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.)

New baby quilt

Having a couple of days off work this week was a luxury that enabled me to do something I've been meaning to for ages.  Behold my new baby cot quilt!

This was made using one and a half Moda charm packs and a gorgeous delft patterned cotton fabric on the back.

The wadding is a high loft one called Dream Puff and it is extremely light and floofy. I've also gone so far as to use the wadding doubled up in this quilt, just because I have a real soft spot for puffy, fat quilts. I know it's not to everyone's taste - I just have a nostalgic yen for the big, puffy eiderdowns of my childhood. My sewing machine seemed to cope ok with the extra puffiness on a cot sized quilt, but if I ever want to do a double bed one I think I'll have to try a quilt-as-you-go method.

I've got enough charm squares left to make a couple of little matching quilted pillow cases, which I'm dying to finish but I want to back them with the same blue fabric as the quilt and, alas, I didn't buy enough. So I have to wait for some more to arrive in the post before I can do the pillows. Tsk!

Thing 2 is going to be in a tiny co-sleeper crib for the first 6 months or so, so my plan is to use this as a floor quilt/play quilt until next winter, when she'll be old enough to move into a 'big girl' cot.

But here's how it looks when modelled on Thing 1's bed...

Liberty Tana Lawn Baby Bonnets

I once vowed to myself that, if I ever became pregnant with a girl, I'd make one of these adorable little Purl Bee bonnets using Liberty Tana Lawn.

Well - the time has come, and I am one to stick to my guns! And it's such a lovely pattern. Crisp and fun and spring-link on the outside, but warm and snuggly on the inside.

As it was, I couldn't decide which colour of Liberty lawn fabric to go for, so I ended up making two...

The fleece lining used in the original pattern is an organic sherpa material that's hard to source in the UK, so I substituted mine with a very close match, using an organic hemp fleece from a UK supplier called Eco Earth Fabrics.  As far as I can tell it's almost identical, though possibly a bit more lightweight. It has a smooth side and a fleecy side and has worked really well with the pattern for a spring bonnet. It's also incredibly soft.

Once I have a tiny baby's head to put inside these bonnets I'll update the pics so that you can see what it looks like on.  (For now, my ironing board is doing its best job at modelling!)

Amazingly, I also have some more knitting and quilting to share in my next posts...  suffice to say it's been a mega-crafty month for me.

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.

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!

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.

Vintage buttons, fab needle gauge and other random tat

Last weekend I visited a little town in Devon called Topsham, which happens to be home to a 3-story antiques warehouse.... (or more accurately, 3 floors of random vintage household tat of the sort that makes my eyes light up!)

About 20 seconds after entry, I zoned in on a little corner with boxes of old buttons and vintage knitting needles... hoorah! (My weary companions made a resigned exit at this point and decided to leave me to it.)

So after a good rummage, I came out with the following little stash enhancers...

Buttons of various sizes...





Knitting Needles (several sets of long DPNs plus two straights)...





Next up are some ceramic buttons that I bought at the V&A last week while out browsing with notknottylottie. Not sure yet what I will do with them...





And finally, I want to pass on a great tip that I read on this blog... (http://techknitting.blogspot.com/). Last week, I read a fab little article that recommended a visit to your local DIY store to find a nifty and hard-wearing needle gauge....

Behold - the drill gauge!

I bought mine from someone called 'handyman' on ebay, and it arrived the next day. Result!

Fabric Porn...

Every once in a while my sewing mojo starts to creep back unexpectedly. This time it is linked to some ideas that I am playing with for handmade bags (knitted, felted or sewn).

I particularly love bags with fancy linings, and with that in mind I spent some time scouring ebay sellers in the far east for exotic brocades. If you don't mind waiting for postage, buying direct from sellers in China, Vietnam, Hong Kong and India can prove to be a very economical way to buy fabric.

Here are the lovely spoils...


The pink and the red are from China, and will make lovely bag linings, I think.

The peacock fabric is from Hong Kong, and OMG - it is just so gorgeous and luxurious in the flesh that I think it would be sacrilege to turn it into a lining! This one might just have to become a bag all by itself.

More pics below...

Heil Helga!

I have a new friend... welcome Helga, the cheapest clothes horse I could find on ebay.

I got a bit of a shock when I opened the box, cos she was disconcertingly large... apparently I have inadvertently purchased the 'long' model (yes, yes, I Know!) When we first put her together, the smallest she would go was about 6'4" (she looked comical enough standing next to G, but I would have had to stand on a chair to photograph her). So after much violent squishing G managed to force the metal pole through her internal organs and bring her down by a foot.