My little man

My handsome boy will be 2 years old in just over a month. He is such a funny, stylish little guy. Everyone who knows him knows how much he loves his hats and his shoe collection. Infact he rarely leaves home without some kind of hat to finish his 'do' :) 

So I recently picked up a bunch of plain t'shirts on special and thought I could 'dress them up' a little. Tonight I cut out some little hats, ties and moustaches and the letter G for my little man Griffin. I used an iron on lightweight heat 'n bond to stick them onto the shirt, then I set to work with my trusty Janome. I used a small machine blanket stitch and went slowly around the corners, and ta-da!! A cool tee for my cool little man :)

 

I just remembered some shoes I painted for Griffin recently that would go perfectly with his new tee.
 

Here they are, just a cheap pair of white canvas shoes with a little 'G man' makeover.  I painted these with acrylic paints and when they were dry I put a clear coat of acrylic over them to help protect them in the weather :)

What do you think?

I heart pattern testing: Heidi &Finn Downtown Hat

 

I LOVE to test patterns. It's fun to get a preview of a pattern before its released, it's fun to be an insider for talented designers and, lets face it, it's fun to get a free pattern :) It can also be a bit stressful. There's a deadline to sew to, there's internal pressure to do your best sewing and get great photos. 

I had been stalking checking the Heidi and Finn FB page after she indicated there would be a pattern for testing coming soon. Then I saw the call had gone out when I was at work and I was a looong way down the list of hopefuls. Lucky for me I was still selected to test the 12m-2T size of the Downtown Hat. Then to make my day even better my hubby agreed that I should use the discount voucher I had for spotlight and pick up some new fabric. Pattern testing and fabric shopping... was it my birthday? 

I got this lovely dark blue fleecy knit and set to work making my first hat. There are only two pattern pieces and my printer has been misbehaving so I decided to trace it off the screen. I cut it out in a few minutes while hubby was making the kids lunch (ie. before the table was all messy from lunch). It was really quick to sew, I made it mostly with my overlocker, just used my sewing machine for the topstitching. The Pattern is very clear and easy to folllow and the finished product looks just like the pictures. The sizing seems spot on. So far I have only made two of the sizes and they fit as expected.

Then the fun bit, designing the look for the photos. I decided to make a little faux wrap jumper to match the flower I had used to embellish the hat. I used the ballet sweater pattern and modified it to make it a full length pull-over jumper. It was really quick to make and I was patting myself on the back for such an easy pattern modification. Then I tried it on Eloise... Unfortunately there is a lot less stretch in the fleecy fabric I used than the jersey knit I'd used previously to make the ballet sweater. Getting it on her was a challenge, which required a bit of toddler origami [please note, no Eloise's were harmed in the making of this outfit ;)]. So, although I love the look of it, it will not be a regular part of her wardrobe. I will make another one like it in a fabric with more stretch, or make the same again in a size bigger. 

 

A bit tricky to get photos of my little miss with anything on her head. She would only leave it on for a minute at a time. Here are the shots we managed to get. Unfortunately she woke up with a runny nose this morning so there were a lot of breaks (and tissues).

 

Here is the pink one I made.

 

I love this photo [below], it's a few seconds before she fell over. She was a bit wobbly the whole time (I think from wearing shoes in the sand) and had lots of little tumbles. She thought it was great fun!

I definitiey recomend this pattern. Its good quality, fast to make and suits any skill level.


I'd love to hear what you think of it :)

Kerry xx



PS: We will be guest blogging on Rock The Stitch for her "Inspired by Chevrons" series, stay tuned!

A Toy Treehouse

I thought I would share with you one of my recent projects.  I am a bit spontaneous and often I will think of an idea and built/create it all in one day.  Did I mention that perhaps I am a little impatient too :)

My little man loves his toy animals, we are always 'feeding' them or taking them with us when we are at Spotlight or to visit the Drs. He often spends some time balancing them on the edge of furniture or on rocks in the garden, so I thought a little tree house would be perfect for all his animals.

I had scrap pieces of ply wood handy from a previous project (I will tell you about that later), so off I went with a piece of chalk to sketch out my design. Once I was happy with the look, I set to work with my jigsaw to cut out all the pieces and the window & door openings.  I love the look of 'natural wood' and refined timber, so I also took the tree saw to a branch of one of the trees which was needing a prune. These made great 'trees' for the treehouse platform to sit on.

The result - a small tree house, just the right size for my little man to put his assortment of animals inside.  We took our basket of 'tree blocks' (from a previous project), and made lots of spaces for the animals to play.

What do you think?

Linda x 

The little treehouse

The animals' new home

What's in a name?

How did we decide on the name Sutures and Sandpaper? Good question, ummm...

We wanted a name that captured the variety of craftiness that we like to dabble in. The great thing is we have different strengths and they complement each other (and for sisters we actually seem to get on pretty well most of the time). Yes, at the moment Kerry is pathologically obsessed with sewing (and buying patterns :/), but in general we love craft FULL STOP. 

Linda is a Mum to her gorgeous little boy Griffin (22 months). She worked for many years as a preschool teacher and is currently a SAHM and also looks after Kerry's little ones when she's at work. Linda can make just about anything. She is usually not constrained by patterns or instructions but more thinks of an idea and creates it. She has done a lot of wood related crafting lately. Our Dad used to tease us that girls could not use power tools. Well... Linda has proven once or twice that she can wield a drop saw/drill/jigsaw/belt sander with the best of them (and she still has most of her fingers).

Kerry works part time as a doctor, is married and is a Mum to three great kids, Xander (6.5yo), Sethan (4yo) and Eloise (14months). She loves sewing, knitting, crocheting, paper craft and anything crafty really. Lately Kerry is really enjoying sewing clothes for her little ones. She has recently gone from sewing directly from patterns, to starting to combine and modify patterns. She also has a few ideas floating around for some patterns that she wants to create. 

So, the "Sutures" part reflects Kerry in all her nerdiness as part doctor and part self taught wannabe seamstress and the "Sandpaper" part is more about Linda and her ability to create amazing things with wood (and many other materials) that most of us wouldn't ever contemplate. 

Our little munchikns ♡♡♡♡


 

Kerry & Linda xx

Ballet Sweater

I have had this pattern in my Etsy cart for aaages but was too nervous to purchase it. I wondered if I would be able to do it justice. I have pretty limited experience sewing with knits and a bit of a mental block about it. The other day I decided to take the plunge and try it (with some encouragement from my craft group). I managed to buy the pattern on sale too which was a bonus.

I had some plain yellow knit fabric I’d bought to make leggings with, which I thought would be perfect to use with my training wheels on. Cutting the fabric was a bit different to the woven fabric I’m accustomed to, the edges kept wanting to curl up, but the great thing was there was only three pattern pieces and some rectangles. I had great plans to get it sewn up while Eloise had her nap. Unfortunately she only had a short nap, so I made most of it while keeping her amused. Thankfully it came together really quickly and I LOVE the finished product (so does Eloise).

I sent a little pic and some feedback to the pattern designer (HeidiandFinn) and she was really positive. She asked me to email some more pictures. She has since posted one on her Facebook page and asked if she could use some of the pictures for the pattern shop. YAY! I was really excited about the positive feedback and the thought of my creation being used in the Heidi and Finn Etsy store. Oh, and she sent me a free pattern too!!

I have made another once since then and I’m planning to make a few more in different colours (just wish I had a good source of cute knit fabrics). They’re really quick and easy to make. They go perfectly over her little dresses and together with some leggings mean she can wear the dresses she has into the cooler weather. I think they look pretty cute with her jeans too.

What do you think?

Kerry xx

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog. We've chatted about setting up a blog for such a long time and now we're finally doing it! The biggest stumbling block was deciding on a name. We'd love to hear what you think of "Sutures & Sandpaper"? We wanted a name that fitted us and the fact that we love all crafts, great and small. We'll work on the look of the blog as soon as we can.

We have been crafting together and individually since we were young kids. We are lucky to have the best mum in the world, who encouraged us to be creative and imaginative and tolerated the mess we inevitably made along the way. We have taught ourselves and each other everything we know. 

We are planning to blog about all of our crafty ideas and achievements (and any failures too). As proud mums we won't be able to resist blogging about our little ones along the way too. We hope to put up some tutorials down the track. 

Please feel free to comment or ask questions or make suggestions anytime. 

Thanks for visiting, we hope you'll come back :)

Kerry & Linda xx