Smartphone case.

So I mentined the kit for the smartphone cover in the Mollie Makes magazine didn't I?

This morning I thought I would open it up and see what was there. The pattern was inside the magazine and the little envelope contained the felt and a little button. All I needed to make the case shown in the pictures was a needle and thread apparently.

I copied the pattern pieces, not wanting to cut into my magazine and cut out the felt shapes. And hit a snag. There wasn't enough cream felt to cut out both the bird and the little top edge trim as shown in the instructions. And as I had cut the rectangle trim out first it meant I had to find another piece to cut out the bird from. So I used the yellow felt that was supposed to be for the petal pattern instead. I decided to forego the petals and instead added a wing cut out from the cream felt that was supposed to be for the bird. The actual pattern shows a cut away wing but I thought an added one would add a bit more colour as I was losing it from the petals. Ok I could have just nipped upstairs and found a scrap of felt but I wanted to see what could be done with a freebie kit. I oversewed all the pieces on rather than using a running stitch as I thought the running stitch would leave a lip around the pieces which would catch when pulling the phone out of a pocket. I added a little eye too from the brown felt.

I gave it to John for his phone and he thought it was lovely although he would have preferred something a little more masculine I think. I now have to make another for one of the girls and also one for Cain who has been happily walking around listening to his very own MP3 player lately. Well actually it's Daddy's but if you put something down in this house.............

So thanks "Mollie Makes" for a cute little kit, a happy hour spent sewing, and a grateful husband too. The shortage in felt wasn't really a big deal and I'm very pleased with the free gift. Next issue has a felt flower kit if anyone is interested.......

-x-

New year, new burst of craftiness!

Less Internet = time to craft. (I would love to have said MORE time to craft but crafting time was pretty non-existent up until the past few days with all the other stuff that goes on around here).

New leggings for Heather. 

The first time I have ever sewed with a proper pattern rather than making it up as I went along. Pretty pleased with them and now I know why the pattern says to do it as it did. Definitely going to make a few more of these for under her dresses, might even have a go at the dress that came in the pattern pack, but first I need to get my head round interfacing......... now I've worked out what it is!

A sleep easy heart sachet for Jen, filled with Lavender to ease her into sweet dreams:

A nappy for Heather's dolly:

A camera case from the sleeve of a jumper I knitted (and later felted) for Cain:

And that's about all for now.
Knitting on the needles, crochet on the hooks, more sewing plans in mind.
Back soon with more I hope.
Happy crafting everyone.

Stuff!

Needing to occupy my mind this evening I thought I would ignore the housework and do a little crafting instead.

It's turned so cold the past few days that I decided to treat myself to a nice pair of gloves:

I've had this wool in my stash for many many months but I love Mirasol wool so much that I always set it aside for a special project and then never get round to using it. These gloves only took just over one of the two 50g skeins I had so I still have enough left to knit a pair of mittens for Heather too. The wool is Mirasol Chirapa 100% merino and is just so soft and warm. The colours are pretty warming too for on the coldest of days.

I also finished off the cardigan I have been working on over the past week for Heather:

Yet another purple one, she looks so lovely in all things purple. This was knitted up on Paton's Diploma gold DK and used 3 50g balls. It's in a simple garter stitch with a crochet edging rather than the usual rib. I really like the added interest a crochet edging gives. And it's so much quicker too ;-) Actually this looks so much better on Heather than it looks in the photo. Will have to try get her to model....

Felting too has been taken it's turn, although this was an accidental make. Remember this? Well it somehow ended up in the washing machine on a towels wash and when I realised it had already shrunk to newborn size. It was too stiffly felted to be of any use to a teeny baby so I decided to turn it into something else rather than throw it away:

I used the back section of the cardigan to make this purse/zippered bag and added needle felted flowers and edging to add a bit of colour. Not sure what I'm going to do with it now I've made it but I think it's very cute and almost worth felting a piece of clothing for. And I still have the rest of the felted cardigan and the buttons looking to be used on a new project. Now I just need to think what to do with the extra large mum and baby covering cardigan that also got felted in the same wash.........

Season swap.

This is what I made for the GP season swap. Very pleased with myself as I have only just learned the basics of crochet. For the crocheted bowl I used a 100% Merino wool in a lovely green . The beaded crocheted egg was in cream bamboo which was extremely difficult to work with and really I should have been less optimistic as there are a few faults in it but the overall result was ok I think. And to finish off two little felt and pipe cleaner daffodils which the boys are loving helping to make. We have a whole bunch of them in a vase now ;-)