Sunday 30 January 2011

Tooth Fairy Cushion

The other day my four year old son asked me when he was going to get his ‘big’ teeth.  As I looked down at him and saw his two rows of perfectly formed baby teeth, I could picture in my mind the pain of extraction, the toothless grins, the not so perfect ‘big’ teeth, the braces, the excessive orthodontist bills and felt a touch of sadness that my babies are growing up.  If only we could keep them at this age of pure innocence forever.    

Anyway, this very innocent question did get me to thinking about the traditions that surround the loss of a childs' tooth.  There is a lot of info on the internet about the origins of the tooth fairy which makes for interesting reading.  Most of the research takes us back to the Middle Ages when it was believed that witches could gain control of you if they had a piece of you – hair, teeth, fingernails – with which they could work their magic.  Hence the importance of disposing of all teeth properly.  As an adult I find this quite interesting but I am not sure I would want to pass this history on to my 4 year old and risk a sleepless night as he dreams of witches and magic.  A lot of research moves from the Middle Ages on to the more recent tradition of placing the tooth under the pillow for the tooth fairy who very kindly leaves a coin or a treat.  The cynic in me thinks that the transition from witches and magic to cute tooth fairies and monetary gain is more about our need as a parent to ease our child’s suffering by offering some incentive and dressing it up with tales of fairies – what child does not like a story about fairies?  Will I carry on this tradition?  Of course I will which leads me to my latest project.  No longer is it good enough to place the tooth under the pillow – we need to have a special cushion in which to place the tooth and in which the fairy can place the coin.  I had all this lovely pink fabric in my stash and had recently purchased a set of fairy designs for a previous project so set to work on my tooth fairy cushion.  This was the result which I was really pleased with – the only problem being that it is very pink and girlie and I have a boy. 


                         

How do I make a  tooth fairy cushion boyish?  I was thinking along the lines of embroidering a pirate instead of a fairy and making up a story about the tooth fairy delivering all the teeth to the pirates in the middle of the ocean who then grind the teeth down to make fairy dust which the tooth fairies throw up to the night sky to shine amongst all the stars.  Who knows – in 100 years time this might be the story which all children believe in.

“And that’s the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth”. (quoted from The Straight Dope)

Friday 28 January 2011

French Wardrobe Bags

Just popped over to France for a couple of days to visit my parents and as always on my return from France I am inspired by the gorgeo

us nic nacks which adorn the shops and markets.  I love all the heavy, classy fabrics that they use but which I never seem to be able to find in the UK.  I did find some lovely check fabric on Ebay which was a real bargain and I now have loads of the lovely pink and cream heavy duty fabric which needs to be used up.  I decided to try my hand at these lovely little bags which the French use to hang on their  wooden wardrobes and doors.  They don't seem to have any purpose other than to just look pretty.  I wondered if I could put some fragrance inside the bag but not sure how this would work as the bags cannot be opened once the fragrance had faded.  Will have to think some more about that one ......



For a step by step tutorial on how to make these bags

Monday 17 January 2011

Nursery School Bag

My first project had to be Kirsty's school bag.  The plain cream calico bag was just calling out for some colour and girly decoration.  I have been putting this off for so long because to be honest I was having so much trouble with my new machine that I just didn't feel inspired.  After much material wastage and cursing I worked out that I was using the wrong thread for my machine.  I had bought loads of machine embroidery thread on ebay at a really cheap price only to discover that a good quality thread makes all the difference.  It seems obvious now - but if you are just starting out with machine embroidery please, please invest in good quality thread.  I now have a much smaller collection of Madeira embroidery thread but it sews like a dream so I wanted to try it out on the bag.  I knew that I wanted to go for a fairy design (my daughter is 2) and began my internet search for a suitable design.  After much searching I came across a really great site Bunnycup Embroidery.  There are loads of free designs and great offers which for a beginner like me is perfect.  I chose their Fairy Love set and one of their free fonts called Cheri Alphabet.  I haven't managed to load my 4D Extra program onto my PC yet so I had to play around with Kirsty's name which means the spacing is not perfect but I was really pleased with my first attempt.  My reward was a big 'Thanks Mum' from Kirsty.  Here is the finished article -





New beginnings

After many years of working in the city in the 'lovely' world of Finance I now find myself at home with my two lovely children.  What do I do now?  Well, apart from the very rewarding task of looking after my two little ones I have found the need to renew my interest in all things craft related.  I have purchased a lovely new embroidery sewing machine (Pfaff) and finally finished setting up my work area.  This blog which I must say is my first attempt is hopefully going to be my lifeline to the outside world.  Now all I have to do is make something.
Back soon - hopefully