Ahoy there!

I made this pirate applique a few weeks ago, but I couldn't blog about it until the birthday boy had opened it! This was very difficult as I am naturally a big show-off!

I do love drawstring bags - useful for practically anything!

The pirate fabric was purchased on ebay, and the green and blue spotty cotton was left over from another birthday project.

The sea and sky came from my scrap box, and the boat hull was cut from an outgrown shirt.

And the teeny fish buttons were a lucky find while rummaging through my box of scrapbooking embellishments.

A perfect present for a special little boy's first birthday :)

Handmade Thursday - Pimped up Button Jar

My button jar is now a pincushion too!!

This was so simple - just a circle of fabric (about three times the diameter of the jar lid) with a quick running stitch all around the edge. Stuff with wadding, pull stitching tight and tie off.
Then you just glue it onto the lid, I used a hot glue gun.
To finish off I glued two lengths of ribbon around the base of the lid and covered the join with a glued on button.

I have had to tidy my sewing desk to give it pride of place :)

More Handmade Thursdays at http://whitelilygreen.blogspot.com.

Making Art - for the first time in about 20 years!

Today I bought a canvas in the 99p store. (Yes, it was 99p.)

I painted in with the pink emulsion which I used for the kitchen.

Unfortunately the pink paint had gone all grainy and stiff, but I was planning a rustic finish so that was okay!

I painted the rest with some old acrylic paints, and hey presto, a lovely piece of artwork for my kitchen!

And it only cost 99p!

Handmade Thursday - Note to self; button sewing is tedious

I have made myself some bed cushions.

I finished the front one today, having decided it would be nice to embellish it with a nice heart motif.

I'd forgotten how I'm not a big fan of hand sewing - especially not button sewing!

Still, it's done now, and I quite like it.

(Husband not so pleased, pointless, flowery cushions are not a man thing.)

More Handmade Thursdays at  White Lily Green (which is a lovely blog I have recently discovered.)

It started with a vest...

In this case a slightly grey boy's vest which had done that annoying twisty thing on the seams ... but I decided to make it into a dress.

It was too wide for Poppy so I chopped the sides off and some of the length.

My idea was to sew some tiers of pretty fabric onto it. If you are a child of the 70's you will probably remember an item of clothing which had a nylon vest top and a tartan kilty skirt attached to the bottom. This is the same idea - a skirt attached to a vest, supposed to be worn with a t-shirt over the top.

So it doesn't matter what the vest is like - that bit gets covered up.
I think it has worked quite well as an experiment - I have to admit is rather snug for Poppy and only just fits. I should have allowed more width to get it on and off more easily.

Pussycat Applique

I've made this cat motif for a plain t-shirt of Poppy's.

I quite like the end product but I'm not keen on the faffiness of applique - drawing out the right shapes, choosing the right fabric, embellishing with pretty bits. It's not speedy enough for me - this little cat t-shirt took about an hour.

The main fabric is taken from a much loved outgrown blouse, and I very much like the fact applique is a way to preserve those silly sentimentalities a little bit longer.

I always dreamt of being a designer, darling.

(Not the greatest photo ever; blame the 6 year old photographer.)

I've made myself another top, from a piece of jersey type fabric my Mum gave me at the weekend.

It is basically two rectangles of fabric (quite a bit bigger than my body to allow for gathers) which I've sewn together into a tube.

Then I made a channel around the top edge and threaded through some fairly wide elastic.

I then added some straps, and hemmed all around the bottom.

It's very comfy and cool, disguising my mummy tummy!!

Actually this would work well as a pattern to make a maternity top, just using wider pieces of fabric and more gathers at the top.

(I would like to stress here I am NOT pregnant!)