Patches and scrapes

My little Mil never crawled, instead went straight to walking.  This was great for us, as we could sit him in the middle of the room and as long as he couldn't reach any furniture then he wasn't going to go anywhere.  He was even pretty safe if left by a piece of furniture or wall as he used to shuffle his way around the edge of the room going in and out of the alcoves, until he got where he wanted.  We never had to have a stairgate at the bottom of the stairs as along with crawling, he didn't get the climbing thing until later either.

However, even with an early start with walking, he didn't take to running in the same way.  Now, he can run pretty well, but like any 3 (nearly 4) year old he still goes flying on a regular basis.  And flying boys means scraped knees, and holey trousers.

I have not been doing much (any) sewing recently.  What can I say?  I've been busy.  I am determined to do a bit more though, and before I can make real progress I have some small 'clearing the ground' jobs to do.  One of which was this patching job. 

I think they look super-cute and am dead chuffed to be back in the sewing saddle.  Of course, now they have patches on Mil will probably not go near these trousers with a barge pole.  He's very fussy about what he wears... but that will remain to be seen... I'll keep you posted.

I love my ironing board

So, ages and ages ago I picked up an old wooden ironing board from a car boot sale for £2. Yes! A whole two pounds. Up until this point I was using a duvet cover laid out on my cutting table.

The ironing board was grubby and with rusty bits and the cover, if you could call it that, was pinned on very badly with multi-coloured drawing pins. Also, when you ironed it gave off a nasty whiff... Nice. I did take some before pictures, but it was so long ago that I cannot find them.

It took me ages and ages to recover it, and I have been doing it in stages, but it is complete. I stripped it down and beeswaxed the wood, tacked on some new luscious thick felt, and have just recently added some jolly red canvas.


Ta-da! One brand new spanking delicious ironing board.


I love it.

Edited to ad: Can I just make it clear that I only iron for sewing purposes, oh, and weddings and interviews. I didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea about me and ironing.

Oooooh, and I have been very slack. A few weeks ago, Petit Filoux awarded me my very first blogging award. A Sunshine Award. It is 'awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the blog world'... do you hear that? Can you imagine!

Well, I am dead chuffed, thank you Petit Filoux, and sorry for being so slow with my response... real life has been getting in the way of this one.

I am going to be a bit naughty and not pass it on, but please do all have a look over on the right there and take a look at a few of the very many blogs that I follow. And go and check out Petit Filoux... that girl is a whirlwind of creativity.

And, bring on the sunshine.

Baby bunting safe and dry

B's brother and his wife were here visiting at the weekend. They are due to have their first baby in May, and we spent some time going through M's old baby kit which has just been returned to us from my brother. Don't you love the way these things get passed around between family? Although it seems they are coming thick and fast at the moment, we have been very good and staggered them perfectly for this!


The moses basket that M spent his first months in was second hand when we bought it - 99p on eBay, and it has seen two more babies since, and it shows. Look at that handle! Not sure you would want to carry a football up the stairs in that, let alone your newborn!


So on Monday, in between outings in the weather, I set to making some new handles. I am very pleased with the end result. A much finer set of handles than the basket was made new with, and I love a mending project that breathes fresh life into something.

Here is the bottom view of one of the handles... don't you love the pattern the stitching has made? And it is strong... that is double threaded nylbond, stitched twice! Oooer!

The title of this post references Each Peach Pear Plum, a classic picture book which I remember enjoying in my childhood. It is a new one in our collection and M is bananas for it right now.

A bag for a chair

We have a travel high chair on loan to us from my brother. It has been used a lot, going with us whenever we go away. It gets clamped to the dining table wherever we are and M sort of hangs in it... brilliant! M is just about getting too big for it now and I am due to pass it back to my brother for their next one. However, the bag that it came in has seen better days and definitely needs to go in the bin. It was horrible to begin with but now it is split and the fastenings have had it, so it is useless as well as ugly, please see below:


So, ta da! I have whipped up a new bag for it. Using the end of some calico and handles out of some liberated cushion covers.

I made a little knife and fork patch to practise my hand stitching too. I am pretty pleased!