Diy Lowly Worm plushie

Our kids have quite often different opinions about kids' tv programs; what is boring, what is scary, what is just plain stupid etc. However, there are few programs that they both agree on, one is Richard Scarry's Busy Town (at least for now). It isn't flashy and polished like the new computer made animations, the atmosphere is calm and friendly and even I knew the characters as a kid! It's always nice when they like something just because it is fun, not because it is something that everyone likes right now (and forgets when new characters are introduced by the toy factories).

We have Best Make-It book Ever! by Richard Scarry. It includes all kinds of crafts; you can cut out the characters and buildings from Busy town, both instructions and ready cut outs to make finger dolls, calendar, cards... It is thick book with plenty to do. I bought it last summer to have something to do at the summer cottage if it rains and it has turned out to be great fun. There is still plenty to do.

I was browsing through it with our son one day and we read a story from that book about Lowly Worm and it ended with words "now go and make your own Lowly Worm!". The book had patterns and instructions to make your own plushie. The book told to ask help from someone who can sew and find the fabrics from your mum's fabric scrap box. Since there is no shortage in either, we started the project.

Lowly Worm is pretty easy to do and I won't publish here full instructions nor the patterns as I think they are copyright protected. Anyway, it isn't hard to figure out just by looking at the pictures.

The worm itself is made out of two parts; the one with the brown fabric making head and body and the green making the pants. The hat, coat and shoe are separate parts.

The book advised to use felt, understandable as it's very easy to use but I used what was in the scrap fabric box and took fabric out of couple old t-shirts. The original advice was to cut the eyes out of white and black felt and glue them on but I didn't want to use glue. I had a feeling that the plushie would end up being carried everywhere and played with a lot so the glued eyes would come off eventually. I used buttons instead and our son chose the red ones. I would have used black ones as it looks a bit demonic now but he is happy with it. The hat has yellow ribbon sewn on it and it is attached with few hand stitches. I attached the hat and the eyes as well as embroidered the mouth once the plushie was otherwise ready.

The coat is made out of a sleeve of a t-shirt and of course I took use of the finished edge! The top edge I sew with zig zag. The bow is just a piece of red fabric with raw edges and attached with couple hand stitches.

The original instructions didn't mention about filling the shoe at all but I thought it is nicer this way. I filled the shoe with the smallest fabric scraps so it is a bit harder than with other padding. I used the ready finished edge here too.

Making Lowly Worm didn't take much time, was very easy and our son is very happy with it. What could be better? Oh, and it used at least some of my fabric scraps, always good too!

Happy 1st of May!

This blog had a birthday in April - which I completely forgot! I'm terrible at remembering the days anyway; birthdays, anniversaries... I don't remember the date and I usually don't even remember the year. I guess that they aren't that important to me, more important is the thing itself. For example as much as I like our cats and dog, I simply don't remember their birthdays! I remember my own (just!), husband's and the kids, that's enough right?

So I will just wish you all Happy 1st of May!

The weather has been rather insane! It has snowed, then it has looked a bit like spring, then it has snowed again and as soon as the snow has melted, it has snowed again. This picture is from yesterday (the sticker the bottom right corner is covering my kids' names made with window paint) and as you can see, it snowed! There is more snow than there was on Christmas. And today? Sunshine, +10 celsius and again a hint of spring. Sounds promising! But they say about the Finland that at least during the summer it doesn't snow that much...

The reason this blog has been this quiet is that I have sewing quite a lot but with new fabrics, no good upcycling ideas to share with you, sorry. The kids needed new clothes, their doll needed new clothes, there were some presents I wanted to do etc. I have shared some of them in Instagram/Facebook but thought I would show them here. I haven't photoed them all though, for example I made new leggings, shirts and outdoor pants for my daughter but didn't remember to photo them and now at least one pair has broken knees...

I also started working as a part time in a grocery nearby. About 3 days a week, so not that much but it certainly cuts down the sewing time.

These were made actually before Christmas but they never made it to the blog. Triangle pouches for the kids to keep the new legos from Lego advent calendars.

This is actually upcycling, or just use whatever you happen find when the need is bad. Our daughter had ice skating at the preschool and I realised the night before that the skates probably should have some protection! A class of 6 year olds carrying rather sharp ice skates doesn't sound like very safe. These were quick to make and being jeans, they also lasted through the ice skating times nicely.

We had our kids' cousin's birthday and she wished for baby worry eater. I made smaller worry eater (she already has the big one) and thought I would sew something else as well. Tulle, ribbons and satin and there you have it; princess's hand bag that probably is good enough for any little girl! Everything used is from my storage.

 

We also attended a wedding and I really saw an effort to make a shirt for our son that he would actually like to wear. I mean, the girls at this age are easy; any princess dress works and they actually want to wear them. But boys? No such luck. And it's fine as long as you have a son who doesn't care what they wear but we don't. I know I could have said that he has to wear the neat clothes I have chosen because it is a wedding and he probably would have done so but he wouldn't have enjoyed it at all. I thought I would at least try to make something for him that would give him as nice feeling as that princess dress for his big sister. Finally we ended up with a knit fabric shirt, bright green shirt with a pocket that has Minion on it. I don't think the characters belong to a shirt that is going to be used in a wedding but he is 5 years old and if that's how I can make him want to wear something, then that be it.

And what happened? The lingonberry juice happened, the photo is taken after two times washing it. After this I took it outside sunbathing (we actually had few days of sun in a row) and it looks quite good now. You can spot the stains if you look really close but I think the shirt can be used again. What a relief! The other option would have been to applique more Minions to it.

Upcycled through and through! A bed for cat, crocheted with yarn cut out of old clothes. Tutorial for this coming later.

When the sun started shining a bit warmer, our kids took their dolls outside. At least our daughter did, son took his teddy bear and dressed it with doll clothes. Then I realised that he needs his own doll too! Then I saw on our local Facebook group someone selling similar doll than the one our daughter has and bought it for him. And how happy he was! Shame he hasn't had a doll before. The stereotypes sit tight in us. The girls can get toy cars as birthday presents but how many boys have got dolls...?

We have toy cars, small and big, we have Littlest Pet Shop-figures, Barbies, Fireman Sam-figure, Octonauts etc. Some are our daughter's, some our son's and it's great to see them play with all of them together. No boys' or girls' play, just playing. The same with Legos, if they get to choose their own Lego packages from a shop they check them all based on their interests, not what belongs to girls and what to boys. And if you ask me, that's how it should be.

Oops. I missed the point. I made new clothes for the doll. Of course it needs outdoor clothes if it is going to play outside, right?

At least there can be found greenery inside even there is lack of it outside! My husband has been working for Naava for few years now. The company has developed an active green wall that cleans the air very effectively. A product that has huge demand nowadays, it is pretty much the only thing that can remove huge amounts of harmful chemicals out of the indoor air. And it's just not something sold in Finland, they are currently starting the manufacture and selling of these walls in United States! If you want to know more, they have very thorough explanation of how it works on their website: https://www.naava.io/en/

The plants are tested and there aren't any poisonous ones so you can pretty safely let your kid bury their face into it! He said he wanted to camouflage as he is wearing a green jacket...