Christmas tree free holidays

We decided not to buy a Christmas tree this year but to come up with an alternative.
And this is what our alternative tree looks like: white semi-sparkly (semi because about 50% of the sparkles rubbed off already, but wiping down sparkles is nothing compared to cleaning up pine needles...)  branches picture (store bought, which is silly, I know, but we have no garden and I can't myself running through Paris with pruning shears without getting myself into trouble).



We decorated our branches with homemade salt dough ornaments. The idea for the salt dough ornaments I got here. They were fun to make and cost next to nothing. A fun detail: we only had organic flour, which makes these ornaments totally ORGANIC!  How about that?!



We used cookie cutters, red inked stamps and lace for  the decoration of the ornaments and my favorite divine baker's twine for hanging them.



The pictures are of poor quality because they were shot at night and I still hate using a flash. They're not crisp and sharp as usual but a little blur suits the subject, I thought...

Easy X-mas cards

Tonight little H. and I made a bunch of X-mas cards for the children at the local children's hospital - a great project initiated by a class parent.
We came up with several homemade cards. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take pictures of them before they went in an envelope, except for this one, which I made earlier in the day. Very easy to make if you want to give this a try. All you need is a piece of vellum, some colorful sequins, card stock, some contrasting thread and a sewing machine...

Some of our other cards included fingerprinted moose and snowmen to which details were added using a felt tip marker (look here for inspiration), and a very cool Keith Haring inspired Christmas tree with presents and stars by little H.

Pretty in silk :: revisited

I have been sewing like crazy. Since I bought my new sewing machine last September, I made several skirts, a couple of silk blouses, a dress, a T-shirt for M.(found a very good pattern from Ottobre) and a sweater for her as well for which I made the pattern myself from an existing shirt. Unfortunately, the sweat-shirt shrunk terribly after washing and drying just once - it's just about the right size for little H. now, which she doesn't mind as the fabric is incredibly soft. Let's hope it won't shrink any further... Anyway, this wasn't today's topic. I just wanted to show you this tunic I made and which I really, really like.

I got inspired by these dresses/ tunics. With the orange flowery dress in mind I went fabric hunting and I found a very nice weight silk - a bit colorful, more colorful than I'm used to, with a vintage style print. As a matter of fact, the flower print might remind some people of their grandmother's apron (I certainly worked that way for me) but I found it very cute somehow. And although it's real silk I only paid €8.90/meter, which is cheap, I thought.

The pattern I used comes from the same Japanese sewing book as this blouse. It's the dress on the front cover (dress D in the book) which I slightly altered: I left out the sleeves, and made it slightly narrower. As a matter of fact, next time, I won't cut any (side) seam allowances, as the tunic turned out a little wide at first. As with my other silk blouses, I used French seams and finished off the tunic with a hand sewn hem - so much nicer.

I wore the tunic to a party last weekend, combined with a long knitted jacket, tights and high boots and some last minute homemade jewelry. And it looked really nice, if I may say so myself. Since the dress has short sleeves, I'll be able to wear it in Summer too, probably over some white pants or a legging...
But let's get ready for winter first...

A year in scraps :: bias tape

As I was cleaning out my crafts closet, one of the things I came across was tons and tons of fabric scraps. Such a pity to throw them out, but putting them in just another bag isn't a solution really, as soon I'll have more scrap bags than anything else in my closet. Instead, I decided to somehow 'structure' the mess - by making some bias tape. A nice opportunity to test the new bias tape maker I got last week.



It took me no more than an hour from beginning to end. The result is a roll of - what? - six or seven yards of the most colorful and unique bias tape.
I have no idea yet what I'll use it for - a bag most likely or for binding a small quilt - but for now just looking at it makes me feel happy as every little piece of it reminds me of something else I made over the past year.

The crafts closet still looks like a mess but at least I made some good use of (a tiny bit of) my fabric scraps!

Interested in giving this a try?

You'll need:

- fabric scraps, preferably of same weight
- rotary cutter, ruler, cutting mat
- sewing machine
- iron and ironing board
- bias tape maker (don't bother about the fusing tape mentioned on the package - it works perfectly well without)
Note: As I was looking up 'bias tape maker' I came across this tutorial which shows how to do it without a store bought bias tape maker. Clever!

1. Cut your scraps on the bias in strips of 3.5 cm (or any other width to your liking/ corresponding to your bias tape maker) - I used 3.5cm as this is what my bias maker likes - this will result in 1.8cm wide bias tape.



2. Joining the pieces: Once you have enough scraps, take everything to the sewing machine. Place two pieces, right sides facing, perpendicularly onto each other and stitch at a 45° angle. (Here are some very clear instructions as to how exactly to do this.) Make sure to have right sides facing, to avoid seams ending up at the front of your tape!



3. When you're finished take everything to the ironing board. Press all seams open and trim any excess fabric and loose ends if you haven't done so already.

4. Now feed your bias tape through the bias tape maker and iron as you go. Do this from beginning to end while trying not to burn your fingers.

5. Roll the bias tape onto a piece of cardboard, a tube or something similar. And ready!

50% Eiffel Tower

This picture was shot on 11.11.11 but it might as well have been today.
Grey and foggy weather but still very mild.

I wonder what the lines look like right now, under the Eiffel Tower at the ticket boots, as visibility is pretty shallow...
Like this it looks like it's still under construction -
as if the fog took us back into time.
If it weren't for the satellite dishes, that is...

Kids' Crafternoon Blog Tour :: Beading & Felting

I blogged about the Kids' Crafternoon book series before - books one and two, Sewing and Papercrafts hit the shelves last summer and were a big success.
So, it's with great pleasure that I can announce here that Kids' Crafternoon Beading and Kids' Crafternoon Felting have come to complete the series and are available as of now!

Once again the books are compiled and edited by Kathreen Ricketson, who you all know from Whip Up.Net and they're published at Hardie Grant. Each book contains 25 projects for school aged kids (and beyond) by crafters/ bloggers/ artists from around the globe. Each project takes no longer then a couple of hours to make and can be executed with no or limited adult supervision. Templates are made available in a handy envelope at the front of the book. The instructions are clear as always and the illustrations inspire to get started right way. The projects are cute and make sense - and not just for kids. I, for one thing, had a great time making this Zombie Critter Charm below (a project by Lisa Tilse from The Red Thread) which has immediately been claimed by big girl M. All it took was some scraps of felt, needle and thread, a few buttons and a spare hour or so.

These books make a great present for under the Christmas tree or could be a source of inspiration for some great handmade holiday presents by your little ones! And if you're still in need for ornaments and Christmas decoration ideas then make sure to check out Kids' Crafternoon Beading!

Now you tell me, but wouldn't that Zombie Critter Charm make a great and personal teacher's gift?



To find out more about the Kids' Crafternoon book series also check out the blogs below - and if you happen to live in Australia and you'd like to take a chance at winning a copy of one of the books, check out the give-away at The Red Thread - entries are open until Monday, November 21st.

14 Nov - the red thread
15 Nov - soozs big adventure
16 Nov - mmmcrafts
17 Nov - // Between the lines //
18 Nov - Christine Chitnis
19 Nov - Chez Beeper Bebe
20 Nov - The Happy Zombie
21 Nov - a work in progress
22 Nov - loveinthemummyhood
23 Nov - jcasa handmade
24 Nov - picklebums
25 Nov - modern parents messy kids
26 Nov - little eco footprints
27 Nov - li'l magoolie
28 Nov - ohdeedoh
29 Nov - Simple Kids
30 Nov - sadie and lance
1 Dec - Poppytalk

Oh, and in case you were wondering - Yes! I did contribute to the Beading book with some macramé bracelets (Macramé Bracelet, p. 104) and easy ruffled fabric necklaces (Fragment Fancy, p. 56).

Fall

 

The girls have their fall break right now.
And Fall it is.
We made it to the forest just once. I love the smell of the humid fallen leaves,
the sight of fresh mushrooms and fungi, their color, their capricious shapes, the way they hide in trunks.

Though temperatures are still pretty mild during the day, we had to get out winter coats for the mornings and evenings. Mittens, scarves and hats are soon to follow.

Leg warmers have been cast on to go with M.'s new boots...

A new season. One I love.