Re-fashioned jeans for Sophie....

Sophie is six and a half years old and already has long legs for her age. So she grows out of her jeans before they have hardly been worn. Girls jeans are so nice with lots of embroidery, beads sequin etc I wish that they made them this nice for us 'big girls'. Sophie hates to get rid of them because of all this sparkly loveliness so we alter them.

These jeans are only from ASDA, so nothing posh and I have been doing this ever since Sophie out grew her first pairs of trousers...

....I take my scissors to them! Sounds drastic but there you go. The length on this occasion was determined by where the pattern finished but Sophie likes longer shorts for the summer. She is prone to eczema on the backs of her legs and is a little conscious of this. So I cut off one leg, nice and straight, you could mark this with a line first.

I then checked the length so that I cut the other leg exactly the same. Make sure that you are 90 degrees with the trouser leg itself when cutting rather than levelling it with your eye/view as there should be a slight angle upwards at the side. Otherwise the inside leg will be shorter than the outside leg side and it will not be right when it is worn. Hope that makes sense. See picture above.

Then carefully fold over about 1cm and then fold over again. It is not necessary to fold it any wider and it will only shorten the length. Pop some pins in so as to keep the hem in place when stitching on the sewing machine.

If you can, remove the front section of your sewing machine so that you can put the trouser leg over the free arm section. If the trousers are very small and will not fit over then you might be just as well to hand stitch this bit. I used a slightly bigger straight stitch so that it could cope better with the thickness of the denim.

Try to use as closer a matching thread as you can. Give the hems a good press. Then...hey presto

....jeans with a new lease of life.

Now, you could add Ric Rac braid or some other embellishment at the bottom of the legs but Sophie wanted them left as they are.

When I get a picture of her wearing them I will add it to this post, but she is very pleased with them. In fact, she was so pleased that she fetched a flowery long sleeved t-shirt that is now too short in said sleeves. So I shall be back..

My main point with this post is that if you have any kiddie cloths that they have out grown then have a go at altering them, what have you got to lose? Any mistakes with a T-shirt means that you end up with a new duster. So have a go all it takes is a bit or planning BEFORE you fetch the scissors and then having a go. You do not need to have a sewing machine, in fact sometimes hand stitching is better, especially with stretchy fabrics. Let me know how you get on.

Bye for now.

Opps, nearly forgot, remember to join in the giveaway, deadline is Sunday 17th May.

xx

I am taking part in this.....

I am taking part in "Around the World Quilting Bees challenge organised by Summersadie. I have made my first block tonight whilst at my sewing group and I shall upload it tomorrow. MY block will then be sent to Maria in Wiltshire and then sent on again and hopefully in several months time it will get back to me along with numerous other squares made by lots of other ladies from all over the world. Click on the challenge link to go to her post which has a link whereby you can see where all of the other ladies taking part live. The UK is represented. I am really pleased with my block, yes log cabin again , but with this I am going to try and do some other design blocks too.

Right off to make a cup of tea and watch Desperate Housewives.

Back tomorrow.

xx

PS Join in my 300th Giveaway. Entrant deadline is Sunday 18th May.

"Where are my Pins?"

Flower shaped pincushion.

Over-sized pincushion and needle case set.

After much struggling to upload pictures these have now finally been listed in my Folksy shop.

Postage seems to have increased lately, or is it me? So I have tried to keep it as low as I can.

The marks for the coursework have now been sent away and I am now concentrating on other work. So this week has been very busy indeed and will remain so into next week. Then hopefully it will ease up a little.
Do not forget to enter my 300th post Giveaway, the deadline is next Sunday 17th May 2009.
Click on the link to see the prizes and for further information.
Nice to see a few names enter that I have not 'met' before. The more the merrier!
Off to mark some more files.
Take care
xx

Sketchbook Update...

I have completed a few more pages of my sketchbook with the theme of SEEDS. The page above, I decided to take my Dandelion sketch whilst the seeds are still in the fluffy round shape and free machine stitch an impression of this onto handmade paper. I coloured the white paper of the sketchbook with a dark orange ink.

The machine needle leaves a series of holes which makes it more interesting to look at and makes you want to touch it more. Adds texture to the surface.

With this page I wanted to look at the seed shape once they had been dispersed from the main flower. I sketched it on our left then thought how much it looked like fly stitch. I tried to stitch these onto felt using free machine embroidery. May take both of these ideas further once I have run out of steam with any other research and ideas.

Felt with free machine embroidery.

Again the page was given an ink wash to get rid of the stark white paper. I have added a bit more since taking these pictures but I do not want to bore you too much with endless pictures. I do want to maybe create some repeat fabric designs with some of these ideas.

I would dearly love to sit for a whole day and concentrate on this which is what I would have done if I was still at college. I do feel that my approach to this is rather dis-jointed as I can only settled down to this for short bursts due to work etc. Such is life. I am going to try and do as much work for the day job so that maybe I can concentrate on it at the weekend. Sophie is having a friend over Saturday night and then they are being taken by hubby to a party on Sunday morning. I can hopefully do a bit then, without having to keep stopping,part from doing the ironing of course!

Remember my giveaway. Deadline is Sunday 17th. Go on, you know you want to. Click on link to see the prizes.

I am off the mark one more set of homework then I am settling down to watch Ashes to Ashes.

xx

Creative Swap Delivered to me...

Do not forget to enter my 300th post giveaway here. Just leave a comment!

I got home from work this week to find a very large white padded envelop sitting on the kitchen table. It was all the way from America and was the return swap from the 12" x 12" quiltie creative challenge that I had entered. It has been made by Barbara Roberts who lives in Florida. (I need to email her after writing this post to say thank you). The colours are lovely and there is a piece of fabric on the back with the details of how this quiltie was made. A lot of hard work and thought has gone into this quilite and as with all of the quilites that I have received I shall either put it in a frame or hang it up somehow. I do not know who has received mine yet and hope that it has not come all the way back to the UK which would be rather ironic wouldn't it?

The edge has been finished with some lovely braid so a lovely frame may be the answer. Some of the embellishment is 3d so I shall probably leave the glass out. This is a lovely piece of work and it will look lovely on the wall in our house.

I was lucky to be voted as one of the runners up and in the parcel from Lenna were some lovely stickers and gorgeous cross grain ribbonwhich I love using. Thank you Lenna I was not expecting a prize or anything like that, it was a lovely thought.

PS Remember to take part in my giveaway which ends on 17 th May @ midnight.
xx

Giveaway Time!!!

I have now completed 300 posts here on Indigo Blue!! Summersadie just past her 200th goal and I put a comment on her post which I may pinch the theme to go here next post.

I have been playing around with the clutch idea and I have had another cutting out session of these so that I can update my shops. I have decided to remove some items and put them in my friends new tea shop which is opening in Cornwall later this month. She wants to have a few items in there for visitors to buy. So new items will replace these in Etsy, Folksy and Artfire.

So.... there are two prizes this time,

I first prize is a cupcake clutch purse, make up bag or whatever you want it for. Some cross grain ribbon in colours which I picked out from the cupcake fabric. A pincushion from my stock, some fun post-its that I like to use and a Cath Kidston Keyring. I have one the same and thought it would come in useful for a birthday present but it hasn't so I am using it here instead. I may add to this before it goes in the post.

Next...

This is my next idea so the winner of the second prize will have the first edition of my coin/mini clutch purse for change or I would use this to put my jewellery in when I go swimming.

My fingers seem to shrink a bit when I go swimming and I am worried that my wedding rings will slip off so I remove them and put them in my normal purse but this way may be better still and you could fit a watch in here too for the same reason. This prize also has some Cath Kidston posh tissues for your handbag, some cross grain ribbon and a keyring. Again I may slip in something else if I can think of anything before I go to the post office.

So all you need to do is leave a comment here on this post. The deadline will be midnight on Sunday 17th May which will give everyone a chance to enter. I have had trouble contacting winners in the past so this time I thought I would try a different way. So could you please pop back to see if you are a lucky bunny and have won?! The random number picker will help me with finding the two winners. If a prize is not claimed 10 days after the closing date then I shall pick out another winner.

I would be great if perhaps some of my new visitors would like to take part. If you do not have a blog leave a comment under anonymous but put your first name at the end of your comment so that I can tell who you are if you win.

Please spread the word about this giveaway, if you blog about it let me know and it will give you an extra entry.

I am happy to post anywhere and it impresses the lady at the Post Office too!

I would like to say thank you for all the lovely comments about my quilt. I took along time to do, I think I started it before Christmas and then fitted it in between work etc. My Wednesday sewing evenings with the 'Girls' helps, three hours of interrupted sewing!

Hubby is digging the holes for the fence posts as we speak so guess what we have planned this coming week.

Off to mark GCSE coursework. The marks need to be at the exam board by the end of next week. Once I have finished I shall post some pictures of their practical work, I am very pleased with it. I found a wrapped box of chocolates from one of the girls with THANKYOU written on it which was a lovely surprise!

Enjoy the evening, what do you have planned?

xx

Quilt Quest..

...is now finally finished!!! Hurrah!

This is my third big quilt and I really enjoyed making this one. I tried to plan it a bit better this time by sorting out my stash for blue and white based fabric and then buying some more to add to it. This included some nice fabric on Etsy which was my first purchase using them. I then sorted them out into piles to try and make sure that each square had an even spread of each fabric. I placed these in bags. In the pictures you can see that I made use of the Janonme 350e machine at school. I used my own threads but at the same time I tried out some of the patterns to see what they looked like. I ended up using just two of them.

The other squares were mainly log cabin but I also used a heart applique design. I wanted to vary this quilt from the one that I made for Sophie last summer.

The fabric backing is the same one that I used for Sophie's quilt, but I bought the blue version. For the binding I stitched all of the remaining strips together, ironed it in half lengthwise and used this to bind the edge. Mind you I still have many strips left so I got a bit carried away with cutting out for the log cabin squares. So much for all that planning!Here it is in all its glory! It is too big to hang on the rotary drier and my hubby was too busy with painting the garage door at the weekend to hold it up for me. So the next best thing was to drape it over the sofa (Tiger, our cat, is asleep underneath it and did not even wake up!)

I have just spotted a mistake with it and I will have to see if I can change it or not.

I would like to try a more complicated design with my next quilt but for now I have several other things that need making or finishing first.

More tomorrow which is Friday!!

Giveaway announcment tomorrow, so I had better finish making it!

xx

Birthday Gift

My friend's parents emigrated to Australia about 8 years and come back to the UK for up to 5 months at a time. They are in the UK now and we were invited to my friends house for afternoon tea to celebrate her Mum's birthday.

Her Mum makes the most fabulous quilts which still hang in their Cornish house which they still have. So I decided to make a clutch purse which could easily be taken home on the plane. So off went to Wadebridge on the hunt for some fabric to catch my eye.

I decided on blue fabric. I already had the ribbon and I thought that the button was unusual.

I cut out several other purses whilst I had the scissors out.

When I made the ribbon loop I made it longer so that I could knot it a couple of times which gave the user something to hold onto when opening and closing the fastening.

I am pleased with the way that this has turned out. I went to my sewing club tonight and cut out two more clutches. So hopefully soon I shall several to put in Folksy. I have also made one for myself to take on the school trip to France next month.

I forgot the mention that my friend's Mum is also the lady who sent me the ATC's info. I have not forgotten that I just need more time in the day.

Bye for now

xx

Fit for a Princess...

After weeks of waiting and a delivery which saw 6 damaged boxes out of 8, then a new delivery we were finally able to start putting Sophie's long awaited new bed together. Had you forgotten about that? Not surprised, it has taken so long after all!

So, I got home on Friday to yet another massive pile of boxes in the living room and I looked at hubby to try and gauge whether all was ok or whether I was going to turn around and get back in the car to drive off. However all seemed good, so I stayed. After a much needed cup of tea we set to work with the possibility of break in play as Hubby needed to go off at 6pm to run the local model car racing club.

This time the instructions were there, that's right we had no instructions with the first delivery either! But one allen key, well you can't have it all can you?

Due to the time scale lets recap, 1st April we decided to have a go at wall papering one wall in Sophie's room. The date itself should have been an omen as to how it was going to go, but it looked much better the following morning.

Sophie was moved into the attic. Suffice it to say we shall NOT be wallpapering again any time soon. It does look stylish though, I was quite impressed with Sophie's choice.

Still waited during Easter (several phone calls made) as I had hoped that the bed would have been delivered when I was at home. Huh, no such luck so Sophie had a friend over one afternoon and I made Sophie some new curtains...

Then we finally arrive to last Friday.

It was a bit of a tight fit making it in her room. A piece of advice - do not make solid wood beds in your bare feet, especially when there are small piles of screws and bolts lying around! So, just under two hours later we had finished it. No swaering, apart from the pile of screws bit, or any other problems at all.

Here it is!

We have since added another set of white shelves on the wall which she can use later for CD's but Sophie is using it for small books. The junk on the floor has now been found homes in the very useful storage nuder the bed. A pink hanging bag storage thingy has been added to the wall at the end of the bed too for those blasted furry toys that you keep trying to cull but instead they increase in numbers behind your back!

The ladder hooks over the side of the bed which I moved so that you could see underneath the bed. That storage area has already been used as a den since Friday. It smells new and looks great. We had some floating pine looking shelves which we sanded and then sprayed white with Plasticote from B&Q which worked really well. These shelves are high up at the moment and for display so the chances of any paint chipping off is small.

Due to the bed being much higher Sophie could not use her little chair for her night light, drink or torch. (Torch? I know, well I have a 'just in case' daughter). I make fabric buckets and I have several with my threads etc in. So the night light has vanished, and the drink pot, torch, tissues etc not sit snugly in the corner by her pillow. Stroke of genius eh? I am in the process of making some more of these because I find them really useful and better than plastic.

So, there you go. Sophie's room is finished and what with the bank holiday gardening I do not think that we have wasted our time at all.

The next project is the dreaded fence panelling! (If it is raining I am not doing it, OK?)

This week I shall be marking coursework but I do have a few things that I made last week to show you and to keep things going.

300th post looming too.
Take Care. xx

Sunny Days

Saturday and Sunday

We have been very lucky with the weather this weekend, so we decided to have a go at the garden. Hubby quickly put another coat of paint on the garage door, Sophie played a bit and I tidied the kitchen. We then tidied up a little bit and decided what he might need to get from the garden centre.

Last weekend I bought this...

When we moved to our current house I brought some of my pots and containers with me and I had several daisy plants like this. They were about 12+ years old and last year did not really do anything so I bought the next generation of daisy plant. So I spent some of the morning emptying old patio pots, sorting out the soil for roots etc and recycling it into these posts. Even Gardenrs world say this is a good thing to do rather than throwing the old compost etc away. I have been doing it for years.

So after my patio pot sorting Hubby needed to go to the tip along with his grass cuttings. When he came back we went of to B&Q for some very selective shopping. When I was there is found a plant which I have in my garden but did not know what it was!

This plant appeared out of nowhere a few years ago and I could not find out where it had come from or what is was called. However, I walked out the back of B&Q and there it sat. i was very excited and found Hubby to show him. It is called Granny's Bonnet. I really like this plant, it is pretty, takes no looking after, it produces many seeds which can be sprinkled wherever you want and the plants can be easily divided and re-planted. I had one plant and I now have 6! The fact that I have a name for it is even better.

I did quite well with spinach in a bucket last year so I planted some lettuce to see how that goes this time. Just got to keep the slugs off

I potted up three hanging baskets with Geraniums, Bizzie Lizzes and lobelia. I used to have glorious hanging baskets when I lived in Menheniot, I used to get people walk past our house and comment on them, but since living here they have been rather pants.

I had to treat myself to this plant because it is called a Pincushion plant!! Oh yes, it screamed out 'Buy me! Please buy me!' So I did.

Whilst I was potting plants for all I was worth Hubby suddenly decided to move the compost heap! He did ask if his bum looked big in his overalls! We need to move the compost heap so that we can put the fence up anyway, just did not know that it would be there and then. Luckily we had already used quite a bit of it on the garden so there was not too much to remove. Sophie thought this was excellent fun, the chance to make a mess and it was ok. So she put on her teeny gardening gloves and helped. She was a star all day. We really are blessed with this little lady.

(Today another coat of paint was quickly added, and the last coat, before we worked on finishing Sophie's room but more on that tomorrow as this post has taken too long as blogger has been playing up0 again.)

In the end we were working outside from about 1pm until 6.30pm. Sophie and I had a little break when hubby went to the tip. If I did not burn off some calories doing all that digging and planting then I do not know what else I can do. Boy did we sleep well! Hubby ached this morning but I did not so I am not quite the old fossil that I have been feeling lately as this cold has really brought me down. Breathing is still not normal but I think the longer weekend may have helped.

Work tomorrow and exam deadlines and meeting this week! Oh what joy.

xx

Pincushion Challenge is Back!!

I have just visited The Pincushion Challenge blog and I found that there is to be a seven month long theme where colours will be the feature. Starting with RED for April and I missed this one! Typical as I had been keeping an eye on this challenge for ages!

The theme is based on the old mnemonic for remembering the colours in the visible spectrum.

Further details as to what to do with your pincushion entry can be found www.boogai.com/pincushion_challenge (Blogger will not let me put the link here for some season). There are no prizes etc for these challenges they are simply for fun. If you miss a month then you can still upload your entry to the flickr group. I will do April and May entry at the same time as I like the challenge of finding the fabric etc.

Anyway take a look and see if you would like to join in.

I have finished a big project and if it does not rain tomorrow I shall photograph it and show you here.

xx

Creative Swap Challenge Runner Up

After the voting had finished this quiltie by Cynthia Zdanukas was voted the most creative. I was delighted to find out that I am a runner up with three others. Pop over and take a look plus all of the other entries. I really enjoy swaps but I find these challenging as they can be very open in terms of what I might design. Sadly it will be a while before Lenna will be organising any more swaps as she is in the process of selling and moving house. I do have the ATC swap to set up but this week has not been good to do that. A persistent cold, GCSE coursework deadline, a bed to still have delivered ( we have made progress with this tonight) and after school workshops. However, this weekend I intend to make a start on it as next week is going to be even more hectic at work.

I would like to say many thanks for the numerous new visitors that have popped by this month. Please do not be strangers and I hope you will continue to find things of interest on this blog.

Must go and sort out my work bag as I simply threw things in today that needed further attention.

Back tomorrow, it is my evening in of peace and a DVD. What shall I watch, any suggestions?

xx

Seed Sketchbook continued

I have taken some pictures which will be used in the sketchbook and I thought I would show them to you. Feeling very full of cold today so I have not yet done anything with them They are of a dried Allium which grew on my In-laws allotment and has been sitting in their living room since Christmas. I am really pleased with this first one, a lovely day so I just held it up in the air. Not very scientific but it did the trick. Quite pleased with this one.

This is the whole bunch together. Love the colours here.

A single smaller flower.

This picture shows the little black dots of the SEEDS. I have taken a risk and planted a few, well you never know do you? Lovely spiky look to these flowers once the petals have gone.

Spiky, spiky. I can think of lots to do with these images and I have decided that once Sophie is tucked up in bed on Friday evening and hubby is out I shall finish some marking and then have a play with some ideas in my book.

Another shot of this pic simply because I like it so much. Hubby thinks that I should make this into some cards.

Bye for now I need a hot cup of tea and an early(ish) night .

xx

Sketchbook Monday (Sunday)

I usually do these sketchbook posts on a Sunday but I had a lot to do yesterday and never got that far. I have been a bit under the weather as my cold is now two weeks old and my inhaler suddenly ran out onSaturday morning. I had been to the Dr's Friday to order another but I can not pick up the prescription until today. So today has been a bit of a struggle and at one point I needed a TA to come in and help me 0therwise I may have expired right there and then. I shall pick up the new one after work so hopefully I shall be back up to speed tomorrow.

I am going to show you some of the research, photos etc that I am putting together for this project which is to run for a year. I am a member of the Cornwall Embroiderer's Guild so this is going to hopefully go into one of our future exhibitions.One thing I definately do with my sketch books is get rid of the white page by putting a colourwash over it. I usually do this just before I go to bed then it is dry for the next day. With the theme of seeds I decided to go for pale browns, creamy colours, yellows etc. I anticipate this changing as the book progresses. I then began with looking around the word SEED and started using a dictionary, looked in my books upstairs, gardening books, the school library etc and just gathered bits and bobs for most of January. I out them all in a fabric zip up wallet that I found in ASDA months ago.

Finding key words linked to SEEDS gave me the spidergram idea which I decided to do as I began to feel that I would never actually get started. I did leave the very first page blank for the time being. I added to the interest by adding a few small pictures from books and Google. Dandelions came up via this research and I remembered how much I like the feathery appearance just before the wind blows it all over the place, that I had forgotten was that they were seeds and the wind helped to scatter them!!

At last, I had found my starting point.

I then began to search for Dandelion pictures. I found some by accident on a clipart CD I had at work for a computer design software for Textiles garments! There were several Dandelion plants in the garden which had very kindly decided to grow at the right time so I kept an eye on them then got the camera out just at the right time.

I am quite pleased with this photo. It could be better but considering I do not really have the right lense for this type of picture I was lucky to get this.

I then sketched small sections of the Dandelion head and looked at it from different views. This is not finished at all but I will then stitch up little samples using the pictures and sketches as a starting point.

I have a long way to go and as I have said before my sketchbooks usually evolve via my own interests rather than a set theme, so it will be very interesting to see how this goes. I shall try and post about once a week on this, partly so that you can see what I am doing but hopefully it will help me to stick at it too.

Anyway best be off, I hope the week has started well for you so take care for now.

x

Busy, Busy, Busy....

This is my 291 post so a 300 post giveaway is looming. I shall start to think about it. Today started with staggering downstairs to make that all important first cup of tea, feed the cat and put the bread maker on. Then put some washing on that got forgotten yesterday, tut tut.

Then to put Sophie in the shower, breakfast and then to swiftly move onto housework. We are up and at it today because Hubby wants to see the F1 race today because the weather means that putting the last coat of paint on the garage is unlikely today. I also want to finish some marking, look at a scheme of work and then have some me time. If you have smalls and watch 'Me too' you will know that they have a song about finishing a task on time and it is a bit like that here.

Last night two more felt chick egg cosies were purchased which I am delighted about as I wondered if now that Easter has gone they would sit there doing nothing.

You can give them as gifts anytime. So they need packing and sending tomorrow. I also need to update my shops and take some pictures for a sketchbook project that the Embroiderers Guild is to run for a full year. Sounds along time but that slips by quickly doesn't it?

SEEDS Sketchbook Project

When I was told that the theme for the sketchbook was seeds I inwardly groaned because it did not exactly fill me with inspiration. So I sat on it so to speak for a few weeks but during the Easter break I did manage to make a start. I have more to add but I have not photographed it. I have been a bit slack with pictures this week! I want to do some stitch samples to add to the sketchbook too. The final intention is to have all of the sketchbooks as part of our next exhibition so I want it to be reasonably good. Normally I do sketchbooks just for me and I sometimes show them here but not deliberately for people to see so we are all making a bit of a shaky start!

The ATC's information I shall try and scan again today as it did not want to know yesterday (technology is wonderful, but only when it works!) and as I said before I am looking for 6 people but give me a chance to post the info before you say yes! They are small, you make them all the same as they go to the 6 people.

I also want to spend some time with Sophie who has just started cutting up boxes etc to make something! I have not got a clue what she is making but she does so that is want counts. Yesterday we bought her very first pair of trainers. My little baby is growing up too fast!! Slushy Mummy moment.

So off I must go and try to reach my goal and to catch the light so photos to be taken.

Enjoy the rest of the day,

xx

Felty Fun...

Just a few pictures to show you what I made during the Easter Holidays. I noticed that several of my bookcovers were leaning towards some colours and stocks were running low, so I decided to try out some new colour schemes. I love blue anyway and I was surprised when Sophie said how much she liked this one.

However, I still could not abandon the popular pink and green either. Now, the next problem. Etsy or Folksy? I may have to flip a coin.

Bye for now

xx

Creative swap Voting...

Over at Lennas blog I found this morning that you can view all of the entries and then in the right hand side bar vote for your fav. this is only possible until Monday 27th. If you are not sure what I am talking about see previous post. It is not intended that you vote for mine, but I thought you might like to pop over and be involved. Only 13 people have voted so far. There is another link in my side bar called Creative Swap Challenges. Once you have visited you may wish to join in a swap yourself!
I have a busy night with work ahead of me so that I can have my weekend free so I shall be back tomorrow.
Have a great weekend.
xx
PS. I will post about the ATC swap this weekend too.