Thursday 11 September 2014

Pine Cone Mobile

When we went to France in the summer my daughter began sneaking pine cones into her bag, which she then insisted on keeping and bringing back home!  I wanted to help her do something interesting with them but thought it unlikely that they'd last until Christmas when we could spray them gold or silver and hang them as decorations.  So we sat down together and painted them in other bright colours and created a mobile for her bedroom!


We can also add to the mobile as it's just two sticks tied together with string, and the hanging items looped over.  As you can see we've already added a salt dough heart that she made - it just needed rearranging a bit to keep the balance.  We used quite rough brown string to keep it looking rustic and natural.  Plus it makes life easier if the intentional look is a bit rough around the edges!





Thursday 28 August 2014

DIY Princess Anna (Frozen) Costume

Invitation to Frozen themed birthday party = me getting very excited about making an outfit for my little person!  But life is also pretty busy at the moment (settling into new home, finishing work for maternity leave, a million other projects on the go) so I needed an idea based on simplicity and speed, yet super effective!  I found 3 that I combined for the perfect Anna costume:


I started with this Anna dress idea - purchasing a plain black t-shirt as the starting point rather than trying to make the top part.

I had also previously come across this tutu dress tutorial which is so simple yet makes such a great outfit.  I have many plans for this design for the future!  And it also worked here.

And then for the finishing touch I used this Anna & Elsa cape tutorial.

Just from the pile of coloured fabric I knew I was going to enjoy this project!


I bought a very cheap vest as my base.  My daughter is almost 3 and the smallest size I could find was age 7-8 so I had to do a bit of nipping and tucking to start with!  I then stitched gold bias binding round the arms and neck.

For ease I used appropriately coloured felt and bondaweb to create the embroidered effect rather than dealing with complicated stitching.  I found the image on the computer and traced it straight on to the paper before ironing it to the back of my felt.  I also decided to stick to 2 main colours, green and pink, with just a couple of yellow dots, rather than adhering 100% to the original design and colours.  It was then really easy to cut out, iron on to the vest and stitch.




I then got really excited and forgot to take photos, but I pretty much followed the tutu dress tutorial that I linked above as I moved on to the skirt.  A couple of adaptations...I stitched the layers of tulle as described and sewed it to the elastic but before attaching it to the top of the dress I made a lining for the skirt.  I used 1 metre of blue dress lining, closed the seam, and basted and gathered round the top in the same way as I did with the tulle and then stitched it to the same piece of elastic that the rest of the skirt was fixed to.  And another piece of gold binding stitched over all the layers (and elastic).



Once the skirt was done I could fix and stitch it to the top.


Almost done...


The final step involved more felt and bondaweb!  I made 5 tulip-shaped flowers and ironed them (evenly spaced) on to the outside layer only of the tulle skirt.  To ensure the flowers didn't mess up the other layers I placed a piece of tracing paper underneath when I ironed, as well as a square of cotton over the top.  This meant that the tulle didn't melt, and the sticky underside of the bondaweb didn't get stuck to other bits of the skirt before it cooled.


And the dress was done!


For the cape I pretty much stuck to the tutorial mentioned above, although I used a velvety fabric which required a bit of sorting before constructing the cape.  For my cape I only used half a metre of this fabric and folded it in half right sides together, so it was pretty much a square.  I stitched around the outside of the square, rounding off each corner as I went.  I left a 6 inch gap so I could turn the cape inside out so that the princessy velvetiness was then on the outside.  To finish my prep I top stitched around the whole piece.  I was then ready to follow the instructions as in the tutorial.


This involved a long basting stitch about 6 inches from the top.  Then gathered until the width is about 12 inches.


Over the top of the gather I stitched a piece of ribbon (that had enough overhang at each end to tie once worn).


To achieve the desired effect the top 6 inches folds over the ribbon so it sits just over the shoulders (and hides the ribbon stitching).  Cape done!




I was so worried that she'd refuse to wear it as I was putting so much pressure on her to try it on but she was so happy with it!




Thursday 26 June 2014

Decorate a birthday cake? Sure - I can do that.

It's not my daughter's birthday for another 3 months, but I've seen some amazing examples of mama's giving cake decorating a go recently and I wanted to share them to inspire you!


My friend Sabi recently came up with this frogtastic beauty for her little girl...



This one is amazing.  Made by a wonderful mummy and daddy for their Dora-crazy little lady.


Joelle cake popped this for her princess. It was perfect!



And when my daughter turned 2 last September I attempted a bus, as at the time they were her favourite thing in the world! It was supposed to be all red but I hugely underestimated the amount of icing I needed so it ended up as a bit of a disco bus!



All of these cakes decorated by amateur cake decorators and loving mums and dads.  Good work girls and boys! 

And if you've tried and failed - don't worry! That's all part of the fun! And they're never as bad as you think. Looking at craft and cake fail blogs is one of my favourite pastimes, having experienced my fair few! Have a look of you ever need a little pick-me-up...

Cake Wrecks - how the professionals can get it so wrong is beyond me!  

This blog for Pinterest inspired baking catastrophes.

Saturday 21 June 2014

Probably the quickest and easiest DIY project you'll ever see!

I harbour a disproportionate amount of rage towards all of the wires and cables that occupy my world. As per usual, I'm full of good intentions to solve the issue with a flurry of searching and pinning for neat little cable tidies and holders. For which I then lack the motivation, time or inclination to execute. But whilst sitting and thinking about how I want to get the job done but can't be bothered right now (not lazy by nature - just work, toddler, pregnancy-inflicted fatigue!) something occurred to me. All you need is velcro! And it need only cost pennies! Velcro is something I seem to have lots of and I'm not sure why. I think it's one of those items that's easy to overlook but can halt a project in it's tracks. So it is useful to always have some available - I would definitely recommend that you buy yourself a metre or two just to have around for occasions such as these. 

1. For headphones I cut a 3 inch length of velcro. For bigger/longer cables and wires just increase this length, e.g 6 inches for laptop cable.


2. Pull apart and refix with up to an inch of overhang at either end. You can adjust this once you've tried it out if it needs to be longer or shorter. 


3. Wrap and fix around annoying and disobedient wire. 


4. That's it. Done! Neat, tidy, quick and super cheap. Now sit back and feel smug about the task you've just completed!

Monday 16 June 2014

Dinosaur Dudes

There has been a sudden influx of newborns in my life!  I'm trying to keep up and came up with this simple yet super effective idea for a toy having seen some examples on Pinterest...


1.  I found an appropriate dinosaur silhouette shape to copy from an image on the computer.  Once you've found the shape you want, draw and cut it out using suitable paper, being sure to add half an inch for seam allowance - this will be your pattern.  I will do my best to upload my shape once I get it in the right format!


2. Cut 2 dinosaur shapes in desired fabric.  I've chosen one plain and one patterned print.  And yes, I did iron my fabric but it didn't seem to make much difference!


3. On opposite sides of your cut out dinosaurs use embroidery thread to stitch crosses for eyes.  I prefer doing eyes like this rather than using buttons so that I'm not creating a choking hazard!  Make sure the eyes aren't on the same sides on both pieces!   


4. A little personalisation is always a nice touch too!  An initial or a name on the tail looks sweet on these.


5. Take one shape and lay it right side up (ie with the eye facing upwards).  Choose 8 ribbons and cut about 3 inches in length.  Fold each piece of ribbon in half and pin alongside the dinosaur's back like in this picture:


6. Place your other dinosaur shape on top, right side down (so the eyes are touching).  Pin in place.


7. Using a half inch seam allowance stitch around the outside of the pinned dinosaur shape, removing pins as you go.  Leave a two inch gap at the top of the leg arch.


8. Trim corners and clip edges.  This helps the fabric lie correctly when you turn it inside out, otherwise it'll pucker and pinch.


9. Turn the shape inside out by poking it all through the hole you left in your seam.


10. Stuff your toy with suitable toy stuffing.  I also like to put a little bell inside to make it jingle!


11. I've forgotten to take a picture here, but neatly stitch up the hole in the seam by hand using a blind stitch.

12. Your dinosaur should be done.  Here's one of mine prowling through the garden...


I hope you enjoy making yours!

Tuesday 29 April 2014

New Mummy Gift Box

When I gave birth a couple of years ago we were inundated with beautiful and amazing gifts for our new daughter.  We were touched by people's generosity and thoughtfulness.

And then one friend in particular surprised me with a box of loveliness just for me!  I loved it, and who wouldn't...there were lotions and potions, wine, nail polish, bath bombs and other sweet little luxuries.  Since then it is something I have tried to do for friends when they've had their little ones, even if it's only been a couple of bottles of nail varnishes (and the 60 second quick dry stuff has been a revelation at this time in my life!).  


It's also a nice little reminder that just because you've had a baby doesn't mean that you shouldn't make time for yourself and the things you enjoy.  This is one that I recently gave a friend - little bits from Boots and a pretty box from Paperchase. I love a good box!








Easy Peasy Zippy Pouches

I had some left over fabric from the changing bag I made for my friend and I know she wants to use reusable nappies so using the scraps to make a waterproof pouch for transporting wet apparel seemed appropriate!  A useful idea for any of us with little ones, not just those with soggy bottoms!


We're also in the process of moving house, which reminded me that for months I've been planning on making some bags to store some of my daughter's toys.  


I found a couple of straightforward tutorials through my old friend Pinterest, such as this one on See Kate Sew.  I got a bit confused by the reference to folding the zip towards the lining when sewing the two sides of your pouch together.  It felt weird and bulky and not right.  I explored a bit further and found some instructions with pictures of what this step should look like, the most helpful of which was this one at Pink Stitches.  The pouches described on this last blog were a little more complicated on the whole (would make great gifts!), but the pictures simplified the process for me.  I also like the way she has secured and extended the zips with small pieces of fabric.  I used this idea for a couple of my pouches as the zips I had were all pretty small and I sometimes find my zip slipping when I sew it.  This is a great way of solving both problems!


Apologies for not creating any new tutorials recently, but I've mainly been using other people's so I'd rather direct you to them than try and come up with my own when I know they already exist.  

Thursday 24 April 2014

A Much Better Changing Bag

Changing bags are expensive!  Even the plain ones seem to cost a small fortune, as well as being a bit boring.  A friend who recently came to this conclusion asked if I could make one for her.  Suddenly the changing bag world expanded!  Naturally I spent some (read "a lot of") time on Pinterest and found one that met the criteria, which were a) that my friend liked it, and b) it was within my capability!  This tutorial by the Crafty Couple was clear and easy to follow, as well as being patternless - which is ideal as I don't have a printer and could just cut the fabric straight to size.

There were a couple of websites that we looked at for oilcloth fabric (so that the bag was waterproof inside and out).  These were Only Oilcloths and Norfolk Textiles, although I'm sure there are many others.  The fabrics we went for were Stampede Pastel Gloss and Lisbon Denim Matt from Only Oilcloths.  We opted for 135cm x 100cm of each, to ensure we had enough (and the cost was the same for this size or smaller).  The total cost of the bag was just under £30, which is pretty reasonable for a one-of-a-kind totally practical bag of this kind.

Before cutting out I worked out which pieces I wanted in the patterned fabric and which pieces were going to be plain.  


I had enough fabric to make a changing mat to fit neatly in the back pocket.  I did this by cutting two oilcloth rectangles 30cm x 60cm and one 30cm x 60cm in a lightweight wadding.  I arranged the pieces as follows: wadding, piece 1 right side up, piece 2 right side down (ie right sides together).  I pinned and sewed around three edges (starting with a long edge).  I then turned the piece right sides out, folded in the remaining seam and top stitched around the whole rectangle to close up the open edge and neaten it up.  Folded in three the mat fits just right!



I had a few left over scraps of the fabric so a few days later I made a waterproof zipper pouch, which I'll tell you about properly soon!