Gift Sleeping Bag

It seems that all of my sewing of late has been for gifts or the girls. Maybe I need a new dress. Hummm. Anyway, the latest is again for a friend who is having a baby. This baby is a Third, similar to the friends I gave a quilt to a few weeks ago.

Sometimes I really feel for those second and third children, because the assumption is (perhaps rightly so), that when it comes to those second and third children, the parents already have everything they need for child raising. Even if this is the case, I still feel that an upcoming baby deserves some recognition, and it's always nice to have something that is a little bit special just for that one, whether they are first, second or third.

With that in mind, I had think and dug out this pre-quilted Japanese fabric that mum had given me, oh, at least four years ago now. It was lovely, but there was really only enough for something small, so it's been in the drawer. The babe it is intended for will be born in March, which means she or he will probably need a snuggly sleeping bag for the winter.

I used the Sew Mama Sew sleeping bag tutorial, that I've used before here. It is for a zero to three month old, so I made it a little bigger and longer, and had exactly the right amount of fabric for it. All I needed to buy was the zip.

I bound the neck and arm holes with the same bias I used on the gift quilt, because it was left over and matched fairly well. I'm pretty happy with how things turned out, and whether the baby is a boy or girl, this is cute and warm, so will serve it's purpose well.

Book Week: Round 2

While Rachel decided exactly one week before the day what she would be, Sophie's costume and preparation was a little more generous on the timing. We talked about books that she liked to read and let her know I would make a costume for her. When she went to the bookshelf to start getting books out for a shortlist, I started to get worried, because she chose a lot of elephant books. Like Elmer.

So I drew a line and suggested that I would be happy to make a person costume, but not an elephant costume. Luckily, she wasn't stuck on the elephant idea and we managed to find something else. Whew.

Sophie decided to go as Sophie.

Kills me every time. The main character in The Tiger Who Came to Tea, is a little girl called Sophie, who is having tea with her mum when a Tiger knocks on the door. I won't give away any spoilers, but it's a really cute and fun book. I don't know why more people don't know of it! Sophie went to see a stage play of it when she was three, and has a beloved Tiger toy as well.

What makes it even better is that Sophie's costume is very easy. Long sleeved blue shirt, purple tunic, tights, blue hair ribbon and black shoes. Sophie herself even thought about it and told me she had a blue shirt that would work, just when I was all resigned to going to the shops. We colored in some white tights to match, and I just picked up a metre of purple fabric for $4.00 from Spotlight for the tunic. Done.

Sophie and Star Tiger had a great time at school for Book Week. What a successful first year of Book Week!

Star Tiger

I'm yet to post about Sophie's Book Week costume, but her Tiger was an integral part. As you can see though, Tiger is looking a little worse for wear. 

Even more so than when we celebrated his birthday in February. Stuffing is now coming out of almost every paw. I mostly blame the very low quality felt that I originally used for all the white, which was certainly been the first thing to go. But, he has holes in other places too, which were from my inexperience in sewing soft toys. Poor Tiger.

We debated heavily about what to do, but I just couldn't figure out how to resurrect the original without taking him completely apart, and there was no way of telling if the stripy tiger fur would last that and be able to be reused. So in the end, we began again.

I had just enough of the original tiger fur left for another Tiger. For the white, I found a flannel cot sheet with stars on it in the stash, as well as a white t-shirt that we really were not wearing. Sophie loved the idea of her Tiger having stars; sold!

I also decided to line everything with multiple layers. Even if this meant a lot of extra layers to sew, I figured it would help Tiger last the rigors of playing a lot longer than his predecessor. For his tummy, I cut one of the flannel and two layers of T-shirt fabric and stitched them together around the edges. His inner ears are two layers of T-shirt fabric, as are his eyes, and the white patches on his paws are sewn directly over the tiger fur.

I think he looks pretty good, despite some minor errors in sewing. (Time pressure people, I had less than a week!) I feel his white paw parts are a little long, so they really do look like someone has sewn socks on him. Meh. The real problem was when I sewed the eye patches to the face pieces incorrectly, and then had to rotate the face pieces to make the eyes face the same way. Then they weren't fitting into the pattern correctly any more. But I just tucked and eased and made do. His face is definitely a different shape, but he's still a tiger right?

He is fluffy and cute. I am not 100% happy with his eyes, but I had stupidly put moisturizer on my hands before hand sewing them and the needle kept slipping. Doesn't matter. Sophie loves him.

We call him Star Tiger. May he live a long and happy life.

Gift Quilt

Some good friends of ours recently announced that they were expecting a third baby for their family, and after two boys, this one is going to be a girl. My mind instantly went to the quilt top I had made last  year, which you can read about here. I've been working through material in my stash, and it felt good to get this quilt top out and get it ready to gift, knowing it will be going to a lovely home of it's own.

Because the quilt top was done, it was a fairly easy job to finish it off, although quite time consuming. I decided to hand quilt it, as I still don't have a walking foot and results with machine quilting have thus far been questionable. I had recently read a tutorial by Meredith at Olivia Jane Handcrafted, which was pretty encouraging, so I took the plunge.

Overall, hand quilting is pretty fun, and it does not feel time consuming at all, because you can do it while you watch/listen to a movie or whatever. Two birds, one stone right? After quilting, which took a good two movies, a I also hand bound it with some self made bias binding tape, using a tutorial from Make it Love it. The binding took nearly as long as the quilting I think, but man does the quilt look so swish now.

These photos are so much nicer than the shots I took of just the quilt top last year. You'll see what I mean, if you look at the original post, about the color difference. I recently read a post on gifting a quilt and how you should always make sure to take photos of it, and I'm glad I have because even as this quilt goes to a new home, it's still special to me.

Mum donated me some fabric for the back of the quilt, again in the name of using up what's on hand, rather than going out to buy more. She had this lovely Japanese cotton bear print in her stash for I think at least five years, with no real idea of using it soon. The creamy background color suited the front of the quilt quite nicely, and matched the binding fabric too. I also figured if my friend gets sick of pink, it's a nice break for her to turn it over.

I embroidered the words "Love Wins" onto the quilt top, because it was made from a time when I needed to remember that God's love would always win, and I wanted this quilt to reflect that. Parenting is hard, and adding another child to the mix is absolutely going to bring lots of joy, and just as many tears. I know the family who will receive this know God's love already, but we often need the reminder.

Goodbye beautiful quilt, as you go on to live your life, may you remind people there is good in the world, even as a baby pukes on you.

Book Week: Round 1

I feel like Book Week really encompasses pretty much all things I love, because it celebrates reading by encouraging people to dress up in costumes. What a great idea. Why can't there be book week for adults too? Maybe that's why teachers get into it.

This year, Rachel wanted to be Peter Pan. I think she just found her old Peter Pan hat in the dress ups and suddenly remembered she loved it. Although, I did also take her to a Peter Pan play day in the park and we did watch the movie that week too, so maybe it's more than an old costume.

Anyway! All we had for a Peter Pan costume was the hat, so we needed to add to it pretty quickly. Luckily, I had purchased a bit of green fabric from Spotlight for this exact purpose, I would say probably two years ago, but had never got around to making it. So now, all I had to do was find the material and make the tunic. Done!

Rachel sat at the machine with me and guided the material through. She also got to press reverse and lift and lower the presser foot. A budding seamstress! Hooray! Given that Peter Pan is a boy who runs away to Neverland and never grows up, I felt justified not lining or hemming this at all. For the pattern, I just traced around the top part of an Izzy Top Pattern and then extended it. I assumed it would work because the one Rachel has been wearing from Easter is really big. I was right.

She's also wearing her belt from her Luke Skywalker costume from last year's May the Forth. We attached a little jingly bell to the belt, so it was kind of like having Tinkerbell with her the whole time.

The day of Book Week at kindy, Hugo decided he would be a crocodile to match Rachel's Peter Pan, and Mia changed from being a Princess to a Fairy. It was really cute to see them team up together like that so they could play.

Sophie's school Book Week parade is actually next week, so even though I've made her costume, we will wait until then to go into it. She's pretty excited though.

Ongoing and Never Ending Reading

I seem to have started a number of posts about reading of late and it seems to be remiss of me not to mention a book that I am always reading. I've read it countless times now, and I'm still going back.

It's The Bible.

Since I committed to following Jesus in 2004, I've read The Bible fairly consistently. Sometimes with a plan, sometimes not. In some seasons of my life, I'm there every day, other times, not so much. I'm still amazed that I can read it and find new things, and that I'll still be learning new things.

The times in my life that I've been doing a quiet time (which is to say, intentionally spending time reading God's word and praying each day), are absolutely the times that I have had the most growth as a person. It seems strange to me that there are times where I prioritize other things above it, and then usually decline, but I'm only human I guess.

After reading The Bible through chronologically (did you know that it's not actually chronological to start with?), in 2012, I had a huge break from reading with any kind of system or routine. I guess that's what having a baby or two will do. In 2017, I completed a "Through the Bible" reading plan with the help of being accountable to a friend and an app that told me what to read each day.

Last year I did a Bible Project reading plan, again, through the whole book in one year. I think I did the Psalms twice actually. If you've never heard of The Bible Project, I can not recommend their videos enough. For beginners or old timers their resources are so fantastic. Go check them out. Do it now.

This year I'm doing another Bible Project reading plan, but this time just the New Testament. It's a lot slower going than I'm used to. If you go through The Bible in a year, you are reading about four chapters of the Old Testament, a Psalm and a chapter of the New Testament a day. Only doing the New Testament means so much less daily reading.

But it's been good, to go slower. To spend more time with Jesus directly. To really think about what he is teaching, and how it is so upside down and counter cultural, both then when he said it, and now today.

Next year I'd like to go through the whole lot again, but read the Message version, which is a different translation of the original. Just to mix it up.

Have you ever read The Bible? It's pretty full on, but has so much to say about the story of a creator God who loves his people, and time and time again, wants to build a relationship with them. It's something that I will read again and again, because I need to be reminded all the time.

This quote that a friend shared a while ago really resonates with me now as I reflect on this:

"Some truths we only need to hear once, and they sear themselves across your soul like a red-hot iron, changing your life forever. 

Other truths we need to hear again and again, like water dripping on a rock, slowly washing away the sediment of lies that keep trying to build up, until finally the lies are forgotten and only the truth remains. 

The Gospel is both kinds of truth."

Rachel's 5th Birthday

She turned five! I've been a Mum of Two for five years! Unbelievable. Rachel started the day by crawling into bed with Sophie for a cuddle. Such sweetness.  

We were in Bundaberg for Rachel's actual birthday, so after a play at the park, much of the day was spent driving home. This was us all on the trampoline at the front after a six and a bit hour drive, happy to be home at last.

A week later and things were in full swing for a little celebration. Rachel helped me to ice and decorate her cupcakes.

Which we made into a caterpillar cake for her. I'm now officially running out of bug cake ideas, after having done a ladybug, butterfly and snail already. Maybe a stick insect next year, or a bee? I a little bit dread to think about it, but maybe she won't like bugs any more by then.

Her "party" was an incredibly causal affair in a park, similar to Sophie's in January, so just poppers for drinks and then standard fruit and veg, some cheese sticks (courtesy of Megan) and sushi for savory, as well as some mini macrons for sweet. She wore her new snail dress from Yia-yia. Special.

As with Sophie, we opted for an experience for her birthday present this year, and got tickets to see a Possum Magic show at the Brisbane Powerhouse. It was really fun, Steve took the day off work so we could all go, and afterwards we had a picnic and a play in the awesome play area at New Farm Park.

Perfect. Happy Birthday little Rachel. Every year you surprise me with even more character and generosity from your big heart.

Pokémon Dress

Our girls, thanks to Steve's efforts, really love Pokémon. Possibly more than is healthy. They have soft toys and small plastic ones, we borrow Pokémon DVDs from the Library, we have Pokémon books on the shelf. There is so much Pokémon. 

A friend of ours gave the girls two Pokémon doona covers as hand me downs from her brother, ages ago now. I took them apart and used half for sheets for their bed, and the other half was stashed away in the material cupboard. These holidays I took out that material and decided it was time to make something of them. Behold!

Pokemon dresses!

I used the same pattern as the other dress up dresses I've made the girls before. Not because I think these will be only dress up dresses, but because that pattern does not require any zips or buttons. So easy to make, and it will grow with them so be quite long lasting.

The skirt I cut as a circle, rather than gathering it, because I had so much material and a circle skirt is really twirly; something both girls love. Rachel's is bound with the yellow bias tape that was given to me by a lady who helps out at our playgroup on Tuesdays. Sophie's was bound with some blue that I had lying around.

The girls were both super excited about their new Pokemon dresses. I made them on the very first Monday of the holidays, which made for a very productive start to the holidays. Good feelings all around.

Holiday Planning

We are now half way through the holidays, and have been having loads of fun. The girls and I did our usual planning day at the start, and our holidays filled up a lot faster than we anticipated. 

I have also been productive with actually doing some paperwork, rather than avoiding it, and a stack load of sewing that had been sitting on my to do list for ages too. Might get around to blogging about it all sooner or later. Maybe.

Hopefully you are enjoying the midwinter in a similar way to us.

The Real Tea Bag

A long time ago now, I made the confession that Steve and I have become official tea snobs, and pretty much can't travel anywhere without a well stocked supply of loose leaf teas. The trouble with traveling with said teas, is that you need something to carry them in. You can read all about my first attempt at a solution to that problem here.

That was 18 months ago now. We have still been using that initial solution, which was always meant to be a prototype. I did, in fact, start cutting a real deal version fairly soon after with left over fabric from this project, but I didn't have any rip stop nylon to line it with, and neither did my numerous attempts at finding it in Spotlight leave me successful.

The material, half cut, languished for a year and a half. I am ashamed to admit it.

But behold! I give you, The Real Tea Bag!

I finally found some rip stop nylon at Spotlight (on an incredibly rare, kid-free visit), and a mere three weeks after purchasing it, I was suddenly struck with the desire to sew, and this was at the top of the list!

I probably could have procrastinated sewing it another month or two, by telling myself it would take too long, but we have a trip to Bundaberg this weekend, so it was a little bit now or never. Also, I didn't want to do any paperwork. I cut it out in a half hour and after one and a half hours of sewing, bam!

Is it not glorious?! It fits all the tea with style. Such shiny fabric. I could have made the handles a touch longer, but it's pretty perfect and I love it.

Made Another Dress

I had been wanting to make another dress for a while, and there was really no excuse, because I had the material, but life gets in the way. Finally, probably in an effort to procrastinate doing any paperwork for actual work, I got out the material one night and cut the dress.

This material came from one of my parents travels, like the three previous dresses (one unblogged, the other two here and here). It's a Batik. I still don't know what that means. Same pattern as my original sushi dress, but I just pleated the skirt, rather than have to measure and cut an A-line. I wasn't sure I loved the two big box pleats that I ended up with, but they are growing on me.

I literally cut and sewed this dress in less than a week, and finished it the night before we left for a Bundaberg weekend in May (so I could wear it there). The neck and arm holes are bound with some self made bias tape. I used some fabric mum had given me that was left over from one of her own projects.

It's taken me a while to post, because though Steve too photos of me in it in Bundaberg that first time I wore it, I was pretty unhappy with the photos. The wind was manic that day, so my hair was crazier than usual, and I'd not bothered to put on any make up (which is standard for me), but I looked so washed out. Blah.

I did wear it again at our Extension Warming Party and made the effort of putting make up on, but promptly forgot to take close up photos in it. Gah! So you still get to see the washed out, crazy hair photo of me in this new dress, because six weeks on, I still don't have a good photo.

Still Got This

I make so many lunches now it's all a blur. But every now and then I make one that makes me think: Heck Yeah!

These are those Bento.

 

Reading Again

I have just finished my most recent set of books that I got out of the library and I'm already languishing. Reading is so lovely. I can't quite describe it actually, but it's just wonderful to be lost in a world for a moment, get to the end and feel as though you've accomplished something; like you've been on a journey too. Well, it is for me anyway.

I know I might not get to the library this week, so I thought I may as well publish this most recent slew of books now, rather than have it wait until next month. This last six weeks has been the most productive reading time I've had recently, I didn't realize it until I was counting up the books at the end of May and saw I'd read twelve in just over a month. This is a lot of books.

Book of Secrets by Cynthia Voigt
Book of Kings by Cynthia Voigt
Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix
The Marvelous Magic of Miss Mable by Natasha Lowe
Gap Year in Ghost Town by Michael Pryor
A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce
Goth Girl and the Fate Worse than Death by Chris Riddle
The Firework-Maker's Daughter by Phillip Pullman
The Last Duchess by Laura Powell
Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse by Chris Riddle
Secret Guardians (Rouges Book 2) by Lian Tanner
The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I just want to give a few notes now for people's reference as well as my own future memory jogging.

The two Cynthia Voigt books are the next two in the Mr Max series that I started in 2018. It was absolute joy to see them both on the shelf together at the library and know I could finish what I had started. They were excellent.

Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix was absolutely amazing. I can not rave enough about this book. I read it twice in less than a week. Does that count as an extra book? I don't know, but I know I could certainly have read it a third time and still loved it. It is a period drama meets with magic and a detective story. Fantastic. Hands down winner. Even now, I want to read it again.

Gap Year in Ghost Town is by an Australia author who I have never read before, but apparently usually writes the kind of books I love, and Gap Year in Ghost Town is away from his norm. I did like it, especially being set in Melbourne, it was really interesting to read a book that referenced locations I knew or had been too.

Based on Rumpelstiltskin, A Curse as Dark as Gold was a little long, but good. Although I had no idea the original fairy tale is apparently anti semitic? Who knew!

The two Goth Girl books were hilarious to read because they had so many references for grown ups. For example, Ada Goth has six nannies who leave in quick succession, including Hebe Poppins, who walks like a penguin, spontaneously bursts into song and ends up running away with the chimney sweep, and after that comes Nanny Darling, who is a sheepdog. I am looking forward to when the girls can read them, because they are very similar to the Ottoline books, which they already love, but with a bit more dark humor.

Secret Guardians (Rouges Book 2) by Lian Tanner. All I have to say is it's better to know that you are reading book two before you start than finding out half way and then being too far in to stop. I would like to read book one. And also book three.

The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend I have seen everywhere before, and it was really glorious. A little Harry Potter, but also unique.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Fabulous, really enjoyable. I hear there is book two, which I would also like to read. Neil Gaiman, you continue to be my favorite Doctor Who writer, and I am increasingly wishing I had more of your books in my collection.

And that's all from me. Go read some books people. I should probably do some paperwork. Or sewing. But hopefully also more reading soon.

Easter Garland... Bunting?

This is such a belated post, but I felt like I should still post it. I like to have things organised like that. 

I sewed some Easter egg bunting way back at Easter time. I was inspired by a tutorial I saw at Olivia Jane Handcrafted, and also a visit to a friends house, who had Easter decoration simply everywhere. I was excited about Easter, but there was nothing in our house to show it. 

And of course, I had lots of scrap fabric I knew I could use up to make this garland/bunting, and using up scraps is always a worthy cause right? Do garlands count as bunting I wonder? What is the difference? 

 
Anyway, lots of sewing and cutting 30 eggs later, I've got a string of eggs that can be used every Easter. Here is the one photo I have of it hanging above the bay window. Photos do not do it justice.