Nappy Pouch

I have been wanting to make one of these for a while. I took some ideas out of a quilting book that I had and mucked around until I came up with this:





Its very simple, looks fantastic (love this Michael Miller fabric), and does the job I wanted - just a simple little pouch to take when we are visiting friends/ go to a cafe etc.

Here is the result of some baking we did during the week. Boo kept coming up and hanging around my legs waiting for another pikelet. I gave her two and asked her to give one to Daddy. She didn't understand, and went to eat both! I rescued it and I took the other to Daddy. The second time I asked her, she understood and would take Daddy's pikelet to him with her arm outstretched saying "Daddy, Daddy!" Sooo cute.

Luscious Books!

I mentioned back in January that I was ordering some post-Christmas craft books. We got them through Amazon and they arrived about a week ago (slow-mail to keep it cheap!). It was so exciting opening this box of books - so much crafting to pore over! There were also some cool children's books that I'd ordered. Our fave book is Millie Moo which I've purchased a few copies of to give to friends as gifts.

Marvellous Blue

I pinned the squares onto a pinboard and then started sewing the rows together:


I've been sewing the border on these last two nights. The quilt top is now complete:


So now onto choosing the colour to use as binding and buying some batting/wadding (sp?) and backing material to make up the quilt.

A quilting we will go..

Cutting:


The pieces piling up:


The general layout:


A slightly alternative layout: (keeps the clouds upright)


This photo includes some space fabric which I have had FOREVER and I am keen as mustard to make a quilt with them but they are pre-cut squares (roughly 6 1/4 inch) and I have not been able to work out a design and coordinating fabrics to make it work. So I was just wondering if maybe it would work with this pattern. I love that I can take a photo to get an idea of how it would look.

Jumbles

We gave our daughter a baby doll for Christmas and she has really taken to playing with her. Over the weekend, I gave DD a blanket to put on her doll and she spent MANY consecutive minutes placing the blanket on her doll, then taking it off, then putting it on the doll etc etc. I spied a little fabric baby doll basket in a sewing book of mine a few months ago and it seems that the time has come for this seed of an idea to grow. It would be perfect for DD so that she can put her baby doll to bed and she'll LOVE the addition of a mattress and pillow - more things to place and arrange! So yesterday I measured and cut (& then measured & cut again on a different fabric b/c I cut the original wrong!), then I studied the pattern, wrote new instructions, tried desperately to visualise what they were trying to instruct… then I finally set about sewing and manipulating my pieces of fabric. I sewed and sewed and SEWED… Unfortunately I have nothing but a jumble of fabric to show for it. :/ Why? B/c I sewed one little bit wrong which then created a problem - which despite my best efforts to work around - kept snowballing into a mammoth un-doable project :( There is just no way that I can attach the final piece without incredible, ridiculous efforts and it will still look wrong. I cannot un-pick because of the fabric I've used, the length of my stitch and the pure length of sewing that I've done.

Now that I understand what I've done wrong, I can see how easy this basket is to make. Alas, I do not have any fabric strips long enough to start again, so a trip to the shops is in order and that’s not very easy for me to organise. BubbleCats!!!!

My shmerpi

Last year I was looking at the One Red Robin blog where ORR had announced she was going on a "break" and had limited stock at her Etsy shop. I followed the link to see the cutest little purple shmerpi called Sugar. I told my husband about this very cute doll and that I'd like to get it but then I ummed and arred, decided I'd spent enough recently and left it. However, I did keep track of the dear doll and updated my husband that it was "still there" and then another time "drat, its sold!, someone had bought it!". My husband did joke at the time that maybe he bought it for me but I didn't believe him and figured some other crafter had purchased it. Well... guess what turned up under the Christmas tree with *my* name on it!! Yes, my husband had bought it for me - how incredibly sweet of him! It is so amazing when someone does something so unexpected for you. My shmerpi is just the cutest thing ever. So much ingenuitive detail has gone into the craftmanship of this doll. I just love it!

Here is my cutie: (yes, my shmerpi, not my husband!)

Hummingbird Cupcakes

I made a batch of Hummingbird cupcakes last weekend. Here they are with their tropical coconut decoration. Hummingbird cakes have pineapple, coconut and banana in them -- fancy schmantz huh? No idea who came up with that combination but they taste divine.

Cherry Dress

I think that hand basteing the zip is the easiest way to set it up:


Sewing in the zip:


The finished dress:


I absolutely love this dress - love the ruffles, love the material, love the yoke and all the gathers. Everything is turned in under the yoke at the end to make it all look very neat inside. The only downside is that it is very short and I will need to make some matching pants to go with it. I have got another pair of pants that I really like and would like to emulate them which is guaranteed to be an interesting exercise!

Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go and order all the craft books I didn't get for Christmas! The interest rate to the US is fantastic and there are some great deals on Amazon!

A sewing day!

Today I have had a very special sewing day. I was hoping to work on a few things but spent all my time on one dress. This dress has frilly sleeves, a gathered bodice, little pockets on the front, an internal bodice (?) and a zipper. So its been a lot of little features to work on all at once. I even made my own binding to go around the armhole. I spent 5-6 hours on it today which included tracing the pattern and cutting the material. I still have one sleeve, the internal bodice, the zipper and the hem to go.. so I'm still a little ways off! Am I too slow? Should I give up sewing?? I don't want to be taking three times as long as everyone else..

Fairy Wings

Every girl has to spend their first day as a fairy at some point in their lives and today was the day for our little Boo. Hee!

PVC Mayhem

I am so excited about this little project. I got the inspiration from dearfii's website. (Unfortunately I cannot remember how I linked there to begin with) I've had the Pooh print for a little while and I thought it would make a good pencil case. I've used interfacing on the Pooh fabric, then lined the inside of the pencil case. I love the added dimension of using PVC because the final product looks so incredibly professional. This item is something that I would easily buy in a shop. I am very happy with it :)





Kisses to my darling for going to bed early again tonight so that I could get some sewing time.

Santa Sack

Oooh Oooh.. I can do that! I was at a friend's place today who had a Santa bag monogrammed with her son's name. I thought it looked great and felt I could have a go at that myself. I sat down tonight at the drawing board and worked out what I would do. I haven't done much applique before so I kept it very simple. I was surprised at how easy it was to sew around the shapes. I am definitely getting better at it! So here is Boo's first Santa sack:

Christmas Dress

I whipped up a Christmas dress for Sarah last Friday for her childcare Christmas party. Whipped??? LOL.. It had been sitting around cut for a while and I finally sewed it together in the morning on the day. Working under pressure is clearly a good thing for me. I've used the same pattern as another dress I've made for Boo - I've realised what a simple and easy pattern this is and everything else I've looked at has got 20-odd steps to do while this one has approximately 4! Can't beat that.





And because I love Christmas and toys and love the collection of toys I've amassed as Christmas presents, I present, my Christmas Cupboard!

Dress Teaser

Ahhh, bliss...

Bliss is carrying a sleeping youngster from her pram to her bed and watching her sleepily snuggle up with her teddy bear.. This is a *moment* I have been waiting a long time for! Its so different knowing she is exhausted and not going to wake up, so different to when she was a baby and asleep in my arms but where the slightest jolt could un-do it all. Exhausted toddler is GOOD! :)

Stash it away

I went fabric shopping today! :)

Fat quarters:


A bag of zips:


Pretty purple drill fabric:


I also bought some denim and some terry towelling as I want to make some pencil cases and some baby bibs sometime in the near future.

Happy Cards

Tonight I have been making cards for a birthday celebration we are going to tomorrow.

Pretty Notebook Cover

I have made up a reversible notebook cover by following a free pattern from the Kirin Notebook website


It was very easy to make so a pretty simple project (still took me all evening though!). The final product is really cute! What a nice way to fancy up a notebook :)

Notebook cover:


Inside pocket:


Side view:


Reversible side:

More cakes

Of course, it wasn't just one birthday party that little miss had - there were THREE all up! I made up a batch of cupcakes which I divided between a dinner with our immediate family and one for a celebration with friends.

Birthday Party!

It has been a little quiet here on this blog partly to do with returning to work and because we've all been very sick lately (I blame childcare bugs!!). My little girl has now turned one and we threw a big party to celebrate. It was a great excuse to catch up with all our friends and family, some of whom we haven't seen as much this year! It was a wonderful day and well worth all the effort we went to in organising things. I "decorated" the cake myself and wouldn't have it any other way despite my husband urging me to just buy one to save us the stress.. Time was getting short but I soldiered on, I cut corners (pre-bought sponge) and I re-used a design that I'd made earlier in the year for Sarah's cousin (see earlier in blog) but I got there in the end and her cake was made by ME!! Yay!!! I think making party cakes is a super special bonus of being a Mum!! :)

Boo wore her special dress on her party day. It was the perfect dress for the day and it suited the weather really well.

Lots of love to my little girl who is now ONE!!

The party girl:


The cake:


The aftermath: