Sending hugs in the post :: part 2

For my mother, I took an old wool sweater of mine, one she knew well from the time I still lived at home, and cut out a large love-heart. Onto this I hand-sewed some felt flowers (continuing my felt obsession), and machine-appliquéd a smaller love-heart onto the front, made with a scrap of woolly sweater and some fabric (from a thrift-store shirt, the same one I used to make a mini doll shirt out of).

The same thrift-store shirt served as the backing for creating a....cushion. I stuffed it full of polyfill, cuddled it for a few evenings, and then shipped it off to the green isle.

Edit to add ::

Unfortunately the postal company that was in charge of delivering the package within Ireland is a complete joke; I used Track-and-Trace, and although online it stated that delivery had been attempted several times, there was no trace of it being anywhere near my mother's home.

At least the package made it's way safely back to me...I will have to give this heart to my mother in person. An excellent reason for a visit, don't you think? ;)

Sending hugs in the post :: part 1

I don't live in the same country as my mother or my sister. We are spread around Europe, just a few hours away by aeroplane. We can visit the lush greenery of Ireland to see my mother, and we can bask in the hot sunshine when visiting my sister in the south of Spain. They come here (the Netherlands) to marvel at the intricate grid systems of canals and windmills that keep the fields and cities safe from flooding.

The modern world allows us to keep in touch via Skype and What's App etc, but it doesn't replace the comfort of a hug. A real, in-person, hug. Nothing ever will.

But some things can come close. Let me show you what I made as substitutes for hugs for when we are not around each other in person.

For my sister, I made a doll, using the pattern from this wonderful book, De Poppen van Tante Hilde. I love that this book gives you the basics (doll and clothing) and then the sky is the limit. This is my second time making a doll like this (the first one lives in Germany now), and I love the results.

Using an old t-shirt of mine as the body, which I dyed slightly with coffee to darken it from white-beige to a bit of a darker beige, and some interesting gold/green/beige cotton for her torso (I didn't have enough t-shirt material left due to a cutting error! Oops!), this little woman came to life.

I decided to give her a felt hair style, which I machine stitched with a decorative flower-like stitch. I ended up not including the bear ears as depicted in the middle image above...

I upcycled a thrift-store shirt to create a mini-version for the doll (again, using the pattern for the open blouse from Tante Hilde's book). I managed to keep the original buttons, so from cutting to finished product, this little item of clothing was made in a jiffy! For her skirt, I used some left over corduroy originating from an old pair of my husband's trousers. Mini-man and Big Brother contributed to the doll by drooling on, or playing with her before I wrapped her up for posting.

 

I added a box of different tea-bags for my sister's partner, and sent the whole thing...by snail mail (a self-carved stamp, inspired by this lovely book by Gennine; and she has a great online resource if you want to try it out yourself).

And I can happily say that she was well received by the recipient :) Yay! Now there's a little bit of the four of us keeping my sister company even though we are far from each other.

The tale of two pouches

I made these zippered pouches as gifts.

The first one was gifted to my son's daycare teacher who was leaving for another job. He had gotten on really well with her, and she was great at her job. We were sad to see her go. Luckily, her successor is just as awesome as she was! 

The second pouch I made was a birthday gift for a dear friend of mine. I don't get to see her often anymore now that we no longer live in the same country, but this year we paid her and her family a visit to celebrate her day. It was great to be able to give this to her in person.

The outer part of both pouches is made with a thick layer of felt, onto which I machine appliqued some (very simple) felt flowers. I played around with the arrangement beforehand, and I secured them down with a small bit of glue before sewing them on. I lined each pouch with some quilting cotton from my stash.

Nice and quick, and very satisfying to make. I think I should make myself some too. You can never have too many pouches. Hahaha! 

Rawr...

Another birthday rolled around, this time a birthday boy from a few doors down. He's the same age as our mister man and they enjoy each other's company when they're not claiming each other's toy as "mine"!!!! Seeing how 3 year olds can solve disagreements sometimes shocks me (e.g.when shoving is involved) but on the other hand can surprise me with how compassionate each can be to the other.

He's a Dino fan (like our son) and I did think of making a similar t-shirt with a felt Dino appliquéd to the front. But, after a few washes, Dino had shrunk a little (re-felted?) so now the t-shirt is a bit scrunched up in the middle. I guess it's not ideal for clothing that needs to be washed often. Lesson learnt!

Instead I decided to make a Dino softie! I drew out a pattern on paper, cut the pieces out from felt, and starting sewing. A few stitches here, a few there. It's nice to have a quick and easy project within hands reach. I glued the decorative parts to the main body before blanket stitching them on so that they stayed fixed as I sewed them. I stuffed him with some polyfil until he was nice and squidgy!

And after a few evenings...Mr Dino was ready. And I was told that the Birthday Boy did not let go of his new Dino softie until he was fast asleep that night. It's always nice to hear that your handmade items are well-appreciated, isn't it? :)

Tah-dah!!!

Upon returning home, my almost-3-year old put in a request for a Dino of his own. Seeing as his birthday is just around the corner, I'm now busy stitching another T-Rex. The pieces are cut...and now for some hand-sewing...

Dinosaurrrrr

Mister Man really likes his Monster t-shirt, much to my delight! I've made shirts for him before but this is the first time he actively searches in his wardrobe to wear this mama-made tee. No need to convince me to make another tee for him. Again, I used the FST pattern from Rae (cut out size 5T, with 4T length). Found some Pinspiration here and hand-appliqued a felt-dinosaur to the front of the tee. And this was a collaborative project, as even Papa joined in; he cut out the dino and his spikes.

Using a blanket stitch and embroidery thread, I attached the dino to the t-shirt (I used a small bit of washable pritt-stick to keep the dino in place while I stitched). It has been a while since I hand-stitched something, and the slow repeatable motions were quite relaxing.

And much to my delight, this tee has also been approved by the little man, who is such a busy little bee, it was hard to get a "non-blurred" photo of him wearing his newly acquired tee-shirt.

 

I was worried the felt wouldn't hold up being washed (for the first time) in the washing machine, but I just turned the t-shirt inside out and put it in a lingerie wash-bag so it wouldn't be rubbed against during the wash cycle and it came out fine.

Cute Little Monsters...

Time took on a different meaning in the last months, but finally Mini Man made his appearance on the 22nd April.

To celebrate his arrival I made a birth-notice card to share with family and friends. A quick search on pinterest led to me to this pin, and the Cute Little Monster theme was born ;) I created 4 monsters out of felt (one for each member of the family), photographed each one on a white background and used Adobe Illustrator to prepare the images for the birth card. We printed our cards using an online service and we were really happy with the quality.

To celebrate the arrival of his little brother I made big brother a new T-shirt. Using Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern, I made a 5T size with a 4T length (Mister Man is a stocky little fella for an almost 3 year old). I gave it short sleeves in time for summer. Using the pre-existing hems of the XXXXL shirt I used to make Mister Man's tee made this a super fast sew. I printed out the monster onto iron-on transfer paper, and added it to the shirt. 

And here it is being modelled by the new big brother...