Caps and wall plugs

After watching this film about the rather bizarre competition for the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France I had images of pastry and sugary stuff on my mind for days. And hey, my girls could do with some nice cakes for their beloved pet shop figurines, so you can see how I had to give this a try :)
Here you're looking at bottle caps, toothpaste caps, beads and lots and lots of nailpolish. Plus a small dental sticks box and some wall plugs that made for a table.
If you take pride in baking, watch the trailer of the film: it's on youtube. Enjoy!

Cupid's wings

When our eldest daughter entered preschool, it didn't take long before she began asking me for pink clothes, preferrably with bows, ribbons, petticoats, lace and such. Not surprisingly her costume of choice at this year's carnival was that of a ballerina. For her little sister she had something else in mind though: little Lucie was to be dressed up as... Cupid :-)) Need I mention I was happy to oblige? I took some pictures during the process, so here's my tutorial for making a pair of little angel wings. Might come in handy later this year, no? If you need inspiration or a style to choose from go visit Karen Hatzigeorgiou's site, and while you're there, DO take a look at her other pages, she does incredible things with books. Wow!

Letting go...

When I was expecting my first baby, my mom came to visit me one day, bringing with her this HUGE bag of baby clothes. Cute, tiny newborn clothes me and all my sisters had worn more than three decades ago, a lot of them made by herself. We had moved at least six times during those years and she must have packed them carefully each time, not being able to part with them. I was filled with wonder and very moved when she gave them to me. Now I'm a mom myself I understand. Letting go is so hard. But: here's a cheerful way to recycle those cute baby socks no baby will ever wear again. Mini doll sweaters! When searching for the site where I originally got the idea from (I must reorganize my bookmarks, I truly must) I stumbled upon another too cute sock project: a dog sweater made from a sock. Drool.

Bow hairband

Half a year has gone by like a whirlwind, with no time to craft, let alone post to my blog! Slowly, ever so slowly, our baby is now learning to sleep through the night, leaving me a little less exhausted than I have been all these months. Arrival of the spring season makes me want to clean up and finish all those projects that had been put on hold! As each year, by the end of winter, mice become a real pest at our house. They raid our laundry basket and eat the stains in the children's clothes, thereby ruining many a favourite piece ;( Ofcourse I'm to blame too: because I can't bear to kill them, we set live traps an expell them from the house when we catch 'em. I bet they slip right back in when our backs are turned ;) Last week I found my daughters bow hairband full of holes, and man, was I vexed!!! Taking apart what was left of it, I proceeded to make a new one right away, taking pictures as I went. This little tutorial came out of it. Enjoy!

She's three...

I can't believe how fast it all went... my baby has just turned three. A nostalgic present I made her was this travelling pouch for the little bunny rabbit. I wonder if many of you remember them from your own childhood. I recall making several when I was about 10 years old: cut off the bottom of a plastic canister (shower gel, fabric softener, whatever), pierce holes along the rim, and crochet a lovely pouch in no time! The exciting new thing in it for me was knitting an I-cord. I saw this at knittinghelp.com and had wanted to try it for a long time (just never got to it until now).

Keeping those tiny legs warm

It comes as no surprise that having a new baby in the house has kept me very busy. What spare time I had left those past ten weeks, went into sewing diapers and covers in all kinds of colours. I had previously made a number of different waterproof diaper covers to find the best fit, they did turn out gorgeous, but... I ended up liking none of them for the red marks they leave on my babe's tender skin. I like the felted wool covers much better (in the picture Lucie is wearing a triangle style felted wool cover, how to make those I learned at borntolove.com and Bright New Baby) and in addition I whipped up a bunch of fleece covers, using Stacey's method to draw a pattern. I also tried various kinds of diaper patterns, and for Lucie's slender thighs, Shar's version of Wee Weka Side Snap pocket adjusted to a NB size had the perfect fit. I left out the snaps and the Velcro though, as I prefer using Meghan Wyant's Velcro closer, which allows me to toss the dipes in the washing machine without having to bother about the Velcro tabs.
So far the only really new thing I've been able to try is making these baby leg warmers. I made them out of children's tights, as they appear to come much cheaper than ladies knee socks ;)) How to make them is shown by Baby Hopes. Can you believe we needed leg warmers in august this year!?!

Cloth

Finally! The first cloth diaper I've ever sewn! I used the free Mamabird pattern for this one, size newborn, and it's so tiny I think it might even work for a (not so small) preemie. The cover seems to fit nicely over it, and is by Meghan Wyant's free pattern, size small. The idea of using cloth for our second baby actually began to take shape a long time ago, when I was slowly getting bugged by the HUGE load of disposable diapers needed for just one (!) child. The need to go to the store to get them, the loads of waste and the cost all seemed to bother me more and more. Maybe I am getting more crunchy with age ;)) or it could have been this essay by Siobhan that appealed greatly to my imagination. Then there was also my enormous stash of fabric scraps in every possible colour.... yum! Something new to try out!!! Something to recycle, woohoo!!! Luckily I inherited a pile of plain white fitteds from my dear sister that will surely get us through at first, but in the long run I'm set on trying many different models, and maybe ultimately modifying some pattern for the perfect fit... But that is still miles away. In searching the net I found many great sites on the subject, of which Oz Cloth Nappies is one of the most resourceful (IMHO). Let me know what you think!

Yay for recycling!

July was hot, August has been cold and wet. Luckily this came back from the cleaner's last week: a little princess seam winter coat I made for my girl.
At first I wasn't so sure designing and sewing a real coat, collar, lining, neat buttonholes etc. would work out, so I figured I'd start by cutting up a blue wool trenchcoat I picked up at the thrift store (a little yucky, so I took it to the cleaner's immediately after I finished it :oP)
What got me all inspired to give the whole project a try was an illustrated work-in-progress report I saw at Natron & Soda's site, where Soda creates a gorgeous pink winter coat.
Following her example, I used an existing pattern (my BF came home one day with a pile of old sewing magazines he'd found when taking out the trash) for getting the sleeves and shoulder parts the right size. And you know what, it wasn't really difficult, (meaning I didn't have to rip too many seams). OK, the collar is curling a bit odd at one side and the pockets didn't work out so I just skipped them, but my baby LOVES the smiley-buttons, and the rich blue looks fabulous on her. Recycling can be such fun! If you're not into it yet, take a look at Flobberdewotsky and get inspired!