Softies For Mirabel 2012

Dear Softies that I made for Softies for Mirabel, your making entertained me for weeks on my break from uni, I hope you reached the safe hands of Pip and Meet Me At Mikes before continuing on to some wonderful little kids.

There were cats.

There were bears.

A legion of frogs.

And some dolls

Ha! I tweeted, I flickr'd and I Sent them off in the mail and I promptly forgot to blog them. I really need some completion-of-tasks-without-distraction lessons!

Softies for Mirabel 2012

This week I have been Stitching up some Softies for Mirabel. How are you all doing with yours?

If you haven't already, you can join up over here at Meet Me At Mikes

I decided to go a bit retro, using a book my Mum bought in the 70's or 80's. 

Book: Soft Toys to make for Children Edited by Alison Lowe Marshall Cavendish 1973-84 

From this book I'm making cats, bears, frogs, elephants and dolls.

Some Images from the book Soft Toys to make for Children

I got started sewing cats and bears during the week, I'm finishing them off now, frogs are being cut out this afternoon and the dolls over the weekend. With any luck they all should be done by the end of next week when I would like to start my Christmas sewing.

I have a couple of weeks more off before uni starts again. This time off has been such a wonderful thing I cannot even tell you how much it has helped me to relax and do what I wanted to each day!

M is for Mondays

M is for Multitasking Mondays!

I can't believe it's Monday already! After torrential rains last week, we've spent the weekend thinking we were about to be flooded at any moment by the Murrumbidgee river. But thankfully the worst that flooded near us was the cricket ground, the flood water didn't come racing through our suburb as feared. We live in a suburb right next to the river. There are levi banks but noone is ever sure they will hold the water after so many years of drought, but they held! And in the places not protected by the levi banks, the river rose fast and flooded into the slightly lower lying areas next us. As far as I am aware no houses were flooded here thankfully.

Today's to-do list.
1. M is for Mending
I have a great, great, great pile of mending to do, or at least make a dint in it.
2. another M is for Mouse
I have to make a new Mouse for Mirabel today, she will be called Macaroni.
3. M is for Machine wash
I have about 5 boxes of dusty vintage  (luckily machine washable) fabrics that have to be machine washed and dried or hung up.
4. M is for marking
I have 2 classes of book work from last term to Mark and grades to enter and reports to write.
5. M is for Mop
I have to Mop the floors because quite frankly its verging on a necessity now after all that rain and wet feet! I can see where you've been people!

So today's, Manic Multitasking Monday, is brought to you by the letter M and the number 5.

Mouse Tony

 Yesterday I made a purple mouse using the Patchwork Mouse pattern from issue 20 of Sew Hip magazine.

I don't usually buy magazines, but I bought one for reading back when Mum first went into hospital and I haven't been able to stop buying them each month since!

The instructions were really clear and really the hardest thing I had to do was to choose fabric I liked.

Of course that didn't stop me from making a mistake. I scanned in the pattern (So as not to trash the original) and printed out the bits I wanted, only to have printed one page out at 90% and all the others at 100% which led to this small problem.

So, I chopped a little bit off him so he is a tad shorter than he was supposed to be... ooops! But he "Turned out" ok eventually...hahaha get it!

After that, Tony and I needed a little break from each other.

So while he relaxed, I got to work on stuffing another Maisey I had cut out and started months ago. She's also decided to join the toys I've made for Mirabel.

And now back to Mouse Tony.
I changed him a little from the magazine, instead of using a string for his tail I used a strip of fabric folded in twice and stitched with a knot in the end.

I love to give them all names, but this time I just couldn't think of one, so my husband called him Tony!
Mouse Tony.
Is it just me or does Mouse Tony sound like he runs the Mouse Mafia?

Wow Where did all the time go!

Well I sent some Softies off to Meet Me At Mike's to help with the toy drive for Mirabel. In the big rush, I forgot to take photos before I sent them. Here are some photos someone else has taken in the shop window that I pieced together showing some of the ones I made.

Go take a look at some of the fabulous Softies created by very talented and wonderful people and donated to Mirabel: http://www.flickr.com/groups/softiesformirabel/pool/

Softies - Making them for Mirabel

Although this is only my first Post, I really need to be getting back to my actual sewing!
I am currently rapidly sewing softies for the Mirabel Foundation. The great thing about Mirabel is that it supports the *CHILDREN* of families affected by substance abuse. They do amazing, heart wrenching and important work. I hope you all give them your support and dollars at every given opportunity. I only recently heard about the Mirabel foundations work through Dave Hughes (Australian Comedian and TV celebrity) supporting them. On my day off recently I went searching to read more about their work and found out about their toy drive. If only I had searched for them sooner!! a few days until the soft toys need to be sent off - that's really soon! But I felt I couldn't let it go by without making as many as I can to send off before the 10th December deadline. The soft toys go straight to the kids and I figure if anyone in this world needs something soft to cuddle it should be them....I encourage all of you crafty and generous sewing ladies and dudes to get sewing - even if you only have time to get one or two done, send it off to them to bring a little bit of happy for these kids please!!

For more info and where to send the softies go to Meet Me At Mikes because they are the gorgeous people who are rounding up the wonderful Softies for the Mirabel toy drive.

http://meetmeatmikes.blogspot.com/2009/09/softies-for-mirabel-2009-crafting-for.html

Here are some that other creative people have made for Mirabel already:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/softiesformirabel/pool/
I'll be back later to fix this place up and get it more inspiring and creative looking! Seeya all soon.