Meet Fox and Panda for Dinner!

Can you imagine: I haven't been sewing for the last two and a half weeks! I went to Germany for a week and then I send my sewing machine on holidays (check-up) at the same time. I was hoping she would be back when I returned, but she isn't. I called the engineer today and he promised to bring her back tomorrow! I can't wait! I am showing withdrawal symptoms: What do you do when you can't sew? Buy sewing books (Hello "Love at first stitch" and "Colette Guide to sewing knits"), patterns (Hello Bronte Top) and knit fabrics.

Why are placemats more difficult to photograph than people?

Have you ever gotten a check-up for your sewing machine? I wanted to do it for the last year, but just couldn't part from my machine. But now she became really noisy and I had troubles getting all the dust out of her. Then I had a problem with the bobbin case that somehow got stuck. I had to force it out and in the process scratched some of the plastic. If even possible, the noise level went up further. So, I am really excited to see how she is going to perform after her check-up!

Today is my little sisters Birthday (Happy Birthday Tina :) ) and I made her two placemats as a Birthday present: a Panda and Fox. I didn't come up with this pattern by myself, but found it and a tutorial on Chrissy's blog "One crafty place".  The only change I made, was to print the pattern slightly larger so that I could make bigger placemats. 

Except for the dotted fabric, all materials came from my stash/scrap bin. I love the placemats and really want to make them for myself as well! But I doubt that will be soon, as there is always another project that is more urgent to sew, haha.

Placemats modeled with a lemon cake :)

Sewing for "Little Ones"

There seems to be a baby boom this summer. At least in my vicinity as neighbors, relatives and friends are becoming babies. So, this is a perfect excuse for me to venture into the world of tiny sewing. For long I have been admiring the baby clothes made by fellow bloggers and now I can do it as well, yeah.

My friend is having a little baby girl and thus I decided to make a little summer dress from jersey. I searched the internet for ages and saw so many beautiful clothes, hats and sleeping bags (to the point that I also wanted to have a baby to sew for - I think Lescha was scarred!). Surprisingly, most of the dress patterns I saw, were made from cotton. But I also found an easy tutorial from Delia creates for a suspender dress.

I was able to use leftover jerseys and sewed two little dresses. It took me only 1 hour from cutting out to the finished dress. I stitched the whole dress on my overlocker - so fast! The only visible seam is the one at the waistline.

I am only a little bit worried that the dress is too small. Delia says it should fit a 3-6 month old baby. I really hope so. I don't really have an imagination how little/big babies are, as there haven't been any so far among my friends. But in the photo below, you can see the approximate size of the dresses when comparing them with my arm.

Should the dress not fit the baby, maybe her doll can wear it, haha.

Christmas pressies!

Now that Christmas is over, I can finally reveal the gifts I made! And yes, I made most of them. That's a first for me, because usually I would buy most presents and make only a handful. So, yeah!

Kindle cover: My sister and my mum both got a kindle after having finally gotten over there fear of not holding a proper book (3 years ago, when the kindle was hardly known in Germany, they just couldn't understand why I loved it so much)! So, I made a kindle cover for both. I used this amazing tutorial by Ashley from Mommy by Day and Crafter by Night.

left: for my sis and right: for my mum :)

The corners of the kindle are just covered.

I had only one problem: I was not sure at which position I should put the elastic so that it does not cover the screen. I looked up the dimensions of the kindle (mine is an old version, so a giant in comparison to the new ones) and made the cover the right size, but unluckily and very frustrating the elastic is too far out and only touches the edges of the kindle. Nonetheless, my mum and sister loved it. And as they both are not travelling much, the fit shouldn't be a big problem. As you might have guessed the one with the matrioskas is for my sis and the one with the roses for my mum :)

Table cloth: Then I made a quilted table cloth for my mum. I used the butterfly blocks I had left over from her birthday quilt. As I was in a hurry to finish the table cloth, I only free motion quilted it with stippling.

That't the quilt I gave my mum for her Birthday!

Knitting bags: For my sister I also made a little bag from the leftover matrioska fabric. I have made the same bag for myself to store my knitting in. I even added 2 small pockets for my sisters version. I sewed a similar bag for a friend, who told me she would like to start knitting as well. (I forgot to take a pic, buh). And to really encourage her, I gave her some pink wool, knitting needles and the wheat scarf pattern from tin can knits. I haven't heard back from her yet, but hopefully she liked it :)

Pockets inside

Cushions: My grandparents loved their cushions and couldn't believe that I made them myself :) You can have a look here, if you want to know more about the cushions. And these were actually the presents that took me longest!

Vest: For Lescha, I knitted a "self-drafted" vest! I just finished it in time for New Year, which is when Father Frost brings presents in Ukraine. I am still blocking the vest, so he has to wait until it is dry to wear it. As soon as this is done, I will take some photos and write a post about it. So, stay tuned!

Sewing box for me: I also got some sewing related presents, yeah. My little sis gave me a lovely sewing box, in which I can store my quilting threads and some bias tape. She got a wooden box, whose lid she covered with owl fabric (and there is plenty left, so I am playing with the thought to use it as a lining for a blazer I want to make) and then she painted it white and even added a little lock. So, much detail. Thanks so much, sis!!!

So cute!

The lock almost looks like a beak :)

Who is going to love ironing? The rest of my family contributed to my new ironing board and steam generator iron station! I only had a tiny Ikea ironing board, which is not very stable and starting to fall apart. As for my iron? I hated it, because after 10 years of use the water was constantly leaking out of it causing near misses like dropping from the ironing board into the floor socket. I also couldn't iron on my tailors hem as in a vertical position the water would immediately come out of the iron. So ironing was a real nightmare for me! My mum told me then about these steam generator iron stations and thus I decided to invest in one of these! I haven't gotten it yet, but will keep you posted about my experience :)

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and had as much fun as I had when giving (and getting!) my presents! I wish you all a Happy New Year 2014!!!!