Pikachu toy from all purpose cloths

This past week my son has been asking me to make him a pikachu toy, I said I would do it then when we had been to the craft shop we forgot the yellow felt even though we were talking about it while we were in there! I quickly thought how I had used all purpose cloths before when I had made him some other toys ( Arx from the Astrosaurs books was one of them) and we still had to go to the supermarket so I decided that was what I would use. They are not as thick as felt but still quite useful for some craft projects and sometimes you can get them in a roll of pastel colours for about £1.50 the ones I bought were yellow as that is what I needed and came in a pack of three for 99p. they are quite a good size 40cm by 34cm.

I only used one and a little bit so I even have some left to clean with. I wasn't sure exactly what this thing looked like as he only had a picture which was obscured on a little game so we went online to find this..

Now I think it's a funny looking thing anyway but mine looks a bit different. I used a fabric pen on the ends of its ears, I just cut one piece for front and back about 30cm tall, separate pieces for the front arms (legs?)

and separate pieces for the tail. I stuffed these then inserted them into notches that I made on the front and back. I used soft toy stuffing but you could use any scraps or old tights that you have and of course it will be machine washable. I  used  some black denim on the eyes and a bit of pink felt for the cheeks ( I had no red left).  Here it is...

Now that he is finished I realise that  he needed to be more chubby but never mind my son is happy with him. 

Vintage style dress

I said I would post a picture of the vintage dress from last week with the owner wearing it and she was happy for me to do so so here it is.  It looks much better with a body in it as it is halter neck and hanging it on a hanger just didn't do it justice

I love the cherry fabric that she chose ( apparently it was found on ebay) and I think the style really suits her figure. Here is a picture from the side.

She bought the underskirt from china so here it was out of the packet and  bit bunched up and will need a bit of a steam to get the layers hanging nicely.  She came earlier in the week and she was going to be  wearing it to a wedding yesterday, I hope she had a great time.

I was back at work this week so I feel I have not done enough sewing, I always feel it takes me a week to get back into to it after a holiday my body needs to adjust to someone else's enforced routine rather than my own ( Oh to be able to work from home full time, Sigh!) I have some grey fabric which is plain  and also some which has little horses on and I hadn't decided up to now what I was going  to do with it well now I have.

 I  think a skirt similar to this but I wont be using a pattern so it wont be exactly the same and also it looks quite high waisted and I'm not sure if I want it that high. I have in mind what I want to do with the blouse but I cant find a picture of it, something like the shape of the one below.

However this looks like it  is made of jersey and my fabric is cotton so I will do a side fastening I think with buttons or a zip I must get these done this week. I have to go now my son wants me to make him a picachu toy!

The old caravan makeover

I recently spoke about our caravan holidays and how they are a great way to get away without spending a fortune. well I would like to share the makeover we did on our previous caravan with you. it was a four berth marauder and we got it about four years ago, my husband had been wanting a caravan for a while as he always loved the caravan holidays he had with his family as a child and his parents had one.  I wasn't too keen at first and one of the main reasons was the initial outlay for equipment and all the accessories, I also wasn't sure if it was for me but after some persuasion we decided to have a look on ebay.  We looked at loads and the main thing that put me off at first was the interior of a lot of the caravans, I didn't want to spend too much but I also didn't want to holiday in something that I though was ugly.  We decided that the best thing to do was look for one with cupboards that I could live with as the seating, curtains and flooring we could change.  We found the Marauder which was in good condition and put in a maximum bid of £900 and got it. Here is what it looked like when it arrived.

Now it wasn't bad but what you cant see from the picture is that the seating is a really washed out blue and pink and with two dogs that dark blue carpet was not practical as I would need a washable floor. The units were good though and not too dated being a light colour with simple silver handles. Here is the other end of the van.

I decided to re-do all the seating so took off all the cushions and went to Dunelm Mill and managed to get some fabric I liked in the reduced rolls. I made fitted covers then hand stitched each one to the seats so they wouldn't move about I also covered all the fabric buttons and my husband made me a gadget to push the button through the cushion so they looked professional. This made the cushions look much more fitted.  We discovered a bit of damp so my husband opened the front wall and replaced some of the board and trim and also put down a laminate floor with some left over from our previous house.  This had been stored in our garage( glad we kept it now!).  I then papered the wall around the window as the board had been replaced. Looking back on these photos I'm quite sad we let it go as we put a lot of time into it and had lots of cheap holidays but my older son needed a bit more room to sleep and the bunks in this one were quite narrow.

Here it is after its makeover.

I decided to keep the curtains as they were in good condition and went with the colour scheme. After 3 years of holidays in it and getting away about 5 times a year we resold it on ebay for £1100, the man who bought it was very pleased with it and it was just for him and his wife. The caravan we have now is a five berth and a bit younger and at the moment we haven't made any changes but we may do at some point if needed. I think part of the Marauders charm for me was that we made it our own.