Bean bag party favours for boy´s party

I´m a bit sick of all the plastic things that go with birthday parties, so I thought I´d make some mini bean bags as the party favours for my son´s party. The finished size of the square bags are 2 inches square (not including seam allowances), and they have only about 1 1/2 to 2 tablesppons of wheat in them. They don´t feel heavy at all, but they are actually just the right size to do bean bags games, but without incurring that head-breaking velocity that a 5 year old can create throwing any heavier beanbag. I put them in little bags, but I forgot to take pics before giving them out, so here they are in a little bag I made a while ago.

It was a pool party, so I thought I´d do an ocean theme, and started making fish bean bags, a tiny bit bigger. These were for the guests´ younger siblings, who also came. I experimented with lots of different types (fin, no fin, edgestitched), and decided that the best prototype fish :o) was the one in the bottom left hand corner (no edgestitching, no fin).

Wanganui River, North Island, New Zealand

Feet wheat packs

Here are some wheat packs for feet which I´ve made for my son´s kindergarten teachers as a goodbye present. The blue and green things are the inserts, and the yellow, red and pink ones are the covers. The covers slip on the wheat packs like pillow-covers. I´ve drawn up some instructions on how to make them, and I´ll add them here in a few days.

Near Opotiki, North Island, New Zealand

Short sleeved funked out peasant blouse

I used to have a long sleeved white funked out peasant blouse, but the long sleeves seemed too heavy on me, so I converted it to a short sleeved version. I do like this version much better.

I still really like peasant blouses, but I think I´ll try some different versions. I think I have enough of the Funked Out Peasant Blouses (pattern by Lila Tueller) now!

Featherston, North Island, New Zealand

Green funked out peasant blouse

Mmm. Not sure about this one. In the fabric shop this looked like a nice shade of green, but having sewn it up, it seems a pretty drab shade.

I´ve also realised that the long-sleeve funked out peasant blouse (great pattern by Lila Tueller), doesn´t really suit me. The sleeves puff out too much and just make the whole thing look too heavy on me. I didn´t take a photo of the unaltered ¨before"version unfortunately; I only realised after making the blouse, that I needed to reduce the sleeves. I felt a bit like a clown, or a milkmaid or something (its not the pattern´s fault, just my build). I didn´t want to completely unpick the whole thing, so I just took out 2 inches from the outside of the sleeve and shirred it a bit. (If I made it again, I´d just take 2 or more inches out of the width of the sleeve when cutting it from the fabric). The seam is very obvious, but hopefully the shirring makes the seam look intentional? Or not. I definitely like the blouse better with the sleeves de-puffed (as per this photo). Although, due to the bad choice of fabric, I´m not sure how much I´ll wear this.

On this version I also halved the width of the empire band, and made it end centre front, leaving the join open. I did a very thin string of the same fabric and this means I can get it over my head without needing a zip and tighten it slightly once its on.

Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

A-line skirt I designed

Here is an a-line skirt I drew up the pattern for after reading Cal Patch´s Design It Yourself: Patternmaking Simplified book. I followed the drawing-up instructions, but in the end I just tried on the skirt and adjusted it to fit correctly that way (which is also part of the instructions). After having kids I´m not the regular shape anymore anyway, so making my own skirt pattern seems the best way to go. The fabric is a very, very lightweight denim. That makes it comfortable, but it doesn´t seem to sit the same way all the time (sometimes it ruffles, sometimes it sits flat etc). Next time I would use a medium weight denim, possibly with less sweep.

Porangahau, North Island, New Zealand

Retro apron

This is really a ¨wardrobe refashion¨ of an emmeline apron I did a few years ago which used a pretty overpowering over-retroed fabric. My husband couldn´t eat his dinner while I was wearing it. So I made it into a half-apron. Its still a bit too retro, but as a half apron, its not quite as overpowering hopefully.

Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand