It's a girl!

Yes, this year I got the best mothers day present ever with our beauty arriving right on Mothers Day!

Its been a looong while since this page has had any loving, between the latter stages of pregnancy and the arrival of our beautiful Ruby June there has been little time for creating but I am bursting on the inside with loads of projects wanting to be bought to life!

So, while I'm in the midst of the newborn fog here's a cheats post...

Remember these pants I made little while ago? Well, here they are being put to good use in Ruby's first photo shoot & I think they look adorable!

I was concerned that these Itty Bitty pants would be WAY too itty bitty, but nope, they are a perfect fit!

Love.

See you again when I start emerging from 'crazy newborn world' & have more things to share with you!

PS. Isn't she yummy?

Hoot Kinda Hoodie

Last winter I purchased this hoodie pattern from Heidi & Finn and, hello 12 months later, I finally gave it a crack!

I also managed to stumble across the most hideous ladies winter knit dress in an op shop for a couple of bucks - and let me clarify - hideous in that the print was completely inappropriate for a grown woman to parade around in but oh-so-cute for a kiddy! So, seeing its potential I snapped it up and decided it was perfect for this little project.

I got to cutting out my pattern pieces and wondered just how easy this would be as it is also fully lined. Worry not! This pattern is super easy to follow which is generally why I favour etsy patterns over commercial ones which I generally find pretty complicated.

I used some stretch knit for the lining that you may remember from these pj's I did a while back, and the finished product goes a little something like this....

Its been over a week since I finished this and I've only just convinced this little monkey to try it on. Ok, so convincing isn't really what went down - I had to bribe him with lollies in exchange for a few snaps!

Trying hard to look like he's into into it, but totally getting distracted. 

Are we done? Wasting no time in getting it off!

Poo Poo Bum Bum - change pad cover!

Another baby post coming your way!

I recently bought a new pad for the bub's change table. While the little seaside creatures may be a bit cute its still kind of, well, blah. Here's what it looked like pre-makeover...

I had some terry-like fabric in my stash that I picked up ages ago for a couple of bucks in the remnants bin and thought it was perfect to cover this little baby up. There are loads of tutorials out there for this kind of project (like this one over at Sir Bubbadoo) and here's what we ended up with. My pad wasn't anywhere near as deep as the one in the tutorial so I made a few tweaks but basically the process was the same.

I added a strip of the apple fabric also hiding in my stash to add a little bit more interest and ta-da! One jazzed up change table that will be a little more comfy and loads warmer for a tiny tooshy this winter.

And the convenience of whipping it off for a quick wash following little messes speaks for itself....I'm thinking I'll need to throw together a few more of these babies!

Itty Bitty Baby Pants

I know I know, its been AGES since I got my butt into gear and actually posted something on here. The good news is I am now officially finished work (well, my paid job anyway!) in anticipation of the arrival of bub number 2, so with any luck I can get my hands into loads more projects and be a lot more regular with my posts. Here's hoping.

As you can imagine I am a little obsessed with all things teeny tiny at the moment and have whipped up these little baby pants which are a total copy cat of a cute Bonds number.

 

 I am all for comfort when it comes to newborn clothes & these are just the tonic.

Three pairs down, many more to go! I am trying with all my might to keep them as unisex as possible but just couldn't resist using this gorgeous leopard/pink combo in case we have a girl this time.  Hey, even if its a boy I might just throw them on for a few minutes to see how they look! (Ahem, just don't let hubby in on that one)

Oh and I should mention that these are all made from old shirts that I don't wear anymore with a little ribbing for the cuffs. So when cleaning out your cupboards think before you throw - you may just have the perfect use for those old clothes!

I am Fireman Sam!

I'm on the dress-ups bandwagon again!

While we've all been cursing the copious amount of rain this summer, our little guy has been taking what is usually bushfire season very seriously! What started off as a cute little role play emulating his new hero Fireman Sam, quickly became an obsession. Our house must be called the fire station, our cars the fire trucks, Ollie must be addressed as Fireman Sam or he is a seriously unhappy chappy - even "Mummy & Daddy" has been given the flick in favour of new monikers "Elvis & Trevor"!

Cute at first, but 8 weeks later he is still keeping up the charade and driving us a little nuts at times. Whipping up a mini fireman outfit allowing him to indulge a little in this new world now seems more like mum is feeding his obsession!

This outfit was created without patterns (yay me!) using only existing clothes as a guide to get the sizing right. And it didn't turn out half bad!

The only stipulation from Sam himself was that the jacket had to have two rows of buttons, just like Fireman Sam's. Sure thing.

Reporting for duty, Sir!

Water on!

"I love my shiny buttons"

Crazy fireman dude maybe, but adorable nonetheless!

The yellow strips were cut from an old t-shirt, and the reflectors are simply...wait for it...strips of duct tape! Ha! You can buy the reflective strips in haberdashery stores but I thought this was a cheap creative alternative.  Oh, and because our shiny buttons are purely decorative, I added a couple of little velcro strips to hold the jacket closed.

Success! And its all because of you, big guy...........

Baby Fever! Bibs & Burp Cloths....

Anyone else noticed how many baby bumps seem to be out there at the moment?

One of those little bundles recently greeted the world and I am so excited for my gorgeous friend JM and family who welcomed a precious baby girl just six days ago.

A few weeks back I decided to have a go at a handmade gift for bubs arrival. I found several tutorials on handmade bips and burp cloths and thought these were just delicious so thats what I went with. (And all mummies know you can never have too many of these lying around!)

I picked up a pair of flannelette baby sheets for the front, and used super soft minky for the backing. Here's how they turned out...

Mind the blurry pics here...still in desperate need of photography skills!

...And modeled here by a cheeky monkey

These are super easy and I plan to churn out loads of them once I finish up work in anticipation on my own bubs' arrival - only 11 weeks to go to meet him/her!

The Abba Refashion Challenge!

Yes yes I've been missing in action again but life gets so busy sometimes my lil projects get put on the back burner. If only there were more hours in the day!

About 4 weeks ago a friend of mine cheekily asked for help with some fancy dress costumes by laying it out as a "challenge" - now how could I refuse when its dangled in front of me like that? The theme was rock/pop stars from the 60's-90's so the range was broad and MH & Co. decided to go with Abba so the whole family of four could get in on the fun!

The trick here was getting something up and running on a tight budget, so off to the op-shops she went! Loads of white satiny stuff was purchased at bargain basement prices and I couldn't really back out now.

Here's what we started with....

One ladies blouse...

Another satiny number....

And a lovely (hmm hmm) satin dressing gown 

...PLUS a small stack of typically psychedelic fabric that could have come straight from the 60's!

 

First things first we decided to go with dressing all four the same - MH is not a big dress fan so we went with shirts to be teamed with jeans and topped off with some kick-ass flares and accessories! 

The ladies shirt was chopped down to fit a girl of 4yrs - a simple take-in and alter the shoulders and sleeves to fit. 

The other satiny shirt (of which I'm not really sure belonged to man or woman but was being used to clothe the big guy of the foursome) was already a decent fit so the sleeves were simply chopped a little.

And that oh so sexy night gown thingy was used to make a shirt for my girl MH and a basic tee for the little guy. Off came the lace around the neckline, a few adjustments with length and we were good to go.

Did I mention how scared I was that this totally wouldn't work? I only ever sew for myself so if it all goes horribly wrong its no biggy...but this was nerve-wracking...these guys really needed these outfits! 

And the finished products? See for yourself...

 

Cuteness! Mini Abba-channeling.

 

 Mummy daughter team.

(Just quietly) I love how these flares turned out and the

matching sashes set them off perfectly

 Family affair!

Hmmm...perhaps a couple of decades early for a mullet but these guys definitely rocked it!