Reggio inspired tag toy

I made a Reggio inspired tag toy, check it out on my other blog Imperfectly Natural Mama.

Neckerchief/Bandanna bib tutorial

Have you seen there sweet bibs you can get now that look like neckerchiefs?!  I think they are really cute and much more fun that an ordinary bib, it makes the bib part of the baby's outfit rather than just covering it up for the sake of dribble protection.
I was on the verge of buying some when I suddenly remembered that I can sew, and have half a brain #9the other half went out with the placenta!) and therefore could make some myself.
What's more I though I could share it with you so you can have a go at making one for your baby if you have one, or as a gift for a friend with a new addition.
It is dead easy to make one of these bibs, as I am sure you know by now I don't really do measuring, so haven't included any, all lengths are by rack of eye! (Or by what I figure will fit round a baby's neck.)

For this tutorial you need two types of fabric, I used a flannelette type cotton which I figured would be fairly absorbent, then a patterned jersey type fabric for the front.

Begin buy making a paper template for the shape you want, I loosely wrapped mine around my baby's neck to get an idea of the size and included enough room for hemming.

Pin the template to the fabric then cut around it.  

Next pin the flannelette to the jersey and cut around it as before so you have two triangles of the same shape and size.

Keeping the fabric pinned together sew the two pieces together using a straight stitch.  Leave about 1 cm for hemming.  

Make sure you leave a small gap of about 3cm to turn your bib the right way round.  I left one of my corners open.  

Next trim off the excess from the edges so they are nice and neat:

Then turn the bib the right way round through the small hole you left at one end:

It should look like this now:

Now to finish off tuck in the un-hemmed edges on your open corner like this:

Then simply sew a straight line over this edge (you could do a chain stitch by hand if you so felt inclined, I am a bit lazy though and want to get it done quickly, so it was just a straight stitch for me.)

Now you need to add some velcro.  Cut a piece about 3 cm long and pin one piece to either side of your bib:

Sew them with a straight stitch and you are done!

Hope you are all having a great week, I am writing this tutorial in my garden because we finally have some sun in the UK!

Made a play mat

Finally got round to making a play mat for my bubba, I bought the fabric before he was even born!!  I decided on Monday that if I didn't make it that day it wouldn't get made and he would end up too big for one so I worked on it that whole day and a bit of Tuesday.  Here is the finished result, sorry this photo isn't very good, I took it on my phone. 

And here he is enjoying it! 

It was easy to make, simple sew some shapes of fabric together then make a sort of pillow case with them, I then stuffed it with a piece of 1 inch thick wadding.  

Hope you have all had a fab week, have a great weekend!

Easy Up-cycled Plant Pot Tutorial

Plastic plant pots, what could be more ugly?  And yet they are very useful and not to mention cheap, in face I acquired most of my plant post for nothing, so rather than fork out for expensive decorative pots, why not up-cycle your own?  Here is a really easy tutorial to improve the appearance of a very uninspiring pot:


1. You need: A plastic plant pot, some thick twine (mine is made from hemp), scissors, a glue gun.

 2. Begin by putting a line of glue along the base of the pot and place the end of the string along the line of glue, add more glue and line the string up along it, careful not to burn your fingers on the glue.  Don't cut the string yet because you won't know how much you will need.

 3. Continue all the way round the put then begin another layer on top of the first.

4. Keep glueing and wrapping the string round the pot, try to push the string up as close as possibly to the row below so that none of the pot shows through.

 5. Keep going...

6. And keep going till you get to the top of the pot.  To finish off put a line of glue around the very top edge of the pot then cover with the string so that the top edge of the pot is covered.  Finish off by cutting the string and gluing the end slightly inside the pot so you don't have an exposed end.

 7. Admire your handiwork!

"Bon Voyage" card

Before I had baby Orren and had time for things like craft I made this card for some friends who were travelling to America to live and work for 6 months.  I was really pleased with it as were my friends so thought I would share it with you.

I began by creating a background with brown parcel paper.  I placed small strips of masking tape in places on the packing paper to make the front of the card look like a parcel. Then I cut out three circles from vintage maps to give them impression of globes.  Next I stuck on some stamps I had saves, some from America and one British one.  Then I cut out the words "Bon Voyage" from brown paper, written with black pen and stuck them on top.  Finally I stitched a line in black embroidery thread on the sewing machine with a drawing of an aeroplane at the end of it so it looked like the plane was flying round the globes (or something like that!) I liked it anyway and thought it had a bit of a vintage feel to it.

What do you think?

My world now

Just looking at this beautiful face all day:

Oh and changing nappies, feeding and stacks and stacks of laundry!

Wooden trolley makeover

I had this wooden trolley that came with a set of shelves my husband and I bought years ago.  It was totally unfit for purpose because it was supposed to slot in between the legs of the shelves under the bottom shelf and it was too wide. The shelves became a shoe rack and over the years the trolley has served many purposes.  It now takes on a new guise as a toy box for our baby's bedroom.
You might remember these test pots of paint that I bought from B&Q to match in with our colour scheme?  Well I used them to create a sort of colour wash over the bare pine wood.  I am pleased with the result, it is now bright and cheery and much more appropriate for a child's bedroom.  It was a bit difficult to do because I worked on it on the bedroom floor and all the getting up and down was a strain, not to mention the bump getting in the way!  But I did it!  What do you think?

Before - boring old pine

 After - bright and colourful

Maternity leave days ten to fourteen

The baby's room is coming together.  I spent literally hours trying to sew a ruffle for the bedroom curtain, after much swearing and two broken needles I finally made it!

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, I took them on my little camera. 

Basically I had the curtain already and I simply appliquéd some coloured fabric onto it and onto the tabs at the top.  That part was really tricky actually, but I am pretty pleased with the results, although they aren't perfect, but then neither am I.

I also strung up some bunting that I made in co-ordinating fabric, I got the colour way from the Jamboree range at Mamas and Papas:

On Friday I picked up some sample paint pots from B&Q that matched in too.  I have a small wooden trolley/toy box that I am going to paint with them, and maybe some picture frames too.

Hope you have all had a good weekend.  Even though I am not going to work tomorrow, I still have that Sunday evening feeling.  I think it is because Paul is back to work tomorrow, so I will be on my own.