• Finding Nemo crafts
    crafts - handmade - sewing - tutorial

    Make your own Finding Nemo

    April 24, 2013 - By 

    It’s been far too long since I made anything with felt but we watched Finding Nemo for the first time this week and thought we could make a related fish craft. This took a little preparation before it all came together. Make your own Finding Nemo You will need: paper plate blue paint and brush orange, white and black felt selection of felt basic sewing kit How to make your own Finding Nemo First paint your paper plate with blue paint and leave to dry. Make up your felt clownfish and stuff lightly. I made two the same so my…

  • book review - crafts - handmade - sewing - What I'm reading

    What I’m reading: And Sew to Bed

    April 23, 2013 - By 

    How are you all enjoying The Great British Sewing Bee? I have to say I’m still hooked and so disappointed it’s only 4 episodes. Watching it has definitely spurred me on with my creativity and over the last few weeks I’ve finished off re-sizing a duvet cover for the toddler and made lots of progress with my grandmothers flower garden quilt and another doll quilt for Little Sis. I love hand sewing but watching TGBSB has really encouraged me to improve my machine sewing skills too. Last week I had my first machine sewing lesson which was a brilliant investment.…

  • crafts - garden crafts - gardening - handmade - tutorial

    How to make a Toy Story garden container

    April 17, 2013 - By 

    I must admit that whilst I’m happy with a needle and thread in my hand I’m definitely a failed gardener. Every year I try and grow something other than weeds and usually fail. When I saw the Tots100 Centre Parcs challenge I knew I should give it a go. For the toddler’s introduction to gardening I thought we would try growing sunflowers. I thought this would be a brilliant way to encourage my little city boy and hoped that even I couldn’t kill sunflowers! How to make a Toy Story garden container: We went to our local garden centre and…

  • hand print dragon
    crafts - Crafts for kids - handmade - St George's Day crafts

    Hand print dragon for St George’s Day

    April 16, 2013 - By 

    I probably bore you to tears with tales of our hand print painting. However, it is good, messy fun so I can never say ‘no’ when the toddler asks! St George’s Day is coming up on the 23rd April so I thought we would try and make a dragon using his hand prints. We needed some new supplies so headed off to our local Hobbycraft for a very enjoyable browse, returning with a huge bottle of green paint, glue sticks and a selection box of googly eyes. Check out my google+ page for pictures from our trip to Hobbycraft to…

  • crafts - Dolls quilts - handmade - Patchwork & Quilting - sewing - tutorial

    Grandmother’s flower garden doll quilt update

    April 15, 2013 - By 

    It’s three weeks since I wrote about the Grandmother’s Flower Garden doll quilt I’ve been working on. You may remember I asked for some advice as I’d got to a mini crisis point. I loved reading everyone’s suggestions so I thought I’d share a little update. I was lucky enough to find a remnant of the green material I was using for the flower border which made things much easier. My first step was to square off each end with half flowers as someone suggested so the whole shape was rectangular. Then my problems started again! I realised it was…

  • crafts - handmade

    Crafting – not just for girls!

    April 10, 2013 - By 

    Have you seen the new crafts magazine for girls called Ruby Loves? Ruby Loves* comes out monthly and includes materials to make the items featured in the issue, online content which is unlocked with a secret code, prizes and much more. Everything is contained in a paper bag and we were very impressed when we opened it as it contained the magazine, lots of craft materials and the special code to use online which gave access to extra templates, patterns, crafts and lots more goodies. We’ve all had a good read of the magazine which is bright and colourful with…

  • crafts - handmade - London - sewing - tutorial

    Pinned it made it – how to make an embroidered pegboard

    April 8, 2013 - By 

    I love cross stitch and I love trying different things so when I saw an embroidered pegboard on Pinterest I knew I had to try it. Equipment needed to make an embroidered pegboard: Pegboard White paint Paint brush Sand paper Tapestry wool Needle How to make an embroidered pegboard: I bought a large piece of pegboard (also known as perforated hardboard) from my local wood shop, gave it a light sand then a couple of coats of white undercoat. I wanted it to look a little rough so I didn’t try too hard. When it had dried I embroidered big…

  • crafts - handmade - London - sewing

    Where I join a sewing bee (kind of)

    April 6, 2013 - By 

    I really enjoyed watching The Great British Sewing Bee which started this week, it reminded me a little of Project Runway. I think it’s made by the people behind Bake Off and there’s plenty of room in my life for programmes about makes and bakes. I liked the fact that the contestants all had completely different backgrounds and loved watching how they faced the challenges. Last week I attended my first proper sewing class at The Make Lounge. I signed up for Learn to Sew: Cushion Cover+Floral Corsage which was suitable for beginners. I’ve been hand sewing for years but…

  • crafts - Dolls quilts - handmade - Patchwork & Quilting - sewing

    Grandmother’s Flower Garden doll quilt

    March 24, 2013 - By 

    I’ve been really lucky to attend both the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show as well as the Spring Country Living Fair in the last week. There was so much lovely inspiration and a fair few fabric purchases too. Grandmother’s Flower Garden doll quilt Lately I’ve been spending my precious free time making hexagons the EPP way. I just love the whole process, from making paper templates, to choosing fabrics and basting my hexagons. Somehow I’ve ended up with 4 patchwork projects on the go, all in various stages of completion. My current favourite is my doll size version of a…