Sewing up a storm...Matryoshka style!

Two years ago we had the privilege of being the host family for a lovely young lady from the Ukraine who participated in a year of spiritual equipping at our church. On her first visit to our home she surprised me with a lovely, hand-painted matryoshka key chain, and I have been in love with these sweet-faced Russian lassies ever since.

So when the pregnancy hormones recently drove me to a sewing frenzy, everything I touched smacked of matryoshka loveliness, and I thought I'd show you what I came up with:

Above: A rainbow fleece scarf. I actually made two, one for Sweetpea, and one for a dear little friend who had a birthday in June. Lesson learnt from this project: not all fleece is created equal. In fact,

 only the orange fleece I used on this scarf is the really nice, non-pilling kind. What a pity that our local fabric shops do not make an effort to stock the good quality stuff!!

Above: Two hairclip holders - again, one for Sweetpea, and one for her friend. I LOVED sewing these!!

Above: A while ago I bought a whole bunch of brightly coloured shopping bags on sale at Pep (seriously - they were R2, 99 each!! I couldn't resist!!) This merry little felt  lady sure spruces up this bag, don't you think?

She now accompanies us on our trips to the library and is very helpful in carrying our books back to the car!

Above: Another Pep treasure! This beanie cost me R6 (for US readers, that's not quite $1), and I just added a friendly felt lassie to dolly it up a bit! It's a hit with Miss Sweetpea, of course!

And my favourite Matryoshka-inspired piece of handiwork is a little pillow I embroidered..maybe for the new baby? I haven't quite found a spot for it yet, but it makes me smile every time I look at it!

Linking this to Tea Rose Home's Link Party!