Lotta Jansdotter Bloomers

We have been having some beautifully warm weather in Sydney the last couple of days and in the spirit I made my very first pair of baby bloomers - and if I may say so myself, they are just divine! I love baby bloomers and matching singlets for babies in summer - nice and cool but they still looked dressed. Unfortunately most of the bloomers available are very girly and not really suitable for boys.

So here they are in a bright blue gingham!

The pattern said to make your own bias tape from the material but seeing as the bias tape is on the inside of the pants I used some commercial bias tape that I already had in my stash. By doing this it meant that I only needed one fat quarter of material to make the pants - which I was very happy about because I have quite a stash of fat quarters.

They are a size 6-12 months but I was worried that they might be a little small. I've tried them very briefly on and they seem to fit N OK and he is 9 months next week. When I remake the pattern though I will cut it a little larger to make sure they still fit around December / January.

Of course I had to do the matching applique t-shirt to make it a complete outfit. I can't wait for summer now!

Bags, bags and another bag

I know I haven't blogged for a week or so but I have been busy sewing and designing. Little clutch bags for a change.

I started off using the scraps from my snakeskin and chocolate linen but decided before I even finished the bag that it was just too small and that linen really isn't suited to handbag magnetic snaps - interfaced or not. The wonderful Sue from http://scrap-art-sue.blogspot.com/ gave me some tips and I decided to start again. As you can see, I didn't even bother to finish this one.

Second attempt and I just enlarged the pattern from the bag above. I love the zebra print and pink lining but I was not happy with the flap, it just didn't sit right. I used a medium weight interfacing but no pellon and I think it definitely needs the pellon as well to sit right.

Third time lucky ..... so I hoped. I enlarged the base of the bag and extra inch deep, changed the flap to a triangular flap and added a decorative button. Initially I was really disappointed because the flap - despite being the same length at the base as the bag when I cut it out, didn't cover the edges of the bag, but after looking at it for a couple of days now , I think I really like this aspect of it.

The bag is meant to be a gift to J's pre-school teacher who is leaving so I'm hoping she will like it. I am also going to make a matching coin purse that I saw on http://threadsofus.blogspot.com/2010/05/finally-something-for-me.html . I haven't really given anyone home made gifts before and I am not too sure how this will be received - what do you think - it is ok or does it look too homemade?

Well, I ran out of the pellon and couldn't do a fourth attempt until I re-stock. So I thought I would whip J up another one of these zippered pouches

I am determined to master this clutch bag and I will be back ......

Superhero cape

Whilst I am working on uploading the new photos, I thought I would share an old project with you - one of the first things I sewed for J!

It's the world famous Puking Pastilles superhero cape with a reversible batman/superman design.

J is still going through his superhero phase and this cape has been worn to the Supermarket and out and about on many occasions. Although only ever on the Batman side, apparently the superman cape is not as big a hit?

More outfits for the boys

I'm sure I've mentioned before how much I like the Little Explorer pattern by Make It Perfect? Well I've made another 5 pairs for the boys for Summer!

3 for J: 1 in black linen, and 2 in Denim (spiders and stripes contrast trim).

and 2 for N in Denim (same as J's - the spiders and stripes contrast trim). N was supposed to have another pair in a chocolate linen but I seemed to have *ahem* misplaced that material!

The shorts for N are a size 1 and he is only in size 00 at the moment which is why they look quite big on him.

I love the denim but next time I will do it with a contrasting thread. The matching thread colour just makes the pants look too homemade. I'm also thinking about putting in a fake fly on the denim ones.

And of course there will be matching appliqued tops to follow. I'm just trying to draw some of my own pictures this time so we will see how they go.

Snakeskin Bag for me

Well I finished it! My very first bag - not that I needed anymore handbags but can you ever really have enough?

I thought I would choose a simple pattern for the first bag - this one was a freebie when I bought a baby shoe pattern from this site - http://ithinksew.com/ (no 31 Shouder Bag). It is one pattern piece cut twice for the exterior and twice for the lining and then the little flap piece. So I thought I couldn't go too wrong. I used a pellon interfacing which was quite thick and combined with the snakeskin print gives the bag texture .

The bag uses magnetic bag snaps to close and unfortunately every time I try to open the bag it is slightly ripping the linen lining it is attached to open - if anyone has any suggestions on how to lower the magnetic attraction I am listening ..... I installed the magnetic clip on the flap on the wrong side - it is supposed to be on the exterior fabric side and the lining becomes the exterior for the flap for a contrast - which would of course look a little better but once I had put that clip in there was no going back.

The only part of the bag I am not that keen on is the straps tie at the top and I find bags with tie straps really uncomfortable to wear. For this bag I am thinking of putting a button and buttonhole to attach them at the top. For the next one I think I would just sew them together before I turned it out.




I used a chocolate linen for the lining which I was going to use to make N some matching shorts as J (see earlier posts).

All up the bag took me about 3 hours to make and would be much quicker now I know what I am doing. And as it only uses about 70cm of each material it is pretty economical. I would definitely make it again. The website also gave me a free clutch pattern (no 45 clutch) so I am keen to see if I can use the scraps from this project to make that one.

Zippered Pouch

J currently has an obsession for all things Dinosaur and on a wet and rainy Saturday we decided to explore Sydney a little and took him to see the Dinosaur exhibition at the Australia Museum in the city. Although it was only a small exhibition, J had the time of his life. But I think the part that he enjoyed the most was the trip to the giftshop afterwards where they had shelves of dinosaur toys! Of course he was able to pick out a little present for himself and he chose a packet of large dinosaurs.

J also has about 12 small dinosaurs which he has been diligently carrying around with him and I have been promising all week to make him a little bag to keep the dinosaurs in. So when one of the ladies at EB showed me a link to a Make It Perfect zippered pouch tutorial I knew I had to give it a go!

http://tonicoward.blogspot.com/2010/05/zippered-pouch-tutorial.html

The instructions called for a 7 inch zip but when I raided my sewing kit, I only had a 6 inch zip so I just adjusted the width of the pouch by an inch to accomodate (it was Friday night and I had had a few vinos so there was no way I was going out to buy a zip!).

It was such an easy to follow tutorial - I only had to unpick once and that was because I was so clever and managed to sew nice and close to the zip - so close that material would get caught in the zipper teeth when you opened it.

So here's the final product - you can see it is a perfect size for all those little dino's! I can see quite a few more of these pouches being sewn up in different sizes - don't you think a little one in Christmas material would be perfect for holding an iTunes card or gift card for Christmas presents?

Now J is asking for a bag for the big dinosaurs we bought at the Museum!

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.

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!

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!