Printable birthday gear

Oooo I'm so excited about Hazel's birthday invitations this year! I also need to add that I love the internet, internet shopping, and people who design fabulous stationary that you can download and print yourself.

For last year's invitation we used this great template from How About Orange and glued on buttons to make flowers. They were super cute and Hazel was able to help by choosing the buttons and pressing them into the hot glue.

This year, I'm spoiled for choice. Initially I thought I'd get the cute orange and pink alphabet invitations and assorted other neat goodies from A Little Hut, and maybe the alphabet cards for favours because they would add up to a theme* of sorts and Hazel's very into letters at the moment.

Then this evening I was over at the Crafty Crow and I noticed a wee ad in the sidebar for printables and checked it out. I hardly ever do this I have to say, but so glad I did! It was for Go Make Me and she has the cutest printables, including this one called 'Spring Has Sprung' which made me go "eeeee" (in a subdued and mature way). I mean really, look at those little swings!


So now I'm the proud owner of both designs and the only problem will be deciding which to go with this year, secure in the knowledge that I can't lose - the other lot will be next year's invitations!


*I figure there are themed birthday parties, and then there is having the alphabet or trees or polkadots. I refuse to throw anything themed as that's just kind of scary to my mind, but I like the idea of having things tie in together in a loose way. I'm only explaining this in psyche-baring detail because I'm worried someone out there might think I'm one of those mothers who throws relentlessly planned and regimented parties. Are there any other revealing things I need to explain in footnotes on my blog? Not at the moment, but just wait until Xmas rolls around and you can see all my crafting and parenting hangups out in the open :))

Child's Felt Mask Pattern and Tutorial

This is my first attempt at a tutorial so I'd love feedback and constructive criticism (and I do mean that!) Please let me know if you have any problems with downloading the files, it's all new territory for me!

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CHILD’S FELT MASK

This is a very quick tutorial and pattern for a child’s felt mask.
Get the full tutorial and pattern as a .pdf here, or just the pattern here.

There are lots of great mask inspirations on the internet so I highly recommend it as a resource. I got the idea for star eyes from Creative Kids at Home and their paper masks, as well as ideas from googled images of felt masks, some of them are quite wonderful! Tutorials on making felt crowns, such as the one at Juicy Bits are also a great source of ideas for embellishments and construction techniques.

MATERIALS

• Two pieces of felt approximately 20cm (8”) wide and 9cm (3 ½”) high. Iron before cutting to avoid shrinkage when fusing together
• 1 piece WonderUnder (or similar) to fuse felt together (optional)
• Elastic (I used approx. 37cm of 5mm elastic (14” of ¼”))
• Thread for decorative stitches

CONSTRUCTION STEPS

1. Print out the pattern and test for size on your child. You may need to move the eyes further apart, closer together, make them bigger, or make it a bit wider. Test this with paper first before committing to a felt version.
   
   
2. Note: the pattern is designed to print out on A4 paper size. If you are printing on US letter it should be fine, just make sure your printer isn’t scaling it to fit the paper and that the square on the pattern measures 1cm square (just over 3/8”)
   
   
3. Decide which colour felt will be the bigger outer piece and cut it out approximately 5mm larger than the pattern all the way around, curving it in at the temples to match the pattern (see image above). Having two even layers of felt at this point provides more stability for the elastic. Do not cut out eyes at this point.
   
   
4. Cut out smaller upper piece of felt, following pattern exactly. Optional step if using WonderUnder: In order that the felt of the smaller upper section fuses well along the edges, iron the WonderUnder to the whole piece following manufacturers instructions and then cut out the pattern. You may cut the eyes out at this time, or cut through both layers of felt together later when they are fused together. If you would like to make the mask reversible, leave the temple sections free of WonderUnder so you can insert the elastic between the felt layers.
   
   
5. Position the two layers of felt together and fuse well, or pin together if not fusing.
   
   
6. Cut out eyes through both layers and check for size, enlarge if necessary. If you haven’t fused the layers together you may wish to cut after sewing around the edges in Step 6.
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Sew around outer edge of inner piece using either a decorative stitch, zigzag or plain straight stitch (see image above). This step prevents the felt from stretching when pulled tight by the elastic. Do the same for the eyes, particularly if you’ve gone for the stars, as they seem prone to being pulled out of shape. Next time I will draw in the stitching line around the stars instead of trying to do it freehand, and practice my decorative stitches around curves.
   
   
8. Sew elastic in place on one side, adjust length to suit the desired head size, and sew the other side in a similar manner.
   
   
9. Stand back and let your hero get on with saving the universe!

The Red Coat

Red coat, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

This morning I started pulling apart a red wool jacket I'd made back in the early 90s (very boxy with big leather buttons) with a mind to make Hazel an Oliver + S winter jacket with it. When I stuck my hand into one of the pockets I felt several bits of paper. Sadly my first thoughts of "oooo unexpected money, how lovely!" were dashed, but I did come up with a train ticket to Chatswood dated 15 June 1996 and a ticket stub from a Otago V Brumbies rugby game in Canberra dated 12 May 1996. I guess you don't need to be an archaeologist to decipher this evidence from the past! Yes, I was living in Sydney then, we'd been there for about a year at that point. I'm surprised that I didn't wear the jacket much after that, but I suppose by that time it was at least 5 years old and starting to look dated.

I do love the wool it's made from though, it's the most perfect red, not too yellow, not too blue, just rich and saturated. I remember when I made this I really wanted to do all the edges with black blanket stitch and my mum convinced me not to. The wisdom of age over youth for sure in retrospect :) We did do a lovely job on it, my mum and I, handmade buttonholes and all. It may end up being too heavy for a coat for Hazel, but I'm enjoying spending time with it again after all these years.

So what were you doing in May/June 1996?

A little seamstress joins the ranks

I feel like I should be holding some sort of arcane initiation ceremony to celebrate this event - the crafting community just grew by one today!



I've started teaching Hazel how to sew using hessian and old tapestry wool. She's really excited about it and her first project is to sew a tree for her daddy.



There are so many skills involved in this, and so many things she needs to remember as she pulls the wool through that I'm in awe that any of us manage to get good at it! Even threading the needle is a big and daunting prospect but she really works at it and does get it eventually. She doesn't always show such persistence so I'm hoping this is a good sign for her career as a seamstress!

Another bunny

Finally finished the felt bunny I've been documenting for the planned tutorial. It's also the first one Hazel gets to keep! I'm content with the pattern now, it looks enough like the originals to satisfy me without the law of diminishing returns kicking in!



I'm taking my sewing machine in to be serviced tomorrow so hopefully this will force me to sit down and do the tutorial and get it up and out of my brain. And the mask one too, which is sitting half finished because I need to make some changes to the pattern.

I recently started subscribing to the Pioneer Woman full feed instead of just her cooking section (my god when does that woman have time to do anything?!) and was reminded of her Photoshop action sets (and here) which I've never bothered to download. I did this time just for interest's sake and had a quick play on the bunny photo. Probably not the best subject but I thought this 'vintage' one was kind of fun in a "now hold that pose for 5 minutes sir, and don't blink" kind of way.



It renders his slightly bug-eyed desperate look more historically accurate! I think I need to redo the eyes actually - Mat keeps picking him up, looking at him, and then staring wildly around the room with his eyes open as wide as they'll go. Oh yeah, I live in a supportive atmostphere ;)

Hazel hasn't named him yet, although he's passingly referred to as 'Bunnywunny' which is a tribute to one of her favourite books at the moment That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell

As promised

tshirt and skirt, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

The tshirt and (unaltered) clothkits skirt. I'm quite pleased with the tshirt in general, and adore the skirt but they really don't go well together! :)

So the tshirt was a big learning experience for me, both because it was a knit, and also because I really had to use my overlocker seriously instead of being a bit of a dilettante. The pattern is from 'Sew U stretch' book, sort of a combination of a couple of different patterns. Considering it's my first effort it's pretty good I think. Not perfect but wearable for sure. It sits well across my shoulders which is saying something because I have a very wide back and deep chest. Apparently I have the lung capacity of an opera singer - what a waste! It's a bit tight across the bust though, a bit loose at the waist, and a bit tight across the hips. Easy enough to fix those issues for next time. I don't like the sleeves though, they're too wide for the length, but again, fixable! Unfortunately the overall effect, combined with the A-line skirt is to make me look far more straight up-and-down than I really am (I do have a waist in there somewhere!) I just love the idea of making tshirts though, especially that I can have them as long as I want (no cold tummy!) and not too tight across the bust. I expect eventually I'll end up with a pattern that works and then just do variations on a theme.

Oh, and I used my rotary cutter to cut it out and OMG revelation! I'm so sold on that way instead of cutting with scissors.

I'm so sick of my hair though, totally over the blunt bob look. I've got a haircut booked for Monday and I really need a change. You know when you're not sure about a change and not sure and then suddenly if you can't get it cut RIGHT NOW you might die? I'm feeling like that right now. I'm fighting getting cut really short again because I'd like to try and grow it out a bit more - my ponytail in this photo is a mere stub but darn it, I want my hair out of the way!

A classy joint

napkins, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

I managed to finish up the cloth napkin from Sewing Green I was doing the other night and another one, so we are now the proud owners of two (2!) napkins, with six more to come. Hazel chose this binding fabric, oddly enough it's the same as she chose for the Chibi Rabbit and Kitty! She likes cherries as she often tells me. At first I thought it was going to be a great choice, but now I'm not so sure. I like the effect well enough, but it's not really me, if that makes sense. I'd love them in someone else's house, but am not so sure about mine! I'll probably do the rest in plain red. Mat was so relieved when I admitted I didn't care for them so much because he thought he was going to have to suffer in silence :)

He did, however, provide the napkin rings. He was given two at his christening - one has his initials engraved as a monogram, one was left blank for his future wife. How's that for forethought! I'm not sure eve where to take 'mine' to get it done to be honest.