Embroidered Baby Outfit

This idea came from my sister who asked me to embroider a onsie for her son. I liked the finished product so much that I wanted to make one for our new one on the way.

I had a good look around to find a onsie that was plain white, and was happy when I found this one. The crossover means that the top bit can be embroidered but that the back of it wouldn't aggravate bubs skin. The one I used was from Cotton On Kids. If you can't find one like this then it's just a matter of covering the back of the embroidery with some soft fusing.

It took a while to get it all positioned, especially with the domes getting in the way, but worth spending the time to get it right. If I did it again I would probably make the lettering a bit smaller as the onsie is so small to start with.

Hopefully this can be worn by other babies from the family, and hopefully my baby is small enough to fit into it! (edited to add: He wasn't!)

Quiet Book - the book so far

I thought I'd add some pics of the book up to now, especially as I finally got the cover done and the rings to hold the pages in place.

And one of my munchkin actually playing with it - yay!

Quiet book - page 6: Apple tree

This was another one that I saw on a different blog, but of course I can't remember which one. This page requires the apples to be taken off the tree and put in the basket.

The apples are made of felt and I have backed them and done a blanket stitch around them before sewing on a snap.

The tree trunk is felt and the tree 'leaves' is cut from cut from cotton and then both have been sewn around and onto the page.

For the basket I started with 2 pieces of white cotton, one rounded a bit at the top for the back of the basket, and the other a bit concave for the front of the basket. I then sewed some gauze to the front piece of white cotton to give the basket a weave look. Then both pieces were sewn to the page. I puckered the front piece a bit so it would pouch out enough to fit the apples in.

Finally I got out my fabric paints to add the hill, some grass and a flower, otherwise the page would have been a bit blank. Then finished as I did with the others with some bias around the edge, and now it is actually in the book. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

Plunket Book Cover

Someone once mentioned to me that they had made a cover for their grandson's Plunket Book which I thought was a great idea. They aren't the best looking book and would be so cute personalised. My mum then purchased one at a market and I thought - I can make that....so I have.

I started with some stiff felt. I cut a rectangle measuring 33.5cm (1 cm wider than the front and back cover + 1.5cm for the spine) x 23cm.

I also cut 2 strips measuring 5cm x 23cm that the front and back cover will slip into.

For the cover I traced around some letters with a fabric pencil for Chloe's name, which I then painted in.

I then sewed around the whole cover with a fancy stitch to attach the cover holders (for lack of a better name).

At the hospital we had been given a little pink heart with Chloe's details when she was born. This has been taped to the front of her book up til now and has been getting a bit tatty. I laminated it and have attached it to the cover with a ribbon coming out from under a little felt flower. This heart will sit tucked behind 3 other felt flowers.

The flowers cut out, and then stitched down with a running stitch around the yellow centre.

All done!

Flash Cards - sort of

When I knew that I was going to be laminating Chloe's birthday invites I decided to make up some extra cards for her to play with. She has been doing well at recognising the letters from her name so I did p some cards with the letters from her name on one side and an animal starting with that letter on the other side. Then, to fill up the page, I did an 'A', 'B', 'C' with some different pics on the back.

After laminating them I trimmed the edges and rounded the corners to make them kiddie safe.

So far we have had fun spreading them out and playing a game of 'where is the...?'.

Birthday Invites

My little girl is going to be 2 soon! Can't believe how fast it's gone. For her birthday we decided to do a zoo theme as she loves going to the zoo. We were going to have the party at the zoo but decided to stay at home in the end a)to keep costs down and b) so the 9mth pregnant mum has everything handy and doesn't have to carry everything there.

The invites are made and ready to go out and I'm rather happy with them. They are modeled on the 'Friends of the Zoo' passes that Auckland Zoo does.

Using Photoshop I put together a series of 5 animal pictures for one side, and the other has the skin/fur of that animal under the invite info. My lovely hubby made a family zoo logo for it and the whole lot got laminated and put on a lanyard.

Before cutting and laminating

Now the weather just has to behave on the day!

Baby Booties - blue

Just got finished with the other style of baby booties from the Spotlight pattern. Definitely not as easy as the ballet style ones, but still kinda cute. One thing I would say is that keep your cast off at the top loose, otherwise it may be a bit tight around baby's ankle. At least it was good practice at joining yarn, though joining it to 3 stitches (the middle bit at the top the strap goes through) was not easy.