I made a dress, but didn't iron it.

I managed a spot of sewing last week which was fun. I used an old work shirt of Chris' and this tutorial and now Jemima has a new dress for summer. The fabric is quite lovely and very good quality- but he can't wear it anymore because he has changed jobs and it has the old company logo above the pocket.

I added buttons in the back bodice of the dress to help with getting it on and off and left the shirt hem which is such a bonus as hemming is one of my least favourite sewing necessities. Another bonus is that Jemima actually LIKES it (I think it is the pockets... and the novelty of it being one of Daddy's old shirts.) I have 5 other business shirts in the pile, so there will probably be a few more shirt refashions in my future.

And many, many thanks for all your congratulatory comments on Eve's arrival! I was a bit hit and miss with responding to everyone, but I appreciated each and every one. She is settling into the family well with a swag of nicknames to prove it. We are tired, but taking life at a different (slower!) pace to accommodate our newest addition, which is actually quite lovely.

Look what I've got.

Eve Amelie

Born 1st September

3.14kg 47cm

So so precious

Baby's quilt finished!

I finished the baby's quilt last week sometime. It is a jumble of fabrics that I happened to have in the stash. Mostly scraps that have been used for other projects. I cut and sewed quite randomly- which means you can't make a mistake. Perfect!

The carpel tunnel syndrome made progress on hand stitching the binding slow going, but we made it!

Nursery in a nook

My mum, sister and my brothers' wives surprised me with the gift of a little crib a few weeks ago. It was lovely to get one as a present, as we had never bought one for our babies, and it will be passed onto my younger sisters when they start their families one day.

I had been planning up until this gift to pop baby straight into her own room (as our room isn't big enough for the full sized cot). But with this gift, set to decorating a little nook in our room for our spring baby.

The garland was made using this Cakies tutorial, the beautiful birdy decals were from here (the rest are in the baby's room), the heart was an op shop find from some time ago, and do you spy Jess' gorgeous crocheted panda potholder? He is lovely.

Meet Emily, not a gift for the baby but for Jemima when the baby is born. You will no doubt recognise her as a Dandelion bunny (available from here). She is so beautiful, I want one too! I thought she looked right at home in this little scene, so I snapped a pic, then hid her away again!

I made the crib sheet out of a vintage sheet. The same one I used to back the baby quilt actually. It was my second attempt that was successful as the first turned out a little small. I used this tutorial over at made, but had to come up with my own dimensions.

The little artwork I made using patterns printed out from this website, was inspired very much by Castle and Things art, as well as the ladies over at Dottie Angel and Thimbly Things. I cut out letters and hearts freestyle using scissors and used a small paper doily, sticking everything on brown paper (which I had stuck to cardstock for extra strength.)

I met a lady with a tiny baby at the park this afternoon, who went to the same hospital I am going to. She was told she was having a girl, and in actual fact had a boy! She had a feeling she was having a boy, so it wasn't a huge shock, fortunately! I have no inklings about such things, but I have held onto Caleb's old clothes just in case they have it wrong... and I'm sure he won't mind if there are flowers and pink in his decor!

More baby business

*Mobile* Caleb had a bright green, purple and orange mobile that you could wind up and it spun and played music. Jemmie used it too. I left it in her cot a little too long though and a cheeky little brother and sister pair destroyed it. I made Baby 3 this low tech mobile out of a garland I had made for another purpose. Just some string, a ring, an embroidery hoop and some hot glue, and here it is. It doesn't play music and I am too scared to hang it over her cot in case it were to fall on her, but it is pretty enough.

*Shoes* These have been on the list for my baby since the start, but I had to work myself up to do them as I have had many a fail with these innocent looking little shoes. They are from the Meet me at Mikes book and are quite easy, but fiddly due to their tininess. I made a little non-functional mistake on one of them, but I am trying not to let it bother me. Can't wait to put little feet in them!

*Photos* Some photos of Baby 3's loving sibs. Great shots taken by my sister (aka ESJAY Creative). I poladroided them to make them extra quirky, but I don't think I really needed to. Sweet paper frames from Ikea.

Still more to show and do, but the list is getting shorter...

Among other things, a cushion

I have been a little makey crazy lately. Trying to tick as much of the crafty list as possible before Miss Baby makes her appearance. I plan to post everything eventually to make a little record of my nesting projects, but in the meantime, here is a cushion I have been planning to make for about 12 months.

It is an oppy table cloth that had a little stain in the middle, and backed with soft black denim from spotlight. I made it an "envelope back" or something so I didn't have to attach any closures. This cush will be used in the baby's room, but later will fit right into the lounge room.

I really like how it turned out- reminds me of Tiny Happy creations which I love.

I'm not going to lie and say I managed this cush with no mistakes. I did make a little error that took about as long to fix (hello 10 minutes of unpicking) as to make the cover itself. But that is just me and sewing and I am trying to come to terms with that!

I am also coming to terms with my preggo induced carpel tunnel syndrome that makes crochet off limits, and unpicking seams rather painful actually. It also makes hand sewing my binding on my quilt kind of off limits too... but I am so determined to finish it anyway. 5 minutes at a time if necessary! (And if I machine sew anything I will have to try SUPER hard not to make any mistakes!)

Baby Kimono - Just a pass, maybe

If I were to grade my latest crafty effort here (Lucy's Kimono from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross), I would barely scrape in a pass. It started out well enough, but then the obstacles kept on coming...

• I really really hate working with bias tape. I hardly ever do it because I find it so annoying. I think my tape was too skinny for this project (actually probably for any project). I didn't sew the tape on correctly onto the kimono, but it worked out OK. Not as OK is the ends that you tie are completely unfinished. I tried to finish them, but the skinny bias got sucked into my machine and I had to take it apart to get it out again. Was only going to do that once! So the ends will probably go fray-crazy in the wash. Oh well.
• None of the seams are finished. The instructions don't actually insist on this. I started finishing the seams, but got lazy.
• I am sure as sure can be there is an error in the instructions. I have googled the pattern and people mention the bias tape should be longer, but my main problem was that the instructions call for inserting both ties in such a way that they both end up on the outside. So I changed that a little bit, not before blindly following the instructions though and getting annoyed.

I am pretty tempted to give this another try and do it properly, but this took me 3 hours of precious kid free time, and I don't really know if I want to do that. It looks pretty cute in the photo, so I am warming up to it.

On the plus side, I am very confident my quilt will be finished before baby comes, unless I get an early surprise. (Very unlikely)