Draught excluder snake - with a buttonhole fastening

Al's sister Liv asked for a draft excluder with a removable cover for Christmas, so I had a go at making one with a big piece of blue corduroy from Our Patterned Hand. I got the inners from Lancashire Textiles online.

His stuffed felt forked tail appears to be slightly folded under here. Oops.

As well as buttons for eyes, I used a button to fasten him together at the bottom end. This is the first time I have used the buttonhole foot on my sewing machine. It's very clever, you put the button into the foot and it creates a hole to fit it.

Button hole foot in action.

Here's the finished button hole and button.

And here is Liv enjoying her snake :)

Porcelain pens on eggcups and toast plates

Alex's mum Liz bought me some porcelain pens for my birthday. I bought some plates from a charity shop, and plain egg cups from a kitchen store, and made some Christmas presents.

Alex wanted me to write good egg and bad egg and then let my parents fight it out between them, but I went for a less controversial approach! 

When painted, you need to fire them in the oven at 150 degrees C for 35 mins to fix them.