Rainbow Felted Eggs

It's been funny weather here - rainy one minute, sunny and hot the next - so making Rainbows was in order!

Aren't they so pretty. I'm a bit addicted to rainbows these days. My eye seems to be drawn to things in that ROYGBIV colourway and the make me happy. Maybe it's because I am subconsciously looking for that elusive pot of gold......?


So, now I can walk into my sewing room without tripping over a mountain of boxes, fabric, stuff, stuff and more stuff, I got to it and made a small clutch of Rainbow Felted Eggs. I haven't made any in ages so it was fun to get wet and soapy again. Seeing these little gems slowly forming in my kitchen sink was good for my creative soul - a much needed activity these days. The dreamlets sure liked it too. Each time one was finished, they'd run about the kitchen giving it a good shake-shake-shake! I can safely say they've all been 'tested' and work a treat, putting a smile on the dial of the youngsters & the big gal of this household.


Here's hoping there's a little sunshine and rainbows in your world today.

Colour bingo

Ok Jacq, I've decided to post all my craftiness going backwards in time. This way you can have the big anticlimactic reveal of this crochet project. Ha!

Ok. Post number one is a great game we have been playing over the past few days. Easy peasy and fantastic for keeping toddlers busy in the backyard or inside on a rainy day. I can't remember where I got the idea, somewhere in blog-land.

If you are brave get the kids to paint each section of an egg carton a different colour. Me, well I couldn't face the multicolor mess so I quickly painted these while they were in the bath. It only took 5 min to paint and 5 min to clean (does that make me a bad craftymamma?)

Anyhoo, once the carton is dry send the wee ones out and get them to find something in the yard to match each colour. Green, brown & yellow was easy but we had to think outside the box to fill the purple & blue one! Giles ended up finding a blue telescope toy & bit of purple rubbish bin bag. Cool huh.

Try it one weekend. It will keep the kids busy for at least twice the time it takes to make, which in my book is a winner!

'Princess cardie' for the princess

I've begun my next project for in front of the TV, the Little Princess Cardie (a free pattern offered by Lion Brand) Its a swing style cardigan apparently suited for a beginner - that claim is about to be put to the test!

We don't get Lion Brand here so I chose some bamboo/cotton from Spotlight. It is so silky and soft. A bit challenging to work with as the fibres are almost like embroidery thread and are easy to split as your hook goes in and out but I seem to be getting the hang of it.

I'll keep you posted with my progress. Wish me luck!!

Granny square blanket finished!

I love it - it's heavy, warm and just the right size for the crib or your lap. It's supposed to be Tilly's but mum thinks the colours are more boy-like. What do you think? (BTW, the only photo where the colours are most true is the one of the blanket edges). Either way, the blanket goes with our leather couches.

Geeze tilly is hard to catch on film! You can see the best 2 of all my shots of her with her new blanket. I am no blogging queen.

Now, find me a new easy pattern jacq. I can only do granny squares so it will be a challenge. I've seen this pattern (http://www.creativejewishmom.com/2010/07/how-to-crochet-a-hexigon-baby-surprise-sweater.html) but would it suit tilly??

Girly Headbands x2

What to make a 4 year old girl for her birthday?

Headbands - one for school (she has to wear only red) and one for everyday wear.

The zipper flower was made using one of the zillions of tutorials out there. I modge podged (is that a word?) the headband and covered it with some fabric. It seemed to work and hopefully will hold up. The inside of the headband is trimmed with felt for comfort.

The 2nd band has been in my WIP box for ages (I'm talking at least 1.5 years - whoops). Bec's mum or grandmother had a book on ribbon folding and showed me how to do it a long time ago. If she hasn't shown you on her blog how it's done and if you're interested, I'll make a quick tutorial for you Jacq.

Mark said the headbands were a big hit with the birthday girl. She and a friend wore them right out of the wrapping paper. Whew!

Sheer cuteness!

Why was I so scared about doing this it's so easy!
instead of tidying & getting ready for our busy week I sat at the machine to pump out the remainder of my cloth nappies (before the wee gal grows out if them). two inserts later I wad bored, bored, bored so decided to swap gears completely and sew her up a shirred dress.
All the tutorials out there say it's so easy and what do you know, it is! I'm hooked now. I couldn't stop at one dress and whipped up another, then matching bloomers for the 1st dress.
Now, who else do I know who NEEDS a dress/top like this?

Twins' Tie Tees

Happy news... "the twins" have arrived and E, A and the babes are doing great!! What and adorable pair, huh?!!!!

What could be cuter than tie tee onesies for the twins??!!!

I saw the idea recently at Saltwater Kids and was eagerly awaiting the next wee boy to arrive so I could try it out. Wow, how lucky was I (;0) when TWIN boys arrived!!!! Perfect.

I hadn't wanted to send typically matching outfits, but the opportunity to create mix and match, co-ordinating tie tee onesies seemed too adorable to bear. Hope you think so too. This was incredibly easy and quick to throw together. The challenge was finding plain onesies. "Joe" brand came through once more. I hope they like them...what do you think????

Click on photo for more....

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'!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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)

All cozy for Winter

Giles is growing fast and has grown out of the sleeping bag Helen lent us (thank you Helen, it has been a godsend!), so I sewed a new one that doubles as a pram liner for winter. I used Bec's liner as inspiration & to get some rough measurements, but from there I had to wing it. No wonder it took several weekends to finish it. It's really hard to think three steps ahead when you are living on chunks of sleep that are less than 3 hours in length (yay for teething & a headcold).

Anyhoo, I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It fits the pram perfectly and is toasty warm for our Perth winters. I made it from two layers of bonded fleece with 3M Thinsulate quilt batting sandwiched between. It has a open ended zip around the foot & snaps (of course) up the sides. This way, you take the cover right off if the weather improves.

I found these Army appliqués of Dad's in with mum's bag of buttons she gave me from her sewing supplies. Aren't they fantastic. Very boyish. Dad was really thrilled to see them find a new life.

New shoes & shirt for the boy

Spotlight had their stocktake sale this week and bonded fleece was on sale at $10/m. Typical spotlight, I didnt' even know they stocked it until I saw it in the catalogue. You can never find anything in that store!

Anyhow, as today is a public holiday,  I spent the morning while Giles was napping, whipping up a pair of shoes from the Stardust Shoe tutorial & a matching T-shirt.

The shoes were really easy to make but they only just fit Giles' feet. Next time I'll have to make them longer and will increase the depth for the heel part. For now, they're a perfect fit & just right for our super chilly days.

I have to confess totally yoinked JoJo's idea for the matching t-shirt. Love it!

Soprano Sock Puppets

This must be a first for me.....getting a birthday present finished (well this part of it anyhow) 4 months early! I made three sock puppets using childrens fuzzy socks as I thought they would fit a little hand better than a huge adult sock. All the eyes were from Mum's button stash that she gave me from her sewing box. It is so great to give life to something that has been sitting in the bottom of a cupboard for years and years. My fave is the pig. The toe of the sock has been pushed in, then the buttons sewn in to make the nostrils. I am really pleased how this one turned out.

I hope she gets lots of fun out of these.

PS. they're called Soprano Sock puppets as I made them while watching season 2 of the Sopranos. Mark & I watched them back-to-back last weekend.

Wee Toques

I made these toques awaiting the next babe of the feminine kind to arrive. Well I had to wait a long time!! Finally, little wee Ava Brynn Schultz arrived and do you think I could decide which to give her?

She got both!

I love the little kanzashi flower on the white and wedgewood blue toque!

Thanks Amber for the tutorial.