Day 246 - Birthday Trousers

The next couple of days will be devoted to birthday goodness as I prepare for my baby to turn one. Yes I am feeling a little sad that he will be the last baby in our house, and that his days of babydom are numbered. It's been an amazing journey this past year and he has taught me so much, as I know he will continue to do.

I have a little background project that I was working on today, which is a kids tent. I made the pattern last week and started cutting out the pieces today.

Here's a little peek.

I love this retro fabric and thought it would look awesome with some chenille, so I used some of the scraps to make some birthday boy trousers.

Rocking it out as always. xx

Day 242 - Bath mat trousers

Before I share today's craft I want to share with you what my 5 (almost 6) year old daughter did this week when I went to Melbourne for the Coldplay concert. As she is one of my frequent models on the blog you may notice something odd going on with her hair.

Here's what she did to it when she was supposed to be going to sleep the other night.

She did this with some small school scissors, cutting a little and liking the shaved feel, she kept going. She's a trouble maker this one! Now she is bald at the front for about 5cm :-/.

Sadly there is nothing the hairdresser can do for us. So here's my solution for the foreseeable future. We are looking at a fair bit of time for her hair to recover.

So today the little rascal got another of my creations. Last weekend I found this chenille bathmat / baby mat at the thrift shop for $2. It's got a little bit of patchwork and I knew Juliet would love it. My love for vintage chenille is well documented I think, and things made out of it sell for an absolute fortune at craft markets.

It was double thickness, so I cut three of the sides and opened it up.

Then cut some 3/4 pants pieces and a pocket choosing my favourite sections of fabric for the front of the pants. I took the size from one of the the other pair of pants I had made for her earlier.

It they came out looking pretty cute!

And here are the boys getting in the act too. 

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

Day 236 - Chenille and crossbones.

Hello! More shorts being made today, this time from a few different fabrics.

The back of the shorts uses the vintage quilt I also used here Day-84 to make my daughter a dress. The pocket is a tiny scrap from another vintage chenille quilt (hard garbage find) and the front is a fine corduroy my mum gave me a while ago. Then I added a pirate symbol from a scrap of fabric leftover from party loot bags I made when my 7 yo turned 6. I love the way they all come together. These are a gift for a little boy whose party we are going to later, but I think I am going to have to make some for Aidan now too.

As usual the model had a lot of trouble keeping still.

Day 228 - Flowers and recycled chenille.

These are some pants for a little girl who is turning 1 very soon. The front are these cute flowers and the back are a recycled chenille beach robe, also used for another pair of pants in the early days of my 365 challenge.

Here is the little man rocking it out as my model.

Day 84 - Quilt repurposed to dress.

So I did buy this chenille quilt last week (a bargain at $4.50) with the intention of making some little boy's clothes, but this was the first thing I had a burning desire to create.

Some inspiration from the fashion world - Native American influenced fashion.

 (Photo sourced fromhttp://i-will-dream-of-you.blogspot.com.au/2010/07/summer-trends-pt-1-native-american.html)

Firstly, I lay Juliet's favourite dress down on the quilt to copy the size and shape for a dress. I cut it out along the edge so that I could use the fringe for the dress bottom.

The favourite dress was fully lined, which I didn't want to do, so I cut some facings for the top from the corner of a vintage sheet that has been used to line quite a few projects so far.

Next came a section of one of my old skirts. The front of the skirt had already been used for day 11 http://365crafty.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/day-11-what-to-do-with-old-skirt-and.html. I cut a strip from here and sewed it onto the bottom section of the front of the dress to create a contrasting strip.

Then I sewed up the sides of the dress, added the facing, and added a couple of cute buttons from my stash.

Considering the quilt will be used for many more projects, the whole dress would have cost under $2 - and what a happy little girl wearing it now. :) How cute!

Day 79 - My last little girl's skirt from this quilt and owl pants.

I will get back to my metre of fleece tomorrow but I have some special visitors coming tomorrow from Adelaide and I wanted to make a little gift for one of them. I can't wait to see them.

I have made two things. First is the last quilt skirt I will be making from the vintage chenille quilt that I have made quite a few skirts from. I have given the rest to someone else to make some creations from and give it new life. :)

This skirt has some flowers and dots sewn on from pink corduroy scraps and scraps of another pale blue chenille bedspread.

I also visited a church charity shop this morning and was extremely excited to find another chenille bedspread in fantastic condition in a camel brown colour that will be perfect for little boys clothes. I couldn't believe my luck after looking for over a year and just giving away the other one a week ago. I was obviously meant to give the other one away. It was only $4.50 and is really thick and warm for winter. Expect to see it as part of a creation or three very soon.

The second is a pair of red cords with a little owl friend on a branch.

Day 49 - Cute girly skirt from Vintage quilt

Day 49 and I finished my dictionary challenge yesterday so am back on the sewing machine for a super quick project. I've made a couple of these little skirts before from a vintage quilt I bought at a market and I think they're really cute.

The quilt I'm using is quite well worn in a few places so I have to pick the right areas to cut, which makes it perfect for making little skirts where you only need a little bit of fabric at a time and can pick and choose.

I like using the fringe around the quilt as a feature, then I have just added some fabric scraps to make a flower, a cute little vintage button, and of course some ric rac. I love ric rac.

The skirt is the simplest design of cutting too sides with a little curve and adding an elastic band to the top.