Pretty party dresses

Seriously, how busy is this time of the year? I know Christmas is on the same date every year but these last few weeks of December seem to go by faster each year for me! And why do we feel it necessary to meet up with every single friend and acquaintance during the Christmas season? Next year I vow to have more dinner parties and get togethers in the months of July - October, so I don't feel bad if I can't make each event.

That said though, you know you've hit a bit of a lull in your social life when your nearly four year old has more parties to attend than you do! Aside from a few casual bbq's and a night out with some girlfriends I had no proper Christmas parties to attend and therefore no need for me to sew any pretty party frocks for me this year.  Anna however had two parties last weekend and demanded new dresses to wear to both, which I was happy to oblige because I'm sure the time will come soon enough when she demands I buy her new dresses, not sew them.

Using Style 2168, a 1977 vintage pattern that I've used once before I managed to turn out two dresses in quick succession.

The first is made of a cotton poplin bought from Spotlight from one of their many sales a while back, in an ultra cute pink apple print:

I don't think there's another time in your life when you could wear such a cute fabric and not be considered quirky or eccentric, but it's just right for a little girl who likes to spin and twirl:

The second dress was for a Minnie Mouse birthday party, so naturally I've made it from a red and white polka dot cotton, also from Spotlight (I should consider charging them for advertising for the amount of times they get mentioned here on my blog!):

I finished the neckline and sleeves in white bias tape trim, and also sewed some bias tape around the waist seam too, but since I knew Anna would want to wear this all the time I didn't want it to look too much like a Minnie Mouse costume so I left the trim at that.  Paired with some mouse ears the outfit looked way better than the store bought polyester numbers that the other girls were wearing.  Funnily enough it's the mouse ears that Anna hasn't stopped wearing everywhere and with everything.

So how is everyone else's Christmas preparations coming along? We're hosting a bbq at our house on Saturday so I need to give the house a thorough clean tomorrow as well as start preparing some food.  Thankfully I was realistic enough not to plan to sew many Christmas presents, and I got the one princess dress for Anna finished as well as a few little purses.  Sadly though I doubt I'm going to have time to make my December Burda garment, but oh well there's always next year!

Not Burda for a change: Butterick 5600

Whilst I'm immensely proud of myself for keeping up with my Burda a month challenge, it does feel like all I'm ever sewing these days are Burda patterns.  I have a few non Burda patterns on my to do list, but they keep getting pushed back each month when the new magazine arrives.  But since I'm still trying to decide on the fabric for the December Burda dress, I decided to make view c (the green dress) of Butterick 5600 which has been on my list for ages because it's a breastfeeding friendly dress:

Aside from the button up front, I like the longer sleeves with the button tab, the collar band and the waist ties.  Too bad then that I picked a fabric that pretty much hid all of those details!  I used a cotton poplin with a small black and white small floral print from the stash which is a good summer weight fabric for a simple summer dress, but the print was far too busy for any of those details to be obvious:

I did think about making the collar band and front band in a plain white fabric to contrast with the dress, but the print is actually a creamy white and all the white fabrics I had were too stark to match properly.  I then thought about putting some piping around the edge of the collar band and front band, but it was the same issue really with the mismatch in colours.

This is the perfect summer dress for me: the longer sleeves and higher neckline give me the sun protection I need but since it's made from cotton poplin it's still cool enough to wear on a hot day.  These photos were taken after I came home from a playgroup christmas party - two hours of standing around holding Toby (who is still sick and clingy) whilst being in the middle of a horde of small kids around a table of far too sugary foods, a jumping castle and a token dad dressed up as Santa handing out presents on a very hot day and it still looks pretty good!  Admittedly I did brush my hair to take this photo, but the dress remained pretty much uncrumpled.

And the dress is very practical, with two in-seam pockets.  I used to hate side pockets on my clothes because it adds bulk to a place where don't require any more bulk thanks to my saddlebag thighs, but these days practicality wins out and pockets are always useful these days to carry around the bits and pieces that are needed with small children (just got to remember to take those tissues out before washing!):

That side view isn't too flattering, but as you've all pointed out in the past in real life we don't often stand around posing like our photographs! Overall though, I'm pretty happy with this dress, and it works really well for nursing.  I only had to unbutton the top two buttons to be able to feed so there wasn't acres of skin on display.  It is a simple style and easy to sew, but it seemed to take ages because of all the little pieces involved and my inability to sew on the waistband casing straight twice.  If I make this again I would probably use a solid fabric and do a ton of topstitching around those bands, and maybe lengthen the sleeve a little so that it is a real folded up sleeve with a button tab instead of it being hemmed to the length of the tab.

The funniest bit about taking these photos is that Anna insisted on having her photo taken too, and then she proceeded to pose just like I had been! Her mannerisms are so grown up sometimes it's scary:

  

Summer sniffles

We've been one sick household this week just past.  It's cruel irony that now that the weather has warmed up we've all been laid low with summer colds instead of being out and about in the sunshine.  Poor little Toby has copped it the worst though - his cold turned into an infection in his sinuses with inflamed tonsils and an ear infection which has meant he's been in a fair bit of pain and general unhappiness.  Which also means exhaustion for us, because he hasn't wanted to sleep laying down so there were two nights last week when I slept sitting up in an armchair holding him.  Not great sleep quality as you can imagine......

I did manage to pop out last week to the Spotlight sale, but only bought the buttons and zippers I needed and not any fabric that I definately didn't need.  The store I went to (Birkenhead Point, absolutely hopeless) didn't seem to have any ponti fabric let alone the stripey one I wanted so I still don't know if it was on sale or not but I didn't get any.  Did anyone else score some bargains?

I didn't to get out to the Tessuti $10 remnant sale last weekend though, which is a pity because there is usually always something of interest on those tables.  We did all swarm around the remnant table on our Sydney sewists meet up day so maybe the good stuff from the city store was gone anyway!

On the upside however I was home last week to receive all the parcel deliveries that arrived, and now not only is all my christmas shopping done, but they're also all wrapped! Sorry to rub it into any of you that are still to do your shopping, but with two small children it's good to be organised.

I also managed to spend a little bit of time in my sewing room, making some more little shorts for Toby this time from new lengths of fabric although my husband the comedian did ask if I had refashioned a tea towel when he saw these checked cotton seersucker shorts:

And look at this ultra cute elephant print cotton poplin bought from Spotlight, made up in a simple style but with a white rib waistband to give it a board short look:

Both are from McCalls 6016, the same pattern I used previously - isn't it amazing how changing small details like the pockets can make them look quite different?

I have traced out my planned December Burda pattern, but am still agonising over the fabric choice.  I must get started on it though - I want to end the year on a high note!

edited to add: Amy - a few posts back you asked where I donated my husbands suits, well I haven't actually done it yet because they are still sitting in my car, but the Metro Migrant Resource Centre in Sydneyham accepts them as part of their Dress for Work program and is where I plan to take them when I get my act together!  Also if you have any women's work wear to donate check out Dress for Success, located in Marrickville.

Hmmm, interesting!

Last weekend I was reading an article in the free magazine that comes with the Sunday Telegraph newspaper about women and their finances at various life stages, when this picture that accompanied the article struck me as very familiar:

Clearly I have a strong memory for remembering the unnecessary, because when I pulled out the Burda magazine from September in 2009 (back in the good old days when it was BWOF) I discovered it is from the same photo shoot as used in the magazine for dress #112:

Maybe this explains why the photos in Burda magazine are sometimes more artistic and over the top stylistic than useful for seeing the detail of the clothing - because they are destined to be in magazines other than just a sewing magazine!

Thanks to all those who left a lovely comment about my stripey dress in the last post.

Gail - your observation about being able to breastfeed from the excessive underarm openness of the original design was so hilarious I laughed out loud!

Janine - this fabric is in the knit section of Spotlight, but instead of being on a roll it's wrapped around flat cardboard like quilting fabric.  There was quite the range of striped and plain colours in the two Spotlights near me.

RebeccaHoward - I think Spotlight is getting better fabric these days, in amongst the awful colours and polyesters there are some nice printed cotton sateens, Japanese lawns that are very similar to Liberty at a quarter of the price, the Lisette range of fabrics and some lovely vintage floral printed cotton plisse that I'm trying very hard not to buy!

Angela - Spotlight is a chain of fabric/craft stores here in Australia, I think it's probably similar to Joann's in the US.  And you're right about Toby being a bit of a handful, he is so wriggly and  reaches out to grab anything he can get hold of especially if it belongs to his sister!

Carolyn and Debi - it just so happens that I received another Spotlight catalogue in the mail yesterday and winter ponti is advertised at $4/m down from $14.99/m so fingers crossed it includes this range so I can stock up on some more (but not too much of course!).  For everyone else in Australia sewing patterns are also half price at Spotlight from Thursday, which is the cheapest we'll ever get - no such thing as 99c sales here!

Sorry Dilly for teasing you with tales of our hot weather, but I'm much rather the cold to the excessive heat being a fair skinned red headed that just cannot handle the heat.  And a white Christmas sounds so romantic and traditional!

Bonus Burda of the month: 11/2012 #136B

We've had a mini heatwave the last few days so I haven't been able to take any photos without looking like a sweaty, frazzled mess but I promise I made this latest project from the November issue in the month of November.  How's that for tackling my Burda challenge head on and then some? Admittedly, the dress I chose to make is easy peasy, but still - two garments from the one issue in the same month!

I chose to make 11/2012 #136B, a very simple kimono sleeve dress with no shaping other than very curvy side seams:

Not my usual style, since I always feel the need to cinch in my dresses with vertical darts in the front and back, plus a swayback adjustment and a narrow shoulder adjustment. But one of my good friends recently wore a similar style dress in a stripe knit which looked fantastic so I decided to copy the look using the multi colour stripe ponti that I've been wanting to use for a while:

Remember I asked you all whether I should make a dress or skirt from this fabric? Well I'm glad I went with the dress option because I love, love, love this dress! It's so comfortable because the ponti (a Japanese ponti from Spotlight) is very soft and has enough stretch for comfort but isn't thin enough to be clingy.  Plus it's fairly casual in a nice way, and I think it looks really flattering.  Even better, I took this photo after I'd been out shopping and it's hardly wrinkled at all.

Of course, being a Burda pattern there had to be some issue with it.  Foolishly, I didn't notice on the pattern diagram or the model photo in the magazine nor when I was tracing out the pattern that side seam finished well below the bust line and not under the armpit like a normal dress.  And in my humble opinion, there is nothing more unsexy than a flash of side cleavage even if you are a supermodel with a spectacular bust.  You can see in the photo below that the armhole opening is slashed almost to my waistline:

This would be ok if I had planned to make this as a winter dress to be worn over another layer, but since it's a summer dress I knew that I didn't want to wear anything under it so I decided to try to modify it to make it a more standard kimono style before hacking in half to make a skirt.  The photo below shows the new seamline where I sewed it to a point under my armpit and back down to the sleeve hem, as opposed to finishing so low:

I could have taken the seam straight across from the point to the sleeve edge instead of angling it downwards, but I wanted to keep the flutteriness around the sleeves so I didn't want to reduce the width of the sleeve at the hem line.  I think it works too, because now the sleeve is closed up under the arms but isn't puckered or bunched up and I've still maintained that flowiness around the shoulders:

Making that change doesn't restrict arm movement at all, and nor is it too tight across the bust line so it was a good save.  I much prefer this fabric in a dress to a skirt because I just don't know what top I would have worn with a skirt.

And best of all, check out the seam matching at the shoulder line:

To get that seam matching I did have to slide the front piece along the back piece until the lines matched, which meant there was a bit of overhang at the sleeve edge and neck edge:

But I just trimmed the sleeve edge to make it even and the loss of that bit of length from the sleeve and at the neckline isn't too noticeable and was worth it for that chevron effect.  (Just ignore that horrible amount of skin under my arms and nude coloured bra strap you can see - this was before I sewed up the side seam).

The other change I made to the pattern was to draft a facing for the neckline because I didn't want any visible top stitching since I wouldn't be able to match the thread colour to the fabric.  Because this is an 'easy' style in the magazine, the pattern instructions called for neatening the seam edge, folding and stitching which is what I would have done if this was a solid fabric colour, but I think the neck facing looks cleaner for this fabric.

My final verdict: when Spotlight has it's next sale on fabric (probably any minute now since it seems to happen very regularly) I'll buy some more of this fabric in a different colourway and make another version or two of this dress.  Sure it's not nursing friendly, but these days I can't feed Toby unless we're in complete isolation anyway because he gets so distracted so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

And speaking of Toby - yes Angela he is standing.  A little too early for my liking, because he surprised me one day by standing up in his cot and I hadn't pulled the sides up yet so thankfully he hadn't toppled out but I freaked out anyway! He is such a strong little boy and he seems to be hitting his physical milestones much earlier than Anna, so much so that I need to get started on babyproofing the house because he's very nearly crawling too.

So now I need to finish the year on a high note and make something from the December issue.  It arrived in Friday's mail, and I think it's going to be a little tough because there isn't too much in there catching my eye at my moment.  But I shan't let Burda beat me - I'll find something I'm sure.

Spring Cleaning

Given that this Saturday is the 1st of December and the start of summer, it's a bit late for a post titled 'spring cleaning'.  But seriously, it has taken me that long to get it all done! And I don't usually go in for the one big spring clean of the year, I prefer to clean when necessary (which with two kids seems to be all the time) but this year one thing led to another.  I had to clean the curtains in our living and dining room because Anna spilt some chocolate milk all over them while jumping on the lounge with a bottle in her hand, and then when the curtains were down I noticed how dirty the windows were.  So I cleaned the windows which took ages since we have a wall of louvred windows which means many, many panes of glass plus a massive sliding glass door.  And then when the windows were sparkling clean I noticed how dusty everything in the room was.......

And as I said in the last post, since we've decided to sell our house next spring I've been on a massive decluttering phase made easier by clearing out my husband's stuff when he's not home! He is such a hoarder - I know I have lots of stuff but at least it's properly stored and I'm (slowly) using it, but he has been hanging on to ratty college t-shirts that are 20 years old, heaps of cricket gear even though he hasn't played for years and several sets of golf clubs even though he only uses the newest ones.

So while he was at work I threw out a big pile of ratty clothes, donated a big bag of decent clothes and when he came home he even thanked me for cleaning up his wardrobe but didn't notice that he had half the amount of clothes he had previously! In fact he even joined in by culling a few suits and a stack of business shirts that we plan to donate to an organisation that assists men trying to get back into the workforce.

I decided to hang onto a few of his business shirts that were too worn around the collar and cuffs but were otherwise quality fabric (my husband loves his designer labels), so that I could refashion them.  So from one of his business shirts that is a thick cotton with a fine blue stripe I made two pairs of shorts for Toby, kept the buttons and chucked the scraps into the bin.

I used Ottobre 3/2009 #14 for one pair, but I found them to be a little too short and too wide legged for my liking.  For the other pair I used McCalls 6016 which I modified the pattern by lowering the waistline, narrowing and lengthening the leg - it is such a big sized pattern for the size marked on the envelope that I almost wonder if the envelope is a misprint.  But anyway I've now made myself a TNT pattern for Toby's shorts that I will use over and over again, because let's face it what else is there to make for little boys?

From my big box of UFOs and wadders, I turned a pair of unfinished shorts I started for myself that failed in the making because they were too tight into another pair of shorts for Toby.  Again using the McCalls pattern all I did was add patch pockets to the back cut on the bias for a bit of interest:

Also from my box of clothes to be refashioned, I remade a stretch linen skirt in navy I made pre-blogging days and have washed and worn far too many times:

Big sister Anna wasn't to be left out (not without loud protest anyway).  For her I refashioned a strapless shirred dress that someone gave to me that I've never worn because I don't have the necessary assets to keep a strapless dress up, but it is such a soft cotton with a cutesy cotton lace border that it suits a little girls dress better anyway.  All I did was to chop off 20cm from the bottom and use that to make cap sleeves with a ruffle, and take it in about 10cm down the sides:

Unfortunately all this sewing activity has made little noticeable difference to the amount of stuff in my sewing room and hasn't reduced my stash any, but I just can't bear to waste textiles knowing how energy is embodied in each piece, even the crappy bits.  So to get a bit more wear out of some fabric in a different way makes me happy!

Sydney sewists meet up success!

Thanks to everyone who came along on Saturday - I had a fantastic time and it was wonderful to meet you all in the flesh.  I have to admit to feeling a bit nervous beforehand, sort of like when you organise a party and worry what if no one turns up? Or what if people come and just stand around not talking to each other? But I need not have worried because not only did quite a group of us turn up (and found each other instantly in Tessuti's!) I don't think we all stopped talking the entire time!  In fact we had such a good time we're planning another in February next year, so to all those who couldn't make it this time I look forward to you coming to the next one.

Like Christy over at Little Betty I spent a fair bit of time trying to decide what to wear beforehand.  It had to be self made of course but since that's the majority of my wardrobe that's easy, and I wanted a dress since I didn't need to consider functionality given I was going to be sans kids.  In the end though Toby helped me decide - just as I was leaving and I handed him over to his dad he decided to deposit his lunch all down my front, so I had to change out of the black and yellow print Burda sundress from a few posts ago, to a simple sheath dress I made pre-pregnancy from some cotton bought at Tessuti's a while back from New Look 6968:

I was very relieved to still be able to fit into it although it was a little snug, although I could do without the bruises on my legs as accessories.  The wonderful Colette at Tessuti's recognised the fabric straight away, even though it was from a few years ago.  And speaking of Colette, she very generously gave our group a nice discount on our purchases, so I think most of us walked out with a carrier bag (some larger than others!).

I however was very restrained on the day, only buying three pieces.  You see we're planning to sell our house next year and I'm becoming acutely aware of how much stuff we have, not just in my sewing room but in our entire house.   The thought of packing up my house, my sewing room and my ginormous stash is in my mind every time I'm out shopping so I'm trying to stop buying so much stuff!  And to make it worse we're planning on building a new house and so in the intervening time we'll probably be living in a two bedroom apartment we own nearby.  Crazy I know, especially since we have two kids now, but it's to save some $$ during building, so my beloved stash will be in storage for some time and I'll have to be quite disciplined in project planning during that time.

But with a discount on offer at Tessuti's I couldn't resist, and I bought a gorgeous Liberty print cotton to make a nice shirt, and some blueberry ponti to make a dress of some sort for when I'm back at work next March:

And from The Fabric Store I picked up a cotton print that I plan to make a shirt style dress from:

So thank you to all the ladies that came along, it was wonderful meeting you all in real life.

P.S Therese, can you please email me your email address so I can get back to you on those measurements you want - I can't see an email address on your blog or your blogger profile.  Thanks!

Burda of the Month: 11/2012 #124 (and Vogue 2659 for good measure)

I'm so excited y'all! Sorry, I've been watching far too much Dr Phil since I've been on maternity leave and way too many Dr Phil-isms have pervaded my everyday language.....

I'm not so excited about the latest project, sure it's a rather nice skirt but it's just an a-line skirt afterall, but I am more excited about the fact that I've made something from the November issue IN the actual month of November!  In the same year too! It's only taken the best part of the year, but it means I've fulfilled my challenge to sew something from each issue of Burda in the month I receive it, from fabric already in the stash. I'm so proud of myself 'cos usually I'm severely lacking in willpower to keep up with little challenges I set myself.

Ok, enough chest beating on my part.  The latest Burda project was so easy it was almost cheating on my challenge, but after all those lovely but thoroughly impractical dresses I thought it was about time I sewed something that I need right now to fit in with my current lifestyle.  An a-line skirt with pockets and a touch of topstitching is just what I need to hang out at the playground this summer, so I chose #124 which looks like this:

The magazine recommends wool for this pattern which I think would be lovely for a winter garment, although I'm not too sure about that bright orange with the teal blue stockings.  Since it's summer around here I decided something more lightweight was needed, and I had a piece of brilliant emerald green cotton drill sitting in the stash for sometime that was perfect for this project.  It was an opshop purchase ages ago, so there wasn't alot of length, but there was just enough for this skirt with only tiny scraps leftover that went in the bin and not the scrap bag so I'm happy about that too!

There's not much to say about the construction of an a-line skirt really, it was a really quick sew and the only time consuming bit was making those welt pockets on the front.  For some reason I can do double welt pockets easily, but single welt pockets perplex me a little.  I practised on some scrap fabric first, and the final version turned out really well.  As usual the Burda instructions were very difficult to understand, so I turned to David Coffin's "Making Trousers for Men & Women" but these are either written in a highly technical manner or I'm just too tired at the moment but it took a while for it to click for me.  Of course, after I had finished this skirt I discovered this tutorial for a single welt pocket over at seamstress: poppykettle which is far more comprehensive and easy to understand than the books and other tutorials I have read.  What was that rant I had about tutorials a few posts back? Ok, maybe I was very wrong.....

And now that I have another look at the pattern picture that I just posted up there I notice it was meant to be double welt pockets anyway!  Oh well, the skirt still looks pretty good in a single welt pocket, but I do think they are too widely spaced on me because the welts sort of jut out because they are sitting on my hip bone.  If I make this again I would probably bring them a little bit closer to the front so they sit flatter.

So when I first made this I intended to wear it with a black and white stripe tshirt that I already had, but it was stretched out and looked terrible.  But instead of dashing off to the shops to find a replacement tee, I instead went to Spotlight and bought some black and white stripe ponti on the last day of their 30% off fabric sale, and made a boat neck tee from Vogue 2659, which is an OOP pattern from 2002:

Again, such a simple t-shirt doesn't require much description of it's construction method, but I did make one change to the order of construction - instead of sewing the facing onto the finished garment in a ring, I sewed the facings on to the back and front pieces while they were still separate, and then sewed the front to the back with the shoulder seam and facing seam in one long seam.  I saw this on someone else's blog (sorry have forgotten who otherwise would have given credit) and it's a really good tip - I think the facing sits flatter this way.  Ordinarily I would have just ironed on some seam stabiliser and turned the seam allowance under and stitch, but I didn't want any visible top stitching around the neckline on this one, which is why I went with the facings instead.

Normally I use Burda 2/2009 #108 for my go to pattern for a boat neck top which I've made several times with success, but I couldn't find it in the mess that is my sewing room so decided to go with this Vogue pattern instead of retracing (anything to avoid tracing!).  I think the Vogue looks ok, it could probably be taken in a bit at the sides and I think the neckline sits a little too high on me, but for about $10 worth of fabric and about an hour and half of sewing I've got myself a much better quality top than I could've bought for that price and in that time frame.

And it turns out that a bright green skirt is more versatile than you'd think.  Aside from my black and white top and the rather predictable pairing with white, black or grey, I found colour inspiration in a K-mart catalogue of all places to wear a bright floral with it.

I'm pretty sure I could find some suitable fabrics in my fabric stash to make some cute tops to wear with the skirt (no offence Kmart but I shan't be buying your polyester made in China clothes), if not I can always buy something this Saturday at the Sydney sewists meet up.  It's my birthday tomorrow so I'm giving myself permission to buy a birthday present (or three!)

And for those who sadly can't make it this weekend, never fear I'm sure we'll have another one soon!

Reminder: Sydney sewing obessives meet up!

Ok, clearly I need more sleep because I was being as clear as mud in the last post about the Sydney sewing fans meet up this Saturday coming.  It is on the 24th November, and not the 17th as I wrote in the last post (well spotted Debbie Cook!).   My husband accused me of deliberately mixing the dates up so I could get two free Saturdays in a row (and what would be wrong with that I asked him?), but no just me getting things mixed up.  This is why I use an old fashioned Filofax to keep my life in order.....

And if you're looking for this pattern over at the Burda Style website:

so you can make a pretty dress too like I did a few posts ago, the pattern number is actually #118A of issue 10/2012, not #108 as I wrote in the post.  In fact here's the link to the downloadable pattern if you don't have that issue.  Sorry to Almeda and anyone else that I sent off on a wild goose chase!

But on the upside, I'm so glad you're all paying so much attention to what I have to say!

Suck it up, baby!

I'm glad so many of you agreed with my little rant on the unnecessary repetition of tutorials and it wasn't just me! Although ReadyThreadSew did make a good point - sometimes you do need to read many tutorials before you find the one that clicks for you, so in that regard I suppose it's good there are many out there.  And one of the best thing about the internet is that if you find something that annoys or offends you, just click away.  Or better yet turn off your computer and go outside for some fresh air - something I should do more often!

Anyway, one of Toby's emerging teeth have finally popped through, so he's calmed down and we're having what I imagine is going to be a brief reprieve until the next one comes out.  But the dribble! Still with the dribble by the bucket loads.  The poor little thing had quite a red chin rash which is not a good look, so I decided to pause in my selfish sewing and make him some dribble bibs, also known as bandanna bibs.  For those of you that don't have kids and aren't closely acquainted with baby dribble they are simply triangle bibs that are smaller than regular ones because their sole purpose is to keep the neck and clothes of said baby dry.

I found a really cute sheep print in Spotlight's nursery knits line, which is a cotton knit and just right when backed with some terry towelling from some nappy squares I have loads of but use for other things than nappies since I use modern cloth nappies.  Actually Raewyn if you're still reading, thanks again for the nappies and the Little Squirt hose you gave me when I was preggers with Anna - they are still being used in our house and have proved to be a very useful gift.

So after my rant about unnecessary tutorials, I wouldn't dare offer one for making these! Really, it's just two triangles sewn together with a couple of snaps on the end, so a tutorial really isn't necessary, but if you don't have ready access to a child and would like to make some of these (I think they would be a really good gift along with the standard burp cloth and receiving blanket) here are the dimensions I used:

The dimensions I used (it it's not clear above: 40cm for the long edge around the neck, 27cm long for the other two sides and a height of 17cm from the point to the neck edge) fit a chubby 8 month old with some extra room so it should fit for some time yet to come.

If you wanted to get really fancy, The Purl Bee has a tutorial for a fancy schmancy double layer bandanna bibs that are really pretty.  I however prefer to keep these things quick and simple, given they are destined to become grubby and be discarded eventually.  And doesn't Toby look pretty happy with his?

Just a reminder to anyone in Sydney that sews, blogs, or just reads blogs about sewing that we're having a meet up next Saturday (17 Nov edit: 24 Nov), kicking off at 12.30pm at Tessuti's Surry Hills store.  I got a little too excited about it and thought it was on today - I realised it just after my husband went out with the two kids on his own for the first time, so I had quite the productive and peaceful afternoon.  My husband was a bit tired when he got home, but after 8 months it was about time I think!