Rudolf the reindeer does have a red nose!
And he has a little angel (or fairy?) friend. Sadly, she seems to have lost the star from her wand.
I made these two many years ago (in the mid 90s, I think) from a pattern in Australian Handmade magazine. They’ve been appearing every Christmas since!
Well, it is Christmas coming up, so I couldn’t resist making one of these for Miss Stella’s first Christmas!
I think that they like one another, but alas, they are soon to be parted!
Many of you are aware that meet me at mikes is currently organising a collection of soft toys for the Mirabel Foundation. To quote from their website, “The Mirabel Foundation supports children affected by a parents substance abuse. We thought it might be nice to give these kids some softie support too. Make a softie and send it to us. We’ll pass it on to the Mirabel Foundation to distribute in December as part of their Christmas Toy Appeal.”
Here are my contributions to Softies for Mirabel:
Fuzzy green bunny, made using a pattern found somewhere on the internet (I’ll add the link when I find it).
Peanut the elephant (the pattern is from Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts).
Now I need to make a trip in to Mike’s to deliver them (he he he I get to go to Brunswick Street and do some browsing)!
I was in the right place at the right time last week, and manage to snap up this pirate monkey from Jodie. She is an incredibly talented crafter who is able to turn her hand to almost anything - and she is also very generous!
Miss Stella is very fond of Pirate Monkey already!
And now I can put “make a sock monkey” further down my crafting list!
In my unfinished projects box was this teddy, all cut out with face appliqued but requiring sewing and stuffing:
I’ve made quite a few of these as gifts over the years. They’re a quick and easy project and great for new babies, as the facial features are appliqued on and they’re quite small and flat. The pattern is from an old Australian Handmade magazine, circa 1992.
Miss Clare has one in blue gingham:
The new teddy will be for baby bump - and no, the fact that it is pink floral has no relationship to what gender it might be (since we don’t know either).
I’ve been away for a few days visiting my parents, and have come home to a veritable smorgasbord of patterns (yay for online shopping). Here they are:
The chocolate cake will be wonderful - it’s an entire kit, and goes nicely with my chenille cupcakes! It’s from Polka Dot Chenille (see her blog at Ric-Rac) and Jodie the lovely proprieter also sent me these fantastic vintage buttons:
Thanks so much Jodie!
Speaking of buttons, while I was away I managed to complete a couple of projects - I finally sewed a button on this bag:
and finally completed embroidering faces and adding pom-pom tails to these Wee Bunnies (pattern from the Wee Wonderfuls website).
I also added to the fabric stash:
These will become bags from the above patterns, or else yet more clothes for Miss Clare (which she doesn’t need, so maybe bags would be better) . . .
Mum had these corduroy squares in her stash (now they’re in mine!) which are all from off-cuts left from clothes she made for my brother and I when we were little (which makes them pretty old now).
My aunt found these pieces in her stash - I suspect that they’re possibly over 20 years old as well! Word is getting around the relatives and friends that I am very happy to take old fabrics, buttons and trims off their hands.
Now to do some sewing! But what to do first - so many options! I must add some links to this post - but must dash off to collect Miss Clare from kinder first.
