Little cloud pillow

My little boy has a few friends in the way you do when you're 2 (make that almost 3 - boo hoo!). That is, a few littlies who he kind of shares toys with a bit and sees around largely because I like their mums (or dads). I'm glad he has them - it makes him feel like he's not just following around after his big sisters all the time but has his own little crew ;-)

As it was the birthday party of one of the buddies on the weekend and I wanted to make the sweet little girl in question something special. I'd just borrowed Fiona Dalton's fabulous book "Hop skip jump, 20 eco-friendly toys to sew" from the local library again (must buy a copy) and this little project jumped out at me... cute, quick and fun.

 It's a cute little pillow with front in soft white flannel with an embroidered face.

And the back I did in a cute pink/red striped cotton. Stuffed softly it looks like a good bedtime buddy to me...

And to my boy, by the look of this pic ;-) Lets hope it has the same effect on our little friend!

PS. No, I didn't dress my son up in a pink t-shirt for the photo shoot (though that is certainly not beyond me, hee hee). As I mentioned recently, his lack of appropriate sized clothing means that his big sister's clothes get called in occasionally, in this case as a pyjama top. Oh well, he's a well-adjusted modern man (this boy frequently runs around in a tutu (mama-made of course), much to my delight :-). He can send me the therapy bills later...

Another little friend

I'm such a sucker for my kids' requests... my big girl has been carrying around the little teddy (in my last post) since I made him, saying how much she wished she had one. So naturally I had to make her one... to order, of course: a bunny please, grey wool, striped tummy in pink and maybe blue. OK then.



To amuse myself I added a little pom pom for his tail. He's just as shoddily made and wonky as the last one (maybe I'm expecting my knitting to improve too quickly - but at least I don't have holes happening anymore :-), but when my girl woke and saw him sitting beside her bed this morning (yes, I'm that much of a sook) she was suitably excited. He was carried around all morning then reluctantly relinquished for school.

Sookiness aside, I'm enough of a realist to know that he will surely be forgotten sometime soon and end up under the bed getting cosy with the dust bunnies. But hey, I had fun, she had fun, win win! Now the little girl has requested a doll version (yikes!) and that means I'll have to make the boy one too.



On another note, apparently these little toys (pattern here) are perfect for using up scraps of leftover yarn. I have no idea how the pile above has ended up in my knitting bag, bought specifically for the little toys... um, maybe the knitting fairy bought it? Who could resist the beautiful gelato colours. Not me. Oh well. I've promised myself that when I'm done with this latest obsession I'll either make a throw blanket/toy play blanket for the kids or pass it on to the local charity shop for someone else to have so that it's not just hanging around. Fingers crossed ;-)



Lots of other creative goodness to be seen here.

Harriet's teddy

I have my friend Lamina to thank for my latest craft obsession - little knitted toys. Her post about making gifts for friends had me going straight to the pattern she'd used for her cute bunny and thinking about whether my fledgling knitting skills were up to it.



Technical doubts aside I couldn't help myself and decided to dive in with some scraps of yarn I had lying around and the kneedles I'd used for my sev[en] circle. When my little girl asked me what I was knitting I quickly thought and told her it was a little teddy for Harriet, the doll I made her a couple of years ago (a little on Harriet here). I thought it was safest to say it was for Harriet as: A. if it turned out dodgy (almost guaranteed to) it wouldn't matter and B. it would reduce the "Where's mine? Why is it for her/him and not me?" factor that's always a possibility.



Something amuses me about a soft toy having a knitted teddy (hee hee), and I enjoy setting Harriet & teddy up in amusing (to me) situations.



Those other than Harriet have taken to little teddy too so I will definitely be feeding my obsession and knitting at least 3 more.

Finally...

...I've put my new 'babies' in to my Etsy and Madeit shops.
After a lightbulb moment a while back I made heat pack teddies (or 'beenies' as they call them) for my girls. Then decided to make some more. There were prototypes:



And many more prototypes...



And after feedback from
a. my chief tester big girl "can I keep them all mama?"
b. friends who'd received them as presents
and
c. rigorous testing through play (namely being thrown down flights of stairs) on our recent weekend away,
I'd finally perfected my pattern (and reinforced the stress points!)



I hope someone loves them like they're loved in this house...

Bunny x 3

I love the process of designing something new. Often I don't think to use an existing pattern when I'm sewing, thinking that I can work it out myself (hmm), but this really does take so much time and I don't necessarily achieve what I set out to do without many hours spent, of which there are few when you've got small children. It can also be quite stressful! (I'll post another time about the dolls I made for the girls)

For easter this year I wanted to make the kids a bunny toy each and was starting to think of designs when I came across this lovely pattern by the fabulous Hop Skip Jump. In the interests of speed, consistency and sanity I quickly decided that this was the way to go and bought the pattern. In letting go of the crazy desire to do everything myself I learnt a lot and had fun too. There was certainly creativity involved in choosing the fabrics according to what I thought each child might like, and I embroidered each child's name onto the tummies to personalise them further. And on Easter morning the kids were delighted, so mission accomplished!