A Second Birthday

I certain squiggly boy's 2nd birthday finally brought me out of my sewing funk of the last few weeks.  I'd been kinda feeling sick and had no motivation to do anything but sit on the couch for the last while, but thankfully I think I'm feeling inspired again!  Thanks at least partly to the couple little projects I completed for little M's b-day!

I had wanted to start a few little traditions for his birthday.  The first of which was to make a birthday bunting that could be brought out every year.

I used this tutorial, and was able to us bits from the piles of boyish cotton I have, plus felt for the circle and letters (the tutorial uses all fabric).

Second tradition was to make him a birthday crown.  For this I used this tutorial for most of it (main pattern and elastic back directions) but did my own decorations.  I wanted his initial to make it his and added the two stars, one for each birthday year.  I'll add one for each year as he ages.  Well until he won't have anything to do with wearing it!

And again I made cupcakes.  Love this recipe.  Still pretty sugary, but the beets make them seem healthier (and nice and moist!).

And to round out recent sewing related activities, I got new books today!  Thanks to my lovely neighbours who brought me back from Japan these 4 Japanese pattern books!  Soo much cheaper than getting them imported here!  I'd better finally try something from them!  I have two others my dear husband bought me for my birthday as well.  I'm not too intimidated by the directions, just more by the pattern sheets!

And finally Happy Mother's day to my North American followers, hope you had a great day!  It was gorgeous here!

Bye bye 2011, I really liked you. Hello 2012, I think I'll really like you too!

So it's 2012 now.  Wow, 2011 has flown by!

But it has been fun.  Since my sister forwarded me a link to Made by Rae's Big Butt Baby Pants back in January, I discovered the awesome wide world of internet sewers, and subsequently renewed my love of sewing, and started this here little blog.

So, inspired by Sophie's lovely post here and Jessica of "a little gray"'s The Year in Sewing, here are the highlights from my year in sewing (with a little knitting added in)!

It's nice to see it all laid out, when you're just doing a project here and there it doesn't necessarily feel like you've accomplished that much, but by recording in on a blog and gathering it up in a collage, you realize you did!  And the collage above isn't even quite everything!

So 2011 made me more confident in my sewing.  It felt real nice to know my sister and mom (who has been sewing for decades and decades) were proud and impressed by the growth of my sewing abilities and my endeavours!

To sum up the year in sewing:
- I discovered the awesome world/community of sewers on the 'net
- I learned more about sewing with knits
- Got more confident with zippers
- Learned the importance of pressing and pinning and became ok with ripping out seams.
- Making handmade gifts is awesome (I love the process of finding and deciding on projects)
- Oh and I learned to knit!

So what's in store for 2012?
- Get even better at sewing, and tackle more complex patterns.
- Make more adult stuff, particularly dresses (I'm currently obsessed with vintage shirtdress patterns for example) and not be scared of altering a pattern.
- Try some refashioning (I have some of R's (aka Mr. Bear's) clothes just waiting)
- Make more cute things for M of course (aka Squiggles)
- Continue to not buy any new clothing as much as possible (and make things when needed)

So to finish this post off, I just want to add a thanks to all the awesome bloggers/sewers/pattern and tutorial makers etc out in Internet land for sharing all your awesome stuff! Here's to more lovely awesomeness in 2012!

J

Handmade Christmas

So I had a plan to make something for my family in town this year.  And I actually succeeded!  The planned projects changed in a few cases, but in the end I was pretty happy with everything, and I think the recipients were too.  So just cause I want to, I'm gonna show you some pictures and a bit of info on the things I made.

First up in no particular order, a chair organizer for my Father-in-law made using this tutorial at Sew for Home

Gardening aprons for my sister from the pattern in One Yard Wonders.  Fabric for all of these are various Amy Butler designs with some co-ordinating fabric purchased from a great local quilt store.

One for My Mother-in-law

And 0ne for My sister-in-law

An apron for my Mom (last one she had was made by my sister some 20 years ago) of my own concoction, as I couldn't find anything I thought she would like.  Every pattern was either too simple, or two frilly.  I'm not super happy with it, but I think she like it.  Fabric is from the Metro Cafe collection by Robert Kaufman, purchased from the the lovely Fresh Modern Fabrics

Manly cowls for Mr. Bear and his brother using this tutorial for the Boy Trifecta (fabric for both is soft brushed cotton from the local fabric chain store)

I also made a notebook envelope (from One Yard Wonders) for my cousin's 9 year old daughter as part of the Sinterklaas gift exchange with my extended Dutch family earlier in December.  These pictures are way awesome than mine because my cousin is a great photographer!  I aspire to eventually take lovely pictures like her!

And lastly, my Mother-in-law had a birthday early in December so I made her a tote bag.  She loves dusty rose pink and tealy blues, hence the fabric choices.  The main fabric is Amy Butler with some other fabric bought along with the tote bag pattern again from the local quilt store

Phew! Glad that rush is over, now what to make next?  Maybe something for the boy?  Or for me?  If you check out my boards on Pinterest, it may become obvious I'm currently obsessed with shirt dresses, particularly vintage shirt dresses, maybe I'll have to make one of those next!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season!

I'm dreaming of a tealy blue Christmas

It's Christmastime!  Just a quick post to say that and show you some of the felt ornaments I made using various inspiration/tutorials I collected over on my Holiday board on Pinterest.

I made them in a bid to make our tree more toddler friendly.  Did it work? sort of, at least when he pulls them off and runs around with them, injuries are less likely :)  Otherwise I've just cut down on the number or ornaments/decorations, and try to distract him away!  Good luck to me I say!

Either way, some of them turned out, some not so much.  And there are more I'd like to try next year.  One bonus with making your own ornaments is you get to pick the colours you want, and I love my teal blue, green and bronze colour scheme, but finding nice tealy blue ornaments was hard, so these ones have upped the tealy blue ornament quotient on the tree.

Yay.  Next post up will be my first one showing the gifts I've been making for people.  Most I'll have to wait to post till after Christmas, but a few can come earlier!