Little houses

On a whizz about BlogLand the other day I pinned the following on my Pinterest board from The little house by the sea.

In fact I pinned a few things, this one quite some time ago......

..... and I have some magazines and books, all marked at the pages to do loosely with 'houses', including this from Mandy Shaw of Dandelion Designs which featured in Issue 21 of Simply Homemade magazine.

 

It all started with wanting to design a Tooth Fairy thing-a-ma-jiggy to hang on doors to put teeth into to escape from the groping under pillows and potentially disturbing the recipients of pennies.

 

I didn't want a tooth shape, or necessarily a bag or indeed anything with a fairy (not too appropriate for boys!), so I started thinking about Fairy Cottage....what would a Fairy live in?

I looked for toadstool houses or little whimsical cottages as inspired by a freebie in this issue of Cross Stitcher magazine.....

 

but needed to add a pouch as integral to the design.

Then on The Patchsmith the other day I saw these from Retro Mama ......

 

 

The Patchsmith had redesigned WITH POUCH!

I dug out some free fabric that came with this issue of Simply Homemade magazine a couple of months ago......

 

and I made this................

 

Here's the detail on the front.......

 

 

It is gorgeous and I love it......but it's not quite right. So I decided to do something a little rash....

I've digested all the designs and sewing techniques used in the projects that I have gathered (and they are all very similar, coz let's face it how different can you really be when 'building' a house?!) and  tried to design one myself!

It ended up a bit wonky as I wasn't too neat about placing the design on the front or neatly sewing as it is, after all, a prototype!

Ready to see my mad idea?

OK, let's go....

Ta-DAH!!!!...............

 

Bonkers isn't it? 

 

But I just adore the roses round the door and the bunting!  Here it is up close.....

 

I wasn't brimming with confidence but now I've finished, I am terribly excited!  Not bad for a first attempt.  My lack of drawing skills does show in the shape of my toadstool....but I'll work on that.

Fabulous little stash-buster as you only need odds of fabric and floss.

Any ideas on a better shape for my toadstool, or how to ensure the stem and top appear separate are very welcome!

Thanks so much for dropping by, nice to see you,

Nora
xxxx