Saturday 8 March 2008

March Mini-Challenge: Week 1

A blow-by-blow account of the past week...

Sunday:
Today I learnt to use my bias binding foot (I've only had it about 6 months, LOL) and it is super-easy. I need to be able to sew bias binding for a few projects I have in mind.

Monday:
Today I replaced dead leg elastic in a second-hand BBH hemp nappy, following this tutorial. This nappy has been sitting around for probably close to 12 months waiting for me to fix it. Procrastination rears it's ugly head yet again.

I finished altering pattern for my liners. Nagged DH into snapping my flanny liner (see March 2). Made one candy pink cotton velour liner from the same pattern with 2 hidden layers of bamboo. Noice!

It works out much prettier to have the layers hidden. I just didn't put a seam allowance on the bamboo layers, and sewed them onto one of the velour layers before sewing the two velour layers together. Then I topstitched. Confused yet?

Tuesday:
Got nothing done today due to sooky child who took hours to get to sleep.

Wednesday:
Snapped Monday's liner, but got nothing done due to still-sooky child. Bad day. :(

Thursday:
Today I made 3 more candy pink cotton velour liners, these ones with a single layer of hemp fleece inside.

One of those is a gift for Dinnae for helping me learn to make nappies. I wrapped it in some apple green cotton velour for a nappy for her in-tum bubba. I made the card myself too.

Started making a flanny nappy from my own pattern, which I altered extensively just before cutting.

Friday:
Today I finished making my first nappy from my own pattern. It is quite narrow at the front crotch, because I am sick of nappies bunching up in the front on skinny little Elliot. It also has a shorter rise than most of our nappies. It is a simple "inside/outside flanny, hidden layer of terry" kind of nappy. It will have a flanny-topped bamboo booster (again made from old BBH boosters).


I gave Dinnae her pressie (see Thursday) and she loved it. She offered me back the ribbon and the envelope because of the Consumption Challenge. I had a hard time not laughing at her! Gee, it's great when your friends support your crazy schemes.

Saturday:
I made some green cotton velour pads with 2 layers of hemp terry (old Jamtots prefold) in each. They're made from this pattern, and it's longer on one end than the other, which you could put facing forwards or behind, depending on what you want/need.

So this is what they look like unsnapped and snapped up. Nice and comfy. I'll be making more of these for sure.

So, how did I go?
Planned: 2 nappies.
Done: 1 nappy, still in testing phase before altering pattern again.

Planned: 6 liners/pads.
Done: 5 liners/pads. I stuffed the last one up. Oops!

Planned: 2 gifts.
Done: 1 gift.

Planned: Design cushion covers and E's pants.
Done: A little cushion designing, but no pants designing.

I didn't actually meet my goals for the week, but I used to have a teacher who said, "If you aim for nothing you are sure to hit your mark". Think about it for a sec. It's really true. I'm glad I aimed high and got heaps done, rather than not setting goals and getting nothing done (a la last month).

I'll be back tomorrow to write up my goals for the coming week. I have a ripper headache and I'm toddling off to bed. G'night!

7 comments:

History of the Crusades said...

Wow!!! You are seriously firing up!!! I LOVE those pads you have making, and the nappies look terrific - its so cool that you are able to make your own pattern and adapt the nappy design to the shape of your bub - what a lucky boy having a nappy designed especially for him!!! You have done SOOOOO well!! Keep it up!

Kelli said...

hey you did really good on your challenge. I love the pink velour, very noice!

Kelli said...

why is it that the last post to show on google reader for you was the book one. It doesn't seem to be working well for your site and I have deleted and reloaded. Anyone else having probs?

Tanja said...

Thanks ColdCloth! I have been having a ball.

Yep Kelli, the candy pink velour is delicious. Very girly. It's funny how you end up forgetting to be girly when you have two males in the house and a natural tomboy tendancy.

Cinders xo said...

WTG Tanja!!

You've done unreal this week!! Yeah yu didn't get all done you wanted to, but darn hecky you came close!!

I LOVE the look of them pads & liner!! If you need a tester ;) LOL

Well done!

Tanja said...

You're hilarious, Cinders! But I may take you up on that offer one day.

dinnae said...

hee hee, so you think i'm funny do ya? you did FANTASTIC by the way!!! and your old teacher was RIGHT... you don't always have to meet your goals to feel as though you've accomplished something... so long as your goals are MEASURABLE, and within a specified time frame - go for it!!!

i'm so proud of you! hope the trip to shep got you lots of goooooodies!