Softie swap continues

Today I received my softie swap! It’s not that I was surprised that my partner is Tzik as my daughter pulled names out of a bowl to make partners and I arranged the swap, but I didn’t have a clue what she was going to make and boy did she surprise me.
It arrived by special delivery, she came over with the kids, a jar of freshly baked home made health cookies and this:

Accompanied by this fabulous card, it’s not stamped, it’s drawn by hand, well copied from somewhere but as she says one has to know how to copy properly, which is true, this one is perfectly done and embellished.

Inside the box I found not one but a pair of softies!

This gorgeous creature, my kids call Harry, all dressed up with a tie and all.

And his companion my kids call Hermione, all fancy with her pearl necklace

We decided they were going to be door keepers, Harry is watching our front door while Hermione will watch each bedroom door for a week. The kids originally suggested that I sew a few more for each bedroom door but very quickly I told them this wasn’t going to happen, so Hermione is going to travel from door to door.

On top of all this, I also received this gorgeous Amy Butler fabric which I already have plans for.

This is what I call a good day! What a way to spend one's Saturday morning and this is the cutest softie of them all, her 11 months old son and his 6 teeth.

Softie swap

I led a softie swap in one of the forums I take part in, I don't really have any real experience with making them but I thought I have enough sewing experience to try. I wanted to make an original and unique one, I didn't want to use a pattern from a book or from the Internet so I started out sketching what I wanted my finished softie to look like and it came out quite masculine looking.
I knew I wanted to use fleece for the body as I love it, it's soft and warm and compliments a softie don't you think?
The face elements are made from felt and sewn by hand, when I was finished embroidering it I noticed that my softie has a girly expression…

At that stage I accepted the fact that my HE was going to be a SHE, so I decided to dress her in overalls instead of the shirt and tie I planned at the beginning. My life story by the way, I always end up with something different then the original plan and I always find myself improvising.
Last time I made trousers I was pregnant with my eldest and that was almost 16 years ago, so I searched the Internet for patterns and changed the proportions to fit my softie; they are made from a cotton fabric with suspenders connected with buttons on both sides and as she’s a happy sort of softie she’s holding a pink felt heart.

She is 40cm' (15.5 inch) long from head to toe. Speaking of toes, she has pink "shoes".

I was so happy to send her to Hagit, a very talented woman who's art I appreciate, her work can be seen on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hagit/
I usually have no problem sending off what I make for swaps but my daughter had quite a problem parting from this one so I'm going to have to make at least one more which isn't going to be a problem as I really enjoyed this project.
Here she is:

Hagit I'm so glad you like her, hope she makes you happy and you live happily ever after (-:

Wedding greeting card

Vinny got married on Friday! In a special place by the pool surrounded by grass and trees, a beautiful bride dressed in an exquisite dress, wearing red lacquer sandals, holding a unique bouquet. The music was great, lunch was fabulous, the barman was cute and very helpful, surrounded by great friends and a lot of love.
A wedding calls for a wedding card!
The base of the card is a 21.5X14 cm’ (8.5X5.5 inch) double sided cardstock in black and white flower pattern, the one side has a black background with white flowers and the other side is opposite. The center flower is made from ribbons connected in the middle by a button and the stem is sewn with a sewing machine.

The second layer is glued with little foam squres to give it dimension. I sewed around the card using black thread on top and white thread in the bottom spool so that the black thread will show on the white background of the cardstock and the white thread will show on the black background on the other side.

The back of the card has a little envelope in which I put their wedding present.

Vinny dear, I wish you and your husband all the best!!!!!