My Busy Craft Life

Hello again! So last time I showed you how I made Totoro. I ended up making yet another doll / pillow from the same movie for the same friend! I think this was a present for a combination of life events, and I knew she would love this. This time, I made Catbus! (if you don't know what Catbus looks like, please Google it as there are so many references out there! Or better yet: watch the movie, you will love it!) Again, I went shopping for fabric... at least this time I knew what I needed, the wool was just perfect, I just had to find the right colours. Catbus has various shades of brown and a bright yellow. The brown was easy but I couldn't find yellow anywhere... In the end I opted for yellow felt which worked as well. Not the tiny squares of craft felt, no the proper felt on a roll. It seemed stronger, and the colour was perfect. Sadly this time there was no tutorial, but I did find a pillow on ebay that served as inspiration for this project. Ok, I mostly copied it... M...

Hi again my avid followers! It's time for some projects with NEW fabrics!! Well, this project has actually been done a few years ago, but I did go shopping for it especially and I'm really proud of how it came out, so yay! Way back when (not THAT long ago, although right now it feels like it... ), I discovered that my friend and colleague was a huge fan of the movie My Neighbor Totoro. So I wanted to make her a proper big Totoro, as I knew she'd been looking for one but those things are expensive! I mean £100 and upwards if you want a nice one. Off to the shop I went in search for the perfect fabric, and I came across this fake wool fabric. I'm sure there is a proper name for it, but this stuff is great. It feels as soft as proper wool fabric but it's machine washable. Perfect for a doll. Really, doll is so not the right word for this, more like: stuffed animal I guess? Let's just call it what it is: Totoro! I found the perfect shades of dark grey and crea...

Hello again! I'll admit it, I'm actually pre-blogging this while I remember to share some more creations with you ;) Otherwise life will get in the way again! Kudos to all of you who do this regularly and still manage to keep up with work/chores/hobbies/etc. Many, many years ago, I bought a few fabric panels on ebay with doll templates. One of them I made in 2010, and while I was convinced I blogged about this at the time, I cannot find the post so I probably didn't... Ooops... In any case, that doll has been sitting in my sewing corner for many years, while her sister has just been folded up in my stash. Not anymore! I finally took her out and completed another project. Now that I have more supplies like different colours of yarn for hair etc, I actually like the new doll better! So without further ado, let me introduce you to Willa the Witch: Isn't she just the cutest?  I tried taking photos in the few days where we actually had no sun, so that probably ...

Hi again everyone!! This weekly blogging has not really happened as of late, so sorry about that! Lots of things happening here, some things crazier than other. Last week I was in hospital with kidney stones! There is something I was not expecting at all... Feeling much better now, so hoping it stays that way and I can take up the activity that is life again :) Back to business: sewing!! My stash has actually dwindled a bit with all the recent projects, and there are even more to come. Although I have to admit that I also went shopping for more fabric not too long ago... but this is another #makeyourstash post, so let me show you what I made with bits of jersey. I just love jersey... Over the years, despite not having an overlocker or having ever sewn with jersey, I managed to gather quite a bit... and somehow ALL of it is striped. One can only wear so much striped jersey, and after the grey striped jersey maxidress , I wasn't sure what else to make. So I checked my stash and ...

Hi again! Many many moons ago, about 12 years ago actually, I visited San Francisco. While there, I thought it would be a great idea to go the largest (or that's what my guide book said anyway) flea market in San Jose. Because that would be so easy to get to without a car ;) A few hours later, I made it there though and had a stroll through the market in the insane heat. I remember buying an enormous bag of chili peppers, and of course: some fabric. I found this fabulous black and grey striped jersey for only $1 a yard! At the time, I really only made big poofy dresses and even though I had never sewn with jersey, I thought this would be perfect for a big poofy dress. So I bought 10 yards, as you do.... Once I'd bought the fabric I headed the long wayback to SF as this fabric was heavy, schlepped it back home to the UK after the holiday, where it has been in my stash ever since. Making a big poofy dress with jersey was really not a great idea really, and it would be a few ye...

Hello again my loyal readers! Of course the minute I write about blogging weekly, I then don't actually get around to blogging weekly. Oops! But then again the weather has been improving, which also meant I could finally take my new dress on its first outing :) I bought this amazing blue linen fabric at one of the medieval festivals with every intention of making a nice medieval dress from it. Many many years ago... it just never happened. Of course I bought like way too much fabric, I think I have about 4 meters of it. The fabric was quite stuff and for some reason I took great offense when even washing and extra fabric softener didn't help very much. So it was in the stash for a loooong time. Until one day, I found the PERFECT pattern for it! I just happened to come across this pattern and it was ideal. I may have been biased as the picture on the pattern pretty much showed the finished dress already ;) You may have noticed I don't usually sew a lot of 'norma...

Hello again everyone! It's becoming tradition to blog on  Saturday evening ;) Well, as far as you can call three weeks in a tow a tradition anyway... In today's #MakeYourStash challenge, I made a super easy maxi skirt. I received this fabric from a friend who had a stash of original 70s fabric lying around and was having a clear out, so I could take my pick. So many great fabrics!! Some shocking ones also, don't get me wrong. These were the seventies after all. Of course I just had to pick this fabric with the giant purple flowers! So this fbric was in my friend's stash for many many years, and possibly in someone else's before then... Have you ever noticed that unused fabric travels between friends? That is so cool! It then took me at least 2 years to decide on what to make with this... It had to be the perfect item as I love the colours of this fabric so much! It's this super fake stretchy material, not unlike jersey, but obviously from 40-50 years ago so ...

Good morning my lovely readers¬ It's the bank holiday weekend and the weather is turning out wonderful! I'll get to take more photos of my creations in the sun :) Today I wanted to show you the other project I made for which I had bought the Insulbrite in the first place. That's a hard thing to find here in the UK if not online, so when I happened to find it at one of the sewing shows I was delighted. I found this tutorial on Pinterest a while back, and as I normally store my iron in its original box which apparently is not a good thing, I thought this would make a wonderful storage for it. I remember thinking at the time: why would this be a travel caddy? Who travels with their iron?? It turns out: I do! Well, I don't travel with it meaning I leave the house, but I do move it around the house so in a way it travels a bit. A while back, a friend visited my in good ol' London and we went fabric shopping. We both crushed on this purple button fabric, so we bo...

Hello again everyone! This idea of blogging more didn't really happen yet as my last post was already over a month ago. Time flies when you're making things! I'm also realising that I'm starting every post with the same sentence in a way so let's not focus on delays with blogging anymore. Instead let's focus on all the cool stuff I made! On a friend's blog I found this challenge: ' Make Your Stash '. It even has its own hashtag! How cool is that? The challenge ran until today actually so I'm a little late to jump on the bandwagon, but let just extend it for this blog's sake. Mostly because I've been flying through my stash! Which simultaneously is a great thing as I'm using up fabric that's been lying around and therefore creating space, and a bad thing as new items take away space. I can't win! Last week our annual 3 days of summer arrived in London. We had a minor heatwave (really bad for the marathon but lovely for ev...

Hi everyone! It's finally done! OK, it was done a little while ago (in 2016 to be exact as I've just discovered on my Facebook memories), but it took a long time to find the right frame so now I can finally display my beautiful Haunted House Cross Stitch :) This is it, hanging in my hallway. This project took my about 4 years, although I didn't work on it every day so I can't actually tell you how many hours are in this. Let me give you some closeups:  I was so pleased when it was done! This was taken at the craft group, most of this cross stitch was done here so it was only fitting to have the grand unveiling here too   I found a frame in Walthamstow and getting it home is a whole story on its own, but I think it's perfect! It is just the right amount of ol and creepy.  The next project is already underway, so hopefully soon I'll be able to post an update on that too!