Pirate Update

Here is the first photo of my pirate jumper, so far so good. Although needles do hurt my fingers, especially on the purl stitch! I'm giving myself c2 years to get it done!

Blog Book Inspiration

The other day I was looking at Soule Mama and Glittergoods and they were inspired by each other with making books for their children to draw/ write in. Daria on GG gave a fantastic step-by-step instructions, that I made some up too.

If you're British then use normal A4 card and paper (from my child's art and craft stash I have built up - so nothing too fancy) and basically cut the A4 card and paper in half, to give you A5 size, (fold this in half, A6,) and stitch it together using embroidery floss. I just used a large needle to pierce the card and paper, which worked just fine. For a neater finish (as Daria says) trim the inside paper down so it doesn't spill out when folded.
No 1 child was v happy with his new books just for him. He's only just starting to read and write. You can see how I did it below, but check out Glittergoods for the professional way to go about it!


Needle piercing the card and paper to make holes (just 3 on the spine)


Start in the middle hole going down into the book


Come back out at one of the ends, then bring the needle over to the last hole (the one so far untouched, and push back down into the book.






Bring needle back through central hole.


Tie off ends, and cut.


The inside of the book.

job done, v happy and impressed child.

Plus nice to do something in minutes for once!!!

From Cakes to Pirates

Cake bit:
I don't think I have mentioned this, but in October I started a cake decorating evening class. I felt it was time to improve my efforts for my children's birthday cakes. Anyway, our first project is decorating an Xmas Cake (I used the Delia Smith recipe for an 8" cake - you can't go wrong with Delia, IMO.) We are following our teacher's design, which is quite traditional. A tree, to be decorated with Xmas Roses, Holly, Ivy and Red berries. I had to make some at home, as I'm never going to get it all done in the class, I'm not that fast at doing it. But I am enjoying it very much.


Pirate Bit:
And I am going to aim to turn this:




Into this:






Yes the wool just arrived, in the end I had to cancel the Navy yarn, and find another shop who actually had it in stock, instead of pretending they did!!! Is it that hard to update your website, or advise customers of stock issues??? Never mind, it's here, and I shall get knitting tomorrow. I'm knitting a few sizes bigger than I need for my son, as I'm going to take my time!!! I've never done anything like this before, you see. Any comments/ advice very much appreciated.

yarn update

Just incase you thought I was being v lazy, only 2 of the 3 colours of yarn has been sent, so I cannot start (as it's the main colour that I'm waiting for!!) Most annoyed with the shop. I have started cutting out the pieces for the bag I'm going to make from Bend the Rules Sewing book etc!

How to Make a Doorstop

I have finally finished (well nearly) my fabric doorstop tutorial. And you can find it here. As I started it in October, that is where it has been filed!! So I thought I would write about it, plus if you look to your left, you'll see it in my left hand sidebar. Super Duper!!! I will be addingan extra photo or 2, of the template. I was trying to be clever, to give a v detailed template, and I can't convert it to a PDF (PC probs) so will just take a photo!

stasis

where is my yarn?
why is my husband still here?

So neither project can start (jumper and bag).

Autumn Leaves

We have been doing lots of Autumny things, picking leaves and seeds (acorns and conkers and sycamore seeds). So we have had a few make and do sessions (myself and our 4 3/4 year old) and have come up with some leaf prints and a leaf inspired felt garland (I saw a few on the web), now proudly hung in his bedroom. All we did to make it was draw out some leaf shapes with tailor's chalk onto the felt, cut it out, make 2 little parallel cuts on the leaf, using scissors, and then threaded ribbon through. V simple.

My blog name, Make and Do, is inspired by Doodle Do an arts and crafts programme on Cbeebies.