What to do when there's SO. MUCH. RAIN?!?

Well we've had LOTS of rain lately and I'm a little... actually a lot over it!! But it has given me heaps of opportunity to crack out my newest sewing project. I made the kids raincoats this year. :) Why bother, I hear you ask?!? Good question... Let me fill you in... I HATE regular kids raincoats! The plastic fabric is so thick and uncomfortable and YUK! One day while I was online I stumbled upon laminated cotton. Laminated cotton is 100% cotton (normally quilting weight) with a thin coating of plastic on the outside for waterproofing. Because the layer of plastic is quite thin the fabric is still quite soft, just a bit stiffer than a regular cotton. It's gorgeous! So after my research I decided to give it a shot. I bought some online from this Etsy store. When it turned up I squealed with joy... it was so beautiful!

Anyway, here are the raincoats... Lachie chose his fabric...

The hood has a cotton lining, but the rest of the coat is unlined.

How sweet is Adele's coat! :)

I LOVE this pic... in less that a second I was about to get VERY wet! :)

The next day (still raining) Tim made little origami boats with Lachie in the morning while Adele...

coloured in her face ;)

then we got rugged up...

and set sail....

down the river drain ;)

If you are thinking of making any of your own here are 3 things I have learnt from this project...

1) because the bottom layer of the fabric is cotton, the coat takes a lot longer to dry than a regular plastic only raincoat as the cotton soaks up the water. The cotton doesn't get too wet when just using it to walk in the rain but it does get wet when the kids jump in puddles.
2) I probably wouldn't choose a white fabric again. Because the kids jump in muddy puddles and end up sitting in mud and doing all sorts of muddy activities in the rain the cotton soaks up the dirt. You don't notice with Lachie's because it is brown but Adele's shows every single piece of dirt. I always handwash them but it's hard to get the dirt out.
3) It's not a super quick project (at least not for a beginner like me) the fabric was a bit tricky to work with.

Anyway, I am super happy with how they have turned out!! And a massive thanks to my friend Leigh who put in the snaps for me with her handing snap press! Thanks Leigh!! ;)

Kerryn

Lachie's 4th party

When Lachie turned 4 I promised myself that I would just do a super simple party... NO decorations, easy catering (actually, that's pretty normal for me... I'm not much into cooking), NO crazy amount of sewing or crafty stuff!!! BUT... I just had to slip a few things in... ;)

Here is some super easy felt bunting I made for the party. It was really simple to make. I used one row of stitching at the top to create a casing, then used some cord to slip through the top of each piece and then tied a knot in between each piece to stop it sliding together and bunching up. I love how clean and fresh it looks. :)

the all important food table :)

The invites

I made some lego frames to decorate the food table with. I used one of them to frame the 'menu' that Lachie had chosen. :)

I also made some fondant letters and numbers. I used maybe about one tenth of the ones made... estimation FAIL!!!

more frames

Lachie wanted some "huuuuge biscuits" at his party. It's hard to see by these photos but they are actually the size of a small child's head!! ;)

The obligatory fairy bread pic!

He wanted a "black cake with smarties". Sweeet... how easy is that!?!?! I plonked the cake on a lego board and got Tim to write "Lachie" in lego (yes, I'm a bit 'challenged' when it comes to lego creations).

Lastly, a pic of my precious boy!! :)

Ok, that's all!

Kerryn

Adele's winter warmers, jacket # 2 and some Easter baskets

Wow, after a 2 month break from blogging I am on a roll. :) It feels so rewarding to be looking through all the pics of stuff that I have made over the last few months.

Anyway, here is the second jacket that I have made for Adele. It is a fully lined jacket and was made with the same pattern that I made for this jacket. It was a fun experience working out how to make it fully lined. :) I also made it belted. I really wanted to find a gorgeous vintage gold button for the jacket but could only find really ugly shiny ones, so I got angry and used a bright orange button instead... yeah, go figure. Not one of my most creatively inspired moments ;) I'll probably change the button when I find a nice vintage-y one.

So here's the jacket...

The outer fabric is navy velvet

This is another little project I made over Easter. We used these for an egg hunt with our kids and their cousins. I made 6 in total. I've never used felt on a project like this and absolutely loved it! They came together so quickly! I love that you don't need to worry about finishing seams!! :)

My boy, enjoying some chocolate goods! :)

 Till next time,

Kerryn

Adele's winter warmers, jacket # 1

Over the last few months I have been sewing a few bits and pieces to add to Adele's winter wardrobe. We are trying to save money where we can and I have lots of fabric stashed away, so it made sense to try and sew some of the more expensive pieces and just buy the basics.  I haven't managed to sew as much as I wanted... but winter has only just begun... so there's still hope... right?!?!?! ;)

Anyway, I made the pattern for this little jacket and was super happy with the way it turned out. I have only just got the hang of bias binding and so this project was a great chance for me to practice with my new found skills. I am not disappointed... I now LOVE bias binding!! :)

Anyway, here's the jacket (and my sweet girl).

My baby LOVES shoes! I'm not sure what was so funny about this one though! ;)

Hope you like it! I do. :)

Kerryn

Vintage style aprons for Mother's Day

Well, as mentioned in a previous post, sometimes life is not ideal... hence my lack of posting over the last few months. Anyway, I have been doing a little bit of creating and today I want to show you one of my projects that I am particularly excited about. This project has been in the works for about 8 months and was finally completed the day before Mother's day (nothing like a deadline hey?!?! ;)

My mother in law loves has 6 grandchildren, 2 boys and 4 girls. She is really involved with them all and loves to cook. So I decided to make her a set of aprons, 1 for her and 1 for each of her grand-daughters (sorry for all you feminists out there, I didn't make any for the boys... when you see the amount of work in each apron you'll understand why ;)

I wanted to make each of the girls aprons slightly different so was uncontrollably excited when I found a panel of fabric which depicted different girls baking different goodies. This panel became my inspiration for the project.

Anyway... here they are...

All 5 aprons... looking pretty...

Here's an individual pic of one of the girls' aprons. All the aprons are lined. The lining fabric is the same as the pocket fabric.

Here's Grandma's apron. Her lining fabric is also the same as her pocket fabric. I put the same pics of the girls as I have used on their individual aprons and added their initials for something sentimental.

Ok, onto the finer detail...

Each letter, yep you heard right, EACH letter, has been embroidered around using a blanket stitch (i'm pretty sure it's not called that, but I can't remember the correct name). One of the reasons I took such a long time on these aprons is because my Mother in law taught me to embroider and so I knew that she would LOVE to see my new skill in use.

Here are some close ups of the girls pictures and names...

 

So there you have it... a project that really truly was a labour of love! It took a really long time, but I am super happy with the result! :) And the great thing, my Mother in law is displaying them in her kitchen! :) :) :)

That's all!

Kerryn

Crayon Roll For A Special Friend

We've just been to the party of one of Lachie's precious little friends and wanted to make her something special for her birthday. She loves art and craft so I thought I'd go with a crayon roll. I've never made one before and love trying new things. After looking at a few images of crayon rolls I was pretty confident that I could design it myself. It was a reasonably simple project but involved LOTS of precise measuring, so took a lot longer than I originally thought it would.

Anyway, totally worth it... :)

Here it is...

I made a little felt back rose and hot glued it to the elastic for a bit of extra decoration.

Each crayon/pencil has it's own little spot. so precise and organised. ;)

 That's it for today and hopefully I can start sewing for myself now that the January madness is over!! ;)

Kerryn

Baby shower gift # 2

So here's the gift for the second baby shower I went to this weekend...

This little lady is Nellie. ;) I also made a matching bib and card. 

I wanted to make something to give to my friend that was just for her... not for the baby. So I made her some little earrings and put them in this little cute pouch.

The earrings were the aqua ones in this pic. :)

There you go... baby shower gift #2... complete!! :)

Short and sweet! ;)

Kerryn

Baby shower gift # 1... Betsie & coordinating gifts

Yesterday I shared some pics of my two new friends, Betsie and Nelly. Here's a pic of the other gifts that went with Betsie.

I made a matching bib and fabric covered journal to go with Betsie. I will be printing out the photos I took at the baby shower for my friend to stick in the journal and then she can use it to jot down all the babies milestones.

You may notice that Betsie only has one ear... Hmmm... I had to sew the second ear on at my friends house while I was setting up for the shower... But... I left the ear at home!!!! AHHHH!!! Soooo... I wrapped Betsie up and had to explain in front of a room full of ladies that Betsie's other ear was inconveniently back at my place... hahahaha... not to worry... :) Oh the joys of handmaking gifts. :)

Stay tuned for the second baby shower gift. :)

Kerryn

Introducing... Nelly and Betsie

I have two new little friends to introduce you to. These little ladies came to life over the last week and have been named Nelly and Betsie. Nelly and Betsie were made for two special ladies who had baby showers over the weekend. I co-hosted one of the baby showers and attended the others.

So, let me introduce you to my two new little friends...

Here they are Betsie on the left and Nelly on the right. :)

Betsie enjoys quiet cuddles, long romps in the jungle & quick splashes in river. Nelly likes listening to R&B, salsa dancing & short skirts. 



I hope you've enjoyed meeting Nelly and Betsie, I also made a few matching gifts to go with them, I'll post some extra pics of the matching gifts over the next few days. :)

That's all,

Kerryn