Sleep suit rework

So, as promised, here are some methods which have helped me hang on to Bub’s sleep suits for a little longer. You’ll have to excuse the quality of the pictures – I took them on a grey sort of a day as kiddo was running around, stealing my lunch.

Suit 1. As you can see, I’ve already cut the feet off in order to extend the life a little.

When Bub grew out of this – even with the little sock parts removed – I decided that the best thing to do was turn it into a shirt of sorts. Another crazy-easy alteration – all that was needed was a pair of scissors. I decided not to even bother hemming this one because the fabric is so far gone that I doubt neatening it up with a hem would make much difference to how it looked overall.

A little shirt… coat… thing.

The second suit didn’t have any feet to cut out to begin with, being essentially a t-shirt with poppers on the bottom. Again, another mod with the scissors only on account of the fabric looking a little past its best. I might hem it at a later date though as this doesn’t work as well as the jacket above.

Dinosaur clothes are the best!

As I say, I might (read: probably) will hem this to neaten things up a little before too long.

I felt that I should include a few of Bub’s more boyish clothes so that people with wee men wouldn’t feel too left out.

So there you have it – two sleep suit reworks. I’ll let you know when I do some more baby togs.

Any of you guys have any ideas for how to keep clothes going?

Love Charing Cross Road

Just a quick post today – I have some sleep suit alteration pics to upload for tomorrow but right now my tummy isn’t co-operating.

So, I thought I’d tell you about the Love Charing Cross Road festival that my friend’s been organising. If you’re in/around London on the 30th then you should pop along – it looks really fun!

 

 

Another body-suit rework.

So… here is result one of the clothes hacking scheme. We were given this little suit by one of  S-’s brothers and though it didn’t fit Bub in its former state, it was easy to imagine a way to adjust it, based on the t-shirt I made for her earlier this month.

The original suit.

As with the t-shirt, I cut off the restraining fastenings at the bottom. And, as with the t-shirt, you could just leave it at that. The jersey knit means that it won’t fray, so if you’re really not a seamstress (or tailor) then even just doing that will prolong the life of the  outfit.

Makes a cute sweater as it is.

So, to start making the dress, decide where you want the waist to be and chop-chop the bottom away.

Stash fabric and some more of the random lace I found.

After cutting the bottom off, decide which fabric you want to use for the skirt and how long the skirt should be. Then, you need at least 2 and a half times the width of the top in order to get the gathered skirt.

Trim!

While you’re hemming the bottom of the skirt fabric, it’s a good time to add any trim you might be using so you only need to run the fabric through the machine once. I am the laziest sewer ever.

The most boring tutorial picture ever!

I folded the skirt fabric in half and marked the center. This means that you know how much of the fabric to ruffle on the front and back of the top.

This probably doesn’t make sense as a photograph. I’m not really sure what I was thinking when I took it.

I folded the skirt fabric so that the right sides were together, and put top inside it so that I could pin everything together.  I hoped the above picture shows what I’m on about, though I doubt it…

The gathering pinned to the top, ready to sew.

Anyways, I sewed the skirt fabric to the top and then stitched the skirt to itself to create a tube… I realise I’m being really ineloquent today but I actually managed to get up this morning before 7am with S- and Bub so I’m not really with it.

The finished article.

And this is what you get. I wanted to embellish the top with some vintage steamboat buttons but S- said it would have all looked a little much. And since I’m not happy with the skirt to top ratio, I though I’d trust his judgement on this one.

Hope you like it. I’m doing some more alterations of sleep suits over the next few days. Should I post them on here, or are you sick of seeing baby clothes?

Clothes

I was lucky enough to be given a sack full of baby clothes while we were in Denmark. At the present time, I am fully engaged in hacking the ones which are too small to pieces. I will update on progress.

P.S. The little red sewing machines you get at John Lewis are magicals.

Model

Here is yesterday’s creation, modelled by Bub.

Ways to make clothes last…

I’ve been on a mission to save money of late, mostly so I don’t need to go back to work and can keep crafting, but partially because… well no. It’s all about the craft time.

So, I thought I’d start by sharing the simplest way I’ve found of making Bub’s clothes last just that little bit longer – the body-suit to t-shirt mod. +2 to heat resist, +10 to sewing ease and best of all, +17 to epic win.

Yes. I’m having massive Dragon Age withdrawls. Damn you, Bioware. Work faster. And add more dwarves, for heaven’s sake!

Ok, so my ramblings aside. Step 1:

Select your body suit and decide where you want the new sleeves to sit and how long you want the t-shirt to be. I cut as close to the fastenings as I could to make sure Bub gets maximum use out of it. Mark where you want to cut.

 You’ll have to excuse the pictures – Bub was in bed so couldn’t model any of this. If you’re lucky I’ll see if I can get a pic of her tomorrow. Anyway, step 2:

Once you’ve cut along your lines you should have something like this. It is totally wearable as is because the fabric is a jersey. Hooray – no hems necessary. Told you it was quick. To neaten things up though, move onto…

Step 3:

I used a roll of lace I had lying around for the trim. I reckon stretchy stuff would have worked better here, given the jersy fabric, but whatever. This was easy enough to sew.

 I should also mention that I have a brand new sewing machine, bought just for me to match my living room. No one else has owned it before. It is entirely my own. Thank you, M-.

Result

Today, I decided to play around with the decoupage on glass a little more. This time, I added a spot of red paint to the PVA, dyeing it pink. Here are the resulting candle-holders:

Difficult.

This is a fairly difficult post to write. Not only is it a sensitive subject, but I’m not sure how to broach it without seeming self-centred.

Some of you who know me in real life will know that  I’ve been suffering with post natal depression for the last year. I’d rather not go into the particulars, but I feel better every day now and I’m confident that the worst is behind me.

It’s also my birthday next week and if any of you were going to buy me a present, I’d ask that you donate money to MIND instead. If it wasn’t for their help, I’m not sure I’d still be here.

Big love.

Skip

Long story short: I’ve been taking 2 buckets of hardcore to the tip every day for the last few weeks. Today, while I was there, I found this vase:

I might have been too excited about starting this project to take a picture before I started…
There is a slight chip at the top of the glass but nothing worth throwing the vase out over.

So, I attacked the vase with some of my incomplete dress patterns and PVA glue. This is the result:

The finished vase. The chip isn’t even visible any more.

I’m really pleased with the finished result, though I don’t know what to do with it now. (Anyone want a vase?) I plan on doing the same thing with some glass jars so that I can use them as tea lights, but I might actually fish the fairy lights down from the loft and stick them in the vase to make a lamp… I could do with a lamp.

I wonder if i could somehow figure out how to run the wire through the bottom, rather than over the top. Though I guess that would render it useless as a container of flowers… hhmmm…

Thoughts?

Jubilee

I’d say that 99% of the cakes I make never see any sort of icing. If they do, it’s the lemon drizzle variety and takes all of three seconds. I guess having a professional caker for a friend will do that to you… My results inevitably look crap by comparison.

But, I made a Jubilee Cake for Bub’s nursery party today and I am so proud of it. It’s just a Victoria Sponge – it was going to be much more special but said attempt became a frisby that even a labrador wouldn’t eat – covered in cream and summer berries. Still, I iced it, all by myself and it doesn’t look like a dog spewed on it.

Congratulate my cake! I demands it!

Of course, by the time I get it to nursery, it’ll be nothing more than a blob of sponge with berries sticking out at odd angles, but at least I photographed it first!