Mum's Birthday Present: An Unexpected Journey

Today, we celebrated my Mum's birthday, which means I can finally share with you the epic story I talked about back in May. I have to say, I'm pretty excited to share it with you, in all it's epic-ness!

Firstly, my goal this year, to minimize painful shopping experiences, be a bit thrifty, get some sewing practice in and also just for general enjoyment, was to make the majority, if not all, the birthday presents we were going to give. Mums are tough to buy for, let alone make for, but this year, I actually thought of something perfect.

In their guest room, my parents have a beautiful wooden chest (Mum's Glory Box) which the guests put their suitcases on. When this happens, Mum puts a ratty old towel over the thing to protect it from suitcase scratches. Effective, but pretty ugly. The guest room has recently been redecorated with a Paris theme, and so I thought I could easily make a cover for the chest that would be practical and pretty at the same time. Excellent.

On a day I know Mum will be out, I call home and get Dad to measure the chest for me. I think about how much material I'll need and even sketch a diagram in my sewing book. A quick trip to Spotlight and I've got my material (which was on sale, bargain!). This was way back in, gosh, I don't know, April maybe? Needless to say, I got a busy/sidetracked with some other things and the material sat on the shelf for a while. That's ok.

Come May, I know that time is swiftly creeping away from me, so I should get onto turning that material into the cover I've been dreaming about. I get out the material, I check the sewing book to see how long I need it to be. I notice that in the sewing book I've actually got two measurements. One on the sketch and one in a list on the side. The measurements don't match. Oh no. Which one do I take? A meter or a meter and ten centimeters? 10 cm seems small, but actually, it's a big difference in weather or not a cover will fit a box.

Alas, I'll have to call Dad again to get the measurements. Knowing Mum's at home (making my sneaky call from a few months ago completely futile) I just call anyway and get Dad to remeasure. He takes his trusty handy-man measuring tape (you know, the kind you use to make a desk, or build a house) and gives me the measurement. 1005. Got it.

So I go to my material, I measure a meter and five centimeters. I re-measure. I check it again, then I cut. I lay out the material and realize that I've cut it at a meter. Not a meter five. Gah!! What happened? I've no idea. Sigh! So I do a patch job, no one is going to notice it anyway, it's a fairly quick fix. Done.

I patiently hand stitch the batting in place, put the lining on and sew everything together. Looking good. The thing is completely reversible, all the seams are hidden, very pro looking (except for those nearly-invisible patches, I suppose) and I am well pleased. Keeping in the Paris theme of the room, I decide I'll quilt the layers together with an Eiffel Tower. Done.

Not sure that one tower is ok, or if it just looks a bit stupid, I show it to my bible study group on Wednesday night for feedback. Sarah and Kellie agree, there should be more towers. As I show everyone, I enthrall them with the tale of the measuring/cutting story. There is a bit of silence and then Sarah's Steve says: "Isn't 1005, a meter and five millimeters, not 5 centimeters?"

Oh no. He's right! Dad gave me the measurements in handy-man-measuring-tape form, and I translated them into sewing-person-measurements, but I've done it wrong! Now, the cover is officially ten centimeters too long! My initial cut would probably have been fine after all. Now, the thing, thanks to the patching job, is too big!!

I cannot believe it. What to do? Unpicking and resewing would take ages, especially given the reversible nature of the cover. And then it would mean that the extra towers won't fit because the measurements won't work. GAH!!

It's nearly Mothers day, so Sarah suggests that I sneak it over and check it while Mum is distracted by our Steves and she'll let me know if it's ok. Whew. Mothers day comes and yes the cover is slightly big, but it's not the end of the world and Sarah says it will be fine. Crisis averted.

I take it home and I quilt the other towers on. Looking good. I'm loving it. It's a bit long, but that's ok. All that's left now is to throw it in the wash to get rid of the pencil marks I drew the Eiffel Towers on with. Fabulous. The next day, I'm doing a load of washing. Great! It's nappies. I pause for a moment. Will the nappies hurt the cover somehow? Nah, I think to myself, it's just washing, everything will come out clean in the end. In it goes.

I was right about the nappies not hurting the cover. What I didn't expect was the cover to hurt the nappies. That's right folks; the red material I used as lining (which had been sitting in the stash for a while (some hand-me-down material that I got from who knows where)) really should have been washed before I used it, because the red ran and made everything that was previously white turn pink. Now we have pink nappies. That's not so much of a problem. What is a problem is that the white writing on the blue material that I got for the cover is now pink. GAH!!!

I cannot believe this new turn of events. What do I do?? Then I think, wait, it's ok, I've turned nappies pink before (when I washed the picnic blanket with them) but because they were being soaked and washed and used on such a regular basis, they went back to being white again. Eventually. So all I need to do to fix this, is to soak and wash the cover several more times and we should be back to normal.

Five washes later, I'm over this stupid cover. Even if the words are still a little pink, I don't care. Mum's just going to have to use the side that was originally lining as the main and the other side as lining. That's all there is to it. A final press and I still like this cover. In fact, I may even love it, despite it's complications and the sheer amount of times I was foiled by it's mere existence. I know that I could have gone and bought a cover for the chest and it may have taken less time, but I wouldn't have the great story that I have now. This cover has a history. It's got character.

Steve's version of this story, which I have told to you now in over 1000 words, goes something like this: You  decided to make a cover, cut it wrong, sewed it anyway and then washed it. Yes Steve, that is a good albeit boring summary of the epic tale.

When Mum opened it and found out what it was, she said it was just what she wanted for the room, and despite my epic story of mistakes and troubles, it was very well done. I feel I've done something good here.

The Bee and the Flowers

I know I've been pretty vague about what I'm working on sewing wise at the moment (see here and here if you don't know what I'm talking about) because they are going to be Christmas presents for some friends, but I'm way too excited not to share the latest in this adventure. The final product will have nine interactive squares, and last night, I finished the last of the nine.

This was certainly the most fiddly of all the squares (probably why it was left until last). I've really gotten to know that blanket stitch on Sally the Sewing Machine very well over the last few nights. It all looks pretty standard to start with; flowers, bee hive, boring right? But then notice the rings! And look - from that bee hive, comes a bee!

And the bee goes to the flowers!

And gets nectar from all of them! Good work Mr Bee!

Yes, I know the bee in these pictures seems to be lacking stripes. I'm being lazy and I couldn't be bothered sew them on. Give me a break, I gave birth to a child last week! I drew the stripes on with a sharpie (after these photos were taken, sorry people. You get the idea though, I'm sure).

All in all, I'm stoked with how it looks and works. What great lacing practice for some unsuspecting child! They think they are playing with a bee and some flowers, but really, they are working out those fine motor skills! Yeah for learning!

Mum of Two

As of tomorrow, I'll have been a mum of two for a whole week. This is our newest addition to the household. 

Miss Rachel May. She's been doing all of the usual things that babies do. I've been doing all of the usual things that I do, like poking her in the head, and pushing her squishy face into funny shapes. Also feeding her and what not.

So helpful to have Steve around being the extra hands and making sure I take naps when I should. Some days I'm not sure how I'm going to cope when he goes back to work, but other days feel like it might just be manageable.

Hard to get a photo of Sophie and Rachel together, but they are getting along just swimmingly. I now know why people go back and have more kids, by the way. Firstly, you totally forget how painful labour can be, and secondly, the second time seems much easier.

Special thanks to Rachel's Godfather, Wade, for the top two awesome photos. :) 

Cardboard House

Something that is not sewing that I've done recently is made Sophie a cardboard house.

I was unsure how to put the roof on at first (despite all the pintrest help :P), and so it was half made when she first discovered it. Then, as I was putting the roof on, she thought it'd be great fun to try to take it off. I think we're past that now. It's tall enough so that she can stand up in it, and look out that flap in the top. Mostly though, she just likes to sit inside and play peek-a-boo through the windows and door.

I tired to get photos of her using it earlier in the week, but she was too excited about it all. Today, I was taking a five second nap on the bean bag and woke up to find her just sitting in it, playing with the window. Good work Sophie.

Thanks to my parents for the speaker box. I thought about decorating it, but maybe later.

Shiny Things in the Sun

Despite the days being cold (and having a lack of warm things that fit to wear), yesterday the sun was shining and it was beautiful outside. In an effort to get some photos of the work in progress that I spoke about yesterday that were not just inside my house, or up against the wall again, I took these to my parents and used their newly planted olive tree to take some lovely snaps.

Taking creative shots is hard work. I don't know how people do it. That said, at least I'm making an effort right? Anyway, this photo shows the beginning of something fun and new. Yay! With a bit more hand stitching on three of these, I'll be over the half way mark for the first section of this adventure. That's nice to think about.

I don't want to go into too much detail (sorry people) because these will turn out to be presents for other people, but yay! What fun nature things could a child find for each of these colors? I wonder how to finish off those ribbons in the square below....

Waiting Progress

Waiting is hard. Very hard. Made harder possibly by well meaning people who keep asking if I'm ok, or if the baby is here yet. No to both of these things people. I don't want to send out angry "please leave me alone" text messages, but isn't it common sense that when the baby arrives and we are well enough to tell people that we actually will? Do people really believe we'd just sit on that happy news for a week or two before we'd tell anyone?

Before I get carried away (and possibly have a cry here at my computer), I'll let that go. There is no baby yet. I'm waiting too. Don't remind me. Enough said.

While waiting, I've been working on some things that will come together to be Christmas presents for some friends of ours as well as for Sophie and bub-number-two. I don't want to give too much away, but as the gifts are made up of (lots of) little parts, I figured it'd be ok to work on them in the coming months because I could do a little bit at a time and feel accomplished.

These are not quite done yet, but I finished the hand sewing yesterday (watching Stardust) and I'm pretty proud of them. I got mum to teach me how to Stem Stitch so that there would be a bit of variety in the stitches. It's easy to do, but remembering how to start each time took a while. I'm still really happy with the results. Now to get some thread and blanket stitch around the outside. Maybe Sally the Sewing Machine will help with that, though looking at the curves... maybe it's easier to hand do it.

I did manage to get Sally out this morning and do some other squares, so stay tuned, oh waiting world; I might post tomorrow too!

Alternative Use

We had extra blankets out for bible study last night, and this morning, I had a brain wave to spread out the Jeans Quilt and let Sophie investigate. All those friendly functional pockets must be good for something right? I am right!

I got out all of her Noah's Ark animals and stuffed them in quickly. So funny watching Sophie find them all. She was a bit confused at first as to why the actual ark was empty. Such fun though. Jeans Quilt for the win!

Last Minute Preparation: Dresses for Sophie

So you'd think that at nearly 39 weeks pregnant, I'd be doing last minute things for the new baby, or just lying around. You'd be wrong. Well, I am doing a fair bit of lying around, and we did do some final things in the nursery yesterday, but in the last week I've been preoccupied with some other things.

Given that I won't have much time on my hands to make Sophie (or the new baby for that matter) as many cool things as I have in the past, I thought I'd whip up a couple of size two outfits for her so they were ready when the time came. I am really happy with the results, though I have to say my gathering skills are still lacking in finesse.

 Firstly, I made an Izzy Top, with the free pattern found on Climbing the Willow. I have to say, I'm really thankful for the internet and all of the free things that it gives away. Because the bodice of this top is completely lined, some creative sewing meant that I could actually make the whole thing reversible. Two tops in one!

I'd do it differently next time, but it was good learning and practice. The back closes with a snap so no yucky button holes to navigate for me. I am well pleased.

The next thing I made was a Sally Dress from Very Shannon. I made another of these in December/January for Sophie's First Birthday. I really like that it has no buttons or zips, but it can be a little fiddly to get all of the bodice sewn. That said, it did only take probably an hour and a half from start to finish, so I can't really complain.

I lined the pockets and bodice with some of the left over material from the Izzy Top. Despite it's pink-ness, I really like it.... what's happening to me??

I did put away the sewing machine this morning with a bit of a sigh, knowing I've actually finished the important things on my to-do list and it might be a while before I can get Sally the Sewing Machine and Olivia the Overlocker out again, but I'm inspired by an idea for a travel mat, and some new car toys for Sophie, so maybe it won't be so long as I think.

Felt Crown

About two weeks ago I had a mad dash of inspiration and spent some evenings doing some hand sewing to whip up this beauty.

My first ever felt crown. I made it for the the girl next door who turned two in May (we were invited to the birthday party that actually got cancelled, so my mad dash to have a present ready to take to the party was in vain. :P ). I really liked the hand sewing though. It was fun to try to make it multi-size (it had elastic hidden in the back which will mean it expands!).

I tried to get Sophie to wear it (to check sizes), but she wasn't overlly keen. Thankfully the little girl next door loves it. Hooray!

Coming Clean

I write stories.

Woah, it was even hard to write that sentence,  but it's true. I've been writing stories for over ten years now. I might even consider myself to be a writer. I don't know what makes it hard to admit to, or talk about, but for some reason, I feel that writing isn't something that is openly discussed (if it's a thing you do for fun anyway).

Maybe because everyone can read, and thus, everyone could be your biggest critic. Maybe because writing can often be personal, and you don't actually want people to know what you think about things. I certainly know that when I write stories, I want what I believe to come across to the reader.

In any case, I've decided to come clean with the world and let you people know that yes, I do write stories. I have finished stories that I'm proud of. I have stories that I put a lot of work into, and that many people have spent time giving me feed back on and editing.

I tell you this because my goal is soon to publish these stories. To take them from being something I do when I'm creative (or angry at something I've just read that was badly written), or when I'm bored, and put them out into the world for everyone to enjoy.

I don't mind if not everyone loves them. In fact, I'm kind of expecting some people to say all sorts of things from: "This is not something I'd read" to "Your writing is terrible". But I'm ok with that. Because at the end of the day, I'm happy with my stories. The good guys win, the bad guys loose and while in real life not everything works out wonderfully, if you read my stories, just for a moment, they do.

Dress Up Skirt

I was at Spotlight last week getting some ribbon on sale and I rifled through the remnant bin for fun and found some shiny fabric. I've been meaning to make Sophie a circle skirt (or one like this (which involves much less cutting/measuring/accuracy)) for a while, and since the material was cheap, I thought, why not? Good practice.

Some little girl out there probably has a mum working hard at making a full Elsa costume but as I got the remnant, and my little girl really doesn't care about dress ups yet (or Frozen), so I made a skirt. I had to do a little creative sewing and cutting to get it, but I did. When I originally put it on her, she was rather unimpressed, and I noticed that because of the squareness, some parts were too long and she was tripping a little. So I did a few tucks and gathers and now it's very wearable.

And while my little girl was unimpressed with  having to wear a shiny skirt for no apparent reason and very unhelpful with taking photos in said skirt, she was very helpful with the washing this morning. So I can't complain.

Top Secret Birthday Project Two

Knowing that I'll be very busy with bub number two in the coming months, I've been trying to get all of the birthday presents organised and out of the way prior to his or her appearance. Aside from one last gift, I think I'm done!

This gift is for my mum, and has an extended epic story to go with it, which I can't share with you until after the 4th of July when I get to give it to her. Needless to say, if I had to describe the story I will tell, imagine you've read The Hobbit, and then you go and see Peter Jackson's drawn out, over done and often completely inaccurate movies of The Hobbit. Then you will have some idea what you are in store for come July.

Excited? I know I am!

Finished Busy Book!

Last year in March, I made my very first felt book. I love it. This year, in February, I completed page one of my second attempt at a felt book. I cannot believe how long this page sat on my shelf waiting for other pages to be complete. When I wrote the to-do list last week, Felt Book was at the top of the list. I had to get it finished and now I have!

I spent the majority of spare time this week getting the bits together. It was about time really. Maybe I should take more "Work In Progress" photos, so that I can update this blog slightly more often and make it appear that I'm doing more than I seem. Then I wouldn't end up with this extremely long posts all about sewing things. Sorry non-sewing people. On to the book!

This felt book is bound and covered in some fabulous material that I made a dress for Sophie out of in January this year. When I got the material out, Sophie got all excited and tried to put it on. Pretty amusing. The book closes with a plastic snap fastener thing. I like that it looks nice and neat when all closed up. It turned out much larger than I anticipated (think A4 landscape), so it was important to have a good finish.

Page one is flowers that you can "pick" (unbutton). I was thinking I'd sew a little brown basket on to put them in. Maybe next week. I dislike sewing button holes and if I did this page again, I'd use snaps. I think they'd look and work better.

Page two has these funky balloons that you can snap off and then match up again. I've sewn the strings of the balloons down under that cute pink bow so they won't get lost either. I look at this page close up and think it's a bit messy. The stitching around the balloons is shaggy and the strings don't match. When I look from a distance though, I really like it.

Page three you already know about. Notice I still haven't fixed that lacing problem from February? :P Maybe later.

The final page has these cute kids (in their modesty gear) waiting to be dressed. The zippered thing on the right will eventually be full of felt clothes. Pretty much, I wanted to put a zip in, (more practice, though this one wasn't so bad), and this is where it went.

I had a lot of fun hand stitching the clothes and features on these guys. Hand stitching is such a great change of pace. All in all though, the book covers fine motor skills (buttons, snaps, lacing, tying and zips) as well as matching and should (in theory) keep kids occupied for quite a while. If Sophie were slightly older, it'd be a great thing for her to play with while I'm busy with bub number two. Oh well, at least it's ready for when she's no longer napping in the arvo and bub number two is.

Baby Stuff

Still crossing things off my to-do list, yesterday I packed my bag for the hospital. Ready to go! Well, kinda. I had to pack a bag for Sophie too, which was honestly something I didn't even consider until last week. She'll be having a sleep-over at my parents when the baby comes.

Something that my Mum has crossed off her to-do list was putting together the quilt that will be for baby number two. At the baby shower, about three months ago now, everyone worked on a square that would come together to be a cute quilt. I love how bright and colorful it looks, even on the washing line (next to the nappies... this will be a familiar sight I'm sure). I feel so blessed by all of the wonderful women who contributed to this, and especially my Mum for putting it all together.

Here is the square I did.

Thankfulness: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

This is one of my favorite verses and I've been coming back to it a lot in the last month. People keep asking me "How are you going?" with a sympathetic look and some concern, ready to give me support, encouragement, pity and understanding. They want to give me these things because I am eight months pregnant and now looking more enormous than ever.

And I could reply with the usual tirade: "I'm not sleeping, my back hurts, baby keeps moving..." blah blah blah blah. The list goes on. But I don't. It's not that I'm not these thing. In fact, I am all of these things, but the truth is, despite these things, I am so thankful for what is happening and this time in my life. Sure, I could complain (and some people would even say I have the right), but it's not what God wants me to do. In fact, he wants me to do the opposite.

I think this is why I've been so burdened by hearing about what's going on in Sudan, and Syria and plenty of other nations around the world. There is unrest, war, violence. There is drought, food shortage, people fleeing their homes. And while this is happening, people haven't put having babies on hold. There are still people out there who, like me, are eight months pregnant. Unlike me though, they may not be getting ready to give birth in a nice clean hospital.

I live in Australia. I know that when the time comes, my husband will drive me to the hospital. There will be doctors. There will be a plethora of midwives. After the baby comes, it will be checked and measured. We will be warm and fed delicious food that I didn't have to make, or find. I don't have to worry about whether or not we will have enough food. Whether there will be a doctor to look after us. That I won't make it to the refugee camp in time to have the baby because I'm walking through a desert.

What reason do I have to possibly complain in light of all God has blessed us with? So I am thankful for the discomfort, because I know the baby is alive. I rejoice that my back hurts and I'm not sleeping well, because I know it's preparing me for nights of getting up to feed a little one. Thank you Lord, that in all circumstances, you are God and you are good. Please don't let me neglect to pray for those who do not have the same comforts that I do.

Cot Bumper

The cradle is set up in the nursery, and despite my initial reaction to Cradle/Cot Bumpers (adding to the risk of SIDS and what not), I thought I'd make a set give that a) this bub will probably be in the cradle longer than Sophie was and b) it's winter, and thus cold. I don't feel there is much else to say, and given that this is yet another sewing post (which I'm sure is what makes people come back to this blog day after day) I don't want to go on too long anyway.

I used up some scrap squares from the 2013 Block of the Month Quilt that I had left over (even some horrible Spring Bloom blocks :P) and backed it with some fun animal print fabric I picked up at Spotlight ages ago for $4.00/m. I bound it with left over scraps from the backing of the Log Cabins Quilt. Good to use up stuff.

Also took the opportunity to practice some quilting techniques (of course) nice and easy on the smallness of each one (there are 3, each 50cm by 20cm). The triangle piece has just straight lines, the one to the left (which you can't see) has some flowers and then some free motion to fill in the gaps, and the last one was just free motioned all the way. Got to love that Free Motion Quilting. Overall, I'm well pleased with the result.

New Shoulder Bag

The last few weeks have felt a strange mix of lazy and productive. Some days I'm just lying around watching time pass, napping and supervising Sophie play. Other days, I'm cooking, vacuuming, doing loads of washing, making play dates, running here and there. It's been a bit strange. That said, I still have things that need to be done, and only four weeks until bub is due to make an appearance, so I sat down yesterday to get serious about it and wrote my to-do list.

This morning, I've crossed off three things. Hooray! This post, long overdue, is another thing. Excellent.

About six weeks ago, I noticed that my handbag was beginning to fall apart and thus Operation New Shoulder Bag came into being. Something I've noticed about sewing, especially when sewing from scratch and making patterns up as you go, is that the more thinking you do about what is going to go where and how it's all going to be cut and come together in the end before you actually do the sewing, the easier it is to actually do the sewing part.

For example, I tossed around the idea of the bag in my head for at least a week. Just in my head. Thinking about what I wanted to get out of it (pockets/zips/straps etc) and how I would do it. Then I spent a few days actually getting that down on paper. I've been sketching what I want the end product to look like and noting things. Then actually drawing what each component will be made of and out of what material and what dimensions etc. Seems a bit ridiculous, but it's so helpful.

That done, cutting the material is the next (and generally last) really time consuming thing. Once those pieces are cut though, I labeled them, stacked them up and was ready to sew. Because I was again cannibalizing my old bag (reusing the zips and piping and strap buckle things), I needed to sew it pretty quickly so I wasn't actually without a handbag for any momentous occasions, like leaving the house.

Now the bag is done. I feel it does have everything I wanted, though the top didn't turn out as awesome as it did in my head. Not quite sure why, but that's what happens when you are experimenting and learning and stuff. It's got pockets on the back, for easy key and phone access (see the next picture for that). It's got an adjustable shoulder strap. The inside has a zip pocket on one side and slip pockets on the other for tissues and lip balm.

The top of the bag is inset, so that on normal days it's a standard bag size, but when I need to stuff extra baby/kid related things in there, it expands to be a super-mum bag size. Sorry for all the close up photos. I was taking them while on the phone to the electricity company and the table is a bit of a mess.

The bottom of the bag is quilted - free motion style - yay! and also surrounded by piping that keeps everything in ship shape. Material is scraps from what will one day be a super cool tent for Sophie (hello 2nd Birthday present!) and the inside is fully lined with leftovers from Steve's Aladdin costume. This bag cost nothing but my time and effort. Brilliant. No shopping required.

I feel this last photo shows off the inset top bit as well as how much better I am at putting in zips than ever before. Though Steve can attest to the number of times I cursed zips as I sewed it in. :P Will they ever be easy?

 

Welcoming Winter

Well  hello Winter! I sit here to type this with my socks on and my fuzzy green hooded warmth-giving dressing gown doing it's job. I'll be changing the sheets to flannelette tonight that's for sure. Sophie was wearing three layers this morning, but she makes a fuss about getting into them and her little hands are still freezing, so I'm wondering how we will survive actual winter. Meh. She's got to harden up or freeze I guess.

I've noticed lately that I've been very slack about taking photos of the little girl. She moves so fast and often the camera is in a hard to get to spot so I don't feel it's worth trying to get it before she's distracted again anyway. Sigh. I guess I'll just have to do what people in the olden days did and remember things, rather than photograph them.

That said, here is one I did manage to snap on the way down to Sydney two weeks ago. Don't be fooled by the smiles, about ten seconds after this shot, she noticed me and had a cry about not getting to sit with me. :P I hope Aunty Fi is proud of the way we have her infant seat belt securely attached.

Before Sydney we went to Caloundra for a few days with some friends too. The weather was perfect and it was lovely to just have chill time. So great to share child-watching with Steve too.

This weekend was really back to reality. Bub number two is only approx. six weeks away, so it was time to set up Sophie's room so that we could vacate the nursery in preparation. She has settled in well, though we haven't tackled the challenge of moving her to the actual bed yet. There is something satisfying about looking at that room and seeing the bed covered by a home made quilt. 

And these are my Mother's Day Flowers. So bright and cheerful. Thanks Steve for remembering and being organised in advance this year. Love it!