How the sewing began: Bird Costume

As mentioned in a previous post, I made son #2 a costume for last year's carnival. It was a very stressful experience for me, as before I avoided the sewing machine like the plague before then. After having finally finished the costume and seeing son #2 thrilled to bits, I decided that it was time now to get a better grip on things regarding sewing with the machine.

The bird costume was made out of teddy fleece and felt feathers. The mask was a decorated Zorro mask with an egg box  beak ;-)

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Little Flower for Carnival

My sister phoned up to ask for a favour: could I please, please, pretty please make her little one a carnival costume? All the ones you could buy for 1 year olds were not her taste. If possible, something to do with flowers...

I still had some 'girly' coloured fleece left over from the ponchos and also a new green fleece blanket. So I had a go and tried to make a flower costume for my little godchild:

So, it's completely made out of fleece apart from the ribbons, they are chiffon ribbons in light green (that I had left over from the invitation cards for our eldest's 1st Holy Communion).
The basic cape is a circle with a 32cm radius in green, with a circular opening at the top (5cm radius) and a cut from the neck opening downwards (10cm). The ribbons have been sewn to the cut opening first with a medium zig-zag stitch.
6 petals in 3 different colours were sewn firstly to the neck part and secondly on the 'overlap' of two neighbouring petals, about 10cm down in length.

I am thinking whether or not I will manage to make a smaller hat/bonnet to go with the cape as well ... But first of all, my sister has to give the all clear!

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Carnival Costume: An Elf from LotR

My eldest almost never ass for me to make him things. This was one of the seldom cases where it did happen.

Carnival in North-Rhine Westfalia is a huge event. I personally think it is great for the kids to get dressed up and all that, however, I still find it strange that the adults are also carnival-mad. But I am getting used to it ;-)

Son #1 always has special wishes with regards to his dressing up. And this year he has decided to go as an elf from LotR. It didn't have to be exactly like Legolas, he assured me, but it should definitely go in this direction.

Our local carnival store (which is really, amazingly enormous!) didn't have such a costume but unfortunately had the ears. So son asked...

As I made son #2 a bird costume last year, I couldn't really say no this time either. This was the first project with 'clothes' that had arms, waistbands, where I made my own paper cuts and puzzeled and designed. All in all it too me one weekend for the basics and another afternoon for the smaller things, here are the results:

 The tunic

 Basic 'elastic' trousers

 This things that archers wear on their lower arms

 The cape, ordered with arms but to be cut so it stays at the back when wearing

 Bag for arrows (son #2 broke the bow, we have to see that we get another one before carnival) and a basic knotted belt

All together from the back

All together from the front-slanted perspective (he's a little poser, isn't he?!)

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Organizer/Pouch for the Ladder Bed

See, my middle-one wished for a 'grown-up' stereo for Christmas. And seeing as he had no other big wishes, hubbie and I decided he would get a nice, easy to use one as his big Christmas present.

A remote control was included in the package, much to the delight of our son. But then he was quite concerned as he had no place to put the remote control after having gone to bed, without needing to climb back out of bed. So the question popped up: "Mum, can you make me something?"

As he also has a small torch for when he has to get out at night and is also discovering the joys of reading for himself, I decided to try for a basic organizer that can be attached to the side of the ladder bed and has room for all.

I may need to shorten the straps of the organizer a bit, but will wait and see  how it proves to be in 'nightly' use before I do so.

The middle-one picked the fabric, I backed it (and filled the pocket) with mollitan to give it a bit more stability. It was also the first time that I attached poppers with the clamp I have here at home and must admit, it needs a bit of practice ;-)

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Hair Bobble/Clips Organizer

Whilst browsing through various online Forums for some inspiration during the last few weeks, I kept seeing wonderful hair bobble/clips organizers sewn by a lot of ladies. We have at least 5 girls with hair clip chaos at home and the idea of making each one an organizer did not leave my mind at all.

Now, due to Little Miss Madam that takes up the most of my time during the day, I didn't find the time when I was motivated enough and didn't find the motivation when some time slot did pop up, to design my own organizer. So I asked in a forum for some ideas or where you can find some sewing pattern. The answers were very helpful and the examples they showed all very beautiful and individual. In the end, I opted for a freebook, made available by aprilkind (in german). Again, I was very lucky: great pattern, instructions really well written and comprehensible.

So I spent yet another hour in our local fabric store, trying to pick out patterns and discussing the possibilities with one of the owners of the store. She advised to be bold and mix patterns and colours, but as these are meant for quite particular little ladies, I was not brave enough and tried to keep it a bit toned down.

One of the ladies is celebrating her birthday tomorrow and my son has been invited. Next to the 'main' birthday present we bought already, I finally tool heart and printed out the sewing pattern and got to work. Here is the result of my very first hair bobble/clip organizer:

Clips can be clipped onto the froggy band, bobbles tucked into the pockets at the bottom.

I am still not that sure with the pattern mix, though my husband let a 'Awww, that's sweet...' drop when he saw it. Maybe I should really just go ahead with the advice of the store owner the next time I pick out some things - which will be when I finally use up my rations here at home beforehand ;-)

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Xmas Pressies & Prototyping

My mother and sister are quite surprised about me and my sewing machine this year. Especially since I am not a huge creative talent (give me instructions and I may produce something recognisable...). So when making the list of presents for the extended family this Christmas, I thought they would maybe like something I made especially for them. As both are out and about, come whatever type of weather, I decided to try my best with a loop scarf (okay, it seemed pretty easy as well). This was my first try with stretchy fabric as well.

I tried to get colours that a) suit them well and b) they also like wearing. I hope they will like them!! The sewing instructions are from Elbekind in german and I found them quite easy to understand.


My next prototype was the knotted hat for babies. It seemed pretty simple and the second one I made was easy and even fits (the first one was a tad too small). The instructions were a freebie from klimperklein, also very easy to understand and in german.

Now I am back at the machine. I hope I will find something else to try out!!

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Another No-Sew Poncho

After one of my friends had seen the babywearing poncho I created last month, she asked if I could also make her one. Our Little Miss Madam had a longer morning snooze today, so I seized the opportunity to snip and snip at the fleece and out came this:

I hope she likes it. As it is, it's turned out a little bit nicer than the first one I made. The front has been left as it is, I would like to ask what she would like as an application first (if she wants anything at all, that is ;-))

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