See Us Saturday At The Stacey Community Centre Christmas Fayre

🎄We each have a stall at the Stacey Community Christmas Fayre this Saturday.🎄

Crystal will be there with Little Gifts of Southsea, with so many different small gifts for Christmas you just have to come and have a look!
But for example, on Crystal's stall, you will find Christmas Tree Decorations galore! Plus jewellery for all ages and tastes, keyrings of many shapes and sizes, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, neck cords, etc.

Silvi's stall is Teddy in a Bag, and there you will find crochet and cotton bags in all shapes and sizes, and all with a teddy inside! Plus little baskets with teddies inside for the Christmas tree, moses baskets for teddies and other soft toys, swinging cradles, and bags for adults too!

The Fayre is this Saturday, 1st December, from 11:00-15:00

At The Stacey Community Centre
Walsall Road, Copnor, PO3 6DN Portsmouth

There will be lots of stalls, and Christmas fun for all ages and of course mince pies too!😀

🎄🤶So please do come along this Saturday if you are in the Portsmouth area and join everyone for Christmas fun and mince pies!🎄🎅

See Us at Love Baffins This Coming Saturday!

Love Baffins is one of the great Portsmouth markets of the Christmas season, with lots of stalls, great local bands and performers, and many great things to entertain the children too, including Father Christmas of course!

And we are delighted to say that we will be there with our handmade goods ready for Christmas!

The Love Baffins Christmas Market is from 11am to 3pm on Saturday 24th November 2018.

We will be inside the City Life Church in Tangiers Road, with lots of other Christmas stalls, so do please come in and visit us.

You will find our Little Gifts of Southsea and Teddy in a Bag tables filled with Christmas Decorations, Jewellery, Keyrings, Gifts for Children and Adults, Lots of Teddies in Bags, and much more! So we really will have lots for you to look at.!

So, don't forget to come along to the Love Baffins Christmas Market this Saturday.
It's a day the whole family will enjoy and a great part of the Christmas season!

New Handmade Crochet Hanging Cradles

Because at this time of the year, I make mainly bags and baskets for teddies for Christmas markets, for Teddy in a Bag, I am always looking for a new style of bag to carry a small teddy.

I have some lovely little bears in soft plush material which are ideal for a child to play with.
They are sitting teddies, so I needed to find a crochet pattern for a carrier they could sit in.

After much searching, I found a pattern on Ravelry for a Newborn Hanging Nest by crochet designer Chelsea Hathaway. It's just right for what I needed. Thank you Chelsea!
It's a free crochet pattern you can find and download it here.

I had to tweak the pattern a little as this is a pattern for a newborn cradle after all!
But, by using DK yarn rather than chunky, and adding a few stitches to make the cradle smaller but wider, it fits the little teddies a treat!

I am so happy with the design that I have made several crochet hanging cradles for teddies and they are well-loved at markets and fayres.
So I have added 2 of them to the Elephant Sun Dog Etsy Store.

One is in turquoise mix and you can find it here:
Crochet Cradle Toy with A Small Soft Teddy Inside

And one is in lilac mix yarn and you can find this one here:
Small Soft Teddy sitting in its own crochet swinging cradle toy

So, this has been a double post really :)

It's for a free crochet pattern and it's to promote my lovely little hanging cradle baskets with teddies too.

So that can't be bad 😀

Thanks for reading

~ Silvi

See Us In Southsea This Coming Saturday!

See us at The Salvation Army Christmas Fayre in Southsea on Saturday 17th November, 2018.

The Salvation Army Christmas Fayre is from 10.20pm to 12.30pm, in the Lighthouse Community Rooms, Albert Road, Southsea, this coming saturday 17th November.

There will be lots of stalls, with Christmas gifts and more!

The lighthouse cafe is open and the Fayre will be opened by The Ugly Sisters, who are appearing in Cinderella at the Groundlings Theatre.

🤶🎅🎄Please come along and make a great start to Christmas this year. 🎄🎅🤶

And don't forget to stop by at the Little Gifts of Southsea and Teddy in a Bag stalls, to see all the nice gifts we have there. 😀

Lots of New Additions to Our Etsy Shop

I have been busy making new items and adding them to our Etsy shop. 

Admittedly, as I also own the site Teddy in a Bag, lots of them are bags with teddies in. But as it's coming up to the Christmas season, what could be better than teddies as a gift? 😀🐻

However, there are some nice new crochet bags in our shop as well, including several pretty shoulder bags suitable for all ages.

Have a look at our In Our Etsy Shop page and see what you think.
Or why not go straight to Our Etsy Shop, where you can read more about our handcrafted gifts?

As you can see from the picture above, there are lots of colourful items there! 😀
And we are both working hard so that there will be more new items to come very soon.
So watch this space!

Thanks for reading
~ Silvi

See Us At These Christmas Fairs

In the run up to Christmas, you can find Crystal and Silvi from Elephant Sun Dog at our stalls for:
Little Gifts of Southsea and Teddy In a Bag, at these Christmas Fairs:

Please do come along and see the many handmade items we have to show you.
We have some lovely gifts for Christmas!

Christmas Fairs 2018 where you will find us: 

Saturday 17th November
Salvation Army Christmas Fair – Sat 17th November, 10.30 am to 12.30
The Salvation Army Hall, 84 Albert Rd, Portsmouth, Southsea PO5 2SN

Saturday, 24 November 2018
Love Baffins Christmas Market – from 11:00 – 15:00, Saturday 24th November
Tangier Road, Portsmouth, PO3 6, United Kingdom
City Life Church, 85 Tangier Rd, Portsmouth PO3 6JH

Friday 30th November
Portsmouth Grammar School Christmas Fayre – -3pm – 6pm, Friday 30th November
Portsmouth Grammar School, 1 High St, Portsmouth PO1 2LN

Saturday, 1 December 2018
Stacey Community Centre Christmas Fayre – Saturday 1st December, from 11:00-15:00
The Stacey Community Centre, Walsall Road, Copnor, PO3 6DN Portsmouth

Saturday, 8th December 2018
St Swithun’s School Xmas Fayre – Saturday 8th December 2018, from 11am to 2pm.
St Swithun’s Catholic Primary School, Tasswell Road, Southsea, PO5 2RG

Fri 7th, Sat 8th, and Sun 9th December.
Southsea Christmas Festival – Southsea Common, by the Parade Tea Rooms (near castle Road). Fri 3pm – 9pm; Sat 10am – 9pm; Sun 10am – 5pm.

Fri 14th December 2018
Milton Park Primary School Christmas Fayre - Friday 14th Dec, 3.30pm - 5.30pm.
Milton Park Primary School, Eastney Road, Portsmouth, PO4 8ET.

More dates to be added later!

Lovely New Christmas Tree Decorations!

Some of my new Christmas Decorations for sale this Christmas
 

Handmade Christmas decorations.

 I haven't been posting here much lately, because I've been so busy making Christmas Tree Decorations ready for Christmas Fairs and Markets. We will be doing markets all around the Portsmouth and Southsea, UK area, so there is still loads to do!

But I really want to share a few of the handmade tree ornaments I have made so far (and I've made a lot! 😀 ).

Polar Bears and Reindeers

 This year, there are penguins, reindeers, snowmen, polar bears, bells, and robins and they are all new.

Penguins

I will be selling these little decorations at all the Christmas fairs and markets I attend with my stall 'Little Gifts of Southsea'.

As well as these little gifts, I will have many handmade items of jewellery, necklaces, rings, earrings, bracelets, charms, key rings, badges, house gifts and more.

Polar Bears peeking 😀

 If you come along to one of our fairs, you will find these little tree decorations for sale at £2.00 each, or 3 for £5.00.

Reindeers

So, not only will you get some lovely, quality handmade decorations which you can keep from year to year, but they are a very reasonable price too!
 

See us all and more at Christmas Fairs

I will soon post the list of Christmas fairs we are doing. It would be great to see you there! 💖

~ Crystal

Child's Crochet Backpack Pattern Ready to Download

New crochet pattern for a child's backpack!

Here is my latest crochet pattern and this one has a sewing tutorial too.

The pattern is for a child's crochet backpack which is fully lined.

This pattern was FREE to download until midnight (GMT) on the 11th of November, 2018.
I'm sorry, but the limited time offer is no longer available.
But please check here regularly for new patterns and timed offer codes.  Plus details of my free patterns too.

The pattern now costs £2.00 (plus any VAT you pay according to country - in the UK it is 40p extra).
And as there is so much in it, it will still be a bargain!

There are three versions of the pattern and you will be able to download them all as required:

• A full written pattern with pictorial instructions alongside pattern.
• A full written pattern with pictorial instructions at the end of the pattern (so that you can choose to print out the written part only and view the pictures on your pc, mobile or tablet).
• A full written text only pattern which is print friendly.

The pattern is suitable for confident beginners (who know basic crochet stitches) or intermediate crocheters.
It also requires some knowledge of sewing.

However, for the crochet and the sewing part, I do try to help all I can and the full, pictorial version has lots of explanatory pictures.

Made in DK yarn and a 4.5mm crochet hook, the backback measures approximately 9.75 inches (24.5 cms) in length by 7.5 inches (19 cms) width (measured flat).
But different yarns and hook sizes will of course produce different sizes. It's up to you 😀

I designed these backpacks to take a 5 inch teddy in the front pocket (as you can see below 😀), but they are useful for carrying so many things!

Perhaps a soft toy or doll could go in the pocket; or the backpack could be used for school or pre-school and carry crayons and small stationary in the pocket.

And you will find that the inner part of the backpack is roomy enough to please any child who wants to carry their precious items around with them.

If you want to make the backpack larger or smaller, just change the type of yarn you use.

And don't think this is only for girls. Boys love these backpacks too.

And with so many yarn colours out there, there is so much to choose from :)

You can find and read more about the pattern here on Ravelry.


I hope you enjoy my pattern!