...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!
Dear friends,I know I've been an awful blogger! During the last year I've been literally sick and tired, but it was very much worth it! The result is sleeping in my arms as I'm writing this. Baby F was born five weeks ago and has charmed us all. I feel very blessed to be a mother of three! I very much hope that she will help to bring my blogging groove back, but until then I will be on maternity leave. I am updating the Syko Facebook page quite frequently though, please visit me there!
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!
I am sitting in my sofa surrounded by a TV crew when I start to write this post. The first and last blog post I will write in this manner, that's for sure. Yle TV2, which is one of the national TV channels here in Finland is doing a TV lifestyle programme about creative female bloggers called Blogistania. I am one of them! The program will be broad casted beginning in March 2012. Of course I hesitated about inviting a TV crew in our small crowded home, but then again this could be a once in a lifetime experience and our living situation is no secret. I am much more convenient behind the camera than in front of it and have never ever dreamt of a career as a film star or model so this was very much outside of my comfort zone. But, I really like the theme of this programme series and I do think there should be more real people on TV, so here I am! Here are some "behind the scenes" pictures from the two days I spent with the TV team. All pictures taken by lovely Viivi Lehtonen (YLE 2011).
A big thanks to my gorgeous friends Tuija and Päivi who dared to come to my somewhat unusual party! And to my big girl Elsa, of course, who rather did some guest-starring than went to the movies with her dad! Now I'm going to my last weekend event for the season, a Christmas craft workshop for kids and families. It has been an Autumn filled with events and new experiences and I am looking forward to the (I think) slower pace of January and to get some more time for blogging, I do not want to feel ashamed to call myself a blogger. Happy weekend!
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?
This stack of beauty (kona cotton solids) has kept me busy this week, I can't tell you more about the project I'm working on right now, but wanted to share this simple beauty. There are few things that make me as happy as a stack of new fabric, full of possibilites. Another thing that makes me happy is to take the bike to Kindergarten with my little boy. We both love biking as much, but have rather different perspectives. Like this morning, the air was fresh and clear after two rainy days and I fully enjoyed all the flowers and the smell of Spring.
Me: Look! The cherry-tree is in full bloom!
Little e: Look! Someone's dropped a cherry candy on the ground!
Happy weekend my friends!
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...
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...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 am back in my studio after a week of holiday. We went to the Summerhouse my dad has been building for the last years. It's finally finished and perfectly cosy on a cold winter day too, I just wish we could have stayed longer! My dad was so clever to make these peeking holes on the loft for the grandchildren!
Mum and dad had prepared a great sledding hill for us and the weather was perfect (that's my mum in the picture)! Look at all that snow!!!
This is Big E taking a break from reading, she was mostly up on the loft reading all the books we got in the local second-hand book shop :)
I got this one for me, I fell in love with the beautiful cover, but I am certain it has some useful information inside too! I am very ready for the gardening season! Last weekend felt promising, snow dripping from the roof and birdsong, ah!
So the time felt right to make an art print of this picture to keep hope up during the cold days that I'm sure will come during March. Yes, there will be flowers! Eventually.
The Love machine is now also an art print. At the moment this is my favourite of my printed designs, I love how the colours of the quilt turned out. Tomorrow I will finish the rest of the paper work I have waiting and then dedicated the rest of the week to sewing! I cannot wait!
What are you longing for today?
Artist, crafter, mother of two, blogger, small business owner... Author of the sewing book Scandinavian Stitches. (Stashbooks)
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