I think the nursery is finished!!

I think I have finished the nursery, here is the finished room!

Notice the valance, I didn't follow the Simplicity pattern I posted about last time, it was too small for Boori cots and I ended up making one by just measuring up the cot.

Using starch to make fabric murals on a wall

A while ago I posted about the tree I painted on the nursery wall inspired by this very talented ladies blog. I have been thinking that the tree is a little plain and I remembered this post from ohdeedoh and finally put 2 and 2 together and decided to use starch to add fabric foliage to the tree.

Materials

Fabric to attach to the wall
Scissors

1 can of spray starch or liquid starch

1 sponge, or I used a facewasher

Start by cutting the shapes you plan on attaching to the wall, I didn't bother edging them, once attached they don't seem to be prone to fraying.

Next make sure the wall is clean and dry, and the process for attaching them is really easy, first spray the starch on the wall, so it is damp.

Next place your fabric on the wall and smooth out, make sure it is all saturated. Remove any air bubbles it may have, though as it dry's I found a few returned.

Finally use the cloth or sponge to dab up any excess starch.

Once finished run your cloth or sponge under some water and clean up any starch marks. They dried in about 3 hours and they also just pull off.

Amy Butler's Cuddle Kitty

While trying to stay up to get my hubbie from a very late flight I made Amy Butler's cuddle kitty which is a free pattern from her new book, Little Stitches for Little Ones. I am pretty happy with it, although the pattern needs some proof-reading, the cutting instructions are all wrong, asking you to cut a second unnecessary set of paws and ears. I also assembled it in a different order to the pattern.

Otherwise it was quite good, the odd shape isn't entirely the pattern, I was tired and started overlocking and stupidly left the cutter down on the feet... oh well it is very cute none the less:

Big Bag Baby Blanket finished!

It took months, but I have finally completed Debbie Stoller's Big Bad Baby Blanket from the original Stich n Bitch.

I am really happy with it, I wanted to make this blanket since I bought the book when having a baby was so far in the future I never imagined making it for my own.

Ta da:

Pram Liners are done!!

Ages ago I posted a pattern I drafted for the Phil & Teds' Sport, it took me all this time to get around to making it up, and now I finally can share the finished project:

To construct it I:

Cut backrest and square seat, of each from the fabric, ripstop nylon, wadding and 2 types of padded interfacing; one super stiff and one fluffy (trying to recreate some stuff called Timtex which has been discontinued here). (You only need .3 of a meter for each layer)

Then for the backrest part I layered the Fabric with the right side facing the Nylon and stacked that on top of the interfacing's & wadding and over-locked 3 sides.

I used the open edge to turn the fabric right side out (over the padding so it looks like the finished product), then repeated this for the seat part.Then I over-locked the 2 parts (backrest & seat) together by pinning the fabric (right sides together), wadding and interfacing together and stitching (leaving the nylon free) on the open end and then hand stitched together the nylon to make a smooth seam on the back. I pretty much stuck to the measurements I posted last time, but I did end up shortening the seat a little.

Finally I used my sewing machine to add the button holes for the straps, the slits each all have to be at least 3cm wide to fit the buckles through (found that out the hard way). I measured up the heights as I went so it sat flat, for the backrest the depths were all 1.5" from the edge, and 1.5" wide. The center hole on the seat is 2" wide and completely centered. And that was it, hope that helps!

(Sorry for the imperial measurements, the pram seems to conform more to imperial than metric, which is weird for a NZ pram.. they are metric aren't they?)

Now I have to get myself in gear and make the weekender up as a nappy bag in the matching fabric!

Cheers,
Jocelyn.

Nappy storage

I don't like nappy boxes, well I specifically don't like Huggies Nappy boxes because I am not a fan of Winnie the Pooh. I saw these storage baskets by JcarolineCreative and thought they were the perfect soultion.

Here is my rendition:

I made a few modifications, firstly I didn't bother with the label. Also Timtex is sadly no longer available in Australia and we don't have a suitable substitute so I have used a stiff interfacing, but it really pales in comparison and it is floppy when empty unfortunately. Finally I changed the dimensions to hold a large box of Huggies Nappies perfectly. I also cut up a Huggies box for a for the base rather than buying plastic for the base considering I see it moving very little in it's life.

It was a pretty easy and cheap project, it took about 4 hours and only 60cm at 112 wide for each of fabric, interfacing and lining which came to $25. I intend to make a second which I don't think will cause me too many headaches. But I am not sure if I need to have 216 Nappies at my finger tips at any one time really, but I am sure it will come in handy for storing some kind of baby related gear.

Now for some action shots... note the change table too, it is the Cariboo Classic which I am in love with.

Bird Mobile

I have been admiring Spool's Bird Mobile for some time, and have had it on my list of things to make for the baby. Ohdeedoh posted about a black, red & white version which is genius as these are the colours are high contrast and offer the most development before 6 months.

This was all the inspiration I needed to get started and here it is:

The birds are very easy to sew, I cut and sewed them in an afternoon. The original describes hand sewing which I think it unnecessary and to be honest I doubt the birds would look as good. You only need about 15 cm of each fabric.

I gathered the sticks from a Jacaranda tree in the backyard and I spray painted them black. At first I tried jewellery wire but it was too stiff so changed to fishing wire at my hubbies suggestion which sits much much better.

I needed his help balancing it too, a few blogs describe it as difficult and it is. I managed by working upwards, first sewing the bottom bird on and attaching him through his head. Then I looped a fair cotton through the tail of the next levels birds and arranged them to balance. The other method I tried was a little easier, but I don't think the results were as good was to just assemble to twig as I wanted then found it's balance point.

The whole project took a few nights and and afternoon.