Toddler Tuesday: pants from bunny rug

I enlisted the Tiny Tyrant's help in making him some new PJ pants (which he needed desperately, since the past month's growth spurt has added an extra two inches to his legs, seemingly).
Digging through my stash of flannelette material lead to the discovery of the rug we wrapped him in for his first Mama-Baby photos, the first day we were home from the hospital. Since he was in the NICU for a week he was already eight days old. I remember asking my partner to take the two photos, so I'd have something to send to the family; apart from a fuzzy, long distance view of the plastic crib he was in, all our photos so far had included wires, heat lamps and machines that went PING.
Finding that blanket made me feel very nostalgic, and I remembered how exhausted, relieved and overjoyed I was that I finally had him home with my partner and I, and we had the opportunity to begin enjoying being the new family that we all were, together.

Tyrant seemed to be drawn to it too, because it was the material he chose to have his new pants made from.
I've been getting him a bit more involved in my sewing, lately; he likes to sit on my lap when I'm not sewing fiddly things, and watch the fabric move through the machine (thank goodness he's such a careful child). He works the presser foot for me, and I pause to let him pull pins out and stick them on my magnetic mushroom, which he loves to do.
So we sewed up his new pants in around fifteen minutes, and for the first night in some time he wanted to get into his pyjamas early!

Old sheets redux

Laundry bag for the back of the bathroom or bedroom door (both our baskets are pitifully small for the amount of dirty clothes that can accumulate during a week in the life of a Crafter, Miniaturist and Very Small Boy). Conveniently the right colour scheme to go with either our towels OR our bedclothes!

Old Sheets

I love old sheets. Old sheets are a lot like old friends.

Old sheets are comfortable, familiar. They're worn in and softened in just the right places. They even smell right. Not always good, but never strange.
They have a history - especially when they're yours. Sometimes they have marks and scars as a testament to that history. Sometimes they'll be worn so thin that you could break them like that with a twist of your pinky finger. Sometimes they're still going strong, years and years later.

So I suppose it's not surprising that I love to work with old sheets, refashioning them for new uses. They make wonderful house or pyjama pants - soft and light, and often 100% cotton. They're great for cushion and pillow covers - especially when they're worn thin in the middle, you can piece the edges of different sheets together. Being a simple woven fabric they're usually wonderfully easy to work with, already stretched as much as they will, not overly prone to creasing. And, when there's nothing else for it, they make marvellous cleaning cloths, soft and light, easy to wash and re-use again.

Just fiddling

I've been dabbling with a few projects in the last week or two. The first of these was a grown-up variant of my rainbow toddler pants - I saw the fabric and immediately thought of my recipient, who happens to currently be 6 months pregnant and thus in need of comfy pants (I don't know a pregnant woman who isn't).

The second project is kind of a recon mixed with some bits and pieces - a gorgeous little card we got from the BIL for Christmas, a wooden photo frame, some mounting paper and white paint (plus the enamel spray I've been hoarding in my cupboards for almost eight years now, and finally got the chance to break open and use).

You know how you pop over to a blog like Soulemama and marvel at the serene, beautiful spaces which the blogger inhabits?
My spaces are not at all like that.
As you can see.

My spaces are more a welter of baby toys, car keys, mobile phones, fabric scraps, tea mugs, letters half-written and letters unfiled, safety pins, jewellery I took off wherever I was and random items that I swear, have a purpose! Sometimes.
(For instance; right now, in front of me at my computer desk is a spare USB cable, a six-sided die, a pin, some nail scissors, two pens, a bracelet, my digicam, a tea mug, a wheat pack, a paid creditcard bill and some leaflets from the Stampin' Up! card party I was at last weekend.)

Anyway, this is the finished project. Very shabby chic.
I think it's going to be a present for my MIL. But I can't decide - random just because, or birthday present?