The Three Bears - A handmade dolls house

This little baby has been 'under construction' for some months. I have been doing small bits of embroidery every now and then, and was constantly fearful of how, and if, I would finish it.

Starting out, some months ago

I'm pretty proud of this one. I hope Sarah from Bear and Co. who made our Goldilocks and The Three Bears peg dolls, feels it does them justice.

The bears and Goldilocks move in!

I just managed to complete it in time, to wrap it, and place under the Christmas Tree... Since being opened, all three kids have played with it and the past few days it has mostly been found tucked under my 3-year-old's arm.

Christmas Morning, very exciting.

The tutorial I followed was for a simple farmhouse / dollhouse. My aim was to construct a house that looked similar to the one in our Goldilocks and the Three Bears storybook that we have. The storybook that was mine when I was a little girl. 

Surprise! It actually worked out

My mum gave me an embroidery book for my Birthday back in March, and I did have fun using some techniques from this book and building a little fairytale house.

I had planned to do more, flowers at the front, a family portrait hanging on the wall, but it was not to be.

Bits

The main thing that concerned me with this one, was putting the whole thing together. I did all the embroidery work flat and hoped like crazy I had left enough space, and not too much space to sew it all up.

I did cheat a little by not adding elastic to the sides and sewing on buttons for closure. Instead I attached velcro to the handle in order to keep it all together. Thus far, it's working.

It is a little off in some places, however for a first go and an amateur sewer, it's safe to say, I've impressed myself!

I would even consider making another as all in all, it wasn't too difficult and even, dare I say, enjoyable... Not for a while though.

3 Days remaining, 1 item to go...

Bears House - Item 11

As it's Christmas Eve, I'm not going to sit down and write a coherent blog post, however item 11 is complete and here is a picture;

A house under the tree

Thank you everyone who has been following my adventures this year. I have one more item on my Handmade Challenge List, my bolero, which I hope to complete before the New Year. It's however in many pieces and I have no idea how long it's going to take me to finish it. Hopefully less than 7 days!

In the mean time, wishing you all a lovely and safe Christmas / Holiday.

xxx

To the Bat-Tent! Well... almost

Yay! The card table tent, and my arch nemesis in the 2015 Handmade Challenge is complete.

I honestly had every intention of adorning this 'tent' with comic book style cutouts and bat symbols to turn it into an awesome Bat Cave. However, I put it out this morning, a particularly warm day when we were all stuck inside, to distract the children and try and sort out what on earth I would add, and where. Without warning, the children were off!

Didn't even get to iron it! Who irons a pirate ship?!

First it was a lift, taking them to all sorts of places (reminiscent of Wonka's Great Glass Elevator). Then it was a pirate ship, a house then a train.

Toot Toot!

To make the 'cave' I started with a black double bed sheet (which my mum had found!) Then on the phone to the 'mum hotline'  I put the tent over the top of the table and pinned down each corner origami style. I then sewed a straight (ish) line, cut off the excess and hemmed and trimmed as needed.

Cave 'doors' aren't straight

I marked out the door using chalk and my husbands level, sewed along the lines, cut the shape out roughly and used black bias binding to stop the edges fraying. I figured as it was a cave it didn't need an opening that could be closed, nor did it require windows!

In the interests of open ended play, and sheer determination to complete my Handmade Challenge on time, I'm more than happy to allow the children to let their imaginations run wild and let the table tent go the way of the tree skirt; filed under 'it will do'

All three of them fit in there by the way.

13 days remaining, 2 items to go

Handmade Challenge - December Update

Yes I'm still panicking, however I have stopped running about screaming and decided to focus my panicked energies on getting things done.

After crocheting approximately 5.5 metres around my Christmas Tree Skirt (original tutorial), my husband gently suggested that I had made the skirt, and the pretty little snowflake detail could be left for another year. Yes! Genius husband, tick.

Tree Skirt in time for Christmas (Just)

It's by no means perfect, I of course got the hang of the crocheting by the time I got to the end. It's a darn improvement on the previous skirt I had made. Turns out it was a mini skirt! (afraid I couldn't even rustle up a picture from previous years, as it was so small, it was always covered in presents!)

Definitely not perfect!

Then there were 3.

I have been madly knitting of an evening to get the bolero finished. Thus far I have the back and two sides. I'm not thrilled with this pattern. It's terribly hard to follow and if the bolero turns out not to be hideously lopsided, I will be thrilled.

I have a half 'furnished' the Three Bear's House (this will all become clear, when I've finished the darn thing). However the most exciting thing is, that I finally made a start on the card table tent on the weekend that has just past. The one item on my list that has been scaring the pants off me. It has no windows or a door yet...

22 days remaining, 3 items to go

I'd really love to see what you have been making this year. Shoot me an email or share on Facebook.