...tomte-making with my assistant.
Little did I know when I moved my studio home last Summer that I would have so much to sew during nap-time! I didn't want to spend money on the rent while satying at home with F. Back to where I once started it feels! I opened my Etsy shop 9 years ago when my son was one. Baby F will turn one the 15th! Time flies by so quickly!
Solen skiner denna smällkalla januarisöndag då jag bestämmer mej för att skriva en bloggpost på mitt modersmål. Har haft så svårt att hitta inspirationen för att skriva, men tänker att det kanske hjälper om jag får skriva på mitt eget språk!
Redan innan jul köpte jag kokosfett och fågelfrön att laga fågelmat av, äntligen kom vintern så vi fick det gjort! Så här gjorde vi:
Jag smälte kokosfettet i en kastrull.
Jag blandade fågelfrön (solrosfrön, vete,nötter + lite torra russin från skafferiet) i fettet.
Sen hällde jag blandingen i pepparkaksformar och plastmuggar. Kunde ha varit bra att sätta färskfolie under formarna för att slippa rinn, men det blev bra såhär också!
Upphängningshål fixade vi genom att sticka ner sugrör i den våta blandningen. I muggarna petade jag ner en snörstump för upphängning.
Sen var det bara att pilla bort muggen och trycka ut fågelkakorna ur formarna.
Bon appétit små tippor! Hoppas det smakar!
I will try to become a more frequent blogger by writing in my own language, Swedish! It feels a little strange but I think it is the only way for me get more action in this place! I will write a short summary in English. And you are always welcome to comment in English!
Me and my son made bird food today! We used melted coconut fat, seeds and nuts. Now we are waiting eagerly for small guests!
Today I did something that made me very proud of myself! I managed to mend little e's jeans that have been lying in an annoying pile in my studio for quite some time now. It took me about 20 minutes to get two pairs done! I had fun and used some scraps with heat n' bond (that's the iron-on adhesive I use for appliqué) that I improvised with to make the patches. It became a cat and a frog! Scroll down to see how I did it!
1. I ironed the patches with heat n' bond over the hole.
2. I used the mending foot/appliqué foot that allows me to move freely over the fabric. These jeans are very slim so it was a bit tricky! I worked the seams several times to get a durable patch.
3. Ready! As you see the seams are shaky, but when you stitch several times it looks like you did it on purpose. At least this is what I tell myself :)
The kitty looks like he has had something strange to eat... Little e says he's going to wear these jeans to school tomorrow! That's the best feedback I could get :)
Phew! It is incredible how loud a group of 7-year olds can be! I like parties, but I LOVE the silence when the guests have left the house...
Luckily I am my own boss and could take time off work today so that we could have everything ready in time for when we picked up the kids at school this afternoon.
I must say I wasn't a very eager party planner this time around and was very happy when my big girl got inspired and came up with this dragon game idea. Isn't it gorgeous? I'm so proud!
All knights who fought the dragon got a medal!
We made one for little e's teacher too, she very much deserves it!
Tonight is the night I will be on TV (19.30 at YLE TV2), sadly most of you will not be able to see the programme, but I would like to share a little tutorial with you for the felt cakes me and my friends are making in the programme. They both have small kids so I thought it would be a fun little project to take home. All pictures are taken "behind the scenes" at the TV shoot by Viivi Lehtonen/YLE. The pretty felt needle book in the picture below was made by my friend Laurraine.
Ohjeet suomeksi ylen sivuilta.
What you'll need for your cake:
You can either sew the cake on your sewing machine, or by hand, if you have a lot of time!
1.Start by making the card-board circle. This will make the base for your cake and will prevent the needles to go through the bottom of the pincushion. You will need a circle with about 10 cm (4'') in diameter. Draw and cut it out.
2. Cut two circles from the felt. Use the cardboard piece as a pattern and add a 0,5 cm (1/4'') seam allowance. Then cut a 5x38cm (2''x15') strip from the felt.
3. You can either embellish your cake now, or when it is stitched together. I stitched on some lace cream to the side strip of my chocolate cake at this point.
4. Now stitch the top piece to the side strip. The ends will overlap generously so the side seam does not have to be sewn. Stitch the other circle to the bottom (right sides facing) leave a gap big enough for the cardboard piece (stitch about half way). Turn your cake inside out.
5. This is Tuija's pink marzipan cake. She will now start to fill it with wadding. And then close the gap by hand.
6. And the cake is ready! To eat? Päivi's cake does look tasty!
I made a chocolate & cherry cake! What's your flavour?
Last Friday and Saturday I held a workshop in a town nearby for kids and families. Most of the girls were ages 7-8 years and had just a little sewing experience. I don't really bother about details like that when I have my classes for children and I find that my approach works well :) I just take it for granted that everyone knows how to design and sew and children do! I did help them with the machine stitching, but everyone who wanted to could have a go on the machine!
First I asked everyone to draw a tomte (= Santa's little helper, elf), a gingerbread man or an angel. And then we turned the drawings into sewing patterns, I helped to add some seam allowances and then we started sewing!
The girl who made this anime-inspired tomte was 14 year old, she came with her two little sisters and was a big help! Two hands isn't enough when 10 little people need help at the same time!
The kids where eager to see the result of their efforts and kept asking me for the time, they were afraid we were running out of it and wanted to finish their stuffies in time. "This is so fun, I'm going to do this at home!" "Can I take this home with me today?" "This is going to be a gift for my mummy!"
Aren't they just so charming!! Such talent! (The weather outside is so poor, we barely get any daylight at all and haven't got any snow yet).
I have been saving up my scraps in Christmas colours all Autumn. We used them to make Christmas balls and wreaths in decoupage technique. I came up with the idea last Christmas when I was asked to have a workshop at a Kindergarten. I remember a little boy who had only just turned three who made such a pretty wreath to take home! I really recommend this for children all age and grown-ups alike! Perhaps I should make a tutorial?
The kids also made holiday cards, these are my models :) Happy Christmas crafting everyone! I have a bunch of last minute tomte stuffies to make for two of my resellers today.
Hello! How have you been? The last weeks have flown away so quickly. Suddenly Summer arrived and so did the last school week, which was full of events out of the ordinary and I could hardly find any time for sewing. Big E left for her first Summer camp yesterday, she will be away from home for five days (eek)! The camp is called I'm creative, she picked it herself (that's my girl)! And while she's away I will be sewing with school kids at two day camps. We'll be making monsters again :) And maybe we can come up with a way to use these Kona cotton scraps I have.
The biggest occasion last week was Big E's birthday party for her classmates, her real birthday is on Midsummer's Day which is a national holiday, that means everyone will be away at their Summer houses so we always celebrate her birthday early before school ends. She doesn't mind getting some of her gifts a month early :)
She ordered a pirate party (Please mum, I don't want any crafting or sewing at my party!) so me and the Dad did our best. I'm pretty proud of the invites we made. While preparing for the party T and I realised we did not know much about pirates and how they party, but we enjoyed saying Yarr-Arr to each other. A lot.
For the nine nine year old girls the pirate-thing seemed to come quite natural, at the table they had spontanious burping, screaming and farting contests... You can't really tell a pirate not to behave like one, can you?
On Saturday I had a workshop for a group of school kids. They designed and made their own softies, mascots and monsters. "This looks so much better than I thought it would", said one of the girls when she was finished with her owl :)
We started by making sketches on large papers,by that I tried to avoid the tiniest pieces!
Most kids did some kind of raw-edge appliqué on their stuffies with my assistance. With black thread, of course! Then there was some machine and hand stitching...
...and a some running around...
♥
♥
...and some pretty cool new creatures were born!
I love to inspire big and small to play with fabric so I was very happy when I was asked to do Christmas crafts with children last year! As much as I would have liked to, working on a sewing machine with 15 under school-aged kids felt impossible so I saved up all my scraps to make decoupage balls for the Christmas tree with the children. Sadly I didn't take any pictures then, but when I was back at the same Kindergarten last week I was wiser. This time they made Easter eggs and wreaths in decoupage technique. The kids were so clever, I was so impressed with their patience. The youngest boy had only just turned three and did so well! I chose the smallest wreaths I could find, they are around 15 cm in diameter (they do look bigger in the picture than they actually are).
The most keen little crafters made Easter bunnies too with pretty fabric ears, of course, aren't those faces too cute!
Here is a happy school girl with her wreath from another Easter craft class I had last week. The witch is her own design! In May I will have my first sewing class for school kids, they will design and make their own monsters and/or mascots. I am really looking forward to it!
Spring finally arrived last week and with that some extra inspiration, I made two fresh cushions from Marimekko fabric for my sofa and took on a new crocheting project. I can't wait to get home and make another square for my alpaca blanket! *edit* Here is the link to the crochet pattern from Garnstudio that I'm using.
Have you been doing any Easter crafts this year?
I've been cooking up some new cards today, thought I needed a card for all Jamie Olivers and Nigellas out there. I have to confess that I'm not a very passionate cook myself, I do have inspired moments in the kitchen from time to time, but I would be happy just to eat the food :) Luckily I share my life with a guy who knows how to cook so we're sharing the responsibility for the everyday cooking, which is how it should be in a household with two working adults, of course!
This is a sneaky peak of my work in progress, it's starting to look quite retro. I'm very happy with the edgy border that was provided by my favourite linen skirt, which was becoming alarmingly thin. I bought it second hand and now it gets a third life, very sustainable!
You can see more of my former skirt in the second card I've been working on, inspired by my little Batboy at home. I'm very fortunate to have this little 5 y old as an inspiration, many customers are asking for cute and cool boys stuff and it is much easier to come up with ideas that work when you have a little man with opinions and preferences to talk to :) If you're looking for crafty inspiration for boys there is a flickr group dedicated to the matter!
He chose the outfit himself :) Notice the crafty bling-bling star on the rubber boot!
Artist, crafter, mother of two, blogger, small business owner... Author of the sewing book Scandinavian Stitches. (Stashbooks)
Recent Comments