Throw pillow

 So Jackson is always holding a pillow. HE sits on the lounge he grabs a pillow, he lays on his bed to do something he grabs a pillow, he sits on the floor he will scramble for the nearest pillow, and not only does he have to always hold one he chews the corner of it!!! so charna in her wisdom wanted to make Jackson his own throw pillow. Very easy two squares of fabric sew it together. Add a zip don't add a zip its your choice. Ha but lets be completely honest now! last week in our supply shop i found these for $5. we compared prices and the insert alone for this size is $3.99 and for an extra $1.01 the cover was sewn already. So Charna had a  blank canvas to work with and the only thing she wanted to do was put his initials on the front and a heart on the back. If we decided a while ago to do these im not sure if i would have taken this pre made short cut but really $5 for a pre covered cushion in a quality fabric i couldn't walk past it!!

PJs for Pop

These are the Pjs Charna wanted to make for poppy. I suggested a multitude of different things but this is what her heart was set on. I wasn't even sure if i had enough fabric (in boy colours) that would make a pair that would fit him. So after an extensive search we found this lovely pattern in an amount that would clothe a country, i hope he likes them!.

Activity Case

Well She has to be done soon!! Charna again. I have to admit i did most of the sewing here but charna did all the cutting. i make a clear zippered purse that is smaller than this that goes with my nappy bag i sell. And charna was stuck on making a big one for Kealin to keep all his craft stuff in. The circles inside are old crayons melted down. I saw the idea years ago on Martha Stewart. You cut the crayons into pea sized pieces into a cake tin shape if your choice (i chose these little cake ones) melt them i a warm oven, take them out and as the cool they will release themselves. Other wise pop them in the fridge they will come straight out. And then she printed up some pictures of some Dinos for him. Simple but smart hey!

Stuffed Dinosaur

 Another gift my talented daughter has made, was this dinosaur. She used the same method  used for the stuffed bear. We drew the "best" dino we could onto some scrap paper cut it out and then found some cute fabric, pinned down the dino, cut around the dino. Then Charna drew a long line of the spikes and sewed them. Tthen with the help of mummy we pinned the spikes into the dino and then sewed it up leaving an opening at the belly to stuff. Mumma sewed up the opening and attached the eyes Whalla! a present for TyTy

Stuffed Teddy Bear

 So this is a teddy Charna made for one of her little brothers. It stands about 40cm high and was so easy to make. She even sewed on the nose and mouth. I helped her with the eyes as "they can be tricky" : )

To make the bear we researched stuffed bears on the internet and decided that this shape would be best. Mummy free hand drew the shape and then cut it out. Charna chose the fabric and we layered them right sides together. Then we pined down our pattern, cut around it, and sewed it closed with a 1/2 inch seam, leaving a 3 inch opening on the leg and then Charna stuffed it!. How easy, it took her an hour and I know the baby will love it.

Sewing lessons

So Charna, my one and only daughter has been bugging me for literally a couple of years to teach her how to sew, every time i pull out the gear she is on me. I was watching Australias got talent the other night and this amazing young boy was playing the piano. It got me thinking that if a kid can be taught that kind of skill at that age i could definitely teach my daughter how to sew. This morning i got up feeling very calm, and in a patient kind of mood, and i thought to myself today is the day i will teach my daughter to sew.

Shaggie Quilt

Ok time to pass the torch. This sewing machine was my mums i only remember her having one sewing machine before this one. So when she got a new sewing machine i inherited this one. And so it goes i got a new one and i pass on the old. Look at her she seems so excited.

a little hug for the sewing machine, and my mum wanted me to give this one back to her and deprive her grand daughter this!!!.

After i went through all the setting up drills and safety talks it was time to let her at it. She loved it! I told her all the things she needed to know and then we practiced them for a few minutes. It took her only about 20mins to stop putting her actual foot down on the peddle before it connected that the foot was the little dooby nacky thing that lowers onto the fabric : ). Then it was time for straight lines and stopping and starting.

Then more practicing. At this stage she was making little "pockets" she called them. she was so cute. Then it was time to begin her learning project. I did put some thought into this and i came up with the Shaggy Quilt, its forgiving and only involves straight lines. We chose some fabric, flannel- 3 layers two that you like and one you don't need or that was cheap. In our case it was scraps from the scrap box.

Now to cut, I decided that 8" squares were big enough not to be fiddly but small enough to be cute. I did show her how to cut the fabric and she had a go, but the safest way i decided was to do it my self, and while i cut she practiced her stopping and starting, getting familiar with the machine. All together you need (for this quilt) was 36 squares of all fabrics.

It doesn't take long if you fold and cut layers piled together.

she wanted to take some credit for the cutting so here she put all the pieces together nicely for a photo.

Now to layer all the pieces. Start with one of the fabrics, because we only had two colours and we were alternating colours for front and back, it didn't matter what was on the bottom or top as long as the bottom was right side down and then the middle and then the top was right side up.

Im a mean mummy i had her do all 36 pieces. I know it could have discouraged her but i wanted her to know that this was an important step, she was fine.

Now to the sewing. sew in a line from one corner to another diagonally, in both directions. I have known people to sew a 1/2 to a 1" seam all the way around at this point also. Naughty mummy im teaching her short cuts already. We did not sew a border and we didn't even pin. What! flannel sticks really well to its self.

Look at those lines...I thought it would at least take her to till the maybe 15th square to sew this straight from one corner to the next.

Ice cream break with the boys. Man all that hard work poor dear.

Ok so once all the 36 square layers get sewn together its time to join. We joined 6 together in a long row, and like i said before we alternated the colours and i cant say what seam allowance we used, i thought it best at this point to have her line up the edge of the fabric layers with a line on the machine. Normally you would follow the border lines from earlier making your seam allowance about 1/2" to 1", and sew on the line from border. Make sure you have wrong sides facing as you want the raw edge to be on the top side of your quilt. That will be what you cut to make the "shag". She only had a few problems here with either coming in too far or out too far at the end on some of the squares. No biggy mummy unpicked while she got on with it.

Joining all those rows, i helped her pin them together and guided her as you need to sort of pull the pieces through over the joins.

Ok all joined together, and don't forget to sew all around the edge as i didn't get Charna to sew around each individual square, now to cut. we did 1cm slits you can choose to do whatever but i like the ruffle that measurement gives, don't cut through your sew lines very important! And as it turned out her hands weren't strong enough to cut through all those layers so i did this but she stood by me for every cut. Once we finished cutting we popped it into the wash to get those shaggy bits happening.

Fresh from the dryer all nice and warm. My little girl has had so much fun today, its built her confidence and showed me that kids really can do more than we give them credit for all we need is patience and a do-able project. Look at her snug as a bug in a rug!! (blanket).

She really did sew this blanket and look at it, its so good and in only one day. I know it seems like a big job but it really wasn't. It took all day because we had babies crying, lunch, visitors, phones calls. Give it a go its fun and so rewarding.