Sew 43 Things

For Christmas I’ve made my mum and my mother-in-law peg bags (both the same).

I know my mum really wants one as her old one should have been binned years ago and has been repaired again and again (now looks really shabby) and hinted (not very subtly) that she loved the one I made myself earlier this year.

Hope my mother-in-law likes hers.

A friend of mine is completely mad about Christmas so I made her a couple of personalised stockings – one fluffy and sparkly for her and a black one for her boyfriend.

She loved them.

If the initial hadn’t been wrong she may not have got the purple sparkly one ;)

And yes the purple fun fur on the A stocking is the same as the body of the snail in Thing 4

I try and use up bits and pieces of left over material for fun creative projects

I’ve made quite a few of these in the past – always with different colour combinations. They look a little odd – especially having eyes but for some strange reason they’re loved by the kids.

I always have a fun fur body and a felt spiral but the shell can be any other material.

I make sure that there are 3 contrasting colours and 3 contrasting material textures so that the little babies have a multi-sensory experience.

These snails are really loved by the kids and I get updates as to what various snails have done! The snails are in a few countries now as friends and family emigrate from the UK (before or after the birth of their children). One is in Sweden with Ratface.

I hemmed a few things and repaired others over the weekend. One skirt was far too long (dragging on the floor and I’m 6’ tall!) and I’d been wearing it knowing I would have to alter it but hadn’t decided whether to lift the hem or drop the waistband. Well after I trod on it and tore the hem the decision was made for me. It’s now a really good length.

I’ve a lovely friend who is both on 43T and more importantly there in real life who saw the photo of my peg bag that I was disappointed with and spent time improving it.

I haven’t had the time to do this myself, didn’t ask for it to be done and so was totally surprised to find it in my inbox.

What a great guy :)

Even though we’ve still got snow on the ground I’ve dug into my material stash and found some nice and summery material to make a peg bag to use with my washing line in the spring and summer. The material was really flimsy and a little stretchy so I had to line it with some spare curtain lining material I had in the material case to make it more sturdy and durable.

It took longer than I anticipated but I’m pleased with it. The deep purple coloured flowers on the fabric match the purple plastic coat hanger that I made it around. However, I don’t think that the photo does it justice.

Since we moved my old faithful Elna Supermatic been hiding away but no longer. It’s out and being used again.

I’m starting my count to 43 from now (have already done way more than this in the past).

Thing 1 – I’ve rehemmed the 6 curtains in the living room left behind by the vendor (there’s a semi-transparent curtain on top of a thicker curtain and 3 drops cover the large front window and the door) as they were all too long and dragging on the floor. They look really nice now they hang right. I found the strangest thing ever in the hem of one of the curtains – a pair of glasses! I can’t imagine how long she must have looked for them afterwards.

Thing 2 – I had so much material left after I rehemmed the curtains that I made a draft excluder with some excess fabric from the curtains. I had enough toy stuffing lying around the house that I don’t need to go and buy anything to make this which is great.