I'm not dead!

the post-less-ness of this blog will cease in the new year when I get my broadband reconnected ... srsly! I cannot get over how LONG it is TAKING.... anyhow, got lots of patterns and tutorials lined up for you. Including this adorkable christmas pudding bib :)

have an om-nom-nomable Christmas :)

Know anything about sewing machine feet?

I'm looking for help identifying some sewing machine feet. I believe them all to be screw on and quite old.
this is my sewing machine.

I do have other sewing machines if they won't fit on this one... but this one's my favourite...

here are the feet!

Squiggle's first Con :-)

 Last weekend for Squiggle's 12 week birthday we went to London MCM Expo (Comic Con) all cosplayed up... I got a bit frustrated because no one could see my costume since I ended up carrying Squig in the sling the whole time. but because his costume was blue, everyone thought he was part of my costume anyway :-) loads of people came up to me exclaiming "SUPERBABY!!"... so I made my peace with it. he loved it anyway, since he was in the sling being walked around he slept for most of the day hahah!

How to: Baby Carrier!

So many unfinished stories, here's one I've been meaning to get to for AGES!

I told you a while ago that I was making my own SPOC (simple piece of cloth) baby carrier. They're also often referred to as baby wraps or slings, and they're often HELLA-expensive!

Witness the awesomeness that is babywearing - I've just noticed my hand seems to be supporting Squiggle's bum here - that's completely unnecessary, he's nice and snug in there... in fact after I took this picture I went shopping (about half a mile walk there and half a mile back) Squiggle had a nap in the sling (not uncommon - it's so relaxing for him!) it rained cats and dogs, but I just popped up my umbrella while other mothers were ducking for cover trying to figure out how to attach their rain cover to their buggy . . . Meanwhile Squiggle carried on with his nap. . .

I'm kind of embarrassed to even call this a sewing project it really is as simple as buying a piece of fabric and hemming it... no really!

What a difference a bit of sleep makes...

I'm not going to apologise for not blogging much recently, its amazing how hard it is to keep on top of everything once one of these comes into your life.

He's 10 weeks old in 2 days time, and for the past 3 nights he's slept through from around 9pm to around 6am... I'm in shock and disbelief and can't really allow myself to hope it's a new pattern....

There's all kinds of crazy real life stuff going on at the moment that is truly too boring to blog about...

somebody needs their nappy changing... and the cycle continues...

Sneak peek...

this is a little something I'm working on for a very special person.... recognise it? are you that person?? who knows!?!? hahaha

You Are Witnessing the Birth of a Dress....

Its not a great picture, but it's not a great dress... yet...

this is the first draft of the first dress that I've designed, draped and made from NOTHING, the first attempt, the bodice was about 3 inches too high... I've just added some length to the straps and it looks a lot more like a proper dress...

So I need to lengthen the straps and redraft the armholes to match, I might change the back dart (it's a bit sack-like) I'm going to abandon the triangular panels at the waist as I don't think they add anything... it's be different if I was blocking it in different colours, but I've got some lovely patterned fabric that can speak for itself....

and, as you can see, it's boobie-feeding friendly... if I pull this off I should be able to put together a tutorial on how to modify a pattern to include a nursing panel... fun fun fun... anyhow... I'd better get going... Squiggle's asleep, must make the most of this time...

It's ME!!... well ... not really...

 

I finally got around to padding my dressform to make it something like the right shape....

OTT Glee Swap - Sent

my partner for this swap was ZidishaLuxe ... she actually participated in the metal swap I organised, so I knew she'd be a good partner.

I made her a set of embroidery hoop coasters, emblazoned with some of Brittany's best quotes from season one of Glee :-)

Work in Progress Wednesday - SPOC Baby Carrier

SPOC baby carrier - translation - Simple Piece of Cloth (good amirite?) also called a baby wrap. You know the one....

pic from http://www.wrapyourbaby.com/larae.htm - where you can buy this beautiful EllaRoo wrap for a mere $119 ... yup that's $119 for a big ole' piece of fabric... yes yes I've heard the arguments, it's the way it's woven yatta yatta... but I'm certainly not going to pay anywhere near that to try out the concept... so

This is how you dry 5m of fabric with no tumble dryer...

and this is how the project stands at the moment, 5mx61cm of cotton, pinned and pressed ready for sewing along the hems tomorrow :-)

Sunday Squiggle: Nomnomnom Nose

Nighttime Nursing Bra Top TUTORIAL!

WARNING: frank discussion of breastfeeding and lady-booby-bits... it doesn't bother me so I don't know why it should bother you but, meh, the internet *shrug*

ok, so I spent pretty much... err... yup half my life being generally disappointed with my boobs... well... I've now found my boobs' secret talent. Apparently they're hella good at feeding babies (well... my baby... haven't tried them on other people's babies yet, although I am feeling I may have had quite a profitable career as a wetnurse if such careers still existed...)

So... my boobs are efficient feeding devices, infact:

(Source: http://himynameisben95.tumblr.com/post/6195190507)

oh yea!

Getting on it, slowly but surely...

FACT: babies make it hard to craft.... I did not previously appreciate this.

FACT: There is no shame after childbirth, I no longer care about being photographed without make up.

This is how I roll... very... very... slowly!! But slow progress is still progress (but, the baby's asleep, why don't you put him down - ah, but if you put him down, he'll wake up, and then he'll cry.... )

wanna see what I'm working on?

hmm? nope, no more clues, it's for a swap, I can't risk spoiling the surprise!

And don't worry :-) A Tutorial for the Shirt and Tie Bibs and more pictures are coming soon.

Finished! Shirt and Tie Bibs!

Another triumph of pinterest inspiration:

pattern pieces coming soon!

Sunday Squiggle: Headbanging baby

set your phasers to adorable



Sqiug dancing to Planet Rock with Daddy on his tenth-day-birthday
x GS

Cat Ear Hairclips TUTORIAL!

Got your supplies together? download the PDF tutorial for the Cat Ear Hairclips (meow!)

xG

Finished! No-Sew Cat Ear Hairclips

I went to London Film and Comic con with the husb0t, sister in law and her kids a while back.... and they were selling these for around £5 a pair.

want some? You will need felt, hair clips and a glue gun.... tutorial coming soon!...

Baby hiccups

in lieu of actual crafts, have a video of Squiggle on his 10th day being thoroughly unimpressed with the hiccups.

enjoy...

Update: Squiggle is here!

hi guys.

My little geek arrived last weekend, on Saturday the 6th August.

He was 2 weeks late and weighed 8lbs 9oz, he's 8 days old today :-) and we're both doing well. My labour only lasted about 4 1/2 hours and I managed on gas and air. I've got a lot to be grateful for... he's very healthy and sleeping well (when he's full!)

I won't be using his name on the blog, just because, you now, the internet lasts forever. I'll still be calling him Squiggle :-)

Normal programming will resume shortly, I haven't hung up my crafting hat yet :-) I've got at least 3 projects in the pipeline which I'll get to as soon as I can get this sleepy baby off my tummy.


love to you all!!

Giveaway - WE HAVE A WINNER!!

Wow guys, thankyou so much to everyone who entered my giveaway and helped spread the word about my blog. The giveaway was really successful and I can't wait until the next one!! Welcome to any new blog followers and/or facebook likers, I hope you'll stick around. Make sure you leave a comment every now and then to let me know what you like and what you want to see more of <3

anyhow... the time has come...

Drumroll......

The WINNER of my super duper giveaway is.....

Comment #7... and Comment #7 was left by Christina from http://mommysrandom.blogspot.com/

Thankyou Christina for giving my shiny new blog button a home and sharing my tutorials on facebook and Google+!!

Please e-mail geekyswetheart@gmail.com with the following information and I'll start putting your package together!
  - Full name and address
  - Customisation information for embroidery case. Tell me what colours/patterns you like and I'll raid my stash and line/finish the embroidery case for you. Let me know if you'd like a front decal like the one here and either give me an idea what you would like, or e-mail me a picture and I'll make it happen.

Thanks again everyone, lets do it again soon!! <3!

Breastfeeding Pillow - Tutorial

(psst, don't forget to enter my AWESOME giveaway)

 it's essentially a U  shaped bean bag... I got a 1.5 cubic foot Beanbag top-up bag for £3.50 at QD (which is similar to Wilkinson's if you don't have one near you) google it and the Internet will furnish you with suppliers, but because it's a bulky thing it's better to look in craft shops/furniture shops to see if you can pick it up locally and avoid the P+P charges

My Fake Boppy

(psst - enter my giveaway)

MUAHAHAH!!!!

£50 for a PILLOW!??
Joke's on YOU Kiddicare/boppy!!

ah made mai own:

 I used: a curtain and beanbag beans

want one? get your materials ready, I'll show you how VERY SOON!!

Ps Don't forget to enter my giveaway

Carboot sale stuff...

(psst, don't forget to enter my AWESOME giveaway)

yup... we did it again! (maybe this could be a regular feature... except that you're never guaranteed to get awesome stuff at a carboot sale, I just happen to have been lucky the last few weeks....

There were only 2 things though really, but it's the PRICE that makes them particularly awesome :-) and their upcycleability (yup, that's a 'thing')

My SUPER DUPER GIVEAWAYYY!!!!!

I hit my first goal of 200 'likers' on my facebook page!!

You're all amazing people who I love enough to lick but you're too far away, so I'll just lick my screen instead.... theeere we go...

I have 6 (SIX) items that I will be giving away to ONE lucky reader!

Did ya see it!?!?!?

ok, I PROMISE this is the last you're going to hear about it, if you 'like' my facebook page*, you'll be SICK of hearing about it now, but look see what Craftster Mod SevsOnlyGirl said about MEEEE!!!

*if you're reading this and you DON'T 'like' my facebook page get your ass over there RIGHT NOW!! you're missing out on SO MUCH!!

 see that??
"The most adorable pregnant woman, I've ever seen" ... da-awwwww!!! thanks Craftster!!...

So if you're viewing this post on my actual blog, you will notice that I've got a new tag-line!!

Crinkle Taggie Baby Soother - Tutorial

ok then, remember these noisy toys?



In a previous post I showed you how to insert the jingle bells into the taggie plush :-) Now I'm going to show you how to make the Crinkle Taggie Soother.

The Internet has told me that babies love things that crinkle, and things with ribbon loops/tags, and this is my response! err... unfortunately I have no way of verifying this information at this point since my lazy baby still isn't here! and even when (s)he does arrive, I hear tell that they don't do much except cry, sleep, feed and wee for the first few days.

Anyhow, click here for the printable -step by step tutorial - for how to make a Crinkle Taggie Baby Soother!!

Click the read more link to see some work in progress pics and take a quick tour of the construction process:

Having a little design fiddle

blog is looking a little funky at the moment... bear with me... hopefully will be nice and shiny soon :-) will tell you when I'm done... feel free to let me know what you think at any time... xxx

Carboot sale stuff...

trying to keep my mind off my late'n'lazy baby we went to a carboot sale today and I got some good sewing stuff... I don't really do cross stitch but I thought for 50p I had to have that aida! haha.

here's what I got!

and some good excercise to boot :-)

Waiting for my egg to hatch.. ,

This is what I was working on this afternoon:

I don't 'do' painting.. or that is, I don't usually do painting... so this was a good distraction while my 'due date' went by...

going to have a walk round a carboot sale tomorrow, see if I can find anything interesting and hopefully get this baby party started....

Tutorial! How to make a Jingle Bell Plush!

So guys, I've made a couple of noisy baby toys for a friend. A jingle bell plush and a crinkly taggie 'blanket'.
Today I'm going to show you how to make the plush, The 'blanket' coming later in the week.

Here's a video of them 'live' so to speak - obviously you'll need your speakers on to fully enjoy the noisiness of them :-)



Here's the tutorial for the plush itself. (as you can see.. not my work)
And here's the extra tutorial (mine) for adding in the jingle bells.

And here's some more pics of the plush!! <3! (after the 'read more' link)

PM: Upcycled Mens shirt into an Empire Line Dress. FINISHED!

6 DAYS TO GOOOOOOO........... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!

OK time to come clean... this dress has been finished for AGES!... but .... well it's 'flouncy' and ridiculous... and it feels completely silly sitting around the house in it.

I will be making another one (because even when I don't need the bump-room I'm unlikely to want to be dressed in tight fitting clothes) I have a feeling when I've toned down the colours a little and got rid of the silly frilly/misbehaving collar it'll be a lovely comfortable nursing dress.

ok so lesson learned, don't pair a pattern with another pattern, a flat colour for the shirt or the skirt would be slightly less ridiculous.

but meh, life is for learning.... so here's the pics!!

as you can see (especially in the side-on pic) a 3 inch front hem extension is enough to keep the hem level with bump... I'm 39 weeks pregnant :-)

ooh... and another thing! I've converted the tutorial for this dress into a pdf, you can download it here.
also the stretch mark fairy visited me last night... bad times!

PM: Upcycle a Mens shirt into an Empire Line Dress. TUTORIAL

Now I know it's traditional to post the tutorial after I show you the finished project - but I'm not up for having pictures took of me and my big fat swollen feet at the moment :-)

so here's my first illustrated tutorial!!

This dress is great for many reasons
(1) you can make it as a maternity or a non-maternity dress
(2) you can make it as a maternity dress and then with a quick em adjustment, you can still wear it once your body has shrunk back down to normal proportions ^.^
(3) it doubles up as a nursing dress because it's button up
(4) it's elasticated so you don't have to worry too much about sizing
(5) its SUPER easy!!!

it's ALLL good baby!

EDIT: I dont know what the hell Picasa has done to my pictures to make them so blocky- BUT I've converted these imaged into a PDF that you can download and print. download it here

Embroidered Stargate Baby Vest

oh baby :-)

PLEASE tell me you recognise that guy!

I've agonised for AGES over whether or not that looks enough like Jack O'Neill... in the end I put the little point of origin symbol in the bottom left hand corner just to give people a little clue :-)

Of course not every one's seen as much Stargate as me and my family (ie. ALL of it :-) ) but hopefully the text makes this project 'accessible' to all on some level or other.

Yet another example of my incredulity and recognition of the absurdity that within a couple of weeks I'm going to be taking the final blindfolded step into the precipice of parenthood... I can't believe I'm already 38 1/2 weeks pregnant.

Here, have the picture I used as a kind of pattern:

 

Hopefully you can see what I did there... I put this image together on Gimp by fiddling with the colour levels and adding the text.Then I more or less used my monitor as a lightbox and (tried my best to...) trace all of those black shaded areas directly onto my fabric... and then just stitched!

I tried to use my intuition/gut feeling about how to compose the image, starting with the larger shaded areas, filling them in with satin stitch, and then outlining that, and doing the finer lines with backstitch. The text is done in a mixture of chain stitch and backstitch to make some words seem more bold than others.

Here's my work on the hoop for you purists!

 one and a half weeks to go... hopefully....

And now it's a frilly unicorn cushion :-)

see?

So. This baby cushion is (surprisingly) made out of upcycled materials... the floral base fabric is a duvet cover and the bias binding edging to the frill is made from an old pillowcase (I love it and I've got loads more, making your own binding strip is such a good way of using up small amounts of fabric)

And I've made it into a cushion cover so it can be removed and washed (and so I can make other covers :-))

The size of the cushion pad itself is 12"x12" (I made it out of a spare pillow we had in the house)

:-) very happy... and if Squiggle is a boy...  then this is my cushion :-)