Super Stuff - a how to of sorts

A few weeks ago we had an invite to a 5th birthday party. We spend a bit of time with this 5 year old. Her brief was "something in pink or purple and not something for boys". I can do that, I thought. As time drew closer, I felt little inspiration in the way of something to purchase.

Whenever Miss L visits our house, all the dress ups are pulled out and everyone strips down and dresses up. So I hit my pinterest boards looking for some homemade dress up inspiration.

And so, Super L was created. A personalised cape, super powered cuffs, mask for identity protection, shoe wings for flying (inspired by this pin). All reversible.

I do have some issues with Super Heroes; we spend a lot of time talking about how Emergency Services people are the real super heroes. However, we couldn't hold the flood gates closed on the superhero barrage, so The Smurf has lots of generic, homemade dress ups as well as the trademarked super people. And he loves them. So, I was hopeful Super L would feel the same.

I started out writing instructions for each piece, but really it is as simple as drawing the shapes and going from there. It's pretty simple to work things out from the pictures.

A How To of sorts... 

• The wrist cuffs are rectangles of felt and joined on the short ends with two pieces of elastic attached at each end of the cuff. The cuff becomes a tube that is easily slipped on and off. I based the size on a toilet paper roll - The Smurf has quite a collection of super hero cuffs made from toilet paper rolls.

• The mask is two pieces of felt sewn together with elastic sandwiched at the outer edges. No fussy turning out and clipping seams, just draw a template, place it on top of two pieces of felt, trace (with a seam allowance), sew and cut out - be careful not to cut the elastic while you're at it.

• The shoe wings are again two layers of felt. Draw the shape on paper first so you can tweak it until you're happy. Trace, sew, cut. Then punch some shoelace holes for threading onto shoes. 

• There are endless free cape tutorials on the web. My favourite is this one by Suzy at Floating World. However, the last few times I've made capes, I've used just one piece of fabric, rather than having a separate piece for the neckline. 

• To make a reversible one-piece cape, I fold a piece of fabric in half length ways and use a kids singlet to get a rough guide on the depth of the neckline and tweak a bit deeper from that. Then simply draw the rest of the shape as you choose. Place the cut out piece face down on your second piece of fabric. Pin and sew around your shape, leaving a gap for turning in the right way. Clip your curves, turn in the right way and top stitch. Sew small pieces of velcro at the neck joins (remember Edna in The Incredibles says "No Capes!" so it needs to easily rip apart if it gets caught). 

How do you feel about Super Heroes? Have you kept them at bay at your place or is it all Pow! Bang! Biff! Boom!

Bunny Hunting

Armed with the scrap box and a super easy pattern (found here), these bunnies bred like rabbits just in time for the Easter weekend.

They were so simple it was hard to restrain myself. I made a batch for all the nephews (only nephews here so far) and then I kept going to supply a bunch of toys drops.



After just one evening of sewing, I ended up with 16 bunnies in total, so I handed out a few to family to do their own drops.

The newphews' bunnies were buddied up with a couple of homemade chocolate lollipops and a sensational little ceramic egg decorating kit packaged in egg cartons. The bunnies were a huge hit with the nephews, which was a relief. One was even named lollipop and everyone took them to bed.

The Toy Society bunnies will appear over there during the week.

Playing with Vinyl a tutorial.

New school adventures - for the nephew, not the Smurf and excitement levels are, apparently, at absolute fever pitch. It was certainly time for him to venture a little further from the nest and embark on the school adventure. I thought I'd aid him in his adventure with a pencil case with his name on it.

It went down a treat. I felt like a bit of a fraud; the whole thing was deceptively easy. That fear I'd been holding on to of sewing with vinyl - needles snapping, machine munching vinyl, stitches slipping - was completely unfounded. The project took 30 minutes from go to woe.

So, go try it yourself:

You need vinyl, a zip, scissors, sewing machine

1. Cut out 2 matching rectangles of vinyl for the outside of your pencil case. Make the longest edge slightly longer than your zip. These will be the sides of the pencil case.

2. Trace your letters onto the back of vinyl scraps or small pieces, I just used a felt tip pen. Remember to reverse the letters. I used the letter templates in this Beeper Bebe project by the very talented Holly.

3. Cut the letters out and arrange them on one of the large rectangles. Play around with the placement until you are happy. Starting with the first letter, carefully hold it in place (don't pin) and using a zigzag stitch sew to the rectangle. Repeat with each letter.



4. Using a zipper foot and with right sides facing sew one side of your zip to the top edge of your rectangle. Repeat with the other side of your zip and other rectangle. Here's a good zipper tutorial if you're scared of zippers, it's OK I once was too!

5. On the right side, of each rectangle top stitch your zipper seam.

5. With rights sides of your rectangles facing, sew the remaining three sides together (see that tutorial up there in point 4 if your not sure how to do this).

6. Using pinking shears, trim the excess. Trim diagonally across each corner, being careful not to snip the seams. If you don't have pinking shears, use an edging stitch to sew around the edge of the three sides you just sewed.

7. Turn your pencil case right side out, poke the corners out well. And you're ready for some fancy pants new pencils to put in that case.

New Kid on the Block

This new kid on the block has pipped the Smurf's favourite take-everywhere toy "Bubba" from the top of the favourites list. It's a sure way to make your Mum happy when you favour the toy she made you this week. Good Smurf, good Smurf.

It's even nicer when you spontaneously kiss the new kid on the block while your Mum's taking a photo.

And extra special when Bubba is thrown to the ground in favour of the new kid accompanying you on the grocery shop.

Aunty Cookie fabric panel bought at Finders Keepers. Lined with calico to take away the transparency of the basecloth and backed with blue pin dots from the stash. 5 minutes sewing, 10 minutes stuffing, 5 minutes finishing. Instant gratification.

I'd say it's a winner, don't you agree?

Mum, Dad, Thermodynamics etc

Like the Simpsons obey the laws of thermodynamics, in this house we obey the law of Desmond Dekker.

We love a bit of family dance time here in casa Sadieandlance and we tend, at the moment, to lean towards the world of ska, dance hall, two tone and rude boys. The Smurf well he cracks a jig at any music. So, why wouldn't we take advantage of skank o'clock to deliver some wholesome morals (to make up for the times we're playing the Ramones/Hold Steady/Bikini Kill etc etc).

Sing along all you Smurfs out there!

Honour your mother and your father dad
Your days may be long on the lam
Children obey your parents and the law
For this is a law from the prophets

Love your parents as though you love yourself
Do unto others as they would do to you

Honour your mother and your father dad
Your days may be long on the lam
Children obey your parents and the law
For this is a law from the prophets

Love your parents as though you love yourself
Do unto others as they would do to you

Honour your mother and your father dad
Your days may be long on the lam
Children obey your parents and the law
For this is a law from the prophets

- Fricken hilarious
- Best if parents sing enthusiastically at top of lungs while skanking around the lounge room
- Great for scoring brownie points if done in front of the in-laws. We-really-are-wholesome.
- This is actually a really cool song

For the Trashbags

Trashdip! So named not because I'm a trashbag (although maybe I am) but because back-in-the-day we used to eat this a lot and sometimes if too many beers were drunk it was considered to be dinner. Trash dinner. Trashbags. Um... join me?

Trash dip.

What you need:
1 avocado
1 lime (can use a lemon instead if you prefer)
salt, pepper
300ml tub of sour cream (doesn't matter if it's a bit smaller)
1 packet low salt taco seasoning (it's the powdered stuff)
1 tsp olive oil
1 tin chickpeas
1 tin kidney beans
1 tin peeled tomatoes
1 onion chopped roughly
1 clove garlic crushed
1 tomato finely diced
3 shallots (green onions) finely sliced
3/4 cup grated tasty cheese
chopped fresh (flat leaf) parsley
something for dipping - corn chips, water crackers are my recommendations

What you do with it:
That list of ingredients up there sounds long and complex, but really it's all very easy.

1. Make up the beans in advance as they need time to cool. The night before you want to eat trash dip is helpful. Fry the onions in the olive oil until soft, add the garlic and drained chickpeas and kidney beans and heat through. Now add about 1 tbsp of your taco seasoning and the tin of peeled tomatoes, some cracked pepper and salt to taste. Mix it all up and add a bit of water if it looks too thick. Cook this down a while until it's thickened. It doesn't need long, 5-10 minutes maybe? Leave to cool and then put into the fridge until you need it.

2. Make the sour cream layer. Mix your tub of sour cream and 1tbs of the taco seasoning. Taste it and keep adding as much taco seasoning as needed until it tastes yummy and taco-ey but not too over powering. Just so you know I usually get at least 2 trash dips total out of 1 packet of seasoning. Put this in the fridge to set before assembling the dip.

3. Make your guacamole layer. Mash the avocado with the juice of half a lime and salt and pepper. Add more seasoning or lime if needed. If you need to store the guacamole for a couple of hours or over night before serving, best to add extra lime juice.

4. Now, time to assemble your masterpiece. Best to work with all the dip layers cold from the fridge. Spread the beans across a platter or dinner plate. Spoon the guacamole on top of the beans


and gently spread it out almost to the edge of the beans but leave some beans to be seen. It's dip art, darlink.

Now do the same with the sour cream layer.


Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top, then the tomato, then the shallots and finally scatter the parsley.

Now eat the dip, you Trashbag.


PS A final word on the ingredients. This is trash dip and, really, if you're going to do this dip you need to do it justice and for that I really must insist that you use full fat ingredients. Watery, low-fat sour cream just does not cut it here. I will allow you to use low fat grated cheese if you really must, but you'll only be considered a half-arsed trashbag OK.

Instant Gratification

I've been working on some instant gratification projects, yippe. I stole this one from one of the new members of my work knitting fraternity.


Work knitter came to me with a collection of what looked like 100s of teddy bear knitting patterns in her delicious links asking for advice on the easiest one. She'd eyed of this one and I agreed so she started on it and I thought wow now that's some instant knitting gratification so hence the wool purchase on Friday night. Plus I had yarn envy cause the wool she was using looked so delicious to knit with that I simpley had to have some of my own. You understand right?

It only took maybe an hour and a half in total of distracted (it's just how I knit) knitting and it was finished. This one doesn't have a home yet (if you know a new or not so new pink baby you are welcome to it, I'll post it to you), but a blue brother is on it's way to join the Monkey Union.

The pattern is from here, some nice lady called Bev apparently. I used 3.25mm needles and 8ply Zara yarn for a tighter guage which is decidely less quaker-ish than the one pictured in the pattern (sorry no offence Bev).

In the interest of finding my next instant gratification project I bought 'Last Minute fabric gifts' from Amazon today for US$4.95 what a baragain. Cheap and full of instant gratification (I hope).

Got any other suggestions for instant gratification projects?