Babushka Doll Peg Bag

This was my Christmas present to my mum. I was inspired by this pin, which I thought was really cute but although I thought my mum would like it, I didn't think she'd LOVE it and I couldn't help but think that I could probably make one shaped like a Russian Doll, and my mum LOVES Russian Dolls, so I had to try! (Sorry for the lack of photos, I didn't start taking them until I had all the pieces ready)

Materials
Main fabric
Lining fabric
Filler fabric
Wire coat hanger
Felt (face colour and hair colour)
Embroidery thread (for face details - I used black and red)
Paper for making the pattern (I used newspaper)

To make the pattern I just drew round a cereal bowl for the head and then drew the body freehand. When I cut it out I folded it in half length-ways to make sure it was symmetrical. Now that I have finished it, I think it would actually be better bigger. It turned out smaller than I'd intended even though I put in generous seam allowances so I would suggest making it even bigger (my pattern measured about 39cm by 27cm).

From the pattern I cut out 2 pieces of the main fabric, 2 pieces of lining fabric and 2 pieces of another stiff fabric I had for strengthening (you could use any spare fabric or interfacing or batting for this, it's just to give it a bit more bulk and help it to hold it's shape when it is hung).

I then cut the top off my pattern in a kind of extended 'w' shape to make the pattern for the headscarf (see photo below) and cut one of these from another fabric. I hemmed the bottom of this (the 'w' shaped bit) as this would not be sewn to the main piece.

I cut a circle from some skin coloured felt, sewed on some felt hair and embroidered a face on it. After testing out a few faces on paper I decided on a very simple closed eyes and a small smiling mouth. Anything more looked a bit silly but you might be able to pull it off if you're better at drawing and embroidering than me!

Once the face was done, I sewed it onto my scarf fabric (I centered the face at this point but it did end up a bit wonky by the end so you could leave the face until the very end and sew it on there to make sure it is in the right place (or you could be better than me at sewing even hems...).

I pinned pieces for the front of the bag together (lining fabric, then filler fabric, then main fabric then scarf) and cut the slot for the pegs. I then hemmed this. You can add binding but I decided I liked mine as it was and with the stripy fabric I thought binding wouldn't look good.

Next, I layered up the back of the bag (lining, filler and main fabric) and sewed together the front and the back, right sides facing. Start and end at the top of the head and leave a small opening for the hanger to go through. I then used pinking shears to trim the hem to stop it fraying. Turn the bag right way out through the peg slot.

Finally, cut a wire hanger and bend it to shape so that it will go round the edge of the head and shoulders of your bag inside, then just slip it inside through the peg slot and you have a Babushka Peg Bag!

Also, my mum did LOVE it!

My Neice's Very Own Quiet Book

The Quiet Book I made for my niece’s Christmas present was my major Christmas project. I started it in October and only finished it just before Christmas. It took many many hours of work and also cost quite a bit in materials (despite using lots of fabric I already had). But it was worth it I think. I am very proud of it (despite it being far from perfect) and she is enjoying a lot it and hopefully will do for years to come (I plan to update the pages as she gets older).

So, first of all, here is my Quiet Book.

Playdough shape matching page

There is one of each shape in each colour

Face making page

There are about 3 different eyes, noses and mouths, 

she can make happy, sad and angry faces to help with

her emotional understanding

Aliens Love Underpants page

The aliens are hiding behind bushes and the pants can

be taken off the washing line and stuck on any alien

This is just a simple clasps page so she can play

with different fastenings

Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the water spout

Down came the rain and washed the spider out

Out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain

Gruffalo page

I wrote The Gruffalo words into a little hand-made 

bookletand she can act it out with the finger puppets

I spoke to my sister recently and apparently Bryony's favourite pages are the Aliens one (she loves to lift the flaps and say 'Peepo!' ) and the Gruffalo one. She is still learning about sticking the pieces on and taking them off (although apparently she can already do the aliens' pants).

How I Made It

There are plenty of websites and blogs that can give you far better instructions than I can on making a quiet book. These are the ones that I used.

• How To Make a Quiet Book

• Imagine Our Life

• Serving Pink Lemonade

• And this is where I copied the Gruffalo finger puppets from

I got ideas on page content and information about the technical bits of making the book but in the end I designed my own pages (some more influenced by my research than others) as that was easier to do than trying to find specific materials and also I could tailor them to my niece’s interests. I asked my sister about what she liked before I started (she didn't know what I was making) and she told me she liked Aliens Love Underpants, and Incy Wincy Spider book she had, mirrors and faces, playdough and some other stuff I couldn't fit into the book. It's me who loves The Gruffalo but I'm sure she will too!

Here’s the specifics about my book if you’re interested (everything else can be found on the pages linked above):

• The pages have 3 eyelets each and they attach to the cover using book rings (found at Staples) which means that the pages are removable and can be replaced as she grows out of them.

• The cover is made of denim so hopefully will be fairly durable.

• I used Velcro for most of the removable pieces as it was easy to sew on and should be easy for her to stick on and pull off. I’ve seen some that used poppers but  I thought they would be harder for her little fingers and also more expensive to buy a load of than just getting a strip of Velcro, especially as I only had to use tiny pieces of Velcro.

• I used some old fabric I found in my parents attic for the pages, it’s quite stiff and kind of canvassy but unfortunately I don’t actually know what it is! I didn’t need anything to strengthen this, two pieces sewed back to back and the fabric making up the pictures on the front made stiff enough pages.

• The mini pegs on the Aliens Love Underpants page were from Amazon but I wouldn’t recommend them, I think I will need to replace them with Velcro as they were already falling apart over Christmas. I’m not sure if they were just bad quality pegs or if it’s because they are so small.

DIY Christmas Present Rundown

So, now Christmas is well and truly over (although our tree is still up as I haven't got round to taking it down, and the Christmas chocolates are still tempting me every evening!) I thought it was time to write a little overview of the 12 homemade Christmas presents I gave this year (or I guess it's last year now...). I will be dedicating whole posts to a lot of them hopefully over the next few weeks but I thought I'd do a quick overview and post some photos first.

Here's they are:

1. 3 guitar pick keyring holders (inspired by this pin on Pinterest, 1 not shown as it was for my boyfriend and he was around when I photographed these!)
2. Kindle Paperwhite case (designed by me)
3. Headphone case (following these instructions)
4. Travel wallet (loosely following this tutorial)
5. Leicester City Football Club themed baby booties and hat (the booties are my favourite tried and tested pattern and the hat is a new pattern I found, which is really quick and easy, see below for pic)
6. Christmas hair clips (inspired by this post)
7. Knitted headband/ear warmers (it's just a strip of knitting so no pattern!)
8. Tote bag insert (inspired by this)
9. Russian Doll Peg Bag (my own design)
10. And finally, my pride and joy, a Quiet Book for my niece (there were many websites and blogs I used to help me with this but I will write a whole post on it instead of putting it here)

Here are some more individual pics:

I'll be doing more detailed posts on the Quiet Book and the peg bag, the others are either fairly self-explanatory or the links I've posted are easy to follow.

Easy Earl Grey Bath Salts

This is a really simple, cheap and quick DIY and it makes a great gift!

Ingredients:
Course Sea Salt
Epsom Salts (I found them at Boots, they don't seem to be sold many places just as plain Epsom Salts)
Earl Grey Tea Leaves (or any other scent you want to add - I think you can use oils but I haven't tried it)
Bicarbonate of Soda

If you want to give it as a gift, you will also need a nice jar/tin and some pretty paper to decorate it along with glue.

Use twice as much sea salt as epsom salts, add in about 1/3 as much of bicarb of soda (as epsom salts). (So that's 6 parts sea salt, 3 parts epsom salts and 1 part bicarb.) Mix it all together and add in enough tea leaves to give it a nice scent (about half the amount of epsom salts was about right for me). And that's it, easy!

To make the jars, I used some plastic ones that had once held scented playdough. I just washed off the old labels and made new ones from some pretty paper I have. Then I glued them on using glue mixed with about the same amount of water and covered it with a couple more coats of the glue mix once it was dry.

I gave these ones to my boyfriends mum and sister for their birthdays, and I gave some as Christmas presents last year. They are a super quick way to make a cheap gift.

Jewellery Holder DIY

My latest project was to turn an old wooden cutlery tray into a jewellery holder for all my necklaced and bracelets.

It was pretty simple and quick (except for waiting for the coats of paint to dry) but I did it over a few days. I'm sure you can work it out for yourself but here are the steps in case you want some tips!

1. Sand down the wood a little so the paint will stick better.

2. Spray paint. I am terrible at spray painting, this is only the second time I've attempted it and I got a few drips etc. Basically, the trick is to keep moving and do super thin coats, but I haven't quite mastered it yet!

3. Screw in little hooks. I found these at a local shop that sells household/DIY stuff. It was about £1 for a pack with loads more than I needed so I've got some left over I could use for another project.

4. Hang all your jewellery on it! (Sorry for the poor quality picture, I haven't got the lighting sorted in my new flat yet!)

I was intending to hang it on the wall but I've just moved into a rented flat so that may not be possible any more. It looks fine leant against a wall though. Now all I need to do is sort through my jewellery as I hardly ever wear most of this!

DIY Abstract Flower Nail

We're coming to the end of summer so I thought I'd do one last summery nail tutorial before autumn arrives. This is surprisingly easy and looks really effective. You can substitute the colours for any others that you have but I really like the gold as the background as I think it adds a bit of glamour to the nail. 

You will need...

* Base coat and top coat

* A gold colour for the base (I used one from Primark that came in a Caviar nail kit)

* A selection of 3 colours for the flower (I used Beauty UK in Lilac Girl, No 7 Stay Perfect in Fox Glove and Natural Collection in Antique Coral)

* Any green colour for the stalk (I used MUA in Shade 5)

* Dotting tools (I have these ones and they are really great!) You could also use a cocktail stick

1. Apply your base coat and then two coats of your gold colour to create the background.

2. Take a largish dotting tool and dip it in the first colour. Then paint on a semi circle that looks something like this. The shapes should look a little like paisleys.

3. Using the same tool dip it in your second colour and paint a dot in the middle of the paisley shape.

4. Using a slightly smaller tool, paint a dot of your third colour in the centre of the other two colours. If you do this before the other colours have dried completely (so they are still a little tacky) the dot creates a small indent as well which creates a nice effect.

5. Take a medium sized tool and dip it in the green. Then sweep the colour round the flower and away to create the leaf/stalk shape.

6. Leave to dry completely before adding your top coat.