Crafting for the Baby

A few things I've been sewing and knitting up for my Bellyfruit.

A mei tai made with this pattern and some delicious Japanese mushroom fabric. It also has a hood/headrest which I'm going to adapt to be removable via snaps, but I'm not putting that on just yet.

This was made for the baby to be carried in, but I asked DH and Elliot to test it for me and they're hooked!


I knitted a little outfit for the Bellyfruit too.



The top is adapted from a cardigan pattern, and the longies are Sheepy Pants. The wool is NZ Treliske Organic Merino 8ply. I dyed some up under the tuition of a friend, and used some undyed wool for contrast.

Creative Holidays

Turns out that the only 'net access in Fiji would have required Em to hitch a lift in a boat out in the middle of nowhere, so I was safe. She wasn't *that* desperate for her emails.

Here are a few quick pics of things I’ve been up to over the holidays. Except for moving house. I don’t have pics of that, but it certainly took up most of my time and energy.

I knit these Shannon's longies up (blogged a few posts below this one) still had wool left over so I made the hat to go with them. I made up the pattern inspired by a few I've seen, and I added an i-cord knot at the top. Now I still have 25 grams of this wool left so I’m wondering if I have enough for some little baby mittens.

A perfect set for the Bellyfruit for winter.

Amongst my New Year spending (post Consumtion Challenge I did have a few things I had been hanging out for) was a *snap press*. And my first snapping project was this tiny little nappy for the Bellyfruit. If you’ve read this blog before you’ll recognise the outer fabric. I’m still not finished with the first bedsheet after all these floral projects. The inner is apple green cotton velour and there is a hidden layer of bamboo fleece. I will be making a bamboo and velour booster to snap in, too.

Don’t you love the sheepish model?

I also removed the velcro and added snaps to my first self-designed nappy which I had made for Elliot almost one year ago.

I like this nappy even more now, and it still fits Elliot perfectly.

One last creative thing to show off today.

I have gone in on a swap on Rav where you’re assigned 4 swap partners whom you send a small parcel to on their birthday, and you receive 4 gifts on your birthday. I am enjoying thinking of things to send my swappers, and I’m looking forward to receiving crafty type gifts (for a change). My first swapper’s birthday was last week, and part of my parcel was these ridiculously extravagent Swarovski crystal stitch markers.

Mmmm, yum! Fortunately I bought enough beads to make myself a set. They caught the light so beautifully. I am sure they will be well loved and used in their new home.

We are happily settled into our new home now, in regional Victoria, and really enjoying the change of pace.

Reusable Coffee Bags for One

I'm going to take a risk and assume that Em is off partying in Fiji with no internet access. Hopefully, if she does have net access there, she will have better things to do than to check this blog.

Before she left to go galavanting across the Pacific Islands yet again, she asked me to make these for her.



They are coffee bags. You put your scoop of coffee (real stuff, ground beans) in them and use them like a tea bag. The coffee steeps, or brews, or whatever you call it, and then you pull out the bag, give it a rinse, and drink your coffee.

Em saw this idea overseas in her vast travels, and decided this would be a great solution for all those times when she is stuck with little more for company than a good book and a breathtaking view of the beach and the ocean in some tropical paradise.

If you'd like to try this idea yourself, I used 6.5" squares of a muslin/cheesecloth type fabric (supplied by Em, so I'm not sure what it is).
- I overlocked the edges all around.
- Then I sewed down a small hem on one edge to encase the cord later.
- Then I folded the square in half and sewed from the stitch line I just made down and across the bottom edge.
* The pic below explains the sewing. The green line is the hem for the cord (obviously done while the square is opened out), and the red line is to sew the square into a rectangular bag.
- I then threaded a length of cotton string through the hem at the top, and delivered them to Em's house for her to discover when she arrives home this coming week.



I left the bags with the seams facing out so that the little bits of coffee won't get stuck everywhere. Hopefully they will be easier to rinse this way, but they can just as easily be turned inside out if desired.

I plan to try this for myself if I find some brilliant herbal tea in leaf form.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all the Consumption Challengers!
1 hour to go (well, in EST anyway).
I can't wait to hear about all the things that you have all learnt this year and what your plans are for next year. I'm looking forward to writing my own synopsis of the year.
Enjoy the dawning of a new chapter!

Admitting defeat (and some fun, creative pics)

First up, I need to update this blog to explain that my Consumption Challenge has ended one month early.

DH lost his job in early November and two weeks later started work 140kms away. He has only been able to come home on weekends (and now for unpaid Christmas leave).

It has been a real strain on us all - physically, emotionally, and financially. You would think that the Challenge would be a help at this time, but I simply don't have the thought processes left to make alternatives happen.

My house is a disaster, packing boxes everywhere. My mind has been a disaster with stress over how Elliot is coping without his 'Da' around on weeknights, and about when we will be able to move (we are waiting for the tenant to move out of my PIL's old house so we can move in). And I would dearly love to know which house I will be birthing this baby in so that I can consider some local independent midwives. That's another thing to stress about. Things like going to the op shop have been impossible. I just can't manage DS in a shop of any kind right now, especially not an op shop. I get exhausted just thinking about it. I usually do that stuff with DH.

Life has taken over and my priorities have been redirected into survival mode.

I'm not going out and just shopping to my heart's content, but I can't honestly say that I have been sticking to my Challenge since the start of December. It's just been too hard to think outside the crowded little square my mind is in.

Reality bites.

I feel really pleased with what I have achieved. I am looking forward to some blogging about all the things I have learnt this year, but that will have to wait until I am settled into a new house without all this tension.

Thank you to everyone who has been such a support to me during this Challenge. It has been awesome and I can't wait to celebrate all that has happened over the past 11 months, but that will wait until next year.


My latest creations:
In other news, I made a summer outfit for Elliot from scratch. DH seems to really understand how hard the past 6 weeks of solo-parenting have been on me, and has given me tons of space and time to be creative while he spends some much-needed one-on-one time with Elliot.



The t-shirt was made using fabric kindly given to me by a fellow Raveller, the pants are made of fabric which has been wasting space in my fabric stash. The mushroom print was a little treat I bought the other day in a rare outing by myself.



This outfit cost me under $1 (probably about 25c) to make.



I think the next t-shirt (yes, it was so easy and fun I'll be making more) will have ribbing for the arms and waist too, to create a real retro 1970s vibe.

I learnt heaps while making this, such as the importance of using stabiliser when appliquing onto knit fabric, and the joy of basting (har har) for the t-shirt hems.

One of the comments I received yesterday on this was "Very Nintendo!". Ha ha ha!

To market, to market...

I saved these links for fabric shopping bags some time ago. Now seemed the right time to have a shot at making them.

First up I made some bags from some fabric you may remember from earlier projects.

For these I used this tutorial, and they are made with just one layer of fabric. They were made using the overlocker almost exclusively (except for the final seam on the french seamed bottom).

Then I made these two bags as Christmas presents. The darker one is for my mother, the lighter one for my KK for Andrew's family Christmas.

These are made using two layer of fabric, and the birdie applique (inspired by this) is made from the same fabric as the lining fabric. I used this tutorial for these.




I would really like to have a go at this bag soon.

The wrong season for knitting?

I am told it is the wrong time of year to be knitting. Pah!

Here are some recent FOs. I seem to go in cycles from knitting to sewing and back again. Seeing that the house is a disaster zone (packing boxes everywhere) it seemed logical to turn to knitting.


This beautiful ball of Susanne's House of Wool 10ply yarn arrived from Shannon. A totally unexpected gift from my Queensland friend. She saw that back in October I had blogged about my wish list for knitting projects, amongst them her Shannon's Longies pattern. What could I do, but try to do justice to her generous gift?


I love the way the colours pool. I am working on an embellishment for these. I can't wait to see the Bellyfruit wearing them. Mmmmm, yum!


This dishcloth was knit from bamboo/cotton in the Grandmother's Favourite pattern.


I knit these Picky Pants longies quite a while ago from Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 8ply, but the Curly Purly waistband wasn't holding, so I cut and frogged the waistband and redid it with this ribbed drawstring waistband. Now that Elliot can wear them again I have discovered that the pants are one or two inches too short now. D'oh! The rise is still fine so I'll be extending the legs next. Shouldn't take long.


I bought 200g of this Yarn Cafe Australian Polworth Merino 8ply wool in the Earth Mother colourway from the Destash on Rav. These Fetching fingerless gloves only used about 1/4 of the wool, so I'm probably going to make longies and other lovely bits and bobs from this scrumptiously soft yarn. These gloves are heading o/s this week to a soon-to-be snow-covered city.


This Mini Wonder Soaker was made from some Monster Knits 8ply BFL, in Flame, also bought on Destash.


This 12ply Paton's Overlander yarn was sent to me from a very generous blogger, the owner of Possum Pouches. With it I made a Spare Ribs Shoaker for Elliot. I just love this pattern. It fits Elliot so well without any short rows - it just snugs right over any nappy. Hurrah!

To see all this and more come and join me over on Ravelry!

Shrinky Dinky Knitting Fun

I created these little tags for my knitting needle roll using Shrinky Dink plastic.

I made them 1.5cm square, used a normal hole punch for the hole, and a blue permanent marker for the writing.


After cooking they were just 5mm square, and most of them were a little skewed (not completely square) but I don't mind. They look just perfect to me.


I spent a little while sewing them on to the knitting roll so that I can tell at a glance which sized needle I'm after. It was pretty confusing before, and I didn't want to write on the fabric in case I want to rearrange the needles later. This way I can just snip them off and re-sew when the rearranging bug hits.


Hmmm, not the clearest pics. I'l see if I can get some better ones.

A ton of things ...

... in more ways than one.

We're getting rid of 50% of our 'stuff'. I know, it sounds impossible, but that is our goal. And to help us with this goal we are moving 140kms away. The less we pack, the less we have to move. So there is some real motivation behind this. Every box I sort, ever shelf I pack, I have the constant thought of trying to rid myself of 50% of it. I am being ruthless, and it is very cleansing in so many ways.

Ok, so we're not moving just so we can get rid of a whole lot of stuff. We've been wanting to go home to country Victoria for seven years now. We're not really 'big smoke' sort of people. To aid our move, DH was laid off (yes, another result of the financial issues facing the world today) but he was able to find a new job in his home town within 4 days. He started today, leaving us (Elliot and I) with the task of packing in order to move sometime before New Year.

In other fun news I found this while op shopping:
- a packet of square self-covering buttons!



I had never seen square ones before so I nabbed them.

And I unearthed yet another suitcase of fabric in the bungalow, containing this fabric:
- a genuine 1970s print.



I barely kept anything from this case, in keeping with my aim of moving only 50% of our possessions to the new house, but how could I resist this?

Any ideas on what to make from it? I am thinking of a little zippered purse, but I am open to suggestions. There's a reasonable amount there.

And in other news just to hand: *drum roll please* . . . the cheque for our travel insurance is being typed up as we speak! It will completely wipe out the personal loan we took out to go on this trip which didn't happen, and maybe even leave us with enough money to go out for a coffee to celebrate.

Sewing FOs - now with action shots!

I have so many things on my 'to do' list, and so many half finished projects or things needing repairs, that sometimes I despair of ever getting anything done. It can be overwhelming at times.

So, in the spirit of reminding myself that I can complete projects and do indeed enjoy doing so, despite the numerous setbacks caused by being the mother of a toddler, here are some recently finished projects:

First, some new pants for Elliot. He has been growing like a bean sprout, with his pants' hems halfway up his calves. It was time to pull out my own pattern design.


I had been planning these pants ever since I found the fabric in an op shop in Briar Hill. Fortunately he is the exact right size for the pattern repeat or else we would have ended up with more sea around his waist. This fabric used to be someone's homemade curtains.


I used adjustable elastic for the back with a flat front. I used bias tape for the inside of the waist casing, so I could hide the buttons and tuck the ends of the adjustable elastic in.


And finally, it was my duty and pleasure to give a gift to little 2 year old Cameron on behalf of our mothers' group. Part of his present was this book/toy bag.

In this pic it doesn't have the drawstring yet, but you can see the buttonholes I put in the top casing. I used this construction themed flannelette (from a swap) because Cam is quite keen on diggers. The main body is made from some poly-cotton from Shan. It's lovely and soft.

Edtted to add these action shots of Elliot's new pants, affectionately known as his "Beach Pants" because Auntie Em pointed out the beach on them.

Creative Experiences: Microwave Playdough Recipe/Tute

I love playdough.

I loved the "Creative Experiences" part of my Child Care course back in '97. I have a huge folder of recipes and ideas for creative things to do with children, and I pull ideas out of it all the time for Elliot. I figured I should share them with others since they are activities which meet the Consumption Challenge criteria while giving our little ones fun things they can do at home.

Playdough is horrid to make on the stovetop, and it's horrid if you make the uncooked version. Making playdough with your microwave will have you wanting to make some every week.

1) Mix these ingredients in a microwave safe dish:
1.5 cups of plain flour.
1/4 cup of salt.
1.5 tablesppons oil.
3 teaspoons cream of tartar.
1.5 cups water.
Food colouring - it's a guessing game, just have fun.

Then it will feel like a sticky goop and look like this:


2) Cover and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir.
It will be inconsistent in texture (some cooked, some uncooked, some dark, some light) and look like this:


3) Cover and microwave for a further 2 minutes.
Now it is evenly cooked throughout, and looks like this:


4) Take it out of the container and as soon as it is not so hot that you are running around the house screaming "Hot! Hot! Burnies!" then you should have some fun playing with it to smooth it out so it looks like this:

See, that was easy!

Of course, if your child is helping you with this recipe, perhaps you will want to let it cool just a little more.

I made a double quantity of this playdough for Elliot's 2nd birthday party. The boys all had fun playing with it, and when home time came I send each child home with a play-sized ball of fun which have kept these children amused for hours ever since.

(Elliot's in the orange top in the middle).

Fabric, fabric, and more fabric!!!

I have been the very happy recipient of a number of fabric giftings...

My SIL, Em, gave me this parcel for my 30th birthday.



Wrapped up in this handmade furoshiki wrap was a stash of silk fabric - recycled kimono and obi pieces. Yum!



(See this site for ideas on how to use a furoshiki).


Another gift of fabric was two tubs of knit fabric given to my mum to pass on. Unfortunately most of the fabric was quite gaudy (think fluro 1980s) so I only kept a small amount. The top 7 pieces (plain blues and greens) are ribbing. Very useful.



And after I helped Shan move house I also helped her sort through part of her enormous fabric stash. I was then able to choose what I wanted from her "out" pile. She was ruthless in ridding herself of fabric she will not use, so I had a lot of fabric to choose from.



Inspired by Shan, I sorted through one of my suitcases, throwing a few things to my own "out" pile, and arranging the fabric by colour to help me to choose the right piece more easily. This is my collection of fabrics which are for small projects and embellishing other projects.