I’m participating in Making Zen, and one of the classes is by Trixi Symonds and is about sewing a softie. As part of the VIP package Trixi is offering a copy of her e-book, but I happen to have the actual book, so I began flicking through it.

Froggie and the Baby in a Pouch immediately caught my eye, although I would love to make anything from this book. I thought I could combine froggie with another class by Jayne Emerson called “No Rules Hand Stitching”. I dug around in my stash and found a very worn out tablecloth from which I cut out the frog shapes. I patched holes and then began covering the whole thing with assorted lace scraps. Here is a small piece of the tablecloth so you can see the state of it.

Mytwo pieces began to look like this. I added some random hand stitching and began playing.

The Jayne Emerson class uses reclaimed lace as guides to weave into and create entirely new fabrics. I began threading embroidery threads and even some ric rac through some of the lace.

A close up shows how I started stitching through the holes.

and by the time I finished I had French knots, lazy daisies, and blanket stitch, as well as running stitch.

This side shows the effect of the woven lace more.

I had several weak spots caused by that dodgy base layer, so I did some retro patching.

I put froggie in a glass jug and stuck a funnel in his juncture (not sure how to put that nicely!) and filled him with my husband’s blind baking rice.

I used a knitting needle to push the rice into his legs, and sewed him up when I felt he was full enough.

I sewed on a nose and then decided that the lace made it look like he had a bandage on his head,

so I added some eyes. Much better.

I mentioned that the baby in a pouch also caught my eye, so I found a few scraps and made her too.

You might recognise a scrap from recent pyjamas and the reverse side of Miss G’s new jacket. The “baby” is bean shaped and made from a piece of scrap flannelette and the hair is just a scrap of wool I unpicked from a cardigan. The pink is left over from an outfit I made a couple of years ago. The baby’s features are drawn on with coloured pencils.

The baby and pouch is very cute. I secured it with a piece of pink velcro and thought my thread would blend in. I should have changed it!

This could not be a simpler make and is great to use up scraps.

I took them to swimming lessons and they worked perfectly as a distraction whilst Mum was in the water with baby sister.

Miss G asked me if she could do some sewing, so I got out another book, this one is about making felt food. I bought it in an op shop and hadn’t realised that it didn’t contain the patterns, so Miss G chose what she wanted to make and we began drawing – well, she sat on the table and I drew. She then chose the felt colours and we cut out the ice cream.

She sat on my knee and we sewed it together. It’s a bit wonky as it was hard to sew with her in my arms, but we got there. Here it is, needing a bit of tidying up, but she ran outside with it to show her dad. I wish I’d made a video when she licked it – apparently wool felt doesn’t taste that good!

The icecream has been added to the tea party set, and we might make a few more things for our tea parties.

She’s been having a lovely time with the vintage wicker pram that was my mother’s. Annie the Waldorf doll is back here, so she’s tucked up in there. I will make the pram some new bedding, as the existing stuff is a tad scruffy and there’s no proper quilt so she’s got a piece of fabric draped over the pram. She is obsessed with the nappy drawer in the pram , so I might need to make some to put in there. I do have an original glass banana shaped bottle that lived in there but thought I had better remove it.

We walked to the park and the pram came too. I thought you might like a little video. She’s very funny; she always pulls the hood of the pram forward, perhaps to keep the sun out of Annie’s eyes?