eugh been feeling rubbish for the past couple of weeks, now have temperature, sore throat etc and have been sleeping lots, done some crafting but not taken any pics. I have made two skirts from Sew What? Skirts and have played around with the embroidery stitches on my Pfaff machine but no pictures.
Garden is growing well with all the rain we're having, here's a pic of my first dahlia...
and some of the baby carrots, courgette and new potatoes.


Anyway whilst I am not feeling well I have made a start on an embroidery transfer of my Gran's, first project like this since I was a child!!!

sewing joy

I'm a happy bunny!!! I was in John Lewis yesterday picking up birthday presents for my inlaws and popped into the sewing section and spotted one solitary copy of Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross which I have been waiting for the library to stock, well I couldn't resist, and I had some vouchers in my bag (from our wedding three years ago!) Ooh I am looking forward to making things from it!

I also managed to get hold of bobbins for the Pfaff machine, took a while of searching by the women of Drummonds on Haymarket, such a lovely shop, sewing machine heaven!!! And later I was playing with the machine trying out the stitches and it has many many combinations, not sure what I will use them for, suggestions on a postcard please!



In addition to buying gifts I also made a couple of things for our niece. I had already made a bag with this fabric so I made her a crayon roll too, I have never made one, or indeed seen one of these other than on the internet. It was pretty simple really, although as they are so chunky I couldn't fit all of the colours in (there were 20 in the pack, with 2 of each colour - Early Learning Centre, £3 for 40), so I selected the main colours she will probably use. I used a hair elastic and button as the closing so she can do it herself (she's only two after all).


She is also getting a cat softie, made from a merino wool jumper, it is similar to the other one I made for friend's wee one, but to be honest I am not totally happy with the finish, but I am sure she won't mind!

In addition to all this I also went to a fabric shop which I have not visited in years, and the sale was on.... I picked up these fabrics, some were remnants, the kids prints were in the sale at £1.99 per metre, I am sure I'll be able to make a few bags and crayon rolls from a metre of each! The cream fabric is really soft, I think I'll use it for kids aprons, although it might be too open a weave for that, not sure. The rose one I couldn't resist, it was only £1.60 for 1.6m. I'll probably use it for either bags or cushions. Phew, it's not really surprising that I am feeling really tired and sore, is it?

more flowers

As I mentioned before my friends came to visit on Sunday bringing with them gorgeous roses for me. I love flowers and try to always have some in the house (even if I have to buy them myself, or pick them out the garden). I think I have picked this up from my Mum, she loves flowers and arranges them in floral arrangements (or floral art as she insists it is called!). I occasionally try my hand at it but more often than not plonk them in a vase! Here are a couple of pics of the lovely orange edged yellow roses.

Links

On the right you will find a very long list of links, this is so that if my computer dies (like it did a couple of weeks ago, I had to reinstall everything :-( ) I don't lose my bookmarks. It's a nightmare I have lost all my sewing/crafty links and all my teaching resources links , argh!!!! So have a look through, there is a mixture of tutorials I have tried, ones I want to try and blogs/sites I like. I will continue adding to it as I find interesting stuff!

I love freecycle!!!

Woo hoo!!!! There was a sewing machine on Freecycle and I got it! It's a fair bit newer than my current one (which must be around 40 years old!). Soooo excited!
Massive thank you to Elliot and Emily and their kitten!

Following on from stripey cat, I adapted the concept and instead of making patchwork I used a black merino wool jumper which had been slightly shrunk, I attached iron on interfacing, applied face, paws and heart (stuffing the muzzle and heart slightly) then constructed the kitty. I modelled her on our cat (important as our cat is staying with them when we go on holiday).


Puss is being given in a reversible, mini tote bag made using recycled fabrics. Hopefully she will like it, they are for her first birthday, she is also getting a book (don't like to give just handmade presents, don't know why)

Well the cat (in the last post) went down very well with my friend's 22 month old little girl. She was also the recipient of this bag and purse. I was in hospital when she turned one and I have been feeling guilty about missing her birthday ever since.
The bag was really simple to make, it is 25cm x 30cm which seems to be about the right size. It is fully lined. The only problem is that the straps are a little wide, I should really make a pattern for the handles instead of winging it! The purse was made without any pattern at all, not measured, just done by eye. I tried Wonder-under for the first time on the flower and I love it!!! I should maybe have sewed around it for strength but we'll see how it holds up. I embellished it with some sequins and small pearls (very securely fastened). The little one seemed very happy with it! And her parents were trying to talk me into making them to sell!

Stuff I've made

Still not quite ready to do a tutorial and have not been making much so here are some more pics of things I have made in the past year...


The stripey cat was made using this tutorial.

Blogging Habit...

Argh it seems I'm not very good at blogging regularly. The past couple of days have been busy with tidying, cleaning and washing. I also had friends from uni round to see how I am recovering from recent op. It was lovely to see them and have proper girly chat. One of the girls brought me gorgeous pink gerberas. They are so vibrant and zingy, unfortunately my photography skills aren't quite good enough to capture their beauty fully.
In honour of them coming I dusted off my cake tins and rustled up a carrot cake. Since I have been ill I have been practising my baking and I have proved to my Mum that I can be trusted with her secret Carrot Cake recipe, unfortunately this means I cannot share the recipe with you, so instead here is a picture of it iced with cream cheese icing.I have had such bother with my icing of late, I always seem to end up with runny icing even if I follow a recipe to the letter. Don't know where I am going wrong. Mum has said I can come through for a tutorial (my Papa, her father, was a master baker - no jokes please!!!)

In addition to the lovely afternoon with the girls I was smiling with my find in the supermarket... I got an orchid for just over £4!!! Reduced from £12. I spent about 10 minutes standing working out which one had the most flower spikes, which was more likely to flower again and which I was less likely to kill!!! I am VERY happy!!
Not much in the way of crafting going on, tried my hand at batik yesterday but it didn't work very well, I think the wax I used (ends of candles) had too little beeswax content. Here's a picture of the best result...
I used some linen I had, well a pair of white linen trousers which no longer fit. I got an old shower curtain from the charity shop for £1 which has a fishy print, so I plan to make a lined bag. It was going to be a bucket bag for gardening stuff before I discovered the cold water dye was blue not green, oh well I'm sure it will work!

While I was using the hand dye I decided I would dye a t-shirt my hubby got from his Mum. He has refused to wear it as it was white with a red cross, rather similar to the English flag (he's very proud to be Scottish) so I dyed it for him, he says he will wear it now. So glad about that. I hate waste.

bye for now

Ok I realise I didn't explain the picture above, the beautiful puss is my gorgeous cat called Nala. I am stuck in the house most of the time just now due to ill health and she is loving it. I think she might actually be confused and think she's a dog! She follows me everywhere and if I do go out she follows me out and watches where I go! And of course eing a cat she insists on walking over my laptop whenever she can!! It's like why are you typing on that when your hands could be gainfully employed stroking me!

Anyways today I shall share some pictures of things I have made. I've been back into making things for around 8/9 months now. When I grew up I was taught how to sew by my Mum and my (paternal) Gran. She was a fantastic seamstress, often she made her own clothes as she couldn't get any to fit, except in the kids section - not terribly appropriate for an older woman!!! She taught me both dressmaking and embroidery, but I am so out of practise that I have a long way to go before I am anything like as good as she was, I'll need to take some pictures of her work, you know the type, where the back looks almost as good as the front! Mum sewed more out of necessity, saving money by making clothes for us and herself. Her health has made it impossible for her to sew but she is very good at giving me advice!
OK so here are a few items I have made, comments are welcomed!

Hello

Hi all from Fifi's World.
I have finally decided to start my own blog as I spend so much time looking at other people's! I will probably post mainly on sewing, crafting, cooking and growing things. Hmm now just to work out how this all works!