Birthday Headbands

I made these two headbands for my niece's 4th birthday. Last time I saw her, her mum mentioned that she was trying to grow out her hair but that my niece didn't like hair clips. So headbands seemed the perfect present. They are both reversible, but I was in a hurry to leave for the party so got my husband to take the photos and he didn't take the reverse side. Still, I'm lucky to have any photos at all.

I used this tute [No, wait, I can't find it. Will update when/if I do!]. Mainly to get the sizing right. The only thing I would do differently is keep them a bit wider at the ends, even just half a centimetre, as this would make turning them out SO much easier. That was the most time-consuming step.   I might try this pattern next time, I like the shape of the wide headband. Didn't have a printer at home this time round so had to keep it simple.

I really need to add some nice girly fabric to my stash too. I'm always making presents at the last minute so I need to at least have some nice fabric on hand...

Christmas Balls

 These are a great gift idea - I made them for kids ranging in age from 6 months to almost 3, and they all seemed to love them. And as I ended up making seven of them, I am glad they came together reasonably quickly!

Soft and squishy with a fun bell inside for the little ones...

 

My gorgeous little cousin :)

And fun for practicing kicking and throwing for the older ones - and as they are quite soft, you'd need to throw it really hard to break something, so they are great for fun play inside the house :)

There are a heap of tutes out there for balls like this, but, for what it's worth, this is the one I used.  I did the medium size (was feeling indecisive!). Next time I'd go the large, or possibly even bigger again, especially for 2 and 3 year olds. 

Christmas Sewing

Wow.... it's been a while since I've blogged... but I have been sewing.

I made the City Bag from Nicole Mallalieu Design. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out, indeed, I wanted to keep it! I've just realised I haven't got a photo of the whole bag - oops! Will have to get one next time I see mum (the lucky recipient).

A zip pocket on the inside...

 

And three open pockets on the other side.

Christmas Tee-Shirts (x 2)

Christmas Balls....(x 7)

 They were a lot of fun!

A memory game (x2) Here it is all tucked away in its bag.
You can see some of the pieces in the above pic - the duck, apple, butterfly.
Such a time-consuming project for what it really is. 

.

Remind me next Christmas to start sewing a little bit earlier, maybe November. Hopefully that way I won't be up until after midnight Christmas Eve sewing!!

My first order

A friend asked me if I could make a chair cover for her mother-in-law. My friend chose the fabric and let me at it. This is the result. To say I am impressed by my handy-work is an understatement! I love it and am inspired to make one for me.

  

And with some matching cushions.

Crayon Wallet

A crayon wallet...

 

 The perfect birthday present for a little boy who had his fourth birthday party yesterday. He is train-mad, but when asked his mum said maybe something not trainy for a change...so I compromised :)

Here it is all opened up. 10 pencils and one B5 sketch pad, ready to be taken anywhere he goes.

The pattern comes from http://sew-fantastic.blogspot.com/ and is available as an instant download :) And check out her etsy shop for lots of other beautiful products. So many gorgeous things to buy!  

The pattern was very easy to understand, however I upsized it to fit a larger notebook and pencils, rather than crayons. So I still had to play around with measurements. My trial one gets to stay with James, which is lucky as he really really liked it! I was a little worried it would be hard for him to get the pencils in and out but he managed just fine. I'll be making plenty more of these for presents, I do think.

Hoo Hoo Hooo!

Once upon a time I was quite into card-making, I don't do it very often any more, but a very good friend's birthday prompted me to get out the supplies and see what I could come up with. Nothing very fancy, but I was very happy with how this came out. The owls were cut out of some scrap fabric I got on freecycle, which makes me like it even more :)

Mr Fun Pants!

Don't these pants just shout "fun!" to you?

They're fun to walk in

Fun to explore in

Fun to dance in

Fun to hide in

And fun to go adventuring with special friends in.

I got the fabric from an op-shop and used this trusty pattern again - size two. My boy is only little so I've had to shorten them quite a bit. I however shortened the pattern a bit too much meaning I had to do a small small hem on these pants. I got inspired and googled "rolled hem foot" and found this youtube video. It made it so easy!  I'm having a bit of trouble with length at the moment as sometimes DS is in training pants and other times in undies. He was obviously in undies when I made the pair of test pants and this caused me to cut the pattern too short. I wouldn't have thought the training pants would make much of a difference, but they do shorten pants by a couple of centimetres.

I really love these pants. They weren't on my to do list, they were a spur of the moment thing and were all the more fun to make because of it! DS also helping sew - he lifts the presser foot lever and lowers it for me at the beginning/end of every seam. He also 'helps' feed the fabric through :)

Sewing Swap - What I Received

Yay!! I got home from my busy morning out to find a parcel waiting for me!! It was a couple of days late, but it was worth it :)

This is what was waiting for me!

There's a beautiful facewasher on the left - I LOVE this fabric, I keep looking at it and wanting to buy it, but didn't know what to do with it. Now I don't need to lol. J will love using this at bath time. He is right into his animals (maybe b/c he's been to the zoo seven times this year?!?) so it is sure to be a hit.

Here's a shot of the 6 coasters (sorry not the best photo but I wanted to blog straight away). They are all reversible and as it so happens I think both sides will look great on our table.

To encourage J to put his glass on the table (as opposed to tipping it on the floor or throwing the whole thing overboard!) we introduced coasters a while back. It has worked a treat, indeed now if he doesn't have one at his seat he will point at the table and say 'coaster, coaster'. So we use coasters all the time. Only, to date we have been using some plastic Winnie-the-Pooh ones. So these are a massive improvement!!

Thank you so much Kelly :)

Christmas Sewing Part 3

It's not the best photo, but it's all I've got. Here are the cushion covers I made for mum and dad for chrissy. I love how they turned out. I've got some leftover material so will be making them a couple more as a bonus :) I will have to take a photo of them on mum's couch.

And here's one of DS modelling his new hat :) Kinda clashes with what he's wearing, but he looks pretty happy with it all the same.

Christmas Sewing Part 2

Did I mention I was making hats? Here are some photos of them!

Here is DH kindly modelling the first batch of christmas hats - he's got five on :) One each for my nephew and two nieces, DS and two of DS's little friends. It's a great hat pattern although it does call for a heap of hand-sewing. I'm not sure whether to look at how other hat patterns go together or to stick with this one now that I know it so well.



This is about the best photo I got of one close up. I was in such a rush to get all the sewing done and then wrapped and given that I forgot to take proper photos.


And here is DS and one of his favourite little friends. DS is wearing another version of the same pattern that I made as a test run a while ago. Little Friend is wearing her just-opened chrissy present along with a dress I made her ages ago (I think it was nine months ago but it still fits!). I really love that fabric.

Christmas Sewing Part 1

I am so late posting these but I'll do it anyway!

First I brought some fabric - lots of it!!

The first four fabrics are to make bags for SIL and MIL - the birds has orange edging/lining and the stripy has the brown edging/lining. The yellow is for the lining of a couple of hats. The last two are furnishing fabrics for cushion covers for my folks. I got all of this from my local spotlight, so I was pretty happy.

This one is definitely my favourite, I was very surprised to see this at Spotlight.

Look What I Made!

With the horrible horrible bushfires here in Vic in Feb, sewing became a lower priority than usual. But I did manage to get these spunky overalls made in time for DS's first birthday. I rushed them, I didn't measure DS, so they are big in the top and a bit small for his cloth bum. But they are SO cute! I absolutely love them :)



They are the Little Explorer pattern (doh! can't get link to work properly, bbl). I will definitely be making more of these.

My To Do List

I started this a couple of days ago, but with the heat and then power outages, I'm never going to get it finished... so I'll post what I've done and update it later!

It is way too hot to do any sewing - 43 degrees for the second day in a row :(

So I'm trying to get organised with my to do list so when the cool change (to a nice and cool 30-something) comes I'll be ready to pop into Spotlight and buy all the stuff I need to proceed.

So... here goes...
*2 soft blocks for a couple of new babies using this tutorial http://www.flickr.com/photos/londonmummy/tags/softbabycube/
These are my #1 priority as I want to go and visit a very new baby and cannot do so without a gift! I'd like these done by Fri 6th Feb.

*toddler apron This is for the big brother of one of the new babies so also needs to be done by 6th Feb. I already have the fabric for this so I could probably get it cut out tomorrow.

* something special for DS's birthday. Hmmm.... Needs to be done by Fri 13th so I'm not stressing. Haven't left myself much time, have I? Especially given I don't know what I want to make...sigh...

Cutest Little Model

Isn't he just the cutest?!?




These were meant to showcase the dress, but well, J wanted to show the world how cute he was :) The dress is the same pattern as the last one, but in a different fabric - obviously. I love this fabric - it's just from Spotlight though. The dress is size 9 months, J is 11 months, and it is pretty big on him. So it will swim on the girl it is for, but better to be big I reckon.

You can see here his lovely new squinty smile. I have no idea where it came from, but I love it.



I will endeavour to get a proper photo of the dress this week. I have made it twice in size 9 months, once in 12 months and I am sewing it up in size 2 years :) I am actually enjoying doing the same pattern multiple times. It is enabling me to do it better and better each time. For example, the top-stitching, of which there is two lines is actually almost parallel now :)

Toddler dress revisited

The little dress I made - it is Burda 9708 -

I picked it up from Spotlight just before christmas. I made view C, without the applique, simply because I thought this would be the easiest one to do :)

It was really easy. The hardest part was the straps, which was funny given I chose a dress with tie-up straps t avoid button holes... but really, the straps weren't hard, just a little fiddly to get the curves right when sewing , and then you have to turn them in the right way (I don't like turning things, don't know why, but I always find it fiddly).

I've already started making two more of these dresses. I'm leaving out the interfacing as I really don't think it is necessary, if anything it made the bodice too stiff (probably would be different if you used a lighter-weight material, I used a quilter's cotton, so already quite thick). So, there are four main pieces to cut out, plus eight for the straps, and it goes together really quickly. Highly recommend it to anyone looking for a little girls pattern. When I have more time I will try one of the other views. Oh, and it is from 6 months to 3 years, so I'm going to get heaps of use out of it, making pressies for all the little girls I know.

Will update this with a photo of it on as soon as I can.

A Sewing Summary

For memory's sake, I thought I would copy and paste my 'to do' and 'done' lists for this year. Then I can start afresh tomorrow for 2009.

I didn't get everything I wanted to done, but geez, for someone who could barely sew a straight line and took 10 good minutes to thread the machine this time last year, I reckon I've done ok! A huge thankyou to the girls at EB for getting me going and providing lots of inspiration.

Christmas Presents To Make

* toddler dress x 2 not started :(
* toddler apron x 1 not started :(
* taggy not started :(
* toddler dress x 1 WIP
* oven mitt x 1 - WIP
* note book cover - DONE
* toddler dress x 1 DONE
* oven mitt x 2 DONE
* toddler apron x 2 DONE
* pot mitts x 4 - DONE

To Do in 2008 - NOT GOING TO HAPPEN :(

* christmas bib x 2
* little undies x 6
* curtains
* fruit bags
* skirt for me
* aprons
* pencil rolls
* overalls

Done in 2008

* toddler head-band
* baby shoes x 2
* oven mitt x 2
* Buggy Bib x 2
* little undies x 2
* woolen nappy cover

Christmas wrap-up

Well, here we are at the last day of December. Poor blog has been neglected again.

There was a mad rush to sew up presents before christmas.

I made two more oven-mitts

a note-book cover





and a dress.


The note-book cover I'd made earlier but stuffed it up - the book didn't fit. I had to make it a bit bigger than the pattern said, but I got it right the second time.

The dress was the first dress I've ever made. It was actually pretty easy! The most daunting part was unfolding the pattern (first real pattern I've used) and tracing all the bits. After that, it was pretty simple. I even did french seams (first time, thanks to RS for mentioning those earlier in the peace). They made it look much neater. Next time I won't use the interfacing, I really don't think it needed it. Hopefully I'll get a pic of the recipient wearing it sometime soon.

I still have a bunch of chrissy pressies to go I'm afraid. I found my sewing room today (it was a complete shambles with the rush up to christmas) so I hope to get a couple of projects done before the week is out - I have another dress cut up ready to sew, and another oven-mitt that needs a bit of repair work before it is done. Luckily I'm not seeing these people for a while yet. Then there are 2 dresses, a tag toy, and, um, I think that's it. Then I get to think about all the fun stuff I can do in 2009! Looking forward to it.

A Little Apron

A little apron for a little boy.

I actually had three of these to make for christmas, 1 down, 2 to go. I was thinking I'd only need one by actual Christmas, but we had a last-minute invite so I had to get one finished by yesterday arvo. It was close! We (it was DH's idea) tried to get all fancy with the neck strap, it's got elastic in it, it looks cool, but alas, it didn't fit over the little boy's head :( Luckily his grandma is a wiz with a sewing machine so I left it with them for her to fix. They all still seemed quite impressed with my efforts.

This was my first applique attempt - I hope it stays on!!




The train material came from good old Spotlight. My zigzag edge is *mostly* where I wanted it to be! It is hard to sew under pressure!!

And here it is all wrapped up. And in the middle of it was a train cookie cutter. Hopefully the recipient will get lots of fun from it.



The second one is under way, I 'just' need to sew on the straps and the pocket. Easy!

Last-minute KK pressies

I had a week's notice that my extended family was doing a KK. I really didn't want to break my "all christmas pressies will be home-made" vow. So, despite my list of projects that need to be finished by christmas, I set about to make some KK presents.

I decided that pot mitts would be nice and easy. I have not done them before. They were pretty easy, once I worked out how to do the binding on the right angles. I found some instructions on the net, but I struggled to get what they meant. In the end I just trialled it on some scrap and it worked. The other problem I had was how to neatly finish off the binding. Again, I found some info on the net but couldn't quite work it out (is this nappy brain? the stress of christmas? or something else?). I worked out on the last mitt that I'd been cutting the binding on the wrong angle (which will make since if you've had to finish binding off before).

I made four, two for each person, in a fabric that I felt reflected the receiver. The first was ok, the fourth one, was pretty good. The only thing I would like to improve is the hanging loop - it wasn't possible (for me at least!) to have its ends concealed neatly like on the oven-mitt as I wanted it on the corner. Any ideas? Maybe when I make one with a little more time it'll be obvious.


They really were quite quick to make, even faster if I'd have had the binding already made. I started them Saturday night, and finished them Sunday morning (about an hour before leaving!!).

I'm sure it was less stressful making them than going to the shops to buy something would've been.

A Buggy Bib Update

Thanks for all the comments on the Buggy Bib.

A funny story - the recipient of this bib (well, the little girl's mother) thought it was a vest! So, got me thinking, I'm now inspired to alter it a little to make it a bit "vest-ier". It's a project that will have to wait till the new year though I'm afraid. Still a few too many chrissy presents to go...