Car Park Lotto

Car Park Lotto was a fun little game we made up to practice number recognition and adding up. 

I  drew six car park spaces on a sheet of paper and asked the children to pick numbers between two and six. (For children who are not confident with recognising numbers yet  add dots to help them along) 

We then rolled two dice and the children added the numbers together. If they had that number in their car park they get to park a car in that bay.

First person to fill their car park is the winner :)

Alternatively use numbered cards. You could shuffle the cards and call out the numbers or place them face down in a pile and let the players take turns to pick a number

I love you to pieces

We made some lovely little homemade gifts for my children to give to their grandparents. They painted jigsaw pieces red and we stuck them on a canvas we had painted blue with the phrases 'I love you to pieces' :)

Homemade Christmas decorations

I spent the evening hand stitching some Christmas decorations :3

my first attempt at making curtains :)

I needed some curtains for my bedroom but did't want plain boring ones that were pretty much the only style I could afford with a tight budget so I decided to have a go making some myself. I bought a double duvet for £9.99 and used the lining of my old pair. I didn't take photos or make a tutorial with it being my first attempt but I will quickly explain how I did it.

It was really pretty simple. I removed the back panel from the duvet cover and used the top for my curtains.
I cut the duvet in half and laid it down good side facing up. I then laid the lining on top wrong side up (so that the curtains are inside out). I then stitched down  both parallel sides.

Using the pillow case I made 12 tabs (6 for each curtain panel. by cutting strips 3" x 9" ironed a hem into both parallel sides. I then folded the strip in half and pressed them with the iron.

I then pinned the tabs evenly across the top of the curtain panel. The majority of the tab should be between the two pieces of material with just a little bit of the ends poking out the top. (so the crease where the material is folded is in the inside and the two lose ends are poking out slightly)  I then stitched the top together securing the tabs in place. Trim the bits of tab that is still poking so that they are in line with the hem of the fabric.

At this point the curtains are inside out so I pulled them the right way round. I did not join the bottom of the lining to the bottom of the curtain fabric. I placed a hem in both the lining and the curtain fabric separately. I quickly ran over them with the iron before hanging.

I made some tie backs with jute twine and some left over material to make fabric flowers. I used the same technique as I would when making tissue flowers. This was a bit of long shot I didn't expect them to turn out but it worked and they look fab.

I also made a hanging heart to match :)

Dahlicious dress up day

To celebrate Roald Dahl day we decided to dress up as the peach from James and the Giant peach,a delightful story in which my daughter absolutely adores. I wanted to make it a bit more girly than the usual round peach over the head costumes I had seen so we decided on making a tutu and attaching bugs.

'James's little face was glowing with excitement, his eyes were as big and bright as two stars. He could see the peach swelling larger and larger as clearly as if it were a balloon being blown up'

I made a simple tutu using peach material 2 x the size of her waist measurement. I made a pocket along the top to thread a piece of elastic the size of her waist when streched and then stitched the ends together. I did not bother hemming the bottom because we went for a ragedy look. We then used what material was left over and ripped it up and randomly pinned them all over the skirt. I also had some pale pink shimmery net material left over so we added a few pieces of it to add a bit of sparkle. 

'Whoever they meet first, be it bug, insect, animal, or tree, that will be the one who gets the full power of their magic! So hold the bag tight! Don't tear the paper! Off you go! Hurry up! Don't wait! Now's the time! Hurry'

We then made James and the bugs using felt, googly eyes, and fuzzy sticks. We glued them onto scrap pieces of material so they would be easier to sew onto the skirt. I cut all the pieces out and Macey arranged and glued them onto the material and drew on little mouths. I thought it was nice to do the bugs this way so she had involvement in making the costume too. 

'

'So what would you call it if you saw a grasshopper as large as a dog? As large as a large dog? You could hardly call that an insect, could you?'

"Now comes, the Centipede declared, 'the burden of my speech:

These foods are rare beyond compare - some are right out of reach;

But there's no doubt I'd go without

A million plates of each

For one small mite,

One tiny bite,

Of this FANTASTIC PEACH' 

To match the tutu we used a plain green tshirt and glued black strips of material on the back in the shape of skyscrapers to represent New York. I then cut out letter using different coloured felt and used them to write James and the Giant Peach on the front and stuck a heart and NY on the back above the skyscrapers. 

'James Henry trotter, who once if you remember had been the saddest and loneliest 

little boy that you could find, now had all the friends and playmates in the world'

A dress out of this world!

I know this isn't really children related but I love my doctor Who dress and feel compelled to share.  :)

Ta Da

 I really love the rockabilly swing dress kind of style and when I found this Doctor Who material I was determined to make it into my very first homemade dress.

There is a really good pattern for beginners on BurdaStyle but I decided to make my own pattern. My favourite dress is my cherry print dress which has a perfect comftable fit so I used this as a guide.

To make a pattern I traced the shapes of each section on the bodice of my dress and added an extra cm for seams. I left out the zip at the front and the back of the dress. Instead I made a elasticated back.
I am a complete novice and have only just taught myself how to use the sewing machine so I made a mock version first using a old duvet cover. Once this was right I drew my pattern on the lining and the Doctor Who material, cut each panel and stitched them together.

front and side panels

panels stitched together

I forgot to take pictures during this project so I dont have any pictures of the back panel. The back panel was simply a rectangular panel with 4 pieces of elastic the length of the material when  fully stretched threaded into pockets sewn along the material. To finish the bodice I used black material to trim the top.

I then attached the skirt. I made this a full circle skirt and attached a frill I made with black material and lace

Tshirt upcycle - cute hanging heart

This summer I made the mistake of buying a suncream which stains fabric. If I had read the bottle I would of seen the big warning sign informing me of this. Unfortunatley a few things got ruined including Maceys favourite princess t shirt. She was really upset so I decided to upcylcle it and make her a cute hanging heart for her bedroom.

I used the heart print on her tee for the front  and  pink material and pink net to make the  back of the heart. 

I stuffed the heart with cushion filling and used gingham ribbon to hang.