Felt lavender toys

The bag of felt monsters that I made for one of my baby nephews for Christmas was a hit.  He loved taking them all out of the bag, and then posting them back in.  He could happily squish and chew them too.  Since then, I've been thinking about making something similar for my Etsy shop, but with some lavender stuffing.  Everybody who saw the monsters asked if they were filled with lavender, and each time I explained that they weren't, I thought to myself what a good idea.

So after much thinking and a few experiments, I made these felt lavender toys at the weekend.

Their bodies are filled with toy stuffing, and the fabric circles on their tummies are filled with lavender.  The children are enchanted with them, but I'm not so sure.

I find their faces a little creepy - embroidered faces are difficult to get exactly the way I had imagined. I'd planned to leave the edge of the fabric circle raw and unfinished, but when I finished them, I thought it looked a bit messy.

This purple one had a different mouth to the other two.  I prefer this big smiley mouth, but the children said it looked wrong.

The combination of toy stuffing and lavender stuffing is good though.  They smell strong, because the fabric containing the lavender is just thin cotton; but they are still soft and squishy to hold.  C and O love them, and have put them in bed, next to their pillows.  That's a pretty good recommendation.

I think I'm nearly there - perhaps just a few more experiments with embroidered faces are required.

Splash of colour - December

We've finally caught up with the rest of the country and had some snow here.  But not very much at all - just enough to dust the pavements, sprinkle the roads and leave us with unexpected patches of ice.

Walking with the children to school this morning I thought how there had been just enough snow to suck the colour away from the world, and leave everything with an air of monochrome.

Watching where I walked and stepping carefully along the icy pavements, I found the pattern of everyone else's footprints rather hypnotic after a while.

But even with the sun not-quite-properly risen, all the colour had not completely vanished.  There were still C's neon yellow running gloves - paler than usual under a snowy crust, but still bright.

And O's mad, pink, puffy coat and pink wellies.

Looking warily sideways, as her brother saw the opportunity to approach with two (neon yellow) fistfuls of snow.

And at home there are more vibrant splashes of colour.  I've been sewing Christmas presents for my family all week, and my absolute favourite thing I've made, is this bag of felt monsters for one of my small nephews.

I didn't use a pattern for any of this, just rummaged around on Flickr for some felt monster inspiration and dived right in.  There are so many good felt monsters out there!  I particularly love this sweet one and these small felt monster wallets.  The felt I've used is pure wool felt from Myriad, and it is by far the nicest felt I have ever bought or worked with.  So soft and thick, and doesn't set my teeth on edge in the way that squeaky acrylic-blend felt does.

The monster case is a simple, lined, zipped bag, made with my very last piece of Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric.  You can still find this fabric online if you rummage around.  The spotty end pages of the book were always my favourite when I was small.

You can see other people's splashes of colour in the Flickr group here.  I'm off to get warm with a cup of rose-scented tea, and finish off my pile of hand-sewing.

Speedy sewing

My sewing these days is all about the quick projects that I can fit in between knitting sessions. I am on a mission with these socks!

In John Lewis a couple of weeks ago, I found a good simple pattern for trousers for C. The pattern is from Simplicity 3669 for children's pyjamas.

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I love this kind of easy, elasticated trousers. In our house we call them 'house trousers' and wear them as a halfway compromise between pyjamas and getting dressed. Sunday mornigns and camping trips in particular, are all about house trousers. What do you call them? I rather like the American phrase lounge pants - but pants are definitely underwear in this house.

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There are a few rules for house trousers:

• the fabric should be loud and jazzy
• the waist should be at least partly elasticated
• everybody needs several pairs

Both Boden and the White Company do lovely house trousers, but goodness the price! And I also notice, doing these links, that The White Company have got a fraction of the stock they had a month ago.

Anyhoo, I decided this was ridiculous and that I needed to make house trousers myself, so I bought a couple of metres of Amy Butler's Daisy Chain cotton and got stuck in. The trousers were incredibly quick - about an hour and a half from start to finish - and that included tracing the pattern onto greaseproof paper first because I want to make these in several sizes. It also included zigzagging the seam allowance, which wasn't in the instructions but which I think gives a sturdier and more professional finish.

I love them, C loves them, and a pair for O - perhaps with extra ribbon around the ankles - is in the pipeline.

The trousers were so quick that yesterday evening I also made myself a keyring to replace the pretty Cath Kidston one I lost in the Great Key Disaster of last week. The felt is pure wool felt and comes from Myriad Toys - a wonderful new discovery. A quick bit of embroidery and a rummage through the button jar and ribbon box, and I was done. There are SO going to be some more of these made as presents this year.

Back to the socks....