School Holidays Day #1

I struggle to keep my children occupied. They both love creating as I do, so when I'm busy sewing, cutting, designing, blogging etc. They get quite bored. I have been really blessed since Ruthie started school, as I have been able to use Olly's nap time for my blogging, sewing, cutting and designing time, it has been working out well :-) Then... along comes school holidays. I swear it snuck up on me and that she surely has only been going to school for like 6 weeks... Turns out its only been 8 so I wasn't far off!

So in order to keep miss Ruth entertained I have decided to do something fun with her every day that Olly can join in on, so that she can have quiet time when he is sleeping and I don't miss out on my sewing cutting and designing time!

Yesterday we made Mini Hot Cross Buns from a fairy tale cook book that "Santa" brought her for Christmas last year. Baking might just be my daughter's favourite thing ever, but then I introduced her to kneading, she might be now addicted and will be begging me to make bread, which I don't mind as I love making bread myself.

The recipe was pretty basic, and didn't really taste that good, so I will be searching for a new recipe for This Friday as we will have to have hot cross buns for Good Friday.

kneading and rolling the individual balls of dough into the pan.

we were singing a roll the dough song and he was rolling his hands like we were, it was very cute, but do you think he would do it for the camera?? don't be silly... Olly was having a great time watching though :-)

Piping on the crosses. This mixture was very thick and quite difficult to pipe, and I've piped some difficult stuff in my time as a bakery lady when I was pregnant. Next time calls for more water in the mix, even though you aren't meant to!

the finished MINI hot cross bun. It is very tiny. 

The buns might not taste very nice, but Ruthie loved baking for the day. Now to top that today!!

Amy 

Admitting Weakness

I set to completing my wonderful cool batman outfit on Saturday Afternoon, which I was confident was going to be AWESOME!! anyway looking at pictures online so that I could get a good idea of what to do, My wonderful daughter came up and said "ohhhh so that's who batman is... My friend already has a batman outfit mummy" **insert cry of defeat here** I was devastated. I couldnt believe that my beautiful work was going to waste.. I decided that I wasnt going to give a batman costume if he already had one and searched and searched for ideas of what to make him.

Eventually I came across this... Art Bag Tutorial which is quite girly, but I thought I could whip one up and then maybe chuck in the batman cape as well... this is where my weakness comes in.

I am prone to "whipping things up" at the last second. But then I decide whilst making it, "oh this would look great with *insert whatever embellishment i think of here* on it. And this is what happened with the Art Bag...

 

I most certainly couldnt give a plain art case to someone, so I decided to do a small amount of hand embroidery... as you can see, my weakness came back and I did more than a small amount of hand embroidery. But it does look AMAZING! All of the other mums were green with envy so I no doubt will have made 50 of these by the end of the year... :-p

Complete with a ben 10 colouring book which of course is very cool right now, this went off to its new owner yesterday afternoon. I (without exaggerating) finished it 5 minutes before we had to leave, still in my pjs. Thank goodness for Mick being home or we would have been horribly late as I would have had to get us all ready in 5 minutes! The photos arent very well staged as I took them 2 seconds before we left for the party. 

Weakness.... it sometimes pays to give in... 

Finally!!!

Something Non-Nappy Related! Nappies (cute little balls of fluff that they are) have taken over my sewing room lately. There are random bits of nappy everywhere, I really need more storage so it doesn't look like a bomb has hit that room!!

Anyway, I have been this week doing some other sewing. Having a week off from WeePantz so that I can get some other sewing done. I have half finished a pair of jeans, well its more like 2/3 finished but yes im angry at them. And have been invited to a few parties (well DD has been invited,, im just her hanger on). I thought (as every sew-a-holic does) that I would make the presents.

My friend's little girl is turning 4 and she is apparently cooking mad. So I made her this apron.

front

back

I used See & Sew Pattern #4585 for the basic shape but didn't really follow the instructions as I (as usual) had an image in my head of what I wanted to make and the pattern was just giving me a leg up so I didn't have to draft. Yep! Completely LAZY!!

So I used the basic shape from the pattern left the front pocket off (little kids don't need a pocket on their apron, it gets filled with so many useless bits of crap, oh hang on that happens to grown up aprons too :-p) I used some very thin batting in the middle and then backed it with the sage cotton lawn. 

Also, instead of using D rings for the neck strap I used velcro. I was tempted to use snaps, but the snap press was packed away at the time, so I reached for the closest possible fastening equipment that wasn't a zip.

And then for the final touch...

...I embroidered her name.

For the embroidery stitching I used Kirsty's version of stem stitch which I DID find so easy to do thanks Kirsty!! 

I am really pleased with how this turned out. I have no "oh dear that didn't work out the way I imagined it" moments and it came together really easily. I really hope she (and her mummy) likes it!

Now off to make a batman/generic super hero costume! I have made the black cape and had one go at making a batman mask (complete disaster!). This is for a little boy that DD goes to school with. Who is having a party on the same day. AHH to be 4 and the most popular girl in prep... 

In a few weeks we are attending a dress up party so that will be fun for mummy, might have to start that costume now!! haha!!  Also got to start to make things for DD's 5th birthday party in a few weeks... so much fun... so much work and most of all... SO MUCH SEWING!! good thing Id rather be doing nothing else... :-)

Until next time readers... might be sooner than we think, perhaps I will successfully make a beautiful batman mask and want to show it off, or my jeans will start behaving themselves!!

Amy :-)

Store Stocking!

The Website is All Stocked up! Go and have a look at some of our new nappies!

Giveaway!

How good are free nappies??!!??

This week I am hosting a giveaway on The Nappy Spot. To enter, head over to this post, follow the instructions, and you could win yourself a beautiful WeePantz nappy!

Why not??!!

L'orel Melbourne Fashion Festival 2010

How very exciting! I have been informed that this Sunday at the Shirt and Skirt Market in Abbotsford that stall holders will be taking part in what is being described as an Open Studio as a part of the L'orel Melbourne Fashion Festival. 

picture credit

I am slightly nervous, but incredibly excited as I will have people coming to ask my inspiration and also asking for demonstrations of how I make my products. Its slightly difficult to take a sewing machine to an outdoor market with no plug in power, so I will take some hand sewing and also some other "evolution of weepantz nappies" stuff, nappies in stages etc.

Anyway, Lots of stall holders will be taking part in this event, so please come along and have a look and also become incredibly jealous of others' sewing abilities (I always become jealous, every month). Also, come and Say hello.

Also, I am sponsoring a give away over on the nappy spot so head over, enter the giveaway, and you might just win yourself a new nappy!

Anyway, off to the land of nod after hanging out incredibly stained school uniforms, whoever invented a white uniform for prep students was obviously not in charge of the washing!!

Until next time...

Amy

Market Wrap Up!

What a wonderful day we all had at the market yesterday in Williamstown!

We all woke up to rain and the aftermath of the storm the night before. Not thinking that the market would be very exciting at all, but the rain stopped, the sun came out and the mud smell.... well it kinda stuck around, but we forgot about it with the beautiful sunshine that beamed down on us all afternoon.

What's more, I had lots of lovely people come and say hello, learn lots about cloth nappies, commend me on my "style" and tell me about their little bundles that are coming along. And for the first time, we had a very successful market. Up until now, I've been selling small amounts, breaking even etc. but we have had our first success! :-) 

I sold about half of my stock and had a few wholesale enquiries and recommendations which I will be following up after the long weekend. 

So now, busy lady again, markets on this Sunday as well! So once my snaps arrive tomorrow I will be into the 30 odd nappies that I have cut and ready to be finished with snaps, elastic etc etc. But I will attempt to not be silent... :)

Anyway... finally, I will leave you all with some photos of my stall yesterday, we were right down on the street edge on Nelson Place in Williamstown, so it was a beautiful view and I dare say... I think I got a tan... not a usual thing for me!

Forgiveness readers... this photo was taken after I had already sold alot of stuff. I was selling as soon as the nappies came out!!

Until next time! 

Amy :-)

My Creative Space

Wow this week has gone super fast! I feel like the gap between Thursdays is slowly becoming shorter. Which apparently is true now by a slight shift in day length due to the recent Chilean earthquake according to NASA. But is that really the reason for my lack of ability to keep up? Probably not! Most likely, the cause of my surprise at weekly intervals is due to being pretty darn busy!

Anyway, that was completely irrelevant... haha! I have this week been making nappies and other general wares for my market this weekend in Williamstown. (details over to the side of the posting area)

Whilst awaiting an order of about 600 snaps I thought Id get stuck into my other wares, which has become quite small of late due to summer ending and me packing away all of those lovely dresses that I was selling over the warmer months. I gave a small preview of some of these pants last week, made in denim. This week I cut into the cordorouy, mmm I love cord, it is a wonderful winteriffic fabric. 

They aren't complete yet, so this batch is still a work in progress, not ready for sale. I have to stitch on the faux fly and possible (not sure yet) appliqué on. Oh and my weepantz labels. But I am, I must admit, falling in love with these pants...

These, however, are my favourite, they are beautifully vintagey retroish. (Yes, Part of my creative space this week is making up verbs :-p) Anyway, they are my favourite, and if I was allowed, I possibly would wear these myself, but ahh alas, I am not a children's size 2...

In other news, the girl has started school full time this week, so that's 5 full days. Its a little sad for her mummy as I miss her a lot. I also miss our creative moments which I have been known to include in this Thursday digest. So it's just me and the boy now. I attempt to make him do creative stuff like drawing with me, but he's much more interested in rummaging through my scraps bucket and wearing the long thin pieces as scarves, hats or belts. Otherwise, all he wants to do is this...

EAT!

Yes, my son, old hollow legs here, I will say he's being creative because the Vegemite is so lovingly smeared all over his face... And just before he was painting himself with Yoghurt. Perhaps my son is creative after all, he just requires a bit of inspiration (yes, the inspiration is food....)

Okay, well I've gone off on a motherly bragging tangent and I must go attend to this boy as he is wandering around with a bottle bag as a handbag with a hackey sack inside and cant get it out...

For more creative spaces head over here

Bread...

This morning I made the decision to make bread. I was running out and couldnt be bothered going to the shop to get some. Thank goodness for the ability to purchase fabric on-line as I honestly HATE the shops. So un-female of me. 

Anyway, so I thought I would share my beautiful loaf with you all, it just finished and I have eaten the first piece and it is DELICIOUS!!!! Naughty though being white bread...

YUM!

If you would like to try, the recipe is here