Bib's & Blankies

This particular post is for Tama who now has a baby all of her own, its the easiest way of showing her lots of photo's with least amount of fuss and for other readers I make bibs and blankies because I just cant find nice bibs for my own kids, they are either too expensive or rubbish quality, this is why us crafty mothers make our own, of course I had so much fun making them that I couldnt stop. I confess I love fabric, I love the colours and the textures, I love what they can morf into, I love to create beautifull things and sometimes I create usefull things. I started making these particular bibs for my baby "Esther" but there are so many lovely fabrics that I just couldnt stop so I decided to make some for her and sell the rest at the new"Mini Me Market".
I also have a little boy and I know how hard it is to get nice things for little boys so everytime I saw a nice boy fabric I also turned that into bibs or blankies. They must have been well liked because a lot of the boy bibs just sold out. This wasnt the case for blankies but to be honest our table was quite small and there were a lot of things on there and they were just not displayed as good as they should have been anyway here are the photo's of what I have left.




this is a small selection of what I made



3 different looking bibs all from the same fabric



Front & back





All of the above bibs are $5.00 each



Red spots & stars pram blankie $15.00
the stars are polar fleece and the spots is a cotton



Boy's airoplane blankie $5.00
Planes are polar fleece & robots on the reverse side is flanelette



Dinosour Blankie
Dinosours in polar fleece and robots in flanalette $5.00



Polar fleece dinosours & flanalette airoplanes $5.00



Girls polar fleece & cotton Elephants $10.00



A close up of the reverse side fabric



Monkey Blankie $15.00
Moneys are in a fine corderoy and the back in polar fleece



Elephant/stripe blankie $10.00
Polar fleece elephants and flanelette stripe

 

Blog Guilt

To blog or not to blog that is my guilt question, I just cant seem to find the time to blog and feel guilty when reading Sara's blog everyday and not blog myself so to my few readers sorry I have nothing to blog about other than what my children have been doing


Esthers first ride in the walker and she loved it

 Much to Bob's disgust, his sister is now the proud owner of a secondhand walker complete with sound effects, now Bob I know that it was ONCE yours but it is now your sisters so hand over the registration papers buddy cause Esther has wheels


Tillie and Lexie helped me build a castle

 I got a $100 voucher from  Target for filling in some online sureys so Bob got this climbing castle for his birthday, I know its not his birthday until May but everyday is your birthday when your that age and he dosnt know when his birthday is anyway so I gave it to him now and Tillie and Lexie were very helpfull when it came to putting it together because there were no instructions. I have cut and shut it since the photos were taken and put a floor in on the secondfloor so Bob can climb up himself and then go across to the slide without much effort. He is loving it and Im sure it will have a lot of use in the years to come.


And Bob loves it




Bob and Esther watching TV together

 Bob hadnt slept all day so when this photo was taken so he was very tired, I think thats why he sat next to his sister for so long. Today seems to be another day of not sleeping, its now 3pm and he is still making silly noises in his bedroom instead of sleeping, I guess I will leave him a bit longer and if he dosnt go quiet I will get him up, he may as well be playing because he is a lot quieter when he is playing and I dont want him to wake his sister up




Grandma's Australia Day Party



Grandma had an Australia Day BBQ at her nursing home so we went along to help her celebrate.





Tillie and Lexie

Two of my beautifull nieces Tillie and Lexie put together a "Shoebox of Love" for the QLD flood victims
An Adelaide based Rotary club organised it all. You just got a shoebox or similar sized container and filled it with nice things to send to a flood victim, they both did one for a girl the same age as themselves, they filled them with coloured pencils, paper, pencil cases, a toy or nice trinkets etc you know the drill, something nice to give to someone who has lost everything, I did a sewing box with scissors, measure tape, needles, pins, buttons etc etc. Two complete truck loads were send over and at this moment are being distributed by another rotary club, we have been following it on Facebook so its been nice to see that something small we did this end has made someone somewhere else very happy and we know they werent just thrown away as rubbish or left in a warehouse somewhere. The three of us had a great time doing them and I hope they are being put to good use.

Stuff I made for Christmas

Ha harrrrr now I can blog about the stuff  I made for christmas. My blog has laid idol as there were a lot off top secret projects going on that just couldnt be spoken about, now the gifts have been given Im free to show pictures.
I made the three youngest nieces a photo board each


This was for Tillie, she picked the fabric
Pink Babushkas of course




This was for Maddie, some lovely ladies dressed with flowers




and my personal favourite went to Lexie

 Glad they are all done as there was quite a bit off work in them and especially having to sew all those buttons. I hope they enjoy them.



Lexie got lucky with the next creation, I adapted a pattern I found in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine.
I had to hand draw my own pattern  and made her twice as large as she was meant to be, I redesigned her feet from silly felt, flat boots to some lovely big feet with buckle up shoes. I also added a frill to the bottom of her dress and a hand cut flower to embellish her hair.

 and finally I made Kelsey a pin cushion from some reproduction prints I bought to do Esther a quilt but the fabric was so lovely it was just asking to be used. I liked it so much I wanted to keep it myself, I guess I will have to make myself a similar one. Well one day when I get around to it.

Nothing new

Not much crafting gone on over the last couple of days, Princess Whiney has been constipated, I must admit its been terrible for her but I think she is liking all the attention from Mummy and now she is just putting it on so to speak so I drop everything and run to her, waiting and hoping that the little pebble poops make an appearance. I have been giving her brown sugar in water which she is liking a lot and its definatly helping her situation but it dosnt get my crafting done. I know that sounds selfish and mothers arnt meant to be selfish but Im trying to make christmas presents and stuff for the up coming market in February.
I did get a little pair of shorts made for Bob yesterday, Tillie found some very cute jersey fabric in Spotlight on the weekend and I thought it would make a lovely pair of pyjama shorts for Bob, it took me a day to lay the pattern out, a day to cut it up and another day to get it sewn. No Im not a slow sewer but as I said earlier Princess Whiney as she is now known has had a bottom issue, actually so has Bob but at least you dont hear him whinging about it, he is ok now though, just a bad couple of days. Personally I think its the water, the town supply changed to bore water and the water is brown and most of the time smells like sewerage.
Anyway the shorts are done, I changed the pattern a bit as there where four pieces and I adapted it to just two. I hate sewing jersey as I dont have an overlocker and when I started sewing I remembered why I dont like sewing. They turned out ok but I think I will stick to cottons from now on. They are in the wash as we speak so the photo will have to be taken another day.

I do have a couple of promised shots of the baby bunting though

The kids had a bit of a play in the ball pit the other day, well Esther was in there first and Bob just couldnt bare it so he hopped in to, it was pretty funny really. Esther quited enjoyed all the pretty coloured balls and when she layed down Im sure the balls sounded funny on her ears. Bob did a funny jiggy thing on the side, he seems to ride it like a pony, obviously his newest latest trick he has learnt all on his own.



Ohhhhh preddy!




Bob getting jiggy with it




Mum kept putting balls in Bob's shirt



Spotlighting

Went Spotlighting again today, mercy dash for some ribbon and embroidery cottons of course, my excuse anyway. Nabbed some satin ribbons for ten cents a metre and the cottons were thirty cents so all round a pretty good spotlighting expedition.
 Last night we went to "The Barn Steak House" for Stephens work christmas dinner, I was sooooo tired I couldnt stop yawning, I had no craft to keep me awake and I was with some pretty boring people except for Stephen but he had nothing to say either. Well while my brain was wandering between tired and food I came up with this brilliant craft idea for the market, I couldnt wait to get home, go to bed and wake up in the morning so I could give it a go. I came up with "Baby Bunting" yes the pretty flags you hang around your kids rooms only this was for dolls houses. I got up at 5.30 am with Bob and after reading up on all the overnight blogs I got Bob his breakfast and then hit the fabric pile, I got my antique pinking shears and snipped away then sewed all the little bunting flags onto some satin ribbon. It was so cute I had to go staight to Mary's (sisters) house so I could try it on her kids dolls house. It was beautifull and the girls liked it so much they have ordered another one each so they can tie them onto their bed ends. They were a hit as far as they  were concerned  and I trust those little girls because Lexie is very honest and would say if she didnt like it and Tillie is a fashionista come interior decorating specialist of all things lovely. I also made them a fabric lined felt box each so they were pretty pleased with their mornings bootie.
When I got home I started cutting some more bunting flags until the pinking shears wouldnt cut anymore.
Bummer.......now I will have to go spotlighting again for some new pinking shears.
Anyway that was the extent of my crafting today because we also had our street xmas party to go to. The kids were asleep until 4.30 so we only made it to the last half hour but that was still ok. Then we had fish and chips for dinner and then after a little play Bob had a bath and then went to bed, he must have been tired because we never heard a peep from him.
Then I watched a bit of recorded TV but was very tired and couldnt keep my eyes open so I got up and vaccumed both lounge rooms the kitchen the dining room and our bedroom, still have the other half of the house to go but Bob was asleep so I couldnt go down there, might wash the floors in the morning because Bob and I get up very early and at least the mop is quiet so I can still use that while the rest of the house is asleep.
Anyway I dont have photos of the baby buntings because I was too excited and forgot to take photos but I will definatly take some when I have done the new lot, thats if I find some pinking shears that work.

Crafternoon with Tillie

This afternoon turned into crafternoon with niece Tillie, she is 10 and also a mad crafter so today we made a babushka doll hair clip holder. For the non hair clip people or those not in the know of all things cool you hang this in your room and all your hairclips go on the ribbon so you dont lose them, I imagine they would also look very pretty. Tillie is also the Queen of hairclips so its going to the perfect home. We used mostly felt and a little fabric some glue  and some fancy top stitching also done by Tillie. I had some Babushka fabric that I had cut out so we also sewed one of those onto the bottom of the ribbon than added a few little jewels to snaz it up a bit.

We also made a very quick pin cushion because she dosnt have one at home, not the best bit of stitching we have ever done but we were in a hurry, there is always next time to make another one and a girl can never have enough pin cushions or crafternoons. Thanks Tillie for the entertainment and looking after Esther.

Thank god its Friday

Well here I am again, third blog this week, I dont know how I do it. Im always too busy or too tired and blogging is the last thing on my mind but I guess its a bit of a diary for what the kids have been up to interspersed with craft from the crazy woman.

Well Bob bit my finger this morning, not real hard, I think he was just trying to tell me he grew a new tooth this week. He does a lot of things these days, he stalks his mother and does all the things she is just about to do, if I change his nappy, he runs to the bin to open it for me, if I go in the laundry he opens the washing machine and shoves the laundry in and opens the detergent draw. When I give him his meals I point to all the food and tell him what it is, well you dont want to turn five and go to school and not have a clue what your food is called do you. Anyway as soon as I put his plate down he starts waving his finger over all the food and mumbles little words. Just what mummy needs, a little parrot repeating everything she says and does. Why dosnt he just speak already. Tonight just to surprise him I stood all his food up, I cut the round ends off the sausages and stood them up, I did the same with his cheese stick and his strawberries, I also stacked his spaghetti noodles into a pyramid, It all looked very trendy, of course by the time I took a photo he had knocked most of it over but I thought it was pretty funny. Poor Bob has a crazy mother.


The funny dinner

On the crafting side I stitched a couple of little things on to Esthers onesies this week, here she is wearing one with a little teddie on it. The other one was a vintage print fabric and I cut a cirlce and sewed it onto her onesie.

I also had a brain wave that instead of making a russian softie I could make a Japanese one, this is the proto type, now I have made it I realise the bottom half has to be a lot bigger, I also have lots of plans for the embellishments, including lots of pretty ribbons, I will keep you posted.

 The felt at the front is either going all together or in for a total redesign, on a good note I cut out the red felt flower by hand and it came out ok, well its not perfect but Im happy with it. I got a new pair of embroidery scissors from spotlight the other day for $5 and I thought "well for that price you cant go wrong" They are beautifull, Im going back to get another pair if they still have them because they are great for cutting small things

I also made a felt box and lined it with fabric and cut out a fabric flower for the front, again this was a prototype, the felt was extremely thin so it wouldnt hold itself up very well so I put some interfacing in the side walls, the interfacing I had was a bit too stiff, I bought it for another project but as it was only a prototype it was ok. I have some thicker felt which should work better and I will get some more appropriate interfacing tomorrow. I imagine making them in lots of different colours with cute matching fabric for the linings. I think red should go well because its pretty trendy at the moment anyway I will see how it all goes because I dont want to bite off more than I can chew and at the moment I have lots of ideas but I havnt actually started any of them for resale and xmas is coming and February 27th will soon be here and I dont want to leave everything until the last minute.


Lined felt box

 Not sure what you would use them for but Im sure they would look pretty in a little girls room with ribbons or hair clips in them. I guess I could also decorate them to suit boys rooms etc
anyway Im off to bed now, I have to get up early and go to Spotlight = )