A Bunny for Easter

I have been very productive over the last week or so, designing and crocheting new things! I was asked by my brother in law, Ian, to make a bunny for his goddaughter's birthday, a challenge I immediately accepted! I love crocheting soft toys and a wee bunny sounded like a cute idea! I decided that as it was coming up for Easter it was an excellent opportunity to design the pattern myself and write it up for others to make one too!

finished bunny

I have been making various crocheted animals for years and have designed a few myself already so I simply followed basic construction techniques I have learnt along the way to "build" the bunny up. Ian was lucky that I had some appropriate wool in my stash to get started right away - I used James C. Brett "Legacy", a really soft pure wool.

progress photo

The ears were one of the hardest things for me to crochet, I had to keep going back and forth asking family members for their opinions but eventually they turned out how I wanted them!

completed bunny

Once I had finished crocheting I still had a day until Ian was popping round to collect her so I decided to have some fun making a dress! I chose some pretty Liberty fabric, which was actually from a vintage blouse I found in a charity shop and cut up. I made up a simple gathered style maxi dress and studded it at the back to show off the bunny's cute tail!

back view

The bunny was opened up by her new owner yesterday. Apparently she was pulled out by the ears (ouch!) and then hugged and kissed! Awww, I love my job!

close up

Now the bunny is finished I have started a new project which I will share in my next blog post, or hop over to Instagram if you can't wait till then! 

Marta xx

Introducing my Sasha doll; Belinda

I would like to introduce you to my Sasha doll called Belinda. I have had her since I was very small, making her one of the earlier versions of the design. If you are unfamiliar with Sasha dolls, have a look at this link

I made the pink and blue outfit above as my entry in the "dressed doll" category at my local flower show and she won first prize! This was before I had started up my craft business and this recognition gave me the confidence to make a go of it!

About a month ago I stumbled across a box of my child hood toys in the attic, and Belinda was inside! Then last week I was looking for a quick project and decided to make Belinda a new dress. I looked through my baby clothes patterns, found a newborn one and made it in 3ply yarn instead of double knitting (8ply) in order to achieve the correct fit. It was fiddly working in such fine wool, but it crocheted up really fast so it was rewarding!

I have a large selection of vintage pattern books which I love! These 2 are particularly inspiring at the moment. Toys to Knit and Crochet has several pages of patterns especially for Sasha dolls. It was kindly passed on to me from my friend Teresa - thanks Teresa!!

On Saturday I made a very speedy dress in vintage 4ply cotton. It worked up so quickly I got carried away, finished it, sewed in all the the ends, sewed the buttons on ... the inside! Today I went back and sorted them, and I'm happy with the vintage style on Belinda - what do you think?

Do you have a Sasha doll? If so, I would love to see photos, please share them!

Marta xx

Summer Projects

Oh dear, I seem to have neglected my blog over the summer! To help ease myself back into the habit I'll start with this easy post and share a few photos of some of the items I have made over that period.

At the start of the summer I made this 'Sunday Shawl' as a retirement present for my mum.

This is the first childen's garment that I have designed and crocheted.

I made 2 pairs of Happy scrappy Wrist Warmers. This pair is still available in my Folksy shop

I upcycled a handful of curtain pole hoops into cute little brooches, this is one of them.

Not a finished piece of work but a work in progress! This is my 'Sophie's Universe' blanket.

My first ever knitting design! A knitted washcloth with crochet border, in soft linen yarn.

Finally, my latest finished item; a Happy Scrappy Crocheted Scarf. I have just listed this in my Folksy shop 

That is a quick update of what I have been up to. I hope you have enjoyed my colourful photos because colour is such a key part in my creative work! You can keep up with my crafty adventures by 'liking' my Facebook page or following me on Instagram. 

Adding Colour to the Playground, Part 1

I was approached by staff at my younger boys' school to add some colour by creating yarnbombs for a small area of the school playground. This project was perfect for me! Primary 1 had made shrinkies with fairy, bug and alien designs on them for me to incorporate into the work. I hope it will be fun for them to go around and find their own mini piece of art combined with something much bigger.

 1st two pieces made, surrounded by shrinkies

I made sure I chose a mix of bright colours which would appeal to both boys and girls. I had plenty of acrylic wool in my stash and the school provided me with some more - I had fun picking out colours!

different textures

I crocheted rectangles of varying sizes and created stripy patterns as a backdrop for the shrinkies. I wanted the pieces to be really eye catching and colourful!

 finished crochet swatch

Once the ends were tied in I sewed on the shrinkies (they had a hole punched through them). Now I have a pile of 8 swatches, ready to be attached to rails, benches and trees in the playground. 

all finished and ready to attach

I plan to visit the playground later this week to sew the pieces in place, depending on the weather of course!! Part 2 of this series will show the finished work ...

Badge Bombing!!

Last Friday I took a trip to Dundee to go badge bombing for the first time! I went around the centre of Dundee and attached small badges to places for other people to come along, find them and keep them!

the finished badges, day before my trip

For a while now I have been following the adventures of @dymagate and @whimsicallush on Instagram and they both inspired me to leave something small of my own in a public place for someone else to stumble upon. I chose to make little badges with big smiley faces to brighten up someone's day.

 badge left near Dundee train station

I kept the badges simple, just button eyes and an embroidered mouth, and I hand stitched the word "Daft" on the back (my Instagram name is @mrsdaftspaniel but that was too long to stitch!). 

this one made me smile!

There were plenty of places to leave the badges, for example attached to fencing or abandoned cord and I pinned one to a yarnbombed tree!

 I like this one, blending with background colours

I had also brought a sample of weaving with me to sew onto a lamp post or something and I found the bench in the photo below to be the perfect size for it! I sat on the bench and sewed it on during lunch hour, I wonder if anyone even saw me?

and of course I did a yarnbomb!

As soon as I could I uploaded photos of my badge bombing to my Instagram and Facebook pages and was surprised to see that the badges were quickly found by people! Of the 5 badges I placed I know that 3 were found and brought a smile to those who found them, which makes it all worthwhile!

Help me!!

I am already planning my next adventure when I will set another load of badges free! Follow me on Instagram if you would like to stay updated :)