easy peasy Easter decoration

Here's a quick and easy way to make an Easter decoration centre piece.

Draw an egg shape onto a piece of card and cut out to make a template.

You will also need some fabric pieces folded over to make a double piece the size of your egg shape.

Lengths of ribbon and some branches.

Trace egg shape onto double sided fabric

Pin fabric pieces and cut around marked line

Cut ribbon to desired length (approx 20cm) and place in between the two fabric pieces, place about 1-2 cm inside so it will be secured when stitching around the edge

Sew all around the edge securing the piece of ribbon as you go

Easy -  make as many as you can in different fabrics

Place your branches in a vase or pot and hang the fabric eggs 

Also try other shapes such as hearts or birds! 

Easy peasy!

great southern land...

Feels good to have finished my giant map of Australia today.  It's something I have been wanting to do for ages.

It's hanging in the window at my stockist Davies & Son, 520 Hampton Street, Hampton, Victoria.  With the little framed map of Australia next to the giant hanging map they look like 'mother & child'.

I stitched some little islands around  the big map of Australia including  Kangaroo Island (South Australia) King Island, Flinders Island & Cape Barren Island (Tasmania) Stradbroke & Fraser Islands (Queensland) and Groote Eylandt (Northern Territory).

A fleecy, felty week with kids...

Last week it was the kids turn to try their hand at sewing.

My son's school project was to construct a model of your favourite healthy food. I had some left over felt and polar fleece so he decided to make a taco.

Cutting out some tomatoes from red felt.

Strips of grated carrot

He also used some light green felt for avocado and dark green felt for lettuce. I pinned it altogether and then he sewed it up almost all by himself (I helped when he got into a knot).

Do you think it looks like a healthy taco?

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My daughter's project was to make a model that demonstrates the digestive system.  Seeing her brother made such a great taco and not to be outdone, I helped her put together some 'polar fleece vital organs'!

Here we have a purple esophagus, hot pink liver, pale pink stomach, light green pancreas, dark green colon and orange intestines. 

It was a polar fleece week.  At school the teachers asked if any parents would like to come in and teach the kids a special skill/craft.  I volunteered to show the class how to make a 'bat'.

I cut out and pre-sewed about 25 black and purple bats the night before in my bat cave.

The next day the kids learnt how to turn their 'bats' inside out and fill with stuffing.  Then they stitched up the little opening and glued on some eyes and mouth.  They finished off sewing on the bat wings.  I think they really enjoyed themselves and learnt that sewing is not only fun but quite easy.

The idea for the bats came from this book:

Nice to see the boys love sewing too.  It's not just for the girls!