Making clouds

I've made a couple of clouds recently. Mostly soft, fluffy ones. Who doesn't like puffy little clouds? See, that's what I figured, too. So I made them, again and again, as gifts for some dear friends. No two clouds I made are alike, and that is not just due to the fact that I just cannot follow a pattern.

It all started out with the cloud mobile I made for my friend's third child. You might also remember the cloud pillow I made for her for Christmas. Well, it sort of took off from there. I made some more cloud pillows, gave them little sleepy eyes and a grin.

Then it went on to cloud teabags, cards and more pillows.

For a while I haven't been making much. There has been so much summer fun, work and plain daily life going on, that making things got pushed to the bottom of my list. You know, in to those parts of the list that you never really get around to, despite all the good intentions. And then my kids left for a vacation with their grandparents. Oh, bliss.

I still have to work and there are many things on my list, such as the new garden and preparations for big brother's party. But I decided that some of those things would have to wait, and that I was going to spend this kid-free time mostly with things I never get around to while the kids are here.

Such as sleeping. Taking naps in the middle of the day. Reading the paper and drinking a third cup of coffee on Sunday morning. Eating take-out Chinese food in front of the TV on a Monday night after an 11-hour shift at work. Going for a quick swim in the pool when I'd usually clean up the house and put the kids to bed. Grilling pizza and eating it on the patio at 9pm instead of 6pm. Ahhh...

And making things. Leaving the mess of sewing supplies out, not having to worry about putting away needles and scissors.

So I made another cloud mobile, for some dear friends expecting baby No. 2. I think it's always kind of hard to find a good gift for the second child. You have all the basics, have gotten rid of most of the excess stuff and the few things you could use new you actually like buying yourself, because now you finally know what to look for. But in this case, they have recently moved to a house, coming from a small apartment. That might leave room for some additional stuff for baby's room, no? Also, I am just so glad they decided to go for a second child. You see, they went through quite some sorrow and hard times with their wonderful daughter, and I think it's so great that they have the strength and courage to have another one.

I'm a firm believer in gifts for the big siblings when there is a new baby. Just ask my coworkers, both first-time mommies, about that email exchange recently where I was a little, uh, determined to get my point across about gifts for the older sibling being a necessity. But especially for the second baby and with little ones I do feel that while baby usually has everything he or she is going to need, the older child is so easily left out from all the gifts and congrats over the new arrival.

So anyway. Before I launch into a tirade here, let's just say I made an owl cloud pillow for the soon-to-be big sister. Or is it a cloud owl? Not even sure this makes sense at all. But I there wasn't enough white fleece left over, and the owls were so cute so an owl cloud pillow it was.

Turns out you can also cut two of the owls out, sew them together right sides facing, turn them right side out, stuff them a bit and sew them closed with some twine for legs. They also hang from puffy white clouds nicely.

Well, either making clouds in addictive or I am just not a very creative person. But I made another one. For another good friend, who is pregnant with her first baby. This little cloud pillow was made with soft fleece and fabric by Cloud 9. Seriously. I have been in love with their fabric since I started sewing last year, and I've been saving this fabric for a special project. And a birthday gift to a soon-to-be mommy is special, don't you think? And it could just be my favorite cloud so far. I almost want to keep it. Actually, I really do. It looks right at home on my couch.



Maybe if the kids stay a little longer I will make the time to sew one for myself.

Meanwhile, I'll go spend some time staring at the real thing and doing nothing at all.

Happy Sunday!
Swenja

A Chocolate Party - the preparations

Anyone who knows little brother will know that chocolate is one of his favorite things in the whole world. Well, cars, keys, phones, anything with buttons to push.  And chocolate.

It's funny when I hear parents of just one child talk about how well their kid eats and all these great things they did and how they pay attention to what the feed their child. Yeah... been there. Done that. And big brother will try and eat pretty much anything, he doesn't eat a whole lot of sweets and prefers a strawberry over a piece of chocolate at any given point. Little brother on the other hand... well. He likes pasta, but only with butter please. And bread, but preferably with a certain kind of cheese, or maybe honey. In short, he's an extremely picky eater, and I have no idea where he got that from.

But birthdays are supposed to be about favorite things, right?

And chocolate is one of little brother's favorite things. So a chocolate party it had to be. As long as I can still get away with things like puppy parties and such, I will take advantage of it. Sooner or later they'll just roll their eyes and tell me what they think is cool. But we're not there yet.

Also one of my new years's resolutions for this year is to keep it simple, meaning the goal was to try and use things we had on hand or that would really make sense to purchase. That meant no cute small glass milk bottles. No paper straws in matching colors. Instead we used small glass, dipped them into chocolate and sprinkles, and at the party added milk and some very basic very normal and very plastic straws that were cut a little shorter to match the tiny glasses. The kids loved it, even without fancy paper straws.

Surfing around the Internet one evening (and admittedly looking at paper straws and such), I found this cool phone wallpaper  of a cat looking at a pot of chocolate. And it was yellow, sort of, which is his favorite color. And did I mention it featured a cat?

For invites we ended up using that and just stapled it to a paper bag filled with some chocolate-on-a-stick we had left over from Christmas, figuring it was still winter and cold enough for some hot chocolate.

We originally wanted to do individual chocolate fondues, but my trial run was a total failure. The small tea lights heat them so much that the chocolate scorches instead of just melting. So it had to be Plan B - a chocolate fountain. Seven kids and a chocolate fountain, hmmmmm.... it did actually go pretty well, but I haven't managed to sort through the pictures from the party yet.

Decorations were pretty simple, too. I was going to make dot paper garlands in sprinkle colors, but I don't have a large circle punch and was determined to not use the party to buy more craft supplies (does that sound familiar to anyone or is just me who suddenly thinks she needs paper straws and circle punches and all these things?). Instead, I used paper I had on hand in yellow (of course), brown, red and white and my trusted star punch and my sewing machine to make star garlands. The day of the party we added some balloons and streamers, but the star garlands were hung the week before the party.

Since I had my sewing machine out anyway and this could be prepared well in advance, I used some felt left over from making last year's lion costumes and sewed a simple felt chocolate. Most of our guests are still young enough to have a play kitchen and/or play store, so I figured they could use it. It's also pretty simple to make. After making a couple of them, I came up with this technique: cut out a felt square, sew around three sides, stuff it (I usually use cheap Ikea pillows for that) while the needle is still in the felt (can you tell I am lazy?), sew it closed. Measure, then sew down the center of the long side. Measure again and sew down twice the shorter side, dividing it in thirds. Done.

I also found two small books about chocolate and threw in a car shaped eraser and a party blower for good measure. As usual, our favor bags were simple kraft paper bags, the names clipped on with wooden pins. Doesn't get easier than that!

Oh, and we made use of a small chocolate bar mold I've had around, adding melted chocolate and some sprinkles, wrapping the finished bars in cellophane.

Currently both kids are sick and at home, so I can't make any promises on when I'll manage to post some actual party pics. But I can say they had a blast, even though little brother wasn't in the best mood all morning and big brother had to make a trip to the ER with daddy right during the party (turned out just to be a fever and a case of hives). Sigh. I am so ready for Spring and the end of this long, long and sick winter season... But the sun is out today and it's supposed to be really nice. 

Can't wait!

Swenja

{the simple things} Rock Star Cats

It was Karneval over here this week, so the boys had to dress up for preschool and school. For some reason, cat costumes have been very popular at this house. Wonder where that comes from... Although we did lions last year and magicians for Halloween the past two years, cats remain the absolute favorite costume of all time.

Except that big brother is six years old now, and in school. Somehow I could not bring myself to buy him the same cat costume just a size bigger. A six-year-old dressing up as cat? Hmmm....

Instead, we took a cue from their all-time favorite music, the Mukketier-Bande (if you follow the link, click on the green arrow to listen to some samples).

You see, their all-time favorite song is about a rock-star cat named Atze, complete with leather jacket and electric guitar. And I just couldn't resist that one. So I got two used leather jackets from eBay for very little money, plus inflatable guitars. Then I made some cat ears using fleece we had left over from other projects, and bought cat tails since the week got so busy that I didn't have time to make them. We also printed a picture of Atze on simple white tees so that the boys could wear them under their jacket and show them to those who might not know who Atze the cat is (blasphemy!).

Thus we had two rock star cats for this year's carnival parties. And I can just see a rock star party in our future...




Happy Sunday,
Swenja

Still here... and a holiday recap

Yes, it's me. Still here. Still too busy by day and too tired by night. Still trying to get too many things done at once.

Right now it's a demanding job, Apartment Therapy's January Cure (and while I enjoy that I have to say that no, I did not manage to deep clean and organize my entire kitchen in one weekend, not even close to that), family things going on, big brother learning to play the guitar, little brother learning to swim and a party planned for February. Among other things.

But really, if I wait for a better time to blog again, I might never get around to it.

So here's just a brief hello and a little recap of our holidays, before the first month of the new year is over...

Luckily, I started early, and made a plan. Otherwise I would have never managed to make so many gifts. I did eventually give up taking photos of all the pretty little things and wrapped gifts, but I did manage to give something handmade to everyone on my list.

Such as these simple little barrettes, covered in fabric scraps. One of the easiest things and so much fun.

For coworkers, I covered the buttons in more grown-up fabrics and glued them on oversized paperclips instead.

We also did out tradition Advent calendar, and this year I included quite a few activities, such as reading Christmas books, baking, making Christmas cards or, in this case, having a tea party - complete with a tin teacup, a bag of winter tea and some anise cookies.

The complete calendar just before being wrapped up. I always forget that doing 48 packages is more work than 24, even if's mostly the same things.

The kids also made a lot of Christmas gifts. This year their main gift  to their friends and grandparents was using porcelain markers on mugs. Ikea sells these miniature sized white mugs that were perfect for their friends, and we did larger ones for the grandparents. That is a cat on the mug, in case you didn't notice...

We didn't get more than two types of cookies done this year, but we did make a double batch of the dog biscuits to give a way to our four-legged friends. I bought some lined kraft paper bags and used the stamp from little brother's dog party last year to make labels that we attached with red and white bakers twine. One of those things where  a good blogger would have gotten a nice picture of. Oh well.

Of course I also sewed part of my Christmas gifts, like this soft cloud pillow, made from fleece blankets. And yes, that is a 7, and not a 9. For some reason German seem to prefer cloud 7 to cloud 9. Go figure!

My favorite sewing helper. Especially when he's sleeping right on the fabric I want to cut...

Then it was time to pick out our tree...

... and trim it. Little brother insisted on hanging four ornaments on one branch.

For the first time since big brother was crawling, we also pulled out the wooden pyramid that my dad built some 30 years ago. It works with votive candles and the boys were pretty good with it, so we might just make this a tradition again.

Finally, Christmas Eve - presents! We didn't get much this year, the boys got books, little brother got the guitar and camera (kiddie camera) from his wish list, and big brother did get his one big wish, his very own laptop. We got a used one and he uses it to run the same software they have at school. Not really getting any more real toys this year, meaning no games, Lego, Playmobil, cars and such was also a nice break, because really, they have enough of that already. With all the handmade things and sibling gifts, the packages still added up and there were more than enough things for everyone to open.

New Year's we had neighbors over with their kids, which was nice. The boys had fun decorating for the party with lots of silvery and glittery things.

So here's to a happy new year!

Now it's back to working, enjoying the simple things (and the snow we're having more than enough of) as well as organizing and cleaning up the house before the weather gets nice again and we'll spend more time outside.

What have you been up to?

Swenja

A baby party and way too much fun with cupcakes

A good friend of mine is expecting baby number three these days (well, practically any minute now...), and it's a baby girl after two boys.

So of course we had to throw a baby shower. Now, that is a fairly American thing, so we changed it a bit. Made it smaller and more relaxed, oh, and minus the gifts (we're saving those for the little girl's arrival). We just wanted a simple afternoon for the girls, so the mommy to be could relax and have nothing to do at all except for chatting and eating some cupcakes.

And since I have two boys, I went all out on the lavender color scheme she had chosen for the nursery. I made a cloud mobile with little hearts - unfortunately that is the only photo I have, sorry for that.

Then I made some bunting with the leftover fabric and bias tape. I love it (just don't look too close. Let's just say the bias tape and I had some disagreements...)

Oh, and cupcakes. Did I mention cupcakes? I used the Hummingbird Bakery's recipe for chocolate cupcakes and made one batch each of the chocolate and vanilla frosting, tinting half of that lavender. I had way too much fun with the frosting and all those pink and purple sprinkles. But hey, I don't usually get to make girl cupcakes, so I really took the chance to indulge in this!

Now we're waiting for the baby girl's arrival...

Swenja

Sewing some little gifts

Ok, I give up. It's 9:30pm and I have started this post four times, deleting the first paragraph every single time. What can I say, these days my brain just has a tendency to shut off as soon as I sit down at night and open my laptop. On good days it can handle editing photos. Or reading blogs. But somehow writing doesn't seem to be such a good idea lately.

Luckily, I just wanted to show you some simple gift I've been making. I don't get to my sewing machine as much as I would like,  but when I do it's usually during the two mornings I have off, so my brain is actually working. Somewhat.

Apart from lots of kids' hats and scarves, I've made these:

Simple sets of tissue pouches and keychains, all done with things I've had on hand.

They might be not the most advanced sewing project, but I can get them done in one morning and still have time to straighten up the house a bit, run a load of laundry and maybe even drink a cup of coffee before it gets cold.

Meanwhile, I'm working on two other projects for my friend, who is expecting baby no 3 - a little sister to the two boys she has. Can't wait to show you, but it might be a good idea to get them done first... oh, and wait until her baby shower is over.

Any sewing projects you started lately? What do you do when you have little time for projects, tackle bigger ones little by little or make do with some smaller ones instead?


Happy sewing,

Swenja

Getting ready for school part 1: DIY counting fish

We're pretty busy getting ready for school over here. After setting up the new desk, this week it's about German traditions, decorations and some minor projects. Such as this one: DIY counting fish. I've seen these little guys around the web, mostly as little mice. They have a tail with 20 wooden beads that are supposed to help kids learning math.

Actually, I have no idea if they help learn anything. But I thought they were cute and an easy enough project to try. Besides, I had all the supplies on hand, even the beads.

But mice?

If you've been around here a little, you will know that my boys prefer cats and fish. Now, sewing cats sounded difficult. Fish on the other hand...

Drawing is not one of my strong points, and neither is patience. So I found myself a nice fish template, scaled and printed it and cut it out of the legs of an old pair of jeans, adding some seam allowance. So far, so easy. Then I decided to sew on button eyes before sewing the two parts together, which turned out to be a good idea (provided you place them a little lower than you think they should go, as you have to factor in the seam allowance).

Next, I strung 20 wooden beads on some thin satin ribbon, using always five beads in the same color. Placing the two fish right sides together, with the beads sandwiched in-between, I sewed around as close to the edge as I could. Word of advice: if you end up sewing a fish, don't leave the tail end open. I did the first time, and since the fish is at its smallest right before the tail, it was a nightmare to turn and even worse, close that opening. The next two I left the lower part of the belly open, which worked much better.



Still nowhere near a professional result and no, I don't have any good explanation of why fish would be  pulling 20 beads behind them, but hey. They're cute, they're sort of educational and they make nice enough gifts for the first day of school.

At least if you package them with cellophane bags, some fish stamped paper and leftover streamers from little brother's last birthday party. Oh, and did I mention they were free?

Happy sewing,
Swenja

Sewing a changing pad. First time.

No idea what ever happened this past month. Where did June go? I know I was busy but for some reason I didn't really make any progress on my sewing projects. Oh well. I did however finish two projects for a friend's birthday, and I was in so much of a hurry that I'm just going to blame that for the poor quality of the photos. You'll just have to use your imagination here. Ready?

What I wanted to do was a simple reversible bag like the ones I did before (using this free tutorial), but this time add a changing pad and case for some diapers and wipes. Because my friend is pregnant with her third, and as we all know, that means she's busy. So for those mornings when you just run out to get the big kids to preschool/school and don't want to bring a full diaper bag, this should be enough to cover the basics.

I ended up using this tutorial here. I'll be honest, I just fell in love with the elephant fabric. What I used though was some floral fabric I had on hand because it happened to match the leftover fabric I had from sewing my oilcloth Easter baskets - which are actually made from an Ikea tablecloth. The only thing I did buy was some brown bias tape.

The tutorial is great and so, so easy. Since both of my fabrics were rather thin, I used a cut up mattress protector from Ikea's children's department in the middle, sewed all the way around through all three layers and then adding the bias tape in a second step. It might not be perfect, but I love it.

One side of the changing pad is the washable, wipeable tablecloth, the other one regular fabric, matching the bag. The pouch is made from the same fabric with some contrasting brown fabric for the little pocket that the changing pad slips into.

The bag itself uses the same fabrics, and since it's reversible she'll be able to stuff something less than clean in there or turn it inside out to be carried around in less than perfect weather (not that we ever get that here in Germany, mind you).

Other than a few orders for sun hats and some little ties I want to make for my boys to wear to their uncle's wedding this summer, this will pretty much be it in terms of sewing for a while. I have so many photos to catch up with and edit, put into my photo books... oh, and right, it's summer. Time to be spent outside...

Any sewing projects you finished lately?
Swenja

Just one more sewing project. Really. Or: how a slipcover became a bag

Is it ok if I show you one more sewing project? Please? Because I’ve already shown it to anyone who didn’t run away quickly enough seemed remotely interested. If you can’t stand anymore sewing projects, come back another day. Like for simple things Sundays, those have been sewing-free. So far.

Just in case five oilcloth baskets and a handful of kids’ hats and scarves weren’t enough, this is one more to prove that I really, really caught the sewing bug. I made this the week before Easter. Not because it was planned or on my to do list. Nope, I had no plans for this at all (gasp! Me! No plan!). I had been meaning to try making a small bag for taking my phone, keys and some tissues with me when I go for a walk with the kids. Usually, I just stuff everything into my coat pockets. While that doesn’t look very pretty during winter, it starts to get really ridiculous once the weather gets warmer.

When I came across this free tutorial I knew I had to make it. As with the Easter baskets, I should have been doing something useful like cleaning windows, weeding the flower beds or at least go and finally purge and clean out that under-the-sink cabinet in my bathroom. All of which actually was on my to do list.

Instead I went looking around my house for some heavier weight fabric. This not being planned, I had no interfacing around, and even if I did, I have no clue how to use it (yeah, I hear it involves ironing it, but that’s about all). Grabbing a bag of extra chair covers to take upstairs with me (never leave a room empty-handed, right?), I looked at one of the slipcovers. It looks like the one on this chair, found ages ago in a certain Swedish store’s As-Is section, except that my cats mistook it for a scratching post. Which it quickly turned into. Now, if my home would really be as organized and decluttered as I’d like it to be, this thing would have long been thrown out. Instead, it turned into my new bag.

The lining is made from one of my all-time favorite fabrics, Proteas by Cloud 9. Now, promise you won’t laugh, but the strap is actually made from two of these fabric things that come with the curtains in order to hold the panels together. I don’t like that look, so my curtains fall straight down and these things (do they have a real name btw?) were sitting in another, not-yet-decluttered pile of no-idea-what-to-do-with-this.

The whole project would have been a lot easier if I had just taken regular fabric, cut out the pattern pieces and sewn them together as per tutorial. But we know by now I’m not good at following directions, right? So in addition to pimping the outside with some mini pompoms I had left over from a failed attempt to make a pompom scarf, I also made an inside pocket and attached a little keychain. Well, actually I made something that sort of serves as an inside pocket, as usually totally eyeballing it and making up my own rules. I do realize this means the finished bag can’t be worn inside out anymore, but I can live with that. Because I do manage to lose my keys in this tiny bag if they’re not attached to anything.

Anyhow. Since I decided to make things complicated take the way more scenic route, it took me an entire morning to get this done. Just as I was having a quick lunch before picking up little brother, I realized something was missing on the outside of the bag. I had twenty minutes left before I needed to leave. Plenty of time to do some quick research on fabric flowers and make something that’s apparently called a fabric yo-yo. I had never heard of it before and this tutorial made me laugh so hard I almost choked on my lunch, but it worked like a charm. One circle of leftover lining, some thread pulled from the sewing machine, a vintage button from my totally professional collection that lives in three empty joghurt jars and no 15 minutes later the bag looked much better.

Did you ever try these yo-yo things? They’re addictive. I’ve since made another one for my regular bag plus one attached to a brooch so I can wear it to work. And I can see these on yarn wreaths, as headbands, on cushions… Someone stop me, please. They are just so easy and since you sew them by hand, you can easily to them in front of the TV. You know, when you’re not busy posting yet another sewing project athough you can almost see your readers roll their eyes.

Actually, I made a f already, for a friend's birthday this Saturday. I'd show you pictures but you'll just have to forgive me here - I'm too tired to even get off the couch to grab the camera and download the photos...


I think I'll better get some sleep now. Goodnight!

Swenja