Sunday, March 27, 2011

Handmade gifts for big and small girls

 

My charming little niece turned one this weekend, a perfect excuse for a visit home to my parents & a fab afternoon in my sister's house celebrating with family! I've made quite a few little gifts for her in her first year as she's my goddaughter - so I wanted to continue the trend. But I've already made her 2 blankets and lots more so I didn't want to repeat anything I'd done before. I bought this lovely book last year and I've used it to make quite a few fleece monsters for my own kids.



So I took it out last week after entering the One Thing, One Week Challenge over at Amy's Creative Side and flicked through it for a little while and decided, with the help of the kids opinions, to make Dilly. I have gorgeous, high quality fleece that I use for my baby blankets and used this to make Dilly - and she's fabulously soft and will be lovely to hold. She's actually one of the simplest and fastest patterns to make in the book which was a bonus too as I had very little time last week with work demands.


 

I think she was a hit too with the little lady! I would definitely recommend this book - the patterns are very straightforward to make and very, very cute - plus, a little quirky, which I really like! My kids adore the monsters I've made for them - they bring them to bed every night and the fleece has held up very well.

I also made some bunting to decorate her room using some lovely fresh, colourful fabric:



As well as my niece's birthday presents, I had some little gifts I wanted to make for bigger girls - my own friends! So I ran up some pincushions in the last few weeks for them. After cutting all the strips and squares for my Its A Hoot quilt, I had lots of lovely scraps left over, many of them conveniently already in small strips. So I pulled out a small piece of coton batting and quilted the strips on as I went.


I just love the colour palette in these fabrics. I had some lovely bigger scraps left over and used one of them for the back:

 

 I also made this scrappy pincushion from some Amy Butler scraps I had. Like the first, its quilted onto a scrap of cotton batting in a very simple style, and the blue, orange, brown and cream colours work really nicely together.


 After our lovely weekend, we stopped off in Kildare Village outlet centre on the way back and I popped into the Cath Kidston outlet store and found this lovely sewing basket. I've been looking for a nice sewing box for a long time but so many of them are just hideously old-fashioned! I love the fabric print on this one and have already moved my sewing supplies from the horrible old functional "craft" box I had from a few years back to this pretty one - a perfect gift for me!!



p.s. - I just wish I had a garden like my mum's for taking photos in - I could have such wonderful backdrops!




18 comments:

Kimberlee, The Spunky Diva said...

Hat monster is soooo cute, and the pincushion is great to. Visiting from Sew Chatty.
-Kimberlee
www.TheSpunkyDiva.com

Elizabeth Dackson said...

Very cute pincushions! And what an adorable like sewing box :) I love the little monster you made for your niece, I'm a big fan of softies :)

CityHouseStudio said...

I love the little monster! What a cute gift for a little one. And the pin cushions are great -- I'd love to know what you stuff them with, too!
Michelle

Becky (My Fabric Obsession) said...

adorable monster! glad she liked it. I love the pin cushions too. All your fabric choices are great!

Marci Girl said...

So sweet, all those special handmade gifts! Love the monster, and I'm sure it will be loved for years to come!

DIYbyDesign said...

I love all of the handmade things. That monster is too cute! I am your latest follower. I would love for you to come and check out my blog and follow me back at www.diybydesign.blogspot.com. Thanks so much.

Kristen said...

Super cute! So many great projects!!

Helen said...

Where's My Monster????

I AM LONELY!!!

I need a little Monster to comfort me :-)

Love
Hx

hazel said...

What FUN! I'm not surprised the little monster was a hit--the flowery eyes are so sweet! What lovely handmade gifts--you're giving me ideas, which is always dangerous! lol

Hazle

Quiet Quilter said...

Such an adorable variety of little gifts and doo-dads. Lovely use of fabric pieces.

Amanda said...

Such wonderful gifts for both little and big girls! I'm frantically trying to put together some sewing gifts for mothers day this weekend and definitely be doing a pin cushion!

Thank you for sharing!

Sara @ Sew Sweetness said...

lol, your monster made me giggle! Really cute! And those pincushions are awesome...I love what you did with the Momo scraps!

@pril said...

I like the pincushions. What do you put inside?

Caroline@ToffleCraft said...

I particularly love the bunting, as it's just so bright and playful. I'm sure it'll brighten up her room beautifully.

I hear you about wishing I had a garden to take beautiful pictures in... My flat isn't the same somehow. You did a good job of it :) and on all your gifts!

Unknown said...

What a fun friend and auntie you are!! I'd love for you to link up to Wow Me Wednesday!

http://polkadotsonparade.blogspot.com/2011/03/wow-me-wednesday-3.html

Megan said...

I love those little pin cushions--It's a Hoot is one of my favs. Thanks for linking up to {Sew} Modern Monday!

Megan said...

Such cute stuff! I love all you did, and especially that banner! What is that funky cat print? So cute! Darling monsters too. Thanks for linking to Fabric Tuesday and happy birthday to the little one :)

Seaweed and Raine said...

They bunting is so cute! I have been wanting to do some for a while now - yours looks really good :)
I LOVE that first pincushion! Did you quilt it to something? Or just sew each band to each other? I'd love to try something like this (I'm just getting into sewing).