Monday, February 13, 2012

Clover Quick Yo Yo Makers!


Last week, I finally got some of the Clover quick yo yo makers! I have had a heap of fun trying them out and thought I'd let you know what they are like. I bought the extra small circle, small circle, small butterfly and small flower. I got them from Amazon.com because they worked out to be almost half the price of buying them in store or online in Australia. It's ridiculous how cheap stuff is from the US!


Here is a pic of the circles. The extra small one is really tiny!! After trying these out, I think I'd like the medium size too. I've made the standard circle yo yo's before with only a cardboard circle template and it worked ok but these quick yo yo makers make it much less fiddly for the circles. I still found it a little fiddly to get it sitting the way I wanted at the end but I thought the stitching part was much easier...and the cute little guides just make it fun! ;-) My first few turned out pretty well but I felt like it took me a few to really be happy with them and get the hang of it. I think it's definitely easier to make them in larger sizes. You also have to be careful to get the right tension when pulling it tight.


Below are the butterfly and flower. With the flower and butterfly, you actually sew 2 separate sections that gather up separately. They take a little more work but turn out quite cute! I did find it hard to get them to sit in a really good shape, especially the butterfly, but I guess it all depends how picky you are. I will definitely have to work on getting the butterfly to be a bit more even though. I pulled one side tighter than the other. I also found the instructions a bit confusing when it came to pulling up the gathering stitches for the butterfly but managed to figure it out ok.


Each yo yo maker comes with detailed instructions....VERY detailed instructions! What you actually need to do is quite simple once you figure it out but it takes careful explanation to learn it that first time. I found the circle instructions were pretty easy and clear to follow and I just needed to go a bit slower with the flower and butterfly. After you do them all once or twice, you don't really need to follow the instructions though...unless you don't make them too often and forget. I'm sure I'll forget how to do the flower and butterfly! Here's a couple of pics to give you an idea of how detailed the instructions are.

The butterfly instructions.

The circle instructions.

I'm hoping to use mine on some hair clips with covered buttons and maybe on some gifts for friend's children. :-) My first order of supplies to make covered buttons is in the mail!! I can't wait for it to arrive!

Backs of the yo yo's, butterfly and flower.


If you would like to watch a video on how to use these, I've found one that show it well. This lady shows you pretty much every step and takes her time. When you're making them yourself, you can do it more quickly. She does finish it off a little different to the instructions but it works. :-)

Monday, February 6, 2012

Welcome!!

Welcome to Stitches and Love!

I'm so excited to finally get organised and be able to share all the fun things I make for my boys, myself and family and friends. I have previously been blogging over at Make It For The Boys but have decided to gather everything here in the one place. Please bare with me while I finish importing posts and get to work on posts about all the crafty things I have been dying to share over the last few months. You will find that this welcome post will end up in the middle of old and new posts due to importing my posts from Make It For The Boys that are older than this one. I hope it isn't too confusing and I will add links to important things like tutorials that you can find at the top of the page. :-)

Life has been very busy with our new little addition to the family but things are starting to settle down now that Max (my eldest) has started kindy and I finally have some decent chunks of regular time to myself!! I am very lucky that Sam sleeps quite well so having Max at kindy is as good as a child free day. :-) I am finally starting to get everything organised so that I can get into more sewing so I am hoping to have quite a few sewing and craft projects to share with you this year as well as dozens of wonderful tutorials I have discovered in some awesome blogs.

I look forward to sharing with you and always love to hear from you so don't hesitate to leave a comment!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Simple Bottle Maze by A Bit of This & A Bit of That



I came across this great idea for a simple bottle maze today. I think it would be great for Max! It's super easy to make and inexpensive...and you get to recycle too! You could do so many variations and difficulty levels. I know I loved mazes as a kid and would have thought this was awesome. You could even get the kids to help you make it! Will have to try it out before Max starts kindy in a couple of weeks. Eeek!

Anyway, go and take a look!

"A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That: amazing bottle maze....: Ebi-kun LOVES mazes so I whipped up this to keep him busy for a while...."

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Christmas Stockings for Our Family

My mum started a tradition of making us all our own Christmas stocking for our first Christmas. As kids, we always thought our stocking were the most awesome Christmas stockings around and we still all love them! When I got married, I decided to continue the tradition and made my husband a stocking for our first married Christmas. I did the same for Max's first Christmas and today, I've just finished Sam's Christmas stocking just in time for his first Christmas. I'm so relieved I got it done in time. Life is a whole lot busier with 2 little boys to look after. :-)


They are lined with batting in between the fabric and lining and the names are embroidered in chain stitch. The edges of the cuffs are done in satin stitch and clipped close to the stitching. I never really intended it but they've all ended up in a shade of red!! I think they look really nice all together and our little stocking family is complete. :-)

Christmas stocking are something that you can make for anyone including those special boys in your life. I used an old McCall's pattern for these stockings so I can't post a pattern online but here's a few links to some great stocking tutorials if you'd like to make some yourself.

- Tip Junkie's list of stocking tutorials
- Fabric Worm's stocking tutorial
- Prudent Baby's stocking tutorial
- Sew Like My Mum's stocking tutorial

That should be enough to get you going and give you some great ideas. Happy stocking sewing!!

***UPDATE: Here is a pic of the pattern I used just in case anyone is interested in tracking it down. You can often find it available online second hand. :-)***

Friday, December 9, 2011

Ideas for Boy's Themes

If you're new to making things for boys, it can seem daunting and quite tricky coming up with themes or ideas of things to make. To help you out, I've brainstormed a heap of themes that boys love. You should find something there to get you started. :-) I've avoided anything branded as I think some of the best homemade stuff comes from our own imagination or at the very least, is based around a timeless theme, not the most popular TV show. Feel free to make any suggestions of extra themes that could be added to the list! I know I'll be adding more as I think of them. :-)


Submarines
Planes
Cars
Trucks
Motorbikes
Trains
Bikes & Scooters
Skateboards
Ships
Construction vehicles
Town & Roads

Jungle
Under the Sea
The Beach
Desert
Wild West, cowboys, indians
Arctic/Antarctic animals and landscape
Snow
The Zoo

Pirates
Castles
Knights
Dragons
Robots
Aliens
OuterSpace
Cave Men

Bugs
Farm Animals
African Animals
Birds
Fish
Reptiles
Mammals
Pets
Dinosaurs

Explorers
Detectives
Armed Forces - Army, Navy, Airforce
Firemen/Fire trucks
Policemen/Police Cars
Ambulance Officers/Ambulances
Doctor
Roman Soldiers
Inventors
Detectives
Secret Agent/Spies
Kings & Queens

Sports (football, soccer, hockey, basketball, cricket, athletics etc)
Cooking/Food
Music/Instruments
Building/Tools
Computers
Computer games & consoles

Friday, December 2, 2011

Fixing Up The Download Links...

I have just discovered that none of the links to my templates work at the moment. I am so sorry if you have come to my blog to look at my tutorials recently and have tried to download templates only to find they don't work! I have my husband on the job fixing up my website and getting everything working again so they should all be functional very soon!


***Update! Downloads for my own patterns are now fixed! :-) Lets hope they don't disappear again!***

Monday, November 21, 2011

Baby Samuel Has Arrived!!

Sorry I haven't been posting the last month or so. Was super tired those last few weeks of pregnancy and was desperately trying to finish off portable change mats, breast pads, nursing covers etc. before bubby arrived. I managed to just get a maternity apron that I designed finished (and photos taken thankfully!) before Samuel arrived on November 14th. Here's a few pics of me and my boys. :-)

Just a couple of hours old.

My 3 favourite people in the world.

Max cuddling his little brother for the first time. 

Sammy all ready to go home.
Once things settle down again here, I'll have to get back to posting some of the things I've been making and discovering. I'm about to get into Christmas presents for the boys and have found some awesome supplies for making baby toys that I'd love to share with you so stay tuned!
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