Tomorrow is the day! Yes, tomorrow pre-school is starting again and this mummy can’t wait. Although I really love spending time with my daughter we sometimes just need some time apart to make the heart grow fonder. I have started on many posts but haven’t been able to finish them. I have three tutorials in the pipeline which just need a little bit of work on them. The time has come. Tomorrow.
Here’s a peek at the first tutorial:
I have found a project that is very close to my heart (or should I say left breast?): The Heart Pillow Project.
I stumbled upon it when my sister gave me a German craft magazine the day before I left Switzerland. The magazine was looking for women who would be willing to sew and donate heart pillows for breast cancer patients. Many operation wounds are in or around the arm pit and the pillow helps to relieve the pressure from the arm on the wound. I went on the internet to read a bit more about the Heart Pillow Project and discovered it was brought to Europe from America by a Danish nurse, Nancy Friis-Jensen. There are many groups in Denmark who are sewing Heart Pillows for patients and you can see some of the pictures on the Heart Pillow Project website.
Cancer is scary and changes your life completely. I know as I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 34. Doctors and treatments take over your life, decisions have to be made. I was in a bit of pain after my first operation but I can’t say that it was too bad. The fact that I can’t lie on back to sleep was more of a problem. Lying on my side was painful until I found a millet cushion I could lay under my breast to give it some support. It was good but quite heavy and awkward. In hindsight I wish I had had a Heart Pillow.
Maureen, the wonderful wife of our friend David, was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of months ago and has had two operations in the last two weeks. After reading the article and wishing I had had one, I decided to make her a Heart Pillow. I hope that it will be useful to her and relieve whatever discomfort she might feel.
I used some IKEA fabric for Maureen’s pillow which you will see again soon as it’s the lining for my sister’s bag which is going to be made later this week. I love blue and white together and adore this flowery fabric. It looks feminine without being to saccharine.
This pillow was very quick to make. I will make another one and contact the oncology department in our local hospital to see if they would be interested in giving them to their breast cancer patients. If they accept I will get our crafty chatters to make Heart Pillows on Monday evenings. I can’t imagine a better project for us while we have a chat.
If you are interested in making a Heart Pillow here is the pattern and ‘how to’. The only thing I would like to note is that my fibrefill seems to be lighter than theirs. I weighed out 150g but couldn’t get it all into the cushion. The cushion shouldn’t be too squishy but also not too hard. Put it under your arm and check what is comfortable for you, I ended up taking some of the filling out again because I thought my pillow was too hard.
I made myself a new bag! I’ve been lugging round a ginormous bag for the last year which was filled with wet wipes, nappies, changes of clothes, snacks and drinks and everything else one needs when looking after a small child. Master called the bag “the bag from hell” and I suppose he was right. Everything ended up somewhere on the bottom of it or ended up in the big black hole never to be seen again. As Little Miss Bossy-Boots is now out of nappies and I don’t really need to bring spare clothes anymore I decided that a smaller bag was called for. Add to this the fact that I was going home to Switzerland for eight days (hence the non-blogging) and didn’t want to carry the monster bag around arouanymore and you get a very strong incentive to make a new, smaller bag. As I didn’t have much time before travelling, I decided to go for a really simple design I have sewn lots of times. The fabric, however, is a little bit special and very, very practical: rucksack fabric. It’s waterproof, very light and, best of all, comes in lots of fun colours. I chose a lovely turquoise for my bag and I love it.
As you can see I added a big pocket to the front of the bag with a flap to keep things in there a bit safer and drier. It’s fully lined in the same IKEA fabric I used to line the bag. I love this fabric as it’s so summery.
Now in hind sight I wish I had put a flap on the top of my bag as well. I didn’t because I thought that it is a summer bag which doesn’t end up in the rain too often (how wrong was I?) and therefore simply inserted a zip at the top.
I decided to have pockets galore in this bag in the hope that it would be more organised and less “hellish” for Master if he ever has to find something in it. There’s palace for everything now: wallet, pen, mobile phone, plasters and antiseptic, camera and snacks. The wet wipes go in the bottom with a pair of knickers and leggings for Little Miss Bossy-Boots (just in case). The key is attached to a key fob and can easily be found and used while still attached to the fob which means I’m not hunting for my key anymore as I know it’s in bag.
I’ve used it for a bit over a week now and I can say that I absolutely love it. The size is great as I can still get a few things in there when I go shopping but without them disappearing without a trace. I also don’t have to take everything out to find smaller items that have buried themselves at the bottom of the bag.
However, there are two things I don’t like. First, as mentioned before, I wish I had put a flap over the top opening. Nothing has gotten wet yet but with the miserable weather we have had this summer it would prolong this bag’s season into autumn. Now I will have to make another bag for autumn, winter. Oh, that is terrible… Second, I re-used the black strap from my old bag for this one but I feel it’s just too harsh. I bought some red webbing in Switzerland but have to get the right hardware before I can change the strap. The black strap will simply be re-cycled when I finish my autumn/winter bag later this year.
My sister loved the look of my bag and ordered a similar one. I will, however, put a flap on hers so that she can use it all year round.
Ever since Little Miss Bossy-Boots was born we have been lugging wet wipes around. First in combination with nappies of course but now just on their own. They are so handy for wiping mouths, hands and noses. Somehow the wipes always end up at the bottom of my bag (“The Bag from Hell” according to Master). As I was reading Kleine Fluchten, one of the German blogs I follow, I saw a really handy bag for wet wipes with a handle so that you can take it with you, hang it off the buggy handle or anywhere else you need it. Yesterday I decided to make one for our wipes. So quick and easy. I love it!
I had to make the bag bigger as our wet wipes are a little bit bigger. Furthermore, you might notice that I put the handle on the wrong side of the zip. That was not done on purpose but simply happened because I did not follow the tutorial but made the bag from memory. It would be easier to open the zip if I had the handle to hold on to but it isn’t a huge problem. Just a little oversight that I will remedy when I’m making the next one. Because I’m fairly sure that I will be making a few more. One for the car, one for the kitchen, one for…..
Little Miss Bossy-Boots has a lovely apron my mother bought her a while ago. It’s red and has a picture of “Charlie and Lola”. We love the tv series and have quite a few of their books. In fact their books are some of Little Miss’s favourite goodnight stories. Anyway, the problem with this apron is that the loop that goes around the neck is just way too long. The top of the apron ends up somewhere around her belly button and I keep thinking that I should do something about it. Well, this post is not about me dealing with the apron in question but about me sewing a new apron.
I was going to sew one for Little Miss Bossy-Boots but ended up making one for her little friend Freddie first. It was his birthday last week and I really wanted to make something for him. Whenever I look at pictures of him there always seem to be a few of him baking with his Mummy. Hey presto, birthday gift sorted. I pulled some fabric from my stash and ended up with this:
I love it but then I should, shouldn’t I? After all, I made it. I hope that Freddie will like it too. The ties have orange “tips” because I wanted to use a bit more of the orange fabric. Because of the problem we have with Little Miss Bossy-Boots’ apron, I decided to use two D-rings for the loop around the neck. I like this system as it means that the loop is fully adjustable.
I had to bribe Little Miss Bossy-Boots to model the apron for me. Ice cream! We did, however, take off the apron before eating it…
She did enjoy her modelling session in the end and I have a couple of lovely pictures of a grinning girl. That’s quite something as she doesn’t normally like having her photo taken and looks down on most of them. I have countless pictures of the back of her head and they are wonderful but it is nice to get a smiley face from time to time. I’m just sorry you won’t be able to enjoy it as I’ve decided not to put pictures of her on this blog.
Little Miss Bossy-Boots is now desperate to get her own apron made. It has to be pink, of course, and I have lots of pink fabrics in my stash. However, I bought some tea towels I really loved, one pink gingham and two flowery ones. Three tea towels for £4 were such a bargain, I couldn’t NOT buy them. Once again, I have a few alterations to finish before I can get stuck into the apron properly. But, hopefully, she’ll have it by the weekend.
Rebecca from next door had to go into hospital to get her tonsils removed and as Little Miss Bossy-Boots loves her to bits she wanted to make Blebbie (as she calls her) a get well card. She drew a beautiful picture of a house which, sadly, I forgot to take a picture of.
However, I didn’t forget to take a picture of the gift we made Blebbie:
I sewed the heart and Little Miss Bossy-Boots chose the buttons and positioned them on the front of the heart. The little heart button is upside down which I think is incredibly charming. I could, of course, have turned it the right way up but I didn’t. I wanted the buttons to be just the way Little Miss Bossy-Boots placed them.
To be honest, I’m a bit jealous of Blebbie. We gave her the card and gift yesterday after she came home from hospital and I found it very difficult to part with the keyring. I think I might have to get another design session in with my daughter one of these days. Watch this space…
Although I have been living inEngland for over five years there are still things that are a complete mystery to me. One of these things/traditions are teacher’s gifts. In Switzerland we only gave our teachers a gift at the end of school as far as I remember. Here, however, teacher’s gifts seem to be given all the time and I keep getting caught out. This time I was determined to get it right. I had asked around a bit and came to the conclusion that I didn’t need to bring anything. Imagine my panic when a friend of mine whose daughter is in the same pre-school went off to Cath Kidston to buy gifts for all the teachers. I didn’t have time to go shopping and thought “quick gift, quick gift” while pulling my hair out (not really, I’m trying to grow it and can’t spare any). I then remembered a lovely heart-shaped keyring my neighbour bought a while ago. It was made from an off-white cotton fabric and had lots of buttons sewn on to the front. Very easy to copy and very cute.
I looked through my box of scraps and chose a few just to get the heart shape and size right. I liked them so much that I made three in about twenty minutes and then left them without sewing buttons on. I just let the fabric do the talking.
The back of this heart is red with lovely white polka dots.
Now, however, I have some great ideas for embellishments. Buttons, crochet flowers, butterflies and hearts, fabric roses, zips, sequins and lace are all on my mind. I’ll show you what I’ve come up with once I get going. Before I can start in on this project properly I have to finish a bag for a customer. Little Miss Bossy-Boots has been enrolled in her pre-school’s play scheme tomorrow so that mummy can sew without interruptions!
PS The Teacher’s gifts, by the way, stayed here as I realised after talking to the friend again that she was only getting them gifts because her daughter is starting school in September. Panic ended! Still, at least I got some inspiration out of it…
I’m having a non-sewing week as I’m studying for my driving theory test. Oh, yes, I’m learning to drive at the ripe old age of 41. I’m sure it makes it more difficult for the simple reasons that I know what can happen (I’m not invincible), I’m a mum and I don’t have the memory or reactions I used to have. So, I admit that I have been at it for a while but once I have my theory test done and dusted I can really step on the gas and go for the driving test.
The world will be my oyster and I will easily get to fabric shops (I wonder if Master thought this through when he organised my first driving lesson?) and be able to get Little Miss Bossy-Boots to all her activities. Bring it on!
This is a project from last year that I haven’t blogged about before simply because I didn’t have a blog at the time. We have the loveliest neighbours all around us but get on especially well with the wonderful people from number 25. Their family consists of mum and dad, two gorgeous daughters and one very crazy dog. Rebecca, the eldest daughter, started university last year and this is what I made for her to take with her:
I’m a firm believer that everyone should have a sewing kit at home in case a button falls off or a hem unravels. The sewing kits available in the shops, however, are usually very small with tiny scissors that hardly cut and big needles that leave craters in the fabric you’re trying to sew. Therefore I decided to make one for Rebecca that I could stock myself with big scissors, fine needles and everything else I thought a student might need.
Did you notice the Hemming Web. A student essential, I’m sure.
I used a linen scrap that I’ve had for many, many years and some Denyse Schmidt ‘Hope Valley’ combined with some bright orange felt for pins and needles. I sewed the pockets with the things I bought in mind and they could easily be adapted to whatever you want to put in your sewing kit. I added a little loop with a popper at the end to make sure the scissors stayed in place. You can’t really see it on this picture but the pocket for the thread and buttons has a flap, again to make sure they stay where they are supposed to stay. I enjoyed making this sewing kit and am thinking of making one for myself for when I want to do some hand sewing in the garden or at picnics. Maybe attached to a pouch in which I can put my WIP. Hmm….only one bag, three alterations and some cushion covers to finish before I can get to it.
PS Apparently it is in use a lot. A great gift for any student.
