Back to work

You know, the work that actually pays you for doing something!! It's been just over a year, it had to happen one day. The time has just flown. With going back to work Little O had to start childcare, and you can't do that without a spiffy new hat. So I knocked up this one.

Little O's childcare hat

I love that I can do that now, something is needed, whip it up, yay. I used Nikki's kids hat pattern, he's grown out of the baby hat :-(. I used Kid's Hat Size small, second size brim, brim without binding. I didn't even need to follow the instructions as I went, I've made so many of the baby hat now I just made it like the baby hat, yay.

From the top

I wanted to make some shoes to match but didn't have enough fabric left over, might still make some patchy ones. I'm in the process of making him a backpack but haven't quite got that finished yet.

I'm only working 2 days a week at the moment. I started back on Monday. It was strange going back and I remembered a lot more than I thought I would (I program a bit). It didn't all fall out of my head this time.

Can't wait for school to go back now to keep the other one occupied. It's now got hot in Melbourne, the I'm too tired and hot to do anything kinda hot.

I also made these pleated pouches to go in the Ditto Crafts MadeIt shop.

Pleated pouches Pattern by Keyka Lou

What a week.

TTFN

Boys Zipper Pouches

Boys Zipper Pouches, originally uploaded by MandyMade.

Birthday's always seem to group together don't they? Well we had 3 boys birthdays on the weekend so I decided to try out Nikki's Super-simple zipped pouch, from her book. It was super simple. There will be more of these. I originally had pencils in mind but Little A wanted to give cars. So they are multi purpose pouches. One of these pouches wont be given until December but I thought I'd knock it off early. I appliqued the names with applique paper (no idea what this is called!!) then hand stitched a running stitch with pearl 8. The denim is a pair of old jeans and has a calico lining. Fun to make, highly recommend making some.

TTFN

Super-simple Zipped Pouch from You Sew, Girl by Nicole Mallalieu.

Edit: Forgot to mention they are 15cm x 20cm. Great size for just about anything you want to take to someones house for a play.

More hats

We're back in the school swing again trying to get back into our normal routine. Daylight saving hasn't helped. I'm happy to say that a week away from the computer did wonders. No desire to read the 1000+ blog posts in my reader and nothing too important in my inbox, nice. I got some amigurami half made, I'll take some pics soon.

Before I left on holidays I did get 2 more hats made. Loving Nikki's pattern. This time I made them reversible and out of cotton. I found the cotton less forgiving, love working with felt!

This one I was asked to make through my new venture Ditto Crafts. It was my first commission. I originally cut the darker grey fabric that was eventually used on the space hat below. It was too dark with the robots and I had the space fabric which it matched perfectly. So another new hat for Little O! Little A is very jealous and wants one of his own. Luckily I have Nikki's kids hat pattern so that will be whipped up soon!!!

Baby's Hat from You Sew, Girl by Nicole Mallalieu.

Baby's Hat from You Sew, Girl by Nicole Mallalieu.

Lots of sewing to be done in the next few weeks, I have another market, yay.

TTFN

What's next? Hats...

I love Nikki's book. Just in case I haven't told you already! My next project out of it was the Baby Hat for Little O. Sorry photos a bit blurry, bit hard to photograph an excited 6 month old! Yes he is now 6 months, boy time flies. And doesn't the hat look lovely with bonds wondersuit?!

Baby's Hat from You Sew, Girl by Nicole Mallalieu.

I used a wool felt and some cotton robot fabric. I interfaced everything except for the lining which I used polar fleece for. When I was making it I was worried that it would be too big and he wouldn't be able to wear it this season, but it does fit perfectly.

Baby's Hat from You Sew, Girl by Nicole Mallalieu.

This was made on my new machine, as I was sewing it I kinda wished I had got a more heavy duty machine. The layers did get a bit thick in some parts but it all worked out really well, I didn't sew any fingers or break any needles so that's always a bonus!! Besides that I am happy with the Singer.

Have you made anything from Nikki's book?

TTFN

Productive Weekend

It's amazing how just adding one more day to the weekend you can get so much more done!! We got a few things done around the house which was nice, usually we get a bit overwhelmed with what needs to be done then go out for a coffee!! Well you have to start somewhere. So painting Oliver's room is nearly finished, we can now open the front door (the house needs re-stumping) Dad was handy with a temporary fix of one of the stumps, and the window sills to the boys rooms are now underway to getting fixed, yay.

Aidan has decided that he wants to share a room with Oliver and make the other room a play room. So while he is keen to do this we are going to give it a go. With 6 years difference between them I don't think it will last long but it will be nice for a while.

I was handy on the machine too. Aidan and I finally made his belt.

I gave up on the binding maker, the material just didn't want to go through evenly, I think I need a lesson. So I just used the folding method, seemed to work fine. I need to work on my thread tension, so don't look too closely!!

I also made Keyka Lou's Keychain Clutch.

I got the hubby to enlarge the pattern to 150% so I could fit more in. Well you can definitely fit more in! My phone, keys and maybe the correct size version would fit in. It needs a handle though which I thought it might so I added the extra strap. I'm going to give it a spin at pickup today and see how it goes. I don't like taking my whole handbag just for school pickup but still need the phone etc. so this should do the trick. I also want to try and make one attach to the front baby carrier, hmm I have ideas.

TTFN

A belt in the making

A belt in the making, originally uploaded by MandyMade.

My first project from Nikki's new book will be the kids belt. After very careful consideration of what fabric to use (on Aidan's behalf) we started measuring and cutting. We had to sew two bits together as they weren't long enough!! See how that goes. I tried to use the bias binding maker but I'm having a few problems, it's not very even and keeps slipping a bit. Not sure if its because I have the kind of bias binder maker that you also put fusible tape through, can't see how that would make a difference, any ideas? Oh well, will try again.

TTFN

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day for yesterday.

This brekky was made for me by my lovely husband, my fave.  We had a nice day mostly at home, I could have stayed in the new slippers and dressing gown I was given all day. We did the extended family gatherings on saturday, which didn't go to plan as we'd been looking forward to. No thanks to a drunk driver early saturday morning, for wiping out the car my sister was driving on the way to a market. She was very lucky and walked away from the accident, not sure what happened to the other driver, or the puddings she was driving to the market. So she and her family unfortunately couldn't be with us. I would like to say a lot more about the drunk driver but wont at the mo, my language might get a bit worse than grr, and I just don't want to lower myself.

This time last year I went to the stitches and craft show with my mum. I bought Nikki's make-up purse pattern and some fabric from amitie with the intension of making a purse for mum last mothers day. Well a year later and I finally did it!! I had two problems stopping me from making the purse, what design to put on it and the zip. I've always been a bit scared of sewing zips, don't know why just have.

When Aidan came home from school the other day, we'd been discussing making something for Grandma for mothers day, he sat down and drew a monster. He's not one for sitting down and doing anything with pencil and paper so you can imagine my surprise when he came up with the above design, complete with dashed lines where the sewing was to go, a name for the monster, Straud, and a whole back story. The back story I wasn't so surprised about, his imagination is enormous. So that was one side of the purse designed, the other I traced around both boys hands, Oliver was a bit harder to do, he still wants to clench his fist. I don't think his hand will fit inside Aidan's for much longer though, he's growing at a rate of knots, 11 weeks now, it's gone so fast.

I used iron on applique paper to transfer the design onto the material, then hand sewed around it. I need to learn free motion on the sewing machine. It came together pretty quickly, Aidan was happy with it. He wanted me to make a softie out of the design too but I explained that he drew a more 2D monster and he'd have to draw it again for me to make a 3D object, he just looked at me as if to say, you got this much out of me, now you want more? Oh what to do with a 6 year old.

I needn't have been scared of sewing the zip in. I did have one unpicking incident but apparently even the professionals do that!! I'm happy with how it's turned out. I could have the applique a bit higher up, I'll know for next time.

Oh, and I finally got the crazy nine patch lattice quilt top finished. Now I just have to decide how to back it, quilt it and bind it. May take another year. Hopefully not. Any ideas?

TTFN

If only I knew

...that you couldn't email me back. I've been blogging for 3 years now, yes April came and went quietly, no big celebrations here, haven't been that consistent with the posts so I thought I'd celebrate 200 posts instead. I have a feeling I may have said the same thing last year too.

Anyway back to the whole 3 years thing. I have also been commenting on others blogs for the same amount of time, it took the lovely Tanya to let me know that she couldn't email me back via the comment I left, that I had a no reply email. Thank you so much Tanya, here I was thinking I'm so small and insignificant that no-one wants to email me back, well I may still be but at least now I know its by choice!! So if you are like me and wondering why other bloggers don't get back to you check your account settings and see if you have email switched on.

Now the reason why I was visiting Tanya's blog (and am now following) is that she received a book that I also got in the mail. The wonderful "You Sew, Girl" by Nicole Mallalieu. It's so ace you have to get your hands on it. When I was flicking through the pages I couldn't work out what I wanted to make first, so I was thinking of working my way through the book. So I read on another blog that Tanya was planning on doing the same thing so popped over to have a look, you should to, then I don't have to go on about it here!!

I need to use up some of my stash, it's getting out of control. My make wish list is getting so long that I don't know where to start!! I'm saving up for a new machine, if that isn't enough incentive to not buy anymore fabric I don't know what is. So from now on I'm only going to purchase stuff that needs to go with the fabric I have, including solids cos I don't have enough of those, I'm just making excuses to spend more money aren't I ;-).

Back soon with some photos, this post was a bit texty.

TTFN

Finally...

I started and finished my first Nicole Mallalieu bag. I've only had the pattern since mothers day last year!!

Large Satchel, Design by Nicole Mallalieu, Handmade by MandyMade

Print Fabric by Aunty Cookie

I don't know what took me so long. Once I started I found the pattern really easy to follow, I didn't have any problems at all. The only thing I would change if I made this bag again would be the interfacing I used, and add some padding. I wasn't thinking straight and used the interfacing I bought for backing my stitcheries. Oh well, we live and learn. Thanks Nikki for a great pattern.

I will be back soon I promise with all the news from Sew It Together. I'm still recovering!! I now have a cold and no voice, so the energy level just hasn't been up to blogging!! I have been checking out others posts though and de-lerking as much as possible!!

TTFN