Rainbow's Love Letters

In Australia Valentine's day is a heavily merchandised occasion focused purely on romantic love.

We don't tend to do the writing of valentines for friends and family.

Yet at the moment Rainbow is really interested in writing. She talks about sounds all the time. Then one day I asked her if she wanted me to show her how to write her name. She was excited and before I could do it wrote the first half of her name herself. It absolutely blew me away. I take the view that if they show interest you go along with them - match their interest. Motivation is the most important factor, you want to encourage that. There's plenty of time to learn their letters and it will come a lot quicker when they are developmentally ready.

But it gave me an idea for a lovely little valentine gift for my lovely little Rainbow. A writing folio.

Inside their is a space for envelopes and cards.

The folio is made of 2 squares of scrapbooking paper but could easily be adapted for any size or shape of paper. I used pieces Rainbow had painted.
The first paper is folded into quarters, creased then opened up.
The second paper is used to form the two pockets. They are triangles. The two shorter sides have flaps that tuck around. Here's how I cut mine.

Actually I made a mistake there should be a diagonal line.

Once the edges are folded under . The pockets then slide onto the bottom corners of the first sheet of paper. This is the view from behind. The pocket flaps are glued on.

Fold the top of the page down and glue. This will enclose the pocket flaps between the outside and the inside of the folio.

Then decorate. I've got for the title and hearts.

I kept the cards really simple so that Rainbow can decorate. They are simply folded pieces of card in pink, red and white. I used this very simple template to make the envelopes. I must admit I was very tempted to download some of the cute stationery that's available on-line.

Here is her first card.

Her message inside reads "Lauren loves ----(Rainbow). I love playing with Lauren." She says it really slowly and her zigzags emphasise the syllables. It's the cutest thing!

Nesting - fabric bowl tutorial

Don't get too comfortable Flitter - the nest is about to get very crowded. (Slight Cesarean accident involving unpicking a seam and accidentally cutting off the corner of the tail has delayed his sister's arrival.)

The nest was very easy and rewarding to make. I tossed around with a few ideas

• hexagon base with 5 sides - this is the bowls you find on google
• a round base with a rectangular side.
• a variation of a fabric ball

I went for the latter. Incidentally the bird pattern (care of little EGGie)is also a variation of the fabric ball.

The only vital point is the angle of the points otherwise it's very adjustable. If you extend the sides of the pointy ends you will get a bowl with a bigger base and if you extend the long parallel lines you'll get a taller bowl.
1. Cut this shape out 6 times along the grain so that it doesn't distort. In this case I did some fabric piecing first so ignored the whole grain issue).
2. Sew it up the same as for the fabric ball. Here's a tute. But basically you sew three pieces together. Then sew the other 3 pieces together. You then put one half sphere inside the other half so that the right sides are touching and sew it up leaving a small gap for turning quite close too one end. Pin carefully first so that you get all of your points touching. Pull one end through the hole so that you have a deflated ball.

3. Now if you're making a ball you'd stuff and sew it shut. For a nest / bowl collapse the top half of the ball into the lower half. I chose to have the opening on the outside. This gives your nest an inside and an outside. I then pinned where the points meet on the inside and the outside together and top stitched a small border around the rim to hold it together. You could do a few stitches where you pinned.

4. I then closed the gap I left for turning with kind of a whip stitch. I'm not really good at closing softies and the like.

The inside:
The outside: A home for Flitter:

I can see myself making a few more fabric bowls. Wouldn't they look pretty holding all of the girls' little things.

Oh and in case you missed it here's Moonshine's ball. She does play with it. It has quite a nice roll.

Bendy Santa riding in Cardboard Sleigh - Tutorial

As I mentioned yesterday this little Santa is based on a little Waldorf elf ornament. He comes together very easily and is very enjoyable to make. A lovely little hand sewing job for those quiet moments. He's also made of things that I have around the house.

You'll need:

• a little red and white felt (maybe some black if you want to add a belt or green if you'd like to make an elf)
• a pipe cleaner (ideally white, red or skin toned)
• embroidery thread (white, red)
• 1 x 1.2cm wooden bead
• 4 x 0.6cm wooden beads
• hot glue gun

How to:

1. Cut out the outfit from the red felt.

2. Cut thin strips of white felt. Use blanket stitch to attach to the ankles, wrists, base of the hat. I also attached a neckline around the neck slit.

3. Fold pipe cleaner to form the body. (oops must add a photo)
4. Slip outfit over Santa's neck. Wrap one leg around and sew together at inner leg.

5. Wrap other leg over so that it overlaps on Santa's bottom. Sew from the inner leg from the ankle all the way up to the waist at the back.

6. Fold outfit over at the back and sew together. Start at one wrist and sew across to the other wrist following the edge of the fabric.

7. Pop on his head, hands and feet. A little glue will make it more secure.

8. Sew the hat together.

9. Secure Santa's hat with another drop of hot glue.

Optional Extras

• draw or paint on a face
• add a loop of embroidery thread / fishing line to hang him from your tree.
• pose him as you will

If you'd like to make a sleigh

I glued the template onto a cereal box and cut out.

Rainbow decorated with textas and collage material.

I cut out the box, folded and secured with PVA.

Multiflora - a versatile floral brooch tutorial

I love this fabric. I wish I brought more of it. If I buy fabric without a purpose in mind, I normally buy 60 cm - enough to make a pair of pants or a dress for either girl. This is the fabric I just used to trim the top to match Rainbow's ice cream pants. It was initially used for a pair of pants (first for Rainbow but now worn by Moonshine) with matching applique top . That t-shirt like many of Rainbow's tops was too stained to hand down. Two contributing factors

• Rainbow's favourite food as a baby was bolognese and she ate an awful lot of it. Actually at one point that was practically all she would eat.
• Neither of my girls particularly like to be spoon fed. Moonshine wont even open her mouth unless she's holding the spoon (usually with her hand over the food). So from an early age Rainbow fed herself. It was a disgusting affair that no bib could contain. Thankfully most of that stage was over summer so at least there wasn't long sleeves to contend with and at dinner time I'd often take her shirt off before dinner and pop her straight in the bath afterwards. (The upside now Rainbow is a hearty and independent eater.)

The Idea

With this in mind I started making a fabric flower to sew on a t-shirt to go with Rainbow's ice-cream pants. I had made the petals and pinned them onto the shirt when I thought "What if I made it as a brooch?" A brooch also has the advantage of being able to be worn in many ways and by either girl (or me)
So here it is

worn on a t-shirt (with those pants) No smile today, Moonshine.

pinned on a skirt

pinned on a hair lacky
or on a head band or on a hat.
I'm also fancying the idea of a purple one for me to wear under the bust of a v-neck top I have but will have to raid Mum's scraps.

The Materials

• fabric scraps - I used three different fabrics for the orange flower and two for the pink flower but would easily work with one fabric. I used fabrics with similar colours but you could used any fabrics that look good together.
• co-ordinated thread a brooch pin (I used a safety pin as it was on hand)
• a matching button - plastic is fine but I covered my using this tutorial http://www.craftpudding.com/2007/06/covered-button-tutorial.html (This is really easy and fun! Trust me

The Process

I used a 1/8" seam allowance.

1. Cut out 5 large petals and 5 small petals out of one piece of fabric. Pin these to another piece of fabric right sides together. Don't cut out yet as the big fabric is easier to manoeuvre under the machine foot. 2. Sew around the curve of each petal starting and ending with a few back stitches. Don't close the bottom (straight) edge.

3. Cut out the petals and turn right side out. You could iron it. I simply rub the edges between my thumb and fore finger to help it sit nicely.

4. Machine baste (largest straight stitch + low thread tension) along the bottom (straight) edge.

5. Pull the bobbin thread tight. Then tie off the threads at each end.

6. Cut a small circle of fabric to form the brooch's back. Pin it right sides together to the other fabric. Sew it together, starting and ending with a few back stitches and leaving an opening.

7. Turn it right side out. Pin the opening closed and top stitch around the circle.

8. Pin the large petals onto the circle so they overlap and the gathered ends meet in the middle.
Sew in place. I used a zig zag stitch.
This is what it looks like from underneath.
9. Pin the small petals on top as for the big ones. For this flower I placed the little petals between the big ones. For the orange flower I placed them directly on top. I'm not sure whether one looks better than the other. Sew.

10. Sew a button on top to cover gathering. Sew a brooch pin underneath.

I'd love to see any you make.

Little Rainbow Fairies Tutorial

Welcome to my first tutorial. These little fairies were designed to live in the little papier mache mushroom that Rainbow girl and I made. You can just see it behind the S fairy and a slightly better photo on the winter nature table.

This tutorial is very simple and all hand sewn with matching thread. In addition to the felt you'll need a wooden bead, a seed bead and embroidery thread for hair.b They are easily adapted to any size and could be embellished. The yellow S fairy stands 5cm tall, while the little fairies are about 2 cm tall.

1. Draw up your templates. It's worth doing it on paper first so that you can see how it will fit together. Looking across the top row -

The first piece is the body. I traced around a shot glass for the little fairy and a cup for the big fairy. Cut the circle in half then cut out a wedge (about 15 degrees).

The next piece is the wings. I go for an upside down heart but you could think butterfly or dragonfly wing shape.

The third is the base. This is pretty forgiving. I just draw a rough circle around the rolled up paper body. The large yellow fairy is actually base less and commonly worn as a finger puppet.

The last piece is the hat. 2. Fold the body in half and sew using a back stitch. Cut of the tip of the top and bottom to allow ease of turning. Then turn it so the seam is on the inside.

3. Use a running stitch to attach the wings so the middle of the wings lies on the seam of the body.

4. Sew the base on using a couching stitch.

5. Push a needle from the base up through the fairies neck, through the wooden bead, through the seed bead and then back down to the base. You might need a touch of hot glue to stop the head wobbling. This step may be done before sewing the base on.

6. Sew the hat as for the body. I've also shown the hair cut into 3 lengths. Leave them bunched up.

7. Hot glue the hair on to the very top so it crosses in 3 lines. I did a bit of a hodge podge job of this fairy and glued my finger on in the process! You might need to add glue between the layers of hair.

8. Fill the hat with glue and pop it on. Then style the hair with some embroidery scissors and draw on a simple face with a permanent marker. Easy peasy!

Most importantly, here is Rainbow girl playing with the fairy. This is a picture of the fairy sitting on her jumping bean (trampoline) birthday cake complete with 10 candles, a raspberry on top and two fairy friends singing Happy Birthday.

And here's the girl herself joining in the singing.
I hope this tutorial is clear. It's my first attempt so I'm keen on getting some feedback and I would love to see your fairies. I hope to hear from you.