Homemade washi tape of the week

I love masking tape for wrapping gifts, hanging stuff on the wall etc.. I saw this cute and clever homemade washi tape tutorial (I'm not too sure what the difference is but I believe washi tape is fabric whereas masking tape is paper) on the Mollie Makes website and thought I'd give it a go.

The idea (and pictures) comes from A Spoonful of Sugar, explanations here on Mollie Makes.

Love those Japanese fabrics! I don't have any so I just used pretty floral prints.

All you need is scraps of fabric/paper, scissors, cardboard tube and something to keep the tape attached to the tube (the best would be twist ties but I didn't have any so used masking tape instead). No sewing involved, so quick and easy to make - the hardest part for me was finding and cutting the cardboard tube!

Clever, isn't it? Come on, give it a go!

We are family

For a little boy who's turning 3 very soon and who's very special to me. He's a little bit like my godson and it's become a bit of a tradition that I make something for him every birthday.

Hope he likes it! I LOVE it!! You know sometimes you make something and you think oh this is nice or this is OK and some other times you think wow, this is great, I'm so pleased with it! Well, most things I've made so far fall into the first category (except for my Advent calendar of course!) but this one definitely falls into the second!

 
Largely but loosely inspired by this Paperchase notebook (love Paperchase!).

What's up

I'm starting lots of projects and not really finishing anything.. I've been cutting lots of fabrics and doing some handstitching and now just need to sew things together.

                             Pencil roll #1, pencil roll #2, My Family frame for a little boy's birthday..

And my biggest project of the moment, an alphabet book for Y's first birthday (sorry, once again, colours on the photos are crap, the real colours are a lot more vivid..)

Again, a lot of appliques and handstitching that are taking me a long time..

In the meantime, my rainbow quilt fabrics are cut and waiting patiently in a corner.

Coup de coeur Monday #5 - Helen Dardik

Love Helen Dardik's prints. Happy illustrations, bright colours and some kind of retro feel that reminds me of old reading/school books..

Have a look in her etsy shop!

Fabric notebook cover of the week

And here's the last thing I made to go with the London bag for lil sis' birthday (apologies for the pictures, I never iron anything!) - a fabric book cover (or a bag with handles) from January's issue of Mollie Makes.
You can either fit a standard paperback or an A5 size notebook inside.

Explanations here:

Again, this looked like a simple enough project, straight lines etc.. and I even simplified it by not doing the handles, but for some reason I always end up undoing and redoing things a couple of times!! I really have to learn to be neater and not to rush everything just to get it finished asap!

I thought I might use one of the Russian dolls to put at the end of the bookmark ribbon but they're far too big, thought they'd be a lot smaller than that!

So this is the end of my London stuff (bag, tissue case, pencil roll and notebook cover), this is all going off to Lille very soon - one tick off the list and about 20 things left on it hum hum..

Coup de coeur Monday #4 - Fabric clouds

Fabric clouds have been on my (long) "Things I might make one day" list since I saw some in a Paris shop.. I got as far as tracing a wonky cloud on a piece of fabric one day.. But I'm sure that if I ever get round to making one, it'll never look as good as those..

From The butter flying, so sweet for a baby or kid's bedroom. The rain drops come in lots of different colours.

From Zü, in a wide range of gorgeous fabrics.

And my favourite from Blue Monday, so girly and cute, just look at the shoes!!

I guess clouds would sit better in a girls bedroom anyway, but I could always make them as presents.. To be continued.. One day.. Maybe..

Rainbow pencil roll

Here's a rainbow pencil roll I made for M - a bit of a botched job if I'm honest. There's so many things that aren't quite right with it but I wanted to finish it before picking M up from school and I did!
We put his brand new pens in it. And here it is in action..

I'd always wanted to make one of those and I'm quite pleased that I could use all my dotty fabrics. The only colour I didn't have was black so I used navy blue instead and it looks fine.
OK, got a few more of those to make for my niece and nephew and for my neatly lined up pencils obsessed sister (yes, the same one!).

Rainbow pencil roll seen here and here. Also, explanations in French here. I read the explanations but again, kind of did my own thing..

M "putting the pencils to bed"

London calling

Details of a bag I'm making for lil sis, a mix between this one and this one, using a gorgeous Japanese linen. It's a relatively simple bag (no zips, no hooks or buckles, no fancy handles or straps) with a few pockets. I love making bags, sewing squares and rectangles is just my thing!

I won't show it all so she gets some element of surprise (it's for her birthday early April - I know, I'm being very organised! I'm actually capitalizing on my motivation and making lots of things while I'm up for it. I'm sure it will slow down at some point..).

To go with it, the indispensable tissue case of course (seen here) and some other things I'm yet to make (maybe another pencil case!?).

Big sis, if you fancy a new bag too, just shout!

All good things (come to an end)

And here it is! My Advent calendar! - apologies for the bad picture, taken with my phone and very bad light on a dark winter morning.

I'm so SO proud of it, even though it's not perfect (I'm not sure how many of the straight lines ended up staying straight!).
So the little beds open and they're large enough to slip a couple of chocolates or a Lego figure/small Playmobil/toy car/Pokemon inside.

Inspired by this one (pattern available here)

I bought the pattern but in fact didn't use it at all, I just did my own thing - main differences being:
* I did the faces with felt appliques rather than proper little dolls heads
* I made each bed unique as I wanted to use as many of my cute fabrics as I could (in the pattern you make a long strip and cut it into 3 beds, also adding some wadding, which I didn't do)
* the layout is slightly different, mine is just children in bed, nothing else..

I don't know how many hours it took me to make this, I should have counted but I finished it in less than a month, making other things alongside it too.. I'm  going to take a break but will come back to it in a little while as I'd really like to make some more for family and friends - maybe following the pattern next time!

Seems a shame to put it away for the next 11 months!

Coup de coeur Monday #3 - My name is Simone

I LOVE LOVE LOVE those funky and colourful dolls by My name is Simone. From left to right, Jean-Louis (my favourite), Rosalie, Suzanne and Simon.

  

They would brighten up any room! I'd love one for the kids bedroom. Or even mine! 

There's cushions too (imagine, you could have his and hers..)..

and underwear/swimming bags (how cute are they!?)..

and badges..

And look at those special edition dolls, they're so funny!

All available on Mes habits chéris - a great website for finding presents (kids bedroom stuff mainly, but also some toys and games, stationery and lots of other bits and pieces..), I'll probably come to mention it again at some point!