Baby Kimono

Dean has started calling me "Martha" ie. Martha Stewart. So don't tell him that I have actually visited her site and there are HEAPS of things I'd love to make food, sewing, craft... everything.

So I came across Martha's baby kimono tutorial and today I did a first run with some cheaper fabric so I know what I'm doing before I cut up some lovely fabric I bought for Liam. I'm pretty happy with the results, now on to the "proper" fabric.

Warning: If anyone attemps this tutorial you will have to fill in some gaps in the instructions, plus there aren't many photos to explain. When I started to get muddled I just pinned where I assumed they meant the seams should go, turned it the right way and checked it would "work".

Smock and Play Mat/Bag

The Monkey turned 6 months on the Thursday just gone. It has gone far too quick. He has two teeth and on the verge of crawling, where has my newborn gone?

Tonights sleeping position ... why do I bother wrapping him?

It seems like forever since I did some sewing on my machine. The days do not have enough hours. This weekend we had a lazy one, nothing planned just hanging around home so a couple of items on my to-do list got finished.

The May Fly blog smock tutorial caught my eye a little while ago and I finally made it up yesterday. It fits Isabella but needs longer straps for it to have tied up so I just put on some press studs. I should have shares in the press studs industry. When I make another one for Isabella (or an almost 3 year old) I will add probably 3 inches at the end of each strap.

I also added a pocket each side so it is reversible. Isabella seems to like it, she kept telling me she was pretty in it today. (Excuse the poor photos, I don't know why its fuzzy... damn camera.)

Soozs toy drawstring bag/mat tutorial is another of the first tutorials I came across that I fell in love with. I loved the farm material used in the post and have kept my eye out for something to use ever since.

We have a collection of Little People that Isabella calls her "animals". Ok, it may be more of a civilisation than a collection. So I decided to make the bag/mat to store all her Little People in and take with us when we visit friends. So last week while at Spotlight AGAIN, I found this material stashed away in the fabric on sale, and it was perfect. I didn't get quite enough rope, next trip tp SL I'll grab more.


The mat "in action" (with a small selection of "animals"). Isabella LOVES it, she loves all the animals printed on the fabric and farm houses that are similar to the Little People Farmhouse she has. Liam didn't mind it either, he was gnawing on the rope.

Felt Cookies

The felt donut has been a great hit so I thought I would make up some more felt food for Isabella to play with at our little tea parties. No pattern or tutorial for them, I just saw a few pictures and guessed what I was doing. I still have one more white/pink one to stuff and a few more chocolate chip cookies to make up and maybe onto some cupcakes. We will be having a felt feast soon!

Royal Easter Show

Quick post after a very long and hot day, but we survived the Easter Show again this year and the Princess had an absolute ball going on all the rides with her buddy Sammy.

ABC have an On the Road display with a trailer all setup to video kiddies singing to their favourite ABC song. When we joined the queue Isabella wanted to sing 5 Little Joeys from The Wiggles, but after an hour in the queue and listening to almost every child sing Bob the Builder, that's all she wanted to sing. And she did quite well!

We're all off to bed early tonight, everyone has sore feet and very tired!

Yummy

Isabella enjoyed her first ever Easter Egg as you can see. I think more ended up on her face than in her mouth, but isn't that half the fun.

We spent the day at Nanny & Poppy's and when we left late this afternoon the little Monkey stayed for his first sleep over on his own with them. We miss him already! I'm sure I'll be ringing all day tomorrow to see what he is up to. When we got home I cut up some old towels we were about to throw away for some more bibs for the drool-king. One got finished and the others are just waiting for stitching. All I need is more cotton!

Not in the mood to start any big projects since we won't be home all day to finish them tomorrow, I tried out the Angry Chicken blog barrettes tutorial and added a cupcake. Gemima is modelling it, but hopefully it will make it's way to Isabella to wear tomorrow.

Hmmmm donuts.....

Ever since the 3rd birthday party we went to on Thursday, Isabella hasn't stopped singing "Happy birthday to you" and also pretending everything is a birthday presant and birthday cake. One of the Newbie Sewer girls on Essential Baby forum posted a link to the donut tutorial on the Cut Out + Keep website about a week ago and I thought I'd make it up for Isabella as an Easter present. Now she has a "real" cake to play with!

It was my first attempt at whipstitch and I am very very bad at it apparently. The inside ring of the brown donut is horrible, but by the time I was whipstitching the pink icing on I was going OK. I don't think she'll mind. The tutorial uses beads but since the little Monkey likes to play with absolutely everything he can get his hands on, I thought it would be safer to just use cotton and I embroided some french knots on it for the sprinkles instead.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from our little Princess and the Monkey boy. Easter Sunday we are spending at my parents for a yummy roast lunch and Monday we are off to the Easter show. The last two times we have been to the show I have been pregnant so this year will be interesting being able to move around without frequent rest stops!

We don't really do chocolate for Easter at our house, we're not big chocolate eaters except for Dean. My mum asked for no chocolate so rather than not giving her anything I made her the foldup grocery bag from the Sew Eco blog she can keep in her handbag. It took a lot longer than I thought it would (really shouldn't start new projects at 10pm). I like it though, I'd like to make one for me and maybe one for Dean's mum. I used to have a real cheap one that fell apart and I found it so handy.

Empire Marinas Work

Had a lovely breakfast with a friend this morning down at Cronulla. I didn't get any of my bacon of course, Isabella is truly her father's child, but it was yummy none the less.

No time for sewing though today... sniff... one of my customers went live with a new website I created so most of the afternoon was spent uploading files, testing... etc... So I count my "crafty" thing for the day all the graphic design work and eyes bulging at coding. http://www.empiremarinas.com.au/.

Meet Magoo the Monkey

I couldn't wait. The pattern hasn't even been in our house for 24 hours and he is already made, been drooled on and squished by our own little monkey. Meet Magoo the Monkey. I loved his colours, I went for pretty plain and he is just adorable, except his shorts, don't look too closely, I got horribly confused what I was doing and had an audience (a.k.a. Isabella) asking for me to hurry up so she could put them on the monkey. The just kind of became short-shorts. I didn't tack them to his body so I may just make him another less-embarrasing pair. One thing I confirmed while making Magoo - I wouldn't be able to make a gather in fabric to save my life.

And this is our monkey last night. Fast asleep with a full tummy in mummy's arms. For a baby life couldn't get any better!

Off to the library, 1-2-3

Not since I was at school have I been to the library. Isn't that sad. So on a tip from a mum in my Essential Babies Newbie Sewer's group, off we headed last week to find a sewing book I wanted. My goodness libraries have changed!! Our local library is part of a group of 8 council libraries and they have all their books online now and you can login with your account and reserve books and re-renew them all without leaving home. And the BEST part was that if they have a book at one of the other 7 libraries you can order it and they'll bring it to the library you want and it only takes a couple of days! Plus you can borrow from one library and drop it back at any other one. How organised are they!

Ok, so everyone else might not be excited but I was. We went back again this morning to pickup the Bend-The-Rules sewing book and also 2 Jamie Oliver DVDs. Sooo with our plans to visit the library more often, I decided Isabella HAD to have a library bag. So this was made up last night using the tutorial on the Craftster website. I adjusted mine with proportions just for Isabella, but the original pattern would be great for an adult. It was a fairly quick project, another one that can be finished after the kids have gone to bed.

This morning we visited Spotlight again, fingers crossed for some more cupcake material and it was ALL GONE!! I came home with some great bargins, but am now searching the wide world web for the same cupcake material as Isabella's apron. If anyone know's where there is anymore please let me know!

Using the Grand Revival Design blog tutorial I made Liam his soft ball today. What a great quick project, all cut, sewed, stuffed and hand sewed up in an hour and we're already playing with it. Another item off my to do list!

We received a lovely little package from the kids Nanna in Ballarat at the post office today. I asked her to pick me up a pattern last week and it was a surprise what was coming, I got BOTH the patterns I liked the Magoo Monkey and Under the Sea, talk about spoilt! Isabella got some new bangles and Liam a set of pretty (un-spoilt from pumpkin) bibs. Poor daddy didn't get anything. Oh well.

Twirly Skirt

We had a lovely day out today visiting friends and the kids Nanny & Poppy, and Isabella was very happy to wear her new skirt which everyone liked. So just a quick blog update with this photo.

Teeth, Twirly Skirts & Kimono Pencil Rolls

My little baby boy is growing too quick! Yesterday we spotted his first tooth had popped through as he was chumping down on some pumpkin for lunch. At least it seemed to come through without any heartache. He also got up onto his knees and started rocking! He's almost crawling and he's not even 6 months! There should be a baby-law that no crawling until Mummy is ready.

Sewing has been quiet, we have been busy the past few days, but I did finally get around to whipping up a quick bib for Liam with some of the first fabric I bought. I have made him a bib before but this time, with him now on solids I wanted a much longer one, so I made up my own template and I'm pretty happy with the results. I think I will make up some more in this size once I grab some more press studs.

I finally made up Isabella's twirly skirt from the House of Hillroad's Tutorial. It was fairly easy to make and only took a couple of hours. I have to admit for someone who doesn't like ironing, sewing sure involves alot of ironing! Isabella tried on her "ballet' skirt as she called it this afternoon, but by the time I found the camera she was ready to take it off. Not that it mattered, the camera's batteries were flat anyway!. Tomorrow we have a lunch date, hopefully she'll wear it then and I'll get some photos.

I carry a kimono pencil roll with beautiful china dolls fabric we got from a friend a few months back everywhere for Isabella, but I always got stuck for paper. So I thought I would attempt one myself a while ago (just forgot to take photos). I added a small pouch at the back which will carry 1 or 2 A4 pieces of paper folder up, so now there is always paper on hand. A friend saw it while we were out one day and asked me to make one for her, so the blue one is now waiting to go to Sam for his birthday next week. The original pattern I started with was from the Cut Out and Keep website.

A rare quiet moment of the princess today captured on film!

Cupcake softie

We had a playdate this morning with Isabella's little friend Lacie who turns 2 next week that I made a cupcake apron for and she LOVED it. I wanted to put something else with it so I decided to make up a cupcake softie. Now before I decided to make it at 8am this morning, I probably should have found a pattern, but NO I decided do it before swimming with no time to sew it let alone search the web for a pattern. So it all go free-hand cut and I winged how to put it together. I was pretty happy with the results. Lacie's mum loved the apron so much she wants one for herself for her birthday and also for a friend of Lacie's whose birthday is in April, so I'll be back up to Spotlight this weekend (or even tonight if Dean gets home early enough) to grab some more cupcake fabric.

I joined a lovely group on the Essential Baby website for "Newbie Sewers". For newbie's these girls sure can sew! As part of the group we have just had to nominate our "to do" list. Now I must admit, I have a pretty reasonable To Do list, but I also have a HUGE list of things that have caught my eye that I'd like to make one day that takes up pages in Word.

1. Bibs for Liam
2. Bag for a friend's birthday in April
3. Adult Cupcake Apron for Lacie's mum's birthday in April
4. Toddler Cupcake Apron for Lacie's friend's birthday in April
5. 2x Bags for Mum & Mother-in-law for Mother's Day
6. Baby bib & booties for Cousin (when we know what sex the baby will be)
7. Some baby things for friend (when I know what sex the baby will be)
8. Foldup play bag for Isabella & Liam
9. Flannalette PJs for Isabella & Liam
10. Twirly skirt for Isabella
11. Ballet dress for Isabella
12. Fabric book for Liam
13. Fabric ball for Liam

Kind of looks big when I write it all down! Now just to get Liam's christening invitations done and then I can get a move on.

Fun at the Park

Most weeks we catch-up with our lovely Mother's Group. We all met at our antenatal class at the hospital where our 1st kids were all born and 3 years later this month we are still together! Isabella loves catching up with her little friends and it is amazing to see how much they interact with each other now. Somehow we ended up with a really good bunch, they are all well behaved and we have no bullies, they all get on so well.

Today we headed off to the local gardens which are just beautiful. Isabella wore her dress I made her when I first got my machine from the first pattern I ever bought, and a hat that is supposed to be mine, but apparently no longer. At least it kinda goes with outfit, not like the bright orange cowboy hat she HAD to buy last week down the shops. NOTHING we have goes with orange!.
Another pattern I bought at the same time was a Burda Easy overalls pattern. I thought it was a good buy, with sizes from 6mnth to 3yrs, so a pattern to cover for both kiddies! It is supposed to be a beginners pattern, but it sure wasn't clear for me in some spots!. It was supposed to have pockets at the back, but I couldn't figure out the instructions. And the pocket at the front is different than it is in the pattern.

I tried it on Liam quickly before he headed to bed and before it was "snapped" and looks like it fits. He might wear it tomorrow to a playdate we have or maybe Friday when he & I are going out with his Nanny while Isabella is at kindy. I'll try get a photo of him in it then.

Gingerbread Men

No sewing. Too sick. Hate colds. Grrr.


Sooo of course, when Isabella woke up this afternoon she HAD to have gingerbreadmen. Lucky I keep everything in the cupboard. So we made yummy gingerbreadmen, who got a little "sunburnt" but still tasted reallly good. I did get to taste test mine, but most went got devoured by the first born. Poor Liam had to make do with pureed apple and pumpkin. He missed out.

Superman Cape & Lotus Bag

Isabella's best friend, Sam is having his 3rd birthday in a couple of weeks so this weekend I made him his own superman cape from the Puking Pastilles tutorial to go with his presents. I love that the Superman "S" also works for "Sam"!

I reallllly wanted the Amy Butler Swing bag pattern. I even sent my poor mother-in-law into her local shop in Ballarat, Victoria as they had them listed on their website, but alas, none left. I may order it from the USA if I can't get it out of my head :-) She did apparently get me a Melly & Me pattern, but it's a surprise which one! I'm secretly hoping it's Under the Sea or Magoo the Monkey (so I can make one for my little monkey :-) but heck, they are all so nice it doesn't really matter!.

Trying to find another bag to make, I found a lovely Lotus Bag tutorial from the Craft Apple blog. So off to Spotlight I went and found some nice subtle flowers fabric and some cream courdoroy. The cord works really well as the lining fabric as it's nice and heavy and I made a nice pocket on the inside, perfect size for my Blackberry. It even got a test run outside when I took Isabella shopping yesterday afternoon. Pretty pleased with the results.

Yum yum

My baby is growing up! After an unsuccessful attempt at rice cereal last week (and who could blame him... ick!) tonight I grabbed an apple from the shops, steamed it and pureed it up and Liam LOVED it! He ate a couple of teaspoons and was so desperate for more when it ran out he grabbed the spoon off us and tried to do it himself. Certainly looks like he loves his tucker.

Cup of Tea...

OK, I'm not the best sewer, I wouldn't even say I was "good", but I made this teapot for Isabella yesterday and when it was finished I showed her and you know what she said "Bella's Elephant mummy". Talk about a critic. For those who CAN sew, I got the pattern from the Vintage Ric Rac blog. If I make another one, the handle would definitley be smaller, probably half the size in the pattern. Oh and after I explained it was a teapot, not an Elephant, I got a few cups of lovely tea made with it.

This camera case tested my patience in many ways! Some tutorials I just can't follow. Overall it came out well, and was a birthday gift for a friend. Of course I made it difficult for myself by putting extra padding in, and I decided at the end to use velcro instead of a stud so had to hand-sew it on.

The last of the fruit and vegies from Fox Studios markets are gone. We had a few plums left over so I put them in the oven covered in vanilla sugar and they were delicious! Great way to use up extra fruit before it goes off (which rarely happens in this house). Drizzled with some cream they were a great dessert.

On my blog trawl I came across the thimble blog which has a list of fantastic tutorials to try. Most of these are on my to do list now!