It's twins! Time for bibs!

My close friend very recently had twin boys and all her pain and agony at carrying them for 9 months was fully understood when they emerged at 7lb 5oz and 8lb 1oz (sorry, when it comes to babies it's pounds and ounces for me, none of this kg palava!). I know, talk about whoppers! Absolutely gorgeous whoppers though - I visited them in hospital and almost had to wipe up the drool. There's nothing quite like a new born baby ...

... Anyway, my friend's first child was rather spewy when she was tiny due to terrible reflux. Not wanting to tempt fate, but aware of the role that genes have in this sort of thing, I thought a good present for the new baby boys would be bibs, and lots of them. So, I got to making some from the David Walker fabrics in my shop. All the fabrics were from his Oh Boy! collection and the small prints worked really well.

One fat quarter made 2 bibs, so this was a great use of fabric. I then used towelling for the back and edged them in bias binding (more dramas using the awful stuff, so don't look too closely at the pics!). Then I just used domes to hold them together. Despite knowing for many months that the twins were arriving I of course left my run right to the last minute, but luckily these were quick to make and I managed to make all 6 bibs in a couple of hours. Why don't you give something like this a go?

Finally, something for the boys!

Anyone who has boys knows that the fashion world just does not cater for them, and sadly, more often than not neither does the fabric world. But, David's Walker's Oh Boy! collection puts an end to that. This collection for little boys is just gorgeous ... beautiful summer colours and not a skull or cross bones in sight! I have had a couple of fabrics from this collection in for a while (Transport in Gold, Wheels in Brown and Animals in Green) but finally with the arrival of a new shipment on Friday I've got the rest of the fabrics that I ordered. There are dinosaurs, bears, monkeys, cars, trucks, trains and all those things that boys love, plus a stripe, and they're all available now at fabrication.co.nz.

My mind has been in creative overdrive trying to decide what to make with these prints, but I've settled on some summer pjs for Thomas, not only because the weather is finally starting to warm up here and it's getting too hot for flannelette, but mainly because his wee wrists are so chubby that I have a very hard time getting his current pjs over them. Now I just have to decide which of the new fabrics to make them from (no mean feat!) and find the time, something I'm sorely lacking at the moment ...  

Sewing 101: Make a toddler sunhat

After getting in some cute fabrics for little boys in at my fabrication shop, I wanted to make Thomas something out of it. I loved this gorgeous green animal print from David Walker's Oh Boy! collection, and thought it looked great with a spotty fabric already in my hoard. With that in mind, and with summer fast approaching I thought it would be a good idea to make Thomas a sunhat. I looked around on the web for a good (free!) sunhat pattern, but couldn't find anything, so ended up just making up my own pattern. It's fully reversible and really easy, and it seemed silly to keep it to myself, so thought I'd post it here as my first Sewing 101 tutorial. Enjoy!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

For a 50cm approx diameter hat (approx 12 mths) you'll need:

• 0.5m of 110cm wide fabric for the outer*
• 0.5m of 110cm wide fabric for the lining*
• 0.2m of firm iron-on interfacing
• coordinating cotton.

(*You could probably get away with 0.3m of both the outer and lining fabrics if you're very careful cutting the pattern out, but I always recommend getting a bit extra, esp if you have to match a pattern or don't mind having some left over which you can put to good use later on.)

IMPORTANT STUFF:

• A 1cm seam allowance is included in all measurements.
• Cut carefully! If you cut your pattern out carefully with all pieces exactly the same size it will make it that much easier to sew.
• Always backstitch at the start and end of each seam. This stops the stitching from coming undone.

STEP 1: CUT OUT THE PATTERN

a. Place all pattern pieces on the fabric so that the <------> marks are parallel with the selvedge.
b. Using the outlines above (note these are not to scale, but just to give you a rough idea of the shapes you'll need) cut 6 x crown pieces from the outer fabric and 6 x from the lining. For a 50cm hat you'll want each crown piece to be 10.5cm wide and 15.5cm high.

c. Cut 2 x brim from the outer, 2 x brim from the lining and 2 x brim from the interfacing. The brim should be 52cm around the upper edge and 8cm deep.

d. You can adjust the measurements and/or seam allowance to adjust the size, but just remember that as you have 6 crown pieces, a small change in the size can make a big difference to the eventual size of the hat.

STEP 2: MAKE THE CROWN

a. Pin 2 outer crown pieces right sides together down a long edge. Sew, then press seam allowance open.

b. Repeat step 2a to attach a third outer crown piece to one unstitched long edge, making sure the seam allowance from step 2a is open. This makes the first 3-panel crown section.

c. Repeat steps 2a and 2b to make the second 3-panel crown section.

d. Join the two 3-panel crown sections by placing them right sides together, matching them carefully at the top. Pin in place and then sew across the matched edges. Press the seam allowance open.
e. Repeat steps 2a to 2d with crown lining.

f. With outer crown turned right side out and lining crown with seams to outside still, place the outer crown over the lining crown. Match the centre top of each crown (stick a pin through to find the centre of each) and panel seams. Pin carefully in place. You want to be really careful with this step, as you're about to sew the lining and outer together and you want your seams to be as neat on the inside as on the outside (although if I tell the truth I didn't quite manage to do this myself!).

g. Topstitch down each side of the six panel seams, starting at the cut edge and going up and over the crown. This joins your lining and outer crown pieces together and gives a nice finished look.

STEP 3: MAKE AND ATTACH THE BRIM

a. Iron the interfacing onto the wrong side of the outer fabric. (When attaching iron-on interfacing, it's best to press and hold the iron on the fabric rather than running the iron over it.) When I made Thomas's hat I used interfacing on both the outer and lining of the brim, so that's what you'll see in the photos. This was probably overkill though, so for these instructions I recommend only attaching it to the outer brim.

b. With right sides together, pin and sew the two short edges of the outer fabric to create a circle when open. Press seam allowances open.

c. Repeat step 3b with lining of brim.

d. Now you want to attach the outer and lining brim pieces to the crown. To do this, turn your crown piece upside down, right side out. Place the top edge of the outer brim right sides together with the crown (i.e. so the outer brim is on the outside of the crown), and match the side seams of the brim with opposite panel seams. Then do the same with the lining brim, placing it inside the crown, right sides together with the crown lining. Again, match the side seams. Then, ease the brim around the crown and pin in place. Hopefully your brim and crown should be the same size and it should match up easily. If not, you might want to tweak your brim size by adjusting the seam allowance so that it does. (I haven't allowed for this in the fabric, etc, but if you wanted to add a strap so that your wee one keeps their hat on this is the time to do it - insert it so that it attaches at the brim side seams.)

e. Sew right around the pinned seam.

f. Trim the seam allowance to 1/2cm and cut into it every 2-3cm all the way around, being careful not to clip your stitching. This will just help the curved seam sit flat.

g. Turn the brim right sides out and press along the stitched edge, pulling the brim taut.

Almost there .... you just need to finish the brim and you're done ....

h. Pin and press the seam allowance of the remaining open brim edges in and under towards each other. Topstitch together to close.

h. Finally, topstitch along the top edge of the brim close to where it joins the crown to give your hat that finished, professional look.

j. You're done! Congratulations! I hope your little one keeps their hat on longer than Thomas does ...

New fabrics just in time for spring ...

Finally, my long awaited order has arrived, and fabrication.co.nz has some gorgeous new stock (or at least it will have once it goes up - you blog followers get to see it a day or two early!).

There's nothing like the excitement of opening a new box full of fabrics - I'm like a kid at Christmas, and it reinforces how much I love doing this. My imagination kicks into overdrive and I'm dreaming of all the great things I could whip up on my sewing machine. I think Thomas might get something fun this time - one of the fabrics just in is a gorgeous green on green kids print with elephants and bears and crocodiles on it (it's the bottom fabric in the picture below). I'm not sure what I'll make him out of it yet, but it's just so nice to have something for wee boys. They definitely miss out most of the time!


I've gone for a wide range of colours with this order. Lots of beautiful, bright, happy, spring time colours, as well as some deep reds and warmer tones in the fabrics from Joel Dewberry. The Joel Dewberry fabrics (see pic 2 below) would make stunning luggage, or be gorgeous as big cushions. The fabrics are a very structured look for the most part, so would suit something that shows them off.

Well, enough talk. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Happy shopping!

Annie x