Roald Dahl handmade children's quilts

Somewhere in the midst of my maternity leave I made progress on a pair of matching Roald Dahl quilts for the kids. (With names like James and Matilda, it would be rude not to, really...)

Behold quilt number one!

Thing 1 seems very happy with it.

Unfortunately its twin is suffering from Second Quilt Syndrome. (Thing 2 is blissfully unaware of this as she hasn't got a big girl bed yet). But I really ought to get on with it. I've done all the hard bits and assembled the top and prepared the sandwich layers. All I need to do is quilt the damn thing. If only the allure of shiny new projects weren't so strong...

The idea for these came about after a friend drew my attention to Ashley Wilde's Fantabulous Fabrics range.

Shortly afterwards I found a seller on eBay who had most of the range in stock, and I chose a selection from our favourite books - ranging from fat quarters to full metre lengths.

Once I saw the fabrics all together, I cursed the designer for her wanton randomness in the sizing and layout of the illustrations. I spent ages pondering how on earth to combine these into a coherent quilt design and then stuffed them in a carrier bag and forgot about them for the obligatory 4 months.

In the end, I decided that the best option was to create a set of regulation 10" squares from my stash, in mixed blues - then applique the illustrations onto these, to look like picture frames. So I cut out and assembled the illustrations and had a go at laying it all out ...and the rest is history.

As for wadding, I chose to use Dream Puff, which I particularly like for kids' quilts. It washes and dries extremely well and is very lightweight but has a nice element of cosiness. (In this case I used it single but you can also double it up for extra loft if, like me, you are fond of quilts with a high floof-factor.)

Knitting for Thing 1 and Thing 2

Dear blog, I seem to have gone into total crafty overdrive recently. I'm not sure what's going on but, somewhere between being pregnant again and having a few reclusive days off work, I seem to have rediscovered my creative mojo and have barely restrained myself from compulsive making.

I'm using this post to share a pair of Nordic style mittens that I made for Thing 1, and a couple of little hat designs that I've been working on for Thing 2 (the girlbot who's still cooking in the oven).

First up - here are the mittens.

These were made at speed during such a cold week in January that I really wanted to get them finished and onto my son's fingers as soon as possible. I used a pattern that I found on ravelry that forced me to pay close attention to charts for a few days.

The main challenge was that the pattern is charted for a light background whereas I was working with a dark background, hence I constantly wanted to knit white when I should have been knitting grey and vice versa. In the end I had to print a negative copy of the chart, just for my own sanity!

Also the mitts turned out pretty big, so they're held on with elastic and I reckon they'll do the boylet for a few years if he manages not to lose them (suffice to say they are tied into his coat!)

Moving onto Thing 2, if there is one certainty in this yet-to-be-seen life, it is that she will never be short of hats. Not only will she inherit a stash of hats that I made for Thing 1, but I can't seem to stop making and designing new ones for her.

First up is this simple little fair isle hat, which is a variation on a hat I designed for the boybot when he was in my tum. (His was stripey). At some point I'll put this pattern up on ravelry as a variation of the free pattern that's already there.

Secondly, I have had some fun designing and charting this rather thick and woolly farm-themed hat. This test knit has shown me that there is scope to reduce my charts a bit to make a less tall and floppy hat. So I will probably share the charts and pattern on ravelry once I've perfected them

I've popped back and edited this to show the hat on baby's head!  Still haven't got round to writing up and sharing the chart. Tsk!

Making a sewing kit for your pre-schooler

Something that warmed the cockles of my crafty heart this morning was watching the Microbe's intent little face as he fed a huge plastic needle through the pre-punched holes of a little sewing kit that I'd made him. He wasn't very well today and it was a perfect activity for a sick boy on a rainy day.

He had his very first go at sewing at Christmas, courtesy of a Mister Maker hand-puppet kit and it struck me the that 3 1/2 is an ideal age to start gathering together your very first bits and pieces for sewing.

After a quick sift through 8,000 candy-pink kits on the internet, I decided that it would be more fun, and probably cheaper, to put together my own customised sewing kit for him, tailored to his interests.

Behold - the sewing menagerie!

I made these little animal kits just by cutting out shapes from scraps of felt and punching holes around the edges using a leather punch. Luckily I had a little stash of felt at home, but I noticed that Poundland also sells multi-packs of brightly-coloured A5 sized pieces. The stuffing is salvaged from a bit of left over quilt wadding, but you could just as easily use offcuts of yarn as stuffing.

The yarn in his kit is from Poundland. Not the nicest quality acrylic, to be honest, but it's ideal for this purpose and you get 3 balls for £2. I re-wound a selection of colours into tiny balls and have also supplemented it since with a handful of brightly coloured Lion Brand Bonbons. (These are the world's cutest and tiniest sample-size yarn balls, discovered thanks to my highly enabling friend, Charlotte!)

The other thing I've added to his kit, thanks to a great suggestion from a friend, is a few sheets of plastic aida with large holes. You can leave them blank or draw shapes on these using a sharpie, for a child to sew along. At some  point I might add some large-holed buttons too, so he can play with sewing those on. As for needles, you can get sets of children's plastic needles for around £1 on eBay or Amazon.

So far all of our bits and bobs are residing in a little cardboard box - but a lovely friend of ours has bought him this fab little animal-themed sewing box, which looks absolutely perfect!

So - if you know any tiny people that love to craft, I'd definitely recommend spending a happy afternoon putting together a little kit like this. Applique templates online can be a good source of ideas for simple shapes that will work in felt.

Knitted fox and raccoon

Having a couple of weeks off work over our drizzly festive period, I somehow found my knitting mojo and made a couple of fun little projects for my son.

Firstly, say hello to Mr Fox....

The fox is a slightly  customised version of a pattern for an adult neck, using Sirdar Snowflake yarn. It's essentially a cross between a cuddly toy and a garment and, while arranging it around the boybot’s neck, I found myself wondering whether the effect was closer to Davy Crocket or Liberace. But he seems to like it, either way. The full details and pattern are on Ravelry here. 

Next up is Mr Raccon. He was commissioned immediately by the boy after receiving the fox "because I haven't GOT a raccoon, mummy!" 

He's based on a pattern called Backyard Bandits and, once again, the full details can be found on Ravelry, here.  He's supposed to have a cotton bandana around his neck, but a scarf seemed more in keeping with the English winter.

Happy crafting, all!

Little quilts

I've been meaning for some time to mention my latest fad, which is quilting! It started last summer when I made this fun farmyard quilt for my son's toddler bed.

This is what some might call a cheat’s quilt, in that the central panel of the quilt is a printed image, so all I had to do was assemble the quit with wadding and a backing and quilt around the animal shapes. The wadding is a nice high-loft one and the backing is a piece of pinstripe sheeting. I also added a border, to increase the size of the quilt for his toddler bed, and edged it with 2-inch bias binding.

This gave me the bug - so I decided that my second project would be a baby quilt for a friend's nweborn girl. This time I used a Moda charm pack to make up a patchwork quilt from squares.

Once again I added a border for added width and then 'stitched in the ditch' to quilt it. And, again, I used a fairly high loft wadding as I really like a quilt to have some ‘floof factor’. I made my own bias binding this time from some jelly-roll strips.

I’m planning to make a similar baby quilt imminently for my own little ‘Thing 2’ who is currently being baked in my tummy. I might even double up on wadding this time, for extra floof! I will be sure to post when it's done...

I also happen to have enough Liberty squares stashed to make a full size patchwork quilt for my bed, but I'm not yet sure whether my regular sewing machine will be able to cope with the bulk of a big floofy quilt. Hmmm. Maybe a bit ambitious!

Honeycomb tissue paper

Hello dear old craft blog. Here's a rapid fly-by just to mention my recent discovery of honeycomb paper...



I presume this is the stuff that paper xmas decorations are made of, but I hadn't realised you could buy it in sheets for crafty shenanigans.  Good old Pinterest enlightened me and the microbe and I have had a go at using it today for a trio of children's 'pop-up' birthday cards.

If you're in the UK and fancy giving it a try, you can get honeycomb paper on Amazon and Ebay.  (Mine came from a seller called Lyndie's Craft).

The sheets are a bit smaller than A4 and it seems as though you can cut out pretty much any shape in cross-section in order to get a 3d effect.  I expect you could use it to make a garland of paper spheres too.

Well... that's it.  A fly-by as promised.  Toodle pip.

Customised Toddler T-shirts

Last weekend I had the idea of making customised t-shirts for my son, which started with a brief flurry of activity using special printer paper that you iron onto fabric such as t-shirts and tote bags, and ended with applique.

For transfers, there are two types of paper available - one is designed for ironing onto white fabric and the other for dark fabric. The white version works by printing in mirror-mode. You have to prepare and print your image as a mirror version of your end result - then you simply place your printed image face down on the t-shirt and iron over it.

This worked pretty well, and I made three animal-themed shirts, all of which went down very well with the microbe...

The dark paper works differently. You print in regular (non-mirror) mode and then peel off an (almost impossible-to discern) backing sheet before ironing the image onto the shirt through a layer of silicone paper.

I'm afraid to say that this stuff was a total flop for me. It seemed like I had to hold the iron over it for a decade before the image would think about adhering to the t-shirt and, even then, it transferred so thinly that the colour of the t-shirt showed through. I don't know what I did wrong. I was sure I'd followed the instructions - but perhaps my iron is just not suitable.

After this failure, I had a much better idea - applique! I'd never done this before but decided to have a go using some of my Liberty scraps.

I used an approach that gives you nice neat shapes with no raw edges. As a first step, you draw your desired shape freehand onto a piece of interfacing. Then you sew it together with a fabric scrap, with the right side facing inwards, stitching all the way around your drawn outline.

As a last step, you cut a slit in the interfacing and turn the while thing inside-out and iron it flat, leaving a lovely applique shape with no raw edges, ready to sew onto the t-shirt. (I attached mine simply by zig-zagging all the way around the edges on my sewing machine)

I love the results of these applique experiments and I'd like to do more.  Next time I might see whether it makes a difference to use iron-on interfacing, to get the applique fully adhered before sewing around the edges.

Toddler's Own Christmas Tree

A little while ago I was inspired by this link on Pinterest for a toddler-friendly Christmas tree that little ones can decorate and un-decorate at will, so I decided to have a go.  (Essentially it's just a giant fuzzy felt tree - how hard could it be?)

I decide to make a stiff one with a cardboard skeleton, so that I could hang it on a panelled door, so I started by cutting out a tree shape from the side of a large cardboard box...

Next I went on the lookout for green felt.  After a bit of googling I discovered that there is such a thing as sticky-back felt - hooray!  You can get it at various places but I eventually ordered mine online from here and also a mixed bundle of coloured felt squares and some spotty felt from ebay.

Once the felt arrived it was just a case of sticking it on and cutting out bauble and present shapes.  I glued the presents around the base with a glue gun but the baubles and the star are all designed for maximum toddler fiddling.

I think the microbe likes it...

(The only trouble I'm having now is getting it to stay on the door using white-tac - it keeps popping off, so I'm thinking hanging it on a picture hook instead.)