Just dropping in...

Hei vaan, blogi jäi opiskelukiireissä tauolle ja eipä tuota aikaa vieläkään ole oikein muuhun kuin pakolliseen nyhräämiseen :) Jospa sitä syksymmällä taas aktivoituisi bloggaamaankin. Käsityöt ei kuitenkaan ole jääneet tekemättä, joku roti sentään. Kuvassa kasa joulu- ja vauvalahjoiksi päätyneitä bambeja, jostain melkein puolen vuoden takaa.

Hello hello, I'm still alive. I have been really busy with my studies and had to go on an involuntary blogging break. I am hopng to have more time for my blog after summer, but we will see. However, I have not stopped creating, that would be too much! These sleeping bambies were sewn as Christmas or baby gifts some six months ago...

An old project

 Siivosin vanhaa tietokonetta tyhjäksi kaikista kuvista, jospa ne vihdoin saisi arkistoitua johonkin muualle, koneesta kun on näyttö pimeänä. Löysin sieltä kuvia ajalta ennen blogia, kun tein Emma-vauvalle pinnasänkyyn katoksen. Pohjana on Ikean perusverhokatos ja päälle tein hupun vanhoista käytetyistä vauvaharsoista. Lisäksi reunaa kiertää silkkinauha johon kiinnitin topattuja harsosydämiä ja katoksen reunat on myös kantattu silkkinauhalla. Niin hempeää...

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I was emptying my old laptop and found these old pictures. I made this canopy for Emma's crib when she was just a baby. I used Ikea's basic canopy and made a hood over it from old baby cotton reusable diapers. Sounds terrible but they were clean, I didn't use them as diapers, only as baby wipes! The rim is decorated with a silk ribbon and I added padded hearts to it as well. I lined the edges of the canopy with the same silk ribbon. Wasn't it so sweet?

Snow White

Tein tämän prinsessakoltun Emmalle viime vuonna ja unohdin sen esitellä blogissa. Yläosa on tehty vanhasta kauluspaidasta ja alosaan ostimme Emman kanssa yhteistuumin varsin kiiltävää polyesterisatiinia. Kelpasi Emmalle, todellakin, ja oli hyvin hyvin halpaa. Harmin paikka, että mekko on jo jäänyt pieneksi... Mekon alla on tyllihame kohottamassa pitkää ja runsasta satiinihametta.

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I made this princess dress for Emma last year and just forgot to show it here in my blog. The bodice is made from an old shirt of mine and the yellow fabric is polyester satin, very cheap and VERY shiny. Emma loves it. Too bad the dress won't fit her anymore!

A new shopper

Löysin Marimekon Maalaisruusu-kappaverhon UFFista ja pakkohan siitä oli tehdä tällainen sievä kauppakassi. Taidanpa tehdä toisenkin, sillä tämä menee äidilleni lahjaksi.

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I found this Marimekko fabric (Maalaisruusu) from a charity shop. It is actually a curtain but I have no need for such curtains - I just could not leave the fabric behind, since it was cheap and pretty. So, it became a shopping bag. I might just do another one, since I am giving this to my mom.

Kitty cat

Emmalla oli eskarissa naamiaiset vapun kunniaksi. Lapsosella oli hyvin tarkka käsitys siitä, millaisen kissapuvun hän haluaa: mustat korvat, mustat leggingsit, musta paita ja musta häntä jossa on valkoinen hännänpää. Olivat sopineet kissateemasta kavereiden kanssa eskarissa. 

Tämä oli helpoin ompelutyö ikinä! Huopakorvat liimattiin pantaan, häntä tehtiin Emman vanhasta valkoisesta sukasta ja minun villapaidan hihasta.

Emma eläytyi rooliinsa niin, että käveli neljällä jalalla koko päivän. Eskariin suostui sentään pyöräilemään, että pääsi nopeammin muiden kissatyttöjen kanssa leikkimään.

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Emma's kindergarten had a fancy dress party on Monday. This year she knew exactly what she wanted to be: a black cat with white tip of the tail. The girls in kindergarten had made a deal that everyone dresses as cats.

This was the easiest sewing task for ages. I glued the felt ears to a headband and made the tail from an old white sock and the sleeve of my old black sweater.

Immediately after putting the costume on, Emma turned into a cat and stayed in the character the whole day!

Almost vintage

When my mom graduated, her mom, my grandma, made her a dress for a party. The fabric was really heavy, good quality silk and the skirt part was a full circle. When I was ten (or somewhere around that age), I found the dress from my grandma's closet and wanted it to be altered to fit me. That dress is now in Emma's closet. It is perfect and I love it.

Apologies for the electrical socket in these pictures - you will seeing it a lot in future photos as well, since this seems to be the best place to take photos :)

Baby blue for my baby

I had an old cashmere sweater that unfortunately did not fit me anymore. I decided to chop it in pieces and make a hat and a cowl. After I had made those, I still had enough leftovers for fingerless gloves but then I got lazy and got rid of the sweater remnants.

 

The pattern for the hat is taken from an old Me&I hat my daughter has. It has the perfect shape and fits both me and my girl. Emma loves this set, but I think this super soft kit is for me - everyday luxury, free of charge!

Pastels

I have been inspired by pastel colours lately. I don't know why, since usually I like my colours bright. Perhaps the heat has something to do with it. I bought these underwear elactics from a yard sale for 40 cents and I am still kicking myself for not buying all other colours as well. I took only the pretty ones that went well together. There would have been a very nice yellow and a few different blues as well. Sigh. And if you are interested, I have no idea what I will do with these!

I also bought over 10 meters of pastel coloured linen fabric from Eurokangas. I don't know what I was thinking but I love these fabrics a lot. Just need to use them quickly before my mood changes back to brights!

Last night I made this skirt for Emma. The stripe fabric is actually a man's shirt, the purple fabric is linen. More pictures coming after the weekend. I might even write a tutorial, since there's a trick to this skirt which makes it a really simple and quick project.

Linking this again to Tea Rose Home, go and check it out!

Jeans bag

My mom gave me her old jeans (from the 90's! Horrible. Elastic waistband, can you imagine...) and I got to work. There is plenty of material to use, and I have been making skirts from it. One I already made using the said elastic waistband but the other one is still work in progress. I doubt Emma will ever get it, it is so boring to make. Anyway, I used the rest of the fabric for this bag, the middle of this bag is the side seam of the jeans leg. The inside fabric is from Ikea, remnants of the Christmas dress project.

I have a hard time deciding which side I like the best! I'm so happy this bag is reversible!

Tree bag

I don't think these require any explanations. I am still obsessed with making these bags. I have at least one more coming up, just need to get some decent pictures of it. Yep, my camera still isn't my new best friend, but we are slowly getting there. Very slowly.

Ruffle skirt

I had one elastic waist band from my mom's old jeans (from the 90's...) and yellow and lavender coloured flower curtains donated by my mother-in-law. It was destiny - those two needed to be paired. I did not use any pattern but I did take a look at Emma's another ruffle skirt, store-bought, so that I would get the proportions of the ruffles correctly. This became Emma's favourite instantly and she has been twirling and dancing in this skirt the whole day.

 

 Almost forgot, linking this to Tea Rose Home!

Three bags

I made three bags for Emma's kindergarten teachers - today is her last day in kindergarten. I used once again the pattern from verypurpleperson and this time I let Emma help me in sewing them. Emma has never before been allowed to touch my sewing machine so she was very excited. She sewed the bottom seams (under my very watchful eye) and did a very good job! She was very proud of her work, so we will continue these sewing exercises, perhaps she could make herself a gym sack or something simple as that.

A warning: My photos are really bad and almost all are blurry. I took them this morning, in a hurry and didn't check my camera settings.

The paisley fabric above is actually an old shirt that my husband has never worn. It seemed like a good idea to get some use of it, and it looks quite nice as a bag. The red bird fabric is from Almedahls, stripes and blue fabric from Ikea.The lining of the first bag is orange cotton.

The green lining fabric is an old table cloth and the tree fabric is, once again, from Ikea. I love Ikea fabrics!

Another present

My godson turned seven and since he is starting school after summer I wanted to make him something useful. That and I also forgot to buy gift wrapping paper and had to have something to cover his real present :) Anyway, I decided to make a sack for his sports gear and it turned out quite nice!

I appliqued the letter "R" to the sack, since his name begins with R. The R is cut from old jeans and the sack fabric is from Ikea. The strings are orange and red bias tape, just to bring some more colour to the mix.

Birthday gifts

This hat is the very same I made for Emma last year. This time I used a bit lighter pink and different colours for the flowers. The lining is made from my old pale pink tee shirt and is exactly the same colour as one of the petal layers in the flower. Coincidence, but a good one!

I made the hat for Emma's cousin and I also crocheted the same collar I made last year to go with the hat. This time I crocheted the ribbon instead of using silk since I noticed that the silk ribbon does not stay put and tying Emma's collar again and again (and she does not like to be disturbed all the time while running around and consequently did not help me very much...) every time she was wearing it made me realize that the original instruction to use crocheted ribbon was quite ok anyway, LOL.

Oh, these blurry pictures annoy me so much!

Quick fix

Nothing special but Emma wanted to wear her red cowboy boots and she did not have any red accessories to go with them. Well, she had a pretty scarf with flowers but it was a bit too light for this time of year, so clearly she needed a new one. The hat is an old one but had an ugly logo in the front so I covered that with a Hello Kitty picture. The scarf is very basic, made from knit fabric remnant. Quite long because I wanted it to be warm and now she can wrap it around the neck for several times (although she prefers to wear it the way you see in the picture...). That's it :)

A squirrel bag - and revealing the mystery prize!

I made this bag for Emma since she was begging me to make her a bag to fit all her ballet gear. So when I saw this pattern from verypurpleperson I had to try. She has the most stylish sewing ideas ever! The original bag is reversible and I guess this is also but the lining is quite lightweight fabric and gets wrinkled easily, so I prefer this squirrel side of the bag. And so does Emma.

This is the other side of the bag, a bit wrinkled still due to my complete lack of ironing skills:

And this is the reverse, both sides are the same and just as wrinkled:

Emma chose these fabrics by herself and she did a great job! The squirrel fabric is from Ikea, the polkadot is an old piece of canvas and I have no idea where I've bought it. The pink flower fabric is an old curtain, never used, so my mother donated it to me.

Now to the giveaway. I still haven't finished the mystery prize, minor sewing still needs to be done but as you might have already guessed, the fabrics in this picture will become a similar bag. Hope you like it :)

Please go and take part in the giveaway! I just extended the time until Wednesday 6th of April since I realized that I am going on a cruise with my family on Sunday and won't be here to select the winners :)

Clutch renewal

I bought this leather bag from Italy more than ten years ago. I fell in love with a pair of heels that had the same white stitching and since I always try to match shoes and bags, I just had to buy this shoulder bag as well. However, I did not use it at all since the handles were so impractical: stiff and the proportions of the handles were so wrong to this tiny bag. It has sat abandoned in my closet for all these years and finally I decided to do something about it. I took the bag to my favourite cobbler and asked her to remove the handles and make a wrist strap instead.

The wrist strap is quite thin in purpose because sometimes I might just want to hide it completely and just carry the clutch in my hand.

I think this was a good change and now I think I will actually use this bag! I am going to theatre on Friday and will definitely be using this bag. Unfortunately the matching shoes have disappeared, no idea where they are. Perhaps I need to go shoe shopping...

On a side note, I am thinking of the victims of Japan's earthquake and will be organising a giveaway of some sorts in my blog during the weekend. I am hoping that all those participating in the giveaway donate something to the victims via official channels. But more info on that later. I try to make the prize as tempting as possible :) Suggestions are welcome!

More flags

I am still missing Iceland and Aland flags. Or actually the original flag bunting (my mom's) does not have Aland flag, but since we have family in Aland island, I decided to add the flag as well. I am afraid this won't be finished on time! Doesn't matter, we are not going to spend Christmas at home, so there is no pressure to get any decorations ready. I still have a few Christmas presents to make, so this project is the last on the list.

Christmas decorations

The picture quality is rubbish, but I hope you do not mind! Also, this should have been shown in Independence day, but I only got the idea then and had no time to implement it. This flag bunting is made from scraps of old linen sheet and jeans.

I am not completely satisfied with this one, since it is a bit dull. I want more colours :) In my childhood, my mother had a bunting with all nordic flags and that is what I want as well. I already started cutting the fabric scraps, I have all the needed colours!