Whale softie

Here are two whale softies that I made for my 5 yr old son this Xmas. He liked them so much he carries them around constantly. The little one is the size of the original pattern, and the big one is enlarged to be about 70-80cm long. They were very easy to sew. The pattern is free online and is from Small Dreamfactory. I´ll probably make a couple more in the in-between sizes so we have a pod... Thanks for having the free pattern online Small Dreamfactory!

A beach near Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand

More stripey socks

Just in time, I´ve finished these stripey socks for my sister-in-law Evi for Christmas. The wool is Heirloom sock wool, which my mum sent me from Australia. The pattern is the basic sock pattern from Wendy Knits Socks from the Toe Up.

Near Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand

Christmas decorations

Here are few Christmas decorations I made the other day.

The Christmas Elf is a standard easter bunny pattern with a hat instead of ears. Ooops, just realised that this guys needs his own elf ears, so I´ll get onto that now...

The Nutcracker man is the Blossom Bunny pattern from the Penguin Softies book, however, if I made more, I´d take 2 cm off the width to make him a tiny bit thinner. The Soldier Nutcracker man is the only one of these decorations that my son likes (well, at least he´s honest...sob). But that´s probably OK, because my husband was born very near the Erzgebirge region, so sewing Nusscracker decorations are probably pretty appropriate for our family. I also altered the Blossom Bunny pattern by leaving out the circular base altogether. The stuffing hole is left in the side, and the top and base are sewn across (right side still together) and then lain flat, and have had the corners sewn across. This makes the top and base square rather than circular. I´ll take some work in progress pictures to show how this is done when I make some more.

The Wichtelmann is from the german book Kuscheltiere Nähen from Topp books, which my sister in law sent me. I sewed him in Xmas fabric. Mmm - I kind of like him, but I think I´d just sew little Christmas trees, halving the side, all in one colour Xmas fabric next time.

On top of Mt Ruapehu, North Island, New Zealand

Christmas bunting

Christmas! I´ve finally gotten onto making some Christmas bunting between bouts of colds, after caving in and buying some pinking shears on sale at Thimbles & Threads.

You just cut out lots of isosceles triangles and them wrong sides together 1cm in from the edge. Then cut the edges with pinking shears. Finally stick the tops inside a length of bias binding tape and sew along the tape edge. Ta da!

The Pinnacles, Mt Ruapehu, North Island, New Zealand

Pencil case rolls

Here another couple of pencil rolls from Soulemama´s Creative Family book which I made as gifts for friend´s sons. Its made a huge difference to my son, and he actually likes drawing things now. I realised after sewing them that I did the ties wrong - there should be two ties on one side only... oops. I just cut one off. Many thanks to wonderful Jellyspec for the fabric from her fabric stash.

Wellington Harbour, from our old flat, North Island, New Zealand

More bean bags...

Whew. More bean bags. I´m getting quite quick at making these, so I´ve decided to make them as gifts for people at our Playcentre who finish their Te Wai course (as I´m the Education Officer). Each little bag gets 4 or so bean bags in them.

Near Dunedin, South island, New Zealand