Sorry it’s been so long since  I posted. Life kind of took over and things have been a little chaotic recently (more on that next time).

So no more Sewing Bee!!! How will I last another year until the next series? Much as I loved Jade, I think Charlotte was the right person to win. I can’t wait to see what they’re all going do next.

In the meantime – GBBO is back!! That will keep me occupied for a while – and inspire me to attempt to make cakes, pies, bread and who knows what else… The majority of which will be far better in my head than in reality. Or they’ll be things that only I like the sound of (such as chocolate cupcakes filed with violet butter cream – this will be the year I’m making those). Might not be good for fitting into all those Christmas party dresses in a few months’ time…

So – what have I been doing with myself over the last few months?

Well, my dressmaking course has finished. Unfortunately I missed the last two classes, so I have yet to finish my top. That’s going to be my target over the next month though – all that’s left is to sew the side seams, add a zip so I can actually get it on, hem it and add some sleeves… Easy right? Maybe two months would be a more realistic target and I may need to find a few YouTube tutorials (if anyone has any good recommendations – let me know!).

Although the dressmaking hasn’t quite gone to plan, I have been sewing. I decided to try something different to get me back into using my machine again. Following a request for dinosaur tails for my nieces, I did a bit of hunting and found a wonderful tutorial on Running with Scissors.

Now I have made soft toys before, but I’ve always sewn them by hand. The first toy I made was a toy corgi using one of the Minicraft kits. With all the pieces cut out ready and step by step instructions, even hand-sewing it only took me a few weeks to finish it.

So, when my brother and his wife discovered that they were expecting twins (nearly three years ago now) – I thought “I know what I’ll make them as a present”. I decided to make them a teddy bear each. A bit of googling later and I found the How Joyful Bear free pattern and tutorial.

Knowing that fake fur fabric isn’t suitable for babies, I decided to make the bears out of fleece. Nice, soft and baby safe. What I then realised is trying to draw the pattern on fleece material with tailor’s chalk… really not fun. We ended up having to use a biro and even then it was difficult.

I finished the first bear the weekend the girls were born (the friends I was with that weekend will no doubt remember me frantically embroidering eyes and a nose so that I had it ready to give to the babies the next day). The second bear took a little longer.

Finally, after around 18 months, I was finally able to give them the second bear. Luckily it coincided with the girls discovering soft toys, and Pinky and Perky were happily claimed by the toddlers who were just about big enough to carry them (the first bear was bigger than both the babies put together when they were born).

So, back to the dinosaur tails. As we’re trying to avoid pink at the moment, I decided to do one tail blue with green spikes and one green with blue spikes. They’re nice and soft, and fasten round the waist with Velcro. The girls get their presents this weekend – so I’ll let you know how successful they are.

I’ve really enjoyed making these and they’ve actually been great for practising my foot control and sewing zigzags. I even got to do some top stitching which is a first. All in all will definitely be making more toys. If nothing else, I think I’ll be making some more dinosaur tails – one for my goddaughter and one for a friend’s nephew.

My next project: toy elephants! Having found this pattern on sale, I’ve decided I’m going to make the girls their own toy elephants, complete with cases/bedrooms and a selection of clothes – I can use all the bits of fabric I bought with the aim of doing patchwork and have never actually used. My plan is to do these as Christmas presents, but that might depend on how I get on… I’ll keep you updated.

Update: The girls loved the dino tails! It’s particularly entertaining to watching them wiggle as they charge about. Word of warning though – potty training while wearing a dinosaur tail isn’t ideal…