Making Mother’s Day

This year I decided to make gifts for both my mum and my boyfriend’s mum. I was running out of time when an unfortunate miracle happened (oxymoron…yay!): I got a migraine. I had a crippling Wednesday night and a drugged up and painful Thursday morning. Around lunch time Thursday though I was able to do some tentative sewing with lots of breaks. Don’t get me wrong, I honestly would have preferred to be at work for the day, migraine free and forced to rush the sewing job on Saturday, but nevertheless between my sickie and Saturday morning I got the pressies finished in a relaxed time frame

In future years when I get better at all this I want my handmade gifts to be made specifically for the giftee, tailored to their needs, tastes, decor etc. However as I am learning and also have yet to plan in advance for these things, this year was alot more basic and the colour scheme was definitely more based on my stash. Neither mum is partial to much pink in their choice of decor and household items, that’s for sure!

So for these gift packs I went with a simple tea theme:

• a mug rug
• a mug cozy
• and a tea wallet

These were all little nik naks I have bookmarked along the way from blog posts. I am SO pleased with how the bundles turned out, so lets take a look!

These are the tea wallets, as per a tutorial found on Handmade Therapy:

 

These were the simplest item to make, they came out the most perfect, and they were the biggest hit!

I was also pleased with my first attempt at fabric covered buttons and my choice to use white patterned fabric on the outside and feature fabric on the inside…it worked well!

These are the mug rugs, as per a tutorial found on Knitty Bitties:

They aren’t perfect (don’t look at the underside stitching please Mum’s!) but I really love how they turned out. They are like a longer coaster for side tables, coffee table, desk etc with plenty of room for a mug and a cookie. You can also lay it over your leg to rest your mug on on the couch, or use it to nurse hot soup in your hand

These are the mug cozies, and the mugs on rugs:

 

The mug cozy is also very simple, I slightly adapted this tutorial from Whipup, to make them better fit the curved mugs I bought. You can see in the first picture that the button is pulling the thin fabric of the flowered one abit. It has been fixed since this photo and looks much better, two goes later! I just had to reposition the button but the second try made the cozy too loose. Third time lucky! Again with the fabric covered buttons…I’m already in love with them

Finally, here is the bundles, complete with cards:

And of course, complete with cute gift bags:

I am SO pleased with these and they were received so well. The tea wallets especially were a real hit and I’ve been told I should be selling them, but for now I am just happy to make much loved gifts, for myself as well as everyone I can think of In fact a new mini project for me is to gather a list of all birthdays and special events for all the special people in my life. The key to these gifts being truly meaningful and made to fit the person will be planning ahead!

How did everyone else treat their Mum’s?

Sewing thoughts amid no-sew chaos.

I have hardly sewed at all in the last couple of weeks due to, well, chaos. But I have sewing related things to share and talk about so lets go with that. Bear with me though, I have a yuck headache that isn’t going anywhere

Ok so firstly, I finally finished a gift my mum asked for for my sister, TWO nap kits for her. My sister is epileptic and suffers developmental delay, anxiety and headaches. These are for the car and at home. She needs to block out light when she’s asleep so they will help alot. My sister loves punky type designs but I had a rough time finding “girly, punky skulls” at Spotlight that week even though I have seen them plenty of times. The light blue worked well in the end, however, and I hear she is pretty happy with them. I am going to make her an iPod cover and headphone pouch with the left overs…she asked for those weeks ago but I had to finish the nap kits first!

In supplies news I spent last Friday in Sydney, taking my mum to get her eyes tested. It was a long day for mum and she came home very tired, but it turns out her severe eyesight problems may be able to be managed by some exercises and glasses. Its a relief but also a bit confusing considering how bad they are, so we will see what happens. While she was getting tested I did manage to duck out and do some shopping. I actually ended up in Lincraft which is hardly unique to Sydney, but I got a few great little bargains. I was excited by the below charm pack of 170 x 5″ squares for about $10!

 

I love the autumny colours! This will be used for my first ever quilt, when I finally get the time to look at tutes on making quilts and then the courage to make one. Or I may just sign up for a course!

I also picked up a button hole chisel to make things easier when I brave buttons soon and some more of the ever running out bias tape. I also went all girl-nerd and bought myself a Wonder Woman comic from a nearby comic book store

Now for the sharing side of things!

For the lovely ladies out there who are secretly coveting a Singer 160, The Sewing Library is celebrating its first birthday and is giving one away!

This is super exciting and I am dying to win it. It’s so pretty! My machine is only 5 months old and I obviously don’t need a new one so I think I will only ever end up with this lovely if I win it

I am not sure if the comp is open to Australian residents only, but head on over to the TSL Blog and check it out. The Sewing Library is an amazing Facebook group and the blog, whilst new, is also really great.

Another thing I want to share relates closely to TSL also. Lovely Renee Webb is the founder of The Sewing Library. She also founded several other sub groups such as The Thrifty Library and The Kitchen Library. She’s a hard working mumma and has entered the CosMediTour May $30,000 Giveaway in hopes of winning the opportunity to have a breast reduction. Renee deserves this SO much! Big boobies hurt Also the reason she needs this done for free is coz her hubby is about to start a mature ages apprenticeship and money will be tight. Mature aged apprenticeships are SO important to industry. Swing by and vote for Renee! It won’t spam you

I think that’s about all I have to say today. I have loads of sewing I want to get done but life and headaches are getting in the way. Hopefully the weekend fares better and I will get some sewing done, as well as give some love to my Mum, my boy’s mum, and his Nan. Celebrating all mums!

A case of the wants…its always the wants…

I just love The Haby Goddess. Not only am I taking online lessons through Sew School  but I also wish I had a load of money to spend in the Store. Just check this wonderful stuff out!

The seam allowance guide. It magnetises to your scissors so that you can introduce a seam allowance as you cut your patterns out, rather than tracing one out beforehand. This is the product I want most since I bought Mundial scissors the other day. Hurry up pay day!

This Turn-it-all will save me frustration trying to use chopsticks to turn little straps.

Poke-A-Dots look like a great alternative to thimbles, which I have never used because they are plain uncomfortable.

And this Ultimate Embroidery Kit looks great. I have never embroidered and really want to learn how. Spotlight was devoid of any ‘starter kits’ that weren’t actually expensive basic kits for kids, so when I found this I was very excited.

Since I am well stocked on the necessary stuff at the moment, this lot is going to have to wait a little while At lease I have plenty to keep me amused in the meantime including this:

Australia Post sent me a Mother’s Day catalogue, and this was only $25! The cheapest online source for this book was at least $37 so I have been putting it off for ages. Very excited to take a look tonight, I’ll post a review soon

Motivation and a goals reset

I wasted yesterday.

Yesterday was Anzac Day in Australia (lest we forget). I have never been to a dawn service and last minute was going to try and attend this year and see my young cousin march as a cadet. I didn’t make it due to a sinus headache joining me in the morning. It passed with plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the day off work and this is what I achieved:

• lounged around complaining it was cold and waiting for Spotlight to open (in all fairness I WAS going to take time to use a guide I found to discover the cleaning and tension needs of my overlocker, but one of the first steps was to oil the thing and I didn’t have any oil).
• went to Spotlight (successful trip, more on that in a moment)
• came home and watched the Simpsons and burned then remade then ate popcorn instead of actually doing anything.
• joined boyfriend at the pub for Anzac Day drinks and mexican food
• came home and went to bed.

Such a waste! But I just couldn’t find motivation to do anything. It may have been the cold, it may have been exhaustion from all the indoor wall climbing I have been doing. I’m not sure exactly but I have decided I need to do a goals reset to help with this funk and I am actually quite excited about it because for once every aspect of my life has clearly defined goals I can make to improve myself and move forward In the next few days I will post specifically on this topic with an outline of my goals which I am hoping will make for motivation to do things instead of sitting around…yay!

Now, to the only successful part of the day:

A Spotlight run is always fun, but I am really pleased with this one. I picked up Mundial Serrasharp Dressmaker Shears using my 30% off voucher. $39.99 down to $28…yay! These beauties feel so good. I am going to pick up a seam allowance guide and am pretty sure that I will be in cutting heaven.

A note too, on Spotlight and Mundial. The ladies of The Sewing Library facebook page were full of praise for Mundial (the good heavy ones like in the pic, not the lighter models although they may be kinder to tired hands) and they said you had to ask at the counter in Spotlight because they were tucked away for safety as well as theft prevention. Well I did ask at the counter of the Newcastle store and the girl just stared at me blankly. She then asked another lady who also looked blank, but who then had a ‘lightbulb’ moment and said “OH! I think I found those during stocktake” and proceeded to pull the scissory goodness from the cupboard. So some staff didn’t actually know they were there, and if they did they thought they were excess stock! So if you are hunting for the heavy duty scissors that the Spotlight ladies use themselves to cut your fabric, ask at the counter and if they stare back blankly find a way to get them to look through their cupboards!

Anyway, the rest of my haul included polyfil to finish a project I started ages ago, cottons as I move to Gutterman for ALL my sewing needs, that machine oil I needed so bad, stretch needles for all the great stretch fabrics I thrifted the other day, and a really cute fat quarter of measuring tape inspired fabric. I am thinking of pairing it with some cute sewing themed buttons I bought ages ago to make myself a little handbag sized sewing kit

Finally, its Mother’s Day soon and I am going to make my mum and my boyfriend’s mum cute presents this year instead of buying things. But I need to get a move on….wish me luck!