Little Airplane Bags

I am starting to worry about the 7hr plane ride we have next year, more specifically how the kids are going to behave. I have seen all sorts of tricks from having something new to give them every hour, to giving ear plugs and chocolate to the people sitting around you. I will try and have lots of things for them to do, but otherwise we may just have to wing it (ha ha). 

I am going to take a few of their smaller toys as they will often play with them for a while, especially Chloe who has a great imagination at age 4. I also want to have a bag of special treats to eat that I can pull out every now and then. So what do we need for both of these things? Bags! I found this cute remnant of cotton with aeroplanes on it at Spotlight and knew just what I would do with it.

Inspired by this tutorial I made a couple of bags. It was a very easy to follow tutorial and they turned out quite cute, and perfect size for a few special treats.

I then made an adjustment for a drawstring version (mainly as I had lots of material and didn't want to use up all my velcro). 

• I left out the co-ordinating strips along the top and went straight to sewing the lining to the outside fabric. 
• Before sewing the 2 sides together I sewed 2 buttonholes close to where the lining joins the main fabric (for the drawstring). 
• Once it was all turned in the right way I sewed to lines around the top to create a tube for the drawstring to go through.

 The drawstring used to be the handles from a bag I got from a clothing store when I bought a dress. (MUST KEEP EVERYTHING!!)

Showing the buttonholes and 2 lines of sewing to create the tube for the drawstring.

Finished drawstring bag - inside

So cute!

 The finished bag fits all the animal toys perfectly, and as they currently have no storage container it will be very useful.

Polka Dot Cake

I just love Pinterest. I am getting so many ideas there and its so easy to find them again! This one from Once Upon a Pedestal caught my interest and I thought it would work great for hubby's upcoming birthday. Of course I had to try it out so it won't really be the surprise I had hoped. Oh well.

I had to make a couple of adjustments as the blog calls for a cake pop pan and I wasn't going to spend $30 on one for just one cake. So after a bit of internet searching I found a post that says you can just crumble up a cake and squish them into balls. Now, I should have trimmed off the browned edges first, but this was just a trial anyway. It took some pretty firm squishing but it worked. 

 The balls are butter cake and I decided to put them in an easy choc cake to change the flavour a bit. The result was very tasty! The coloured balls were a lot denser giving the cake an interesting twist.

The cake balls are hidden in the middle

Not too bad for a test cake

Next time I will put a bit more cake mix in the bottom of the pan before putting the cake balls in.

Baby bibs

My step-brother and his wife are expecting their first baby in February and I am really excited for them. I had made a few things for my step-sister for her little ones and I got the idea to do some embroidered bibs for his bubba. I made sure to do them nice and neutral as the gender will be a surprise. Now I just have to hold on to them for a while so that it doesn't seem like a ridiculously early gift. I'm thinking christmas as we are moving overseas in January and that way I won't loose them in the move.

The back is toweling, the top of the front is white micro-fibre so it is super soft around the neck (it looks cream in the pic), and the bottom is flannelette. I put in 2 domes so it can hopefully last a while. I also like the square shape as it covers more of bubba's tummy and, lets face it, with babies more coverage is always better.

Little crochet squares

 I have a lot of leftover wool from various projects so I thought I'd make up a bunch of little squares and eventually, maybe make them into a blanket....one day.

The squares are made up like this:
5mm hook
DC - Double crochet
ch - chain
Sl st - slip stitch

• Magic ring, chain 3, 
• In magic ring: 2 DC, ch 1, (3 DC, ch1) 3 times. Pull magic ring tight and join to first ch3
• Chain 3, turn
• Next row: 2DC in corner next to ch3, ch1, 3DC in same corner, ch1, *(3DC, ch1, 3DC) in next corner, ch1. Repeat from * 2 more times to complete the square. Sl st to join to the ch3 and finish.

Now I know that is not as neat as normal crochet patterns as I'm not used to writing them out, but I hope it makes sense.

Newborn Owl Hat

I couldn't resist this pattern from Repeat Crafter Me. There are so many gorgeous ideas and patterns on this site so it is well worth a look. I already had some wool I had stocked up on a while back and never used which was nice and fluffy and soft. It is just too cute but of course I don't have anyone to give it to. Another one for Beanies for Babies I think. 

The hat took 1 evening to make up including making the eyes. I had to get some wool for the beak and some big black buttons so 2 nights total.