Fixing a Broken Thread on a Woven Wrap - Photo Tutorial!

A woven wrap is a long length of material with a loose weave, this enables the fabric to keep it's strength and shape while having a good amount of 'give' along the bias (diagonal). These qualities make the fabric ideal for carrying a baby, allowing mama and bubbah hours of comfortable walking/playing/shopping :-D

... sleeping... 

The downside of this loose weave is that individual threads can become snagged on clothing, car doors, velcro... and be pulled out of the weave, causing a nasty little loop to form on the surface of the fabric. In the most extreme incidences these threads can snap ad become broken, or can even form a hole :-( A broken thread is, unfortunately a hole waiting to happen. Once a hole forms in fabric it's much more liable to a tear... so for many people a broken thread is the death if a wrap... because they can't trust a 'hole waiting to happen' to carry their baby... fair enough! ... but they can be fixed :-) fixed broken threads are not always pretty, but they are safe if done correctly :-)

Tutorial and Pattern: Wrap Strap Bag!

Ok :-) the tutorial and my first ever printable PDF pattern is HERE!!

Click here to download the pattern for this bag

Click here to download the tutorial for this bag

Happy making!! I cant wait to see what you guys do!!

Edit 3pm 29/07 ... ok I just realised long time readers of this blog may not 'get' this bag, lol, it had wraparound straps which make it easier to use when you're carrying a baby in a sling.  And if you're carrying your baby on your front you can thread the straps through the side loops and tie together at the bottom to wear as a backpack!

the idea is not unique to this bag, but this bag is constructed very differently to other babywearing bags, with a view to making it easier for people to DIY at home :-)

EDIT 7/8/12
The eagle eyed among you will notice that this bag has side loops similar to the popular Onbag. If you've ever attempted to make an Onbag you will be able to see that the construction of this bag is entirely different.

Advantages of this bag/tutorial over the Onbag/tutorial

• This bag has separate straps 'pieces' this means that the whole bag can be made out of 1 metre outer and 1 - 1-1 1/4 metre of lining fabric - this is substantially less than Onbag which requires you to make the strap, bag base and body out of a 3.5m length). 
• This bag comes with a full printable PDF pattern. This will help you ensure you cut exactly the right shapes to construct your bag. It will also make the bag easier to make for experienced sewists who are used to using paper patterns.
• This bag comes with a full printable PDF photo tutorial. There's also a full collection 65 of work-in-progress pics over at my flickr to guide you through every step of the way.
• This bag comes with a zip closure as standard. Fully explained in the tutorial, no meed to worry about sewing it, or keeping your belongings secure when out and about!
• This bag is designed for DIY'ers. All you need to put this together is a sewing machine that does a regular straight stitch and a zipper foot. No endless rolled hems, promise!

Finished: Wrap Strap Bag

I got a bit excited about this one and forgot to actually post it on the blog... whoops!

If you're not on my facebook page you should be! You'd know ALL about this if you did!

Ok so, if you dont carry your baby in a sling this one'll have really passed you by, but the 'nappy bag' situation is a real problem for slingy mamas! so here's a bag with straps that tie around you and your baby, and it can also be converted to a backpack for when you're carrying your little one on your front :-)

Finished: Wrap Conversion Ring Sling

Full tutorial to come but here's some glamour shots of me and my boy in a Ring Sling I made for a friend. And a little information about what a ring sling is! haha

Finished! Bazinga! Ipad Sleeve.

I made this

out of this

:-) will put the tutorial together soon... <3

Geek Test

What do you see when you look at this picture?

please tell me I'm not the only one..

Oh My! Lady Geek of the Week!

I was featured as Lady Geek of the Week on Being Geek Chic

I have a kind of blogging solipsism which means that I'm always more than mildly surprised when anyone actually reads my blog. So thanks so much Being Geek Chic! I'm quite flattered!

A also like the phrases:
"not your average knit one, pearl two how-to blog"
and
"balance between your inner June Cleaver and self-proclaimed soul-sister Betty Friedan"

I need to find out who June Cleaver and Betty Friedlan are but I'm sure that was a nice thing to say (I know... I'm rubbish, right?!)

So THANKYOU Being Geek Chic and I PROMISE that next time you send me an e-mail I WILL reply!! haha 

Hello World (Again!)

have you missed me?!

My life is very unpredictable at the moment, along with the usual ups and downs of having a 10 month old baby, I'm also trying to earn money by supply teaching... it has good days and bad days, and far too many days where I get up and get ready only not to be given any work that day :-(

Anyhow, it does no one any good to focus on the negatives.

Squiggle is doing fantastically well, he's 26.5lb! (that's BIIIG) he's got his two bottom teeth, he's crawling and standing up on furniture!

He likes to dance:

Anyhow. I'm making an effort to get back online, and do more stuff for myself. Sort out my life a little bit... you know :-)

So... see you soon with some content!

Folkclore Crafts - Blog Book Tour!!!

 

Pictures courtesy of fabulous publishing

 

Declaration of vested interest: I'm IN these freaking BOOKS!!!

I'm a CRAFT AUTHOR!!!

So please understand that this post is completely and utterly biased! :D

Buy the books here

 

Welcome to any readers coming over from http://kathleendames.blogspot.co.uk/ ... pull up a chair! make yourself comfortable!

 

I'm so excited guys! I've got a project in each of these books, the debut publications from fabulous publishing.

And read further for a chance to win Folklore Crafts Matryoshka!

LOVE THIS: Coraline 'Squitty' plush

Coraline Squitty for Your Other Self by SpookyPookyCreations

SO cute! Spooky Pooky Creations $25/ Appx £16.20

This is a Ring Sling... a teeny ring sling :-)

ok so I think I'm all sewed out for one night :-) so the mei tai will have to wait, but here's my baby ring sling!

it's got a pleated shoulder and plastic handbag handles as sling rings :-) the material is salvaged from some old cotton curtains, hopefully will get a tutorial up but it's very self explanatory I think... I took the adult pattern from sleepingbaby.net and just halved all the measurements :-)

yeyy making things!!

Hehe baby baby carriers!

Ok so I'll tell you since I'm making, like, the most obscure product imaginable ;) I'm trying to put together a couple of baby carriers .... for babies. ... you know ... to carry their toys around in :) .. I'm going to try and make a Mei Tai and a ring sling.... if you don't know what those things are hopefully you will by the end of the night...

Can you tell what it is yet?

Here's a bizarre work in progress pic ...

Ani DiFranco Experimental CrossStitch

Not perfect but I'm a cross stitch novice.. pattern from www.fuldesign.se. lyrics from 'not a pretty girl' by Ani DiFranco

I'm now mobile!

I've finally managed to get my hands on a smartphone ... I know, how bad is it that I'm so behind the times? !? Bad blogger.... anyhow,you can now look forward to more short, sharp updates .... hopefully!

Don't forget I'm on twitter @geekysweetheart

Xxx

London Stitch and Craft Show!

hey guys, just a heads up, I'm going to be at London Stitch and Craft Show TOMORROW (Thursday 15th) helping out Mr X Stitch. Yes, that's right:

I'll be clearly labeled ;-) and I'd LOVE if some of you came up to say hi... although I know from google analytics that there are only about 3 people in/around London who read this blog, it'd still be great to feel a little famous...

wish you'd known sooner? 'like' my page on facebook to get all the breaking news!

Serious Monday - Why People (including me!) Give Parenting Advice

This is something I've been mulling over for a while now... as soon as I HAD Squiggle all I wanted to do was to advise other would-be-mums how to do it. Help them benefit from my experience, tell them what I'd hoped someone would've told me... this is actually (sorry guys) a really destructive behavior. while you're trying to help people have the birth/parenthood they want, you will, no matter how hard you try, make others feel undermined, inadequate and failing. I'm really sorry if I made anyone feel like that.

The overwhelming reason people give parenting advice is to recieve validation from others because deep down we're all petrified of 'doing it wrong and we find it difficult to believe that there are so many ways of doing it right. Infact our definition of right and wrong just doesn't seem to work that way does it? If we're doing it right, and someone else is doing it differently, they must be doing it wrong.... right?!

Wrong

Confused yet?! Hahaha!

It astounds me how many things are matters of heated debate among parents. The use of dummies, cloth nappies, breasttfeeding, controlled crying, adherence or non adherence to strict schedules.... but lets face it (although it is by no means ideal) if you let your baby cry itself to sleep every night, use disposables, bottle feed and stick to a strict 4 hour feeding regimen, while occupying the baby at all other times with a pacifier the baby is still probably going to turn out quite normal.... I mean yea, even if you beleive the research, the controlled crying  might leave them with abandonmant issues, and the dummy might retad their speech development a little but *really* I work with children, and these are not big issues

The kids with big issues are the ones who have autism, but their parents refuse to have them diagnosed (a) because they're in denial about their child's condition, or (b) because they don't want their child to be 'labelled' for the rest of their lives... The kids with big issues are the ones who live and care for their alcoholic mother ... I could go on but I would seriously be damaging my chance of ever getting a job again...
The truth is worse than you can imagine.

So let me give you this one piece of parenting advice.


Love your kid,


If you're loving your kid, and putting their needs first, you're doing it right.


(but seriously... Don't buy a Gina Ford book... please?)

Finished: "Cross Stitch or Die" Shoes

 OH BABY!!! <3

I love these, and I've learned a lot making them, they're a little rough around the edge, but who the hell cares, no one is going to get close enough to my smelly feet to notice!! haha!

WIP Wednesday: Cross Stitch!

Can you believe I've never done ANY cross stitch?! I've never really seen the point since you can have much more freedom in your designs using backstitch embroidery. I also hate the look of aida cloth and think unless you have the whole surface covered in stitches it looks rubbish (and I don't have that kind of patience)
So I recently discovered soluble canvas! and that's what I'm using here, means I can use fabric from my fabulous stash and just add cross stitch accents to bits and bobs, here and there... so that's what this is all about... but *shhh* I'm not going to tell you exactly what this is for yet, but I'm very excited about it!

Embroidering on Stretch Jersey with Solvy

So 6 months in I'm finally doing what's expected of me and embroidering baby vests.... it's much harder than it looks.

I've got something called Solvy (water soluble stabiliser)  which is like a thin plastic that you can draw your design on, hoop up with your fabric and sew through. Then once you're done you dunk the thing in water and the Solvy dissolves! cool eh?

yea it's still not easy.... but this is what I'm going for.

once again, pinterest is my inspiration

Work In Progress Wednesday: Marvel Superhero Canvases

hey remember ages ago I bought this at a carboot sale:

well... with a bit of mod podge and some cheap canvasses I think I'm on to something:

not finished yet, but looking good I think :-) xx

Serious Monday: The Mammy Lists - Why I breastfed

Lets be clear here, I'm a craft blogger. My blog is not concerned with politics, religion, the intricacies of my personal life, or anything deep or philosophical. It is my refuge from such things. Saying that, there are times when something that is so intertwined with my day-to-day life (blogging) and other major life events (having a baby) have to acknowledge each other's existence.

This is part of a series of blog posts I'm calling “The Mammy Lists”

Why I breastfed.*

XKCD Pillow

this of one of those 'what I did when I wasn't blogging' projects that I put together on my unplanned blogging maternity leave.

It's a small decorative pillow with  a comic from XKCD embroidered on it. It was a wedding gift for my cousin and her new husband, however they ended up getting it quite late!

the whole thing is worked in 2 stands of embroidery floss and backstitch, apart form the frames of the cartoon which were worked in 1 strand.

Here's quality control checking it over for me :-)

Serious Monday: Mammy list 2 - Postnatal/living with baby

Lets be clear here, I'm a craft blogger. My blog is not concerned with politics, religion, the intricacies of my personal life, or anything deep or philosophical. It is my refuge from such things. Saying that, there are times when something that is so intertwined with my day-to-day life (blogging) and other major life events (having a baby) have to acknowledge each other's existence.

This is part of a series of blog posts I'm calling “The Mammy Lists”

 (co-sleeping on a sofa is NOT recommended... but sometimes it happens... and the Husb0t was not going to risk waking either of us up..... )

Postnatal/Living With a Small Baby

New "Wretched Hive" embroidery

I'm going to frame this sucker and try and sell it in my etsy/folksy shop...

Yum!

Idea: use embroidery hoops to store embroidery hoops!

this is how I keep all of my embroidery hoops tidy and easy to find... yea... I've got a lot of them huh?

Russian Doll Taggie 2.0

So, ages ago (omg, a year ago, really?!) I made a russian doll taggie toy, you wouldn't know about it because, it seems, I completely forgot to blog it! (duh) but it is on craftster.

Well, that taggie turned out to be useless, too big and heavy for little hands, so I've made a newer, better, faster, stronger one ( :-) ). It's pink and green, I'm loving that colour combo at the moment, what a difference a year makes eh?

x GS

Mammy List 1: Labour

Lets be clear here, I'm a craft blogger. My blog is not concerned with politics, religion, the intricacies of my personal life, or anything deep or philosophical. It is my refuge from such things. Saying that, there are times when something that is so intertwined with my day-to-day life (blogging) and other major life events (having a baby) have to acknowledge each other's existence.
This is part of a series of blog posts I'm calling “The Mammy Lists”
It's a collection of things I've learned over the last 5 months, don't worry, I'm still a craft blog. Crafting is still happening and documentation of said crafting will resume soon!

Labour

1. In labour, go without pain relief or other interventions as long as possible. You're stronger than you think. You'll thank yourself afterwards.
2. The point of labour is to take home a healthy, happy baby. Remember that if things don't go to plan.
3. Things rarely go to plan.
4. An episciotomy is not the worst thing that can happen.
5. Before you give birth, find out about your local La Leche League group (or other local support groups)  just in case you choose to breastfeed.
6. Even if you don't want to breastfeed consider putting your baby to the breast after giving birth. It will help your womb to contract, speeding your recovery, as well as giving the baby your immunity to the bacteria in his/her new environment. and hey, you can still change your mind!
7. Trust your instincts.
8. Do some research beforehand, go to an antenatal classes and know about the different stages of labour.
9. When you get to the pushing stage. Try to push, hold the push to rest and then push again, instead of pushing, releasing the muscles and then pushing again (you will push several times in one contraction) A baby is kinda like toothpaste (bear with me here) if you release the muscle it gets sucked back in a little, making you work a lot harder.
10. If you've had bad period pains, that's what first stage labour feels like, yea it hurts, but you can deal with it. It's hard work They don't call it "Labour" for nothing. Its worth it.

feel free to leave your own tips in the comments!