Happy Birthday Mr B

It's my nephew Mr B's birthday today, so we're having a little birthday celebration after school (mmmm cake)....

When I asked him what he would like for his birthday, he requested a Dragster iPhone/Gadget Pouch (what a smart boy).

Happy Birthday Mr B!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Chef's Hats

It's birthday time again round yonder these parts....

The twins turn three on Friday.  

Three.... already! It really doesn't seem that long ago that they were such tiny little bubbas.

It's actually quite amusing to look back at the blog and see how much they've changed from 1st birthday (wearing the outfits that I made), to 2nd birthday (playing with their scarflettes and manbags) to now.

But somehow, the twins have made it three without me ever making them a custom Chef's Hat!

In fact, it's been so long since I made one that I had to actually refer back to my own tutorial for the measurements....

I've used velcro for the closure - easy for little hands

I've been holding on to the lovely Mookah screenprinted denim that I bought at the Finders Keepers Market, just waiting for the right project to come along. This was the perfect opportunity to show it off.

Hmmm I really should have ironed it before taking photos...

I've also made them each a matching kiddie apron (in a nice dark colour to hide the stains). I'm sure my sister will appreciate that!

Tutorial - An easy way to create fabric letters for applique

A friends little boy has a birthday coming up very soon, and he needs a new pencilcase.

I really wanted to personalise it with his name, but I also wanted to use my favourite font, so I came up with this super simple solution.

Download the PDF Tutorial 

You will need the following:

A sheet of A4 sized Freezer Paper
Inkjet printer
A piece of fabric large enough for your printed letters
A piece of fusible webbing the same size as your fabric (I use applifix)
Sharp scissors
Iron

Step 1:

Create your chosen letters using Microsoft Word (or any other such program). Place the sheet of A4 freezer paper in your inkjet printer, taking care to ensure that the print will end up on the paper side (not the waxy coated side).

Print the letters onto the freezer paper.

Step 2:

Cut your piece of freezer paper down to an appropriate size.
Cut your chosen fabric so that it's a bit larger than your freezer paper.
Cut your piece of fusible webbing the same size as your fabric.

Step 3:

Place your fusible webbing onto the back of your fabric (making sure the fluffy gluey side is touching the back of the fabric), and iron into place.

Leave the backing paper intact.

Step 4:

Place the freezer paper on top of the fabric and iron into place (waxy coated side faces the fabric).
I used a rajah cloth on top to protect my iron from the ink.

There will now be a paper layer on both sides of the fabric.

Step 5:

Using a very sharp pair of scissors, cut the letters out.

Step 6:

Peel the backing paper from the fusible webbing and place your letters onto the piece of fabric which will be appliqued, and iron into place.

It's best to use a rajah cloth or scrap of fabric to protect your iron from the ink.

Follow the correct manufacturers instructions for the brand of fusible webbing that you're using.

Step 7:

Once cooled, carefully peel off the freezer paper.

Step 8:

Now you can choose to do whatever you wish - machine stitch, hand stitch, straight, blanket, zig-zag.... whatever takes your fancy!

 
I used the Zippered Pouch project from Nikki's book, You Sew Girl to create this fully lined pencilcase using my Dragster Dominoes Fabric and the appliqued fabric letters.

Now I just have to wrap it up for the birthday boy!

The Owls Have It

Things have been so crazy busy around here that I completely missed a 2nd birthday a couple of weeks ago...

So I whipped up a super simple and super quick little skirt.

It's just two rectangles - the front one appliqued with a lovely row of owls, then overlocked and sewn together, hemmed, and elasticised.

The applique is a strip cut from my Owlie Oracle fabric.

It's hard to see in this photo, but I pressed and topstitched the side seams in pink thread, just for fun!

I'm off to deliver it today, with fingers crossed that it fits... here's hoping.

Suave - Part Three

So today was the big day - Moo Moo's 4th Birthday.

When I arrived, he was busy riding his brand new Ben 10 bike, so little Zaney helped me to carry the pressie (and my handbag).

There was a flurry of excitement to open the pressie (note to self: tissue paper is a really bad idea as it tears up into tiny little pieces that end up everywhere).

The birthday boy was far too engrossed in his new Nano Bug game to do any modelling shots for me. I'm not so sure that a fedora, vest, and boardies are a good look anyway!

Noah wanted to join in with the modelling action too.

There was a yummy barbecue dinner and bithday cake of course.

Storybook - Where's Chicken

I'd forgotten to make a birthday card, so luckily the wee girl came to the rescue yesterday. She designed all of her pieces for Moo Moo with a chicken theme - there was a chicken birthday card, a chicken jigsaw, an illustrated storybook, and a huge Pin the Beak on the Chicken game (including detachable beaks and blu-tack).

He has another birthday party on Saturday with all of his little kinder friends.... if only all our birthday parties could last for a week!

For a Little Miss

A certain Little Miss had a birthday yesterday.

I won't see her until Sunday to give her this pressie, but I've checked with her mum to make sure that she doesn't accidentally see this post.

I made her a little satchel bag using my dragster fabric, with an adjustable strap so that it can grow with her.

Now I just need to wrap it up and decide which flavour cake to bake Sunday arvo!

Happy Birthday Mr X

It was my eldest nephews birthday yesterday - 12 years have flown by so quickly, and he's so grown up and so tall these days!

We had a very yummy barbecue to celebrate lastnight. His mum made this yummy chocolate cake with cake pops on top. It was quite perfect because instead of the usual mad scramble to cut the cake, all the kiddies were given a cake pop and off they went... leaving an entire cake for the adults to eat. Much more civlised.

Mr X was lucky enough to receive an iPod Touch for his birthday, which made it very easy indeed for me to come up with a handmade pressie for him.

Oh, and as an added bonus, the headphone pocket on the back is perfect to pop in a little i-Tunes voucher. Fancy that!

Happy Birthday Bec

It's Bec's birthday today, so I made her a cake.

It was delicious!

Happy Birthday Bec.

Sunshine and Manbags

It's such a beautiful morning, and I'm feeling all inspired. Let's hope it lasts!

I suddenly realised yesterday afternoon that it's my second eldest nephews birthday tomorrow, and I hadn't made him a pressie. We're having cake at lunchtime today, so there was a bit of a mad panic rush lastnight to whip something up.

Manbag to the rescue....

Getting Quilty

It's not very often that I take on a challenge of making a quilt..... but little bubba Lucas who turned one on the weekend, has a very lovely auntie who asked me to make one for him.

The request was for something bright and colourful so it can be used as a pram quilt or a playmat. Luckily, bright and colourful just so happens to be right up my alley.

I had a few prints from the Michael Miller Bot-Camp range in the stash which I absolutely adore. I added in the various polkadots to add some more pop!

Keeping with the space theme, I added some stars as a backing fabric.....

Happy Birthday little Lucas!

Here's one I made earlier

One of the most depressing things that happened last week, was the fact that I missed the twins 2nd birthday. They did come in for a brief visit with me on their actual birthday, but they were more interested in running around the hospital cafeteria while trying to pinch the chupa chups that were set up at toddler height!

Thank goodness I was pre-organised this year, and already had their presents ready. We're going to have a little mini belated birthday cake session on Thursday to make up for it.

There's been many kerfuffles going on over at their house, about who gets to wear Moo Moo's Manbag, so I whipped up one for each of the twins, using some very groovy fabric that I bought from the Fat Quarter Shop before the dollar dropped.

I also found a good use for when there's one ball of yarn leftover from other projects....

I knitted up these little mini scarflettes, and added a vintage button from the stash. By the way, I have no idea how to do proper buttonholes - in this case, the button just pushes through the knitting.

Lets see how long these last around their necks before they end up on the floor!

The planned robot tees have been slightly delayed - not only is the scanner completely kaput, but now my PC is dead too....

My Creative Space

In todays creative space.....

Mr X and I are working on a birthday pressie for the twins who are turning two very very soon.......
Wowee how time flies!

A couple of t-shirts from Rivers, a robot drawing by Mr X, and some nice colourful textas.

We're using all of these to create one of a kind appliqued tees using the ink-jet printable fabric that I have left over from my Supasel Softie..... except that now my scanner has decided to chuck a conniption and won't talk to the PC. Aaaggghh!

The queen of creativity.

The Weekend

How time flies when I spend time hanging out with my little nephews.

I took Moo Moo and Nico to a friends sons 6th birthday party on Saturday.
The DS pouch was a hit - the birthday boy loved it!
All the kiddies had a great time - there was a pinata, pass the parcel, and pin the tail on the donkey.
I filled the boys up with sugar and food colouring and then delivered them both back home to their parents (that's the advantage of being the aunty).

Collecting firewood

On Sunday I headed out to mums place in the country for some fresh air with my Sister and BIL and the kiddies.

 Climbing into the goat enclosure

The boys had a great time running around and visiting all the animals on Nana's farm.

They got to feed the chooks and ducks, and collect the eggs....

...and talk to the goldfish.
 

There's a big tree in the paddock next to the house with four swings...

.... and plenty of space for fossicking.

What fun!

The Dirty Thirties...

It's my little brothers 30th birthday today!

You may ask - what on earth do you make a blokey bloke for his 30th birthday (I was asking myself that same exact question)?

Luckily the tea towel stash came to the rescue. I had ONE 1980 tea towel in the pile, and amazingly it wasn't covered in Australian Wildflowers like 99% of the other calendar tea towels.

There's not much choice when it comes to blokey fabrics, so I went with a camo print for the sides and brown and white gingham for the trim.

Now he's all set for tonights birthday barbecue!