Friday's smiles...week 235

Hello all.  It's been a busy week here for me at Sewing by Annie's but one that's also been filled with proud Nanny moments so I'm sharing this week's snaps of my 6 little family members...

Tuesday saw me having a fun day with this little man while his mummy spent the day getting her class room ready to go back to work after the school holidays.  He's such a delight to look after and my day was filled with smiles.

The twins have had lots of lovely days out and about in the countryside with their friends during the holidays and they have had fun collecting stones to paint.....such little artists in the making don't you think?

Amy's three have spent their school holidays doing lots of things children don't always get to do these days from picnics in the garden, camping overnight in their field with their friends, picking blackberries in their hedges to just generally enjoying each others company and making me smile.

That's all I've got to share this week so I must say a big thank you to all who joins in each week and hope you will all link up to your smiles again today.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW.....

Wahooooo it's Wednesday again.  I love Wednesdays because I get to check out what all my blogging buddies have been up to creatively.  If you call in here just leave me a little message so I know you've called in and I will do my best to pay you a return visit....it may take me a little while but I do my best to visit you all even if I can't leave you a comment.  It's going to be a busy day for me today [another one!!] because I have a bride coming this morning and another one coming this afternoon.

So what have I been up to this week?

This was my strangest challenge this week...it's a back support for a cyclist that needed some repairs doing by hand with strong thread.....two broken needles later and a lot of effort needed with having to stitch it using my artery forceps to push the needle through but I managed it.

You will remember from last week that I'd been asked to make some dolls clothes for Barbie and Ken so I searched for patterns and made a few but none of the patterns had instructions or even whether you needed to allow seam allowances when cutting out.

Here's a few of the bits I made before the girls arrived with their mummy for their afternoon of fun with Nanny.  Some of the clothes needed a bit of adjusting but it's surprising what you can make out of a couple of socks and a few scraps of material.

Saturday afternoon was spent in my sewing room with these two gorgeous girls and their mummy.  Here we are carefully measuring Ken and Barbie for their new clothes and trying on the ones I had already made before they arrived.
We had a lovely afternoon and two little girls went home with lots of new dolls clothes [and big smiles].

Here's the models trying on a few of their new clothes.

And here's the smiles....doesn't it make all the effort well worth it?

Of course I had to make the 4 extra dresses from the materials the girls chose from my stash while they were here.






In fact to make 4 dresses I had to cut out 8 pieces, overlock 32 rows, make 24 narrow hems, make 8 bust darts, sew 4 rows of gathering stitches, sew the 4 tops to the 4 skirt pieces and then stitch 4 pieces of Velcro fastenings to the backs.....yep I'm nuts but it's sooooo worth it to see their smiles don't you think?
That's all from me for today.  I hope you all have a fun week in your creative spaces.
Hugs,
Annie x

This week's smiles....week 234

Hello all.  Don't you just love it when you have a week that's thrown you all sorts of challenges but you still come out smiling?  Well, it's been one of those weeks for me.  Firstly I must remember to say thank you to those that shared their smiles again last week and I hope you will be back to join in again today.

Now, onto my smiles for today and I've focused on my garden smiles for today.  It's all looking so lovely out there now with the new white chippings so I went out with my camera to share the flowers with you today........

Every time I went to take a photo my little four legged friend did her best to photo bomb it so I promised her I would let her have one of her own.  So?  I really hope you have found something there to brighten your day and make you smile.  Please snap your smiles and share them with us by linking below.  Thank for calling by.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW.....

Oh wow what a busy week I had last week.  Firstly I must apologies to those bloggers I didn't get round to visit.  There just wasn't enough hours in my days.  I had everything from Wedding dresses, Bridesmaids dresses and Evening dresses to trousers, shirts and many special requests from special customers, family and friends.

I have a few photos to share with you of my desk at different stages....

One of my requests from one of my special customers was for a pocketed hanging storage....it had to be 30x60cm with two button holes at the top 20cm apart.  It had to have a zipped pocket at the top then three rows of pockets of different sizes going down the length and the pockets were pretty specific to include a pen pocket in the top row.....he didn't want much did he? So I set to working out all the measurements required and here I am mid flow.

Here it is finished....it was quite a challenge but I'm rather pleased with how it turned out for him.

Another of my requests was from some special little people in my life for clothes making for their Barbie and Ken dolls so I've been hunting out and printing off some simple patterns....I'm hoping they will be coming to help me make them too so I'm really looking forward to that.

The other pic I'm sharing today is this one to make you laugh.  You've heard the saying...'If it looks too good to be true then it probably is' haven't you?

I ordered some new tape measures off eBay for another little project I had in mind and these were.... 'a pack of 5 fabric superior tailoring tape measures' for just 80p!

Firstly they aren't fabric but are a very cheap plastic and I've laid one against the tape measure I use every day just to show you just how 'accurate' [or lack of it] they are.  Each inch is more than 1 1/4" in length!!  Needless to say I have now had my money back and wont be using them for the project I had in mind.....but it did make me giggle.

That's all from me for today.  I will be head down ploughing my way through my sewing mountain but will do my best to pop over to say hello in between jobs as and when I can.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 233

Where do the days go to?  I seem to turn round once or twice and hey presto here we are back at my weekly catch up of smiles.  Many thanks, as always, to the loyal few who join in each week.  Between us I'm sure we make the world just a little happier folks so please keep up the good work.

I've had by darling hubby at home on holidays from work this week so we have enjoyed lots of smiles together so I've put a few photos together to share with you....

These are the before shots of our back garden....it's all starting to grow and develop how we want it but we have a few four legged friends who seem to want to 'help'.  There are lots of local cats who have decided it was lovely black soil to use as their toilet and we have our own little four legged friend who rather likes eating the results making her feel sick [and us at just the thought of it!!].  Plus she loves digging in between the plants and chasing the little birds so getting her paws rather dirty.  

So my darling hubby has ordered several dumpy bags of lovely white stone and this is what it looks like now.  It looks really lovely and the gravel will also keep the weeds down too....so win win.

Of course when you have little visitors they like to lend a helping hand and that makes me smile the most.

The other pics I'm sharing with you are of the lovely day out we had on Tuesday.  We went to Westonbury Mill Water gardens near Leominster and what a gorgeous place that is....well worth a visit folks.  There are lots of follies and features for you to explore and a lovely little coffee shop where you can get a yummy lunch too.  We loved it and Milly did too.

You should be able to click on the pics if you'd like a closer look.....you just might see my darling hubby peeping from behind a tree at you  :-)

That's all from me for today.  Please leave me a little comment so I know you've called by and if you can then link to a few pics of your smiles from the week.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW.....

Happy Wednesday especially to our Queen of snoop, Julia over at the Stamping Ground who has been seen wearing her tiara this week and really looking the part.

My desk has seen lots of action this week and it's been very varied.  Everything from a gorgeous Wedding dress to a Dr Who's scarf .....

The wedding dress filled my cutting table and I am in the process of shortening three hems on it....I always hoover and clean all the surfaces before starting a wedding dress so as not to leave and marks on it so it's half a days work just the get ready before I start [I make a lot of dust here in my sewing room].

The scarf really was something else.  It was knitted by a young man who died aged just 31 and his sister brought it to me to be divided into three so that she and her two other brothers could have a scarf each made from it.

The original stretched at least twice the length of my sewing room  and between us we managed to fold it into three which when finished were each more than long enough to make a really long scarf.

I really do get asked to do all sorts and it was so lovely to be able to do just what she wanted successfully.

So there you go nice and short just how the boss likes it [ for once!].  I have my darling hubby here all this week transforming the back garden so I'd best get back to the sewing before he catches me slacking hehehe.  Have a great week.  I will do my best to visit all who call in here in between my many and varied sewing jobs of the week.

For anyone interested I have a Giveaway over on my Sewing by Annie Facebook so why not pop over and be in with a chance to win one of my Memory bears.  I will making the draw at 9pm Friday night......Good Luck x

This week's smiles....week 232

Here we are at another round up of the weeks smiles.....and there's been many here for me.

I've had a week of making special things from clothes that hold very special memories and have seen the smiles on the faces when they've been collected....it has much more than job satisfaction for me as you can imagine.

I have been waiting to find a suitable charity to give one of my eye spy quilts to and when I got chatting to one of my customers this week I just knew I'd found it....it just walked through my door.  He was one of the organisers of a local cancer charity and when I told him about the quilts I make he asked how he applied for one.  Just imagine his face when I handed it to him....he is going to organise it for me so it raises £100 for the charity so I'm really thrilled.

I have a few snaps to show you just some of the smiles I can share too...

Thursday night Amy's three came to see us all dressed as superheros and little Theo came to play too.  I love watching the little cousins all playing together.

On Tuesday Shell babysat Theo for the day and you can see just how much the twins love their little cousin.  They are giving him his morning milk before he went down for his nap....cute or what?

My last pic is one of my birdwatching little Milly.  A flock of starlings had flown down onto our front lawn to feed on the ants I think and as you can see Milly was mesmerised by them ....she's so funny.

That's it from me for today.  Many thanks to all who join in each week.  Everyone is very welcome to share their smiles by linking up below but feel free to come and go as you please.....there are no rules and no commitment to have to post every week [but I hope you do].

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....

Wahoo wahoo he's back.  Who? I hear you ask.  Why, Mr Mojo of course.  I did just what I said I was going to do.....

I got out all my boxes of wool rovings, threads, silk fabrics etc and uncovered my 'Dumfer'.  I cut out a piece of linen and prepared it by zigzagging around the edges to stop it fraying then used fabric crayons and wool rovings to make a background.  I then got dumfing....and here it is so far.....

I rather like how it's going so far but it still needs more dumfing, some machine and/or hand embroidery and possibly some beading to bring out the detail.

It may well come with me to the crop in September to give me something to pretend to be working on while we eat cake and chat.

The other thing I'm going to share with your today is this desk full of babygros.  They were used by two tiny prem baby girls and were brought to me this week to make a bear out of.....the one babygro was so small that to make a panel out of it I had to join three pieces!!

Of course, being stretch fabric it also all had to be backed with iron on vylene so the bear was quite a challenge to make but......

.....here she is finished wearing the tiny tutu that the baby girls used to wear.  I did have to adjust the tutu a little but I think she's rather cute.

The other bear I've made so far this week is this blue one made out of a Dudley Girl's High School scarf.

This one came with more challenges because it was a fairly loosely knitted woollen scarf that had to be stabilised with fabric iron on interfacing and there was only enough of the fabric in the scarf to get three out of the four panels out of.  Thankfully I had some blue fabric in just the same shade as the school uniform.

Don't you just love it when you can overcome the challenges life throws you and the finished result is so lovely?   I get a big thrill out of what I do....can you tell?

I hope you have enjoyed your visit today and will leave me a little message so I know you've called by.  I will do my best to pay you a return visit but I have rather a lot of orders for my Memory bears and cushions this week.  :-)

Hugs,

Annie x