Showing posts with label sew. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sew. Show all posts

Reasons To Be Cheerful

For more information on what Reasons to Be Cheerful (#R2BC) is all about please check out this post from Michelle at Mummy from the Heart for a full description.

This week's Reasons to be Cheerful: 
  1. I lost another 3.5 lbs, so the weight I'd put on last week plus another two pounds.
  2. My friends are amazing!
  3. Daddy is happier about childcare.
  4. I got crafty, I'll post soon.
  5. I'm trying to organise my crafty corner, which means scanning all my patterns and 'how to's' to digital.
  6. I'm doing quite well with Christmas presents. We are on holiday this year, so I want to get sorted soon, so we have money to spend! 
  7. I finished my last uni assignment for this OU module, I had to pull an all nighter to get it done. Now just need to get ready for the exam. 
  8. I was also featured on Michelle's blog as R2BC blogger of the week last week :-) Thank you Mich x

So over to you, what are your reasons to be cheerful this week?

Hexies, Inspiration, and Sewing

Remember on my post about my attempts at baby bib making, I mentioned my stash of Fat Quarters? I managed to use one making two of the bibs and was Googling what else I could do with them, as I knew the bunting was never going to happen.

I discovered Hexies! Or Hexagons if you prefer. They are a basic staple of lots of quilts. I doubt I'd ever have the patience to do it, although I did admit to being totally in awe of those that do. A quilt of Hexies made using outgrown baby clothes does sound quite sweet; but so does selling them to buy next size up, and in the current financial climate, more logical for me.

But I loved the Hexies, I just couldn't stop thinking about them and what I could use them for or make. Honestly blogs are full of quilting p0rn! I found a blog by Angela at My Three Sons and she shows a tutorial for a needle book using Hexies here.
 
Hmmm a small, maybe manageable task, I wonder...

As I had some of the tattoo inspired print left over, I positioned the Hexie over the print to pick out individual motifs, I think the less challenged sewing linguistics amongst us call it fussy cutting. I'm probably wrong, feel free to let me know! 

I made two needle cases, one for me and one I gave to Nanna with the Baby Shoe Pincushion I made here.

 





Reasons to be Cheerful

This week's reasons to be cheerful.
For more information on what Reasons to Be Cheerful (#R2BC) is all about please check out this post from Michelle at Mummy from the Heart for a full description.

  1. Michael Bublè! Had a good night at the tribute night. I was feeling sick and queasy beforehand, and overindulged in alcohol (possibly as a consequence), but meal was nice and spent some time away from everything with daddy.
  2. I am getting a new sewing machine for Christmas! I am so excited about this. I have been trying to learn but it takes 10x's as long to do anything with my ancient knackered machine, I'm hoping to get more actually done!
  3. Kiki's nanna (F) came round on Tuesday, she has had a lot going on in her life lately, (deaths, illness, etc.) but she always finds time for us. Given that she isn't family officially, she does more for us than almost anyone. I am very grateful for her.
  4. (An extra this week) I won a DVD of Guess How Much I Love You from Kate On Thin Ice's blog. I love the books and can't wait to watch with Little Lady.

 Little Lady

Reasons to Be Cheerful

So last week I started up my Reasons to Be Cheerful posts again. How has my week been?

Meh!

That's basically it. I have felt flat for no 'real' reason, nothing majorly wrong, just not content. For every positive, I'm finding at least one negative! But onwards and upwards, and all that jazz.... 

For more information on Reasons to Be Cheerful (#R2BC), check out this post from Michelle at Mummy from the Heart for a full description.

  1. I finally made my baby some drool bibs, I have been meaning to use the FQ's I bought for some time, so that's a plus. Kiki has been drooling excessively, so another good point. I wont tell you how much time and stress it took!
  2. Following on from last week's post, the 30 Days of Friends Competition has had comments! As a blogger , I love comments. They make me feel that it's not just me talking to myself, all though I'm, cool with that! lol Thank you to everyone that comments. I read lots of blogs, especially on my mobile, so I can't alwys reply, but appreciate every single person that takes times to reply.
  3. Again, horrible news of children being killed. The debate around dangerous dogs being made extinct surfaces. Along with, there is no such thing as a dangerous dog, just dangerous owners (which is the side I'm on, if you are interested). I am lucky I have a great dog, a true family pet. I got him from a rescue centre six years ago. He is great with my daughter, very protective, but not possessive. And the Little lady is doing well.

 
What are your reasons to be cheerful this week? 


Baby Bibs

My little one has been teething for what feels like months now. She is constantly trying to put thing in her mouth to bite on, see previous post about MAM teethers for smaller babies. As well as this, she is a seriously drooly baby! I not overly concerned, I wipe her face often & have cream to add if any redness appears but as any parent knows, drooly baby = soaking wet tops, several changes a day. As if babies don't need changing often enough!

I have been looking at bibs I could leave on, but the either look like she's about to eat or are expensive. I mean seriously £5 for a bib? So I turned to the Internet. I looked for patterns for the bandanna style bibs. The first one I tried was shaped, supposedly to look like it was draped, but I didn't like it.

My next attempt was to use some of the FQ's (fat quarters) of material I bought for making bunting for the nursery, which to be honest I had no chance of making whilst ill and suffering from serious case of CBA syndrome.

I cut the material (2 different fabrics, 1 of the tattoo inspired one and 1 of the Jolly Roger one) in to 14" inch squares and the in half diagonally.

  
I picked up a plain white bath towel in a charity shop to use a backing, hoping it will hold a large puddle. I cut two 14" squares and again cut diagonally.


With the right side of the material facing each other, wrong side up, I machine sewed a seam approximately 1/4 inch in all around, barring a small gap in one of the straights. Not the corner, made that mistake with first prototype, very difficult to turn right way.


Turn material right way out, poking corners out with scissors, knitting needle, etc. 


Sew again on right side (if wanted).

Sew Velcro tabs to either side of points.
I should point out that I made a small error here, I actually picked up the wrong velco, I bought self adhesive stuff. As it wasn't strong enough to remain in place, I atempted to stitch edges. It ruins needles quickly and clogs machine. 
Don't do it! 


And viola. One cute dribble bib.
 

Add to child!

Attempting to get my groove on!


I recently mentioned that I wanted to start being Crafty again and had rescued the sewing machine from the depths of the cellar, I have attemped a start on doing something. 
As usual with a lot of things lately, it is baby related!

I made a cot bumper and a matching 'Taggie' style comforter. They are not great, but they will do they job. I'm sure as I practice more my skills and confidence will increase.

 


What am I doing to get my groove back? Or just get one?

Another Groovy Mum blog post

Following on from my blog post about becoming a Groovy Mum, I am going to list what I am doing to help achieve that.

  • Crafts - I used to do a lot of craft style things, card making, scrap booking, etc. but I haven't do anything creative in a long time. I aim to restart this in some way. My first thing is sewing. My mother was a seamstress and I'm ashamed to say that I never learnt beyond the very basics, and that was a long time ago. I have recovered the sewing machine from the cellar, it's had a service and I am trying to get back into it. 
  • Pampering - We all love a bit of pampering. I had a great pregnancy massage from Karen @ The Green Room recently. It was lovely. I WILL book another this week. I will also make an appointment for a hair cut, or at least look at new styles.
  • Creative Writing - I have always had a passion for writing, be it technical, creative, poetry; but again, it has become a casualty of my depression. I will post some other my writings and ask for feedback. As I am currently studying Creative Writing with the O.U. I really should be more on top of this. 
  • Quotes - I like quotes. Sometimes I agree with them, sometimes I disagree, some make me laugh (intentionally or not), some are triggers for writing. I have various dotted about on my blog, my Twitter timeline, various notebooks, etc. I will combine them all into one place.
  • Acceptance - I must learn to accept sometimes I just cannot do things for whatever reason, it doesn't make me a bad person. I like to think I am gracious in accepting help, but I want to be able to train myself in to believe that asking for help is not a sign of weakness, regardless of what it is for.
One of the greatest pieces of advice I was given was:
 
Treat yourself how you would treat a friend.

Are you harder on yourself than you would be to a friend? 
Be kind to yourself.

So how about you? What are you going to do for you?