Stashtacular - oh yes please!

I've been following Jenna's blog, Sew Happy Geek for a little while now and when she posted earlier today about Stashtacular, a month long event she and some fellow bloggers are hosting I was immediately sucked in. The idea of not buying new fabric for a month is appealing in itself - I've got plenty to work my way through without resorting to buying more - a whole chest full in fact. But the chance to send off a bundle of fabric from my stash to be given out to other crafters and to receive a random collection of new fabric back in return really gets me excited.

I've already gone through some of my stash to build a collection to send off. I have several piles still to sort through though, so it's likely to get bigger. I am very much looking forward to this!

Bandana Bib Tutorial

I've been getting quite behind with posting this last week. Firstly it was half term so there was no play group for Midi and my folks who would normally take her for a day or two are dealing with a lot themselves right now, so I had her all to myself all week - as well as Mini. We had a lot of fun, but other things like my crafting and blogging had to take a back seat. Then there was also the minor issue of my Dad's exhibition (he's a glass sculptor). It had been planned for some time but due to his ill-health he's not able to do it all himself right now so my sister and I took on some of the setting up. That was fun too, but had the same effect on my 'me' time.

Anyway, I'm rambling. In the midst of all this Mini has entered into that wonderfully soggy, dribbly stage of pre-teething. We've got a huge stash of regular bibs left over from Midi's younger years but they seem huge and not at all flattering, and I was quickly getting tired of changing Mini's top multiple times a day. I've been seeing bandana style bibs around for a while and thought they'd be perfect, so had a bash at making a few. Here's how the latest one turned out:

I went through a few design tweaks to get to that particular one. It resulted in several perfectly useable bibs but the one above is the end product. There will be plenty more made to this pattern over the coming weeks I'm sure!

I used an old t-shirt, some thin flannel, a few pieces of velcro and a bit of fabric paint for the stencil robot on the final one. That is all. These aren't hard. Here's how I went about it:

I cut two squares, one out of an old t-shirt and the other out of flannel. This was to make two bibs. The sides of each square are approx 13" long and this was to fit a slightly large four month old baby. Probably 3-6 month size or thereabouts.

I placed the two squares on top of each other, neatly aligned, and folded them into quarters along the diagonal.

 I then cut a slightly curved line along the edge of the first fold. This cut resulted in four almost triangular piece, two out of each type of fabric:

I then placed two of the pieces together and stitched around the edge of them leaving a small gap for turning them right side out afterwards. There isn't really a right or wrong side with the fabrics I used but if you try this and there is with yours then make sure they're right sides together when you sew.

I turned them right side out and then top stitched all the way round 3/8" from the edge to close the hole. Sorry, I forgot to photograph this bit. Adding a bit of velcro to the top two corners (one on the inside, the other on the outside so that they neatly meet) finished them off:

And in use:

However, I wasn't entirely happy with them. The triangular tips made it a little fiddly to attach the velcro and the pieces had to be quite small so when the bib was worn there wasn't a great amount of contact between the two pieces. Although it wears fine I'm sure that Mini could easily yank it off if he was of a mind to which kind of defeats the object of wearing one in the first place. So I tried again, tweaking the design a bit.

This time I just cut one piece from each fabric. To give you an idea of size in case you wanted to give this a go the two straight edges are 13" then all I did was flatten off the corners before cutting the gentle curve to go round the neck. Before sewing I used the bin bag/freezer paper technique to stencil on a little robot design to add cuteness value, then followed the same steps as above. The big benefit of the new pattern was that I could use one of the velcro ends as the opening/turning hole which gave a neater finish. That'll be the way to do it then!

 

And before I sign off for now, a little teaser for what I'll be writing up shortly. Last week, while doing a mad dash round the shops to get wine and plastic beakers for Dad's exhibition opening I spotted this pack of three rather funky coordinating tea towels at the bank-breaking cost of £4:

I grabbed them not knowing exactly what I would do with them but certain that they had great potential. I very quickly decided a new summer dress for Midi was where they were headed, but then I wished I'd picked up two packs because I couldn't quite see how to make a dress to fit a 3-4 year old with matching front and back. It was then that I realised I'd just set myself a challenge. With no opportunity to go back to the shop but the chance to spend an evening sewing I had to figure out a solution. And here it is:

I'm rather proud of this one - my own design no less. A tutorial for this rather funky little 'three tea towel dress' is in the making so watch this space!

Taggie toy free pattern

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the taggie toy I'd made for Mini. It's received quite a bit of positive feedback both online and in real life - so much so I've had requests from friends to make them for their babies. In response, I've knocked out a quick pattern for it for my own reference and once I'd done that I realised it would only be a little bit more work on my part to add some instructions and make it into a little downloadable.

So if there's a baby in your life that you think might appreciate one of these little monkeys then you can download the pattern and basic instructions below. The instructions are very basic. There is no tutorial, just a quick write-up so basic sewing skills would be handy. I may add a tutorial in the future if I get enough requests but it really isn't that hard.

And of course the little fellow can be modified in any way you wish. Change the fabrics (I used fleece for the body and felt for the features but old t-shirts, muslin or cotton prints would all work), add or reduce the number of tags, or what they're made of (I used shoelaces but any kind of ribbon/tape would do), play about with the features... the possibilities are endless! If you do make your own taggie toy from this pattern, or even loosely based on it then I'd love to hear about it!

You can download the pattern as a pdf here.

A bit of brightness for the long weekend

It's been a strange weekend here - one of those with several stresses but lots of highs to lighten the load. The biggest high was my Dad making it back into the UK in one piece. He's still got lots of recovering to do and there's a high likelihood there'll be some surgery in his near future, but he's here so I can do my bit in keeping an eye on him again. And sit on him when he tries to do too much.

Another big high for me was an email that was waiting for me this morning from Sascha at Piccoli Piselli. I won the amazing Pea Pod carrier she was giving away for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway day! Lookie Look:

Isn't it just gorgeous? I'm so thrilled. I became a follower of her blog when I found it through the SMS event and some of the stuff she makes is really wonderful. I'm over the moon to have won this. It looks like a great design and is worn on the left hip which will make a wonderful partner in crime to the front/back worn ergo that we currently use most. I'll be able to make myself a cup of tea without having to reach around a slung Mini. And helicopters! We get them flying over here almost daily so even that is perfect.

Thank you Sascha. You've made my day. :)

And a big thank you to Ana over at Stash Avalanche too. I didn't win any of her official giveaway prizes - she's so generous she gave away four - but she liked the really bad joke of Midi's so much that she's sending us a special prize. We are so lucky! Two prizes! I knew I liked the idea of that giveaway day...

We've been having colourful fun here too. Midi has discovered the joys of nail varnish:

We've had some great fun making magic potions (thanks to Toni over at Unconventional Us for the idea):

And I got a few minutes at the sewing machine to knock out some funky tartan trousers for Mini. They're a touch big but at the rate he's growing that's no bad thing. I love them!

Bags and badges

It's been a crazy week really. Lots of family stuff has dominated so the crafting has had to take a bit of a back seat. Things will hopefully be more settled from this point onwards though I may be down on childcare so although I hope to be able to get back onto the crafty wagon with more gusto soon I may be a bit more limited for a while.

Still, I've managed to get a few things done. It's a time of birthdays round here so present making has been a priority. Midi was invited to the 4th birthday party of a friend this week and I wanted to make sure she gave a gift that was unique and personal. I spotted this great tutorial by Zaaberry recently and thought it would make a great basis for a present. I was lacking in vinyl so I decided to use some coated fabric that I've had lying round for a while - at least it's wipe-down-able. I also decided to custom decorate the fabric for the top panels so the wax crayons came out again (spot the addict) and I made one for Midi as well. She chose the colours for her friend's fabric as well as a selection of toy cars and marbles to go into the bag before it was wrapped and presented at the party. All in, I think we created a pretty nice gift.

I probably shouldn't post details of this next gift given that the birthday in question hasn't happened yet and the recipient may spot these photos before he receives it - it needs to be posted to the other side of the planet yet. But I'm really pleased with it, I'm rubbish at keeping things like this secret and I'm sure he won't mind too much if the surprise is spoiled. My cousin's son in Australia is about to turn 18. I've no idea where the handsome young man he now is has sprung from - I was taking him to kindergarten just five minutes ago - but these things just seem to happen. Hopefully he'll appreciate the collaborative creative efforts that Midi and I put into making his gift.

It's winter in Australia right now so I decided long sleeved tops might be more useful. For the first top, Midi was set loose on some fabric scraps with fabric pens and I attacked another with wax crayons (definitely an addict). We then roughly stitched them onto one of the tops in random places specified by Midi. 

The K (his initial) is on the end of one sleeve and the white patch does actually have yellow spots on it but they don't come out very clearly in this pic:

These two beautiful figures are Shrek (on the right) and Fiona:

And this is a portrait of the birthday boy himself:

The second shirt is a monster shirt with features placed by Midi and stitched on by me:

What self-respecting eighteen year old wouldn't want to wear clothing designed by a three year old? A perfect gift if you ask me - within this family at least.

And the winner is...

Wow! I have so enjoyed taking part in the May Giveaway event. I've had such lovely comments and I've entered several fantastic giveaways too. If I'm lucky I might win something but even if I don't I still get to give someone else that lovely warm feeling of winning something, and that feels great.

So without further ado I'm pleased to announce that the winner, selected at random by the number generator over at random.org is... Amy from Salamander Dreams! I'll drop you an email shortly Amy so I can get this little bag winging it's way off to you. And a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to comment and take part. I've really enjoyed checking in intermittently to see who has commented, and from where. That's the other really cool thing about this event. I've found so many other great blogs and my follow list has grown considerably. I may not have much time for crafting now as I'm going to be reading what all these other fascinating people are up to! :)

And thanks so much for all the good wishes for my Dad. I've really appreciated them and I'm sure some mystical way he has felt them too. It's been a worrying few days but as of yesterday he seems to be responding to treatment and beginning the long, slow road to recovery. With luck we'll have him back in the country next week. Thank you.

May Giveaway Day!

About a week ago I stumbled across the Sew, Mama, Sew May Giveaway Day concept and I thought it was a fantastic idea. I haven't done a giveaway before but after doing a bit more wax crayon batik experimentation last week I ended up with a cute little bag, just right for a creative kid to use to carry pens and paper around (Midi has several bags like this for moments artistic inspiration when on the move). It seemed a perfect item to choose.

So here it is, a gift from me to a reader selected at random from those that comment here before I first log on on Wednesday May 25th. I'll ship internationally if needs be.

The image was created by using melted wax crayons as a resist and then using acrylic paint as a colour wash - this bag is probably therefore wipe clean only. Sorry about that! If you're interested, you can see the steps I went through to create it in this post from last week.

The bag itself is fully lined and is made out of a recycled pair of jeans so it's good and hard-wearing. It looks almost black in this picture but it's actually a dark blue denim.

I'm posting this a day early because I can't be sure I'll get much computer time over the next few days. It seems my Dad has managed to get himself admitted to hospital whilst on holiday in Menorca so I expect to be mistress of the international telephone lines for a few days until I get a better idea of what's going on and what assistance might be needed. I've been assured it's 'nothing to worry about' by my Mum who is with him, and I was reassured when after a few texts back and forth about Dad's health I was tasked with reporting the football scores to them. But still, I'm a little out of sorts and expect to be somewhat distracted and extra busy for a few days. I still hope to get a few moments to visit a few of the other giveaways though...

************* This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for taking part! *************