Something old, something new

I love the way you can add so much more to an outfit when you have girls - a hair clip here a headband there...

Miss L received the kind gift of a hair clip that is a perfect match for her new dress from the lovely Wendy.

These little clips come as alligator clips and on bobby pins - we are trialling them for Wendy - they certainly get put through their paces in this house I can tell you.

Wendy has loads of colours and styles to choose from.

She was wearing this dress (again!) today while she carried her dolly around as part of a game. 

The doll carrier is nearly three years old, I made it way back here and it's still used now, which is part of what makes making things so rewarding.

Gorgeous Steiner doll made for her at birth by her aunt.

By the way - did you notice that big gap in the front of her teeth!!  

The other front tooth is very loose too - Christmas pics this year could be interesting...

Carried away

Sorry this took a little longer than expected but here I am with a house wrap-up for you.

Firstly let it be said that this is not a difficult project - just a fiddly one as the house is quite small.

I should have taken a shot that shows perspective but I forgot!

Anyway it measures 18 cm tall to the peak of the roof and the width is about 15cm. Yeah, see, it's small.

I'm just going to put down a bunch of random thoughts and if there's anything I forget or you have further questions please feel free to ask them, happy to help.

Pattern - I used the pattern from the book One Yard Wonders - though I think it is exactly the same as the one that is online here.

The thing I didn't like about the pattern is it does not give the dimensions very clearly, so when you want to make the roof one colour and the walls another it is a little fiddly - worth it though for the effect.

Inspiration - Before you start you should definitely visit the Flickr group for inspiration.

There are beach houses, garages, barns, farm houses, country cottages and all sorts of cute little houses to get you thinking about how you want yours to look.

Buttons - I used self-covered buttons to secure the house but if I were to make it again I would use velcro as it is too hard for my two-year-old to get it open by herself.
I'm going to move a couple of the buttons in more toward the centre of the roof, just so it will be more secure - it's gaping a little at the front and that annoys me.

Elastic - I used hat elastic and if you choose to use elastic then don't use this as it's a little stiff and brittle. Go for hair elastics instead I think.

If you use elastic make sure the loops are being placed so they are positioned to secure the front of the house, not so that they are on the back walls - which are sewn in place and don't need buttons.

Walls - The wall structure is provided using plastic canvas as per the instructions.

This works quite well and I padded it with quilt batting.

To secure the batting, I sewed it on with my machine. I was not sure how this would go but it worked really well and was quick and easy to do.

The walls bow a little so you could use something stronger if you wanted - but then it might not be so easy to secure the padding - this is worth thinking about before you decide on what to use for your walls.

Decorating the house - I secured all the interior 'furnishings' before I sewed the house together as they were easier to iron on this way.

I drew the items, cut them from felt then secured them to the walls using Heat 'n Bond Ultra (you can buy it on a roll from Spotlight).

The button flowers were just glued on with fabric glue.

Photo and painting - For my own amusement I included a photo of our family and also a copy of Van Gogh's 'Starry, starry night" painting over the fireplace.

To do these I shrunk the files on my computer, put them in reverse (so flipped them horizontally) and then printed onto Ausinc light T-shirt transfer paper (from Officeworks).

Then I ironed some of the Heat 'n Bond onto plain white fabric and ironed the images on the transfer paper onto this fabric.

Lastly I ironed the finished result onto the house.

Animals - were all from Shelley's shop - The Little Sparrow Shop I was rapt to find a duck that fitted so perfectly! And how cute and fat is the pig.

Furniture and 'baby with a bowl-cut' - This set came from Windmill Toys but you could pick them up at any good toy shop.

My little one is very into babies at the moment so I knew she'd love having the nursery furniture in her house.

Also this means it can be changed over with any of the items in our doll house without doubling up.

It's a bit bigger than I would have liked - but I can live with it!

Seriously though - how bad is that baby's hair!

Outdoors - I've only shown you the outside front but on the sides I cut out a couple of pictures from some Maisy Mouse fabric and put them on with Heat 'n Bond too.

There's a butterfly, duck, watering can and then on the front is little black cat.
I thought if I wanted to I could always do more external detail later - but the internal detail was best done before sewing it all up.

Thread - One of the last things you do is put the wall structure (the supports) into the fabric and then sew it closed and I did this using invisible thread.
This way, the line that runs straight through the middle of my pond was not made too obvious.

So that's about it.

It was a fun project to do and I am delighted to tell you that all three girls and their friends are playing with it all the time.

It's small enough for Miss 2 to carry around by herself without effort so she has really taken ownership of it and the night we gave it to her she took it to straight out to dinner and had a lovely time with it.

Good enough for royalty

The list is not shrinking, instead it is, well, morphing I guess.

Some things that were on the list no are longer, some things that never were there have been made; some things that were on there still are.

Case in point, these crowns.

Once saw them I knew there was no way I could not make them.

The tutorial on Juicy Bits makes it easy, the hardest part is choosing the colours.

The felt came from the Steiner store in Kew - lovely wool stuff of course in the most gorgeous colours.

Sparkly buttons from an old pair of PJ's spotty ones from Spotlight.

That's three more gifts ready to be wrapped.

Blowin' in the wind

More of the Christmas gifts that I have been squirreling away.

These are called 'wind wands' and are another great idea from the book featured in this post.

They are super-quick to make and very inexpensive but I think will be well-loved.

I was hoping to show them blowing in the wind - but there wasn't any, so I will leave you with this scungy photo!

I figure the elaborate dancing concerts that take place on our deck will be that little bit safer with these, rather than the traditional 'twirling' ribbons they have been using.

A series of pointy sticks and two twirling three-year-olds along with a toddler is not my idea of safety at its best!

Carried away

The Christmas crafting has been running hot here as we make our way into December (aaahhhh!!).

I'm pretty happy with these ones though I must say - mostly because I know they will be really well received.

Ages ago on Omi Creates I saw the doll carrier Naomi made for her daughter and knew my two would love them.
Of course it was a lovely vintage pattern that was no longer in print, and so I forgot about it for a while until I found this book in the library, complete with doll carrier and instructions to make one.

So I took the basic dimensions supplied and added a few of my own touches along the way, to end up with these two carriers.

The things I changed were as follow:

• Cut the leg holes in a curved shape.
• Added trim to the main body of both carriers before ironing all pieces onto pellon (rather than stuffing it as instructed), for extra padding.
• Used my super-duper snap press to make the straps adjustable with three snaps spaced along the end of the straps.
• And I top-stitched all the straps and the body of the two carriers just because I like the way this finishes things.

I'm yet to see if it fits them properly as I can't exactly try it on anyone, given that Santa will be bringing the gift.

In future I may modify it further to make the piece that sits in front of the doll a little higher, and maybe curve the edge. I'm hoping the dolls are not going to be too top-heavy and topple out.

Only time will tell.

Charity has also been making things from this book. Check out her very sweet doll/teddy swing.

I think this might wait til the new year and I will make one with the girls.