We Wish you a Merry Christmas…

Wow, it’s been a crazy year! Two overseas trips, 244 blog posts, 34 tutorials, a sassy 2 year old…and I’m spent.
I’ve pushed myself really hard this year, blog wise, mainly to challenge myself and see what can happen if I really put my back into something. I’ve tried lots of new approaches and have learnt so much, hopefully you have enjoyed the journey as well. Now I need a rest.

I’d like to thank you all for reading, liking, following, commenting, especially those of you that have been with us from the start, I hope I’m still relevant. Those of you that have joined us this year, welcome. It’s great to be part of your day.

A really special thanks to all my sponsors and shop customers this year, nothing says ‘I believe in you’ more than handing over your hard earned cash. I don’t really do any of this for the money (or I’d starve), but it’s funny how validating just a little financial reward can be. I hope your My Poppet experiences this year have been amazing, I know you’ve all been really great.

Next year is going to be an interesting one. There are changes afoot! Lots of upheaval here at home (no, I’m not pregnant), so I’m taking all of January off to recharge and re-inspire. I’m excited to see how it all pans out.

So now it’s time for me to sign off.

Have a Safe and Happy Christmas and holiday period. Laugh, eat and enjoy your loved ones.
See you in the new year
xx Cinti

www.mypoppet.com.au

How To: Add Knee Patches to Jeans

If your kids are constantly wearing the knees out of their pants or jeans, you are going to love this easy to follow tutorial. This patching technique is useful for all trousers, big or small, but especially small.

You will need:
The Jeans or pants you need to patch
Fabric for the patches – I used a piece of denim from an old pair of Mr Man’s jean
Sewing machine
Seam ripper/un-picker
Thread, Scissors, Pins
1. Iron the jeans (these don’t have holes but they are very thin in the knees).
2. Cut out two matching patches, they can be any shape you like.
3. Lay them over the knees to check size and position.
4. (optional) You may like to machine stitch a criss cross pattern on the patches to add interest.5. Now this the secret trick to make everything a whole lot easier, even on the smallest of garments. You need to unpick the side seam of the leg. On jeans choose the seam that isn’t double stitched. Unpick as far as you can without unpicking cuff. This means you can open the leg out flat to comfortably use the sewing machine.6. Pin patches into place.
7 & 8. Now with a thread that matches the colour of the patch use a wide zig zag stitch (satin stitch) to sew the patch onto the leg.
9. Turn jeans inside out and resew the seam that you previously unpicked. Zig Zag or serge raw edge if desired.
10. All done! Check out how groovy these old jeans look.

Don’t limit yourself to making patches solely out of denim, why not try patches in prints or fun shapes like a heart or star?

Thank you to Heidi, a fabulous facebook Liker who requested this tutorial on the My Poppet fan page:

‘Cintia, I have a request. My little boys jeans ALWAYS end up with holes in the knees…..I’d love to patch them up but know they wouldn’t end up looking the way I wanted them too. Seeing as you are a jeanious (ha!) I was hoping maybe you could do a tutorial on it?!
I’d love you forever….‘

I’m glad I could help Heidi out.

If you have any tutorial requests, feel free to leave a comment here or over on the facebook page and I’ll see what I can do :)

www.mypoppet.com.au

Reader Project – Monique’s Magical Felt Mushroom House

I was really excited to see this project from friend and blog reader Monique in my inbox this week. Monique, who I originally met as a customer in my store, was inspired to start needle felting after she saw this post about my needle felting obsession way back when. After making some small bits and pieces to perfect her technique, she was inspired to tackle something bigger.

And look at how magnificently her Magical Mushroom House has turned out.
I asked her some questions about some of the materials and techniques she used, and she was kind enough to let me share her answers with you.
I know you needle felted the top/roof but did you stuff it with anything?
Yes, the top is needle felted but I didn’t stuff it with anything but lots and lots of felt (wool roving). I started with a circle base and basically just built it up from there adding more to the middle than the sides.

What kind of felt did you use for the sides?
The felt for the sides was a 5 mm industrial felt. there is a place in Blackburn and also in Huntingdale (both Melbourne suburbs) that sells all types of felt.

Who made the door and floor for you?
I actually made the door and floor. I drew it out on the thinnest ply and got my brother to jigsaw it out. Then varnished it and used hinges from spotlight and a button for the handle.

How did you stick the the wood to the felt?
Lastly, I stuck the wood to the felt using a hot glue gun, but the base I drilled little holes into and actually sewed the base to the felt.

How long did it take you?
It has been on my table for 2 months but only did a little bit every few days. usually tried to do one thing at a time eg: blanket stitch the top, make the door, etc

What next?
I won’t be making another one any time soon but may be thinking about making some little people but no ideas are coming to mind as yet. Will have to do some internet surfing.

I think you will all agree that Monique has done an incredible job and is very generous to share some of her photos and information will us all.

If you want to try your hand at Needle felting, my post on Needle Felting Basics will be very helpful.

I would love to see pictures of projects that you’ve made using My Poppet tutorials. Why not post them to the My Poppet facebook page with a link to the relevant tutorial so others may be inspired too.

www.mypoppet.com.au

Crafting a little blog of your own?

I received this email last week from a Jody, a lovely reader and customer:
“Hi Cinti, I have been following you for a long time now, I love your shop, your blog and all your tutes!
I have found you to be so inspiring I have decided to create my own blog! It is something I have wanted to do for a some time now, but have just never had the time to do it!
I am unfortunately not as creative as you, but endeavour to be. I would like my blog to be about me, my beautiful children, things I make, like and dream of doing. I guess what I am trying to say in a rambling way is, do you have any advice for a newbie?
what software do you use? do you blog from your pc or phone? how did you get your blog to be so pretty? Also what are the rules when it comes to posting things you like from other peoples blogs? can you link them? I’m sure you must get emails and questions like this all the time, it must drive you crazy, I’m sorry, I just don’t have any one else to ask.“(Of course I asked Jody permission to publish this)

I was more than happy to help Jody out, but thought it would be fun to write a blog post so everyone could benefit…
Firstly I’ll preface this with – I’m not a bloggy/techie expert and everything that I know I’ve learnt from google, asking helpful friends and trial and error. I’ve been blogging for nearly 4 years but am still learning new things every day. Lots of questions here, lets start at the beginning. What software do you use?
There are a few blogging platforms available, the most common ones are WordPress, Typepad and Blogger. When i started my blog all that time ago, I chose Blogger because I felt it was the most user friendly at the time. I’m not endorsing blogger over any others, it can be temperamental at times, but it serves it’s purpose and its free.
I write my posts directly into the blogger window, but as I found out recently from Leni and Rose you can use Windows Live writer to post to your blog. I’ll give it a try one day.

Do you blog from your pc or phone?
I write my blog from my laptop, usually in the evenings when Emma is asleep. I recently learnt how to schedule posts so I can write things like tutorials when i have time and post them at a later date. Here is some info on how to schedule posts on blogger

Blogger does have a free iPhone app BlogPress Lite hat will help you post from your phone. I have probably only used it whilst on holidays. Its handy for quick posts without much text but will only upload small photos. You can see one of my phone posts here.

How did you get your blog to be so pretty?
That took a while…it didn’t always look like this.
There are a few options available.
1. Use a ready made template. Blogger has a new design function now that lets you choose your colours, layout and background image. It will also let you preview how it will look without making any permanent changes.
2. There are thousands of free templates you can download and uses as your blog. They will often have the designers link at the bottom
3. You can engage a designer to design your blog template for you. There will be a cost.
4. You can chose the most basic template – Minima and mess about with the code yourself.

At the time of starting my blog option 1 wasn’t available, I couldn’t find anything pre made that I liked and option 3 was much less accessible, so that left me with the Minima template. It has been the best thing I could have done as lots of HTML coding tutorials are based on the minima template.
I suggest keeping your design simple. In my opinion I’d rather my readers focus on my content than a really busy layout or background.

Start with an nice header image – You can easily create one using Picnik a free online image editor which allows you to overlay text and graphics over photos, make collages and then resize them to your required size.

Background – you can choose a basic colour or image in the blogger design function. If you want to have your own custom one you will have to host it somewhere like photobucket. this option and will take some fiddling with CSS (cascading style sheet) in your HTML template. This is the tutorial I used.
Note: before you start fiddling with HTML code on your template, make a backup!

Pictures – Take and post nice bright pictures. Use some photo-editing software to crop, brighten and make your images more attractive. Blogger will only host and post images upto 400px max. If you want nice big photos you will have to host them on photobucket or Flickr and then upload the url link. I use photobucket which allows me to have 600px wide photos.

Side bar – I created some of my cute buttons using Picnik, uploaded them as photos and then added links.
Add interesting links, like blogs you like to read, where to find you on other social networks (lots of cute free buttons around for these), about you and don’t forget to include a way for people to easily follow you like an RSS or google follower widget.

Tinker with your blog until you are happy with it. It should evolve as you do.

Also what are the rules when it comes to posting things you like from other peoples blogs? can you link them?
OK, pay attention people!
It is the height of blogging rudeness and could infringe on copyright if you don’t credit other bloggers or websites content. It is always best to get permission to use someone’s original images and if you find something through another blog or website, give credit to them as well.
Design sponge has written some excellent posts on blogging etiquette here
Because reposting images can be a complicated minefield, I tend to use my own original photos. I think that’s what makes it my blog.
 You may have noticed a little disclaimer at the bottom of my side bar –> about how I allow my original content to be used and re-posted. You may want to think about how you would like your content to be used by others (if at all) and clearly state that on your blog.
So I hope that answered some of your questions, and has made you think of so many more! Feel free to ask more questions, or topics you would like me to expand on in the comments and I’ll try to answer them in future blog posts. Enjoy your blogging!

BTW: Vintage trims are from L’uccello in Melbourne

www.mypoppet.com.au

I {heart} appreciation photos…

Etsy is not 100% my piece of cake, but the one thing I do love is that your customers can post appreciation photos.
Check out this awesome quilt made by Clair almost entirely from fabrics in the Fabric scrap bag she purchased from my Etsy store. I love it.

Turns out Clair is a super talented photographer and has an Etsy shop as well.
I love seeing your photos of My Poppet goodness, Facebook fans can post them on the My Poppet page even!

Thanks for all your kind ‘Get Well’ wishes. I’m feeling much better.
An annoying little bug got to me while I was particularly run down and shook me around a bit. Still feeling a bit ‘couchy’ but on the mend…
www.mypoppet.com.au