Jumper Challenge - Part 2

Ok, so there wasn't a huge amount of jumper left after Part 1, but enough for a few small things. I still had both cuffs - these make great fingerless gloves, but for some reason I was set on having a go at a dress for my old Sasha doll, now loved to bits by my daughter.
Looking at the cuffs, I could just picture one of those polo neck jumper dresses from my childhood, do you know the ones I mean? Tight, pure acrylic ribbed top with a roll neck and a little pleated skirt - oh I remember them so well!
Perfect for Sasha from the Seventies.

The ribbed bit of one cuff makes the top part of the dress, with the start of the sleeve becoming the skirt. I cut the other cuff in half for the sleeves.  The beauty of this is there's very little sewing to do - just the seam up the sleeves and a hem around the bottom of the skirt - I used some flowery braid to cover the stitches. Then cut holes for the arms and sew them in. The end of the cuff is the roll neck bit,  and I think it rather suits her..

Seventies Sasha

I'd made hearts in Part 1 and wanted to try a few more small things that were a simple shape, like mice and birds.

Lavender bags, hanging decorations, pin cushions, a cat toy? PLENTY of possibilities!

And there was even enough left for the pygmy owl keyring.
Flowers from the embroidered braid made good owl eyes I think, and saved me having to cut tiny circles out of felt which is such a miserable, fiddly job..

Not too shabby for an old jumper

Linking up with Lakota's Ta-dah! Tuesday

The Scandinavian snack squirrel

squirrel bowl by Ylva Olsson

What can I say?  It's Swedish, quirky, there was 40% off, and the squirrel was always going to be coming home with me.
Now you're possibly thinking, sure that's lovely but what's the big deal? And it is the kind of thing that could easily have ended up at the back of a cupboard. But I had plans for this little ceramic dish, and as strange as it may sound it's actually become a pretty important daily feature around here.

Squirrel now sits in the middle of the kitchen table, and before the kids get back from school I fill it with some kind of snacky treat. The original idea was for the snack to be healthy and wholesome, but in truth it seems to be on a sliding scale of healthiness, depending on what I can find in the cupboard, and how long it's been since the last shop..

All three love it, and charge up from the bus, with the youngest usually shouting, 'WHAT'S IN SQUIIIRELLLL!'
Sometimes I have to charge ahead, due to a slight snack oversight, grabbing a bag of raisins on my way to the table.
And squirrel seems to possess some kind of magical power, because my fussy eater is munching through dried fruit he wouldn't have even glanced at before.

They do have the usual bread or biscuits too because they're always ravenous, but squirrel has made this hectic part of the day a little more fun.

Healthy squirrel

Nutty squirrel (with a hot kick)

Fruity squirrel

Bad squirrel

Rolling out the trolley

Jumper chopping has been put on hold for a few days so I can finish doing up my trolley. It's been sitting about in the kitchen for ages and was starting to attract piles of clobber - a spare space doesn't stay spare very long around here.
I knew exactly what I wanted to put on it though, I wanted to cover the trolley in my small collection of vintage knitting patterns. Well it seems such a shame to tuck them away in a drawer.

I've been buying them for the classic and totally fabulous pictures rather than the patterns. Some really are in a league of their own.. in a League of Gentlemen kind of way..

I bought an extra bundle from a charity shop for a pound, and at the counter the lady said, 'You're going to be busy!' I just nodded enthusiastically - didn't feel right to tell her I was sticking them on a piece of furniture.

The trolley came from our local auction and only cost me £2. It did need a thorough clean and a few repairs before I primed and painted it with a chalky emulsion - lovely shade called moonstone grey. Luckily there was enough in the tester pot for two decent coats on the legs and around the edges.

I spent quite a while cutting and arranging the patterns before getting the glue out. One great decoupage tip I was given recently, is to use a piece of kitchen roll to smooth down the picture, gently rubbing over the paper continuously, to push out bubbles and wrinkles. Time-consuming but definitely worth it - plus it reduced anxiety levels.. There are still a few bumps, but shouldn't be noticeable when the sewing machine goes on top and my sewing box has a new home below.

I kept the pieces on the drawer black and white for some of contrast, and picked out plenty of fairisle patterns because I love a bit of fairisle.

Now it just needs a few coats of clear varnish and a good spray of WD-40 on those squeaky old wheels..

Linking up with Magpie Monday at Liz's
 and Lakota's Ta-dah! Tuesday 

The Gallery - Boys

I remember standing next to a rather fraught mum in a supermarket who was trying unsuccessfully to stop her son whacking his brother with a roll of tin foil.  She looked at me wearily and said,   'Boys. They can make a weapon out of anything.'
I nodded and smiled and looked down at my then tiny little chubby cheeked gorgeous bundle of first born boy. I honestly hadn't a clue what she was talking about.
You see at that point I only knew about girls. I have three sisters, just about all my cousins are girls and our little baby was the first boy to join the family in years.

I now have two boys who can make weapons out of anything.

Typical boys really.

And as frustrating as these sometimes rough, grubby, lazy, messy little treasures can be, I think I've got the measure of them.
I know what makes them happy, sad, bored, helpful. I know what they'll listen to and what they'll probably ignore.
I know they won't dwell or be too devious - apart from stealing biscuits, which they're pretty useless at because they never hide the evidence. On the whole I feel I know where I am with my boys, and that makes things a little more straightforward. At the moment!

They do still surprise me though, with sudden spontaneous hugs, sweet little notes and the occasional disarming compliment. I'll never forget coming downstairs, dressed up for a night out, and my then 3 year old saying, 'nice shoes mummy!'
Sometimes my boys leave me speechless.
Just not always for the right reasons...

The Gallery theme this week is BOYS!

Jumper challenge - Part 1

I've made quite a few things out of old jumpers since the Christmas calendar cushion. And I've been trying to get my hands on a tatty blue cashmere one my 8 year old has adopted, but he's taken to wearing it in bed and isn't at all willing to give it up. So instead I bought this bright pink cowl neck jumper in a charity shop for £2.50 and cut it up before I remembered to take a photo...
Not cashmere, but a nice soft wool mix.

There are loads of brilliant upcycling ideas out there - some friends run craft workshops in Hereford, and one they offer is making a cushion and fingerless gloves out of an old sweater. But I wanted to see how many different things I could get out of this particular top.
And I can absolutely guarantee all of them are easy to make, because I'm still getting to grips with my sewing machine. I've already come clean about how mine has spent most of its life in a cupboard.
I'm more enthusiastic now, but find that's not quite enough sometimes...far too familiar with my stitch unpicker. So tend to look for ways round things I'm not sure about. Like zips.
This small cushion cover is zip-free. And using the rib at the bottom of the jumper for the edges of the opening means less hemming.

I cut a square out of the front - 12" plus a little extra for a seam allowance.
The other piece from the back of the jumper is the same width, but about a third longer to make the envelope pocket on the back of the cover for the pillow.

The only thing to watch out for is that this extra bit is folded over and pinned on the right side of the jumper (the side you want to see) making it the same size as the other piece. Then pin the two squares together, inside out along three sides, with the ribbed edge and folded edge matched up and left open. The folded bit will be inbetween these square pieces, so it won't be visible while sewing the sides.

When finished, turn it back the right way, put the cushion pad in and pull the pocket part over the top of the opening, so it's all tucked away.

The heart was cut from a small piece of vintage material, and edged with some purple bias binding.
I used the shape to cut a few more out of the jumper sleeves. The first one looked a bit big so I made the next ones smaller and filled them all with lavender.

The cowl neck is now a snood with bias binding sewn over the raw edge. I've been wearing it out gardening and like it because it doesn't flap about and get in the way.

Part 2 is still at the ideas stage, but I'm thinking pin cushions, mice, a doll's outfit and possibly a pigmy owl keyring?

Linking with Lakota's Ta-dah! Tuesday

The Gallery - Girls

'Please can we go now?'

Not one to ever pass up a photo opportunity, my mum - and no amount of whinging/crying/general complaining was going to stop her getting a shot of her four girls in that field of sunflowers.

Just look at us.

What a bunch of miseries.

Apart from the sister who appears to have mysteriously shrunk.

It was the late 70's and we were trundling slowly through France to the coast; the four of us bouncing about in the back of our family camper - colouring in, fighting over felt tips and watching the world go by. I can just imagine how the sunflower photo stop would have seemed like a great idea. To my mother. And it makes me think of all the times I've done the same kind of thing to my kids - usually greeted with a similar degree of enthusiasm.

'Come on girls! Smile! PLEASE!!' I can hear mum, but I'm the sulky, slightly awkward almost pre-teen one in the tracksuit top, and I didn't do smiling - well not proper smiling, just a sort of clenched teeth, tight lipped scowl. Still, I wasn't anywhere near as grizzly as my youngest sister who was having none of it.  Another thing I found out later on. NEVER wake a toddler for the sake of a photo..

This week's Gallery theme is Girls