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Welcome to my Blog

I am a grandmother to 4 little girls. I blog about the things I make for them, review patterns, provide tutorials on how I've dealt with techniques or problems, which I hope may help others, and give links to the (mostly) free patterns I use. Every so often, I do a 'Best of..' post listing the best free patterns I've found under specific headings - babies, girls, boys etc. Enjoy the Blog!

Saturday 27 February 2016

Mr Potato Head Bag


One other thing I made for Toddler I's birthday was a Mr Potato Head bag. 



She already had one Mr Potato Head for Christmas, but I bought her some more accessories for her birthday, as she seems to like playing with him.



However, I felt a bit guilty, as I could see so many little bits kicking around causing a real nuisance to her Mummy and Daddy. Toddler I is pretty good at putting things away provided there is somewhere to put them. So the obvious answer was a bag to put all the bits in.

Sunday 7 February 2016

Another Birthday Outfit

Having made a birthday outfit (no, NOT a birthday suit!) for Baby a's first birthday, I thought I would also like to make an outfit for Toddler I's second birthday. 

I still had some more of the lovely reindeer fleece material and the denim left, and this time I thought I'd make a dress, and a waistcoat. (Eventually I added a hat.)


Both of these owe a lot to the Small Dream Factory patterns. These patterns and templates are free, so a huge thank you to Small Dream Factory for this. (But the patterns should not be used for commercial purposes. I only use them to make things for my grand-children!) To find out more, read on.

Friday 5 February 2016

Easter Finger Puppets

I promised that I would write more posts on finger puppets, having described how to make templates here.

It's a little while till Easter, but my time seems to vanish when I'm not looking, so I thought I'd better make a start. So far, we've got an Easter bunny, a chick, and a lamb.




Finger Puppets

I've been trawling the internet for patterns or templates for felt animal finger puppets, but hadn't really found what I wanted. So I decided I'd make my own, and share them. It will take me a while to add all the finished finger puppets, so I'll blog about them a few at a time as they are made. Here are the first few, made for Easter:




A requirement for me is that the finished finger puppet should be recognisable as what it is supposed to be! I hope the ones above can be recognised as an Easter bunny, a chick, and a lamb. Here is my current wish list of some of the animals I'd like to make. I may add others if these go well.

Bear, Bee, Bird, Butterfly, Cat, Chick, Cow, Crocodile, Dog, Duck, Elephant, Frog, Giraffe, Hen, Hippo, Kangaroo, Ladybird, Lamb,  Lion, Monkey, Mouse, Octopus, Owl, Peacock, Penguin,  Pig, Polar Bear, Rabbit, Reindeer, Baby Seal, Tiger, Whale.

I chose animals my grand-daughters would be familiar with, either through personal experience, or through their favourite story books and toys.

I've got three main template shapes, plus some special templates. To find out more about the templates, and making finger puppets in general, read on.