Sewing tutorial: Quiet book pages - Bead counter

This is one page I really like to include in my books. Both of my kids love counting and one of their favourite pages in their quiet book is the bead counter. They enjoy moving the beads across, and they also learn their colours by practicing with the beads. It is an easy and effective page.

The starting point for making the page is deciding how wide to make the counter (then cut your thin ribbon in appropriate lengths), to what number to count to (in my larger books, I have include counters that go up to ten), and finally what colours to choose. 

The ribbon I use is very narrow and I do not like to take any chances with safety with beads coming loose, so my first step is to space the ribbons on the page and sew them to the page background. My green felt is about 1.5cm wide, so I sew along the ribbons for about a length of 1cm on one side first. Then I thread my beads on and sew down on the other side to secure the ribbons down and lock the beads in. 

Place the felt lengths over the ribbon ends where you have sewn and pin down. Sew a stitch around the edges. Finally trim off the threads and ribbon ends and your bead counter is done!

What I made: baby boy shorts

A few weeks ago there was a sudden change in the weather here in Brisbane. The nights were still cool, but the days were full of sunshine and blue skies.

And it became warm! Spring had arrived!

So I began to sew again. First I made a bunch of clothes for Miss almost 3, then some dresses and tops for myself, and finally some shorts for Mr 9 months. 

I made them from these gorgeous bright quilting cotton and checked cotton fabrics that I picked up a while ago and although the style is so simple, the fabric designs make them look great.

These are size 1 (12 - 18 months) and I'll be posting a pattern and tutorial for them in the next few weeks.

Lesley :)

Tuesday Tutorial: toddler girl skirt and top from men's business shirt

This post is about the second upcycle that I've done for Mia from one of her daddy's business shirts. The first upcycle was this dress:

Cute, right?

But today we're focussing on making a skirt and top:

The first thing I did was to remove the pocket and the collar by unpicking the seams around them. Next I cut out all of pieces, trying to keep the original seams as much as possible. This is a different shirt and a very rough picture, but it gives you some idea of how to cut the pieces from the shirt.

You'll need to take lots of measurements.

 For the top:

• Check that the neck width suits the size of the child. Sew along the seam where the collar was removed.
• Measure from the neck to the edge of the shoulder where you want the armhole to begin.
• Measure the length of the armhole you require.
• Allow an extra 1.5cm for armhole hemming.
• Measure the child's chest and waist and allow 4cm on each side.
• Measure the length required from shoulder down and add 2cm for hem.

Hem the armholes, by turning over twice and ironing down. Turn right sides together and sew down the sides. Hem along the bottom.

For the skirt:

• Measure the waist and hips - cut a rectangle that is 1.5 times the largest of these measurements.
• Measure the length required and add hem allowance.
• Cut a strip for the waistband. I wanted 2.5cm wide, so I cut a 10cm strip that was the same length as my daughter's waist measurement. Fold in half and iron, fold the edges to the centre and iron again.

Run two gathering stitches along the top of the rectangle. Pull in to match the length of the waistband. Insert the gathered skirt between the layers of the waistband and sew along. Topstitch around the top and sides of the waistband. Hem the skirt. Sew a button on the waistband and add a buttonhole.

Done!