Lutin deco-frame before Christmas

You remember the deco-frame I made in October with dwarfs in it? Since beginning of December it is now decorated for Christmas!

Happy Christmas to all lutins near and far!

A bientôt,
Jane

Selfmade fir tree

Already last year I found a picture on pinterest of a self-made fir tree with a slight magic touch, as it's not looking natural with its bended top. This year I got loads of branches from the local recycling center, and tried out how to do a tree like that myself. Not so difficult, I managed already with the first try. Other than the ones I saw on pinterest I decided for an all natural look and decorated only with fir-cones and a wooden star.

The stars you can see below the fir are also self-made and you will see them in a post next week :-)

I love my little tree and thought others might too, so I organised crafting sessions for making fir-trees and wreaths. At two evenings in our basement several trees have been born! No one was interested in wreaths, but around a dozen little trees made the people very happy. Lot's of fun! And all trees are different!

In the end I had only fir branch leftover scraps, that partly I transformed into wreaths like those I showed in the last post. Also there had been lots of branches from a blue conifer that hadn't been very dense, so no one wanted to use them. Last weekend I took care of a friend's son and we tried together if it's possible to turn those blue branches into a tree. It worked! Friend's son and I just had different ideas on how to decorate it, so it ended a little mixed. He took it home and I have no idea how he transformed the decoration until now. Maybe I don't want to know? ;-)

A bientôt,
Jane

Wreath for entrance doors

I made lately a lot with fir sprigs. For example several wreath. Here are three of them that I decorated. Two have already found other doors to hang on, as I used them as thank-you-gifts, and one is at our front door.

A bientôt,
Jane

Feeding birds

With the kids from the crafting class I wanted to make bird feeders from flower pots filled with a mixture of seeds and fat. Of course I tried out before, to have an example to show and also for all the birdies in my garden.

The birds around are used to fat balls and a simple feeding station that I fill from autumn to late spring with seeds and nuts in a tree in our front yard.

Now they are having a second restaurant in the apple tree behind the house. (This tree is always very late in losing his leaves)

A bientôt,
Jane

New zipper solution for pouches

Look at my newest pouch! It's a toilet bag and inside and outside with wax cloth. Okay, on the outside the bottom is synthetic leather and the red braid is a cotton string, but anyway perfectly usable for wet rooms.

Those who already read other posts of me where I were talking about sewing pouches, know that I have a particular problem with the neatness of the zipper. Not sewing in the zipper - that's no problem at all - but the point where the zipper is ending in the corner of the pouch. I hate when it is clumsy or bulky or however you will call it. A few years ago I finally found a corner technique that is working for me (have a look here), but now I think this corner is even easier and hiding, or better cutting of, the ugly corner. 

In this case I used the triangles I cut off from the lining to form the bottom, but there are plenty of possibilities how to make the end-points of the zipper. The big advantage is that you have directly a handle to hold when pulling the zipper. 

Like it!

Need to make more of this ... but when???  

A bientôt,
Jane

Deco-frame with dwarfs

I am so very behind with showing the creations of this autumn! I could probably post every day something for the next week. But I won't have the time I guess. But here is a projekt I develloped for the kids crafting classes in September and October. 

We made big frames from branches (in average about 40x40cm). Mine is a bit different than thoses I made with my class. I drilled holes into the horizontal bares to fix the vertical sticks in. But this took some skilles and tool-action that I couldn't do with the children. So for them I cut slots into the bigger branches and we fixed the frame with nails and wire and covered it with cord. You will see the difference in the following pictures. I am still thinking of adding a bit of cord to my frame too, for the rustical touch. What do you think?

We made litte wooden houses and dwarfs from sticks (I call dwarfs by the french word "lutin", because I think it's prettier) . You might know those two decoration elements from several of my former projects. The house is fixed to the frame, but the lutins and all other deco pieces are having a pin beneath and they can be put in changing constellations into different holes in the lower frame bare. 

The frame can be used from both ... 

The idea is that the frames can be decorated depending on the season. So we will produce this year in the crafting classes, lots of changing seasonal decoration elements that the kids can put as they like onto their frames. Only the house and the lutins will be there the whole year.

This are some of the kids frames:

We are now allready in process of making Christmas decoration for the dwarfs homes. You will see them in december!

A bientôt,
Jane

Autumn skirt and bonnet

October started today with cloudy cold weather and light rain from time to time. Autumn started!

And I started the season where we need cosy clothes by sewing a simple jersey over-trouser-skirt and with the rest of the fabric a bonnet.

 

Fast project and I wore it directly this afternoon.

A bientôt,
Jane