Old sheets redux

Laundry bag for the back of the bathroom or bedroom door (both our baskets are pitifully small for the amount of dirty clothes that can accumulate during a week in the life of a Crafter, Miniaturist and Very Small Boy). Conveniently the right colour scheme to go with either our towels OR our bedclothes!

Bath bombs

My son adores LUSH's bath ballistics and gleefully drops the "fizzies" into his bath to watch them bubble. The trouble is, they're terribly expensive, even when broken in half, as he expects one every night!

So a quick whip around google informed me that it was possible to make your own with just a few 'easily sourced' *coughcough* ingredients. I had everything to hand except citric acid and molds. I ended up using muffin trays as molds, but the citric acid gave me pause.
Did you know pool shops sell it in several kilo bags to clean stains off the bottoms of swimming pools? Doesn't sound like something I'd want in my bath-tub with me!
I eventually found food-grade citric acid in one of the local supermarkets, along with the other baking supplies.

In the end, my bath fizzies are not as pretty as LUSH's, but that doesn't seem to bother us any; they still fizz, smell good and leave our skin soft and smooth. AND they cost only a fraction of the professional ones!


If you'd like to make your own, here are some of the sites/recipes I used:
http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/bathbombs/
http://ourhouse.ninemsn.com.au/ourhouse/factsheets/db/craft/05/523.asp
http://www.teachsoap.com/bombs.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Bath-Bombs/

Just Pants

The toddler has had a growth spurt and the pants that fit my miniature manling last winter are now just as tight round the waist, but sit ridiculously high on his ankles and shins. So has begun the great pants-making effort of Winter '10.

Red pants with contrast fabric at cuff and on/in the side pockets of green with daisies:



Same but in blue, with blue, red and yellow birds and a back pocket too:



Up close the red pair looks homemade, the blue handmade with an unfortunate seam. I'm still wokring on streamlining this pattern/sewing process. Because my goodness, aren't these cute?

O hai thur!

Hah.
I do believe I jinxed myself with my new Years' resolutions, back there.
Resolve to post once a week, stop posting for two months.
Resolve to join in a Project A month checklist, feel totally overwhelmed by my list of Things To Do and sit and stare at the sewing machine, quivering slightly, for some weeks.

There has been SOME crafting and sewing going on lately, at least. My Attack of life is done with, for now. I just need to post my stuff!

Old Sheets

I love old sheets. Old sheets are a lot like old friends.

Old sheets are comfortable, familiar. They're worn in and softened in just the right places. They even smell right. Not always good, but never strange.
They have a history - especially when they're yours. Sometimes they have marks and scars as a testament to that history. Sometimes they'll be worn so thin that you could break them like that with a twist of your pinky finger. Sometimes they're still going strong, years and years later.

So I suppose it's not surprising that I love to work with old sheets, refashioning them for new uses. They make wonderful house or pyjama pants - soft and light, and often 100% cotton. They're great for cushion and pillow covers - especially when they're worn thin in the middle, you can piece the edges of different sheets together. Being a simple woven fabric they're usually wonderfully easy to work with, already stretched as much as they will, not overly prone to creasing. And, when there's nothing else for it, they make marvellous cleaning cloths, soft and light, easy to wash and re-use again.

Belated Christmas Sewing

This week I'm racing to finish my first ever batch of bunting - a project I've been swearing I'll work out 'soon' for many months - for a friends' little boy. His whole room is done in primary colours, so the bunting will be too, to match. I bought myself some pinking shears (so I don't have to sew the edges of my flags) and I'm so pleased at finding this Cars themed ribbon, to go with his playmat and bed sheets.
He and his Mum will be moving soon, so I don't think I'll get to see it strung up, but hopefully when they're re-settled I'll be able to ask for a picture.

New Year again!

I managed to keep two of my four crafty resolutions, last year. Considering most people seem to get waylaid about halfway through, I think a fifty percent success rate is really quite good, especially as my final resolution was kind of started in a small way (but got held up for want of decent "making space"- a problem now solved by Nana's gift of a small person table and chairs). So I'm going to do some more Crafty Resolutions, for 2010:

• More of the same; more attention to detail and time taken with finishes. I don't think I'll ever stop being a Hack & Slash Seamster, but just a little more given to making my seams neat and strong has given me BIG results. I like that!
  
• Try to achieve at least a third of this year's gifts for birthdays and Christmas festivities being hand-made. Preferably by me, but by other Real People will do, in a pinch. (And don't waste time on hand-made gifts for those who will not appreciate them, such as my younger brother or sister. It will just give me heart-ache.)
  
• Post here at the very least once per week. And something other than Hot & Not or a similar meme.
  
• Do at least one Toy Society drop per month!
  
  I don't think this is a huge goal to strive for, given that I did four Mirabel softies in just over a month. This goal will also let me fiddle about with softie making, which is great fun, requires only a shortish attention span, and is something I'd like to get better at.
  
• Finally, take part in the 12 month sewing challenge over at My Favourite.