Home furnishings weekend

The walls in our loung/dining area have been looking very blank and we have been talking about getting some artwork up on them for - oh about 3 years now!

So I finally got myself organised last week and purchased some canvases, material and staple gun and on the weekend set out to create some artwork. Of couse, as soon as Husband saw the staple gun, he decided that he needed to be involved in the canvases.

The material is a beautiful Italian furnishing fabric bought directly from an importer. It is a gorgeous chocolate brown with vivid green flowery patterns on it. I cut the canvas to size, overlocked the ends to prevent fraying and then stretched it over the canvas and secured with the staple gun.

The canvases are going on the one wall but one in the dining area and one in the lounge area and I decided to use the 'wrong' side of the fabric for the second canvas to make it a little different.

And then of course I had to make the matching cushion covers for the couch.

Baby boys all around

There are baby boys all around! We have had another three born in the last two weeks and I'm going to a baby shower on Sunday for another boy due in September.

So I spent my Friday night making cute little applique onesies to give as gifts. I only learnt the applique technique this week but it is so easy and I think the onesies are such a cute little gift. They are all a size 00 as the boys will be around 5-6 months when summer comes around.

The tie shirts - how cute are these? I desperately wanted one for N when he was a little newborn as I saw them in a store but couldn't justify the price they wanted for it. N will have quite a few this summer.

I also tried a car applique.

The top two onesies are for a work colleague who just had twin boys - same applique but different patterns. The bottom two are going to my husband's close friend and his wife in Queensland who just had a boy, Lucas, on Thursday.

Fat 1/4 Friday

Just a quick post to say it's Friday which means it is Fat 1/4 Friday at The Remnant Warehouse in Alexandria.

On Fridays only they have a special of buy one Fat 1/4 get one FREE! I was there yesterday and there was a whole table of $2 Fat 1/4's - that means you will get two fat quarters for $2!

Can't get a better deal than that.

MIP Little Explorer Pants and Applique top

OK, I've done it - my first MIP perfect pattern completed. I have to say I LOVE LOVE LOVE the pattern - it really is so easy. I loved the pattern so much I even recommended it to a lady at my local fabric shop.

The Shorts - have I mentioned before I love the brown and blue combination??? Both my boys are very fair skinned so they really suit bright colours. The pants are made with a linen/cotton blend so they will be nice and cool for summer.

I love the elasticised waistband - not only is it super easy to make but it is perfect for J for pre-school. He get so focused on playing with his friends he only remembers to go to the toilet at the last possible minute and buttons and zips are very hard to undo.

The Applique tops - I think I have just fallen in love - how beautiful and EASY are applique tops? I can see so many more of these appearing in my boys wardrobes. The MIP Little Explorer pattern comes with a Turtle applique design but at 3 1/2 J is really into dinosaurs at the moment so I thought I would try a dinosaur applique I found on a blue t-shirt.

For some reason tops always seem to be in the wash in our house so I thought I had better make a second top for these shorts - or maybe I am just so excited about making applique tops. So top number 2 is a blue singlet with a rocket applique - perfect for those really hot humid summer days.

I have already made a second pair of these pants in black and white, and am off to Spotlight to pick up some more linen today. I think I might even try them in a denim. I think both J and N will have quite a few pairs of Little Explorer shorts in their wardrobes this summer - and don't even mention those applique tops!

Patterns I've bought

The lovely ladies over at the EB sewing forums have put me onto two pattern brands - Oliver + S and Make It Perfect. I've just received three patterns I ordered from Kelani Fabrics.

Firstly from the fantastic Australian brand Make it Perfect - Little Explorer Pants

Oliver + S Sandbox Pants

and finally the Oliver +S Bedtime Stories PJ's (I understand they are being discontinued so if you want the pattern you had better get in quick!)

DIY Chalkboard Cloth

I saw this fantastic tutorial for a Chalkboard Mat which will be fantastic for J when we go out to dinner. And it got me thinking .....

http://maggiemugginsdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/05/chalk-mat-with-storage-pocket-tutorial.html

Being inner city dwellers we don't have much space in our little terrace so instead of having a chalkboard for the boys bought some chalkboard paint from Porters Paints in a fabulous shade of blue and we painted a wall in the backyard. The colour choices for the chalkboard paints was amazing (I think about 12) but I decided on Blue Waves in the end. J loves drawing on his chalkboard.

So I had quite a bit of the chalkboard paint left over and I wondered if I could make my own chalk cloth - hmmmm. I've just bought some material from the remnants bin at my local Spotlight (no point ruining good material) which said it was a Rigid Denim. I've just put the second coat of paint on now - it needs 2 days drying time according to the instructions.

Hopefully this will work out, I can think of so many uses for it. I'll let you know how it goes.....

Hiding the clutter with drawstring bags

I found this great tutorial from bunnybum on sewing drawstring bags and thought it was just what I needed to clean up some of the kids toys

http://sewbunnybum.blogspot.com/2008/05/drawstring-bag-tutorial.html


The bags are fully lined and bunnybum assures me it is great for beginners so I bought some material and gave it a try.

I am so impressed with these bags I have made them in lots of different sizes. J has one especially for his little cars. The green and blue dot bag above has a 50 piece puzzle in it whose box has been long since been destroyed (and yet we still seem to have all the pieces - go figure!). The large multi coloured dot bag has all N's lamaze toys in it.

You can see that I started to get very confident and even did an appliqued Batman bag.

I've started to make plenty more to use instead of gift wrapping - all those kids presents are so big and bulky that these bags are just perfect to wrap them and then they can use them as library bags, toy bags, whatever afterwards.

A gift for a newborn baby boy

One of my girlfriends has just given birth to a bouncing baby boy named Christopher. She received so many presents of clothing and toys (including 4 playmats) at her baby shower I thought I would make her a little pram blanket as a welcoming gift for Christopher, given that it is winter! This is the first handmade gift I have ever given so hopefully she doesn't mind it.











I love the colour combination of chocolate and light blue for baby boys - masculine but still gentle and not too cliched like pale blue and white. I personalised the blanket with an embroidered letter 'C'.



The outside is a striped quilter's cotton and the underside is a pale blue polar fleece. I am not normally a polar fleece fan but this one is so thin and beautifully soft that I brought it instead of blue minky.

Hopefully it will keep little Christopher warm this winter!