Fun ......

After three days of trying to re-thread my overlocker, yep you read that right three days, I finally got the damn tension right (please never break again needle). I was all ready to tackle a pile of orders, but decided to have a little creative play instead.
My mum volunteers in an op-shop, so she keeps me in good supply of woollen jerseys to re -purpose. This lovely grey one has been sitting round for a while waiting for me to do something with it. With no real plan in mind I started cutting!

So the above turned in to a Cardi for Charlie or maybe Archie, not sure yet!

Im pretty happy with it..... not 100% sure about the pockets. They have already been unpicked once, they started out blue. Charlie loves it, but I'm thinking it might be a wee bit small, we shall see......

I loved this wee project, it was so nice to just start doing something and see it evolve. Felt good to re-use something as well!

Sock Monkeys ...............

Faceless sock monkey!

A while ago I stumbled across this tutorial on how to make sock monkeys. I had a quick look at, thought cute i'll make these one day, and filed it away in to favourites.
Cue rainy day, school holidays, and a couple of little boys who wanted to do some craft, I decided it was a good time to give them a go.
So we gathered some socks and got started. The first part of the process where you cut out  the sock, sew the legs and stuff, is great for the kids. Charlie (5) managed to cut round the legs on his own, and they both stuffed stuffed stuffed! This part was fun, and the child participation rate was high!

                                                                                   

Whilst they were busy, I had a quick look at what we were doing next. This is where I realised there was a bit more to the project then I originally thought (pays to read the WHOLE tutorial first before starting).  So we sourced some more socks that were needed for arms, legs, tails, ears and a mouth, and started sewing. I was on the machine and the boys were still stuffing each individual item. This is where Archie started losing interest!!

Once this part was done, all the rest was hand sewing and up to me. The boys put a movie on, we all got comfy and I started sewing.Now I'm not the best at hand sewing, so this bit took me  quite a while. If you are used to it, it shouldn't take to long.

Now it was time for a face, apparently none of my buttons were suitable. So Charlie took his faceless monkey to Nana's , and it came back all pimped out!!! He also brought back some eyes for his brother, too kind.

The kids LOVE their monkeys, and have played with them heaps. Jack came home and decided he might even like to make one! All in all it was a fun thing to do, the kids were engaged and involved in quite a bit of it, and the final product wasn't too shabby!!