The Nativity - A Miniature Christmas Scene

I had such fun making this tiny nativity scene.  I painted all the little wooden people and then made clothing for them, the animals are all miniaturised versions of the animals in Karin Neuschutz's 'Sew Soft Toys'.  I can't find an internet link but I know that l'uccello stock this book.  I just photocopied the patterns at 25% and cut them without a seam allowance as I stitched by hand in blanket stitch rather than sewing right sides together and bagging out.  They were too tiny for that.  The only things I didn't make were the gifts from the wise men, though the gold is not right and I'll have to see if I can find something better next year.  I put these in our nativity calendar and the girls took it in turns opening a drawer each day.  Luckily four goes evenly into 24 or there would be fights.  I snuck a mouse in - not traditional I know, but Nina adores mice and I reckon there would be one near a stable.  I was so pleased with how it turned out  - exactly as I had hoped, which is a very rare thing. 

Craft Camp



Lily's interpretation of Craft Camp - lots of stairs and stars apparently



Suse's beautiful old Singer. Similar vintage to my old Singer from my banner



A peek under the table




Laying out my drunkard's path quilt



By the end of camp I had 4 unfinished objects

 

A lot of work and a bit of unpicking needed before this one is finished



Turns out socks are excellent thread magnets

First night after craft camp I had one finished object

What is the oppostie of a vanguard? That is me. Late to blogging, late to Instagram, never joined Facebook, or Pinterest, tipped a toe in twitter but it wasn't for me. I'm not an early adpoter, I couldn't predict a trend, I know nothing about fashion in any form. When I started reading blogs, they were probably already on the wane. The hey day of local crafters connecting through the internet had, no doubt, already occurred. Certainly by the time I started blogging myself I noticed that some of the blogs I'd read had fewer and fewer posts, interspersed with the occasional note of apology or a promise to 'do better' and sometimes just a post to say 'thanks folks but this is it'. The fading of 'the blog' seems to have accelerated recently, possibly as a result of the rise of Instagram and other forms of social media. On how many platforms can one be bothered to remain engaged?

This weekend just past I discovered that those crafters no longer on the blogging landscape, some whom have even (gasp) deleted their blogs, are kicking on crafting and connecting in all sorts of lovely and interesting ways. I was lucky enough to get an invite to Sewjourn, which I'd seen on many a blog over the years and which seemed a sort of crafty nirvana to me - uninterrupted sewing time with like minded people in a dedicated space. It was all those things and more; such good people, such crazy skills, such abundant talent. I liked that people sang along to the music and no one cared. I liked that the food was delicious but not intimidating. I liked that everyone kindly blamed the oven when my cake didn't rise. I liked that some poeple made a zillion things and others made a couple and some people took naps or baths or drew or read. I liked that apostrophes mattered and hair/clothes/makeup didn't. I liked that these women were as keen to get into their pyjamas and get down to some handwork as me. I liked that everyone drank lots and lots of tea - real tea, with milk or not, with sugar or not, but actual tea. In a pot. I liked that everyone now calls their overlocker 'The Overlord' courtesy of Kate's little boy. I liked hearing stories - of families and mothers and the blogging/crafty world I know only a fraction of, of jobs and passions and children and fan fiction and auditioning for 'Stomp' without ever having learn to tap dance.

Such a nice weekend, so hard to return to real life. Upon returning home I sewed up the binding on one little quilt, finished another bunny from the 'Posie Gets Cozy' pattern and wished myself back at Craft Camp.

Tiny happy people

I've become a little bit obsessed with these tiny little wooden dolls lately. It's something about the very easy versatility of the wooden form - a few dots and a dash, there's a face, a lick of paint for a dress. It's also something about the little scraps of felt or lace or linen that it takes to make them undressable.  Nothing is quite so frustrating as a glued-on hat to a child. But truthfully it's just the tinyness of it all. I'm rediscovering my lifelong love of the titchy tiny, a love I had largely shelved until I had children.  Nina's thrill over (for example) the mini toothpaste you get given on airplanes, reminds me of my first visit to Southeast Asia and where I discovered pharmacies full of tiny products - mini shampoos and tiny packets of band aids and single cough drops for sale.  I can't really explain why these things are appealing. I can't understand myself why I can spend hours sewing a tiny red linen cape lined in grey with a tiny buttonhole, when I often can't be bothered measuring things properly. Why do I like cutting out tiny autumn leaves, or making miniature cucumber sandwiches but hate making sure my lines are straight? One sort of attention to detail I am all over, the other totally not. 

Fantastic Mister Fox

I saw a pattern for Felix Fox, by Cynthia Treen Studio at my local fabric stop in Jamaica Plain last year.  How far away and long ago that already seems.  I bought the pattern, meaning to make it for Nina for Christmas but there were visits to New York and Washington and things to do that meant sewing took a back seat.  Also the pattern called for pipe cleaners to be inserted in the arms and legs for positioning and I couldn't for the life of me figure out where to buy pipe cleaners in Boston.

Instead I sewed him up for her birthday - I would have liked him to be a bit more orangey, but the only orange felt available at the time was a bit bright, so he is brown instead.  And for some reason his smart red suit looks rather like pyjamas, but that's okay.

I added the satchel, felt envelop with letter from Mousie Brown, and folder with tiny presonalised pencil and miniature note pad.  This is so very up Nina's alley (and also so very up mine).  I did try to make a cat (but without a pattern) for Ruby, but that is still a work in progress.  My first attempt came out as a possum/rat/bilby cross.  Definitely not feline.

If Foxes are the new Owls, what are the new foxes?

Apparently Owls have been replaced by Foxes as the crafty icon de jour.

That article is a bit old now and foxes have probably now been shuffled out of the spotlight and replaced by some other cute woodland creature. It probably won't be a star nosed mole. Maybe a raccoon?

On our trip to New Zealand last year we heard much about the devastation wrought by the introduction of brush tailed possums to that country. About a century ago a couple of chaps had the bright idea to start a fur trade in NZ and imported possums for the project. Don't you already know how this story ends? Just like the importation of rabbits, and cane toads, what seemed like a good idea proved to be anything but. In our Melbourne backyard the possums irritate us by taunting our dogs and shitting on our car, but in New Zealand, land of birds and reptiles, the formerly vegetarian possum has begun stealing eggs from nests as their population explodes and they compete for food sources with the indigenous fauna. Possums are adorably cute, until you start viewing them as predators. So too, are foxes. They are everywhere crafty right now, and who doesn't love those pointy noses, gorgeous colouring and bushy tails? But foxes are to Australia what possums are to NZ. Do you remember those furry friend chocolates? Back in the day, when the chocolate bar was wrapped in silver foil and came in a paper sleeve, the wrapper provided information about the animal featured. You know the sort of thing - habitation, diet, population, threat to species. Nearly every animal featured - bilbys, bandicoots, sugar gliders, the black footed wallaby - was under threat from cats and foxes.

I'd love to make some little felt ring tailed possums, some bilbys or bandicoots - koalas would be a bit hackneyed, I think - too adorably cute for their own good. But instead I've made owls and foxes and raccoons. Perhaps it is just that other countries' cute animals are more exotic and therefore more appealing. Or perhaps it's just that we have seen so many representations of Northern Hemisphere fauna - squirrels, bunnies, deer - that rendering them in felt or other media is much easier. I confess I'm not sufficiently familiar with the bilby to be able to make an identifiable one. It would likely look like a weird rat. Nevertheless, my challenge is to start making a few indiginous fauna as well as their adorable exotic counterparts. Let's see how I go.

Little Rabbit

Isn't this rabbit sweet? I made it from a kit from this website. Normally I avoid kits, but I wasn't confident of being able to ge tthe exactly right thickness of felt for this.   The kit included a generous allowance of felt (enough boot felt to make a second pair) all the threads, liberty prints, yarn for the capelet and even elastic for the gathers in the dress.  It was an excellent, easy to follow pattern, with very handy details (use starch to make the whiskers stiffer, dab a bit of ink from a stamp pad on to make the cheeks) and was a joy to sew up. The entire body and boots are handsewn and all up, including cutting out the pattern and knitting the little capelet, it took four evenings to finish.  I also bought the patterns for a knitted dress and cardigan, but haven't knitted them yet, as I don't have a set of 3.75mm circular needles. It is one thing I find a bit frustrating about knitting - that there are so many needles that are required and the set I need invariably seems to be the set I don't have. I suppose the true knitter just gets everything - straight, dpns and circular needles in every size. I guess it would still be significantly less of an outlay than my sewing machine.

While I was stitching the bunny, I wondered how she'd look in linen. The pattern obviously doesn't have a seam allowance, as all the stitching is external, so I added a quarter inch seam allowance and whipped this one up on the sewing machine last night. I haven't made the boots and dress yet, but I was pleased with how she came together.

Linen must have more give than felt, as the head after stuffing looks quite a bit bigger than the felt head. I can feel a batch of bunnies coming on, they are so pleasing to make.

Monster Mash

Old jumpers, old tights, scraps of felt, odds and ends.  Kim made these with the girls last school holidays but Ruby's (top) disappeared for an extended visit with the dust balls under her bed and only re-emerged last weekend for photographs.