BossyOz

Hair scrunchies With girls around, it seems that one can never have too many hair scrunchies! They are super easy to make with jelly roll strips and some elastics! ( Instructions on UK Quilters United ) Odds & sods bags Perfect little bag for storing some nappies, wet wipes, spare set of clothes and a small cuddly toy. You can make these fully reversible bags with two Fat Quarters. ( Instructions on UK Quilters United ) Art work display To avoid making wholes in the walls in our rental space, I made this art work display by using some hand printed charm squares. Once folded in half and sewn together, I filled them with dried yellow peas. ( Instructions on UK Quilters United )

With the colder season upon us in the northern hemisphere, I have lowered the price for the footmuff pattern and tutorial to just £2. The instructions include a generic size to make, as well as take you through how to make one that fits exactly to the size of your own buggy / pushchair / stroller. Make sure you fill in your email address correctly. Once your payment has been approved, a link will be displayed so you can download the PDF immediately. You'll also receive an email confirming your order (please check spam/junk). Useful links My  original blog post  with reviews (2011):  http://www.bossyoz.com/2011/08/tutorial-cosytoe-footmuff-bunting-bag.html Updated blog post  (2018)  http://www.bossyoz.com/2018/06/refresh-of-footmuff-pattern.html Link to  shop  location:  https://ukqu.co.uk/shop/patterns-4/footmuff-for-pushchair-pdf-downloadable-pattern-and-tutorial/ Other names: cosytoe, footmuff, bunting bag, pushchair bag

If you have been really bored, you may have found out that a typical football consists of 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons. I say ‘typical’ football, as the older ones were made up of rectangular-ish shapes and the latest one used for the World Cup is actually made up of six cleverly interlinked panels. But this make is for a ball consisting of hexagons and pentagons. Lots of left-over hexagons? I believe there are many like me, who have lots of basted hexagons not yet used in a project. Find 20 of them, measure the side and create 12 pentagons to match. Add toy stuffing and you can make a football. For this particular ball, the recipient decided she wanted to be able to hang it on her bag; hence we added a ribbon when sewing the shapes together. I found that you can turn and stuff the football through just one of the pentagons (1 inch sides). Free pattern Head over to my shop to download the free template and brief instructions. The PDF file includes the full set o...

My sister bought a new sofa and the parents said it was purple / plum. Not knowing the exact colour I opted for a scrappy cushion cover in various purple and lilac colours. As I had some leftover, I also made three coasters.  By reusing the hardware from lanyards at work (we rebranded and everyone got new lanyards), I made around 50 new lanyards, some of which were donated to charity. DD1 made me proud whilst designing and sewing this LOVE-ly quilt for her little sister's dollies. One of my work colleagues emigrated to the United States and couldn't bring all her fabrics with her.... This is one of the bags I made with the fabrics I got from her. Thanks Jo ! As DD2 already has a large-ish quilt, it was time to make one for DD1. Her favourite colour is yellow, as may may have guessed. It still needs to be quilted, but at least the top is pieced! 

It didn't take long until the original flimsy seat for the doll's pushchair had been broken. Someone I know very well beat me to repairing it and did it "bloke style"......  silver tape and staples! Taking the original seat apart to use as a pattern would have been super easy, so I decided to make a new cover rather than try to mend the old one; after all it was now full of staples and sticky icky tape... However, when doing a google search, I came across a brilliant tutorial by Jaime at Pretty Prudent ( click for the link ). It even has standard measurements for the seat; perfect if you don't have the pushchair, but are making it as a surprise for someone else! For the new cover, I wanted something childish, but not too pink and girlie... Please ignore the measurements in the picture... This blue sweet fabric from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory series (Roald Dahl) was perfect. For the back, I used a pink fabric with red tiny dots from IK...

Yep, it is that time of year amongst my friends; another baby has entered the world.  Welcome Sam! Unfortunately this one is moving to South Africa in less than two weeks time and what better way of reminding the family of their time in the UK than customising the ears accordingly!!! Hope you love it!

When DD was born she was given a super soft cuddly rabbit with really loooooong ears.  It was made by a lady in South Africa and brought here by her friend who was also one of the mums in our parent group for DS. The Rabbit was, and still is, with DD every night and she usually goes to bed massaging the silky ears. During the years it has started to look rather tatty well-loved and a new one was desperately needed. Long story short; it was easier to make a copy than try to get hold of a new similar looking one from South Africa. When I bought the fleece for the replacement rabbit a year ago (I never got around to making it until recently), the colour was a very close match, even if it doesn't look like it in the picture. If you are in South Africa or need a gift for a mum to be or a new born baby, do go and check out Lily 'n Jack's web page, link here .

Summer time usually means playing outdoors for the kiddos, but with the typical British weather it doesn't always work....  DS loves playing boule (or petanque depending on where you are living) outside, but it just doesn't really work with the balls inside. Hence, I created some bean bags and a Jack for him to play with. As Octonauts is his favourite TV series at the moment, a Pirate Jack (as from Calico Jack) was perfect!! I have filled these with halved yellow peas, as I had some at home, but I guess you could use rice or something else, as long as it has some weight to it. 

The Christmas Fair at the Swedish Church in London opens to the general public tomorrow Thursday. Then it's closed on Friday, before opening again on Saturday and Sunday. Just make your way to Harcourt Street (close to Edgware Road, Marleybone and Baker Street stations) in London. This year I have made and donated only child related items as they sold well last year. The other  ladies have all been busy making Christmas related items. I am going to be in the stall tomorrow morning through to early afternoon. Please come by and say Hello! or Hej! My items include: Long-eared soft cuddly fleece rabbits, wetwipe covers, crinkly squares, pencil rolls and fleece hats have all been delivered ahead of the VIP opening tonight and the general opening tomorrow. 

I had the fabric cut for probably half a year, before I got my act together during the winter to trim, turn and press, and then I finally added the ribbon this week! Just another 50 or so to go... To make the bunting, just cut out triangles, take two, place right sides together, pin and stitch, turn right sides our. Attach bias tape at the top. Done.

These super-simple, but oooohhh so soft long eared rabbits are a great hit with all little ones who I give them to. We have at least four being used at home and at the nursery at the moment; it seems one can never get too many!

Digging through my photos from last year, I came across these and smiled when I remembered how excited he got when I gave him the bean bag! What better than using lots of scrap fabric and making the little one happy at the same time! 

This is one of many cuddly stuffed rabbits that I have made to small people. It has been an extremely useful newborn and Christening gift throughout the years. Normally I embroider the eyes, but it seems that I took the photo a little bit too early...

Following the success with the pencil rolls, I decided to make a car roll along the same idea:

Trying to meet the expected requirement for gifts at the Christmas Fair, I have tried to figure out things to make that would attract buyers. Hopefully these extremely soft and cuddly long-eared rabbits made out of fleece and Thai silk dress fabric should fit the bill! I have experimented a bit with the ears; on one I stitched them "flat" and on the other one I folded them.  I'll hopefully have some time next week to make some more before the elusive deadline for submission to the fair.

Another pencil roll, this time in brushed cotton fabric with dinosaurs and an orange and red dotted lining fabric. This one, and another similar one, is most likely going to the Christmas Fair at the Swedish Church in London.

Yesterday I dropped off the first set of items for the Christmas fair. Some of these are old things I have had in my cupboards for some time, others are newly made specially for the Christmas fair. A baby hat with fleece lining: Scarves or dribble bibs: Bag with waterproof lining:  Small odds and sods bag with gingham lining:  Crinkly square toy, great for little ones! Fleece hats, one with monkeys, the other one with helicopters and airplanes: Two Sweden inspired fleece hats in yellow and blue: Three fleece hats with vehicles and coloured fleece: Pencil roll: Fingers crossed that the items can attract buyers and thus help the Church raise money for their activities!

Here are another three of my cuddly toy models; dog, rabbit and turtle. All are great for using up scarp pieces of fabric. The rabbit is probably the best model for small hands and I usually make this as 'welcome to the world' or christening gift. I wish I had taken photos of all of the ones I have given away through the years! I have made these for donkeys years, but I believe the rabbit and turtle originally came from a Burda magazine, or possibly a Swedish crafting magazine and the dog from a Simplicity pattern???

The long-eared rabbit that was given to our DD when she was born, was left behind a few days ago and I have tried to recreate it for her as it would take too long to order a new one :-( The first one I made, was waaaaay too small, so I increased the size. From memory the new one should be approximately the same size as the lost one. She loves these long-eared cuddly friends!!! The original can be bought from here .