basil mayonnaise, some crusty oven-warm bread and a glass of red, and it is dangerously close to perfect.  It all tastes even better when the air is getting crispy outside, and you're closed up in your cosy little home wearing a pair of striped woolly bed socks, listening to Laura Fygi's Rendez-vous, all while having nowhere else to go.  Heaven.

Autumn, you took forever to arrive and you're leaving in three days.  Don't go!  If you never went away, it's true that I would be the happiest girl on Earth. 

Black and white outfit for Sophie May

I found this lovely scrap of black and white Japanese lawn,  and thought I'd give the tunic pattern another go.  Although I love the top I made for Sophie earlier this year, I thought it could do with less volume and a little more length, so it could be worn without displaying her Huggies-bum. 

This was such a gorgeous, light fabric to work with.  Not winter-weight mind you, but this will still fit her in the spring.   I really loved that it's a black and white floral print which is something you don't see every day - pretty, but not too girly-girly.

To go with it, I made a pair of leggings out of a stretchy black t-shirt and to add a small pop of colour, a little bright pink bow pin, that can be removed.  

All up, I think the whole outfit cost me five dollars to make.   Not bad.  But it's time to give this pattern a bit of a break, now, I think.  It's getting way too cold for these light-weight spring-time blouses.  So, I'm off to pour myself a nice hot cup of tea and will be spending the rest of my evening poring over my collection of vintage children's patterns and sketchbooks.  Gosh, I love my nights at home.

Make a star-topped wand - tutorial

Lately, Sophie May has been watching Abby Cadabby and trying her hand at some wand waving of her own.  My daughter is a resourceful little thing, and apparently figured anything long with a rounded end would do.  After a rummage through the kitchen utensil drawer, she chose the soup ladle as her improvised wand, much to the horror of her brother, who copped it in the forehead.   Ouch.

I thought it might be better if she had a softer option.  Cameron thought it was a good idea, too.

Note!   All pattern pieces include a 0.5cm seam allowance.

Measure on a piece of paper a pattern piece for your wand.  Mine measures 45cm x 5cm.  You may want to make it a little shorter so it doesn’t wonk about (we like it that way!!)   Round off corners at one end.  You’ll need to cut 2 of these, so you’ll need a cotton fabric scrap that will accommodate the size of this pattern piece by two.

Print off a copy of this rough-as-guts star template (click on image to view full size, then save to your computer and print).  You'll need a scrap of about 40cm by 20cm.  You may want to use different fabrics for the front and back.

You’ll need some wadding – the cheap stuff is fine.  You’ll need to cut two star shapes out of this so it needs to be about 40cm x 20cm as well.

Poly-fibre- stuffing – filling-stuff.  The fluffy stuff you use to fill your soft toys.  I don’t know what it’s called exactly, but you know the stuff I mean.

Ribbon for making a decorative bow under the star.

Optional things:

A small length of thin ribbon, elastic, bought or home-sewn binding to make a hanging loop, if you want include one.   About 7-8cm long.

Embroidery floss, safety eyes (or buttons if your child is older), powder blush, etc. if you want to give your wand a face.

A jingle bell or small rattle-box.  Which makes for a great effect when bopping someone on the head with your wand.  But probably better for older kids, unless you have absolute confidence  that your child will not be able to rip your wand apart.  Sophie tends to give things a cursory glance and going over before chucking them over her shoulder and moving on to the next thing.  Cameron was more a picker and a puller (and still is, at seven).  You know your child best, so include (or not) the optional extras that best suit  your child.

Take the long fabric scrap you’ve chosen for your wand and fold in half.  Place your wand pattern piece on fabric, pin and cut out.   If you are including a hanging loop, take the ribbon, elastic or binding you’ve chosen, fold in half widthways and baste to centre of the end with the curved corners, on the right side of the fabric.

Place the two wand pieces right sides together and stitch down one long side, around the curve end and up the other side.

 

Turn right side out and stuff firmly, using the blunt end of a pencil or something similar to help you cram that stuffing in nice and tight.  Once its all stuffed right to the top, run a gathering stitch around the top several times, pulling it tight and closing it off.

For the star, fold your fabric in half right sides together, pin the pattern piece on and cut out.  Mark the opening at the bottom of the star where the wand piece is going to be inserted.  (Note:  If this wand is for a child under three, it's best to insert safety eyes or embroider French knots for eyes at this stage.  I am not an embroidery expert, and am using buttons for eyes, which I'm sewing on later, so  you’ll have to google French knots – sorry)

Now, I find it a good idea to reinforce the bottom of the star, where the opening is with stitching, because you will have to clip into that bottom  ‘crotch’ point when you push your star onto the wand.  If you don’t clip it, the crotch will be rounded and look a bit weird.  Take each star piece separately and within the bit you’ve marked as the opening, straight stitch along the edge, and into that corner, remembering the 0.5cm seam allowance.  Sorry for the dodgy diagram, I forgot to photograph this!

Fold your wadding in half so that it is a double layer.  Place your star pieces right sides together, making sure those re-inforced bottoms are together, and pin the fabric star shapes onto the wadding.

 

 With fabric star shapes uppermost and the two layers of wadding at the bottom, stitch around your star using the 0.5cm seam allowance (you will have to use the edge of your sewing machine foot as a guide, because the wadding will be covering your machine’s seam allowance guide), remembering to leave the marked opening unsewn.  Remember the stars points are not pointy, but rounded.  Rounded points (I know – oxy-moronic!) will shape nicer on turning.  Once stitched, trim the wadding back as far as you can along the seam lines without cutting your fabric, clip around curves and clip into corners.

 

Turn your star shape carefully, starting with one of the star’s bottom arms, and carrying one one arm at a time until they are all turned.  Gently poke the wrong end of a pencil into each arm to make sure they are fully turned out.

Put a bit of stuffing into the arms of  your star, and its body  to round it out a bit, but don’t fill too firmly.  Put your jingle bell or rattler in their if your using one making sure to pop it withing some stuffing so it can’t be felt too much through the fabric.

Clip into the corner of the reinforcement stitching you made into the bottom of  your star carefully,.  Insert the wand piece into the star piece (there is no delicate way of doing this, just jam and screw!), and fold those seam allowances in to form a nice angle.

 

Pin them in until your pleased with how that bottom looks and stitch the star to the wand using a blind stitch (go around several times to make sure its on nice and firm).

If you are using buttons for eyes, you can sew them on now.  Thread a large needle with strong thread, and take it through where the base of the star meets the wand at centre front and out through the star in the position you want the first eye attached. Thread your button on, then re-insert the needle under the button through the star and pull out in the position you want the second eye.

 

Pull slightly to indent the buttons, and take the needle through the buttons and the fabric back and forth a couple of times, so that eyes are secure.  Bring needle out through the star's base where you started, oversew a couple of times to secure, and snip thread off.

And look, my advanced embroidery skills come to the fore again in the form of a wide, shallow fly stitch for the mouth!  That's about as hard as it gets for me!

Make a bow with your ribbon and stitch it on at the join.  That will help cover up those bits of thread that went through there when the eyes were sewn on.  And it looks pretty!

 

If your wand has a face you may want to put some blush on its cheeks.  If the wand is intended for an older child, you could pretty it up with some sequins or beads (perhaps they could help with the decorating).  Or you could tuck five or six lengths of thin colourful ribbon into the star before stitching it to the end of the wand, to create a magic trail when it’s waved.

All done.  And much softer than a soup ladle.  Time for the bashings magic to begin!

Have a safe and magical weekend!

Toddler leggings from t-shirts

I am absolutely for certain not ever going to have another baby, so it's time to say ta-ta to the preggers wardrobe once and for all.  But all those lovely stretchy, maternity t-shirts aren't leaving my house just yet; they are perfect for slicing up and sewing into tights for Sophie May.

I've made about four pair in the last couple of days, in stripes and plain colours, but the light is a bit bleak for taking photos indoors, what with all those lovely big, fat rainclouds gathering outside.  So these are the only pictures worth uploading.

These are an easy make; you basically just trace a pattern from an existing pair of leggings, cut them from your tee and sew them up.  I was going to write a tutorial for you, but the official excuse is, as already mentioned, the light for snapping pictures indoors is way too grouchy.   Moreover, my lovely one-year-old cyclone of a daughter busted my chops today (not literally, albeit she is the type to do so literally, though always with a smile!), and after cleaning up that mess, I am in the mood for being bone-lazy.  Luckily, there's already a great tutorial here, with easy instructions and lots of lovely, sunny-day type pictures, so there's no need for me to write one - hooray!

And, if you don't have many stretchy tees, hit the local op-shops and see what you can find.  There must be scores of different shades and patterns out there!  I found a rather loud t-shirt with stripes in two shades of hot pink, grey and blue, which should make for a pair of legs that are very easy to spot.  (Which will be especially useful now that Sophie is running.  Everywhere!)