look who's two!

Hi y'all, I'm back home from holidays. Although any parent will tell you that travelling with children isn't actually holidaying, it's just parenting in a different place with additional challenges because the kids are out of their comfort zone. Anna was extremely naughty the whole time, but Cairns in tropical north Queensland is a beautiful place and we managed to have a good time despite her best attempts to sabotage it! We took a boat trip out on the Great Barrier Reef and saw some beautiful coral and fish, a day trip into the amazing Daintree rainforest (a world heritage listed wet tropics area), and a fair bit of splish splashing in the huge outdoor pool in Cairns since it was so hot.

I don't know if this has made worldwide news yet, but most of Queensland is currently under flood, in fact an area greater than Germany and England together is affected and today there is a major flood crisis in Brisbane and surrounds. There was no catastrophic event like Hurricane Katrina, but the aftermath of the flooding is just as bad. My inlaws in Ipswich have been evacuated and will be safe, but we are worried about their property though. My thoughts are with all those in Qld, I could not imagine losing everything or fearing for your life in this manner. I hope you all keep dry and safe.

Anna had her second birthday while we were away, I cannot believe how quickly the last two years have passed. It such a cliche that you hear parents often say, but now that I have lived it I can understand how true it is. How did I get from this:

to this so quickly?

Of course another birthday means another birthday dress. This year I went for a simple style with some cutesy embellishment:

It's a red stretch cotton poplin made into a simple shift dress with a double layered puff sleeve made using McCalls 5916 which is now firmly a TNT dress pattern. I used some black gingham bias tape for the neckline and sleeve edge, which meant I could eliminate the neck facing so it was even quicker to sew because while sewing in miniature isn't difficult it can get fiddly sometimes.

I used some heat'n'bond transfer paper to iron on a dacschund image from black gingham on the front of the dress. That stuff is magic - very quick and easy to use and this dress has gone through the wash twice now and there's no hint of fraying of the edge of applique, and it is still firmly stuck on despite no sewing. Basically all you do is iron the heat'n'bond paper to your fabric, cut out whatever shape you want, peel off the backing paper and then iron it onto your garment (or other fabric), and you're done! So simple, but much easier than doing applique stitch around the edges of your embellishment.

And here's my two year old who epitomises the phrase "terrible twos" to a tee, hamming it up for the camera:

Happily, she is back at daycare but my husband and I aren't back at work until next week so we have a few quiet days without her. I'd like to say we are relaxing and re-enacting life pre-child, but sadly we are painting the kitchen and hallway, so it's all go, go, go around here at the moment.

first birthday dress

Well first day of childcare went great for me - I practically skipped home and had fours hours of peaceful sewing in which time I nearly finished sewing a blouse from whoa to go except for the buttons. Not so great for Anna though.... Apparently she cried a lot and refused to eat or drink too. I only left her there for half a day today to ease her into it, and so I could bring her home for her afternoon nap in her own bed to lessen the trauma (which took more than an hour to settle her) but tomorrow she spends a whole day there. Oh well, I'm sure she'll be right! Is that heartless of me that I didn't even cry or feel bad at all? I just keep thinking it's something that countless little kids go through, and eventually when they toddle off to school it will be the same thing anyway.

I've just remembered that I forgot to show you all the little dress I made for her birthday. I plan to make a dress each birthday and put them away in a box so that she has quite a collection by the time she's 21. Of course she probably won't wear the dresses I make for her from the 13th birthday or so onwards, but still I like the idea of starting a new tradition. First up is this pretty pink number:

I used a vintage pattern, Butterick 5521 which is undated but is maybe early 1970s? It is a simple three panel tunic with a large tulip collar that would be just perfect for catching all sorts of food and drink spills if it were to be an everyday dress. I made the body of the dress out of some pink floral seersucker, and the collar from a waffle weave cotton in white that was from the stash.

It came out a little large for my little beanpole, so I took it in a little to get a better fit. It was also a little long even though Anna is quite tall for her age and despite the pattern envelope showing it as a top over shorts. There's those deceptive pattern illustrations at work again!

It's getting a little hard to photograph this wriggly little worm now that she is power walking around holding onto the furniture, so lucky my mum was there to hold on to her for one little minute to get these photos:

Ahh yes, I only put one lot of christmas decorations this year, and yet there they still are in the background!

One thing that did mesmerise her was the candle on her birthday cake. That funny looking cake is supposed to be shaped as a number one, but it tasted better than it looks!

Which the birthday girl absolutely loved! Notice that I've already taken the dress off, and put her in a ginormous bib, that dress is sure not practical.

Thank you all for your lovely comments on the yellow skirt. It looks great when standing still and I can arrange the fabric to fall properly, but I decided to wear it out at least once and make a judgement on it after that. Verobirdie - I agree that the Burda blouse looks better in a solid rather than a floral like that used by Burda in the magazine, the details get lost otherwise. Redhotpepper - thanks for the tip on the saliva, sounds bizarre but I'll give it a go next time but napisan worked just fine this time around. Gail - I stocked up on some lovely shirting material when I was in Bangkok a few years ago, it was only $2 - $5 aus a metre and how I cursed luggage weight limits! Carolyn - I've been dusting ans polishing my heels, it's been a while but I can't wait to wear them again.

Now it you'll excuse me, I have some buttons to sew on and a few more patterns to cut out!

I need a holiday to recover from my holiday......

Phew, what a long two weeksI've just had. Holidaying with a little kid is certainly not easy, nor a whole lot of fun really. We flew up to Brisbane boxing day morning to stay at my in-laws for two weeks, with a few days in the middle spent out at a beach resort at Kingscliff so it should have been relaxing and easier for me with more hands to help out with the baby. Yeah except I didn't count on Anna being possessed by some evil spirit and turning into an absolute nightmare for the whole time!

Her sleep patterns, which are bad at the best of times, became atrocious and she woke crying and screaming frequently through the night, staying awake for a few hours between 1am and 3am and then waking up at 4.30am for the day. Daytime naps were just as difficult too. Then because she was tired she would scream and have tantrums in her highchair and not eat, just throw her food around making a huge mess. And then because she was tired and hungry she just couldn't cope at all - in the car she would scream and scream until she fell asleep, and all the other times she would be so clingy and whingy all day long. Anyway we're home now so hopefully she'll get back to normal soon.

The little monkey was also terribly spoilt with presents galore at christmas time from my family. I took a thriftier approach though, making her some presents instead. First up I made her a mini moopy stuffed toy, from this pattern over at neststudio:

So easy yet so cute. I also revamped this timber wagon I bought an op shop for $2:

Before:
After:

I gave it a coat of bright red paint and put Ikea wrapping paper inside the tray using some spray adhesive. It bubbled a little when the glue dried which was a tad annoying but I doubt the recipient noticed - she was too busy walking around using the wagon for support:

And of course I made her some clothes. Some really cutesy matching outfits that in a few years there will be no way she'll let me dress her in them, but for now she has no say in the matter! First up I made some yellow gingham shorts with black ribbon trim and a fabric yo-yo, with a top to match with yo yo flowers and the same black ribbon trim for stems. Mismatched vintage buttons too.
Next I made her some polka dot shorts, and made a little cap sleeve ruffle to sew onto a singlet I bought from Target. Again so quick and easy.

I also made some aqua blue gingham shorts with red ric rac trim, and a top to match with an appliqued butterfly from the gingham fabric with a stripe of red ric rac through the centre.

All of the shorts are made from the bloomers patterns in Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little People book, and the tops are morphed from Butterick 400 view C gown just shortened. I've used this pattern several times before because it's so simple with just two pattern pieces and the neck and arm openings are just finished with bias binding, but for these tops I just serged the seam allowance, turned it under and stitched it down.

Anyway I hope you all had great christmas celebrations, I have so much blog reading to catch up on to see how some of you survived the record snow falls in Europe and the US (we sweltered by the way!)

Dress to see santa

I've just notched up another parenting milestone - the annual torture of getting a photo taken with Santa Claus! Despite getting to the department store before the 9.30am start time, there was quite a queue and we waited 45 minutes to get our photo. I spent that time showing Anna all the christmassy stuff trying to get her used to it all, but to no avail because as soon as she got close to Santa there were tears and screams and lots of them!

So Anna's first christmas photo turned into an impromptu family portrait with Santa because the only way to get her to stop screaming was for me to hold her. She still didn't smile though, and this photo was the best of many that the photographer took (thank god for digital photography!):
Of course I had to make her a little outfit to have her photograph taken in. I made a simple little cotton dress with matching bloomers, and a detachable red spotted belt with a fabric yo yo on it.

For the dress I used a now OOP Butterick 400, which is a simple and basic pattern but which I knew fitted her having used it before. Again the line drawing on this pattern envelope is deceiving - it says one size only and shows a baby in the picture, yet Anna is nearly 12 months old now and it is still a little loose on her! I know she is a skinny baby, but this would be swimming on any baby younger. I left the fit a little loose though to make it easy to get on her, and just used the red belt to cinch it in. For the bloomers I just used a pattern from the Amy Butler Little Stitches for Little Ones book, again because I've used it before and I know it fits. And I'm trying to get my money's worth out of this book!

Originally I was just going to tie the red belt in a bow around Anna's chest, but the little munchkin kept pulling it apart and it sort of looked messy anyway. So I did what I did for the lilac top in my previous post - I put a press stud in the middle to join it but I also folded the ties down so they would hang down at just the right angle:

To cover the press stud and the folded section of the ties I put a fabric yo yo with a fabric covered button in the middle over the top of it which I think looks ultra cute and better than a bow: I also made some little shoes to match, which you don't see in the christmas photo because Anna kept pulling them off after about 2 seconds! But they are too cute:

I made these by adapting the free pattern for Heather Bailey's Bitty Booties. All I did was cut down the upper portion of the shoe, and sew in a ric rac ribbon tie.

And speaking of shoes, can any of you believe that I have gone practically all year without buying any new shoes at all?! Except slippers, which don't count, but I've gone through three pairs of those already. Long time readers would know I have a little shoe obsession, even having a special shoe cupboard for them and I spent almost my entire time pregnancy wondering about what shoes to wear (as it turned out, high heels still at 8 months). But I rectified that recently by acquiring these two pairs in the last few weeks:













The red heels are a birthday present from my parents and are actually of a sensible height to be very comfortable. And the sandals I bought on sale for 30% off and are a lovely coral colour with a very soft and safe rubber sole which is exactly what is needed when chasing a baby around who in the space of the last few days has decided to not only crawl but to climb stairs, walk around holding onto the furniture and stand up without holding onto anything at all!


Don't worry, the flyscreen door is closed in that last photo!

viking tunic or BWoF?

I was flicking through the stack of BWoF magazines that are piling up around here unused because I am otherwise occupied with my UFO odyssey, when I came across tunic 121 in the 4/2009 issue:

Looks very much like the viking tunic I made recently for my friend don't you think? I guess fashion really is circular.....

Speaking of the viking tunic, here it is in action:

I've put aside the viking sewing for now, and am concurrently trying to sew curtains for my sewing room, clean my sewing room and work on a UFO or two. I know I should concentrate on one task at a time and that way I would get through things quicker, but sewing tab top curtains and cleaning are sooooo boring!

Thanks for all your suggestions re: Anna biting while nursing. I am trying them all, so far with varying degrees of success. She is such a stubborn little thing! Yes Janine, she does turn her head whilst still attached, and she also squirms, kicks her legs, scratches, pinches and pulls my hair - feeding is certainly not a peaceful magical moment with her. And a second tooth has erupted this week, she has been chowing down on those teething rusks like crazy, although to look at her she looks like she's smoking a cigar:

little dress version 2.0

Thanks everyone for your advice re the croup, the steamy shower thing seemed to really help and Anna is all back to normal now thankfully.

Is it wrong to play dress ups with your baby like she is a doll? I went through Anna's clothes trying them out for size since she has outgrown so many now, and tried a few different outfit combinations. I took a photo of her in the little dress I made for her to wear in our family portrait taken last Saturday since I didn't take one that day.

I used an OOP Butterick 400, which is a basic pattern for babies. I made the basic tunic view C, which even though I have heaps of patterns for this style this is the only pattern I have this small. It is marked 'one size only' so I went off the measurements this time so it is a much better fit, but it is hard to know how much ease to allow for given that Anna is still sitting frog legged and has a big nappy bum as well! But I made it to the pattern measurements hoping for the best and it fits ok, although I lopped a few inches off the bottom and it could probably lose a little more length still.

It looks a little baggy and long when she is standing up, but fits just fine when she is sitting down which is most of the time so I'm happy with it. I made from a baby blue corduroy, and used a cotton polka dot facing, with matching fabric covered buttons and a band across the front finished with pink ric rac.

In case you're wondering how I manage to get such serene looking photos of Anna, here's what goes on during the process (ordeal):

First she had a tanty:

Then she looked one way:

Then she looked the other:
Then she finally looked straight ahead! Thank god for digital cameras I say! And did you notice that one tooth she has? Well she has been putting it to good use, biting on everything she can get her hands on and she has literally been biting the 'hand' that feeds her if you get my drift! She bit me so hard the other night she drew blood, so if she keeps this up she'll be going on formula soon. I hope this doesn't mean she's going to be one of those naughty kids at school that bites everyone LOL!

the great wall of fabric

Dear blog readers feast your eyes on this:

I'm pretty confident that this is my entire stash and I don't have any other bags stored at my parents house or on under a bed somewhere. So a few obversations:

1. I have a lot of fabric, but I sew regularly and it makes me happy so I'm not buying into the whole guilt trip thing.

2. I have lots of great fabric and fondling the fabric whilst folding it has given me so many ideas that I have about a millenium worth of projects lined up in my head.

3. I have heaps of grey fabric, which is ok because I make a lot of grey clothes. But weirdly I also have lots of orange and brown fabrics which I rarely wear.

4. I have a real hoarding tendency - I was going to get rid of some fabrics that I know I'll never use, but since I had enough space I couldn't bring myself to do it!

5. There is still some space there on the shelves, so I can't say I will completely stop buying more, but I will try to shop the stash first.

It has taken me the best part of two weeks to get my stash into this beautifully neat and ordered vision, not only because of the amount of fabric, or the fact that I had to do another trip to Ikea to get another shelf unit but also because I had to deal with constant interruptions from these two:

Anna would only play in her portable cot for a while before getting cranky, so I propped her up in the washing basket with some lovely soft microfleece and she seemed a bit happier for a little bit longer (it's not child abuse, she's doing some early bonding with fabric!). She still needs to be held most of the time and be given lots of attention though, so my window of getting things done with two hands is still limited. One of the mums in my mother's group is thinking about going back to work because she is bored: she sits around waiting for her daughter to wake up from her 2 hour naps three times a day. I am so jealous to say the least, but I have too many ideas in my head to ever be bored.

Thanks everyone for your feedback on the finer details of cloth nappies. I love having such an interactive blog getting advice on all these things because none of my real life friends cloth nappy or sew. Anyway I managed to salvage some of the bamboo fleece that I stupidly made into nappy liners and made some absorbent soakers four layers thick. This, combined with another soaker pad of four microfibre layers seems to give a really good amount of absorbency without too much bulk. In fact last night Anna slept through from 8pm to 5am (yay for small miracles) and her nappy lasted that entire time without any leakage.

Well I have so much more tidying up to in the sewing room before I can get any sewing done - that photo above doesn't show the great mountain of stuff that is in the rest of the room.....