holiday christmas craft - a tutorial for peg reindeers

As alot of you would know, the Summer holidays have started.  Ours got off to a fabulous start with afew days away at Port Macquarie.

 

With all the rain thats around at the moment we were very lucky with the weather.  Although it did rain abit, in between it was sunny and warm.

THE best way to start the holidays!

So today was our first full day of the school holidays at home. 

Aimee, my little crafter, was keen to make something.  Happily, I had all the things we needed to make Peg Reindeers on hand. 

So between making several batches of Christmas Candy Cane Fudge (more on that in another post) we made a number of Peg Reindeers.

We basically copied one Aimee made at school last week.  Here's how we did it.

First gather your supplies.

 

You will need

• two wooden pegs
• craft glue
• a 10cm length of ribbon
• two googly eyes
• one small pom pom
• some bull dog clips come in really handy too!
• a couple of keen children

Now, seperate the pegs and dispose of the spring. 

Lay the pegs down in front of you with the flat side up and spread glue below the notch for the spring at the thick end of the peg on all four peg pieces.

Now place two of those peg pieces back to back with the ribbon in between and clamp them together with a bulldog clip.

Repeat with remaining peg at other end of ribbon.

Making sure you have the right side of the ribbon facing out, spread glue onto top section of pegs, at the narrow end. 

And clamp together like so, to dry.

Dab three spots of glue onto the pegs for the eyes and nose of the reindeer

Stick on the googly eyes and the pom pom nose..........

Done

and done!

Super easy and fun. 

Between the three of us, we made eight in about half an hour.  Aimee and Bethany love giving handmade gifts as much as I do, so these will be going to family members on Christmas Day.

So there you have it, a great little handmade ornament for hanging on the Christmas tree!



100th-ish post giveaway and tutorial

Back in June I participated in a "Craft Room" swap organised by Cass. 

Regular readers may remember the upcycled wool scarflettes I made for my swap partners.

 

I was totally thrilled with how they turned out, but even better then that, I have really loved using and wearing the one I made for myself. 

I absolutely wore it to death over winter and got so many compliments every time I went out with it on!

I took photo's as I was making them, fully intending on posting a tutorial back in July.......................... but for some reason because I'm really slack, I didn't get around to it. 

And now that Spring has sprung here in sunny Sydney, posting a tutorial for a woollen scarf seemed such a ridiculous thing to do. 

Great timing if you're reading this from somewhere in the Northern Hemishpere though!

But I really, really wanted to share this with you guys and so I formulated a cunning plan.

Last Saturday I whipped up a springtime version - this time making  it reversible. 

I used some linen and some woven cotton off-cuts I had in my stash to keep within the recycled theme of this project and also in keeping with my current "use what you've got" kick. 

I have to say I love it equally as much as the winter version! 

I'm one of those people who gets goose bumps on a summer's day if there is a gentle breeze blowing, so I can see that this scarflette will be on high rotation in my spring/summer wardrobe. 

So in celebration of warmer weather, cooler weather, 100 blog posts and life in general, I'm going to give away one Upcycled Scarflette, made by me! 

If you are the giveaway winner you get to choose whether you want a Winter or Spring version and I will make it for you.

The rules of the giveaway are:

blog about my giveaway and tutorial and once you've done that leave a comment on this post with a link to your blog to let me know you've done it.

For an extra entry in the giveaway become a follower of my blog and  leave a seperate comment saying you've become a follower.

I'm going away next weekend so I'll keep the giveaway open until Friday 8th October and I will announce the winner over the following weekend.

Good luck! 

If you're not the lucky giveaway winner, or if you're really keen and just can't wait to get yourself an Upcycled Scarflette, you can go right ahead and make yourself one with the following tutorial.

Upcycled Scarflette

What you will need:

• 
  
  1 woollen jumper in good condition
• 
  
  1 polar fleece jumper in good condition
• 
  
  buttons in contrasting/co-ordinating colours to your taste
• 
  
  all the usual sewing paraphernalia eg. pins, scissors, sewing machine etc.

Now, set yourself aside roughly half an hour - that's all the time this little beauty will take you to whip up!

Here we go.



1. Lay your jumper flat and using either a rotary cutter or scissors, cut the jumper through both layers straight across under the sleeves.  Discard the portion with the sleeves.

2. Make another cut through both thicknesses of jumper 7 inches below the first cut. 

 3. Now you have a tubular piece of woollen fabric.  Cut one of the seams off so you can open up the tube to make one long piece of fabric.  Cut this piece so you have a rectangle measuring 7" by 26".

4. Repeat these 3 steps with the polar fleece jumper.

 5. Lay your two pieces of fabric one on top of the other, right sides together and pin.

 6. Using a straight stitch, sew all around the edges, using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. 

Make sure you leave a few inches open at one end for turning.

7. Turn the scarflette right way out, pin opening closed and stitch around all four sides of the scarflette to give a nice finished edge and also to close the opening you left for turning.

8.  Now to decide which way your scarflette is going to wrap around your neck, look at where the seam in the woollen side is.  Wrap it around your neck in such a way so that this seam will be hidden by the top layer of the scarflette.  The button hole should be made in this top layer and that will become your top left corner.  Refer to photo above! 

9. Next up, choose a button which you will use for actually keeping your scarflette closed (as opposed to any number of other buttons just stitched on to decorate your snazzy new scarflette). 

Now, using your button hole foot, make a button hole in the top left hand corner about an inch in from each edge. 

As you can see in the picture, on my scarf I stitched the button hole parallel to the long edges. 

DON'T do this.  Stitch the button hole parallel to the short edge and your scarf will stay closed alot better. 

Mine is still absolutely wearable but it will sit alot nicer with the button hole the other way.

  

10. Wrap the scarflette around your neck and mark where your button needs to be stitched on.

11. Stitch on button/s as desired. 

With some of the scarflettes I made little crochet flowers which I then stitched into place using a co-ordinating self covered button.  Just make sure that if you do this, you make a big enough button hole to accomodate the flower.

I can't remember what pattern I used for the flowers but just click on over to Ravelry - there are hundreds of patterns to choose from. 

You're done.  Easy peasy!

Now.  If you want to make yourself an Upcycled Scarflette suitable for warmer weather, just substitute the wool and fleece for some lovely light weight woven cotton and/or linen!

If you make an Upcycled Scarflette and post about it, drop me a line.  I'd love to see your version of the Upcycled Scarflette! 

A little bit of shamless self promotion!!

So, how long has it been since you've stopped by whipup.net ??  If it's been awhile, or even never, you really should do yourself a favour and pop on over.

It's a one stop shop for blog tutorials of all sorts of crafty things. 

Like this gorgeous vintage lace trim pattern I've been working on............... 

...........or even the On-the-Go Art Satchel tutorial!!! 

Yes, that's right, Kathreen featured my Art Satchel tutorial on Saturday.  How cool is that?

So, if you're in need of a little inspiration and want somewhere you can quickly find some, do yourself a favour and head straight on over to whipup.net

We have a winner..........and a tutorial

Well I finally sat down today and wrote the tutorial.  It's my first, so please, please let me know what you think - constructive criticism is warmly invited! 

Especially let me know if you're having any problems following my instructions.  I'd hate to think a child out there was being deprived of letting their artistic ability run wild all because mama couldn't work out how to make that Art Satchel! 

Seriously though I think it is a pretty straight forward, simple pattern.  Give it a go, and when you're finished contact me and share the results - I'd really love to see your version :)

On to the giveaway winners.............

True Random Number Generator
Min:
Max:
Result:
6
Powered by RANDOM.ORG 
and 
True Random Number Generator
Min:
Max:
Result:
5
Powered by RANDOM.ORG
 
So that's Amelia from Duyvken
 "They are fantastic Fran! Well done. I've seen a lot of those art rolls but I think yours is the best designed. The girls look so chuffed!!"
 
and
 
Tania from Myrtle and Eunice
"Way. To. Go!
Fran - these are FANTABULOUS! They would work so much better for my kids than the rolls we have - especially with the sketchbook packed away with the crayons. Genius. Genius, I say!"

Congratulations lovely ladies and a big thank you to all of you who entered.

 This post has been edited by the author. 
The free tutorial has now been removed.  Please see this post for more info.

Am I too old for this (mutton dressed as lamb)??????????

I'd had this project sitting on the sewing table since before christmas, but what with all the presents to make and celebrating to be had I've only just gotten around to making my..........two tone dress.  I've been seeing this fashion around all over the place and after making these t-shirt dresses decided to have a go at one for myself.  I had the Erin McMorris Wildwood fabric in my stash, I looove these fabrics and really wanted to use them in something together. 

While the citrus/lime green isn't a colour I would usually wear I was willing to go out on a limb and try something different for the love of the fabric.

So here's how I made it:

1. 
   
   I bought myself a plain black singlet
   
   
2. 
   
   selected four co-ordinating pieces of fabric from a fat quarter pack
   
   
3. 
   
   cut each of these into thirds along the long edge to make 12 panels (I didn't want the skirt to look too boxy by just having four panels).
   
   
4. 
   
   I put one panel aside to make the pockets out of
   
   
5. 
   
   joined the remaining 11 panels together at the long sides alternating the various fabrics to make a tube of fabric (I zig zag stitched all raw edges)
   
   
6. 
   
   I then machine stitched a gathering stitch along the top edge.........(well in actual fact a did this along the bottom edge much to my chagrin so now the print is upside down.  Yes I did contemplate unpicking it all - for three days I thought about it.  I then decided that I would probably be the only one to notice it and I'd rather be wearing my new dress than looking at it sitting in my to-do pile for the next decade, so there)
   
   
7. 
   
   I then decided where on my torso I wanted the singlet and skirt to meet and cut the singlet, allowing a 1/2 inch seam allowance
   
   
8. 
   
   I then gathered up the top edge of the skirt along the gathering stitch until it was the same width as the bottom edge of the singlet
   
   
9. 
   
   I put the singlet inside the skirt right sides together and lining up the raw edges sewed the two pieces together using a straight stitch and a 1/2 inch seam allowance, I then overlocked the edge using a zig zag stitch.
   
   
10. 
    
    Then I ironed the seam down towards the skirt and from the right side of the fabric sewed another row of straight stitch just to hold the seam down nice and neat
    
    
11. 
    
    Almost there now!  I added a strip of black fabric to the hem for several reasons.  1 - to add some needed lengh, 2 - to finish off the raw hem, 3 - as the fabrics are so bold and busy I thought it needed something to just calm it down abit and tie it back in with the black singlet.  I made 4 inch wide single fold bias tape out of some black cotton I already had and machine stitched it on.
    
    
12. 
    
    With the remaining panel of fabric (remember the one I put aside for the pockets - because all dresses need pockets, right? - I cut it in half along the short edge, folded down and pressed the top edge 1/4" then again 3/4" then I folded down and pressed each of the remaining three sides 1/4"
    
    
13. 
    
    I straight stitched along the top edge to hold it in place
    
    
14. 
    
    then positioned and pinned the pockets in place on the dress
    
    
15. 
    
    sewed around three sides, leaving the top edge open, as close to the edge as possible then again 1/16" from that to make sure it was nice and secure
    
    

A very important afterthought - if you use cotton fabric (ie. fabric with no give or stretchy qualities) for the skirt as I did, make sure you don't make the waist too fitted as you need to be able to get it on and off over your head/shoulders/bust.

                                 

Ta-da!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  As much as I love my new dress it is a little unflattering as is, so I went out and bought a nice wide belt to go with it.

But the question remains, mutton dressed as lamb??

BTW - can I just say I hadn't intended on writing a tutorial of sorts for this dress, so absolutely no forethought or planning has gone into writing these instructions..............so if you do want to try and make one and you are having trouble with my instructions please just let me know and I'll try to help if I can :)

Phew, that was a long one!!