One Off Pieces - Little Girl Pinafore

For a while now I have toyed with the idea of making and selling children's clothes and quilts but there is such a saturation of market AND my biggest hurdle is I don't want to have to make things, I just want to make them sometimes. So I thought maybe I could do one off pieces occasionally and offer them for sale online. What do you think? Is there a market for something like this?

To test the market I thought I would offer this gorgeous little pinafore I made for my daughter but she never had the chance to wear. It is for size 9-12 months, say size 0, corduroy on the outside and lined with soft lawn. It can fit slightly older children too as a top and is perfect for winter with little tights and top underneath.
Cost $36 including postage Australia wide.
Email me or leave a comment if you are interested. I have also listed it on Instagram and Facebook so first in best dressed. I

Corn flour and a whole heap of mess

We finally did something I read about on Pinterest yesterday - GOOP made from cornflour. I already had some of the cloud sand (made from cornflour and baby oil) so we started with that and then moved on to the somewhat messier goop. I made the cloud sand over a year ago and stored it in a container with a lid and it was as good as the day I made it.
The kids had a great time throwing it around and then cleaning up afterwards. Next time though we will do it on the lawn and not the deck. I would also recommend you lock up and pets to avoid them getting covered and also eating the mess (might make for a sore tummy!). Head to my Pinterest board DIY kids stuff and activities (http://pinterest.com/anodonkeydesign/diy-kids-stuff-and-activities/) for some links on how to do this yourself.

Cancer Council Large Sunshade Cover - a quick tutorial

This is for the large Cancer Council Sunshade cover, but could easily be adapted for the smaller sunshade. It is nice and roomy so there is less chance of popped seams and zippers like the original bag and there is probably even enough room to throw in a towel and sunscreen.

You will need:

a) 2 x circles 68cm in diameter -I used a heavier weight fabric from ikea

b) 1 x strip 213.6cm x 7.62 (3”)

c) 1 x zipper 110cm long

d) straps and instructions fromoriginal cover case

My highly technical pattern

 

Cutting the circles- i fold it in quarters and then cut

To attach the zipper to the long strip:

I used this tutorial here for inspiration http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2011/05/wallet-to-tote-on-the-go-tutorial/steps 2 and 3. I drew a ling down the centre of the fabric the length I wantedthe zipper, and little diagonals at the end. Then I cut the line with the rotary cutter and turned it from the right side to the wrong side of the fabric to create a neat window for the zipper. Press seam - should be about a 1/4 inch seam. Then using my zipper foot I sewed around the zipper. I went around twice for extra security. Sew the ends of the stips together and press seam open

Centre lne for the zipper window

 

Easiest if you fold your strip in half and then cut through both pieces

 

To attach the strip to the circles:

I used this tutorial here to attach the circles: http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2011/03/tutorial-sprocket-pillows.htmlby Cluck Cluck Sew - steps 7-9

Remember to open the zipper a bit when you sew on the secondcircle so that you can turn it the right side out. I used a ½” seam allowance,then trimmed and finished the edges off with the overlock stitch tool on mymachine. You could also just do a zig zag stitch on the edge

To attach the straps and instructions:

When attaching the circles, simply pin the straps and instructions in place where you want them on the inside and be sure tobackstich a few times back and forth over the straps to ensure they don’t tear through. I placed the top of the straps 24cm apart (centred) and the bottomones 20cm apart

Straps and instructions from original bag

Piping:

If you want to add piping you can use this tutorial here:  http://www.livingwithpunks.com/2010/05/tutorial-land-of-nod-inspired-floor.html (I have previously made this floor cushion and it is a great tutorial)

 

 

The finished product opened up

 

 

 

Yes Please Thank You - A Quilt Calendar!

Image from Linda & Harriett

This 2013 quilt calendar by Linda & Harriett is truly beautiful - and at a whopping 26" x 40" - they would look stunning scattered throughout the house as artwork when the month is over.


Image from Linda & Harriett

Image from Linda and Harriett

Image from Linda & Harriett

 You can read more about how this calendar came about on their blog or purchase one here

Sick days & A Blogger's Tip

one sick boy takes one sick lizards temperature

I got that call yesterday, the one where you are at work and your child's little school (child care) number comes up on your phone screen and you think, S^&T, are they alright? What's happened?? This time it was a temperature of 38.7 and the policy is if it is over 38 they have to go home. So then the guilt set it. That guilt where you feel bad that your child is sick, but then guilty that you have to leave work and go home to care for them, and then the guilt that you even feel guilty about it! The joys of being a working mother. Unfortunately in our house, we only have one car which i use to get to work three days a week, so if anything ever goes wrong - I am in charge! Anyway - that it my little rant about that. 

Now - on to my blogger's tip. Everyone in the world may have already worked this out, but just in case there is one other person who hasn't i thought i would share. So - you take the majority of your photos with your phone, and you then want to use them in  blog post but it is a pain to email them, save them, or hook your phone up! Well - all you need to do is download the bloggers ap, load the pics up on your phone into a draft blog post, go to your computer, bring up your blogger account and hey presto - all the photos you need are already saved into a nice little draft blog post. How easy is that. Now you could go super high tech and write the post from your phone, but i am not a huge fan of typing long things on my phone, and i haven't quite worked out if you can put the images amongst the text. But for what i need it for (upload the pics) it works pretty damn well! Did everyone else work this out ages ago - or i have come up with a brilliant way of doing things???

The Old and the New Backyard Sandpit

The old humble backyard sandpit..... We have had some of those shells for the last few years but the sand was always wet, a bit festy and not somewhere that I wanted to hang out in! So whilst contemplating a section of dead flower bed - i figured we could create our own sandpit, free up the deck and hopfully create a useable space for the kids. Initially i had intended to dig out the soil from the flower bed and just put the sand in there - but after about 20 mins of digger through roots, I gave up and came up with plan B. Minus the sand (it took about 10 bags to fill) the "pit" cost about $8, some pink chalkboard paint that I had lying around, some old carpet i had lying around as a weed mat, and about 30 mins of my husbands time. It is actually the first bit of pink that I have used in the house since little miss arrived, and i have to say - i kind of like it!  

Trying out the new sandpit for the first time

A post roll and a bit of Macgiver ingenuity adds a new element

What's a sandpit without a bit of water

The old sand pit gets a new lease on life - a car wash

Do you have a sand pit at your house? Does it actually get used?

Paper Flowers and an Apology

Let's start with the apology - I am sorry i kind of went AWOL for a while there. Apparently 2 kids is way more work than 1, who would have thought, and I kind of got addicted to sewing, so any time I would have spent in front of a computer was spent in front on a sewing machine - so my apologies for abandoning you lovely readers. I am hoping to do better - even if it is to drop in once a week - so I hope you have stuck with me and i am not writing this to myself.

Now - more excitingly - Paper Flowers. My little man and i worked on these this morning while the little miss slept and it was miserable outside (not just wet, but cold too - ridiculous!). They were super easy to make - no instructions necessary!

The ingredients

Action shot

And the result (the bottom 2 are mine!)

The Flowers planted in their garden. I had planned to plant them in the new sandpit - but it was a little bit wet outside!

 Did you get up to anything creative in the rain? Or do you have anything creative planned for the weekend?