Baby bonnet

A simple baby bonnet for a toddler. A bit too simple, missing ruffles, lace or something! Simple to make, pattern my own (read: copied and combined from a few shop bought bonnets).

Did I stress the word "simple" enough?

Birthday gifts

This hat is the very same I made for Emma last year. This time I used a bit lighter pink and different colours for the flowers. The lining is made from my old pale pink tee shirt and is exactly the same colour as one of the petal layers in the flower. Coincidence, but a good one!

I made the hat for Emma's cousin and I also crocheted the same collar I made last year to go with the hat. This time I crocheted the ribbon instead of using silk since I noticed that the silk ribbon does not stay put and tying Emma's collar again and again (and she does not like to be disturbed all the time while running around and consequently did not help me very much...) every time she was wearing it made me realize that the original instruction to use crocheted ribbon was quite ok anyway, LOL.

Oh, these blurry pictures annoy me so much!

She's got talent! And momma is so proud...

 I was planning to show this to you already earlier but as you can see from the photo, my camera is still broken and it seems that I am not getting a new one very soon. I want a good camera and I need some time to think what I should buy. In the meantime, all my pictures are a bit blurry, sorry about that.

However, isn't this amazing! My 5 year old made this for me in her day care! Emma was so proud showing it to me and her instructor told me that she did not need any help. She helped others instead after she had finished hers. I am so proud of my little girl :)

New dress for Emma

Emma needed a new dress for her cousin's birthday party. This time I let her choose the fabric (from my stash) and she chose pink. After choosing the fabric I let her choose the pattern as well from my Japanese books and she likes this one the best. The pattern is from Happy Homemade Wardrobe, vol. 2 and so simple and nice. I used the same pattern for a dress last year. This time I omitted the sleeve ruffles and applique, I was in a hurry and both my serger and sewing machine were refusing to cooperate. My machines clearly need some loving care, I just have not had any time to get those fixed. Anyway, I think I am going to add pockets to this dress, it is a bit too plain for my taste.

I also made the ruffled leggings for her but those cannot be seen so clearly from these photos. They were a bit tight so the ruffles are not showing so well anyway. Next time I need to remember to make a bit looser leggings!

As you can see, the backside is a bit funny. As said, I was in a hurry and interpreted the instructions a bit wrong. However, it was a cold day and she was wearing a cardigan the whole day, so no one noticed, LOL.

Birdhouses

My phone's camera seems to be broken, all pictures are so blurry that it's not worth to posting any of them here. So in case you are wondering, I have sewn, knitted and crocheted during the past month or so but have not been able to post. I guess I really need to buy a camera soon.

Anyway, here's one project that I did almost a month ago: birdhouses! I got the tutorial from Just Call Me Martha and just glued away. I used my glue gun for the first time ever and got immediately addicted: so easy! My (or actually Emma's) birdhouses don't open, I glued them shut.

Something for the ballerina

Emma loves ballet. And I love it too, since apparently she learns languages there as well :) She can now count to ten in Swedish, English, German, French and Russian. Surprised me quite a bit! Except she does not like English words "nine" and "ten" but changes those always to French equivalents "neuf" and "dix". Funny girl.

One day she came from ballet and was very upset. ALL the other girls have leg warmers, she needed to have a pair as well. The girls had all the same pale pink polyester leg warmers and since I did not like those, (natural fibres are better) I decided to knit her some nicer ones. Luckily Emma loves colours so she was happy with these. Pattern is my own - or actually I did not use any pattern just knitted away through trial and error. I managed to use up the leftover yarns from my knee-high socks which was an added bonus :)

Now some ballet moves, courtesy of Emma.

Quick fix

Nothing special but Emma wanted to wear her red cowboy boots and she did not have any red accessories to go with them. Well, she had a pretty scarf with flowers but it was a bit too light for this time of year, so clearly she needed a new one. The hat is an old one but had an ugly logo in the front so I covered that with a Hello Kitty picture. The scarf is very basic, made from knit fabric remnant. Quite long because I wanted it to be warm and now she can wrap it around the neck for several times (although she prefers to wear it the way you see in the picture...). That's it :)

Been missing me? I am back - with giveaway announcement!

Sorry for being absent for so long! I had a week long holiday and this time I really relaxed the whole week. We travelled a bit and slept a lot and then I had my birthday on last Friday so naturally we celebrated that with my friends. Holiday was fun but now I need to get back to the daily routines - work, hobbies, cleaning, cooking, all that and more. Bleh. 

Anyway, now to the winners! So sorry that I do not have any nice pictures about me drawing the winners but rest assured, this was supervised by my daughter and only thing she complained about was that in her opinion there should have been prizes for all. Well, maybe next time :)

The fox pillowcase goes to Elina.

The squirrel bag goes to Petriina.

The flower pillowcase goes to Henna.

Congrats to you all and thank you all for participating in helping the Japanese. The news from Japan are not reaching Finland anymore so frequently, but I know there are still people suffering even though the media has moved to other, more recent news items. Seems so sad that human suffering is so easily forgotten!

REMINDER: Giveaway!

Just wanted to show you the mystery prize, finished it today :) If you haven't already participated, that's ok, you still have time! Just remember to place a comment to this post. You have time until Wednesday, April 6th.

Now, a bit more about this bag. I did not have enough squirrel fabric to make the handles so I chose to use the same stripe fabric that is in the other side of the bag. The lining is green with flowers and is also an old curtain my mother gave me. All other fabrics are from Ikea. The squirrel lost its ear when I made the bag so I just couldn't resist temptation and added a new ear to the poor creature. Hope you don't mind :)

The ear is a bit big and I do not have any idea what a squirrel ear looks like, but I think it is better to have too large ear than not to have an ear at all. Sorry about the blurry image, my phone's camera is getting lousier every day. I guess I have dropped it too many times...

Here's one final shot, the backside - and you can see a glimpse of the lining as well. The stripes are not even in the center and that is how I intended it ( just so that you don't think that I am THAT bad at sewing). Makes a bit more interesting center.

A squirrel bag - and revealing the mystery prize!

I made this bag for Emma since she was begging me to make her a bag to fit all her ballet gear. So when I saw this pattern from verypurpleperson I had to try. She has the most stylish sewing ideas ever! The original bag is reversible and I guess this is also but the lining is quite lightweight fabric and gets wrinkled easily, so I prefer this squirrel side of the bag. And so does Emma.

This is the other side of the bag, a bit wrinkled still due to my complete lack of ironing skills:

And this is the reverse, both sides are the same and just as wrinkled:

Emma chose these fabrics by herself and she did a great job! The squirrel fabric is from Ikea, the polkadot is an old piece of canvas and I have no idea where I've bought it. The pink flower fabric is an old curtain, never used, so my mother donated it to me.

Now to the giveaway. I still haven't finished the mystery prize, minor sewing still needs to be done but as you might have already guessed, the fabrics in this picture will become a similar bag. Hope you like it :)

Please go and take part in the giveaway! I just extended the time until Wednesday 6th of April since I realized that I am going on a cruise with my family on Sunday and won't be here to select the winners :)