Finally finished my monkey men

So I finally finished the two monkey-men who have already found their way to their new home. Here is the navy blue one - his mouth is a little crooked but I do love the way it makes him look. He's a cutie. I hand sewed him entirely - He seems very strong so hopefully he will be able to stand up to the punishments of a little boy :)

And this one is the black one - he's going to the brother of the blue monkey. His body is all machine-stitched but it seemed to work this time - the stitches weren't breaking. So I must have been doing something wrong last time.



And here's all three together, hanging out.

These guys are so much fun to make.

Some recent sewing

I have a lot of things on my to-do list and finally, finally I am nearly finished a gift for somebody special who gave me a heap of flannel last year so I could make lots of raggy quilts. I don't think she reads my blog so I think I'm safe posting he pics here.

So I made a pair of warm winter pyjamas for both of this lovely Mama's boys - I'm a chicken when it comes to sewing stretch, so the tops are just from Big W and I appliqued (quite badly) their initial on each one so that they can tell whose pj's are whose! They are quite close in age so I made them the same size. The flannel is from spotlight.

Along with each pair of pj's I have a sock monkey - I have yet to make them - they are almost completed but just need their limbs sewed on. So I've added a photo of a sock monkey (same socks but different colours) that I have made as a special order for a friend overseas. I wonder if she'll read this and think "Oh it's mine!!" :-)

He was so lovely to make - I didn't use the machine - and it turned out so much nicer than my machined sock monkeys. For some reason (it's that stretch fabric thing!!) the seams just always seem to split :(. I never have a problem with the ones I've hand-sewn. Any ideas on what I"m doing wrong?

Haven't posted for ages so I just thought I'd let you all know that things are happening - I just don't have 36 hours in the day. I wish!

Christmas Gifts!

Here are some of the gifts I've been working on.

For my sister - a reading pillow from this pattern



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Assorted I-spy bags for adult friends. Hopefully they won't go completely nuts from trying to find tiny things.






An apron for one of my friends.




Yet another sock monkey - this time for my nephew and it is made from really long football socks. So he is reeeeeeeaaallly tall and gangly. With cauliflower ears, black eye and the other eye swollen shut :) I enjoyed making him.






But the thing that I'm most excited about is the Doll cradle/carrier I made for Miss E. My friend, Donna, made a beautiful, beautiful doll for E - isn't she gorgeous?







And here is the carrier with matching pillow and sheet. I'm hoping she will love it to bits! It was really easy to make and you can find the tutorial here.





So I think I'm just about finished making all the Christmas presents. I also made four raggy quilts but haven't photographed them yet. I'm really happy with how they turned out too.

All in all I'm very excited to have made the majority of our Christmas presents this year. It's been really fun and I'm hoping to do it again next year.

A few random sock monkies

Trying to make as many christmas presents as I can this year. I've been quite organised about it actually. I've surprised myself! :) Just ask my husband - organisation is not my strong suit.

Here are the two latest.

This one is for my niece's 8th Birthday next week.

and this one was given to our god-daughter for her early christmas present as she and her family will be in Geelong for Christmas. She loved it and called it "Chip".