first post of the new year

I've not posted on here for a long time.  The last time I posted I was working on my
Christmas projects so I could finish them before we went on our holiday to the USA
to see my family.  Well I did finish everything I wanted to make :) I made 3 diaper bags,
a craft apron, small pillow, 2 travel doll houses, 2 dinosaur mats and 2 busy books.
The diaper bags I showed off in this earlier post.  Three of our Texas nieces got those
with 3 dolls I made :)

 

 

We've got a little nephew in Texas who loves crafts! :) so we got him a big plastic box 

and filled it with all sort of crafty bits and I made him a craft apron :)  I got the pattern from

here.  I changed it a little bit though.  I didn't make the neck strap the same and I added a

felt pocket in the middle of mine.  I made little shapes out of felt and glued them on.  I had 

seen this one and I liked the words on that apron so I embroidered them on mine.

   Here it is!

Two of our nieces got the travel doll houses I made.  I wrote about them in several posts.  This

is the post showing one of the finished houses :) They were both mostly the same except for the 

color of a few things and the little dolls hair color.

Two other nephews got some dinosaur mats :D They were fun to make :) I got inspiration

from a lot of pictures I saw on pinterest some of my favorite ones were these:

Fun at Home with Kids

Makezine

apartment therapy

Blog Her

This was mine :)

  I also made a pouch to put it in :)

My favorite part of this project was making the volcano!

I think it looked really good :D I made it with a bunch of scraps of brown felt 

all glued together :)

The busy books I made were for one little niece in Texas and for Lilah-Mai, our little niece 

here in the UK.

I've made a total of 4 busy books aka quiet books.  I made 2 last year and 2 this year.  Those

are very fun to make but they are projects that take a whole post for themselves :D So I'll show

you and tell you about them in another post soon :)

It was fun going to see the family in Texas and eating all the things :D Three weeks went by 

too fast.  We came back home to our lovely cat and our beautiful Christmas tree that we put up 

before we left on holiday :)

We got the train in Texas :)

Now it's back to normality.  I have some projects in a queue :)  I want to make a weighted doll.

I've made my own pattern for this and can't wait to try it out.  I also have 2 quilts to make, a

baby dress for our newest baby niece born just today in Texas :)  I also am going to make a puffy

sleeve dress for our baby niece Dezi.  She's just turned 2 :)  

I made one of these dresses for miss Lilah-Mai with a hair bow too :) I used a pattern I got here.

She's got a very good tutorial with pictures.

Here she is!

What am I waiting for you might be asking.  Why are my projects waiting in a queue you ask.  

Well I am waiting for my new sewing machine.  I've been waiting since I ordered it on the 2nd.

There was a mix up with my bank and them but it got fixed and on Monday they said it would be

sent.  I would have it within 1 to 4 business days.  Tomorrow is day 4.  If it doesn't come 

I'll be calling and using my serious voice! 

Hope everyone is doing good so far this new year :)

Finished Doll Diaper Bags

Today I finally finished the doll diaper bags yay :)  I made the last bits to add which were the bibs.

Here they are :)

I used the template on this page Crafty Cupboard.  She's got a nice tutorial on there.  I used snap buttons on them and I made 2 flower appliques and a star one with my handy BIGkick machine.  I'm done with these 3 presents and now I'll start the next group of gifts :D 

Here are the diaper bags all done :)  The contents are a changing mat, diaper, wipes, baby powder, bottle, baby food, toy, bib and an extra change of clothes :) 

Doll Dress #3

Today was a coughing day for me :(  I thought I'd finish off my diaper bags but no.  I felt sickish so I had a little lay down and we also had some visitors.  I did finish the last little dress and bloomers set.  Tomorrow we go grocery shopping and if I don't feel too sick I'll finish off the diaper bags by making the bibs and putting some flower appliques, that I'll make with my lovely BIGkick machine, on the bags.  Then I'll start the next set of presents :D

Here is the little dress and bloomers set I made today.

Little Dresses

Today I worked on the dresses that I'm gonna put in the diaper bags.  I made 2 out of the 3 today.

Here they are :)

I have one more dress and bloomers set to go.  After that I'll sew the 3 bibs. I think after the bibs and the dresses and bloomers I'll be done with the doll diaper bags.  That will be 3 Christmas presents done :D I will share some of last years Christmas presents soon :)

  

Continuing with Christmas in July

I continued today working on my doll diaper bags :) I made 3 baby food bottles with 3 spoons and 3 little toys.

These are the 3 baby food bottles with the spoons.  They are made from 3 plastic cylinders with glued on felt and little fruit appliques.  The spoons are just felt with the stiff interfacing which I now know the name for.  It is called Pelmet Vilene.  

The little toys I decided to make were felt animals :) I decided on a duck, bear and bunny.  I found the bear template here, the bunny here and for the duck I used this picture.  They fit on the palm of my hand and are hand sewn which is why the stitches are a bit messy. Hand sewing is not my forte :D I love the duck best of all :)

Tomorrow, if I don't feel too sick, I'll make the bibs and might start sewing the dresses and bloomers. 

Christmas Gifts Progress

Well as I said on my Christmas in July post, I was going to continue with my diaper bags today.  I made 3 wipes cases with 2 wipes in them, 3 changing mats and 3 baby bottles :)  I still need to embellish each thing with embroidered words and some appliques I'll make with my trusty BIGkick machine.  The baby bottles were fun to make and easier than I thought as well.  They are made of felt and stuffed with polyester stuffing.  I sewed a tube out of white felt and stuffed it.  I then cut out 2 circles out of white felt for the top and bottom of the tube and hand sewed them on.  I made a template for the nipple and cut it out of light brown felt.  I hand sewed that together and stuffed it.  After that I used my glue gun to glue the nipple to one end of the white tube.  I then cut a strip of pink felt and glued it around the top part of the white tube covering a bit of the tube and a bit of the nipple.  That's how I made my 3 bottles.

Tomorrow I will embellish the accessories I've made so far :)  I still need to make 3 bibs, sew the dresses and bloomers I cut out, make a baby toy of some sort and decide what else to put in my diaper bags :)

Christmas in July

Today I decided to start making Christmas presents.  Last year I made Christmas presents for most of our nephews and nieces in Texas :)  I decided to do the same this year :) I'll share pictures of the things I made last year.  I'll also post about the stuff I'm making this year :)

This is what I did today.  I cut out 3 doll dresses and bloomers I got from my Simplicity patterns and I also cut out 3 diaper bags.  I made up the diaper bag pattern myself.  

Only things I sewed up today were the 3 diaper bags.

They are not finished though.  I need to add some flower appliques and make the accessories.  I think I want to make a wipes container with a few wipes, a changing mat, bib, a little felt bear and I want to make a baby bottle.  I'm not sure if I can do it but I'm going to give it a go.  I'm also going to add a diaper not sure if I'll make it or put in an actual newborn diaper as I have a few of those to hand.  They will each also have one of the dresses I'm going to make.  I'll add the appliques tomorrow and start making some of the accessories :)  I'll share what I get done.