House Elves!

Obviously my little resident house elves are in a dither. Their house is moving! There is getting less and less for them to care for. It is all packed away!

I have found this little message too - what a plea for a home!

Good Day Mistress Tara,

Sadly we are now homeless and were wondering if we could come and live in Glasgow with you until we have a new house to belong to.

We promise not to be a burden and will do our chores discretely.

Grovellingly yours, Your faithful house elves, Cherry & Pebble.

I'm sure SewGorgeous will crumble and allow them up to Glasgow don't you?

p.s. the pattern can be found here - although I did adapt it a little (my changes are highlighted in yellow) by making the arms & legs a little longer and adding hands in the face colour too. 

(originally from http://plainandjoyfulliving.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/fun-knitting-gnome.html)

Fabric Covered Boxes

As an idea for Christmas gifts I taught these fun fabric covered boxes.

The Rectangular one fits an 'After Eight' box of chocolates perfectly...

which of course were eaten during the lesson!

The pattern and instructions can be found here

The Pyramid Box could be for for packaging that special gift - maybe a piece of jewelry, a bottle of perfume or just a little home made item. 

Or a bunch of teeny tiny teddies like these.

The Pattern and instructions can be found here (you will need the Rectangular instructions as well)

Wicked Queens Apple Decoration or Pin Cushion

Goodness knows when I made this. Found it under the side board bizarrely. It is a Christmas thingy but could also be a pin cushion.  This one never got onto the tree and I guess never into the Christmas decoration box as it was a little large.  Maybe that's why it was under the sideboard! It is now packed away with the other Christmas decorations in the loft rather than languishing sadly where it was.

The pattern & instructions for this can be found here.

Crochet Vintage Bag

A while back SewGorgeous was just getting into vintage stuff sew I found this vintage 1940s style bag pattern and made her this. 

It is basically a large crocheted circle folded in half. I used a silver lurex and green vintage 'wool' that I'd had for years.

I embellished it with other elements like the pale green leaves and the pink buds from this crochet pattern and added lots of buttons, frills,

ribbon roses, embroidered it and threaded it with ribbon.

I backed it in a green cotton.

and lined it with a heavy sumptuous satin for a luxurious contrast

and even if I say so myself I think it is rather fabulous darling!

Brambly Hedge Mouse Family

When SewGorgeous was little we loved the Brambly Hedge Mouse Stories. A few years later I came across this pattern in a very old Woman & Home (I think) magazine. Looking at the end of the article it was probably 1993! Sew one Christmas recently she got Mr & Mrs Mouse

 and the following year Mr & Mrs Mouse had done what mice do best and had some babies so she got 2 baby mice

 and a basket that I think came from the Mummy Scarecrow knitting pattern by Jean Greenhowe

They are all sew very cute and sit on an old nursing chair on the upstairs landing.

You can find the pattern I used here - Link to PDF pattern here

A Little Pin Cushion

I can't remember when I made this but isn't it cute

It's useful for holding the odd button and bobbin etc. at the same time.

I've created a Google docs account for all the PDF patterns I hope to be adding (since a lot of them are old scraps of paper and vintage magazines). This is one! Find it here (opens in a new window).

 

A Cheerful Mouse

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a cute little something for the stocking.

This year I started making a little mouse for SewGorgeous. I seem to like making mice as you can see from previous Christmas arrivals you can find on her blog. Whilst I was making this years offering I visited Salts Mill at Saltaire in West Yorkshire where I found this adorable little book called Cheerful by Palmer Brown about a little mouse who looks uncannily like my little mouse. I couldn't resist buying it to give with the mouse.

This is the link to the pattern in PDF Form here