a pretty little violet

This morning my family welcomed another little beauty into our world - baby Violet Creina Gabby (late name change!) joined us with a mop of dark hair and alert clear eyes. A third daughter for my sister and her husband.

Last week, before my mum headed up to Brisbane to look after big sisters Scarlett and Ava, I made this unisex blanket for the impending bambino. Red minky was called for, along with a grey and white polka dot print. I wrapped it up pretty and sent it off with one excited Grandma-to-be-(again).

Welcome sweet Violet - we just know that you're going to be totally rad, just like your Mum and Dad xxx

Love you, Aunty Em + Uncle Matt 

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

get your craft on #5: easy peasy baby beanie

Now say that five times with a mouthful of Doritos! Or is that just me? Anyway...I'm back with the latest installment of Get Your Craft On, I know I missed one in June but am hoping to do two in July? At the rate time is flying by I think I might have to do three in August! I know, crazy.

With the babies currently sprouting up in my life (latest edition Pepe and my sister is pregnant at the moment) I thought I'd do a quick tutorial on how to make a little new baby gift. I make these all. the. time. Like literally always have a few floating about on my sewing table. I started making them as 'sales boosters' for when I did markets with Little Miss Emma. Basically my big ticket items were canvas's and minky blankets, but a lot of the time I needed smaller and more affordable items for mums on the run to buy without thinking too hard about the family budget. Plus they cost me next to nothing to make in materials and labour. Winner.

To start you will need the following...

- a baby beanie 

- baking paper to make pattern

- pencil to trace pattern

- scissors (fabric scissors and paper scissors - don't use your nice sewing scissors to cut baking paper!)

- a stretchy-knit fabric like jersey

- pins

- co-ordinating thread in your trusty sewing machine

Originally I got this pattern out of a library book, now unless you are near the Murrindindi Shire Library in Yea (anyone?) I suggest you pick yourself up a little beanie to use as a template. I bought this spotty one in a discount store for $2 to use as an example. Then you can make the pattern and have it forever and make thousands more beanies, all from starting with your $2 one :)

Get some of your baking paper and with your pencil use your beanie as a template to trace around it - add about 3-4cm for seam allowances and about 10cm to the bottom, you'll find out later why. For the top of the beanie I like to do a pixie hat which I will later knot. I think they look super cute and add a bit of a difference to an otherwise plain beanie. As you can see I just freehand drew mine, trying to make it as symmetrical as possibly and rounding the top off. If you like you can precisely measure yours but I'm a freehand kind of sewer/pattern maker! You can always trim down your pattern piece later. 

Cut out the shape, you should end up with a pattern piece like this:

Now using the baking paper pattern you just made pin it to a folded piece of your stretch fabric (so that you get two pieces when cut out). I used a bright pink and watermelon striped jersey but have seen lots of great gender neutral knits in greys, whites and reds around lately perfect for a baby shower gift. 

Once you've pinned your pattern to your folded fabric, cut it out and you should have two beanie pieces (front and back)...

Now you can pin them together all the way around, except for the bottom which will be left open. Off you go. Pin, pin, pin.

Next step is to sew it all together. Start at one end and go up over the long pixie-hat and down the other side. If you're not used to sewing a stretch fabric go slooowly, it can be super frustrating the way the fabric rolls and won't sit flat like a nice simple quilting cotton. I am no stretch fabric sewing expert like my mum (she has a certificate to say she is a 'Knit-Wit'. Yeah. All over that.) 

Once you have trimmed some excess fabric away you might have something resembling this...

Go ahead and turn the hat inside out (or right side out...confused?), iron it all out nice and flat and tie a knot in the long pixie-hat. You'll see now that the cornering at the top point of the hat doesn't matter too much as it is hidden in the knot. No need for perfect sewing? My kind of sewing.

But what about the bottom I hear you ask? Well, like I said earlier when you made the pattern piece, if you left a bit extra then you should be able to fold the bottom up, and then again you should see some nice neat stitching like so...

...and still have a big enough beanie for a newborn. Simply hand stitch two stitches on each side of the hat to secure the fold-up bottom, or if you are an embroidery wizz you could even do some French knots along the fold, and voila! The perfect new baby gift or something to quickly whip up for a baby shower. Once you get going on these beanies I swear they will take you ten minutes tops, and be quite addictive to get rid of some scrap fabric lying about.

Happy sewing!

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

a quilt for pepe

Our friends recently welcomed their third precious little girl into the world, a babe with a head of dark hair and adored by her two big sisters. They named her Penelope Rose, or 'Pepe' for short. And I made her a quilt.

One of my new years resolutions was to make a cot sized free motion quilt (inspired by the likes of Corrie). Well I couldn't find the needle to exactly work with my machine for some free motion action, and seeing as though I was fairly new to this whole quilting game I thought I'd play it safe with some straight lines.

I'd attempted some quilts before, all have been unfinished and some even disastrous attempts at 'stitching in the ditch' (what was I thinking?!) This quilt had to be unisex as our friends weren't finding out the sex of their third bambino. I chose some organic cotton solids and funky jungle inspired prints of bright hippos and giraffes, seeing as though this family actually do live in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. 

I made strips of various blocks the width of a standard cot size, then sewed them altogether until I reached the required length. I backed the quilt with a simple linen and quilted using a contrasting white thread. I tried to keep the quilting as simple as possible with a 1/4 stitch each side of the horizontal seams.

Once I was finished quilting I must admit I was running seriously short on time before I was going to visit Miss Pepe - so I hotfooted it over to my mum's armed with the quilt and some white bias binding. I knew Mum could bind the quilt in half the time it would take me, and with about a thousand times the quality of craftmanship. Thanks Mum!

Ok so my first (finished) quilt isn't perfect, there's a few bumps and bruises, but it's handmade and I think that makes all the difference. Doesn't it?? It's made with love, a fair few hours of cutting and pinning, as well as a few choice words when I was quilting it all together and stuffed it up a few times! But mostly love.

I hope Pepe likes her quilt and gets to snuggle it, roll and play on it. I had fun making it for her :)

Have you been making anything lately of the quilting variety? Are you a quilting novice like myself, a seasoned pro from way back or have you just dipped your toe in ever so slightly?

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

get your craft on #4: super dooper burpies

Once upon a time I started a little regular series here on my blog called Get Your Craft On. 'Regular' being the choice word there, turns out not so regular! But I promise I'll try and fix that - I am hoping to do a Get Your Craft On feature post once a month, so here goes...

With my sister and two friends all expecting little babies to either start or expand their broods I needed some gifts to throw around. As soon as I heard that the stork was paying a visit, and knowing my friends and sister don't want to find out if it's a boy or a girl, I stocked up on unisex fabrics from some Etsy suppliers I frequent: Sew Deerly Loved, Cottonholic and Fresh Squeezed Fabrics, as well as my local Kmart to pick up some affordable but super absorbent bath towels in neutral white for a little sewing project.

I like to try and at least give somewhat practical gifts to expectant or new parents, although not being a mother myself I wonder often if I miss the mark?! This time I had some burp cloths in mind, just in case one of these new babes was a 'chucker'. Not just any burp cloth would do though, one which could be easily thrown over mum or dad's shoulder, was ample length so that the dreaded projectile was somewhat caught (sorry to be graphic, but it is what it is) as well as contouring to the parents body to fit in their neck, chest, back and shoulders. 

So, to get started here are my supplies...

1 x white bath towel

Gender neutral fabrics in a fun elephant print, one in green and one in orange.

My trusty sewing machine armed with co-ordinating thread.

Equally as trusty sewing scissors.

A dinner plate to create a template and a pencil to trace outline.

Using the dinner plate as my circle template I traced an almost complete circle onto my fabric, leaving about a quarter of the circle 'open'. Then I measured on myself where I wanted the burp cloth to start and end, from my chest over my shoulder and down my back, about 40cm. I folded my fabric in half and measured a 20cm straight line down to the fold and cut out that shape (see below). I then used my orange fabric as my template for my towel, which I folded also to create a symmetrical shape.

After cutting out the white towel shape I now have my two burp cloth shapes, one in the orange fabric and one in the white towel, I pinned them together with good sides facing and sewed around the edges with about a 2cm seam allowance and a 10cm hole which is going to allow me to turn the burp cloth back the right way.

You should end up with something that looks like this image on the left (below), trim any excess fabric or towel away and turn right side out again through the hole that you left. Your burp cloth will then look a little something like the image on the right - not pretty! Iron it all out to make the shape a bit better.

Iron the hole closed using any remaining fabric left over from your seam allowance to fold under, your hole should look like the image on the top (below). Now to close the hole and make your burp cloth edges a whole lot neater and more professional looking, top stitch around the entire burp cloth starting and finishing at the hole. It should look like the image on the bottom.

Ta da! Your super duper burpie is now complete and should resemble something a little like this when folded in half, with your absorbent toweling on one side and your fun fabric on the other. I then made a second one from the green elephant fabric to make a matching set.

 

Sorry for terrible quality last photo, I hate winter with it getting super dark super early! :( I hope you've liked this month's installment of Get Your Craft On, and that you might tackle this little project yourself for a new mumma or bubba in your life. If you have any questions please leave a comment.

Happy sewing!

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella

for lulu

My sisters' friend had a baby girl, Lulu, this week and I whipped up this personalised onesie for big sis to give as a gift (and a princess pink minky blanket). Nothing says newborn baby girl like pink and white gingham and love hearts.

on to baby

The creative geniuses behind The Wedding Chicks (love!) have launched their latest project: On To Baby, a site full of cuteness, sweet babies, fun parties and styling heaven in the form of nurseries and baby showers.

Don't read too much into this - I am not having a baby anytime soon!!! But look at the squidgy babies, naaaawww! And the smitten parents. And the stylish spaces they have created for their little ones. On To Baby has some super cute things in their new shop also, with free printable stationery coming soon. 

 

"On to Baby is a charming style blog for all things baby: lovely baby showers, inspiring nursery design, unforgettable first birthday parties, fantastic products for baby and mom, great DIY projects, free printables, and more. We seek out original content from amazing photographers, event planners, designers, and real moms to present fresh ideas to inspire our readers as they prepare for or celebrate their new little ones." 

- Jocey Canrinus and Amy Squires, creators

So many inspiring ideas even if you're not a parent/aunty/uncle for home decorating and party styling and photography. I adore the eclectic nursery of Maya, not too girly, and the aqua and pink space created for baby Rozlyn, how cool is that colour for a girl? The fact that Jose Villa has been featured a few times is enough to have me adding On To Baby to my regular online haunts. I think On To Baby will be a roaring success just like The Wedding Chicks, and it makes so much sense to grow your online presence this way. Thumbs up!