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.