Tilly’s T-shirt

A super fast project to be completed during a single Playschool episode:

1. Go to What a Lovely Name, find your baby’s name & then decide on the logo you like the best.
2. Save it to the desktop.
3. Import the pic into word. REVERSE THE IMAGE! (Me being the dumbass I am forgot to do this the first time. Tilly can only read her name in the mirror now)
4. Print the image onto T-shirt transfer paper. Follow the instructions carefully to transfer the image onto a boring white hand-me-down T-shirt. Me, I had to guess at the instructions as I have lost the english ones & only have the ones in japanese, korean, arabic & chinese??  
5. Try not to scald the shirt like I did & Ta-da. You’re done!

These would be great embellishments to a little baby package for friends. I’ll be making more of these for sure.

Thank you ‘What a lovely name’!

 

Weekend Zig Zag Baby Quilt

 

One of the handiest baby gifts we were given when The Boy was born 2.5 years ago, was a quilt Jacqueline made us. It was made entirely from flannel and was the perfect size and weight for everyday use. We used it as a wrap, floor mat, spit-up cloth, pram & cot blanket, picnic blanket…..actually, we still do with our 2nd Wee-one who is now 10 weeks old!

As Felicity’s baby shower is next weekend I thought I would try to make her something similar. 

 I used the cutting & piecing method described by the Purl Bee’sZig Zag Quilt. Because I wanted the quilt to be square & smaller than a crib-sized quilt, I cut:

• Sixteen 4-7/8 inch squares from the pink fabric,
• Sixteen 4-7/8 inch squares from the white fabric,
• Thirty-two 4-7/8 inch squares from the yellow fabric,
  But didn’t bother with the 
• Three 4-1/2 inch x 32-1/2 inch strips from the yellow fabric

The quilt ended up being 8×8 squares, measuring X cm (X inches) square – Perfect! It’s as if I planned it that way.

I backed the quilt with flannel, pink with small white stars. I added a strip of the flower fabric (made from the off-cuts) -partly because it looks good & everyone seems to be doing it, and partly because my flannel was too short so I needed to add extra length. I like the result a lot.

The end result is a very soft, compact quilt that is perfect for the nappy bag, bottom of the pram or bassinet. I hope she likes it.

I will definitely make another this way again. If I can make it in less than 48 hours with 2 kiddies, one of whom loves to play with the pin-cushion & sewing machine peddle, and another who feeds every 2-3 hours (or so it seems sometimes!), ANYONE CAN!

 

Putting my feet up

Lounge Pants

I know you told me this morning to put my feet up before the big day but I thought I needed a pair of lounge pants that will fit my ample belly before I do. Just over 2 hours later, I have this pair of uber comfy capri-length pants. Thank god Mark entertained The Boy while I madly cut, sewed & ironed these beauties. The wonderful man also made us all FRESH spaghetti & meatballs for dinner in that time too. What a champion!

I had bought this fabric ages ago from a massive Spotlight sale. I think it was $4 for the remnant roll. I don’t know how many meters were on the roll, but more than enough to make several more pairs of pants

PastaFace

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Painted Children

This is one of those things all kids just really dig.

Have them lay down on a large roll of paper and trace around them…the ensueing tickles and giggles are hilarious for all. It’s a great opportunity to talk about our bodies, it’s parts and what they are for. Hand the kids some markers, stamps, sticker, glitter or in our case paint and let them go at it. The best part is it’s a fairly big canvas to paint, it takes a while and captures their attention longer than the typical 3 minute child attention span…just got to police the inevitable painted toes hands and maybe even bellies. Try it!

 

Twirly Skirts

Well with only three days notice for a five year old’s birthday…what do you do?!

Easton was invited to a young girl’s birthday, from her Pre-school class, Gianna Campisi. I knew right away what I was going to make for her gift. She is very similar to Easton with her love of anything princess/dance related, and my mind instantly went to the few meters of fabric I had just thrifted from our local “Sally Ann” (Salvation Army).

It was a beautiful sequined aqua fabric, truly only dreamt up for a young girl of 4 or 5…or some figure skater or drag queen…dreamy!!! A little purple and aqua tule, sequined braid, elastic and silk lining…wa-la…a skirt made for only twirling and swirling. A tank top, equally “bedazzled” with sequins, ribbon and braid and there you have it…it was a hit!!! 4 days later…according to Gianna’s mum, Brandi, she was still wearing it having not taken it off…even for bed.

 Easton, was of course…intensely happy for Gianna, whilst simutaneously immensely jealous. I promised I would make her a twirly skirt for her girlfriend, Ella’s 5th birthday which was a “dance party”. She was exstatic, needless to say when I pulled it out on the day. Tasman was shattered! Where was his dance outfit?!!! Well last minute pressure always brings out the best in me…I whipped him up a Travolta/Saturday Night Fever style matching sequined shirt to wear with his authentic 70’s brown polyester 3-piece suit. A little tule buttonhole and was the styliest man at the party! The pictures aren’t great but you get the idea.

 

Mitties for Anke

I’m BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I nkow it’s been a horribly long time between posts…naughty…naughty!!

This year our 240 girls club has each taken on a “secret buddy” to whom you do something nice for once in a while. Although we’re all very busy, the idea is to secretly give or do something for your buddy that shouldn’t cost anything other than a little thought and consideration. We all answered a questionaire by hand, answering general questions about ourselves, our likes and dislikes. We all randomly pick a buddy and that is who you gift for 3 months, then we swap again. Everyone is really into it to varying degrees but nonetheless it’s been fun to not only get to know other members better…we have 5 new members this year…but also to feel the joy of giving anonymously.

The first three months my secret buddy was Anke. A new girl to our group, introduced to us by Katherine…it’s her future sis-in-law. Here are pics of a pair of mittens I made her at the conclusion of the three months as a special gift. I also gave her a couple of novels of mine and some yarn…she’s knitty too!!!

The mitts are made from the ends of sleeves off a periwinle sweater I felted. I just laid my hand, palm down ontop of the sleeve, my wrist atop the cuff. With fingers together, I traced around my hand, adding 1/2″ as I went, seam allowance. A quick whip stitch around the perimeter…you could easily use sewing machine, and wahlah!! Done!!

The embellishment was a real rush job, so don’t look tooo closely…but it’s the thought that counts…right!!!

 

More Diaper Purses

OK, we are really delving back through the archives now…

I made this nappy bag September LAST YEAR for Lizzy Chesson’s second baby Tom. I diligently followed your tutorial Jacq with computer screen one side, sewing machine on the other.

I made a matching change mat from a crib mattress protector that I cut in half, replaced the bias binding and put some ribbon trim across one edge. It is soft and folds up well so really works with this bag. I also made a quick keychain from the leftover ribbon & a tissue holder from a WhipUp tutorial. I just love this fabric (can’t remember who is the designer).

I also made this WeeWonderful Weebunny for Lizzy’s daughter Zoe (2yrs) because she can’t miss out on the fun.

 

My disappearing 9-patch quilt

Mel & Rhys asked us over for a BBQ to celebrate Mel & Mark getting new jobs & Mel’s birthday. She is such as sweetie and always is really thoughtful with Xmas & birthday presents so I figured it was a great excuse to jump on board the sew,mama,sew! Quilting Month bandwagon.

I knew the disappearing 9 patch was a groovy and simple way to make a quilt but didn’t realize you could make it have an overall pattern, rather than the randomness most of these quilts have. I was inspired Oh, Fransson’s Doll quilt I saw on the Quilting Month Flickr Pool. It just took me about 15 min to find the photo but I really wanted to credit her with the inspiration for this quilt. I love the way the center four panels make one big panel. I didn’t have any Joel Dewberry’s Aviary fabric for the center focal panels so I figured, “I’ll embroider something”. Geeze, its not like I only had 1 week to make something!!!!! So, for a couple of days, I took the quilt top on the train, tucked my elbows in and finished the birds.

I really must get a better photo of this quilt, I forgot and only had my camera phone the day I gave it to Mel. Hmm, seems to be a recurrent theme here that I need to take better photos and edit these posts…….

If you are interested in how to lay out your blocks to get this effect, go to my Flickr site and check out Before & After photos. Like I said, really easy to get something that looks quite complex.

OK, what else have I got for you………..

 

Hmm, this isn’t really helping Giles….

Geeze, I hope I’m not boring you with all these short posts. I’m  going back through my photos & posting all the ones craft-related. Not terribly interesting, but thorough…….

This project was a 15 minute one, my kind of project these days – particularly when The Boy is awake). I found these polystyrene panels in the garbage bins at work last month and thought they would make great pin-up boards above my sewing machine.

The fabric is a lightweight canvas found in the $2 discount bin at Textile Traders. Come to think of it, nearly all my projects these days are from the $5 or $2 discount bins. Love a bargain…..

Anyhoo, a bit of packing tape and voila’ two pinup boards. I haven’t mounted them to the wall yet so will show you what the look like later.

I can’t get any fabric out without The Boy running off with it, wrapping himself & rolling around in it. Luckily for this project, I had two identical pieces! 

 

Library bag

I think this was one of the very first things I sewed when I was getting into surfing the many crafty blogs out there. I’ll have to dig through and find the tutorial I followed.

OK, I found the tutorial HERE. I was cheap and just did a rectangle shaped bag with a separate handle. Better fabric usage! I learned how to sew a boxed bottom from this tutorial though. Well written & easy to follow. Thanks jenhook.

 

Gift for baby Jasmine

Kate Eddy had a baby girl last week – Jasmine.

They were thinking of going cloth so made up two nappies to see what they thought. They were made from either fleece or suedecloth as the staydry layer, hidden PUL & yummy dusky pink velour outer. I used DITTO’s OSFM (one size fits most). This pattern came from one of my favourite cloth diaper/nappy sewing sites based out of New Zealand. It has heaps of free patterns & lots of advise on the how-to’s of Modern

Cloth Nappy sewing and wearing. You can see from the photos, the one nappy fits newborns right through to toddlers. These photos show the nappy on the smallest & largest settings. A very clever design which works really well on The Boy. He has been wearing this pattern for about 6 months now and he still has room to grow.

I also had this SleepSack that I had partially sewn up ages ago from the same velour. I’m not really happy with the way its sewn. I sure have learnt a lot over the past 6 months or so. But, I figured if I didn’t finish it now, I would never finish it so I whipped in the zip & gave it to Jasmine. She can now be dressed in a sea of velour.

When I hear back from Kate regarding the fit of the nappies, I’ll update and let you know how they work for her.

PS. Please excuse the crappy photos. Mum was about to head South and was taking the pressies with her. The nappies were taken on the car bonnet & the sleepsac was hung outside on a hook. It looks really saggy/baggy huh!

 

New Cowboy shirt

I’m getting fancy. A shirt made from Micheal Miller Retro Yipee fabric ($5/m discounted fabric – gotta love it) using the same Simplicity pattern as these pants. I tell ya’ its a learning curve using a pattern & instructions! I wouldn’t want to look at the sewing too closely, particularly at the skew-wif collar. From a distance, and for a first attempt, not bad me thinks. I chickened out and used snaps for the front. Who wants to sew button-hole manually when you have a snap machine on hand.

That snap machine has just been one of the greatest buys. I love it. I bought it for nappy making but have used it for tonnes of things including hanging block-out curtain in The Boy’s room. Who needs velcro when you have snaps?!!?

I had to include this photo because its not often you take one of yourself and like it, plus it shows my new hairdo Jacq. There are some more photos on Flickr of the shirt too.

 

Lumberjack Pants

OK, here is my 1st attempt at following an actual pattern…with instructions even. I’m the kinda gal that simply lies the clothing that I want to duplicate directly onto the fabric, trace around and wing-it-and-see. It hasn’t worked too badly in the past, but I gotta say it was miles easier using a pattern with instructions, even for such a simple thing as elasticated pants. These pants are actually a pj pattern (Simplicity #3856) that Bec purchased ages ago with the hope of making some summer cotton PJs for Amelia.

I’m pretty pleased with the result, as was The Boy. As you can see however, they need to have more room for his nappy to prevent the plumbers crack you see in the photos above. Even in disposables, the rise is too low. Its actually quite difficult to tell front from back so I’ve made a couple of pockets but haven’t sewn them on yet.

The pants were a size 1 with about 4 inches cut off the legs! Yup, he has the same ‘ducks-disease’ I have. I have redrafted the pattern and plan to make a swath of these for winter. These were cotton drill with my fav Log Cabin print that I bought from Spotlight during a sale where fat quarters were only $1.50 each. The print looks like a bunch of logs side-by-side. cute.

So here you have it – Lumberjack pants.

 

Felting

My first attempt at felting – a bunny with flat feet. I didn’t prefelt it enough so the feet stuck together when I hot washed it. Oh well, it gives me something to clip The Boy’s dummy to at night.

The second addition to our felted creatures stash. I so want to make more of these. I love the colour graduations, it worked better than I expected. I thank Barbara for the angler-fish/dreadlock hairdo!

Instructions & patterns if you wish. I can post them later. On a photo uploading binge for you Jacq!

 

This weeks’ WIP

I thought I’d post sneak peeks of what I’m up to this week.

You know me, I change projects more often than I change my undies.

 

Incredible Hulk Pikelets

Incredible Hulk Pikelets

Originally uploaded by CraftyMammas.

A bit of green food colouring and Voila – Incredible Hulk Pikelets!
These would look good for a party, multicoloured.
The Boy liked them this way.

 

Idle hands…

“Better keep busy, and the devil won’t find so much for your idle hands to do”

I’ve been catching the train to Fremantle every day for work and have been moaning about the long commute ever since I started. Truth be told, it was less about the travel per se, and more about missing being at home with my two boys, feeling an extra 2.5 hours of travel time on top of an 8 hour work day was too much.
Anyhoo, rather than continuing to bitch about it, I now look upon my time on the train as a precious two lots of 40 minutes which is all my own. So, with my elbows tucked in as if I’m sitting at a full Christmas dinner table, I’ve delved into the world of embroidery.

I started with the Wee Wonderfuls Elf Stitchette pattern and have managed to complete both the boy & girl elf. The plan is to make them into Xmas stockings (yup, starting early this year).

Just as I finished those two and was in need of another ‘on-the-go’ project, I saw your del.icio.us tag linking to the Purl bee Sashiko Tutorial. Perfect! Two nights in front of TV and a trip to-and-from work and I’ve finished the embroidery on my bargain 35c onesie (photo to be inserted..).

It is so hard to find boy-appropriate crafts, so I was really pleased with this. The stitching is a little uneven (hmm… super stretchy fabric isn’t the best for this project) & I ended up free-handing most of it (hmm… I have to invest in a fabric marker – the blunt china pencil isn’t really cutting it). I’m happy with the end result.

So happy in fact that I’ve started another one this morning on one of The Boy’s onesies. Bugger bugger! I got this much done before Daglish and then realized I left my thread at home. Bugger! I had to sit and twiddle my thumbs for the rest of the trip. What am I going to do on the way home?? Bugger.

I’ll load up some photos tonight of the finished work. I’m blogging at work during (yet another) incubation with photos from my phone.

Oh! good-o. My timer has just gone off and I’ve run out of stuff to ramble on about.

 

A proud mamma

Along the crafty lines of my last post, I thought I would show you Giles’ first ever drawing.

Ahh, aren’t I the proud mamma.

Good thing these textas are washable, he likes to draw on the highchair more than the paper. He’s quite adamant about it too! The photo was taken last month, but I just downloaded it off my phone this morning (again, killing time during an incubation) and thought I’d do a quick post.

 

Look Sharp!

…Or ‘How you kill time during an incubation’

Jacq tagged a cool craft for kids using sharpies and some solvent to make these firework/flower patterns.
Thought I would give it a go in in the lab on some tissue. Will take some isopropanol home and try it on some fabric.

 

Figs & Crepes

Title says it all, no?

We are so lucky to have such a great friend who keeps us supplied with free-range eggs, tomatoes, parsley, ‘church bread’, hot cups of coffee, fresh cookies and/or cake, play-dates at a minutes notice, good chats and always good laughs all within a 5 minute walk from our house.

Last time we were down at Bec’s, we came home with a bag of home grown figs. Dare to dream hey Jacq?!? 5 min simmer on the stove-top and Voila, instant fig compote. This just sung out for fresh crepes, so of course, I obliged. Yummy!!

 

A 2-2 1sie

A Tutu Onsie inspired by some super cute clothes by Snazzidrawers I saw on ETSY a long time ago. I had figured it was too much work to cut tulle into thin strips, plus I found it impossible to find soft tulle, it was all stiff and scratchy, not so nice for a babe’s bottom! What I did find was some netting made for crochet/knitting. It is precut into about 2cm strip. Pink trim from a wee store in Busselton, knicker elastic for the other two rows. Wove strips with wool needle. Have meters of the stuff now!!! Tonnes to make……

Oh, must continue post later The Boy just awoke!

 

Quilting round-and-round

Remember this fabric? I finally cut into it and made Giles a quilt following one of Martha’s tutorials.

It is a dead-easy quilt to make as “the design is created simply by sewing strips around a center piece to form concentric rectangles.” I was able to cut the strips while The Boy was taking his bath (I did this on the floor of the bathroom!) and did all the piecing that night after he went to bed. All up, it took around 5 hours to make the quilt top.

The next night I sewed the backing on & machine quilted by stitching in the ditch in a concentric circle going out from the center rectangle (I don’t have a good photo of the back to show you, but you get what I mean). As I didn’t have any quilting batting, and am trying to ‘use what I have’, I used some printed polar fleece that a friend had given me that I was never quite sure what to do with. It is a great cheap alternative to quilters batting and it has made a thin, but nice & warm quilt.

I made the binding from the animal print fabric and followed Heather’s instructions. Ta Da!

Editited to add: I forgot to say I found more of the animal print at Textile Traders for $9.95/m so bought some more to make a summer grobag/sleepsac as well. I used Bec’s no bias binding tutorial. Mum laughs and says when he is in bed with the gorbag & quilt, he disappears and all you can see is a head. 

You can see a pretty crap photo of it HERE.

 

Dress in action

Bec just sent me some photos of the 4-in-1 dress in action.

So, how did it go??? It was a bit too big around the middle so the dress slips towards the front, poor Bug has her butt showing alot of the time! Good thing it is so appleish & cute! The excess fabric also causes the back to bunch a bit. I could trim off the contrast band at the back, but both Bec & I like that detail. So, at Mark’s suggestion, we are going to try putting two snaps on the front & back panel to stop the dress pivoting at that point. Hopefully that will stop it opening up so wide & slipping to the front. Wow, that description is clear as mud

 

4-in-1 dress

I loved the simplicity of this dress, so set out to make one for Amelia for Xmas. Christmas got a little hectic and I missed the day but it is better late than never. Sorry Amelia, at least I got it finished before Winter set in

Using Mark’s digital calipers, a dress of Amelia’s & Giles as a moving dress dummy I upscaled a pattern from this photo. I adjusted it it make the dress a lot shorter to try and get it above her knees. The short length will hopefully make climbing (her new found, and well practiced skill) easier. the other adjustment was to use snaps instead of ties for the front and back. I figured with a squirmy 1yr old, snaps were much easier than trying to tie two bows. For an older child ties would look nice. Oh, I also used snaps on one of the shoulder straps as the neck hole looked a bit small & it was an excuse to use more snaps!.

So here it is, 4 dresses for the price of 1…

Dress 1 and 2; Front & Back

Dress 3 and 4; Front & Back

I’m really pleased with how it looks. I’ll give it to Bec tomorrow so hopefully we will have some ‘action’ shots soon.

I’d love to make one for Easton, I just don’t know what size to make it. Perhaps you could measure her chest & length for me.

P.S. Sorry for the quality of the photos. Just as you get your camera fixed Jacq, I dropped our Canon A90 tonight while taking photos of the dress! It landed on the lens and has pushed it all out of alignment. It won’t even turn on without a ‘lens error’ message. BUGGER!!! These photos (and many to come) were taken on my cell phone. Bugger, bugger, could it happen at a worse time when buying a new one is out of the question? bugger. Oh well, these things happen.

 

Poles Apart

Southern Hemisphere Christmas

::My Outfit::

Just off the phone with you Jacq, sitting having a glass of wine waiting for Giles to wake up before I got dressed into my new Chrissy outfit (it’s hanging on the door). It was too damn hot to get dressed before I had to, or I would have arrived looking like a soggy lump of dough!

::Our Christmas Table::

Mel & Rhys did a beautiful job of decorating the tables and making it feel most festive! We shared our day with Mel’s family which

::Outside Christmas Day::

Perth recorded 39.5C for Christmas Eve, 40.7C for Christmas Day and 44.2 C (111F) for Boxing Day, the hottest three-day Christmas period since records began!!!

What I really wanted to photograph was an egg frying on the road, but I couldn’t bring myself to hang outside for long enough! Instead, here is a photo taken at about 8:30pm. We had just gotten home and the house was sitting at a stifling 37.9C. The only place to be was outside under the pergola with what little breeze their was, blowing though the yard. Giles toddled around for another hour or so while we had another cold beer, then we all collapsed into bed. A fantastic Xmas day!

I can’t say we wished you were here (the weather was too revolting) but we sure wished we were with you on Christmas day! We love you all XXOOXX

 

Cookin’ With Easton

 ”Rain, rain, go away

Come again another day

Little Easton wants to play”

Easton and I took advantage of a very grey day to bake. Scones were in order. Easton managed to cook the whole batch by herself, with a little help from myself, reading the recipe…very proud I am.

…the only thing missing, in my opinion, was the whipped cream.

 

I sewed something just for me

 

The first weekend in August was my friends, Chris and Steph’s wedding. A magnificent afternoon ceremony beside Island Lake surrounded by friends and famliy. So lucky, were these two that the lingering smoke in the skies from the previous days was blown away…the views were stunning! Steph’s dress was absolutely beautiful…you shouldv’e seen the look on Chris’ face. Even after 12+ years these two still have that day one adoration in their eyes. We moved up to the lodge afterwards for delicious hors d’ouvers and drinks before heading downtown to the Best Western for a buffet dinner and dance. The party continued late into the evening, in fact until we were kicked out of the funtion room a little after 2am.

I finally made something for myself, a dress to wear for the day. It was an off the shoulder, fitted a-line dress made of a slightly stretchy floral fabric I fell in love with in Cranbrook months ago. Luckily it fit just right with no alteration necessary because I was still madly hemming the bloody thing the morning of the wedding whilst trying to fend off my curious children. Pretty happy with the outcome. What do you think?

 

The Browns go to Springfield

Ah ha! We have jumped on the Simpsons Movie craze and had ourselves ‘Simpsonized‘.

So, what do you think? Any resemblance?

 

Fleecy Butt-cover-uper-ers

These overalls are my very first attempt at making clothes for Giles. I did it the easy way and used bonded fleece and simply traced a pattern right onto the fleece from a pair of overalls he already wears. A few embellishments on his butt pockets and voila, easy-peasy!

It has taken me so long to show you these photos, Giles has nearly grown out of them. No kidding, his little milk-belly is making the seam down the front stretch to breaking point (I’ve since learned you are supposed to

reinforce an overlocked seam with a straight stitch….Oh well, next time)

 

More from the Wraped Mind of Stichy McYarnpants

Here’s a giggle or two for you.

but wait…there’s more