Two Year Old Backpacks

Yesterday my Small Person turned 2.
We had a Ladybugs' Picnic at the local Botanic Gardens, inviting all his friends to wear black and red and join us near the really cool playground there.

I've been prepping like mad, and can now totally understand other parents' love for pay-n-play padded spaces and professionally catered events! I tried not to pressure myself too much (hence the low-key theme), figuring two year olds would just love the chance to run around and have fun, but the one thing I did pull out all the stops for were the party bags. I'm not super-comfortable with handing a group of very small people a bunch of sugar and chemicals to take home and smear all over their rooms, and I really wanted not to give away a heap of disposable plastic junk that would go into land-fill in no time at all.
Also, the food issue was especially important for me since not only does the birthday boy have some food sensitivity issues, but quite a few of his friends do, as well as having all-out allergies.

So instead of traditional party bags I found vegbee's toddler backpack over at her indietutes blog. It was the perfect size for our toddler invitees, and the perfect shape for bug bags!

Inside each bag was a bubble-blowing kit (so I didn't totally escape the cheap plastic - at least it's reusable), a red ribbon on a stick (made at home with chopsticks and lengths of ribbon from Spotlight) and two home-made lavender bath fizzies (with printed instructions designed by me).

Long story short the bags and contents were a bit of a hit - far more than my mediocre attempt at a birthday cake (thank goodness I have lots of years to perfect this art!) and now I have to go figure out my neglected Paypal account, to donate to vegbee.
And after all my stressing and work we all had a lovely time and quite a few of our guests decided to wear their new backpacks before they even got home.

Sneak Peek

This is a project I've been steadily working on for a friend, the past few weeks. There's been lots of love, time and care taken with it. It went to my friend today - and as I told her "I don't hem chiffon for just anyone!".

Any guesses as to what it is?


(To be revealed in December!)

Finished for Mirabel!

I finished my fourth softie for Mirabel, today!
Four was the magic number I committed myself to, so I'm feeling pretty happy to have made it.
This is another go at the Blinking Flights pattern, of course. Something masculine, to go with the very femme florals of the last softie. Plus, I had visions of using the supercool green and white stripes from my frilly hat in a bug.

I lurve this guy's pink mohawk and his cool older brother air (okay, so I'm guessing, being the eldest in my family!). His little smirk looks very laid-back and relaxed, to my mind. (And how awesome is his embroidered nose ring?)

A spot of Embroidery

This is part of a gift I'm putting together for someone. The pattern comes from an (accidentally - my tracing skills were challenged by the waffled fabric!) altered Badbird freebie.

You read that right, by the way; it really does say 'I poop rainbows'.

New Toothbrush Holder

I was itching to try my new Porcelaine 150 ceramic pen, when my eyes lit upon the sad old toothbrush holder currently doing duty in the bathroom.



This baby has a tiny hole in the bottom, ostensibly to let water out. It doesn't do that very well. It also doesn't really allow for a brush or cloth to get inside. Which means mould has started to grow. Which may account for the precarious way the toothbrushes are gathered (although it could be the razor. Mmm, I know I love beard stubble with my toothpaste! Thanks, honey!).

A dollar, an op-shop, a few washings and a baking at low heat for an hour later and a new toothbrush holder is ready for me to buy new, unbearded, un-potentially mouldy toothbrushes.



Unfortunately, my new project had a lifespan of only three or four days. My son decided it looked like an excellent thing to grab from the counter when Mummy was distracted.
And so, I'm once again on the lookout for something suitable for holding toothbrushes.

Matching Kitchen Queen Strawberry set

I bought a teatowel set a little while ago - I liked the colours, and thought about decorating them and gifting them to people.


So when I heard that one of my friends, who is very handy in the kitchen, turned out to be having a rough week (or two), I thought it would be a good time to make good on that idea - and whilst I was at it, I'd make her an apron, to match.
Red was my basic inspiration - to warm up this cold winter weather! My partner helped me pick out the other fabrics - which was mainly about choosing which of the fabulous quilting cottons I have hoarded would be best for this project. We decided on the dramatic strawberries on black. Which naturally lead to my doing a giant strawberry applique/embroidery on the apron.


As it turned out, I ended up bullying him into not only helping choose fabric, but also decorating the teatowel, as I decided I wanted to concentrate on doing the apron. I'd never done one before, and was using one of mine as a base, with calico for the inner lining. It's not a hard project, but I was hoping to get the whole thing done in a night or two at most. Besides, the family that crafts together is happy together. Er, aren't they?

I'm really proud of his efforts on the teatowel. He's got a good eye for design and colour (though he sometimes confuses his taste and mine. The seventies are SO not my decade!). The only input I had was minor technical help with threading the sewing machine, checking the tension when he was worried something was amiss, and a tiny bit of help with winding a bobbin (Yes! He did that, too! He ran out halfway through, so he had to). Considering it was the second project he's done (and the first was just a hem), I'm very proud of his craftiness.


For myself, I got to practice a little more of my hand embroidery skills; the top of the strawberry applique is a chainstitch - one of the four I know. And I really enjoyed thinking very technically about the placement of straps, and reinforcing, and shape - although I used an apron of mine as a basic for the pattern it was the jumping-off point and the final piece is an entirely different creature (apart from the fact they're both basically aprons).

I really feel like I can trace the evolution of my sewing skills, this year. I can see a real difference in the quality of what I'm producing, and I'm becoming more confident with things like pleating and lining.

Anyway, I hope my friend gets a lovely surprise when she finds it in her mailbox, and that she enjoys swanning about her kitchen feeling Strawberry-tastic!

Beautiful, Inspiring Boys' Clothes, courtesy of flickr

1. Wild West Overalls, 2. flow shirt, 3. For Oskar's birthday, 4. 2 new shirts, 5. Elephants in a row, 6. VIntage Inspired Sunsuit/Romper, 7. Zombies- BlueLS- rockNroll, 8. kwik sew 2545, 9. Dog jacket and matching pants

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.