My baby, my firstborn. Isn’t she precious?

Martina had a school party this evening, so Esther offered up her Dementor costume.

Esther wore Martina’s pumpkin costume that I made a couple of years ago (still love that hat!) and went trick-or-treating in the neighbourhood.

 

 

 

Every year we get a few stragglers at the door. This year a few ambitious families tried to organize Halloween in our area, sending out flyers asking families to stock up on candy and welcome trick-or-treaters at the door. As a result we had a record 14 kids. (This tradition may take a few more years to catch on…)

Now I have a big bowl of leftover mini KitKats and Twixes. Must. Not. Eat.

 

 

Let’s change the subject.

 

Today’s Things are another set, this one for my niece, Nicole.

 

 

I used the fabric from the box I made for Martina’s desk to make a flat bag and lined it with yellow cotton from an old shirt.

 

 

And yes, I made a tissue pouch to go with it.

 

 

Cost of these Things: 0
Cost of all Things to date: €279.74

 

Look who lives in our garden!

 

 

We’ve seen this guy out and about even in broad daylight, though the most action happens after the sun sets. We’ve also seen offspring, so we’re pretty sure there’s a whole family settled in. As an added bonus, the slug population has taken a beating. Hooray for hedgehogs!

In less prickly news, today’s Things, taken from the summer backlog, are a set I made for my niece, Christine.

I used the leftover purple flower fabric from Martina’s summer pyjama set to make a gusseted zipped bag. I think I may have interfaced the outer fabric since it’s so thin, but as Christine has since carried it off to New Zealand I can’t check for sure.

 

 

I lined it with the solid purple that exactly matched the zipper. (At some point I stocked up on zippers at the Haagse Markt and consequently seem to always have the right colour in stock.)

 

 

And of course I made a tissue pouch to go with it.

 

 

It’s what I do.

 

Cost of these Things: 0
Cost of all Things to date: €279.74

 

* Bonus hedgehog pic. You’re welcome.

 

 

 

 

Today’s Things, taken from the summer backlog, were made for my niece, Emily.

The fabric is left over from the great tissue pouch marathon. (The supply is endless. I will be making Things with this fabric until the end of time.)

I picked two sections of fabric with lots of crazy stuff going on and kept the bag simple and flat. The hot pink zipper and pink polka dot lining don’t do much to tone it down.

 

 

I whipped up a matching tissue pouch and this gift was ready to be packed.

 

 

 

Cost of these Things: 0
Cost of all Things to date: €279.74

 

 

So I’m back from another vacation. Life is rough. We spent the October break in Croatia with friends, enjoying the last few days of summer on the Adriatic coast before we prepare for the winter ahead.

 

 

 

But now it’s time to get back to real life. I mean it this time. I’m still determined to finish this 365 project, which means making and posting about just over 140 Things before the end of December. Pshaw. Easy peasy.

Today’s Thing is another little project from the summer backlog. I wanted to give Thing 44, a Swarovski necklace, to my sister, Heather, when I went back to Canada. It just needed a gift bag.

I rummaged through my Liberty scraps and found a tiny piece of the blue flowers from my Sorbetto blouse.

 

 

A silver velour lining cushions and protects the pearls and crystals.

 

 

I used a length of blue satin cord for the drawstring and the gift was ready.

 

 

And happily, the bag also just happened to be the exact right size for Heather’s sunglasses. Multi-purpose, baby!

 

Cost of this Thing: 0
Cost of all Things to date: €279.74

I was cleaning up my sewing room when I came across four small squares of fabric. They were the leftovers from the basket I made for Martina’s room. Today they became drawstring gift bags.

 

 

 

When Martina was born my mother-in-law made her a green gingham quilt and gave me the leftover fabric. I’ve used that gingham for many projects over the years (including a sweet blouse for Martina when she was three or four) and I have only tiny bits left now. I used those as lining for these bags.

 

 

I’m experimenting with different methods to make both lined and unlined drawstring pouches. I may put together a tutorial at some point. However, that won’t happen before the fall. I first have some vacationing to do.

 

 

For now, I pulled out Things 170 & 171, the red and purple child-size wrap bracelets, and gave them a luxurious packaging. These will make the perfect gift for a couple of little girls.

 

Cost of these Things: 0
Cost of all Things to date: €277.74

Another birthday party, another Liberty gift set.

I still had some lovely scraps of the Mitsi lawn, but since it wasn’t quite enough for a zip bag I went for a two-tone approach. The yellow fabric is the same that I used to line the last set I made and is a great match for the creaminess of the flowers. I found a zipper in my stash in the same shade of creamy yellow.

The zipper didn’t go in perfectly but considering the tight deadline I was on and the speed at which I was sewing it’s respectable and better than expected. I started the set after Esther’s swimming lesson this morning and needed to have it ready by lunchtime.

 

 

The tissue pouch is made of two triangular scraps sewn into a square, and then lined with the yellow.

 

 

These were the last biggish scraps of the Mitsi so it really is time to get started on that patchwork quilt. Ha! That’s a joke. I don’t do big projects. I have patience and perseverance issues.

 

Cost of these Things: 0
Cost of all Things to date: €277.74

Back in February I made a pouf and two couch cushions for my friend, Mirjam. I still had a mountain of fabric left so I told her to think of more Things to make with it. Last week she brought me a squishy neck cushion and asked if I could make a cover for it.

 

 

The structure is the same as a pouf so I used the same method as this tutorial, just with different dimensions.

 

 

The zipper is from my stash. It’s actually olive green but it blends well with the fabric. I used the same linen curtain fabric for the piping that I used the last time.

 

 

The cushion cover is a little on the tight side, which rather takes away from the squishiness of the neck pillow, but that’ll soften with time as the styrofoam balls in the pillow compress.

 

 

Otherwise I’ll just make a bigger cover. I certainly have enough fabric.

 

Cost of this Thing: 0
Cost of all Things to date: €277.74

Just a short post tonight. The late nights of football have taken their toll, as has the crushing disappointment.

Moving right along.

Today’s Thing is quick and useful: more underwear.

The last time I made underwear I tried the free hipster pattern from Makebra.com. They were a hit with Martina. Apparently they’re the most comfortable pair I’ve made for her.

So last week when one of her favourite t-shirts developed a big hole I decided to turn it into underwear.

Once again I used the tutorial at Very Purple Person.

 

 

I’m getting better at stretching the elastic evenly around the leg holes. I could have pulled the waistband elastic a bit tighter but otherwise these worked out great.

And now off to bed.

 

Cost of this Thing: 0
Cost of all Things to date: €277.74

Today is the deadline for the Sporty Summer Sewathon over at Did You Make That. Remember the Thurlow shorts I was working on? I hope not, because I never made them. Maybe after the summer? I just haven’t got the mental energy to face the learning curve. So many pieces, so many ways to get it wrong…

However, I still wanted to join the sewathon. I just needed to find a pattern that was both sporty and non-panic-inducing.

Esther bought two lengths of jersey print at the Haagse Markt the last time we were there. One is covered in photos of cats and the other in wild animals. They’re a super soft cotton with some lycra and a dreamy drape. She has her own plans for most of it but asked if I could also make a shirt from each of the prints.

It’s Renfrew time!

Esther had a particular design in mind: animals front and back with solid coloured sleeves and trim. I had some purple and blue cotton knit in my stash to fit the bill.

 

 

The print fabric is a great quality and a pleasure to work with. The cheap knit? Not so much. The purple neckline drooped, so I folded it over to the inside and hand-stitched it down. The blue sleeves got all stretched out and wonky when I tried to top stitch them. I had to cut off the cuff and start again. The knit doesn’t have great recovery either, so the sleeves and waistband on both shirts are a bit saggy.

However, droop and sag notwithstanding, my animal-loving girl is thrilled.

Which is great and all, but how are these sporty, you ask? Oh, I can spin this…

 

Jungle badminton

 

 

Cat-cycle

 

 

Snorkelling on the wild side

 

 

Kitty dreams: Pigeon hunting

 

That’s how.

See? Totally sporty.

 

Cost of these Things: €3 (Since this is Esther’s fabric I only am counting the cost of the amount I used for these shirts. The rest of the fabric will go back into her stash.)

Cost of all Things to date: €277.74