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.

A Christmas Wreath

I was in my local Kaiser Craft outlet recently and came across these Star Wreaths. I thought it would look great and my older boys bedroom door.

I covered each star with various Christmas themed paper, tied some green and red ribbon on for some bows, glued it all together and project finished!

Secret Santa again!

I was part of the Secret Santa on a parenting forum I am a member of. My recipient liked hand made things and the colours blue and light purple, among other things. I opted to make a photo album using one of Kaiser Craft's Beyond The Page albums. I was really happy with the result. I also added some scented sachets to the gift.

Secret Santa!

One secret santa I participated in was with some lovely mums and a dad all of which had babies due in November! I knew that my recipient liked reading and cooking (particularly curries) so I put together a cook book, some spices and a wooden spoon. I decided to add in something else special for her gorgeous newborn daughter, so created a Beyond The Page photo album. using a Kaiser Craft "baby" album. I made it so that there was space to add some small photos but also so that it doesn't have to have photos added to it. I posted my secret santa gifts off last week, my recipient has received them and loves them which I am really pleased about :)

Newborn nappies & Ribbon blankee

So I ended up buying a new overlocker to replace my mum's, as the motor had died *sigh* which is apparently not very common for a Janome overlocker! I could have had it repaired but as it was not much more to buy a new one I decided to just replace it.

After a few tests at sewing a newborn fitted nappy with snaps, I have finally tweaked my pattern to one I'm happy with. I have made a few testers that are now having good use on my boy's teddy bears, and I also made a PUL cover with fold over elastic which turned out much better than I anticipated as my last attempt at sewing a cover with FOE was not that great!


The fitted nappies have a flannel outer and suedecloth inner. The flannel is from Spotlight and the suedcloth from Nappies Covered. I love the suedecloth for it's trimness. I have sewn a two layer bamboo booster into the inner of the nappy and I will add a snap in bamboo booster as well. I am still yet to finish the snaps on one of the nappies. The cover is made from a polyester PUL and FOE both of which I purchased from Nappies Covered . The PUL is lovely and soft and stretchy.


I also thought I'd give making a ribbon blankee a go. I've never made one of these before and was hoping it wouldn't be too hard. All of the fabric and ribbon is from Spotlight and I am really happy with the result. The front side is a printed cotton and the reverse is a plush cuddlefleece. I hope our newborn will like it!

Modern Cloth Nappies I have made!

Finally I have finished two Modern Cloth Nappies!! I made this pattern a couple of years ago after a lot of trial and error. I had made a few nappies back then but stopped for various reasons and now that we are expecting our 3rd bub I decided I better get cracking back into it (which is what I was referring to in an earlier post about life throwing a curve ball!!).

When I pulled out my sewing machine I found that parts of the cotton reel holder had disintegrated from age, but I was lucky enough to be able to get the parts from the local sewing machine store for only $10 and fix it myself! I borrowed my mum's overlocker and it seems that died on me yesterday so I am starting to think I am jinxed... hopefully it wont cost too much to repair.

Here are the two nappies I made:



The first nappy is a black/grey/red tartan fleece print, with hidden lay of PUL and an inner stay dry layer of red suedecloth. I used snaps for the closure on this one, and also for the booster to snap to the nappy shell. I have made two boosters. The first one has snaps on the back to attach to the nappy and also a stay dry layer of matching tartan fleece. The second booster is a bit narrower and can sit folded in half inside the other booster, or underneath it. Both boosters are made with 2 layers of black bamboo fleece. My 2.5yo modelled this nappy for me :)





The second nappy is made from a cotton print PUL and has an inner stay dry layer of purple suedecloth. I used hook & loop for the closure on this one, though I think I much prefer the snaps. I think I might also round the corners of the hook instead of having them square. This nappy also has a set of two boosters made with 2 layers of natural coloured bamboo fleece, one which can be attached to the nappy shell with snaps and is topped with suedecloth liner.

The bed head

I have finally made the bed head for our main bedroom and am very pleased with the result. We had a piece of timber in the garage which was the perfect size so I didn't need to purchase anything. I was contemplating what type of padding I would use and decided that getting a piece of foam cut to size from Clark Rubber was the way to go. I just didn't expect the cost to be high, so instead I chose a single bed size foam overlay which I only needed to cut down to size a fraction. I used spray adhesive to attach the foam to the timber, covered with fabric I had purchased from Spotlight, and used a staple gun to attach the fabric to the rear of the timber. Holes had been predrilled into the timber and screws placed into the wall so I could attach the bedhead directly to the wall.