My first pair of pants!

Well not really my first pair of pants but the first pair of pants I have made! Two pairs actually!

I had bought this camo print cotton fabric recently from Lincraft and my oldest son (almost 7yo) asked me if I could make him a pair of pants and a vest out of it. That wasn't my intended use for the fabric but it didn't matter. He wanted them to wear to a birthday party. Now I had never even attempted to make a pair of pants before so trawled the net for a free pattern and came across the KID Pants at dana-made-it.com

I decided that as the camo print fabric was quite thin that I would either need to reinforce the bottom and knee areas or line the inside of the pants. I had some light tan coloured tracksuit fleece already so decided it would be perfect! So the night before the birthday party I got to work. The KID Pant pattern is a sz3-4 so I knew I needed to increase the pattern size. I estimated how much extra to add both in width and length and hoped that it would work out ok. I really should have just gone and measured my son while he was sleeping but I didn't want to disturb him, or I could have used another pair of his pants as a guide for size but I didn't think of that at the time! I didn't quite get them finished before I went to bed but managed to finish them the following day and as I had put the fleece lining in them I made them so that they can be folded up at the bottom (really just in case they were too long!). I didn't get around to making his request of matching vest, though he was happy enough with the pants. I also made another pair of pants the same for my 3.5yo son.

I am pretty happy with the end result, especially as they are the first pair(s) of pants I have ever made, and more importantly that they fit!

Melbourne Craft & Quilt Fair

Over the weekend of July 28-31 the Craft & Quilt Fair came to Melbourne! I managed to squeeze in a trip there on the Sunday afternoon with my lovely Mum for company. We both had an enjoyable afternoon at the fair and I came home with some bits and pieces from various stores including some gorgeous ribbons and some fabric in kids prints. Next time I go to the fair I will make sure I have the whole day free as an afternoon just wasn't enough time!

The babies are here!

Today I heard from both of my friends Kristy and Rach! Anticipation is over and Rach gave birth to a baby girl yesterday and Kristy to a baby boy today! Super excited for both of them and their families!

Newborn nappy stash order completed!

With only a few days to spare, I finally finished the order for my gorgeous friend Kristy! Awaiting to cover her newborn's bott is a stash of funky coloured fitted nappies and covers.
As Kristy is eagerly awaiting the birth of her baby to find out the gender, she selected some fun solid coloured flannelette fabric from Spotlight. I added in some gender neutral jungle print flannelette, also from Spotlight. The inner layer of the nappies are made from scrumptiously soft vanilla suedecloth fabric from one of my favourite nappy fabric stores, which I have mentioned before, Nappies Covered. As it is winter, a quick dry fitted nappy was required and therefore there is no added sewn in hidden layer of absorbency in these nappies. Instead there is a two layered bamboo snap in booster folded in half and an additional 2 layered bamboo snap in mini booster, providing 6 layers of bamboo plus a layer of flanellete for absorbency. All nappies have been made with snap closure and I used a variety of coloured snaps to complete them.


As every fitted nappy requires a cover, Kristy's stash has just that! Fitted nappies and covers are great for the newborn stage as they are awesome at keeping in all those pooplosions! There are less covers than nappies as the covers can be used several times before needing a wash, unless soiled. The covers have been made from a selection of solid coloured PUL including sage and aqua, and one cover is made from giraffe print cotton PUL fabric. Edging the nappies is super soft fold over elastic (FOE) in either solid colours of purple or white, or patterned with fish or turtle friends. All fabric for the covers was sourced from Nappies Covered.


Kristy newborn stash comprises of 15 fitted nappies and 7 covers.


While I was busy sewing Kristy's stash, I decided to make a gift for another lovely friend of mine, Rach, who is also due to give birth to her 2nd bub any day now! Rach and I have been getting together as sewing buddies lately, it's been lots of fun! I made a newborn fitted nappy with jungle print flannelette and lined with a blue fleece inner for the stay dry layer. To match the jungle print, I made a cover from giraffe print cotton PUL and white FOE. I think these are super cute! Rach has also been busy sewing some newborn nappies from my pattern, and I can't wait to see what she has finished!



Now I wait in anticipation on the news of two babies that are due to enter the world any day now!

A medical delay!

I had been busy sewing away some nappies for my gorgeous girlfriend who is due in only a couple of weeks now, however a spanner was thrown in the works and after 7 hours of excruciating abdominal pain I was taken off to hospital in an ambulance on Friday night! It turned out that the ambulance ride was well warranted, and I was diagnosed with pancreatitis and subsequently had to remain in hospital until my gallbladder was removed, gall stones being the culprit behind the pancreatitis. Lucky for me the medical team wanted to operate as soon as possible so that I wouldn't be subjected to further attacks of pancreatitis or worse, so I didn't have to go on a long waiting list for the surgery. I am home now and recovering well :)

Happy Easter!!

OK, so I'm a few days late, but we were away over the Easter weekend and I didn't get a chance to post anything prior! We had a quiet Easter, choosing to spend it with family and I made some yummy chocolate eggs for the occasion with the help of my middle son!

My first orders!

Here they are: two sets of ribbon cuddle blankets with matching large blankets, and an individual ribbon cuddle blanket. All have been complemented with personalised name tags.

Toyworld Lego competition

My boys are Lego mad! They have oodles and oodles of Lego! My eldest receives the Lego club magazine and the latest edition had some information about a Lego Competetion being run by Toyworld stores. Entrants have to build the Lego model of their dreams, take a photo of their creation and then take the photo in to their local Toyworld. So here he is with his building and creative skills, which he has called "Jay's Ninja Battle Tank". Lego Ninjago is one of the latest Lego sets to hit the market which he absolutely loves and where he got his inspiration from! We will head back to Tates Toyworld later in the month to look at his and all the other entrant's photos on display!

So if you have Lego crazed kids, get them to get their creative hats on and get building!

More Ribbon Blankee's

I met up with a number of lovely friends recently, they each had a little one around the same age as my youngest.

I had already given a ribbon blankee to all the babies except for one, so I made this one, for a little princess, the night before our get together.

Gorgeous mushroom print cotton fabric on one side, lovely soft heart fleece on the other side, and an assortment of contrasting ribbons.

A WAHM business on the way perhaps?

Over the last few years I have found a lot of joy in making and sewing different items. I have often wondered "do I have the skill and talent to make something more of this" both in a creative and business sense?

I hadn't felt ready to take such a plunge, however since the birth of my third son I have been working toward this new business venture. I have had a lot of encouragement from family and friends toward me starting my own small business in this area, and positive feedback from others about the items I have made.

Initially I plan to start with a manageable level of stock and also accept custom orders.

Watch this space for further details...

Home made Mei Tai stlye baby carrier

So after lots of discussion with some fellow baby wearers, I decided to try my luck at making a Mei Tai style baby carrier. I trawled the internet in search of a pattern but of course each site I looked at all gave different measurements! So as per my usual way of making things and with an image in my head, I made up a pattern of how I thought it should work.

I needed some fabric first, so I dragged my patient husband to Spotlight in search of some suitable fabric for the body of the carrier. I was thinking along the lines of denim and was super lucky to find some denim fabric in the clearance section, bargain! For the waist band and shoulder straps I used some dark brown corduroy that I had at home left over from a cowboy vest I made for a friend's son a while ago. I padded the waist & hip area with polar fleece, as well as the shoulder area. Cut the denim fabric to shape including a hood and then sewed it all together.

I was very happy with the finished product and have received a lot of positive comments on it! I have even had people come up to me and ask me where I bought it from! I still have to sew some tabs onto the shoulder straps so I can attach the hood but it's finished otherwise! I have been using it almost daily, it is super comfy and I just love it!

St Patrick's Day!

St Patrick's day was yesterday, you know where they celebrate all things Irish and drink Guinness and green beer. It's lots of fun, though I didn't head out to the pub yesterday I did have a great time mucking about with my kids and having lots of fun in our "Irish" hats.

7 years ago I was holidaying in Dublin with my husband. It was a childhood dream of mine to one day spend St Patrick's day in Dublin, and that I got to do! I was then pregnant with our first child and we brought the hats back with us from that holiday! They have since come out for every St Pat's day since.

Medium Nappies!

So I finally started and finished one medium AI2 nappy woot woot! I purchased the blue hibiscus print poly PUL fabric from Nappies Covered a couple of months ago but hadn't had the time to start working with it until now. It is such a summery print that I wanted to have it made for summer but Autumn will have to do!

I love the poly PUL for a nappy as the stretch in the fabric helps to make for easy nappy changes and a good fit too. The inner of the nappy is stay dry white suedecloth and there are two snap in foldable 2 layered bamboo bosters for absorbency, giving 8 layers of absorbency.







I have made some medium nappies before this one, quite a while ago now, and I made them with hook & loop, though I now prefer to use snaps on the nappies. I decided to alter my original medium nappy pattern which I made myself, making a few changes to accommodate the snaps, inlcuidng shortening the front and back wings. I thought that would be easy enough but I am not 100% happy with it so I need to tweak it a bit more before I sew the next one as the sides are too low on the front panel and it doesn't sit right. Hard to tell from the pics but I know that's how it is and, as I'm a bit of a perfectionist at times, I need to change it on the next nappy I make!








On another nappy related note, a girlfriend of mine is due to have her second child early June and she has asked me to make her a stash of nappies! I am very excited to be making some for her baby and feel very priviledged that she asked me!

A Boys Bunting

My latest sewing project was something to add to the bare walls of my 6yo & 3yo sons' bedroom. With their input we decided on a bunting.

I headed down to Spotlight while they were at school and daycare and bought some different printed and plain cotton fabric. They were pretty excited about the boyish prints I found - cars, trains, camo, space, robots.

I soon got to work cutting out triangles of fabric and then the time came to let the boys choose which triangles they wanted their bunting made from. My plan was to do a create a bunting alternating the prints and the plain colours but of course my boys only wanted the prints, so that's what I made!

I used bias binding to sew it together and once completed I attached it to some hooks in their room for a great effect! The next bunting I make I plan to use only one or two prints or a theme, such as space, and alternate with prints and plain colours but also make it a reversible bunting, so space on one side and cars or something else on the other.

Ribbon blankee gifts

With some left over fabric from the cloth nappies I made, and some other fabric I had laying about the house, I made some ribbon snuggly blankees.

I used different fabrics on each side of the blankees including PJ Silk, flannelette, minky, jersey cotton and fleece. Each blankee has 16 assorted ribbons sewn in and no two blankees are the same.

I had enough fabric to make eight of these blankees. I made them as gifts for some lovely friends of mine. Each one of my friends also had a new baby around the same time I had my baby in November.

My original plan was to have them finished in November so I could send them out as gifts for their babies arrival but I wasn't that organised!


Not to worry thought as it's a great time for our babies to have such a special item now, as they are at the stage of development were they are starting to grab hold of things and feel different textures.

To accompany each blankee, I made little personalised gift tags for each baby with their name on it, and tied it to one of the ribbons on the blankee before I popped them in an envelope and into the post. They have been well received and I have received some lovely comments about them :) which I am super pleased about!

Baby Carrier, wrap style!

When I was pregnant with my first son I didn't know much about "baby wearing". We simply went into a baby store and I tried on all of the baby carriers to work out which one was most comfortable. I grabbed a dolly that was in the shop and used that as a pretend baby to see how easy it was to put a baby in and out of a baby carrier. We settled on a Baby Bjorn carrier. Having a refluxy baby meant that both my husband spent many hours pacing up and down our hallway with our baby in the carrier trying to get him to sleep and it was fabulous, however it did give me a sore back though hubby found it a lot more comfy.

Since then I have used the www to find out about baby wearing and have been amazed at the many different types of wonderful slings and carriers that are available. So when I was pregnant with my second son I decided to buy something different to give it a go and opted for a Jazsling, in a gorgeous Indian cotton fabric. I absolutely loved this sling, and my baby was so cosy in it, I would often get comments from strangers while out and about telling me how lovely he looked in there. As this type of sling is sized, I bought it so that it would suit my height, so as much as I loved it my hubby didn't find it as comfortable!

Fast forward to when I was pregnant with our third son and I had grand plans to walk son #1 to and from school, approx 40mins each way. I would need something more supportive than a sling, and although I have a great pram, I figured that as my first two boys didn't like being in the pram while they were babies, I highly doubted that my third son would! So I bought myself and Ergo on sale and it has been fantastic. Excellent choice for the school run but too bulky for short trips, such as to the supermarket. I used to use my Jazsling for quick trips and I used it again to carry bub #3 but unfortunately he no longer likes it and constantly squirms and cries when he's in it, he just can't seem to get comfy any more.

So that's why I decided that I would have a go at making my own carrier. I couldn't decide between a wrap style sling or a mei tai carrier though so bought some fabric to make one of each!
My first attempt was the wrap, pretty simple I thought - just buy 6m x 1.4m suitable fabric, cut it down the centre longways to give two long pieces of fabric 6m -.70m, overlock the edges and sew a line down the centre so you know where the centre is to make it easier when putting on. Too easy! From my brief research on the www it appeared that many wrap style carriers were made from cotton jersey (t-shirt fabric) however I made mine out of Cambridge Suiting fabric, which was mix of cotton/spandex/rayon (I think if I remember correctly) so it has a slight stretch to it. I picked it up from Spotlight on clearance for $5/m. After sewing it, I tried it out a couple of times but decided that it was just a smidgen too long and it was bulky at the ends to tie up, so back to the overlocker I went and shortened it as well as tapering the ends so it's now a much better fit for me and far easier to tie up. As I had enough fabric to make two, I have overlocked another one for a girlfriend who is due with her second child in June.

I have almost completed the mei tai carrier as well, pics to come soon!

Final Project for 2010

I didn't get a chance prior to Christmas to show my final project for 2010 and this was it.

I made a Santa sack for each of my three boys. We spent Christmas away from home this year and the sacks were great for the boys to put under the tree at father in laws house in anticipation for Santa Clause making a visit, which he did!

They were very simple to make, Christmas fabric for the sack, coordinating cord for the drawstring and felt for their names.

Happy New Year!

I finally have the time to blog to say Happy New Year!

We are already past the half way mark of January and I have been fixated on watching the news lately - all the devastation of mother nature, in particular the major flooding in Queensland and now in Victoria. My heart goes out to everybody impacted by such disasters, especially to those people who have lost their homes or their loved ones.

We are fortunate that we live in a country that bands together to support each other in times of need. There have been so many acts of kindness helping to keep spirits high, and so many individuals and organisations that are fundraising or helping in others ways. So many people are going to be affected by the recent events for years to come, so get behind them and support them in any way you can.

Advent Calendar

So I bought the Advent Calendar from my local KaiserCraft outlet before the start of December and I have only just managed to get it finished. We get a few days use out of it at least! I bought a little wooden Santa card holder and I am going to use it to hold a Christmas photo in every year. I think I will take the base and the spring off the santa so that it fits better inside the box.

Christmas Nappy is in use!

Well the newborn nappies I made for my scrumptious baby boy have been packed away and out have come the small size! My gorgeous son is 6weeks old now and he's been in the small nappies for the past two weeks, since he hit approx 4.5kg. Excellent timing as with Christmas only a few days away it means he fits into the one and only Christmas nappy I made for him, awesome!