Initialled Baby Bib

I wanted a wee something to send to the little baby boy of some friends that we don’t get the opportunity of seeing all that often. He’s baby number two, so practically speaking there isn’t much that they need for him. So a token gift it was to be then, but, one with a twist. I believe that even the smallest ‘token’ can be something both practical and attractive and if I do say so myself I think I nailed it with this one!

Not quite a tutorial, more of a ‘this is what I did’ type post.

I’m highly unaccustomed to a boys palette of colours and it made a really nice change to do something that didn’t involve pink!

I took a pattern from an old bib of the Smallest’s (which now get used as floor cloths etc, so please excuse it’s grottiness!) In half it fit perfectly onto a piece of A4. I used the pattern folded each time, but have made it as a ‘full’ bib as well incase I want to try something more elaborate with it, patchwork maybe?

I cut out two outer and one inner piece, all of which are old cot sheets (habitat no less!) The inner is just another piece of cotton to give it a little more weight. I also ironed some fusible interfacing onto the back of a contrasting scrap to make the intial.

(Gratuitous shot of the Smallest again!)

Stitch the initial onto one outer and the inner layer. Put the two outer layers facing together, pin and sew.

Turn it all the right side out, making sure to use a blunt pencil / scissors to push the tab ends out fully. I then topped sewed all the way round to give it a nice finish.

I used a popper, but hook and loop or even a button and buttonhole will do for the fastening.

 

Stapled Notebooks / drawing books tutorial

Well I said that I ought to share with you how these are made as I find that they often get me out of a tight spot gift wise, so I thought that I would illustrate the simple process for you.

You will need:

Construction weight card ( something flexible enough to get through your printer)

Paper for the pages ( I used heavy weight newsprint 90gsm I think it was, it has a feel something akin to blotting paper which I love!)

Long Arm Stapler (for the quick and easy version)

Needle and Buttonhole Thread (for the more time consuming version)

A guillotine

Fold and tear the card and paper to the size you require. These books were around the A4 and A5 size, although I must admit to never being exacting about these things I just enjoy making them.

To make these more personal to the boys that they were being made for I googled Ben 10 colouring pages and copied a couple of images. I opened a new Pages Document (Word if you use windows) and set the page set up to landscape, then opted to divide the page into 2 columns, I simply pressed return until I was at the head of the right hand column, and then pasted the copied image onto the document. Then I printed the covers off (before I had folded them!) I realise that very often this doesn’t give you a dead centre image, but it’s my ‘easy way out’ for gifts so I’d be a Mug to fiddle about with the margins to get an even fit.

Fold all the card and paper that you have and distribute the pages amongst the covers, these need to be kept down to a reasonable number of sheets as too many prevents the book from folding correctly and makes it more difficult to trim with the guillotine.

Open up each book and staple through the spine, do this with the cover top most as this gives it a neater finish. If you don’t have a long arm Stapler now is the time to whip out that needle and cotton and stitch the sheets of paper into the spine, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy just a couple of loops through and back again, but do try and ensure that you tie a tight knot when you have finished.

Next trim the books, begin by pushing the spine against the square edge and trim the ‘top’ then turn the book and trim the ‘bottom’. By using the spine as the straight edge to work from, you are pretty much guaranteed to have a squared edged book, rotate by 90* and trim the ‘upright’ edge. That’s it. I do, however appreciate that not so many of us are blessed with a guillotine to hand to aid in this project and it can be achieved by straight edge and craft knife, although I personally find this a bit rough on the hands, there is a lot of force involved to stop the sheets from moving I can tell you! You may want to have a friendly word with your local school, or even your office, where a guillotine such as the one seen above are common place.

There you have it! Completed Notebooks / Drawing Books, whatever you would have me call them! Even some with some Ben 10 covers for good measure.

I have a stack of these kept to hand for the girls to use, for the Smallest they are merely a means to an end when she can’t get out of the kitchen to crayon all over the walls at the bottom of the stairs. For the Tallest a chance to really shine at something that I have the sneakiest suspicion that she is aware of; the fact that, for a recently turned 5 year old she is a very accomplished drawer and has a very advanced visual language. Writing this down has made me realise that I should share the contents of a book with you one day…..now if only I could figure out how to make an image mosaic on here…..I’d be laughing….

Do you have any simple / sweet sketchbook / Notebooks that you make and use on a regular basis? Pop a link in the comments, its always good to keep your options open eh?

The Handmades:: Easy beanbags

As I’m sure that I have mentioned before here, here and here, and not to mention a few others too, 2010 is this family’s handmade year, and our wee 1 year old friend was no exception.

These triangular beanbags are a doddle to make, and are a great stash busting project. I made these small to fit little hands, but you could adjust the size to suit whoever they were destined for. I shaln’t trouble you with a tutorial, but I will quickly whizz through how they were made, you won’t need pictures!

You will need:

Scraps of cotton fabric x2 (mine were 9cm x 9cm squares)

Rice, or split peas to fill them with

Sewing machine and cotton, or hand sew whatever your preference

Put your two squares of fabric down right sides facing, pin and sew together on three sides only.

Trim the corners and turn right sides out.

Fill 3/4 full with rice.

Put the two seams together so that they go in the opposite direction to the other three, turn in the fabric, pin and top stitch it down, being careful not to lose all the rice down your sewing machine!

As simple as that, these were just for grabbing and throwing, what will you use yours for?

(Oh and a quick mention to the Tallest who produced such a beautiful card too. x)

Make your own Knitting Markers

Due to it’s easy portability, and the fact that I haven’t really christened the set of interchangeable circular needles that I was bought for Christmas, I’ve gotten back into the swing of having something on the needles again. I have to confess that I got very little done on our camping trips away, but it always helps to be hopeful.

I’ve been adapting this pattern, making things a little less ‘swing’ (which probably defeats the object, but I know it won’t be tolerated if it is too wide at the bottom) and making it a sweater rather than a cardigan. That’s the beauty in knitting I think, being able to tailor things to your own requirements, I haven’t ventured into the world of knitting either without a pattern, or making my own; but this is beginning to make me think it’s actually a possibility.

Markers are required in this pattern, and as I have been knitting it in not the best of situations (low lighting, and feeling rather tired) my usual pieces of tied yarn were hard to notice when I’m not really ‘looking’ and I’ve nearly begun knitting them into the sweater on more than one occasion!

My solution was to make my own markers, they were so incredibly simple to make so here they are:

you need:

as many 10mm split rings as you need (I bought mine for pennies at the local fishing tackle shop)

embroidery thread

selection of beads / buttons / whatever takes you fancy!

Simply thread a split ring onto a length of embroidery thread, make sure there is enough to allow you to tie it up comfortably. Put a knot in the top, and then thread on the beads, or adornments of your choice, put a couple of knots in the bottom, below the last bead, and cut the thread leaving a little tassel at the end, these are so cute and make a practical little present for a knitter in your life.

I made a matching set, as I just happened to have six of these beads, but a ‘co-ordinating’ set would be equally as cute, I have some butterfly beads that are all different sizes and colours that would make a great set, and I even have a friend in mind for them.

And here is the sweater in its current state.

I’m surprised at how quickly it’s growing, but when the eldest asked me if she could have a story with ‘no knitting’ this evening I realised that I must be grabbing my chance to knit at every available opportunity! Well, now that the Smallest is feeling more herself, perhaps I won’t be knitting at all hours, and instead in that more productive post theirs – pre my bedtime. When it will go a little more unnoticed.

Does your family ever comment on your apparent need to always be doing something?

Easy Headband Tutorial

:: So, it’s a Sunday evening. The whole family are off to celebrate a close friends birthday for the afternoon and evening the very next day, and the initial idea that I had for a present never materialised. Shout hooray! for the Easy Headband, inspired by the bundle of vintage fabrics tucked under my sewing machine and the grimy old one I had been wearing whilst helping MrGT clear another patch down the allotment ::

:: Here’s how to make up your own. (starting to get quite a thing for these tutorials aren’t I?) ::

(apologies for fluctuating photo quality, some are taken at night – some the day)

This is for two different width headbands, Wider shown in the first photo, and narrower shown in the last.

Gather your materials – You will need:

30cm x 7cm (for neck part)

15cm (narrower type) or 30cm (wider type) x 4ocm (for headband)

15cm of 2cm wide elastic (I used FOA from my nappy making exploits)

Safety Pin

Pins

Scissors

Sewing Machine

Iron

Fold over the fabric, right sides facing, lengthwise, and stitch the open side together on both pieces.

Press open the seams with your iron making sure the seam is in the centre of this pressed tube.

Using the Safety Pin for the narrower strips, pull the fabric through itself so that the right side is out.

Re-press, keeping seam to centre of the pressed tube.

Push the elastic into the fabric for the neck part, making sure that the end of the elastic is just peeking out of the top, with the Safety Pin attached to the other end inside the neck part, ready to draw the elastic up after sewing.

Lay the Headband part down with seam facing down, Place the neck part on top of this, seam up, making sure it is central to the headband part.

Fold each side of the narrow style headband over the elastic just once,

and the wider style, twice like a concertina.

Pin these layers at the very edge to ensure the elastic doesn’t move, sew over these layers at least twice, as they will be an area of high stress once being worn. Trim edges to neaten.

Using the safety pin stretch the elastic, and gather the fabric tube over it, when the elastic pops out of the other end, repeat the folding, holding and pinning. With the emphasis on hold, as the elastic is now under tension.

Sew as the other side, and trim to neaten the edges.

Turn the whole headband the right way out, both your seams will be hidden on the under side, and it’s a simple as that.

This is the narrower style, done in a different vintage fabric.

:: These little headbands are so straight forward to do that I made up a whole bunch for friends and family ::

:: Then I had a blinding flash of inspiration, and thought of something else that I’ve always wanted to do but haven’t had the confidence (don’t be frightened!). So check out this blog tomorrow for a give away of both the headbands pictured here – get a bit of cool head gear – with minimum effort from you. Until tomorrow xx ::