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My latest sewing project to make me feel like I am doing something other than just being a cow! It was done in fits and starts when someone was sleeping. Of course I um’d and ar’d about the letter colours but finally settled on what you see here. I really enjoyed it and am happy with the finished product.

Now I am contemplating another sewing project I have up my sleeve for Adele’s room. Let’s see how long it will take to finish that one as it involves a lot more letters!

Given that there is no other news to report, I have continued on the blind making expedition. This room only had one window to cover so all in all should have been less time.

It has become easier as the calculations and measuring make more sense, the sewing is getting slightly better, and the hardware to add for hanging is becoming more automatic. So you would think on that note that this one would be the best yet. Hmmmmm, probably the most troublesome yet in terms of a straight top and bottom. Somewhere along the line I managed to be out by about a cm or two on one side. So down it came for some handy hem work to straighten it up. All good now and safely restored in it’s rightful place. So this room is now called the Paua room. At least for now.

Now there is just one more bedroom to go and we will have a complete set…

Having felt the warm glow of success when we managed to get the first spare bedroom kitted out with blinds we couldn’t wait to get on and apply the same treatment to another of the rooms.

Excuse the photo. Backlit scenes really do suck to capture!

Slightly different design needed as we were dealing with already backed fabric of a slightly different size, but with only a few hours head scratching making sure we were getting things right they were constructed and installed. (Neither of our maths is what it used to be, and we are still yet to construct the perfect spreadsheet for this. But we will. Oh yes, we will…)

As for the actual sewing, not a bad effort but still room for improvement. Perhaps that will come with the next bedroom we decide to upgrade

So now when you come visit you’ll probably be installed in the “purple room”, rather than “bedroom 4”. And you might now feel a little bit more comfortable not having to strip in front of the “neighbours” (currently a small herd of cows), and also might have a bit more of a sleep-in.

But on the downside when you wake up in the middle of the night you won’t be able to stare at the stars and try to work out which of them make up the Southern Cross…

They are finished! This week’s project was to finish making some blinds for one of the rooms. After calculating the material required and sitting on it for a few days (not literally), then nervously cutting the material, having to re-learn how to use the sewing machine etc. , I finally pushed the procrastination to the side and started the technical side of the project.

It has to be said that it has been a very long time since I have sewn anything. The last thing would have been a soft toy about 4.5 years ago. This probably wasn’t helped by the sewing machine being in storage for about a year on its way home, and then it has been sitting in the cupboard here for the last 10 months. So first thing was working out how to thread a bobbin and then the machine. But we got there in the end! Thank you little sewing machine!

And the sewing of the blinds, well they went pretty well with not too many errors on the way (could be a little bit straighter here and there). Hardest part was matching the material where it needed to join in two places and this was not an easy task with quite a number of fish needing to be matched up. So for the next lot of blinds, think I might try already lined and non patterned. One would have thought it was best to start with this first. Nothing like doing things around the wrong way.

Once I got going it was quite fun. And then I had Mike pretty much do the end bit of attaching them to the wood and hanging them up (not to mention a few other bits of advice here and there throughout the project – mainly checking my maths).

It’s been a while since we had a new addition to the household, and as it was a rainy long weekend last weekend I sat Bec down in front of the sewing machine on the Monday, and lo and behold, a fox emerges!

Well, almost emerged. It possibly wasn’t the best of days to be doing some sewing. We were both a bit tired and cranky after the F1 day out, and so it didn’t quite get finished then. The last part was sewn up yesterday, hence this late report…

Only 2 more left still to do of the current stock!

Whlist we were away the web server fell over so that means a couple of not backed up entries were lost, and that included Maurice the camel and Dolly the dragon. I have no idea what we wrote about them in the old post. But here they are. I remember we had to redo the camels head as we sewed it on a bit wrong and it did not resemble the true form of a camel, however, after a bit of unpicking and an operation it was fixed!

Dolly the dragon followed shortly afterwards and I do not recall any sewing mishaps on that one. She’s the brightest colour of the toys so far, I think she’ll be heading to our neice in NZ (that’s if Mike will ever let me give any of them away).

Sewing lesson number 4….. well, I had planned to make something human to wear, but I just could not find a pattern or the material that I liked. So the hunt must go on.

So in adding to the toy collection I made a panda. Which I have to say is quite cute, and it’s a girl panda too. One observation if you make it, is to make sure you read the instructions clearly, it takes a bit to interpret them sometimes. Either that or we are just plain thick! Oh and make sure you line things up properly or you will have a crooked head…. and you’ll just have to unpick it and sew again! She’s looking pretty symmetrical to me though!

It must be the introduction of the rabbit to to the house, but the soft toys seem to be breeding! Today Fergus the Highland moo-cow appeared from nowhere!

He’s pretty cute too. George might have a bit of competition…

I guess one day soon some proper sewing might have to be done, but for now it’s actually quite a lot of fun to see all the pets appear. Though we’ve not really got the room for all of them,and we might need to find homes for them all soon. If we can bring ourselves to give them up. Though in the case of the bunny, that might be a bit difficult. It might scare people…

The sewing practice continued with another addition to the household menagerie appearing from a collection of bits of cloth (and an old pillow). Meet Bindy, a fat bunny of our own.

Not so big, but definitely fat! So fat, in fact, that we thought something had gone horribly wrong with our working out of which bits had to go where. Which was even harder than last time. And over the sounds of the sewing machine, towards the end, I heard this hysterical laughter coming from the sewing machine area and look over to find Bec with tears streaming down her face, saying ‘it looks like an owl’, between laughs. But now we think it looks a bit like a Pokemon from front on. But we’re pretty sure that we got it right and the picture they had on the front must have been a completely different pattern…

But I think she knows she’s a bit fat, and so has a bit of a grumpy, “why you looking at me”, indignant look on her face.

George is way cooler. But at least he’s got a friend to play with now….

Bec’s Christmas present last year was a sewing machine, apparently needed so that she doesn’t keep having to pay to get all her new trousers taken up.

To learn how to use it she decided that some soft toys would be a good introduction. The fool! And after a fair bit of head scratching by both of us to work out just how all the bits fit together we end up with George the puppy! Why George? I haven’t been told a reason if there is one… But it filled in Bec’s Sunday, and I have to say I was very impressed with her dedication and lack of cursing!

And I like George. He’s actually quite cute, and I’ve told her she can’t give him away! Oh and the sewing looks good too!