A little girl’s rucksack

My little girl LOVES bags. And lip balm. And anything on the planet that is pink. How has this happened? I didn’t do it! We made some adorable strawberry bags in the spring and she loves hers, but she needs more space to stuff her “treasure” in, so I decided to make her a little rucksack that she can carry around.

I used 2 fat quarters of contrasting fabric and some thick fusible interfacing to make the bag. I wasn’t following a pattern so this is definitely not the “official” way to make a rucksack but I have outlined the process I took below. I guessed my way along but it did the job!

~ How its Made ~

1. I began by cutting 4 domes of fabric, 2 from lining and two from outer. I attached interfacing to the outer piece and then adhered the two together with bondaweb.

2. To make a pocket, I sewed two rectangles of the contrasting fabrics together, pressed and sewed a fancy stitch along the top. This was sewn onto one of the dome pieces.

 

3.  I sewed a zip onto two strips of fabric, pressed and top stitched.

4.  I sewed on strips of outer fabric (Strengthened with interfacing) onto each end of the zip piece to create one long strip that was equal to the circumference of the bag. I flipped this round and sewed equal sized lining strips on the other side of the zip to neaten the interior.

 

5. This strip was then pinned all along the edge of the pocketed side of the bag, right sides together. I sewed the two ends of the strip together.

 

 6. For the straps, I made two strips from lining fabric, strengthened with fusible fleece, and attached some canvas strap to each end. I pinned these onto the reverse of the bag.

 

7. Tucking and pinning the straps out of the way in the middle, I then sewed the back of the bag on in the same way as the front (NB – it is important to open the zip before starting this in order to turn the bag the right way out!)

 

Then I turned the right way out voila – it actually looks like a rucksack!!

We went straight to the park with the new bag and it promptly got filled (I mean, totally FILLED) with twigs and acorns and leaves and the odd lollipop stick. I sat and had a cup of tea whilst all this took place so already the bag is a big win!

Tia xx

 

 

A Review of the New AmiGami Toy

This week Amelie was sent one of these strange-but-cute little creatures from our friends over at Mattel. He’s called an AmiGami – a little pet that comes complete with strips of paper, stickers and other little embellishments that you can adorn your pet with.

At 2 and a half, Amelie is a little younger than the intended age range for this toy, but actually she loved him. She found the little paper bits a bit tricky to attach (cue over-involved mother wanting to take over and do it all by myself) but like every other toddler on the planet, she loved the stickers and wanted to pile them all over the mini beast.

The great thing about this is that you can create a totally unique little pet. You can remove the adornments, add new ones and create different styles.  Cute.

Tia x

 

 

Air Dry Clay Toy Biscuits

Amelie loves popping foods into her toy cooker and ‘baking’ them, so I thought I’d make her some biscuits from air dry clay. These cute little yummies turned out really well (apart from the Oreo… that one was a bit dodgy) and I think they were my favourite thing I’ve made for her so far! Except that I wanted to eat biscuits the entire time I was making them. Read on to learn how to make your own.

You will need:
Air dry clay (I use DAS)
Rolling pin
Acrylic paint
Toothpick
Knife
Cookie cutter
Fine sandpaper
Superglue
Varnish (I use Triple Thick)

1) Pick some images of your favourite biscuits to copy. Roll out the clay to the thickness of each biscuit. I prefer to do this on a taped down piece of cling film – this makes it easy to remove the clay from the board without having to peel/bend it. For the round biscuits use a cookie cutter or small jar lid to cut your shapes. For sandwich biscuits, make the two outer pieces but hold on the filling for now. Square biscuits can be cut easily with a knife. The edges don’t need to be too smooth at this stage.

2) For text, patterns and holes, take a toothpick and carefully score into your biscuit.

3) leave the clay to dry, then sandpaper the biscuits to create a smooth finish. You can also go over any markings with a toothpick again to create a smoother finish.

4) fun bit! To make the filling for your biscuits, take balls of fresh clay, squash a little and then press between the two dry pieces. This works especially well on the jammy dodger as it puffs out a bit in the hole. Just like in real life… yuuuuum. Once its squashed to the right size, take it out and, once dry, glue back in place.

5) paint your biscuits, leave to dry and then apply a coat of varnish to the ones that need shine.

6) Go and buy/eat a packet of jammy dodgers. Optional. I had a serious craving by this stage.

Tia x

p.s. If you like this clay post why not try the following – click on the image to take you to the tutorial.