Riches and Roses Etsy Update

For a mother of two kids aged 3 and 5, who works three days a week and has volunteer commitments, my Etsy store has been keeping me busy since around last Christmas with an average of about 4 orders per month since December.

Since then, I've updated my packaging and labelling, to use this cute little label on all my items:

I've also added in some new items including these baby doll accessories:

And some of my long standing products have suddenly become very popular, especially this cute little hungry caterpillar set.

The 5 most active products in my Etsy store so far this year have been:

1. Toddler Quiet Book.

2. Baby Doll Diaper/Nappy Carry Bag

3. Balloon Cover

4. Hungry Caterpillar Set

5. Kids' Toolbelt.

<3 <3 <3

Sewing Tutorial: felt breakfast (bacon, scrambled eggs and a boiled egg)

A few years ago, I made my first items of felt food for my daughter's new play kitchen. I have posted a few tutorials here on my blog for these in the past, the most popular being my felt breakfast patterns and tutorials (found here). In that past post you can find instructions to make bread, fried eggs, sausages and croissants.

In this post, I am going to share a pattern and instructions for bacon, scrambled eggs and a boiled egg. You can download the paper pattern here PATTERN: Felt bacon, scrambled eggs and boiled egg.:  The instructions are posted below the following photos.

BACON

1. Cut out two bacon pieces from brown felt, and a strip of lighter brown felt (0.75cm wide) to make the stripes. 

2. Follow the markings on the pattern. Pin the lighter brown felt along along the two stripes and sew along the centre of each stripe to fasten it to the top layer of the bacon.

3. Place the back layer behind and sew close to the edges to attach the front piece to the back and add thickness to the bacon. 

SCRAMBLED EGGS

The scrambled eggs are easier to make by hand.

1. Following the measurements on the paper pattern, cut out two rectangles of pale yellow felt. 

2. Sew a gathering stitch (long loose stitches fastened at the starting end) along one side of the larger piece and pull the thread until the gathered length matches the length of the smaller piece. Pin together and sew using a small stitch.

3. Repeat this gathering and sewing step until the last side.

4. Fill loosely with stuffing and close the last seam. Remove all the gathering stitches.

5. Feed the needle through the inside and pick up enough thickness of felt from the inside to pull and create some puckering. If done correctly, you will not see the stitches from the outside. Repeat until you have a similar effect to what you see below.

BOILED EGGS

1. For the large part of the egg, cut out:

• 3 white side pieces
• 1 white circular piece
• 1 yellow circular piece
• 3 light brown side pieces

Cut out the same pieces for the smaller part of the egg.

2. Place two of the white side pieces wrong sides together and use small hand stitches to sew them together along one side. 

3. Place the other side piece wrong side together to the un-sewn sides and sew down these side edges to form the egg shape.

4. Sew the small yellow circle to the centre of the white circle to form the top of the egg.

5. Place this top on the open top of the curved egg shape formed in (3.) and attach these together by sewing around the circular edge.

6. Repeat these steps to form the smaller part of the egg in the same way.

7. Sew the three pieces of each part of the egg shell together in the same way. When these are complete, cut a zig zag along the top edges to make the 'cracked' effect.

Buen provecho!

Works in progress: Quiet books, toddler sun hat

The quiet books are coming along slowly. Miss almost three has had a few stays in hospital over the last few weeks after having her tonsils and adenoids removed and Mr 10 months has dropped back to two naps per day now so it also seems those quiet little snippets of time during the day when I could work on sewing have passed as there's always one child awake.

These are the bead counters that will go into the counting book. My daughter loves the bead counter page in her quiet book. It's so simple but looks so effective.

Also for the counting book is this shoe page, where little ones can practice tying a bow. My daughter is still at the stage where all she wants to do is try to put her foot into the open shoe, but I'm sure she'll catch on soon.

I love this dog page, which will go into the alphabet book. It's another simple idea that looks really effective. 

Three complete pages out of twenty four... there's still a long way to go! 

Although it's sun hat weather all year round here in Brisbane, after cleaning out my kids' clothes cupboards recently and noticing how much they've both grown in these last few months, I realised that Miss almost 3 needed a new hat.

I bought some of the yellow beach hut fabric last year and used it up in no time making baby hats, pants and shorts. Recently it was all on sale again and I bought some more, as well as the cute hot air balloons design above. My daughter loved it and chose it for her new summer hat. I used this Oliver + S free pattern http://oliverands.com/free-patterns/reversible-bucket-hat/. I found that it's a bit on the small side, so I'd go a size up next time. We'll try it out at the park tomorrow :)

Felt crafts

I really love working with felt for kids' toys. I made these felt foods for my daughter almost a year ago. They get played with almost every day and are still in the same condition they were a year ago. They are also so much more pleasant to play with than all the cheap plastic play food that is available in the shops.

You can find tutorials for how to make some of this food here on my blog (here and here).

I've also used a lot of felt for making Quiet Books. It's so easy to sew as it doesn't fray and the good quality stuff doesn't stretch out of shape either.

My next felt project is felt money for my daughter :)

Works in progress: quiet books, hats

This week I started on the new Quiet Books. The idea is to make four different kinds, each following a different theme.

I'm starting out on the colours and alphabet books, and will later add a numbers book and a shape book.

The colours book is turning out as also an animal book, as it will feature a yellow baby chicken, orange goldfish, green frog, red crab, pink pig and a blue whale. I'm planning on making each page interactive with either zippers, magnets, buttons, velcro, finger puppets or some kind of movement.

The alphabet book will go from A to F: Apple, Balloon, Cat, Dog, Egg and Fish, and in a similar way will also have interactive pages with velcro, buttons, bow tying, buckles, zippers and magnets.

So many little pieces go into making these books that the first thing I've had to do is order a few more supplies (such as magnets and buckles). I've also cut out all of the pages in cotton calico, using a cute three little pigs fabric for the front and back covers.

I'm in the process of drawing up the pattern pages at the moment and will make some of these available here soon.

With the weather warming up here on the east coast of Australia, my newborn baby hats have been selling quickly from my etsy and madeit shops, so I'll also be cutting out and making up some more of these in the next few days.

Lesley :)

Babies, babies, babies...

All of my latest creations have centred around babies gifts and accessories. Not only are we due to have our second child in late November, but between now and the end of the year so many friends of ours will also be welcoming new additions to their families.

I spotted these bunnies on http://chezbeeperbebe.blogspot.com.au/2010/03/tutorial-and-pattern-recycled-mooshy.html and picked up some cute striped long-sleeve tops that I thought would be perfect to cut up and  use to create them. They turned out pretty cute.

See for tutorial: http://chezbeeperbebe.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/tutorial-and-pattern-rainbow-sunshine.html 

After I finished the bunnies I went exploring around on the above blog and found the idea for these little soft plushies. So easy and fast to make, but so gorgeous. I love the idea of the rainbow coloured ribbons and had all of these in my craft supplies from my hair clip making phase, when I ordered a whole lot of bargain ribbons in bulk online.

When I was pregnant with Mia I didn't think one of these pillows would be all that useful and after she was born I saw some around but couldn't believe how expensive they were. This time around I figured I'd be prepared early when I still have some time for sewing and make myself one. Propping my arm up on pillows and sofa arms for another year and a half is not an attractive thought when they are so easy to make. There are patterns everywhere online for these pillows and I had some scrap fabric and picked up a couple of massive cushions on sale to use for the stuffing as I thought that since the stuffing is already compressed a lot, they wouldn't squash down as much as regular filling when the pillow gets some use. I bought far too much of this pretty fabric when it was on a 40% off sale a while back and thought it might be a cute theme to go with for baby accessories this time around. If you can't see clearly from the picture, it's the three little pigs.

The idea came from: http://sewshesews.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/for-the-love-of-polka-dots-a-crib-mobile-tutorial/ 

These mobiles were another gift idea and are simple to make but really effective. Lots of circles of fabric, ribbon and iron-on adhesive.... and patience!

And just so that Mia didn't miss out completely in my latest crafting craze, I made her a doll carrier as she's really into her dolls at the moment.

Finished!

I actually finished it a few months ago, but it's taken me a while to get around to posting these pictures of the completed book. It was a great feeling to finally put the book together!

Page 1- matching with velcro and magnetic snaps

Because of all the pieces that are just held on by velcro, I thought it best to enclose everything with a zipper. The cover is also interfaced with a light interfacing, and lined with a plain calico fabric. I sewed on loops on the inside to hold the rings. I wanted to use rings so that it would be easy to take pages out and add new ones later.

Pages 2 and 3 - matching with snap fasters, tying a bow

Pages 4 and 5 - fasteners and finger puppets

To put the pages together, I ironed about a centimetre over on each edge and pinned each page back to back with another, then top stitched around the edges. As I had already interfaced each page with a light-medium interfacing, this worked well. For the binder rings, I sewed two small button holes on each page.

Pages 6 and 7 - dress the dolls - velcro

Pages 8 and 9 - fishing with magnets, tent and sleeping bag with zippers

Pages 10 and 11 - matching/using buttons, a page for Mia's car

Pages 12 and 13 - bead counting and potato head

Page 14 - Potatohead pocket

I still find it hard to believe how many hours and how many materials went into making this book. We're saving the book now so that it's a new toy when we fly to Germany in less than two months time.

Mia's new kimono doll

Mia is at that stage where everything goes straight into her mouth. I've been wanting to make her a doll for some time, but wanted to avoid making one that would have to sit on a shelf for 2 more years until it was safe for her to play with it. After making my first doll a few weeks ago for a friend's baby, I got to thinking how it might be fun to combine a cloth doll with the clothes I'd been making, as well as tackle the problem of making a doll that's safe for a 9 month old to play with. Enter the kimono doll...

I altered the pattern I made for my friend's doll - mostly just changing the face shape. First time around I forgot that I hadn't factored in seam allowances to the original pattern and ended up with a pieces for a doll that would have been rather thin. Oops. Second time round was more successful.

Thinking that the hair is really the major problem for a younger baby, I decided on using fixed cloth hair... the sewing equivalent of lego hair. It took a little bit of trial and error to work out the right shape. The first attempt looked like a Darth Vader helmet.

As far as clothes for the doll, I decided to make the juban and the kimono, plus an obi. I could have made a petticoat, but minimizing the clothes made sense for a doll that's meant for a younger baby. The main reason I made the juban was so that I could experiment with the kimono pattern on some plain fabric first.

The juban turned out well and so I added in 0.5 - 1cm on each of the seams for the kimono so that it would fit nicely over the top. For my next doll, I'll cut a wider lining for the kimono and allow at least 1cm more on each side of the front to give more of a crossover on the front of the kimono. I chose to use the same fabric that I made Mia's kimono dress from as I had some leftovers. I still had some binding leftover from that too, so just sewed two open pieces together along the long sides to form the obi.

On went the face, just simple triangular eyes and a curved mouth using embroidery threads, and a sakura decoration on the hair. Am very happy with the finished product, as was Mia this morning when she met her new doll.

I thought geta (sandals) might be something to add, but I haven't yet decided how to embroider them on so they actually look like geta. I'm also thinking of sewing the obi down at the back so that it doesn't come open when Mia discovers it.