Child's Pencil Roll Tutorial

Well, well, well... It's about time I posted a new tutorial!

So here we go - first of all - much thanks to my hubby who took some lovely photos of my un-manicured hands during the process of making this pencil roll in order for me to document this tutorial for you!

I was asked to make 8 pencil rolls for a friend's 8yr old daughter's birthday party as presents for the guests. Gladly I jumped at the chance to finally work with some real girly fabric after making things for my little boy! Kelly provided all the materials and my job was simply to make them up.

Kelly chose a rich purple drill for the inside and a gorgeous cupcake fabric for the print! I love it! Add some ribbon with love hearts on it and its time to get girly!

In total you will need:

19" x 13" of print fabric
19" x 13" of a thicker fabric such as drill or broadcloth
20" of ribbon (about 1cm wide works best)

scissors, complementary thread, sewing machine, ruler, self-healing mat (to cut fabric on), iron and ironing board.

First thing to do is cut your fabric. I cut one from each of the materials of a 9" by 19" rectangle and a 4" by 19" rectangle.

Make sure to iron out your fabric after you cut it to remove all fold marks and wrinkles - it's much easier to sew with flat fabric!

With right sides facing, sew along all 4 side of the smaller rectangles leaving a small gap wide enough to put two fingers in to turn the piece inside out.

Top stitch all the way around once you have turned your material right side out, making sure to turn under the edges of the gap as you do so to include them. Set aside this piece and take your other rectangles.

Complete the same steps as above with your larger pieces without top-stitching. Iron both of your newly finished rectangles.

Take your smaller rectangle and place it on top of the larger rectangle - plain sides facing each other. Top stitch the entire way around joining the rectangles together.

Starting at the long top-stitched side, sew straight lines approx 1.5cm (wider if you plan to put wider pencils or crayons in the roll) to the end of the printed fabric. Make sure to secure your stitching either by back-stitching at each end or if you are lucky enough to have a fancy machine that will do it for you :)

 Take your ribbon and cut approx 20". Fold it in half and stitch it down on the right inside of the roll.
NOTE: if you have ribbon like mine which has a pattern only on one side - make sure you stitch it down inside out unlike mine otherwise when you tie it you won't be able to see the pattern when you tie it up.

And ta-da! You are finished! Look how pretty!

Now insert some kiddie coloured pencils - I only had boring adult pens :( ...

And roll up and tie and you have a fancy pencil/crayon roll ready for any little girl (or boy) who loves to draw!

Well there it is. One pencil roll. Now to complete the other 7...

If you would like to check out Kelly's blog, head on over to her site.

To start anew

Laziness.

It's something I admit I struggle with. That's right - I'm coming right out and saying it.

I find it hard to be motivated lately in many areas of my life - doing dishes, organizing my home, finishing long ago started projects, getting paperwork in some sort of order instead of being scattered in 5 different places around the house....

All that is about to change.

I am currently on a 4 week holiday in New Zealand. Our holiday has three purposes - to allow my in-laws to see their growing grandson, to be close to family and friends after the Christchurch earthquake which caused so much devastation and grief, and to be there to celebrate my little sister's wedding in early April. We are currently on day 14 of 29 days of holiday and I must say I feel like I am being refreshed.

I didn't realise until I got here how wound up, stressed and tired I was. It has been so long since I have just stopped and relaxed instead of concentrating on work, housework, grocery shopping and just breathed. I feel like a weight has been lifted from my hunched over shoulders. I feel like I am (nearly) ready to start making some positive steps forward with life.

And I have a plan....

- to blog twice a week. Reason: to help me sort out my thoughts and ideas and to hopefully give some encouragement and inspiration to others as I have received myself.
- to buy a large bookcase from Ikea with lots of square shelve spaces. Reason: to provide some much needed storage for our house and to organise our paperwork into magazine boxes so we can actually find the insurance policies, bills, log in details... when we need them.
- to prioritize James. Reason: do I need one??
- to make a list and plan of all the creative ideas I have and have found through others. Reason: I have way too many ideas running around in my head and several of them who have already escaped and need to actually start doing some of them and remember them.
- to start receiving an "allowance" or "housekeeping" from Nick. Reason: I have a spending problem! Particularly when it comes to crafty finds.... My "housekeeping" money will cover groceries, nappies, basic household needs (eg new shoes for James, new tea towels etc) and anything I am able to save by managing the money well and living simply and miserly will be mine to spend on what I like eg crafty stuff!
- to really start to get our finances in order and start to seriously save for our travel plans next year. Reason: I want to go to the UK as well as Canada and we can only do both if we save seriously! (we are going to Canada for a family wedding and would LOVE to stop in the UK on the way back...)
- to draw closer to God. Reason: because He is a wonderful amazing God who is waiting patiently for me to draw near to Him so He can show me what He has created me for. I want to live in a way that is glorifying to Him and is setting an example for our son and others around me.

As you can see - there are a lot of things I am planning to do. I know this won't all happen overnight but with prayer, discipline and encouragement I know I can get there.

What does this mean for you?

- two weekly blogs. One is a crafty project of the week either that I have done or I have found to encourage you all to create. The second is a weekly musing of general goings on in the Dight household and in general around the world. This could be a frugal tip I have found, a lesson I have learnt, a photo or video that has touched me, an amusing (hopefully) anecdote of something that has happened.

- a more organised (and clean!) house to visit

- a better friend to have

So here's to new beginnings! Pray for me!

xx Alison

Buy shorts vs make shorts....

What a dilemma. I hate buying shorts. They never fit me right and always end up looking like pants that are too short on my 5 foot frame. So I decided to make some.

I searched the internet looking for tutorials or patterns to teach me how to make my own. I found this amazing design for wrap-around shorts / pants and headed to spotlight in search of material. I decided on a cotton for shorts that looks like denim but is lightweight and nice and cool for summer, and a nice black cotton for long pants. Here are the results of the shorts:

front of shorts (although you can tie them the other way around as well)

back of shorts

And so ends my quest for new shorts. I have been asked to make a few pairs for people and have quoted $25 for shorts and $30 for pants. However - here is the tutorial I made them from for those of you who are handy and would like to make some for yourself!

http://laupre.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/easy-breezy-wrap-pants-tutorial/

Happy sewing!

Who am I?

I guess it's a basic question. Who am I? What do I do? How do I live?

I am a 24yr old mother of one and wife of another. My hubby is an Invertebrate Zoologist (yes - if you figure out what that means please let me in!). Our darling son has just celebrated his first birthday and has entered the tiring (for mummy) stage of walking and running.

Our family are members of a local church which is a smaller campus of a much larger church in the south of our city. We love being a part of this community life and its great being in a church with so many young families with little bubs to play with darling son!

We are a one-income, mortgage, bills, car payments family who like many others struggle from time-to-time to keep things afloat. One of my proudest accomplishments is being able to (usually) feed out little family of 3 for $100 a fortnight (and no we don't just eat bread and water!!) I will make sure to include a post on how I do this in an Australian economy! I try to manage the household finances well in order to have the luxury of being a stay-at-home-mum for darling son. Yes it can actually be done people!

As my blog name suggests, I am a bit of a creative Mummy. I try to do something creative every day. My previous attempts have included handmade rugs, paintings, cross-stitch, knitting, sewing, hand-sewing.... I really enjoy making children's items and am currently on a completely hand-sewn baby bootie craze.

Well thats enough about me for now. I look forward to sharing with you all a bit about my life, creative adventures, discoveries and moments of joy that I come across in daily life.

xx - Creative Mummy