Forest friends tee-dress

Here is the second tee-dress I made for Missy Moo. This has superseded the purple space kids dress in popularity and is to date her most favourite item of clothing.



Her joy knoweth no bounds when she is in this dress.



When asked how much she loved the dress, this was her answer.



The sewing of clothing for small people is continuing. I will be back to share more results in a few days.

Have a great weekend.

The elephant vest top and a bit of Frankie Valli

Since I was very much in the mood to make quick, (relatively) easy vest tops / vest-dresses, next on the sewing table was this lovely number for Dinoboy.



This is yet another gorgeous jersey fabric I bought from Kitschy Coo - seriously, where does that woman find such amazing fabric??!! This one is 50% organic cotton interlock blended with 50% bamboo viscose. It is so soft and lightweight. Perfect summer wear.

Dinoboy thinks it's fabulous. He's animal mad and loves the colour red - this vest ticks all the right boxes for him. Here he is channeling a bit of old Frankie to express how much he likes this vest top.



"You're just too good to be true.
Can't take my eyes off you.
You'd be like heaven to touch.
I wanna hold you so much.
At long last love has arrived.
And I thank God I'm alive.
You're just too good to be true.
Can't take my eyes off you.
I love you baby, and if it's quite all right,
I need you baby ....."

Space kids tee-dress finished

This started out as a jersey vest top for Missy Moo but her royal Moo-ness wanted it to be a dress instead. I only got a half metre cut of this fabric and with careful cutting, I managed to squeeze out a skirt to sew to the top bit. She was very pleased with the dress.



I got the fabulous fabric from Kitschy Coo's shop and it was one of three jersey fabrics I bought from her.

Missy Moo wore this dress all weekend. Here she is throwing a few shapes around on the patio to illustrate how much she loves this dress.



There's a vest top for Dinoboy coming soon, another tee-dress for Missy Moo and a vest top for my niece too. It's all about sewing for the kids this week.

My *late* Creative Space

Sorry - a slightly later than normal post re what's in my creative space right now. Here's an in-progress jersey vest (which might turn into a tee-dress by 'royal' command) top for Missy Moo. How incredibly cute is that print?!! I got it from Kitschy Coo.



She tried it on this morning before breakfast and declared it wonderful except for the fact that it ought really to be long so it can be a dress. The plan for tonight is to try to squeeze a skirt out of the remnant of fabric I have leftover. I think it is doable. Amazing what you can squeeze out of half a metre with a bit of creative cutting!

More creative spaces can be found here.

The wee prom purse

A colleague of mine has a daughter who is in high school. In July, this young lady will be attending her first prom at school. My colleague had arranged to have a special dress made for her daughter. She’d asked if I was able to make a little purse or clutch in the same fabric as the dress for her daughter. I gladly said yes.

I used this pattern from Michelle Patterns (formerly keykalou patterns) but I added a ruffle piece to the front flap.



It is small and fits nicely in my hand but it is big enough to hold some keys, a cellphone, maybe some money, some lippy and perhaps even a small compact camera.



I lined it with some black cotton fabric and it has two magnetic snaps to close. There is also a little slip pocket on the inside.



I made a little wrist strap and finally decided to sew on a silver-and-rhinestone flower embellishment as I felt the little clutch needed a bit of bling to make it a teensy bit more special.



What do you think? I hope the young lady will like it.

A teatowel is not just for drying dishes

Teatowels make good bags too! A foray to my local op-shop / charity shop recently yielded a lovely cotton teatowel with a very Jubilee themed print. I bought it and turned it into this -



It was a fair sized teatowel. I unpicked the hems, ironed it out flat and cut it in half. I had a piece of red dotty fabric in my stash bag and a chunky black double-ended zip. I've had these leather handles for ages - waiting for just the right project. I hand-sewed the handles on with some cream linen thread.



I sewed this bag just as you would sew a zippered pouch. I added some iron-on interfacing and a fleece wadding between the outer and inner layers for body. Instead of making boxed corners on the inside, I made the boxed corner on the outside and added a button. I thought it would look good since the print on the teatowel featured buttons too.



The only thing this bag lacks is a firmer bag-base. I might add one later. I rather like this bag - it is suitably cavernous for my needs! I shall be on the lookout for more nice teatowels in the future. Royal Mail has this awesome one with all the different coloured 'Queen's head' stamps on it.

Hope you're having a great weekend, friends.

Last of the current run

Here are the last two journals of the current run of hand-bound leather journals that I am making.



They are both 120-page slim journals with smooth cartridge paper. Both have pen holder closures. Here's the Turquoise suede one.



The 'locking' tab which the pen holder slides under is normally made by sticking two strips of leather together. Since the leather I use is thin, sticking two strips together gives the tab a little more rigidity. However, in one of the earlier models, after a week of use, the two strips started to become unstuck from each other. I tried a couple of solutions like sewing along the edge of the tab (see a previous lime green journal with black stitching around the tab) and putting some eyelets along the middle of the tab. I like the way the eyelets look.



My hand-riveting skills are slowly getting better - the resulting rivets stay reasonably unwarped. My problem is that I tend to be too impatient and whack them a bit too hard with the mallet. If I remember to take it slow and steady, the rivets go on better.



Here's the one in the grey embossed leather.





I've been trying to find less 'girlie' cards or decorative papers for my inner cover supports. This one is a lot less girlie - no flowers or butterflies or birdies. I might do a few journals with more neutral / masculine colours for the guys.

The sewing machine was switched on last night for the first time in ages. I am working on a totebag of sorts made from a lovely linen teatowel I bought a couple of weeks ago and I also need to work on some knit / jersey summer wear for the kids. I'll hopefully be able to share something with you soon.

Have a great day, friends.

My Creative Space - books, books and more books

I hope you're not getting too bored of my books as they are still dominating the space over here right now.



I'm working on a run of the slimmer journals at the moment. There's the lime green leather one.



And its pretty bird and birdcage print card supports.



There is then the classy grey one with the incredible embossed leather cover, silver eyelets and those pretty silver corner protectors.



Here's the card I used on the inside for added support.



And finally there is the cerise one with the star buttons and silver eyelets on the spine ...



I think I am getting the hang of these pen holder closures.



To finish, here is the inside cover of the cerise journal, complete with pretty card.



There are two more of these slimline journals waiting to be finished off. Then I think I might drag the poor sewing machine out, dust her off and sew up a few things.

Linking up this week with lots of wonderful creative spaces here.

Have a creative day, friends!

Giveaway winner!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. We had a 4-day weekend on account of the Bank Holidays on Monday and on Tuesday too. Thank you so much to the lovely folk who took part in the giveaway for the Jubilee journal. In total, there were 18 participants. I was unable to pick exactly after midnight last night. I had a terrible headache and went to bed early. All better this morning - thank goodness since it is a work day!

So the participants are: 1) Wendy; 2) Liz; 3) Ruth; 4) Deb; 5) Virginia; 6) Kitschy Coo; 7) Sparklepetal; 8) Colleen; 9) Nila Kussriani; 10) Szappanbubi; 11) Craftyrider; 12) Sarah; 13) Jojo; 14) Gill; 15) Craftyfox; 16) Dada; 17) Deb; and 18) Amy.

Without much ado, here's what Mr Random Number Generator picked:



Congratulations to Kitschy Coo! I'll send out an email sometime today to ask for your snail mail address.

Thank you again to all who participated.

I'm slowly working on maybe setting up either an Etsy or Folksy shop in the autumn but I need to look into it a bit more first. Most of the books I have made to date are available to be purchased if anyone wishes to contact me to make an informal enquiry. I can be reached by email on adydando at googlemail dot com.

The sun's out today and the day is looking most promising. Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday, friends.

Jubilee journals and a giveaway!!

It's the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend! Woohoo!! Here in the UK, we get both Monday and Tuesday as Bank Holidays to celebrate the Jubilee occasion. The kids have had Jubilee parties at school and folk are putting up cheerful Union Jack flags and bunting all over the place. As promised, I'm back with my two Jubilee themed hand-bound leather journals. Here they are.



The first of the two journals is this one with a gorgeous turquoise suede cover.



If you saw my last post, you'd have already seen the inside which features this fabulous crown and Union Jack postcard.



The journal has 200 pages of smooth cartridge paper. Perfect to doodle, sketch or write in.



Here is the other one. This time, the cover is made from cerise coloured suede.



Both journals have exposed long-stitch on the spines and are held close by means of a long black leather lace / thong and a silver Celtic concho.



Like the turquoise one, this cerise one has 200 pages too.



And like the turquoise one, this one has the crown and Union Jack cards on the inside covers for support.



Both journals measure 5 inches wide, just over 6 inches tall and 1.5 inches deep.

OK, here's the fun bit. In honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and in the spirit of Jubilee fun, I would like to give one of these journals away to one of you! I am happy to open this giveaway to my international readers too.

To take part in this giveaway, please do just one of the following:
1) Follow my blog or
2) Like or share this post on Facebook or
3) Follow me on Pinterest or
4) If you blog too, mention this giveaway on your blog.
Then leave me a comment at the end of this post telling me what you've done. Don't forget to tell me which colour journal you would like if Mr Random Number Generator was to pick you as the lucky recipient. Blogger does not always share your email address with me so if you like, you can leave me your email address in your comment but write it like this ... name at such&such dot whatever etc. If not, don't worry, just check back on Wednesday morning.

I will pick the lucky winner of the Jubilee journal giveaway after midnight on Tuesday 5 June.

This giveaway is now closed. The winner will be announced in the next post.

Thanks for taking part and have a wonderful weekend, wherever you are, friends.