Late night necessity sewing

There are times when I sew properly, carefully, with good light and an ironing board set up nearby. Then there are times when I just need to get stuff done out of necessity and those quality standards are- ahem- relaxed a little. Last night was one of those times. Madame Dribble really needed some better bibs as we were constantly changing clothes that were soaked down the front, while the young sir has trouble with leaky nappies at night time and needed some more PJ trousers.
In just one morning of M wearing the bandana-style bibs I've made I've been showered with compliments and told I should to into production. Each time I've confessed 'THEY'RE NOT MY IDEA!'. There is a company here who make these absorbent cloth triangular bibs and very good they are too. It's just that we have a near non-existent budget. Therefore I borrowed their idea, and one of their products from a friend and made up my own version using scrap fabric, some leftover brushed cotton for the backing and adding a layer of terry cloth from an unused nappy in the middle for extra dribble soaking. Only trouble is, she can easily soak all four in a day, so another late night session may be in the offing.
The leftover brushed cotton was also pressed into service for P's PJs, as was an old t-shirt of C's. I used the method described by Amanda Blake-Soule in 'The Creative Family' for these, basically using an existing pair of trousers as a pattern. I made his first couple of pairs like this a year or more ago and he still wears them in bed- easy to make, comfy to wear and free material to make it, what's not to love? Just don't look too closely at the finishing...this was necessity sewing, remember??

Quick Change Pinafore #1

I mentioned in this post that I wanted to try making a pinafore dress that was reversible, like the Quick Change Trousers by Anna Maria Horner. Having given myself stiff fingers from too much knitting recently, I thought I'd have a go.
I didn't make it easy for myself using some linen fabric from a old skirt of mine- it tended to slide about making accuracy a bit tricky. Having said that, I really like how it looks with the Liberty print fabric I had in my scrap bag and used for the backing. It turns out that making a pinafore this way is a bit trickier than the trousers, so there were a few false starts but now I think I have the method nailed. My plan is to have a little splurge here and maybe put a 'How-To' on this blog.

Handmade Home

As you can see, I'm keeping up my 'one felt cube per day' target. Meanwhile, I've realised that to hit the next birthday deadline, I'm going to have to put tea-cosies on hold for a bit. Also, as the recipient of said birthday knitting reads this blog I'm not going to be able post work in progress pictures!
Instead, here are some bits and pieces from a few months ago. They are both based on projects in Amanda Blake Soule's Handmade Home. I'm not going to wax lyrical here about this book, but suffice to say that I love her first book, The Creative Family, and her blog. I was really excited about Handmade Home coming out and I haven't been disappointed. It's her fault I've got a whole heap of charity shop and worn out clothing fabrics ready for future projects. The mouse-mat pictured was made from a hand-embroidered linen cloth (maybe an antimacassar) found in a charity shop, along with some fabric left over from a dress I made earlier this year. The curtain (much needed as our bathroom doesn't have frosted glass!) is two unused muslin burp cloths with crochet doilies, again from a charity shop, tacked on. In the book, Amanda used a similar idea to show off vintage handkerchiefs. As she suggests, I've been looking around for what we really need in our house so I can decide on future makes. So far... a back door mat (I want to do the braided rag rug), a TV remote control tidy and some nicer bathroom mats. Add them to the to-do list!