Handmade baby shoes

This has been my most challenging sewing attempt to date, so much so that I actually have not sewn anything since completing these little numbers. However, after seeing little Ruby wear these with her christening dress last week it was well worth the effort... and the swearing, and all the unpicking and re-sewing each shoe cost me. I especially loved my Mum's comment when I told her I had finished them, but that I had struggled quite a bit "Yes, I thought that might have been a bit over ambitious for you". 

Ah, hindsight - my old, dear friend. 

Note to self Holly: you are not yet 'intermediate' with your sewing ability, you would be best to stick to patterns that say 'beginner' or 'novice', or just return to the kitchen where things tend to run a little smoother (most of the time).

In saying all of this, the pattern for these shoes was brilliant and really easy to follow, and came with several different size options which I think I will make again in the future though for a slightly larger foot next time, so as not to be quite to fiddly. Also the fact I now know that 'fusible webbing' and 'fusible interface' are not, as I had assumed, the same thing I think the shoes will be much easier when they are not slightly sticking to each other as I try to sew them - major learning curve accomplished.

To make these shoes for yourself, the pattern can be purchased from Winter Peach Patterns on Etsy.

Happy stitching. 

xx

My baby's bunting

We recently had our beautiful Ruby Grace baptised, and celebrated with a small lunch back at our house. In her honour, I wanted to make something pretty for decoration and decide on some bunting to hang behind the food table, with the intention to then hang them in her nursery afterwards. I scoured the internet for a pattern that I liked, and after many slight variations this was how I got on.

For one 3 metre garland (2.3m of flags, with room at each end to tie) you will need:

• Cardboard triangle measuring 12.5cm along the base, and 17.5cm on the other two sides
• 7 different but complimentary fabrics
• 3 metres of inch wide bias tape

1. Wash, dry and press your fabrics and the bias tape.

2. Using your cardboard triangle template, cut six triangles (3 pairs) out of each of your fabrics.

 

3. Place two triangles of the same fabric face to face, and sew down the two long sides, from base to tip, leaving the base completely open.

4. Snip the tip off the end, and turn right side out. You may need to poke a pencil into the tip to get it to come to a nice point on the right side, then give it a really good iron. Trim any extra seams that poke out from base so you have a nice straight base edge.

5. Repeat with remaining pairs of triangles so you end up with 21 completed pendants.

6. Fold the bias tape in half and press well, then lie the tape out flat along the table (or floor if your table is shorter).

Leave a 35cm length of tape at each end (to be used later to tie up your bunting), then start placing the bases of the pendants corner to corner along the inner fold if the bias tape.

7. When you are happy with the order of your pendants, pin them into place and sew a seam all the way along the row, about 5mm from the edge of the tape. I actually sewed two seams one a few mm lower to make sure they are really secure.

That's it! I loved making these, and found it a really pleasant way to spend a Sunday "crafternoon", and they looked very pretty on the day.

xx

Carrot cake cookies

Just to prove I have not completely neglected my oven, here is a little taste of what we have been enjoying in our household of late. I love these cookies, but restrict myself to only baking them for very special occasions, and a friend's baby shower was the perfect excuse to bring them out... much to my husband's delight. This is a recipe my sister gave me, and I am sorry I can't credit it more than that (though if you knew my sister and her amazing baking that would be credit enough), and these little morsels are always a winner. There is just something about the fluffy cream cheese filling sandwiched between those soft, cakey cookies that is a real treat to devour.

Ingredients:

• 250gm softened butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 ½ cups self raising flour
• ½ teaspoon all spice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 ½ cups grated carrot
• ½ cup sultanas
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ cup chopped pecan nuts

Filling:

• 50gm butter, softened
• 75gm cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 2/3 cup icing sugar (sifted) 

1. Preheat oven to 180°C, and line 3 trays with baking paper.
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well.
4. Stir in sifted flour, baking powder, all spice and cinnamon.
5. Add all remaining ingredients and stir until well combined.
6. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
7. Roll into balls (tablespoon size balls for big cookies/ dessert spoon size for a smaller treat), and place an inch apart on lined baking tray.
8. Bake for 12-20 minutes, depending on size, or until lightly browned.
9. Cool completely on wire racks.
10. Combine all filling ingredients until fluffy. Add more icing sugar to taste if you need it.
11. Sandwich biscuits together with the frosting, and dust with icing sugar.

I did dessert spoon size this time, and got about 30 of the completed cookies (60 individual biscuits).

I hope you enjoy these as much as we do.

xx 

Fabric children's blocks

  

I love these squishy foam blocks as toys for little hands to play with. I have given something similar as gifts in the past and have now taken up making them myself. My initial attempt was not very successful, partly because I bought styrofoam cubes not cushion foam (will blame baby brain for that one) and partly because the instructions I had did not give any measurements, so my first, sad little 'Ruby' cube was unpicked and re-sewn I think 5 times and still looks a bit ragged but I am sure our little cherub won't mind. I have also started adding little bells into the blocks, which helps stimulate another of the wee ones senses when playing with them.

So here is how I go about throwing one of these cubes together. 

You will need:

• Foam cube (I use 10cm x 10cm, and the lovely chap at the foam shop cuts them to size for me)
• 6 different fabrics cut into 10cm x 10cm squares, or whatever size your foam is
• Needle and thread
• Fusible interface

1. Start by cutting your fabric squares. To personalise the block, I like to put the child's name on the blocks if I can (short names fit in one square, or I do 1 letter per square if 6 letters) so I trace their name onto fusible interface and cut it our of fabric to iron on. If you choose to do this, the fusible interface goes onto the back of the fabric so trace the letters inverted so they are backwards on the back of the fabric and the right way round on the right side (see below). I have also done ABC, numbers, and traced around cookie cutters for other shapes stick on to make the cube more interesting but you might just use lovely fabric and leave it plain.  
2. Once you have prepared your squares, start by taking two squares and lying them patterned sides together, and sew together along one edge, leaving about 8mm seam. (Don't worry that it won't fit with the block and squares the same size, it just makes for a nice snug fitting cover) 

3. Continue sewing the squares together to form a 'T' shape. 

4. Flip it over and give it a good press.

    5. Continue sewing the remaining sides together (inside out)  to form a cube

    leaving one side of one square unstitched. Pull the fabric out through the open side to right way out.

6. The next step is inserting the foam cube, and if you decide to put a bell in to the block do that
    now. I just use small embroidery scissors to cut a small slit about half an inch wide down halfway in
    to the cube. Then poke your finger in to stretch it out a bit and push a bell down into the hole. The    
    bells I had were only 12mm and the foam can dull the noise so I put in 3 of them which gave an
    effect I was happy with.

 

To put the foam in, just screw it up in a ball and shove it in, then just straighten the fabric around the block as it pops back into shape. 

7. To finish your cube, hand sew the last seam closed using a drawing stitch if you can do one, I can not so just did the best I could...

...and you are done.

Enjoy! 

xx

Make your own baby change mat

I have been fortunate enough to have had a lovely friend loan me a changing mat, however it is a tad too big to fit into my nappy bag. I then spied this cute paisley oil cloth/ plastic coated cotton on one of my fabric missions, and thought perhaps I could make a smaller changing mat for toting around the place on all of our adventures. After many a google search, I found a few ideas I liked and decided to have a crack.

The result was probably my best sewing effort to date, mostly as it was also my first experience with bias binding, and I was very happy with the finished product.

What you need:

• One piece each of oil cloth (plastic coated cotton), flannelette, and thick cotton (or any fabric of your choice for the back side of the mat) each measuring 35cm x 60cm
• Matching colour of wide bias binding (mine was about an inch wide)
• Matching ribbon (cut into two lengths about 25cm each)

Stack you fabric with the backing fabric face down on the table (so pattern will be on the outside), then the flannelette, then the oilcloth face up on top. Pin together and cut to size (35cm x 60cm).

Using a rotary cutter, or good scissors if you don't have one, round the corners of the fabric. You can do this by tracing around a CD or saucer, but make sure you line it up the same for each corner so they will be even.

The next step is the bias binding and I was a bit shy of going straight to it so I ran a stitch around the edge of the stack so it would be held together while I attempted the binding. This isn't necessary, but made me less anxious about the binding bit. If you choose to do this, sew really close to the edge of the fabric, so that stitch will then be covered by the binding when you put it on, my seam was a bit wide and I had to trim back some fabric before folding the binding over.

To attach the binding you can pin it in place, though I actually took the pins out, as they weren't really necessary. Now, there will be a skinny side and a fatter side on the binding and make sure you sew with the skinny side first. Lay the binding on the oilcloth as shown below, with the skinny side pointing to the fabric edge. It would be best to align the binding edge with the fabrics edge, but because I have sewn around first, I placed just a little further back to cover the stitching.  For a great, quick little video check out Angry Chicken's 'no swearing bias tape method'. 

I was also concerned about sewing the binding round a curve and when I googled that too I found a great quote that said "How do you sew bias binding round a curve? You just do". It turns out that was pretty spot on. Because of the way it is made it has some give and just goes round the curves - don't pull it tight though, just let it go.

Before you start sewing, tuck one end of one piece of the ribbon in under the binding on the oilcloth side. Sew a seam on the narrow edge of the binding to secure it to you mat. 

Then fold the binding completely over the top of the fabric edge, so the binding shows over the back side of the mat as well. Tuck one end of the second ribbon in under the binding on the back side of the mat in line with the first ribbon...

Then, with the oil cloth side up, sew a seam over the top of the binding right along the very inner edge. This seam will catch the binding on the under side as well and finish off your mat.

All done! Now roll it up and off you go.

A few notes:
If you decide to sew around the mat before adding the binding, use the narrowest possible seam or sew practically at the fabrics edge - I had to trim a little of the fabric at the seam to get the binding over evenly.
Don't forget to sew on the second ribbon when you are sewing the binding down.

Special thanks to the many great designs and tutorials out there, most notably Smashed Peas and Carrots  and iCandy Handmade.

xx

Make you own baby bibs

These little numbers have been coming off the sewing machine at a rapid pace the last few weeks, and have made a nice addition to gifts for new bubs, baby showers, as well as being on hand in the nappy bag. So here is my first attempt at an online tutorial, though they are pretty foolproof (if they were not we wouldn't be having this conversation).

You will need:

• Patterned cotton fabric (about 20cm x 30cm pieces of two different but colour matched fabrics, washed dried and ironed)
• Plain flannelette (sized as above, one piece per bib)
• Bib template (you can draw you own, or I used the one available from New Idea, but I cut the tips of the straps 3mm wider all around and cut the neck about 3mm bigger also)

Cut out three even copies of the template: one from the flannelette, and one from each of the different fabrics (this is for a reversible bib, if you want just one fabric on the front do two layers of flannelette). If you want them to match up nicely, you could pin all the layers together and cut the template from there.

Sandwich the fabric together, with all edges aligned. If you are making the reversible bib place the two patterned fabrics on the top two layers with patterned faces towards each other top fabric face down, second layer face up).

Leaving a 5cm opening at the bottom of the bib, machine sew around them outer edge (about a 5mm seam allowance).

Turn the bib right way out by pulling it through the opening. You may like to snip around the inner seams on the curves at about 1cm intervals to prevent puckering. You might also poke a pencil end in to the bib ends to get them out completely. Once right way out, iron the bib and hand sew the opening closed.

To finish the bib, sew a small piece of velcro to each end of the neck straps (make sure the two pieces meet up)

Now you are finished! Easy as that.

The template I used fits a little baby, so you may like to enlarge the template so you get more use out of your bib, or so they will fit a bigger baby. I have also made some with oilcloth/ plastic coated cotton as the top layer so you can wipe it clean, and it worked just as well.

What do you think of the bibs, Ruby? 

Ummm....

I love them!

Sew busy of late!

Well, shock of all shocks, I have actually followed through on something. The last two weeks have been a blur of trips to Spotlight, catching up with family and friends, feeding the baby, and the soft purr of the sewing machine. I have been sewing up a storm at home, so much so that once I forgot to shower and served poor Aaron toast for dinner. I am reminded of the time in my life my Mum discovered quilting, and was so busily making her first quilt to show we ate cheese sandwiches for dinner for about a week. It has become strangely addictive, and I am loving the finished products I am starting to turn out. Don't get me wrong, I have had some severe learning curves to navigate, like the block I had to unpick 3 times and my first experience will bias binding (thank goodness for YouTube), but on the whole I am happy with what's been coming off the sewing bench.

My first project was a hand sewn one. These wee little felt Russian dolls are super cute, and relatively   easy to make, though a bit fiddley to cut some of the flowers out. I have given some as gifts, and plan to string some up to hang over Ruby's change table.

They are only very small, about 5cm, and I really enjoyed making them. I have also put a little bell inside a couple, like a little rattle and they are pretty sweet too.

With great thanks to April Rhodes, whose template and tutorial for these little beauties is available at Sew to Speak.

More of my sewing attempts to come!

xx