Sewing Project No. 5: Dorothy the Giraffe

This is another Melly & Me Mrs Perkins toy giraffe.

Phoebe saw me making Asher's giraffe about 6 months ago and kept asking if it was for her. So I took her shopping to a rather nice fabric shop so she could pick out the fabric for her own. Although I love Ash's giraffe I felt limited in having to go for gender-neutral fabrics. I was so excited about doing something girly as there really are some beautiful fabrics out there. But Phoebe fixated on the pinkest one she could find, a plain pink fabric with white spots. I tried to turn her attention to some beautiful floral and cupcake fabrics, prints with owls and others with cats or butterflies. But it was no use. She'd decided. And by then she was getting a bit too antsy for a nice quiet quilting shop. I chose the complimentary green fabric. If it was up to Phoebe the hooves would have been a plain pink.

Mrs Perkins No. 2 was originally named Gerry. Phoebe then decided that Dorothy the Dinosaur was a much better name. I persuaded her to drop the dinosaur bit.

Dorothy and Mrs Perkins are quite good friends and like to hang out and chat every now and then. I think Pinky and Perky would be quite good nicknames for them. Dorothy somehow ended up slightly bigger in the body than Mrs P. I think I must have misread the pattern notes. I felt like I rushed her a bit resulting in a bit of a square nose, misaligned hooves and more stuffing than the original. But she's really grown on me and the over-stuffing has resulted in a much sturdier toy. Phoebe loves her and takes her to bed with her every night. And that's the main thing. And I'm happy to say that Asher loves Mrs P too and particularly likes to chew her antlers. Which should put my sewing abilities to the test.

Sewing Project No. 4: Cloth Nappy Wipes (and The Story of The Needle In The Finger)

Here are some cloth nappy wipes I sewed for Asher. They're loosely based upon some I bought online for Phoebe which were the best wipes we had. Now the ones I made are the best ones we have if I do say so myself. They're made with cute flannelette and cheap terry towelling. Oh my god, I had no idea terry towelling was so expensive. I bought this a while ago but I seem to remember the proper stuff was about $20 a metre!

These were super easy to make. I simply pinned the two pieces of fabric together right sides out. Then I drew around an existing wipe. Then I sewed just inside the line, cut out around the line and then did an edging zig-zag stitch around the outside.

I made most of these when I was about 8 months pregnant and one day I lost concentration and hit my finger with the needle. There was a bit of an impact and my finger felt a bit sore but I set about trying to sort out my machine which was erroring. I then realised that I'd bent and snapped my needle. I looked all over for the end of it but couldn't find it anywhere. I replaced it and finished the wipe I was working on. It then occurred to me that the needle could actually be in my finger. I mean I couldn't see it anywhere else and my finger was getting quite sore. My nail was slightly cracked and there was a red mark on the finger pad. I was sure I could see the needle through my nail.

I realised I had to get it looked at at some point. I had a shower. I found it very hard to put any sort of pressure on my finger, which was the index finger of my right hand. Very inconvenient. My mind was going nuts trying to figure out what to do. What if I had to go to hospital? Who would pick up Phoebe from daycare? There was some reason why Toby couldn't do it that day - I can't remember why now. Perhaps he was in Brisbane for a meeting or something. I made a mental list of all the people I could ask. Or maybe I could pick her up myself, take her to my sister-in-law's for dinner and then go to hospital.

I walked down to the local medical centre in the hope they could sort it all out there. They slotted me in and I was seen very quickly. The doctor seemed quite excited at the prospect of doing minor surgery. I told him I was hoping he could just pull it out through the pad of my finger as I was sure I could see and feel it there. I didn't much fancy the thought of him going through the nail. At this point I was convinced that it had gone in through the pad of my finger for some reason. But of course, it had gone through the nail.

He was sure he could puncture a hole in my finger and pull it out with tweezers but he sent me for an x-ray so he could see where it was. If it was too far into my finger he'd have to send me off to hospital. It was late afternoon by now and both hospitals are 25 minute drives away. It would not be convenient to have to do that.

I scuttled up to the nearest radiology centre after the receptionist phoned ahead to make sure they were quiet. I phoned my obstetrician to confirm an x-ray was okay and was assured risks were minimal and that if the baby was born at that stage with breathing problems they'd x-ray it anyway. Apparently the amount of radiation used to x-ray a finger is very small.

Armed with my x-ray I headed back to the medical centre. The doctor was sure he could pull the needle out if I was happy to let him try. I didn't want to go to hospital so I let him. He didn't half faff around getting stuff ready, during which time a nurse with four grown-up children tried to persuade me to have more babies. Eventually he jammed another needle in my finger to inject some local anesthetic and then set to work. In no time at all he triumphantly held aloft the end of my sewing machine needle and then insisted on popping it in a specimen jar for me to take home as a memento.

I was done in time to collect Phoebe but the drive to daycare was a bit tricky. I took great pleasure in presenting my bandaged finger to anyone who would care to listen and telling them all about my gory story. My finger was quite sore for a while but thankfully fully recovered by the time I had a baby three weeks later.

The moral of the story is, if you're going to sew whilst heavily pregnant pay close attention to what you're doing and don't also try to watch episodes of The Prisoner.

Sewing Project No. 3: Mrs Perkins the Giraffe

This is another gorgeous Melly & Me design, only this time, being the by-now experienced sewer that I am, I jumped straight in with the posh fabrics. I made this for our baby and as we don't yet know if it's a boy or a girl I chose some nice bright, gender-neutral colours.

I just love this. The horns and ears were a bit tricky to turn inside out and the horns were a total pain to stuff but that aside I had a lot of fun making it and it didn't really take too long. I just did a bit here and there. I got the fabrics from The Quilter's Angel in Highfields and also managed to get some good quality Birch toy fill there. It makes such a difference having decent stuffing. A couple of people have now suggested using old pillows so I might try that next time, although hopefully Quilter's Angel will get a bag of the proper stuff in for me in time for my mother-in-law to pick it up before she heads this way next weekend.

Sewing Project: Phoebe the Test Elephant

Meet Phoebe, the cute little Melly & Me elephant that started my sewing craze. I first met Phoebe back in August last year when we visited the in-laws in Highfields, near Toowoomba. My Mam and I wandered into a beautiful little patchwork shop called The Quilters Angel. The Melly & Me dinosaur, Dilbert caught my attention first but when Mam pointed out an elephant called Phoebe I just couldn't resist. I spent ages picking out fabrics for her.

I asked the lady at the counter if I'd need a sewing machine and she said it was advisable so I could get small enough stitches to keep the stuffing in. I didn't have one but my mother-in-law came to the rescue and loaned me hers. After a quick lesson in how to use it she suggested I make linings for the curtains I was having made. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Well, sort of. I started making a test Phoebe with fabric left over from the quilt we made at my baby shower. Then work got busy, my mother-in-law reclaimed her sewing machine (by which time I'd finished the curtain lining) and poor Phoebe sat earless for quite a while. The ears were to be hand-stitched anyway so I eventually got them done over Christmas. Then all that was left was the blanket, for which I needed a machine.

Then I bought a machine but got very excited about all the other things I could do and it was a further three months before Phoebe finally got her blanket. I finished her yesterday and presented her to the real Phoebe, who said "Wow, Mammy."

Here's a photo of them together.

So now I can get on with the proper Phoebe using the posh fabrics. But first I have to make a Mrs Perkins for the baby and then I have to acquire some decent toy fill - the stuff from Spotlight is rubbish. It goes all lumpy. But the Quilter's Angel are going to call me when they get some in and mother-in-law will pick it up for me. It might get finished within a year of buying the materials. Then again...

Sewing Project Number 2 - Another dress for Phoebe

This second dress is actually the same pattern as the first but with slightly more pricey fabric and I also got brave and sewed some ribbons on it.











The first dress is looking a bit worse for wear after getting into a disagreement with the elastic band from a mattress cover in our (hopefully temporary top-loader) washing machine. It resulted in the beautiful lace section along the bottom getting ripped asunder and it's now all raggedy and a bit narrow to be honest. Phoebe hasn't seen it yet but as it's quite a plain dress I don't think she'll be interested in wearing it unless I replace the trim. Which is a total pain as it basically means unpicking and resewing the hem. Not sure it's worth it for a $5 dress. (I'm guessing that's how much it cost but I haven't worked it out. The buttons would've been the most expensive item.) But it's such a cute dress it seems a shame for her not to ever wear it again.

I think I'm familiar enough with this pattern now to risk some fancier fabric next time. But I don't know when that will be as I have another one lined up waiting to be made. I have purchased a second-hand duvet cover from the charity shop, which gives me massive amounts of material for $4. I'll use this to make my mock-up and then delve into it with the real stuff.

My first sewing project

Well, as this is a blog about things I have in production I thought I'd share with you the results of my first sewing project.

Actually, this isn't really my first sewing project as last year I made curtain linings and started a test run of a soft toy, an elephant called Phoebe. She's pretty much finished so I'll share some photos of that when it's done. She just needs a blanket on her back.

Anyway, mid-way through producing Phoebe, which I sadly had to put on hold for a few months pre-Christmas whilst I had all that extra work to do, my mother-in-law retrieved her sewing machine, which she had very generously loaned to me for a few months. So after much consideration and debate, and a half-price sale at Spotlight during which I put a super-duper computerised one-button-does-everything sewing machine on layby, I finally purchased my own.

It's utterly fab.

So I thought it'd better earn its keep and I went back to Spotlight's half price sale and purchased a load of "easy" patterns, mainly for Phoebe, but one for me too.

Then I went back (not during the half-price sale unfortunately) to purchase fabric and discovered why no one makes their own clothes any more. All the lovely fabrics I wanted to get were $10 a metre and I was a bit scared of making mistakes. I found a couple of slightly cheaper fabrics to start off with and then managed to pull an offcut out of the $1 a metre bin.

I got some books from the library, studied the patterns, traced them onto a roll of interfacing, which I used like tissue paper, watched youtube videos, washed the fabrics, ripped the fabrics to find the grain, pressed the fabrics, pressed the patterns (! before tracing them. I had no idea you had to do that but I suppose it makes sense), pinned the traced patterns from the easiest of the easiest patterns (or at least what seemed to be as such to my untrained eye) to the el cheapo fabric, and finally I was ready to cut out and start to sew. It didn't really take me that long, but then it is a bit of a no-frills design. Except for the frill at the bottom of course.

So really, what this is, is my first dressmaking project (given the curtain lining and Phoebe the Elephant). I didn't have a very cooperative model. In fact I had to give her an iPhone before she'd even sit still and stop showing me her bum. Models are so hard to work with these days.

Anyway, here it is. And the good news is, Phoebe loves it.

Oh, and an interesting thing I learnt, when threading a needle, don't moisten the thread. Instead moisten the eye of the needle. The moisture draws the thread in. It works. Of course, I don't need to faff around trying to get my tongue over the needle of my sewing machine because it pretty much threads itself.