On The Go....

Life has been busy round these parts! It always seems like everything important falls all within 2 weeks so you get run ragged! Nevertheless, life is full, happy and fun!
I thought I might show you a few pics of things I have made recently, am making or am going to make! I have quite a few crafting projects on the go these days!

Little girls handbag! Isnt it devine. So easy to make too which makes me happy!

I tried one of the new crochet sandal pattern I got during the week. It turned out ok, Im not overly happy with it, but will make the changes I think it needs and then hopefully next week, post a complete pair!

I also started some "Pirate Bunting" which will be about 8 different flag designs with some felt images sewn onto some of the flags. I cant wait to finish these, I think they are going to look really great!

I have also started making a quilt for our baby girl. These are the squares just cut out which I took last week but since then they are all sewn together and am on to the next step this week. I will do a more detailed post on quilting when I finish work as I figured since I am learning how to quilt, someone else may want to know how too!

I love being creative. Brings so much joy to my life....Im sure those creative ones out there agree! If you dont feel you are creative, I think EVERYONE can be creative, you just have to find something that interests you and get going!

Have a fab week, this is my LAST week of work before maternity leave so you can only imagine how exited I am!

Ciao

Bella

xx



Dino Tails!

Hi friends! Hope you are all well. I am feeling quite chipper myself after waing up from a relaxing 2 hour Sunday afternoon nap! Nothing beats a relaxing afternoon nap I say!

I have been thinking more and more on my sewing/crochet/knitting projects I am doing as I plan on launching my business in around 6 weeks. I am thinking on working just on Facebook initially, to keep it simple so that when I go into have my baby and bring her home it will be manageable, then launching via a website later on. To that end, I have been experimenting with patterns and looking at what I love to make and what I love to do to include in that.

I have also been thinking seriously on having classes as well. I think it will begin with crochet first as I have had alot of interest from people about running something. I am thinking they will be casual "Crochet and Chat" session where you can work on a project you would like to complete and I can help you/tech you the stitches etc. I would love it to be a place where you can also chat, hang out with friends and generally just enoy yourself. I myself go to a sewing night every Wednesday and I just love it. I am learning alot of new techniques and get to make the projects that I want, not to mention the coffee, cake and chats half way through the night!

Anyway, they are my thoughts, if you ae interested in the crochet sessions, just drop me a note and let me know. I have had lots of interest from girls in the Blue Mountains, Penrith and Windsor - so maybe there might be one in each place?????

This weekend I did get to do some sewing and focussed on some of my "dramatic play for kids" ideas and patterns I haven't been able to get to. I ended up making these cute dino tails...

Fun for dress ups! Velcro waist band so kids can put on and off themselves!

I have loads of fabric that will need to be made into these. I love the bright colours and contrasting spots/stripes!

The straps that go around the waist and can be adjusted for the size of the child. It would also be really easy to make longer straps for a bigger child.

I also have this one ready to go but ran out of stuffing..back to the shops after work tomorrow!

Fun hey!

I am pretty sure these will go into my shop when I open it, possibly for about $18.

If you are interested in these for your little ones before I open my shop, dont hesitate to send me a message and I can do one before that time.

Hope you all have a great week! I am on the countdown now, 6 weeks left till maternity leave! wohoo!

Ciao

Bella

xx

Woodland Crafting

Right now a huge storm is brewing outside, the wind is howling and big splats of rain are heralding the coming fierceness. What better time to be tucked up on the lounge, with coffee and oreos, chatting with you fine folks! Luckily, I just finished photographing some cute little Woodland creatures I had finished to show you today before it got too dark outside to get any decent pictures.

I am quite partial to so many of the cute little woodland creature sewing and crochet patterns that are floating around the internet at the moment, so I decided to have a go myself. I did have grand plans to get a whole set made, complete with a newborn hat as well. I set aside most of today (Sunday) but by midday I was feeling very ordinary and deciding on listening to my big fat pregnant body, I had a 3 hour nap. Oh yes I did. It was the best. So, because of that, I didn't get half as much of my sewing done, but that's life. I will try to finish them off this week, and if I am mega organised, will have another post ready before hubs and I head off to our annual family Easter weekend away at the beach (which I am counting down the sleeps to!)

Here is what I got done this week (not including some baby blankets for our little girl coming in August, but that will be another post!)

Newborn/Infant owl hat complete with ear flaps

I will be taking orders for these hats cause they are too good to keep just for me! I will be able to do sizes newborn to size 3 at this stage until I work out the patern for the bigger sizes. You can choose your colour and what colour you would like your owl eyes to be as well - I find you tend to enjoy something so much more when you can choose all the particulars!

(The hat is made in organic cotton, double stranded, so it is soft and flexible but also warm)

Now for my cute Woodland creatures...

I had made this owl and squirrel as cute little baby hand rattles...

I hand stitched both of them (with another 2 to come) and inserted stuffing and a rattle.

I have a deer and tree cut out as well that I should hopefully have done soon.

I think they are really cute. I am wanting to make them as cuddlies as well, so they will be about 3 times as big as they are in these pics.

What do you think?

If you ever would like to find out more about my work or order anything you see, feel free to leave me a comment or send me message

Have a great week leading up to Easter, hoping that the Easter bunny is kind to you all!

Ciao

Bella

xx

Kids Skinny Leg PJ Pants...

I got given a new overlocker for Christmas and I was pretty eager to get it sewing and learn all the ins and outs of my new machine...I decided to make something totally out of knit fabric so I could exclusively use my overlocker without the need to go bac and forth between it and my sewing machine. Turns out I love it - so much easier, cleaner and crisper than my machine! It has definitely earned it's place on my sewing table.
I decided to make these cute skinny leg PJ pants I once saw on a blog I read From An Igloo. I wasn't overly happy with the top pattern but I was pretty happy with the pants - they are too cute!

The camera doesn't really bring up the colours well but the stripe fabric is a really nice light blue stripe.

I obviously made them in little girl colours as I couldn't really find any knit or jersery fabric I liked that would suit a little man.

I love the little bum on the pants...the original pattern had an applique on the bum which made it mega cute, but I didn't have the time to do one on mine..next time!

front of the pants...

I think they would be really comfy and great for in between seasons and winter as well.

This week has been a good one, hubs and I had a visit from my parents which was nice, they hadn't seen me since I first found out I was pregnant so they had a nice shock at my belly! hehe. We had a nice time ordering pizza, watching movies, coffee and cake and just relaxing.

Hubs and I also had to go and make our hospital booking for when bubs comes - we are all booked in now! Makes it feel a little more real, although I do sometimes look down at my bump and find it surreal that there is an actual baby in there!!!!

We have holidays coming up soon which we are both dying for!!!! 2 weeks of coastal bliss should do the trick!

Better go now, hubs is serving the roast! I will leave you with a pic of some cute and cheeky monkeys that went off to the shop recently...

Hope this week is kind to you and speeds at lightning pace towards Friday and next weekend!

Ciao

Bella

xxx

Play Bags

Yesterday while shopping with my sister, we found some great second hand toys in the local opportunity shop. One in particular caught my attention, a full dinosaur play set complete with faux rocks, trees, dinosaurs - enough to set up a whole dino land! I grabbed it for $5 thinking it would be great for work and future kids.
It came in a plastic container (as do most modern toys) and age and use had made the container damaged and bent out of shape. Once I got the toys home, I soaked them in disinfectant and put them out to air dry. Then, I got to work making a cute bag to store all the toys in.
This is what I came up with:

I added a cute little dinosaur applique on the front, so you know what is in the bag, and helpful when kid are packing away their own toys, the dino toys go in the dino bag!

Easy drawstring top...

One of the best things about these bags is that they could easily be hung on the back of a door to keep the toys out of the way. If you had a rack with 4 hooks across the kids bedroom, I can imagine you could hang 4 bags like these and have some storage up off the floor! This is hung on the back of my bathroom door, but you get the picture.

These bags are great for most toys but especially those annoying "little peices" sets like lego, duplo etc. All together in one bag!

With a good wash and cute new bag, old toys are made new!

I can imagine I will have bags like these everywhere when my kids make their appearance! Would be great even for storing in toy boxes.

Have a great week friends!

Ciao

Bella

xxx

Welcome to the New Girls!!!

I recently got a new pattern which I simply had to make! I made it in two sizes, one for big girls and one for the toddler girls...

Aren't they really sweet?

The little red head (who reminds me of Strawberry Shortcake, minus the pink) comes with a big yellow headband and bow...

I love their cute little collars...

I added lace to one skirt and rick rack to the other...

cute little shoes....

I would love to hear what you think of them....would your girls/nieces/little people love one like this? I always like to hear what people think of the different patterns I use...

You can find the pattern on Etsy....the name of the seller is "AllDolledUp"...

Have a great week!

Ciao

Bella

xx

Crochet Baby Dress

Over the holiday break, I got to work on a few projects that I had been busting to try but couldn't find the time to do.
I found this sweet little pattern in a book called "Little Crochet" (you can find it on Amazon). I made a few changes (as per normal!) and came up with a sweet little dress sized 3-6 months. I am going to make a few more as I wasn't totally happy with the crochet yoke of the dress and think I can do better. I thought I would show you a few pics and see what you all think....

What do you think? It looks alot better in real life than in photos (as do most things...) but when all is said and done, I am happy with it and would parade any baby of mine in it proudly.

The holidays are over for me, I am back to work tomorrow (booooo), but to be honest, I haven't been dreading it that much as I do love the girls I work with. The year promises to be a busy one but I am determined to make time each day to be creative, to finally get my exercise plan back in action and to take one amazing holiday with the hubs. Easy right? Let's see how we go.

Have a fab week!

Ciao

Bella

xxx

Christmas Sewing

Over the last few years I have become a last-minute girl. Not in all areas of life - most things I am sickeningly organised - but when it comes to hand making gifts for people, I often over-estimate how much time I have and grossly underestimate how much I have to do!
It's almost Christmas Eve ( a mere few hours away) and I have a crochet top still to seam but I HAVE FINISHED cute little outfits for the beautiful little ladies in my life - aka my nieces....
I decided to make patchwork skirts and matching tops for them - comfortable to play in but pretty enough to be more than a nomal outfit. I wanted them to have something different and handmade is the only way to ensure that they have something beautiful and they don't look like every other 3 year old dressed like Dora (no offense Dora!)
Enough chatting, here we go!

Vintage crochet peice topped with a crochet dusty pink flower...

4 pretty skirts for 4 pretty girls....

Matching top and skirt for 6 year old...

"Cherry" themed outfit for 2 year old...

I love these colours...prettiness for the 1 year old...

Pretty purples and paisley for the 3 year old....

pretty fabric rose...

That's it for now....hubs is practically breathing down my neck waiting for his turn with the laptop (hehe). I will endeavour to get shots of the girls in their outfits over Christmas cause these photos just don't do them justice!!!

Have a blessed and Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

Ciao

Bella

xxx

A Very Vintage Weekend....

Hello dear friends! This weekend feels like we shoud be living in the tropics - thunder stoms, rain, high humidity and weather that can't seem to make up it's mind! Nevertheless, it's been a lovely weekend here in our house. Hubs and I went "thrifting" yesterday and I came back with sooooo many goodies! Mainly vintage material, pattern books and lots of ideas for future projects which I hope to get done in the new year. I stumbled across a gold mine in a shop called the "Retro Wombat" - metres and metres of amazing vintage fabric in beautiful condition at a total steal!! I left sooo happy with ideas dancing across my mind that stayed with me as a I dreamt about all sorts of random ideas and patterns...the mind will do as it wills! hehe.

Anyway, I have a few things to show you today....

Hubs came home this morning with this AWESOME vintage tea trolley he found for FREE!!! I immediately claimed as my "project trolley". It can sit in the corner of the loungeroom and hold all my needles, hook, notions and current crochet/knit/sewing projects. It will get it all off the coffee table and keep it looking organised and cute as well!

It's gaudy and retro and I love it!

It's in pretty good condition. The pattern takes me back to my childhood!

I also finished off a cute little robot friend today....

He isn't my best work to be honest, I was having trouble with my machine but he's not too bad for a first go. I was one of the patterns that needed to be assembled with mathematical thinking and lord knows I am no go at that! (think cubes and three dimensional shapes....ugh!)

I think he looks so friendly and cuddly (he is stuffed with soft toy filling). Fairly easy to work with but I would like to try it with 100% wool felt rather than the 30% wool felt I used.

The pattern calls for felt balls on the top o the robot for his "controls" but since I am stingy and wasn't about to shell out $7 for 5 felt balls and didn't have time to make any, coloured pom poms had to do. I didn't mind them actually as I think they are nicer to touch for a little set of hands anyway!

Now, a little clue as to next week's post.....can you guess what it will be???

How is your Christmas shopping going? I have hardly been to the shops to be honest, I have chosen to make a fair few of my gifts this year and apart from a few trips to my favourite sewing shops, I haven't had to venture far from my own lounge room. Bliss I say! A few of my favourit blogs have lots of posts about going handmade this year...for one of them check this out: Maybe Matilda

Also, before I forget, the robot pattern is from a great toy making book called "hop, skip, jump"by Fiona Dalton. I bought it at my local bookstore - I am guessing Amazon and most online places would have it too.

Two week till Chistmas! Yay!!!!

Ciao

Bella

xxxx